Sir John Cargill, 1st Baronet


Sir John Traill Cargill, 1st Baronet, DL, JP was a Scottish oil magnate.
Cargill was born in Glasgow, the second son of David Sime Cargill, founder of the Burmah Oil Company, and his first wife Margaret, who died when he was five. He was educated at Glasgow Academy from 1878 to 1883, and in 1890 went to Burma to work in the Rangoon office of his father's company, returning to Glasgow three years later. In 1904, he succeeded his father as chairman of the company, remaining in the post until 1943. He was also chairman of Scottish Oils Ltd from 1922 to 1943. He largely served as figurehead of these companies, leaving the real running of them to their managing directors. He was also a director of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and the Assam Oil Company.
Cargill was created a baronet, of Glasgow, in the 1920 New Year Honours. He was a Deputy Lieutenant of Glasgow and a member of the court of the University of Glasgow, which awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Laws in 1929.
In 1895, he married Mary Hope Walker Grierson, sister of Lieutenant-General Sir James Moncrieff Grierson. They had a daughter, Allison Hope Cargill, but no sons, and the baronetcy became extinct upon Cargill's death. His wife died in 1929 and in 1943 he retired to a nursing home in Edinburgh, where he died. He was buried in Hillfoot Cemetery in Glasgow. He left large bequests to the University of Glasgow and the University of Rangoon.

Footnotes