Article

Arthur Blaikie Purvis

Published Online September 20, 2007

Last Edited July 14, 2015

Purvis, Arthur Blaikie, industrialist (b at London, Eng 31 Mar 1890; d at Prestwick, Scot 14 Aug 1941). At the age of 20 Purvis joined Nobel's Explosives Co of Glasgow, which became part of Imperial Chemical Industries of London.

Purvis, Arthur Blaikie

Purvis, Arthur Blaikie, industrialist (b at London, Eng 31 Mar 1890; d at Prestwick, Scot 14 Aug 1941). At the age of 20 Purvis joined Nobel's Explosives Co of Glasgow, which became part of Imperial Chemical Industries of London. It was as an employee of ICI that Purvis was sent to Canada to be president and managing director of Canadian Industries Ltd, one of Canada's most technologically advanced companies. A liberal-minded employer, with broad views on social and economic questions, he was appointed chairman of the National Employment Commission (1936-38) by PM Mackenzie King, but the two clashed over the commission's recommendation that the federal government should bear all relief costs and responsibility for the unemployed. In WWII the British government (not the Canadian) made Purvis head of the British Supply Council in charge of British purchases in North America. Purvis reconciled himself with King but quarrelled repeatedly with Lord Beaverbrook [Max Aitken ], the British minister of aircraft production. Purvis was killed in an air crash.