Alexander Stone

Sir Alexander Stone, banker, philanthropist, Zionist activist; (born April 21, 1907, died March 15, 1998).

Alexander Stone's parents, landed in Scotland from Russia in 1903. They had little money and settled with other Jewish immigrant families in the Gorbals. Alexander was born in 1907, one of eight children.

He was educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School where, typically, his interests were diverse, ranging from the classics to football. On leaving school he joined the family furniture business as an auctioneer and salesman - a skill he never forgot. At the age of 25 - I suppose, like Churchill, I was a bit of a late starter, he once said - he decided to study law at the University of Glasgow, rushing back from classes to conduct auctions. He graduated in 1932 and, because of the prejudices he encountered as a Jew within the legal establishment, he founded his own firm, Alexander Stone & Co, in 1932. He regarded the firm, in which he was a consultant until his death, as his first born.

It was perhaps typical of his ingenuity and opportunism that shortly after setting up his practice he invested what was to him a fortune in buying a ticket for the maiden voyage of the Queen Elizabeth. Travelling third class, he used this as a chance to develop a clientele among the more successful passengers. His horizons widened by his experience as a commercial lawyer, he acquired a small London-based merchant bank, the British Bank of Commerce, in 1956. He said he bought it because he liked the name. It had, at that time, four employees and £10,000 worth of capital, but he transferred the bank's operations to Glasgow in 1959 and, by the time it went public in 1967, it had 125 employees and capital assets totalling £40m. In 1973, however, the public lost confidence in subsidiary banks and the following year the bank was sold to Grindlays.

From 1975-79, Stone was on the board of James Finlay Corporation, but in 1980 he set up a new banking company, Combined Capital. This was wholly owned by the Alexander Stone Foundation, which was to become a major charitable foundation in succeeding years, distributing around £2.5m to local and other charities. He saw the foundation as a vehicle for returning to society the wealth he had made. The Alexander Stone scholarships were endorsed to support those seeking a career in law. He established a chair in Commercial Law at the University of Glasgow and another at Strathclyde University in Business Law and Practice.

He donated a new building for the Microbiology Department at Glasgow and his love of le mot juste caused him to endow lectureships in bibliophily and rhetoric. His belief that young lawyers should be afforded the opportunities he was denied to prepare for their careers led him to establish a moot court in the University of Glasgow and an inter-university debate. He was a patron of the arts, with a fine collection of paintings and books. In 1993 he donated a library of around 1500 antiquarian books to the University of Glasgow, designated the Alexander Stone Library.

In 1987, aged 80, he married Bette, who was to be his constant companion and muse, and who survives him. He joked that he had been so busy he had not previously had the time to get married, and that he now would have to consider moving house to be nearer the schools. He was made an OBE in 1988 and was awarded a knighthood in the New Year Honours List in 1994.

His last appearance in court was in 1995 as a witness in a civil case in which he gave evidence about events which had occurred around 50 years before. Asked by counsel for the pursuer: Are you a Knight of the Realm? Stone's answer in the affirmative was preceded by a grin which appeared to reflect an acknowledgement of all that he had achieved over the years. He once was asked what impelled him to give away such large sums, to which he replied: When you are young you want to make money, but as you get older you realise you cannot take it with you.

Interviewed for The Herald in 1988 at the age of 80, he gave a hint of the character which drove him to start again after selling the British Bank of Commerce. It was enough to drive me into the Clyde at the time, but when I recovered my composure I decided there was no future in dwelling on the past.

At that time, he still was travelling to London every week to conduct business from his Mayfair apartment, and was dismissive of the concept of retirement. I feel sorry for people who retire, he said, because that is the biggest mistake of your life.

Alexander Stone

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