Alexander Mitchell

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Mitchell, TD, JP (20 August 1871 – 4 December 1934) was a British businessman.

Early years
Mitchell was born at River Devon, Clackmannanshire, the second son of Alexander Mitchell and Emma Pearce. He was a grandson of William Mitchell.

He was educated at Harrow and Oxford University.

Mitchell married Meta Mary Graham Paton on 3 March 1894; they had two children, including Harold, who became a politician.

Military career
Mitchell served with the Territorial Army in a number of mounted units starting with the Oxford University Mounted Infantry and then the Fife Light Horse Volunteers prior to becoming a Lieutenant-Colonel.

He commanded the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in 1914. He was wounded at Gallipoli a year later. The Regiment was subsequently converted to infantry as a battalion of the 14th (Fife and Forfar Yeomanry) Battalion of The Black Watch sent to France in 1917.

Mitchell finished the war as Town Commandant of Duren in Germany after the Armistice. He was awarded the Territorial Decoration in 1913.

Business interests
Mitchell inherited his father's business interests. He held a number of company directorships included ones with the Alloa Coal Company (from 1898), the Alloa Glass Works Company (from 1908), the Ben Line Steamers (from 1911), and the Shotts Iron Company (from 1923). He invested in a Scottish syndicate that led the financing for a mine known as Mountain Park.

The Mountain Park mine was officially opened in 1911, and, in 1921, the Luscar mine was opened. The mines provided fuel for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway as it expanded westward. The Canadian mines form the nucleus of what was later Andalex Resources.

He owned property in Roxburghshire and Fife, which were inherited from his father, as well as Tulliallan Castle, Fife. He died in 1934, aged 63, leaving an estate valued at £389,913.