Glimpse into magnate’s life

Craigie’s main picture today is a significant one in the context of Dundee’s history, and that of its jute industry in particular.

Very kindly supplied by the helpful people in the Dundee University Archive Services team, the photo was taken in July 1909 and comes from the Cox family papers.

It shows the prominent Dundee businessman James Ernest Cox with his infant son David, who was around eight months old at the time.

Born in September 1876, James Ernest Cox was the eldest son of Edward Cox, the head of Cox Brothers, Dundee’s largest jute manufacturer.

He graduated from Pembroke College, Cambridge with a BA and in 1899 joined the family firm, quickly becoming a leading authority on the jute industry. He married Agnes Jane Tod in 1904.

In 1920, Cox Brothers and several other Dundee jute manufacturers came together to form Jute Industries Ltd, and Cox became the new firm’s chairman, a position he held until 1948.

Among his many other interests, he played an important role in the affairs of University College, Dundee – the forerunner of the present Dundee University – becoming a member of the college’s council in 1906, and later taking up the position of chairman of its finance committee.

In 1925, he became chairman of the Council of University College, a post he held until 1939, and from 1942 until 1946 was president of the college. He also served for six years as a director of Dundee Royal Infirmary and was vice-president of the city’s Royal Victoria Hospital.

James lived at Lyndhurst in Lochee before he purchased Methven Castle and its near 1,000-acre estate in 1922. In 1931, his contribution to the work of the college was recognised by the award of an honorary doctorate from St Andrews University.

He died in 1950 aged 73, survived by his wife, sons David, Michael and Douglas, and daughter Margot.

Tragically, his first born son Edward had been killed in a motorcycle accident in 1925, while his other daughter Kathleen had died around 1911.

The infant son shown with James in the picture above, David Ernest Cox, went on to have a distinguished career as an officer in the Royal Navy. He died in 1980.

The late Dundee businessman James Ernest Cox, of jute company Cox Brothers, is pictured here with his first son, David Ernest Cox, in July 1909. The picture is courtesy of Dundee University Archives, which has access to the Cox family papers and photos.

It is said that the ghost of a girl walked a bridge that connected two parts of Brook Street’s ‘Coffin Mill’ factory, near Dundee’s Marketgait. (David Phillips Collection).