Hugh Locke Anderson, junior, of Ava Lodge, Helensburgh bequeathed several works by Joseph Crawhall. They were given to Glasgow on 20th April 1943.
The works were:
2324 The Purple Cow – Charcoal, watercolour, wash, paper.
2325 Lady on Horseback – Pen, watercolour, paper
2326 The Country Gentleman – Ink, watercolour, wash, paper
2327 Horse and Cart with Lady – Gouache, linen.
2328 The Whip – Chalk, watercolour, gouache, paper.
This painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 30th October 2010 to 23rd January 2011.(1) Another version of this painting is to be found in the National Galleries of Scotland.
He also donated “Hunting and Coursing” – six pen and ink sketches on paper catalogued as PR. 1943. 8.1 to 8.6. (Numbers 8.1 and 8.3 are drawn on menu cards of the Calfe Hotel, Tangier, Morocco.) All works are located at the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre in South Nitshill.
Hugh Locke Anderson was the son of a master house painter. His father, also Hugh Locke Anderson, was born about 1818 in Glasgow. He trained as a painter while living at 223 Gallowgate Street, Glasgow.(2) After completing his apprenticeship he formed his own company based at 119, Renfield Street and by 1851 was employing twelve men.(3) He married Helen Willox, on 9th of December 1847 in Pollokshaws,(4) and in 1851 they were living at 113, Cumberland Street, Lauriston, Glasgow.(5) Throughout the 1850s the business continued to thrive necessitating the addition of a workshop at 13, Renfield Lane and later at 16, East St. Vincent Lane.(6)
About 1860, Hugh Locke Anderson, moved with his family, which now consisted of two boys and three girls, to Williamwood House, Cathcart. (7),(8) Hugh Locke Anderson, junior was born there on 21st March 1863,(9) and was christened in Glasgow on the 3rd of May. Two years later the family moved again, this time to Hillside House, Partickhill. The firm was now styled, “H. L. Anderson and Co., Carlton, house painters and decorators”.(10) In 1871, the family moved to “Ava Cottage” at 92, Glasgow Street in Helensburgh. Hugh senior now employed 30 men and 8 boys with premises located at 141, St. Vincent Street, Glasgow.(11),(12)
In 1875 the family was living at 11, Glasgow Street, Helensburgh with the name “Ava Cottage”, moving with them!(13) With the success of his business, Hugh senior was able to have his sons John and Hugh educated privately at Larchfield Academy in Helensburgh.(14) Both boys had successful school careers with John going on to become a procurator fiscal and Hugh a marine insurance broker. Hugh continued to take a keen interest in the activities of his old school and in 1899 was a member of the committees of the Larchfield Academical Club and the Larchfield Literary Society.(15)
Both Hugh, senior and his wife Helen owned substantial stock in the City of Glasgow Bank.(16) The collapse of this bank in 1878 may have hastened Helen Anderson`s death which occurred in 1879 when she was 53.(17) After her death, the family moved again, this time to “Ava Lodge” at 14, Glasgow Street.(18) There is no mention of the family in the 1881 census.
Hugh Locke Anderson, senior, died aged 70 in Helensburgh on 11th of January 1888 and his son John became head of the family. In the 1891 census, Hugh, junior, was a marine insurance clerk, living at 14, Glasgow Street, Helensburgh and ten years later he had become a “marine insurance broker”.(19) He was employed by Bennett, Browne and Co. an old established Glasgow firm based at 17, Royal Exchange Square.(20) He became a joint partner and then sole partner, a position he held for many years until his retirement.(21) Other positions he held were the vice- chairmanship of the Royal Exchange and Justice of the Peace for the County of Dumbarton.
He also devoted a good deal of time to philanthropic work, and as a Director of the Glasgow Sailors` Home was a keen and enthusiastic supporter of that institution. For many years, until its winding up in 1923, he was a Director of the `Empress` Training Ship for Boys.(22) (This ship, formerly HMS Revenge, was moored in the Gareloch from 1889 to 1923 and was owned by the Clyde Industrial Training Ship Association. The Association had the object of providing for the education and training of boys who, through poverty, parental neglect, or any other cause, were destitute, homeless, or in danger from association with vice or crime).
Hugh Locke Anderson had a great appreciation for art and possessed a valuable collection of paintings. He was an Extraordinary Member of the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts. In this capacity he is likely to have encountered a variety of contemporary artists especially those with a connection to Helensburgh. Edward Arthur Walton was born in 1860 and was thus a contemporary of Hugh Locke Anderson. He was one of the “Glasgow Boys” and among his friends were the artists James Whitelaw Hamilton, James Guthrie and Joseph Crawhall. Walton, Crawhall and Guthrie spent a great deal of time painting in Helensburgh and district and stayed with Hamilton at weekends at his home “The Grange”, 23 Suffolk Street. They spent one whole summer at Rosneath. Like Anderson, Whitelaw Hamilton (1860 – 1932) was a former pupil of Larchfield Academy. One of his paintings “Evening on the Gareloch” (In the Anderson Trust Collection, Helensburgh) contains a view of the Empress Training Ship.
It is thus likely that Hugh Locke Anderson knew Crawhall and it is possible that the paintings he subsequently donated were given to him by Crawhall or that he purchased them from him.
The photograph above appeared in the programme for Helensburgh and District Art Club’s loan exhibition ‘Helensburgh and The Glasgow School’, staged in the Victoria Halls, Helensburgh from September 9-23, 1972.
In his leisure pursuits, Hugh Locke Anderson was a member of the Helensburgh golf and tennis clubs and in 1926 was President of the Helensburgh Bowling Club.(23) For a great many years he was a member of the choir of the Helensburgh Congregational Church.(24) He also found time to travel. In 1914 he sailed from Liverpool to New York arriving there on the 5th of June. Again, on 3rd of December 1926 (probably after he retired) he left London for Australia. He stayed till the end of the month, leaving Sydney on the 30th of December bound for London. On the way home, the ship called at Melbourne, Adelaide, Colombo and Bombay.(25)
Hugh Locke Anderson, junior died on 22nd December 1928 at Ava Lodge in Helensburgh (26),(27) and was buried in Helensburgh Cemetery on the 26th.(28) His estate was valued at £72,813:3:7. In his will he stipulated that “all my pictures by Jos. Crawhall I bequeath to Glasgow Corporation in decease of my sister Jessie Jane & the large picture by Simon to my brother Stuart outright”. All his other pictures were left to Jessie Jane.(29) This explains the time interval between his death and Glasgow Corporation receiving the pictures. Jessie Jane Anderson died at Ava Lodge in November 1942. She was 85 years old.(30)
A list of Hugh Locke Anderson`s bequests to Glasgow is contained in “Joseph Crawhall, The Man & The Artist” by Adrian Bury, published by Charles Skilton Ltd., London 1958.
References
1. static.royalacademy.org.uk/files/gallery-3-etruscan-red-864.pdf (Lent by Culture and Sport Glasgow on behalf of Glasgow City Council)
2. ancestry.co.uk, 1841, Scottish Census
3. Scotland`s People, 1851, Scottish Census
4. Family Search, Scotland
5. Scotland`s People, 1851, Scottish Census
6. Glasgow Post Office Directories, 1851-1859
7. Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1860/61
8. Scotland`s People, Census 1861
9. Scotland`s People, Birth Certificate
10. Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1865/66
11. Scotland`s People, Census 1871
12. Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1871/72
13. Helensburgh Directory, 1875
14. Helensburgh and Gareloch Times, 26th December 1928, p3
15. ibid
16. Otago Daily Times, 28th November 1878, page 2 (paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d…2.4)
17. Scotland`s People, Death Certificate
18. Helensburgh Directory, 1879
19. Scotland`s People, Census 1891
20. Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1891/2
21. Helensburgh and Gareloch Times, 26th December 1928, p3
22. ibid
23. Past Presidents` Board, Helensburgh Bowling Club
24. Helensburgh and Gareloch Times, 26th December 1928, p3
25. Ancestry.co.uk, UK Arrivals/Departures
26. Glasgow Herald, Death Notices, 26th December 1928.
27. Scotland`s People, Death Certificate
28. Helensburgh and Gareloch Times, 26th December 1928, pp 2 and 3
29. National Records of Scotland, SC65/36/28, page 183
30. Scotland`s People, Death Certificate
Glasgow Museums Art Donors Group 