Robert Fleming (financier)
{{Short description|Scottish financier and fund manager}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Robert Fleming
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1845|3|17|df=y}}
| birth_place = Dundee, Scotland
| death_date = {{death date and age|1933|7|31|1845|3|17|df=y}}
| death_place = Black Mount, Bridge of Orchy, Argyll and Bute, Scotland
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| resting_place = St. Bartholemew, Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, England
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| employer =
| occupation = Banker, philanthropist
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| spouse = Sarah Kate Fleming
| children = Valentine Fleming
Philip Fleming
| parents =
| relatives = Ian Fleming
(grandson)
Peter Fleming
(grandson)
}}
Robert Melvin Fleming (17 March 1845 – 31 July 1933) was a Scottish financier and philanthropist.{{Cite news |last=I |first=I. Wireless to Tss Naw YORK Trail |date=1933-08-02 |title=ROBERT FLEMING, FINANCIER, DEAD; Head of Scottish Firm of Mer- chant Bankers Was Noted as Philanthropist. ACTIVE IN RAIL BUILDING Aided in Organizing Anglo-Persian Oil Co.uEarly Promoter of Invastmont Trust System. ^ |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1933/08/02/archives/robert-fleming-financier-dead-head-of-scottish-firm-of-mer-chant.html |access-date=2024-06-12 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} He was the founder of merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co.
Early life
Robert Fleming was born in 1845 in Dundee.{{Cite web |title=Robert Fleming and the Dundee Merchants |url=http://www.fdca.org.uk/Robert_Fleming_and_the_Dundee_Merchants.html |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=fdca.org.uk}} His father was an overseer in a jute mill.{{Cite web |title=Robert Fleming from The Gazetteer for Scotland |url=https://www.scottish-places.info/people/famousfirst417.html |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=The Gazetteer for Scotland |language=en-gb}}
Career
Fleming got his start at the age of 13 working for local textile firm, Messrs Edward Baxter and Son. By 21, he was Edward Baxter's private clerk. In time, Fleming had learned enough about investment procedures from Baxter to oversee the firm's American holdings.{{Cite book|title = Capitalism in a Mature Economy: Financial Institutions, Capital Exports and British Industry, 1870-1939|publisher = Edward Elgar Publishing|year = 1990|isbn = 1781959412|pages = 141}}
Fleming launched the Scottish American Investment Company in 1873, the first of the Scottish investment trusts.{{cite book | last=Fry|first=Michael | title=The Scottish Empire | publisher=Tuckwell Press | year=2001|isbn=1-84158-259-X |pages=270}} He went on to become an international financier in London, establishing the investment bank that bore his name for more than a century and out of which the Fleming Collection of Scottish art and the Fleming Collection Gallery was born.{{cite web|title= Painting in Dundee | publisher=University of Dundee |url =http://www.dundee.ac.uk/pressreleases/prjun02/fleming.htm | date= 24 June 2002 | access-date = 13 March 2009 }}
A contemporary of J. P. Morgan and a close business associate and friend of Jacob Schiff of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., Fleming was widely known and respected in financial circles on both sides of the Atlantic. He was one of the shrewdest investors of his generation and an acknowledged expert in the financing of American railroads. One of his less successful ventures was the 1908 takeover of the bankrupt works of Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, but he had the foresight to associate with the project James Hamet Dunn, who would come to control the works from 1935.{{harvnb|Beaverbrook|1961|pp=74–81}}
Fleming bought Joyce Grove in Nettlebed, Oxfordshire in 1903, along with its 2,000-acre estate. He commissioned a new house from the architect C. E. Mallows in 1908.
Fleming became one of the wealthiest men in Europe, with Robert Fleming & Co. remaining one of the few independent British investment houses in London by the turn of the century.{{Cite web |last=Administrator |date=2024-03-26 |title=Grand days • Patrick Mullins |url=https://insidestory.org.au/grand-days-ian-fleming/ |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=Inside Story |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Sunderland |first=Ruth |date=2007-01-07 |title=The family with the golden touch |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2007/jan/07/theobserver.observerbusiness2 |access-date=2024-07-02 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}{{Cite web |last=Lewis |first=Jane |date=2005-12-21 |title=Profile: The Flemings |url=https://moneyweek.com/31480/profile-the-flemings |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=moneyweek.com |language=en}}
Philanthropy
Fleming made many generous bequests to the city and the new University College. The Fleming Gymnasium (opened in 1905{{cite web|publisher=Dictionary of Scottish Architects|title =DSA Building/Design Report: University College Dundee Fleming Gymnasium and Fives Courts | url =http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/building_full.php?id=211514 | access-date = 13 March 2009 }} and now housing Forensic Medicine) still bears his name.
The Fleming Gardens Estate in Dundee was erected as a result of a gift of £155,000 that Fleming made to improve worker's housing. His gift is commemorated in a plaque and balustraded viewpoint at the junction of Clepington Road and Hindmarsh Avenue.
Personal life
Fleming was the father of Valentine Fleming and Philip Fleming. He was the grandfather of novelist Ian Fleming, who wrote the James Bond novels, and writer Peter Fleming. Sir John Fleming, onetime Lord Provost of Aberdeen and later a local MP, was a younger brother.
Death
Fleming died in 1933 and is buried in St. Bartholomew's Church in Nettlebed. His will was proven on 8 September, with his estate amounting to about £2,174,803 (calculated to be equivalent to £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|2174803|1933|r=0}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK}}).{{cite web |url=https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/Calendar?surname=Fleming&yearOfDeath=1933&page=2#calendar |title=Fleming, Robert |author= |date=1933 |website=probatesearchservice.gov |publisher=UK Government |access-date=13 August 2019 }}
Notes
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References
- {{cite book |author-link=Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook |title=Courage: The Story of Sir James Dunn |last=Beaverbrook |first=Lord |place=Fredericton, New Brunswick |publisher=Brunswick Press |date=1961}}
External links
- [http://www.flemingcollection.com The Fleming Collection]
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Category:People educated at the High School of Dundee
Category:Scottish company founders
Category:19th-century Scottish businesspeople
Category:20th-century Scottish businesspeople
Category:People associated with the University of Dundee