Neill Malcolm

Major General Sir Neill Malcolm KCB , DSO (born October 8, 1869 in London , † December 21, 1953 ) was a Scottish general, high commissioner of the League of Nations and manager of the North Borneo Chartered Company .

Life

Neill Malcolm was born in London on October 8, 1869, the second son of Colonel Edward Donald Malcolm of Poltalloch and Isabella Wyld Brown. He grew up with his seven siblings in the Scottish Poltalloch. The family devoted itself, among other things, to breeding dogs; the breed " West Highland White Terrier " goes back to the Malcolms.

After graduating from St. Peters School in York , Malcolm studied at Eton and at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst .

Military career

Malcolm joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders infantry regiment on February 20, 1889 as a second lieutenant. On July 24, 1893, he was promoted to lieutenant.

In 1896 he and his friend Wellby of the 18th Hussar Regiment Asia crossed on foot from Gilgit in Pakistan via Tibet to Beijing.

From 1897 to 1898 he served on the Indian north-western border in India, where he took part with the 2nd Battalion in 1897 in the Tochi Campaign under General Corrie Bird. From there he was transferred to the British Protectorate of Uganda and led several military campaigns. “ Mentioned in Despatches ” he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order medal. With the rank of captain he was posted to South Africa at the end of 1899 to take part as a staff officer in the South African War . From February to May 1900 he was deployed in the Orange Free State . At the Battle of Paardeberg , he served as a junior under Kitchener . During a risky commando assignment for Kitchener, he suffered a serious knee wound on February 18, 1900.

Neill Malcolm was sent to Staff College in 1902 , the General Staff Academy in Camberley , and then transferred to Somaliland from 1903 to 1904 . In 1905 he traveled to Morocco as a staff officer in the "Military Operations" department of the British War Office . From 1906 to 1908 he was also senior quartermaster (English. Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General ), then from April 1, 1908 to September 30, 1910 Secretary of the Historical Department in the Committee of Imperial Defense .

In 1909 he received the honorary rank of major, and his promotion to "real" major took place on August 20, 1910.

From 1912 he got a position as General Staff Officer of the Second Degree (GSO2) with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the management of the Staff College , where he remained until the outbreak of the First World War.

When the First World War broke out, he was initially offered a "war-important" post on the General Staff, but decided in August 1914 to be transferred to the British Expeditionary Force . As GSO1 with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, he was posted to the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and from September 29, 1915 to November 17, 1915, he took part in the construction of the Macedonian Front , with which the Allies defeated the troops in Serbia the Central Powers (Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Germany, Bulgaria) put under pressure.

In February 1915 he received the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel . From November 1915 to April 1916 he served as a brigadier general in the Egyptian Expeditionary Force . From April to July 1916 he served as a Brigadier General on the General Staff of the British Army in France, where he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel . Then he was transferred to the 5th Army. He reached the rank of major general on January 1, 1917 and was given command of the 66th Division in December 1917. In March 1918, he was seriously wounded during Operation Michael . For his brave holding the defensive line during the withdrawal of the 5th Army under General Gough , he was twice mentioned in the war report . From September to December 1918 he commanded the 59th Division and then until February 1919 the 30th Division.

After the war, Sir Neill Malcolm held the position of British Ambassador to the German Empire from 1919 to 1920 as "Chief of the British Military Mission in Berlin" .

From 1921 to 1924 he was General Officer Commanding the British Forces in British Malaysia. His job was to ensure the military defense of the Straits Settlements , the British possessions in Malaysia and Singapore. The Malaya Command consisted mainly of smaller garrisons in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Taiping, Seremban and Singapore.

In 1924 Major General Sir Neill Malcolm retired from the army.

Civil life

In 1907 he married Angela, the only daughter of WR Malcolm. The couple had two sons and a daughter.

After his retirement from the army in 1924, Neill Malcolm's name is associated with various industrial and trading companies, but most of all he is best known for his long presidency as chairman of the board of the North Borneo Chartered Company . Sir Neill Malcolm succeeded Sir West Ridgeway as President of the North Borneo Chartered Company in 1926, an office he held until the Company was dissolved in 1946.

Malcolm had less luck with his engagement as chairman of the supervisory board of COX'S SHIPPING AGENCY (RUMANIA) Limited. and the BRITISH TAROLEUM COMPANY Limited , whose liquidation he had to announce on May 23, 1925 and December 15, 1933, respectively.

Major General Sir Neill Malcolm died in London on December 21, 1953.

North Borneo Chartered Company

Ridgeway's liberal monetary policy had fueled fears that the company's bankruptcy was inevitable. Horrified at the cold bloodedness with which Ridgeway spent the company's money, Montstuart Elphinstone, one of the directors, allied with Dougal Malcolm in 1924.

Dougal Malcolm, whose sister Angela was married to Sir Neill Malcom, belonged to " Milner's Kindergarten " after the Boer War and was now on the board of directors of the British South Africa Company . His knowledge of how a chartered company worked was legendary. Against the opposition of Ridgeway, they set up an independent committee of inquiry.

The report revealed the true extent of the financial situation: dividends had been funded from current capital and the company was deeply in debt. Ridgeway had to take off his hat. Instead, the Board of Directors elected Sir Neill Malcom as President and Dougal Malcolm as Vice President.

Appointing Sir Neill Malcolm as President of the Society turned out to be the right decision. Prudent housekeeping improved the financial situation noticeably. Although Sir Neill Malcolm traveled regularly to Borneo, unlike his predecessors, he hardly intervened in the administration. His ties to members of the Colonial Office helped society largely to evade state influence. But it was also Sir Malcolm's sad duty to determine after the withdrawal of the Japanese troops from Sabah that the reconstruction of the devastated and devastated country could not be accomplished with the limited resources of the North Borneo Chartered Company. His job now was to conduct the talks with the British government aimed at taking over Sabah as a British colony and compensating the company financially. The Chartered Company ended on July 15, 1946 for an immediate payment of £ 860,000 to the company.

League of Nations

Sir Neill Malcolm worked for the League of Nations from 1934 to 1938 . On February 18, 1936, Malcolm was appointed High Commissioner for Refugees from Germany by the League of Nations . As early as the summer of 1936 he organized a conference with 15 participating states, which discussed the question of the expected refugee flows from Germany. In his capacity as High Commissioner, he also took part in July 1938 with Frederick Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon and Tevfik Erim at the Évian Conference, where representatives from 32 nations discussed the possibilities of emigration of Jews from Germany and Austria.

Royal Institute of International Affairs

From 1926 to 1933 he was chairman of Chatham House (formerly the Royal Institute of International Affairs ), a think tank designed to develop approaches on how to avoid wars in the future.

Sociopolitical engagement

Malcolm was a Fellow (member) of the Royal Geographical Society from 1899 to 1931 , which also owns the estate of Malcolm - including the list of plants he and Wellby collected in Tibet in 1896 - and chairman of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs .

Awards

In recognition of his services during his assignment in Uganda, he was accepted into the Distinguished Service Order . On June 3, 1919, Malcolm was inducted into the military part of the Bath Order ; on January 2, 1922, he was promoted to "Knights Commander" in the hierarchy of the Order . From now on he could call himself Sir Neill Malcom.

Other awards:

• Jidball medal for his work in Somaliland
• Order of the Nile , 3rd class, awarded by the Sultan of Egypt (November 20, 1916)
• Order of the Legion of Honor , Commanding Class, awarded by the President of the French Republic (June 2, 1917)
• Order of the Crown of Italy , Grand Officer's Class, awarded by the King of Italy (August 31, 1917)
• Croix de guerre awarded by the President of the French Republic (April 16, 1918)

Publications

• as editor: George Francis Robert Henderson: The science of war. A collection of essays and lectures 1892-1903. With a memoir of the author by Field Marshal Earl Roberts . Longmans, Green & Co., London 1905.
• Tactics . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 26 : Submarine Mines - Tom-Tom . London 1911, p. 347 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
• Bohemia, 1866 (= Campaigns and their Lessons. Volume 2). London, Constable, 1912.
• Refugees coming from Germany. Report submitted to the 7th ordinary Session of the Assembly of the League of Nations. Summary (= Series of League of Nations Publications 12, B: International Bureaux. 1936, 6, ZDB -ID 767381-4 ). League of Nations, Geneva 1936
• Introduction. In: John Wheeler Wheeler-Bennett: Information on the reduction of armaments (= Information Series , Volume 2). Allen & Unwin, London 1925.

Remarks

1. ↑ Until October 1936 Sir Neill Malcolm was still listed as a reserve officer.

literature

• Kennedy Gordon Tregonning: A History Of Modern Sabah. (North Borneo 1881-1963). 2nd edition. University of Malaya Press, Singapore 1965 (Reprint. Ibid 1967).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2. ^ ^{A b c} Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) Retrieved August 29, 2011
3. ^ Genealogical page of the Brown family, accessed August 29, 2011
4. ^ Ria Hört: Col. Edward Donald Malcolm, 16th Laird of Poltalloch, and the West Highland White Terrier (PDF; 337 kB) In: Dogs in Canada , April 2009 edition; Retrieved August 29, 2011
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Archives of the Royal Geographical Society , summary of biography; Retrieved August 29, 2011
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} In memoriam Major-General Sir Neill Malcolm, KCB, DSO In: Journal of The Royal Central Asian Society. Vol. 41, Iss. 2, 1954, ISSN  0035-8789 , pp. 92-93, doi: 10.1080 / 03068375408731502 .
7. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Edition of March 4, 1864, page 37  
8. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Edition of November 28, 1893, p. 28  
9. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Edition of September 28, 1897, p. 3  
10. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Edition of November 14, 1899, p. 5  
11. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Edition of December 22, 1899, p. 3  
12. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Edition of August 19, 1910, p. 4  
13. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Edition of January 26, 1912, p. 5  
14. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 3rd supplement to the edition of December 11, 1914, p. 1  
15. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Supplement to the edition of January 19, 1915, p. 1  
16. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Supplement to the edition of February 19, 1915, p. 2  
17. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Supplement to the edition of January 25, 1916, p. 1  
18. ↑ Sir Douglas Haig's despatches (December 1915-April 1919) , p. 192, p. 352
19. ↑ The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884–1942)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Edition of March 20, 1924, p. 6  
20. ↑ Tregonning p. 64 ff.
21. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Edition of June 9, 1925, p. 38  
22. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Edition of December 22, 1933, p. 49.  
23. ↑ A Romantic Career Ends  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Obituary in: The Straits Times, Apr 17, 1930, p. 13  
24. ↑ Tregonning, pp. 68/69
25. ↑ Database from "humanitas International" ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 29, 2011 
26. ↑ I. Glynn: Asylum-Seeking in Europe in the 1930s and 2010s Compared, 2009 ( Memento of the original of May 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 29, 2011 
27. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Edition dated January 24, 1899  
28. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 5th supplement to the edition of May 30, 1919, p. 1  
29. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 2nd supplement to the edition of December 31, 1921, p. 4  
30. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Supplement to the edition of March 9, 1917, p. 6  
31. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 5th supplement to the edition of June 1, 1917, p. 1  
32. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 2nd supplement to the edition of August 31, 1917, p. 4  
33. ↑ The London Gazette  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 5th supplement to the edition of April 16, 1918, p. 2