Background
Mitchell was born in Carnock, Fife, the eldest son of Alexander Mitchell and Meta Mary Graham Paton.
Businessman lecturer politician
Mitchell was born in Carnock, Fife, the eldest son of Alexander Mitchell and Meta Mary Graham Paton.
Mitchell represented Brentford and Chiswick in Parliament from 1931 to 1945. He was created a Baronet, of Tulliallan in the County of Fife and of Luscar in the Province of Alberta in the Dominion of Canada, in September 1945, in recognition of his "political and public services". He was Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party under Winston Churchill.
When the Second World War broke out Mitchell served as a Liaison Officer with the Polish Army, then commanded the Welfare Office for the Anti-Aircraft Command.
He was Honorary Colonel of the Scottish based 61 Signal Regiment TAVR in 1963. Business Mitchell was a director of a number of companies, including:
London and North Eastern Railway Company,
The New Zealand and Australian Land Company Limited;
The Ben Lincolnshire Steamers (from 1925),
The Alloa Glass Works Company (from 1928),
The Stirling Brickworks (chairman),
The New Main Brick Works Limited (from 1938) and
The Alloa Coal Company (from 1926).
In 1920 Mitchell invested in and turned round the failing Mountain Park Coal Company in Canada. This company formed the core of the later Mitchell controlled company Luscar.
He had extensive mining interests in Canada and the United States (Luscar).
He left the United Kingdom after his mines and a railway he owned were nationalised after the Second World War circum 1947 and subsequently he refused to keep any of his money in there. Mitchell purchased Tulliallan Castle in 1923 from the estate of Sir James Sivewright (and sold it to the Scottish Home Department in 1950 for £9,100). He invested money in a game farm and afforestation projects on the estate.
He also had a number of estates in Bermuda (his main residency in his later years), Jamaica, Honduras, Portugal, Fiji, Brazil and Guatemala.
In the 1920s he was a member of Clackmannan Union Agricultural Society (vice-president from 1927).