William Knox D'Arcy
Encyclopedia
William Knox D'Arcy was one of the principal founders of the oil and petrochemical industry in Persia
(Iran
).
, England, the son of a solicitor
. He attended Westminster School
until 1866 when the family emigrated to Australia
, settling in Rockhampton
, Queensland
. D'Arcy continued his studies and chose to follow law, later joining his father's business. He did well and began to speculate, initially in land.
He married Elena Birkbeck of Rockhampton at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Sydney on 23 October 1872. Elena was born in Mexico
in 1840, the only daughter of Damiana de Barre Valdez and Samual Birkbeck. Samual was a mining engineer from Illinois
in the United States. He was descended from the English Birkbecks, a Quaker family with an interest in education. Samual met his wife, Damiana de Barre Valdez, whilst working in Mexico
, managing a silver mine.
and Thomas Skarratt Hall, in a syndicate
with Thomas, Frederick and Edwin Morgan when they opened a mine on Ironstone Mountain (later renamed Mount Morgan
), 24 miles (38.6 km) south of Rockhampton. There was a significant deposit at Mt Morgan. In October 1886, the syndicate became the Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company, with D'Arcy a director and the largest shareholder. He held 125,000 shares in his own name and 233,000 in trust. At one stage the shares reached £
17/1s
/- each, making them worth more than £6 million (an amount equivalent to £ in present day terms). The company also worked a rich gold mine at Matakanui, Central Otago, New Zealand, through its subsidiary the Mount Morgan Sluicing Company.
and a house on Grosvenor Square
. His wife Elena died in 1897 and in 1899 he married Nina Boucicault (Nina was a first cousin of her namesake, Nina Boucicault
, the celebrated Irish stage and film actress), who helped him entertain on a lavish scale. He had acquired a strong interest in horse-racing while in Australia, and maintained a private box at Epsom racecourse.
In 1900 he agreed to fund a search for oil and minerals in Persia headed by Wolff
, Kitabgi
and Cotte. Negotiations with the Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar began in 1901 and with the offer of £20,000 for a sixty year concession to explore for oil was secured in May covering 480000 square miles (1,243,194.3 km²). The concession stipulated that William D'Arcy would have the oil rights to the entire country except for five provinces in Northern Iran. In exchange the Iranian government was given 16% of the oil company's annual profits, an agreement that would haunt the Iranians up until the late 20th century. After the D'Arcy concession the British became much more concerned with the stability of Iran because of their reliance on the country's vast oil reserves.
A drilling team under George B. Reynolds was sent to Persia and began to search. In 1903 a company was formed and D'Arcy had to spend over £500,000 to cover the costs. False hopes were raised in 1904 and D'Arcy was forced to find further financial support, with the Burmah Oil Company Ltd.
agreeing to put up to £100,000 into the venture in return for much of the stock.
Drilling in southern Persia at Shardin continued until 1907 when the search was switched to Masjed Soleyman
(Masjid-I-Sulaiman in Persian
مسجد سلیمان) in a place named "Maidan-i-Naftun". Drilling began at one site in January 1908 and at another nearby in March. By April with no success the venture was close to collapse and D'Arcy almost bankrupt, but on May 16 there were encouraging signs and on May 26 at 1180 feet (359.7 m) they struck oil.
In April 1909 D'Arcy was made a director of the newly founded Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) which would later become British Petroleum
. By 1911 APOC had run a pipeline from the find to a refinery at Abadan. In 1912 the Mount Morgan company was listed in London and D'Arcy was made chairman of that board.
The financial support given by Burmah Oil and the British Admiralty meant that D'Arcy could no longer put his name to the new company despite the best efforts of his wife, and ended up just a shareholder to the company.
and Edward Burne-Jones
a suite of tapestries, 'The Quest of the Holy Grail
' (now dispersed). He also owned paintings by Frank Dicksee and Frederick Goodall
.
He died on May 1, 1917.
Energy in Iran
Energy resources in Iran consist of the third largest oil reserves and the second largest natural gas reserves in the world. Iran is in a constant battle to use its energy resources more effectively in the face of subsidization and the need for technological advances in energy exploration and...
(Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
).
Early life
He was born in Newton AbbotNewton Abbot
Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England on the River Teign, with a population of 23,580....
, England, the son of a solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
. He attended Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
until 1866 when the family emigrated to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, settling in Rockhampton
Rockhampton, Queensland
Rockhampton is a city and local government area in Queensland, Australia. The city lies on the Fitzroy River, approximately from the river mouth, and some north of the state capital, Brisbane....
, Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
. D'Arcy continued his studies and chose to follow law, later joining his father's business. He did well and began to speculate, initially in land.
He married Elena Birkbeck of Rockhampton at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Sydney on 23 October 1872. Elena was born in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in 1840, the only daughter of Damiana de Barre Valdez and Samual Birkbeck. Samual was a mining engineer from Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
in the United States. He was descended from the English Birkbecks, a Quaker family with an interest in education. Samual met his wife, Damiana de Barre Valdez, whilst working in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, managing a silver mine.
Mining in Australia and New Zealand
In 1882 he became a partner, with Walter Russell HallWalter Russell Hall
Walter Russell Hall was an Australian businessman and benefactor.Hall was born in Kington, Herefordshire, England, eldest son of Walter Hall, glover , and his wife Elizabeth Carleton, née Skarratt. He was educated in Kington and Taunton, Somerset...
and Thomas Skarratt Hall, in a syndicate
Syndicate
A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies or entities formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest or in the case of criminals, to engage in organized crime...
with Thomas, Frederick and Edwin Morgan when they opened a mine on Ironstone Mountain (later renamed Mount Morgan
Mount Morgan, Queensland
Mount Morgan is a town located in central Queensland, Australia. It is situated on the Dee River, 38 kilometres south of the city of Rockhampton, and is 680 kilometres north of the state capital, Brisbane. The Burnett Highway passes through the town...
), 24 miles (38.6 km) south of Rockhampton. There was a significant deposit at Mt Morgan. In October 1886, the syndicate became the Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company, with D'Arcy a director and the largest shareholder. He held 125,000 shares in his own name and 233,000 in trust. At one stage the shares reached £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
17/1s
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
/- each, making them worth more than £6 million (an amount equivalent to £ in present day terms). The company also worked a rich gold mine at Matakanui, Central Otago, New Zealand, through its subsidiary the Mount Morgan Sluicing Company.
Oil Exploration in Persia
In 1889, with a substantial fortune, he and his family moved to England. He bought the Stanmore Hall mansion, Bylaugh ParkBylaugh Park
Bylaugh Hall, also known as Bylaugh Park, is a country house situated in the village of Bylaugh in Norfolk, England.-History:The estate was acquired by Sir John Lombe in 1796. There is some uncertainty regarding the exact nature of the transaction...
and a house on Grosvenor Square
Grosvenor Square
Grosvenor Square is a large garden square in the exclusive Mayfair district of London, England. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Duke of Westminster, and takes its name from their surname, "Grosvenor".-History:...
. His wife Elena died in 1897 and in 1899 he married Nina Boucicault (Nina was a first cousin of her namesake, Nina Boucicault
Nina Boucicault
Nina Boucicault was an English actress born to playwright Dion Boucicault and his wife, actress Agnes Kelly Robertson. She had three brothers, Dion William , Dion Boucicault Jr. and Aubrey Boucicault...
, the celebrated Irish stage and film actress), who helped him entertain on a lavish scale. He had acquired a strong interest in horse-racing while in Australia, and maintained a private box at Epsom racecourse.
In 1900 he agreed to fund a search for oil and minerals in Persia headed by Wolff
Henry Drummond Wolff
Sir Henry Drummond-Wolff GCB, GCMG, PC was an English diplomat and Conservative Party politician, who started as a clerk in the Foreign Office.-Background:Wolff was the son of Georgiana Mary and Joseph Wolff...
, Kitabgi
Kitabgi
General Antoine Kitabgi Khan was a Persian General of Georgian descent and the Director-General of Persian Customs. British Petroleum was born out of cooperation between Kitabgi and William Knox D'Arcy....
and Cotte. Negotiations with the Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar began in 1901 and with the offer of £20,000 for a sixty year concession to explore for oil was secured in May covering 480000 square miles (1,243,194.3 km²). The concession stipulated that William D'Arcy would have the oil rights to the entire country except for five provinces in Northern Iran. In exchange the Iranian government was given 16% of the oil company's annual profits, an agreement that would haunt the Iranians up until the late 20th century. After the D'Arcy concession the British became much more concerned with the stability of Iran because of their reliance on the country's vast oil reserves.
A drilling team under George B. Reynolds was sent to Persia and began to search. In 1903 a company was formed and D'Arcy had to spend over £500,000 to cover the costs. False hopes were raised in 1904 and D'Arcy was forced to find further financial support, with the Burmah Oil Company Ltd.
Burmah Oil Company Ltd.
The Burmah Oil Company was a leading British oil business which was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:The company was founded in Glasgow, Scotland in 1886 by David Sime Cargill to develop oil fields in the Indian subcontinent...
agreeing to put up to £100,000 into the venture in return for much of the stock.
Drilling in southern Persia at Shardin continued until 1907 when the search was switched to Masjed Soleyman
Masjed Soleyman
Masjed Soleyman is a city in and the capital of Masjed Soleyman County, Khuzestan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 106,121, in 22,393 families...
(Masjid-I-Sulaiman in Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
مسجد سلیمان) in a place named "Maidan-i-Naftun". Drilling began at one site in January 1908 and at another nearby in March. By April with no success the venture was close to collapse and D'Arcy almost bankrupt, but on May 16 there were encouraging signs and on May 26 at 1180 feet (359.7 m) they struck oil.
In April 1909 D'Arcy was made a director of the newly founded Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) which would later become British Petroleum
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
. By 1911 APOC had run a pipeline from the find to a refinery at Abadan. In 1912 the Mount Morgan company was listed in London and D'Arcy was made chairman of that board.
The financial support given by Burmah Oil and the British Admiralty meant that D'Arcy could no longer put his name to the new company despite the best efforts of his wife, and ended up just a shareholder to the company.
Later life
Later in life he lived in Stanmore Hall, Middlesex. He commissioned from William MorrisWilliam Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
and Edward Burne-Jones
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...
a suite of tapestries, 'The Quest of the Holy Grail
Holy Grail tapestries
The Holy Grail or San Graal tapestries are a set of six tapestries depicting scenes from the legend of King Arthur and the quest for the Holy Grail commissioned from Morris & Co. by William Knox D'Arcy in 1890 for his dining room at Stanmore Hall, outside London. Additional versions of the...
' (now dispersed). He also owned paintings by Frank Dicksee and Frederick Goodall
Frederick Goodall
Frederick Goodall was an English artist.Goodall was born in London, England in 1822, the second son of steel line engraver Edward Goodall . He received his education at the Wellington Road Academy....
.
He died on May 1, 1917.