Harold Mackintosh, 1st Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax

Harold Vincent Mackintosh, 1st Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax (8 June 1891 – 27 December 1964 ), was a British businessman, public servant and benefactor.

Early life Mackintosh was born in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, the son of John and Violet Mackintosh who had a toffee factory on Queens Road in Halifax, then Albion Mills and also in the United States, Canada, Germany and Australia. He was educated at Halifax New School. Instead of going to university, he spent a few years in Krefeld in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, where he ran a Mackintosh toffee factory, and learnt the language. He was a member of the German international hockey team, prior to the First World War. During the First World War, he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and reached the rank of lieutenant. He served as Chancellor of the University of East Anglia between 1962 and 1964.

Honours Mackintosh was knighted in the 1922 New Year Honours, when only 31, one of the youngest people to be knighted in the 20th century, for his work with Sunday schools. He was made a baronet in the 1935 New Year Honours and was raised to the peerage in the 1948 New Year Honours as Baron Mackintosh of Halifax, of Hethersett in the County of Norfolk. In the 1957 Birthday Honours, he was further honoured when he was made Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax, of Hethersett in the County of Norfolk. In 1948, he was given an honorary LLD by the University of Leeds. On Unthank Road in Norwich is Harold Mackintosh House.

Marriage and children On 8 June 1916, Mackintosh married Constance Emily Stoneham, the second daughter of Edgar Cooper Stoneham. She was born on the same day as him. They had two children:

John Mackintosh, 2nd Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax (7 October 1921 – 2 November 1980) Hon. Mary Mackintosh (18 April 1927 – 19 January 2006)

His son John attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, as he felt no British university was prepared to the necessary standard in business administration.

From 1934 to 1942, Lord Mackintosh lived at Conynghan Hall near Harrogate. Then they lived at Greystones in Luddenden. In 1947, he moved to Thickthorn Hall, south-west of Norwich.

Death Lord Mackintosh died at Thickthorn Hall in December 1964 at the age of 73 and was succeeded in the viscountcy and other titles by his only son, John.