James A. Hood
1859-1941
James A. Hood was a younger son of coalmaster Archibald Hood who had began work as an engineman but had acquired pits in Ayrshire and leased Whitehill colliery at Rosewell, Midlothian from 1856. Before moving to develop his coal interest in South Wales. Archibald Hood Founded the Lothian Coal Company in 1890, when Whitehill Colliery was amalgamated with the Newbattle collieries of the Marquis of Lothian who became chairman of the new company until 1900.
James A. Hood was general manager of the company from 1890 until 1902 when he succeeded his father as managing director, and from 1911 until 1941 was chairman of the company, a position his father had held from 1900 until his death in 1902. James was a Midlothian County Councillor from 1889 and was closely involved with many of his father's projects, including the Rosewell Co-operative store founded in 1862, the public house opened in that village in 1909 and the "Gothenberg" Dean Tavern founded in Newtongrange in 1899. He approved the Newtongrange Cinema built by the Lothian Coal Company in 1913 and assisted Newtongrange Star Football Club in building its new sports ground and 900 seater stadium in 1924.
With Mungo Mackay James A. Hood played a leading part in the building of company housing for the miners of the Lothian Coal Company at Newtongrange, Easthouses and Rosewell.
In 1924 he founded the Hood Chair of Mining at Edinburgh University, in conjunction with Heriot Watt University and was made an honorary LL.D. by the university in 1928. At his death in 1941 Hood's total estate amounted to £436,000 and included investments in 103 different companies, but most of his wealth was invested in the Lothian Coal Company.