Fleck Avenue in Saltcoats is named after Sir Alexander Fleck who held many important positions in life. He was the chairman of ICI from 1953 – 1960 and in 1961 he was made a Baron and took the title, Baron Fleck of Saltcoats.
Fleck was born in Green Street, Glasgow on 11th November 1889 and he was the only child of Robert Fleck and Agnes Hendry Duncan. Robert was born in Bradshaw Street, Saltcoats and at the time of Alexander’s birth he was listed as a coal merchant.
The family moved between Glasgow (where Agnes was born) and Saltcoats. At aged one, Alexander and his parents were living in “Dunottar” in Caledonia Road, and it is in Saltcoats that he received his early education in the Public School. His father was interested in public affairs and was a councillor in the town for a number of years.
By the time he was 11, the family were living in Caird Drive, Partick and Alexander was attending Hillhead High School. He left when he was 14 and started work in the chemical department of Glasgow University as a laboratory assistant. He also took night classes at the University and in 1911 he was awarded an honours degree in Chemistry. A couple of years later he had his own research laboratory and carried out radiological research on cancer.
Alexander gained a science doctorate (DSc) in 1916 for a thesis based on the chemistry of radioactive substances. At the beginning of WWI he was associated with the Beatson Oncology Centre, studying the effects of radium on cancerous growths.
In July 1917 he married school-teacher Isabella Mitchell Kelly at Armstrong’s Hotel in Glasgow. They were married for 38 years until Isabella died in 1955. They had no children.
Now Dr Fleck, he worked at various departments in ICI and joined the company’s main board in 1944 before succeeding to the chairmanship in 1953. A couple of years later he was appointed by the Government to head an advisory committee to review the organisation of the coal industry. The Fleck Report was published in 1955 with many of his recommendations being implemented, he was also knighted in June that year in recognition of his services to the Ministry of Fuel.
He retired from ICI in 1960 and in 1961 he was made a Baron, choosing as his title, Baron Fleck of Saltcoats. He returned to the town when he received an honorary burgess ticket of the burgh. When he took his seat in the House of Lords, one of his sponsors was a fellow honorary burgess of Saltcoats – Lord Boyd Orr.
Lord Fleck made another gesture to the town by gifting the town council a number of ICI shares and creating the “Robert Fleck Award” in remembrance of his father. The prize was awarded to pupils in Saltcoats Junior School and then Dykesmains Primary School.
He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and received honorary doctorates from Glasgow University, Durham University, the University of Nottingham, Oxford University, University of London and Dublin University.
Alexander died in London on 6th August 1968 when he was 78 years old. As he had no children, his title, “Baron Fleck of Saltcoats” died with him.
We have a few items in our collection relating to Alexander Fleck, including a case containing his freedom of the Burgh of Saltcoats, and a certificate and medal from his knighthood.
At Saltcoats, within the Town Hall there, on the Twelfth day of March, Nineteen hundred and fifty four years. Which day the Provost, Magistrates and Councillors of the Burgh of Saltcoats being assembled in pursuance of a Resolution come to at a Meeting held on the Fourteenth day of December, Nineteen hundred and fifty three years –
DO HEREBY ADMIT AND RECEIVE –
ALEXANDER FLECK, ESQ, D.Sc., LL.D..
To be an Honorary Burgess of the Burgh of Saltcoats –
In recognition of his outstanding services to Science and to the Industry of the Nation, of the leading position to which he has attained in the great Corporation of which he is the Head and of the honour which has thereby accrued to the Burgh as the home of his boyhood and in testimony of he high respect in which he is held by all its citizens.
– Extracted from the Council Records.