Harold Mackintosh, 1st Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax

Mackintosh was born in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, the son of John and Violet Mackintosh who had a toffee factory on Queens Road in Halifax, then Albion Mills and also in the United States, Canada, Germany and Australia. He was educated at Halifax New School. Instead of going to university, he spent a few years in Krefeld in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, where he ran a Mackintosh toffee factory, and learnt the language. He was a member of the German international hockey team, prior to the First World War. During the First World War, he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and reached the rank of lieutenant.

Mackintosh was the owner of the confectionery business of John Mackintosh & Sons Ltd from 1920 when his father died of a heart attack. The company John Mackintosh & Sons Ltd was floated in March 1921. He was involved in the amalgamation of a group of Halifax building societies into the Halifax Building Society in 1928. In September 1931, he narrowly avoided merging the company with Rowntrees of York. Both companies already had a joint subsidiary in the Republic of Ireland.

As a result of a lunchtime meeting at the Savoy Hotel, he bought the A. J. Caley confectionery company in Norwich from Unilever in 1932. The Caleys site is now the Chapelfield shopping centre. This takeover of Caleys helped the Mackintosh company to expand its range of products notably changing its reliance on toffee to products with chocolate toffee such as Quality Street in 1936 and Rolo. To launch Quality Street, he had a full-page advertisement on the front of the Daily Mail on 2 May 1936. His brother Eric managed the Caleys factory. He was Chairman of the National Savings Committee from 1943, becoming president in 1958. In 1956, under his leadership, National Savings introduced Premium Bonds.{{cite news |last1=Heffernan |first1=Paul |title=Gambling? No, Just a Bit of Luck; British Lottery Bond Explained by Lord Mackintosh BONDS A GAMBLE? JUST A BIT OF LUCK An Attack on Gambling Sales Picking Up |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1957/09/02/archives/gambling-no-just-a-bit-of-luck-british-lottery-bond-explained-by.html |access-date=22 March 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=2 September 1957}} He served as Chancellor of the University of East Anglia between 1962 and 1964.

Mackintosh was a devout Methodist. He was a keen supporter of the Sunday School Movement, becoming President of the National Sunday School Union from 3 May 1924 until 1925, then World Sunday School Association. In December 1927 he became President of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} In 1960 he became President of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association. From 1942 to 1946, he was President of the Advertising Association. He also supported the British Empire Cancer Campaign. He had a large collection of Toby jugs, and had an extensive knowledge of Ralph Wood and Staffordshire pottery.

His portrait, by the famous Scottish portrait artist Cowan Dobson is held at the University of East Anglia at Norwich.[https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/viscount-mackintosh-of-halifax-1874 1st Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax portrait], bbc.co.uk; accessed 23 March 2016.

Mackintosh was knighted in the 1922 New Year Honours,{{London Gazette |issue=32563 |date=30 December 1921 |page=10711 |supp=y}}{{London Gazette |issue=13774 |date=2 January 1922 |page=3 |city=e}}{{London Gazette |issue=32668 |date=11 April 1922 |page=2917}}{{London Gazette |issue=13804 |date=14 April 1922 |page=656 |city=e}} when only 31, one of the youngest people to be knighted in the 20th century, for his work with Sunday schools. He was made a baronet in the 1935 New Year Honours{{London Gazette |issue=34119 |date=28 December 1934 |page=1 |supp=y}}{{London Gazette |issue=15136 |date=4 January 1935 |page=9 |city=e}}{{London Gazette |issue=34130 |date=5 February 1935 |page=837}} and was raised to the peerage in the 1948 New Year Honours as Baron Mackintosh of Halifax, of Hethersett in the County of Norfolk.{{London Gazette |issue=38161 |date=30 December 1947 |page=1 |supp=y}}{{London Gazette |issue=38198 |date=6 February 1948 |page=898}} In the 1957 Birthday Honours, he was further honoured when he was made Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax, of Hethersett in the County of Norfolk.{{London Gazette |issue=41089 |date=4 June 1957 |page=3367 |supp=y}}{{London Gazette |issue=41125 |date=12 July 1957 |page=4158}}{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Special to The New York |title=QUEEN DECORATES LEADERS AT SUEZ; Queen Elizabeth Receives Gift and Honors a Soldier |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1957/06/13/archives/queen-decorates-leaders-at-suez-queen-elizabeth-receives-gift-and.html |access-date=22 March 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=13 June 1957}} In 1948, he was given an honorary LLD by the University of Leeds. On Unthank Road in Norwich is Harold Mackintosh House.

On 8 June 1916, Mackintosh married Constance Emily Stoneham, the second daughter of Edgar Cooper Stoneham. She was born on the same day as him. They had two children:{{cite web |title=Mackintosh of Halifax, Viscount (UK, 1957) |url=http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/mackintosh1957.htm |website=cracroftspeerage.co.uk |publisher=Heraldic Media Limited}}Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, vol. 2, p. 2511.

• John Mackintosh, 2nd Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax (7 October 1921 – 2 November 1980)
• Hon. Mary Mackintosh (18 April 1927 – 19 January 2006)

His son John attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, as he felt no British university was prepared to the necessary standard in business administration.

From 1934 to 1942, Lord Mackintosh lived at [http://www.cony-hall.co.uk/history.htm Conynghan Hall] near Harrogate. Then they lived at Greystones in Luddenden. In 1947, he moved to Thickthorn Hall, south-west of Norwich.

Lord Mackintosh died at Thickthorn Hall in December 1964 at the age of 73 and was succeeded in the viscountcy and other titles by his only son, John. He left £218,404 in his will.

Lady Mackintosh died in 1975.

• Early English Figure Pottery, 1938

{{Emblem table

|image = File:Coronet of a British Viscount.svg File:Mackintosh of Halifax Escutcheon.png

|escutcheon = Or on a chevron between two lions rampant in chief and a lymphad in base Sable a bezant charged with a representation of the head of St John the Baptist Proper between two hearts of the field.

|crest = Upon a rock Proper charged with two roses Argent barbed and seeded a cat sejant also Proper.

|supporters = On either side a squirrel Proper about the neck a cord and pendent therefrom a purse both Or.

|motto = By Faith And By Work.{{cite book |title=Burke's Peerage |date=1959}}}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Hansard-contribs | mr-harold-mackintosh | the Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax }}
• [http://members.aol.com/calderdale/mmm5.html Biography]
• [http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/features/His-creative-confections-earned-Halifax.4087475.jp Early history of Mackintosh May 2008 Halifax Courier]

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Category:1891 births

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Category:Chancellors of the University of East Anglia

Category:English Methodists

Category:Knights Bachelor

Category:People from Halifax, West Yorkshire

Category:Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War I

Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom

Category:Barons created by George VI

Category:Viscounts created by Elizabeth II

Category:20th-century English businesspeople

Category:Royal Naval Reserve personnel