He was the son of James Balfour and Clara Lucas Balfour.
He was Member of Parliament for Tamworth from 1880 to 1885, and for Burnley from 1889 to 1893. Balfour was also interested in local politics in his home town of Croydon, Surrey where he regularly topped the poll for the school board. When Croydon got borough status in 1883 he was selected as charter mayor and re-elected for a second term. In 1885 he stood as Liberal candidate in Croydon at the general election but lost to the Conservatives. He also stood unsuccessfully for the Liberals at Walworth in 1886.
In 1880 he was appointed chairman of theNorthampton Street Tramways.
Together with City financiers Leopold Salomons andSir John Pender, Balfour founded the investment underwriting firm the Trustees, Executors and Securities Insurance Corporation, Limited in December 1887.
In 1892, he was at the centre of a scandal over the failure of a series of companies which he set up and controlled, starting with the London and General Bank and culminating in the Liberator Building Society, leaving thousands of investors penniless. Instead of advancing money to home buyers, the Liberator had advanced money to property companies to buy properties owned by him, at a high price. After the swindle was discovered, Balfour fled the country. He was arrested inArgentina by Inspector Frank Froest of Scotland Yard in 1895; with extradition proceedings held up by legal wrangling, Froest simply bundled Balfour into a train and then a boat sailing for England.Balfour was tried at the Old Bailey and sentenced to 14 years penal servitude, most of which was served in harsh conditions in Portland prison, and he was released in 1906.
After his release from prison in 1906, his memoirs were serialised by Lord Northcliffe's Weekly Despatch newspaper. Balfour died on 23 February 1916, on a train from London to Wales, heading for a job as a mining consultant.
He married Ellen Mead in 1866. By 1880 her mental condition had deteriorated and she became a patient in the Priory Hospital, Roehampton.
Post a Comment