Percy Malcolm Stewart

He was born at St Leonards, Sussex, the sixth of eight children of Halley Stewart and his wife Jane Elizabeth Atkinson. He attended the University School, Hastings, the King's School, Rochester, and the Royal High School, Edinburgh, and was also educated in Germany.{{cite ODNB|id=36297|first=Chris|last=Pickford|title=Stewart, Sir (Percy) Malcolm, first baronet (1872–1951)}}

After a first job in lightering on the River Thames from about 1891, Stewart entered his father's business, and became a junior partner in 1895. The family lived in Luton until the early 1900s at the Bramingham Shott estate. Their home went on to become Luton Museum, and the estate Wardown Park.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

The cement business in which the family had an interest – B. J. Forder & Son Ltd – became part of the British Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd in 1912, and Stewart became a managing director. He had remained managing director of the brick division of B. J. Forder & Son until it was amalgamated into the London Brick Company in 1923, and he became chairman of its board. He became chairman of the board of the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd (APCM) in 1924 and remained in that position until 1945 when he became company president. He was thus chairman of two of the largest monopolistic companies in British industry.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

Sir Percy Malcolm Stewart and his father, Sir Halley Stewart, believed in good working and living conditions for employees. They developed the model village of Stewartby in Bedfordshire from 1926 onwards. As a special commissioner appointed by Ramsay MacDonald's coalition government of 1934, he helped devise schemes to reduce unemployment. In 1934, Sir Malcolm bought The Lodge at Sandy, BedfordshireRSPB. A history of Sandy Lodge leaflet, 2007 (reference number 000-1821-06-07) which is currently the headquarters of the RSPB. Stewart was created a Baronet, of Stewartby in the County of Bedford, in 1937.{{London Gazette |issue=34379 |date=12 March 1937 |page=1640}} He was a governor of The Peckham Experiment (a social experiment in public health) in 1949.{{cite journal|title=The Bulletin of the Pioneer Health Centre|journal=Peckham|date=September 1949|volume=1|issue=5|url=http://www.sochealth.co.uk/1949/09/21/peckham/|accessdate=21 October 2016}}

He died in February 1951, aged 78, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son Ronald.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928050420/http://en.erih.net/index.php?pageId=62&anchor=213 Article on the village of Stewartby] – European Route of Industrial Heritage, archived in 2007

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Category:1872 births

Category:1951 deaths

Category:English philanthropists

Category:People from Luton

Category:Deputy lieutenants of Bedfordshire

Category:English businesspeople

Category:People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh

1701

Category:National Council of Social Service presidents

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