Arthur Balfour, 1st Baron Riverdale explained

Arthur Balfour, 1st Baron Riverdale, (9 January 1873 – 7 July 1957), known as Sir Arthur Balfour (1923 -1929) and Sir Arthur Balfour, 1st Baronet (1929 - 1935), was a British steel manufacturer.^[1]

Balfour was the son of Herbert Balfour. Educated at Aysgarth School and Oundle School,^[2] he was Chairman of Arthur Balfour & Co Ltd and of C Meadows & Co Ltd, both of Sheffield, Yorkshire. He also served as President of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce from 1923 to 1924 and of the British Council from 1947 to 1950 and as Chairman of the Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research from 1937 to 1957.^[3] He chaired the Committee on Industry and Trade from 1924 to 1928.^[4]

In 1935 he was appointed as the chairman of the Departmental Committee on Fire Brigade Services, which became known as the Riverdale Committee. The committee's report resulted in the Fire Brigades Act 1938 (1 & 2 Geo. 6. c. 72).^{[5] [6]}

Balfour married Frances Josephine Bingham, daughter of Charles Henry Bingham, in 1899. He died in July 1957, aged 84, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son Robert. Lady Riverdale died in 1960. He was a freemason and founding member of University Lodge Sheffield 3911.^[7]

Honours and styles

He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1923, created a Baronet of Sheffield in the County of York in 1929, and raised to the peerage as Baron Riverdale, of Sheffield in the County of York, on 27 June 1935. On 11 June 1942 he was even further honoured when he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire for services to the Empire Air Training Scheme.

On 2 March 1943, he was made an honorary air commodore of the Auxiliary Air Force, serving in the No. 601 Squadron RAF.

Escutcheon:	Per chevron Argent and Sable in chief two crosses pattée of the second and in base a sun in splendour per pale Or and of the first.
Crest:	In front of a dragon’s head Sable a sun as in the arms.
Supporters:	Two dragons Sable each charged on the wing the dexter with a garb and the sinister with a cross pattée Or.
Motto:	In Arduis Fidelis ^[8]

Notes and References

1. Book: Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood. Burke's Peerage & Gentry . Mosley, Charles . Charles Mosley (genealogist) . 107 . 2003 . 3351–3352 . Burke . 0-9711966-2-1.
2. Balfour, Arthur, first Baron Riverdale (1873–1957), steel maker and industrialist. 2004 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/30552 .
3. Book: Burke's genealogical and heraldic history of the peerage, baronetage, and knightage, Privy Council, and order of preference . 1949 . Burke's Peerage Limited . London . 1700 . 99 .
4. John Ramsden (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century British Politics (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 39–40.
5. Book: Ewen . Shane . Fighting Fires: Creating the British Fire Service, 1800–1978 . 2009 . Palgrave Macmillan . Basingstoke . 9780230248403 . 125 .
6. Web site: Catalogue record: COMMISSIONS, COMMITTEES AND CONFERENCES: Departmental Committee on Fire Brigade Services 1935 (The Riverdale Committee): signed report. . National Archives . 27 March 2020.
7. Douglas Knoop, University Lodge Sheffield 3911 1919–1945, p. 14.
8. Book: Burke's Peerage . 1959.