Alfred James McAlpine (15 June 1908 – 6 November 1991),
. Retrieved 11 November 2012 not to be confused with Baron McAlpine, was a member of the noted Anglo-Scottish construction-based McAlpine family, the son of Sir Alfred David McAlpine and the grandson of Sir Robert McAlpine, 1st Baronet. He usually went by his middle name of James or Jimmie.

Career

After leaving

Repton School Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, independent, day and boarding school in the English public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England. Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school whi ...

, he joined the family business

Sir Robert McAlpine Sir Robert McAlpine Limited is a family-owned building and civil engineering company based in Hemel Hempstead, England. It carries out engineering and construction in the infrastructure, heritage, commercial, arena and stadium, healthcare, educa ...

, under his father who ran operations in

Northwest England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,052,000 in 2011. It is the ...

. In 1935, following the death of Sir Robert and his eldest son, Alfred ran the northwest independently, although the legal separation was not completed until 1940, when Sir Alfred McAlpine & Son was formed. Under a non-compete agreement with its former parent company, Sir Alfred McAlpine confined itself to civil engineering and to the northwest of England. James became chairman of the company after the death of his father in 1944. Under James's chairmanship, Alfred McAlpine floated on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

in 1958 under the name Marchwiel Holdings, only changing its public name to Alfred McAlpine PLC in 1985. This followed the decision in 1983 to end the non-compete agreement with Robert McAlpine allowing the firm to expand geographically. In 1985, James retired, and handed over chairmanship of the company to his son Robert James "Bobby" McAlpine.

Family

McAlpine was married five times and had four children. He lived at Gerwyn Hall in the village of

Marchwiel Marchwiel ( cy, Marchwiail) is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It is about 2 miles south-east of Wrexham city on the A525 road towards Bangor-on-Dee. The community has an area of 1,488 hectares and a population of 1,4 ...

near

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

, and played cricket for

in the Minor Counties Championship between 1930 and 1935, mostly on the

cricket ground Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

at his father's nearby home.

Car collection

A noted car collector, he kept and maintained his large private collection in the various outbuildings of the hall. The collection included example models from: Alvis, Aston Martin, Bentley,

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, Bugatti, Jaguar, Jensen and

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

. He and his chauffeur's preferred mode of transport was a 1934 V12 engined Hispano-Suiza J12, which was often seen at Wrexham Golf Club where he was president.

Death

McAlpine died in hospital at Wrexham in 1991.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McAlpine, Alfred James People educated at Repton School 1908 births 1991 deaths

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguati ...

British chief executives 20th-century British businesspeople