Michael Nairn (entrepreneur, 1874)

Sir Michael Nairn, 2nd Baronet (born February 19, 1874 in Kirkcaldy , † September 24, 1952 in Elie and Earlsferry , Scotland ), was a Scottish businessman and flooring manufacturer .

life and work

Michael Nairn was the son of Sir Michael Barker Nairn , 1st Baronet, and his Emily Frances († 1939). He was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, in 1874 , where his father ran a flooring company and several cotton weaving mills that he expanded. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy , Sherborne School and the University of Marburg and joined his father's company in 1895. There he became director in 1899. In 1901 he married Mildred Margaret († 1953), with whom he had a son and four daughters. In 1909 he became the head of the management of the company that at that time was already one of the most important companies for the production of linoleum . In 1915, when his father died, he inherited the title of Baronet , of Rankeilour and Dysart House.

In 1922 Nairn took over Frederick Walton's company in Greenwich and founded Michael Nairn and Greenwich Ltd, which produced linoleum linoleum. Michael Nairn became the managing director of this holding company , while his uncle John Nairn managed the parent company. After his death in 1928 he also became managing director of Michael Nairn & Co. Ltd Kirkcaldy. Production was expanded internationally and in 1927 Michael Nairn's first factory was opened in Australia , and in the same year he opened the first British manufacturing company for Congoleum in Kirkcaldy. The department store chain founded by his father also expanded and opened additional branches in Birmingham and Bristol under his leadership .

During the Second World War Nairn produced a series of products for the British defense industry, including protective suits against mustard gas and fuel tanks for the Handley Page Halifax , a bomber of the British Army. In January 1952 he resigned from his posts as managing director of both companies, and on September 24 of the same year he died in his home in Elie and Earlsferry . His son Michael George Nairn (1911–1984) inherited his title of nobility as 3rd baronet.

Social Commitment

Like his father, Michael Nairn also supported the city of Kirkcaldy with donations. In 1929, for example, he made the property of Dysart House and Ravenscraig Castle available to the city as a public park.

literature

• Anne Pimlott Baker: Nairn, Sir Michael Barker, first baronet (1838–1915) In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 2004 ( online, access required )

Web links

• Sir Michael Nairn of Rankeilour, 2nd Bt. On thepeerage.com

predecessor	Office	successor
Michael Nairn	Baronet (of Rankeilour and Dysart House) 1915–1952	Michael Nairn