James Aratoon Malcolm (11 November 1866 – 18 July 1952), also known by James Aratoon Malcolm Bagration, was a British-Iranian Armenian financier, company promoter, arms dealer, and journalist.Edward Hilliard, Ed., Balliol College Register 1832-1914, page 220 Malcolm attended Balliol College, Oxford. He played a major role in negotiations during and after the First Balkan War as one of the five members of the Armenian National Delegation. Malcolm was also a member of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, the British Empire League, and the Victory Services Club. He died on 18 July 1952.
Early life Malcolm was born in Bushehr, Iran (known as Bushire, Persia), on the Persian Gulf in 1866.
Malcolm's father was Aratoon Malcolm, also of Bushehr, whose family had lived in Persia "since before Elizabethan days," being active in shipping and commerce. They had acted as treasurers to British missions to the Shah of Persia.Malcolm, 1944, p.1-3 The Malcolm family had numerous contacts with important financial families in the region, such as that of David Sassoon."Malcolm of Armenia", The Echo, 3 May 1893, p.2. This biographical sketch was reprinted in a number of British provincial newspapers during the following two weeks.
Malcolm came to England for his education at the age of 13, under the guardianship of Albert Sassoon (1818–1896). As a child he was friends with Albert Goldsmid. He was educated at the private Herne House School in Margate, Kent, before attending Balliol College, Oxford, between 1886 and 1889.
He was granted a British Certificate of Naturalization on 7 September 1907, which cited his name as "James Aratoon Malcolm Bagration" and his address as the Hotel Russell, Russell Square, London.The Daily Telegraph, 25 July 1952, p.14.
Career Social endeavors and political appointments Malcolm was a founder of the British Empire League in 1894. In 1906, Malcolm was named chairman of the Royal Thames Yacht Club. In 1907, he was co-founder (with Arthur Haggard) of the Veterans Club. The club was originally intended to be housed in an imposing building to be erected on Kingsway in central London at an estimated cost of £150,000."The Veterans' Club: Major Arthur Haggard's Ambitious Project", Pall Mall Gazette, 7 November 1907, p.7."The Veterans' Club: A National Project", Bromley Journal and West Kent Herald, 26 June 1908, p.3."The Veterans' Club, Kingsway", John Bull, 22 January 1910, p.103. That plan was abandoned in 1910,Sheffield Daily Mail, 25 March 1910, p.6. and in early 1911, the club opened in more modest premises at Hand Court, High Holborn.Army and Navy Gazette, 26 November 1910, p.1.The Westminster Gazette, 19 November 1917, p.4.
In early 1916, Malcolm was appointed by Catholicos George V of Armenia as one of the five members of the Armenian National Delegation to lead negotiations during and after the First Balkan War. The Delegation, led by Paris-based Boghos Nubar Pasha, had been established in 1912. Since his appointment, Malcolm was the effective representative of the delegation in London; all other members were based in Paris."Armenia's Appeal: Plea for Territorial Safeguards", The Times, 23 February 1920, p.15The Times, 27 July 1922, p.9. In 1929, the King of Belgium conferred the Order of Leopold on Malcolm for his services to the Allies during the First World War.The Daily Mirror, 15 January 1929, p.13.
Sir Herbert Samuel referred to Malcolm as "the actual initiator of the Balfour Declaration" regarding the British Palestine Mandate. In a letter to the editor, published in The Times on 17 June 1922, Malcolm stated that he had been "the 'channel of communication,' or rather the intermediary" between the Zionist organization and the British Government in early 1917. He was responding to an earlier letter published in The Times of 15 June 1922, which had asserted that Samuel had been "the channel of communication."James A. Malcolm, "The Rutenberg Concessions", The Times, 17 June 1922, p.16, column 5.
The Veterans Club was renamed in April 1936 to the Allenby Services Club and in 1944 to the Victory Ex-Services Club.Birmingham Daily Gazette, 4 October 1944, p.2. In 1952, this club (of which Malcolm was honorary treasurer) had premises at 73-79 Seymour Street, Marble Arch, and over 18,600 members. Malcolm was also a co-founder of the United Services Corps.The Times, 14 August 1952, p.6. He was awarded an OBE in 1948.
Journalism In 1888, while still a student at Balliol College, he joined with Mihran Sevasly (1863–1935) and Jean Broussali to found Le Haiasdan, a journal published under the auspices of the Central Committee of the Armenian Patriotic Association in London. The journal was published in French and Armenian and commenced as a twice-monthly, later shifting to monthly. The first issue was dated 1 November 1888. Malcolm attended the Oxford Union meeting of November 1889 in the capacity of secretary of Le Haiasdan.Jackson's Oxford Journal, 30 November 1889, p.5.
In May 1891, the management arrangements of Le Haiasdan were changed. Sevasly remained editor, but a subcommittee of the newly formed Anglo-Armenian Committee was to supervise. The subcommittee was to be composed of three English sympathisers plus three Armenians, with MP F. Stevenson as its chairman. The motivation for this move was to prevent the journal from including material "needlessly provocative" to the Turkish government.The Pall Mall Gazette, 14 May 1891, p.4; and The Daily News, 14 May 1891, p.5.
Le Haiasdan ceased publication in 1892. In May 1893, Malcolm resigned from the executive committee of the Anglo-Armenian Association and set out his reasons for doing so in a letter published in The Echo."The Anglo-Armenian Association", The Echo, 26 May 1893, p.4. A letter published in The Morning Post in December 1894 praised Malcolm and his co-founders of Le Haiasdan in 1888 as "three thoroughly able, intelligent young Armenians [who] with great energy and pluck, resuscitated the all-but-forgotten Armenian Question..."The Morning Post, 4 December 1894, p.5.
After leaving university, Malcolm published a political-financial newspaper in London titled The Financial Standard and Imperial Post. An action for libel arising from what his newspaper had published regarding "the Barker case" resulted in a verdict against him, with damages set at .The Times, 25 January 1893, p.13; and 26 January 1893, p.3. This led to Malcolm being adjudicated bankrupt on 29 March 1893. He later became one of the founders and editors of the Hayastan Daily during the Armenian Genocide.
Company promoting 1896 to 1898 In May 1896, Malcolm, Arthur Watling, and Foster Grave formed the Diggers Venture Syndicate Limited. With authorized capital of , the company would buy options over assets to be sold at a profit into newly created companies, with these companies obtaining funding from the public by publishing prospectuses advertising the companies whose options they bought.
The first public prospectus was for the Globe Venture Syndicate Ltd. in 1897.The Financial Times, 25 January 1897, p.8. The prospectus stated that this company had acquired a "treaty" from the Diggers Venture Syndicate by which the chiefs of a group of tribes in the Suss region of northwestern Africa (near the Noun River) granted a "Direct Trading Monopoly" over that area. In March 1899, a legal action was commenced by J.P. Foster, a shareholder in the Globe Venture Syndicate. Foster was seeking a declaration that he had been induced to apply for the shares by fraudulent misrepresentation in the prospectus, particularly in regard to the "treaty." In April 1900, the Chancery Court found in Foster's favour and awarded him in damages plus costs.The Financial Times, 11 April 1900, p.7. In June 1900, a winding-up order was made against the Globe Venture Syndicate. The process led to a public examination of Malcolm as the company's manager and Arthur Watling as a director in February 1901.The Times, 3 August 1900, p.2.The Times, 12 February 1901, p.4 The various court processes revealed that the Diggers Venture Syndicate never had capital higher than . Each of the three founders invested plus each from the four other initial subscribers required to make up the legally required minimum of seven for a registered company.
The Globe Venture Syndicate Limited had been used as the vehicle for mounting two further company promotions: The Gutta Percha Corporation Limited (prospectus published December 1897)The Financial Times, 1 December 1897, p.10. and The British Drying Company Limited (prospectus published March 1898.)The Financial Times, 7 March 1898, p.2. Both went into winding-up processes in 1900; both of these processes involved court hearings in which Malcolm's name featured prominently. The chairman of The Gutta Percha Corporation Limited, Sir Edward Thornton, stated in court that he had taken on that post "at the invitation of Mr. Malcom."The Financial Times, 19 March 1901, p.3 Thornton had earlier been recruited by J. A. Malcolm to chair the Globe Venture Syndicate, having been introduced to him in June 1896.The Times, 10 April 1900, p.14. In the case of the flotation of The British Drying Company, a company titled The Joint Stock Finance Co. Ltd. played a significant role in the underwriting arrangements. The court processes revealed that this company had authorized capital of and paid-up capital of only £7.The Financial Times, 4 July 1899, p.2. Justice Kekewich, giving judgment in the Chancery Court case Foster v. British Drying Company, was reported as stating, "The real question was whether Mr. Malcolm, to whom so much reference had been made in the evidence, was the Joint Stock Finance Company Limited and he assumed for the present purpose that Mr. Malcolm was the Joint Stock Finance Company."The Bristol Mercury, 11 November 1899, p.8.
Company promoting 1899 to 1905
In April 1899, Malcolm, George Grove Blackwell Jr. (1869–1934), and James Kenneth Douglas Mackenzie (1859–1930) established The New Dominion Syndicate Limited to raise the finances required for the construction of the Georgian Bay Canal scheme in Canada. The Canadian Parliament passed an act in 1894 creating the Montreal, Ottawa, and Georgian Bay Canal Company and empowering it to construct that waterway project. McLeod Stewart (1847–1926), the leading advocate of the scheme in Canada, traveled to Britain and entered into negotiations with Malcolm's group about raising the required funds from British sources. Advertising the Georgian Bay scheme to the British investing public was commenced with a function at the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, arranged through Blackwell.G.G. Blackwell, "Georgian Bay Canal Scheme", Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 11 July 1907, p.7."The Georgian Bay Canal", The Ottawa Free Press, 15 August 1907, p.4. Malcolm attended that gathering on 25 April 1899 as the manager of The New Dominion Syndicate Limited.Daryl White, op. cit., pp.156-158. The event was addressed by McLeod Stewart, followed by Sir Edward Thornton, who was the chairman of The New Dominion Syndicate Limited.The Liverpool Mercury, 26 April 1899, p.10.