Mrs Margaret Dykes Lindsay and Colonel Barclay Shaw

In 1922, Mrs M D Lindsay (1) gave 5 paintings from the collection of Colonel Barclay Shaw to Glasgow Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. This painting, which hangs in the Glasgow Boys gallery in Kelvingrove, is Japanese Girl with Fan by George Henry.

Margaret Dykes Cook was born (2) on 14^th November, 1857, in Tradeston, Glasgow, the daughter of Christine  and James Cook, Master Brass Founder. On the 30^th April, 1878, she married (3) Robert Barclay Shaw at her family home, Tinavale, Shields Road, Pollokshields, Glasgow.

Robert Barclay Shaw (4) was born in 1852.He was the son of William Shaw, and Janet Barclay. His father, a builder, was a prominent member of the Incorporation of Wrights in the Trades House and one_ time Deacon (5)(6). When Robert was young, the family lived in Pollok Street, moving to Valleyfield, Aytoun Rd about 1870. Robert Barclay Shaw was only 19 years old when, on the death of his father, he succeeded to the business, William Shaw and sons, Wallace St. Glasgow.  His firm moved into speculative building, building the impressive tenements in Glencairn Drive known as Olrig Terrace. After he married local girl Margaret Dykes Cook at her home, Tinavale, Shields Rd, he and his wife lived in number 6, Olrig Terrace. Later he built a detached house in Pollokshields, 40 Dalziel Drive, known as Dykeneuk, and was living there in 1888. The development of Pollokshields (7 ) as a garden suburb saw many fine houses built in varied architectural styles, indeed no two houses are identical. Shaw built three houses in Dalziel Drive, Dykeneuk, Oak Knowe and Hazliebrae.

His firm moved into specialist building construction and became very successful. His first main contract was for the buildings for the 1888 International Exhibition in Glasgow. (8 ) The architect was James Sellars, building in the Moorish style known locally as “Baghdad by Kelvinside”.  James Sellars unfortunately died in October,1888 reportedly of blood poisoning from standing on a rusty nail.

Robert Barclay Shaw was the builder and he was much praised in The Bailie(9), being credited with the exhibition’s finishing on time and on budget. The site covered 10 acres. Shaw employed 1,000 men on the contract, used 5 million bricks, 750 tons of iron, 700,000 cubic feet of wood and 250,000 square feet of glass.

This was his first connection with Kelvingrove and it was the success of the Exhibition and the profit from it that enabled Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum to be commissioned.  Both Barclay Shaw and Sellars are in this painting by John Lavery of the great and the good in Glasgow when Queen Victoria visited the Exhibition in 1888.

Shaw and William Smith later supervised the building, to the design of James Miller, for the Main Hall for the Glasgow Exhibition in 1901 and for the exhibition Concert Hall.

In 1895, he built the Kildrastan buildings with shops and adjacent tenements in Terregles and Glencairn Drives. In the valuation rolls for 1905 (10 ), Mrs Dykes Shaw is the proprietor of properties in Kildrastan Street which included shops and residential buildings. As well as the properties in Pollokshields, he built the Langside Tram Depot and stands at Hampden Football Park for Queens Park Football Club.

He was a sociable man. He followed his father as a member of Trades House- in the Incorporation of The Wrights- and was elected as Collector in 1888. (11) Why Colonel Barclay Shaw?

While he was still a lad he joined the 8^th Lanarkshire Volunteers which became the 3^rd Blythswood Volunteer Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry in 1887.(12) He was gazetted Colonel in 1904. (13)

In 1895, he purchased Annick Lodge(14 ) near Irvine, an imposing country house. The estate extended to 45 acres with 15 estate houses and a farm of 95 acres.

He died in 1905. His death is reported by Rev. William Lindsay, minister of Dreghorn.(15 )

After his death, his widow continued living at Annick Lodge. Valuation Rolls show that she ran the estate with a manager. In 1908 (16), she married the Reverend James Lindsay, M.A, B.Sc., B.D., D.D the minister of St Andrews Church of Scotland , Kilmarnock(17 ) and brother of the minister at Dreghorn, who had registered the death of Barclay Shaw. She continued to manage the estate. Dr Lindsay died in 1923 (18 ) but she continued to live at Annick Lodge, then administered by a Trust, (19) until it was sold in 1934 and she moved to Dalry. She died in 1942.(20 )

The Donated Paintings

The other oil painting in the donation is entitled The Storm by John Lawson.

The three others are watercolours.

The Koto player Tokyo by George Henry

References

1. Minutes of Glasgow City Council, 1922.
2. National Records of Scotland Statutory Births 1857
3. National Records of Scotland Statutory Marriages 1878
4. National Records of Scotland Statutory Births 1852
5. The Bailie. The Man You Know. June 6^th 1888. Mitchell Library, Glasgow
6. N.J.Morgan “Robert Barclay Shaw” in Slaven A.  A Dictionary of  Scottish Business Biography Aberdeen. Aberdeen University Press, 1986. Pp164-167
7. Pollokshield Heritage. www.pollokshieldsheritage.org
8. Kinchin P. and Kinchin K. Glasgow’s Great Exhibitions. White Cockade, 1988
9. The Bailie. The Man You Know. June 6^th 1888. Mitchell library, Glasgow
10. National Records of Scotland Valuation Rolls
11. The Scotsman. 22^nd September 1888
12. www.britisharmedforces/regiments
13. The London Gazette. 1904
14. www.historicscotland.gov.uk
15. National Records of Scotland Statutory Deaths 1905
16. National Records of Scotland Statutory Marriages 1908
17. Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticaneae. Mitchell Library
18. National Records of Scotland Statutory Deaths 1923
19. National Records of Scotland Valuation Rolls
20. National Records of Scotland Statutory Deaths 1942