Mrs Edith Mary Anderson (1870-1952)

Donor

Mrs Edith Mary Anderson(1870-1952)

Bough, Samuel; Crummock Water, Cumberland; Glasgow Museums; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/crummock-water-cumberland-83298

Figure 1 Crummock Water Artist Samuel Bough . 1875 © CSGCIC Glasgow Museums Acc 3447 . Exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1875¹

Donor

Edith Mary Anderson (1870-1952)

Our donor was born Edith Mary Adam on 20 January 1870 at 6 Oakley Terrace, Dennistoun ,Glasgow .² Her father was John Adam whose family owned a bleachworks, William Adam & Son of which John was a partner .³ Her mother was Elizabeth Jane Cochrane .⁴ According to the 1871 Census Edith lived at at 8 Oakley Terrace with her parents and the following siblings:- John aged seventeen, Catherine aged fifteen, Charles aged ten and Eliza aged eight. There were also at least four servants living in the house .⁵

Oakley Terrace was part of a model middle- class suburb planned from the 1850s by Alexander Dennistoun, from a wealthy Glasgow merchant family . Up to that time this area to the east of Glasgow consisted of country estates such as Craigpark ,Whitehill and Meadowpark which were owned by wealthy Glasgow businessmen(see below Figure 2).

Alexander’s father James had bought the Golfhill Estate in 1814 and built Golfhill House, the home of Alexander Dennistoun. Architect James Salmon was engaged to design the feuing and planning of the suburb after Alexander Dennistoun had purchased the above estates in the 1850s, an area of around 200 acres. However the plan was eventually modified and only Oakley Terrace, Westercraig Street and Clayton Place were built as after the 1870s there was competition from the expanding building for wealthier Glaswegians to the west and south of the city. Also, with builders were requesting more profitable feus to build tenements in the Dennistoun area to house lower middle- class and working class families often from Ireland, Italy and Eastern Europe. This put an end to the original plan for a model suburb for the wealthier middle class merchants in Dennistoun .⁶

Figure 3 Extract from 1876 New Plan of Glasgow with Suburbs showing Oakley Terrace.

J.G. Bartholemew. © NLS

Edith’s father’s occupation was that of master bleacher of the firm William Adam and Son of Milnbank which was a bleaching and dyeing company located at 399-400 Townmill Road Glasgow situated between the Monkland Canal and the Molindinar Burn and employing over 300 workers ⁷ The bleachworks were situated east of Alexander Park in Dennistoun(see below Figure 4). The earliest reference to the Milnbank bleachworks was in the Glasgow Post Office Directory of 1828-9.

The following year, 1872, the Adam children lost both their parents. Eliza Adam died at 6 Oakley Terrace on 2 March 1872 of congestion of the brain and lungs .⁸ Edith’s father John also appears to have had health problems as he died on 13 December 1872 while ‘visiting Bournemouth for his health’.⁹

Edith was only two years old at the time of her parent’s death. It appears she and her elder sister Eliza went to live with her father’s elder brother William and his wife Helen. From about 1875 William Adam and his wife lived at 5 Windsor Terrace West in Glasgow’s West End .¹⁰ Edith, now aged eleven , was with her Uncle William and Aunt Helen at the time of the 1881 census ,visiting a Mrs Agnes Arthur at Cove , Kilcreggan in Dunbartonshire .¹¹ She was at 5, Windsor Terrace, aged 21, with her Aunt Helen at the time of the 1891 Census with no indication that she was merely a visitor .¹² She was married from that address in 1900¹³ so we may presume that her Uncle William and his wife became substitute parents. It would also explain why Edith donated the painting Crummock Water by Samuel Bough in memory of her Uncle William .¹⁴ When Edith’s sister Eliza married in 1886 her address on the marriage certificate was also 5 Windsor Terrace .¹⁵

William Adam was also a partner in the family bleaching and finishing business. Helen Adam or Walker was his second wife ,his first wife Frances having died in 1869.¹⁶ Helen was Frances Walker’s younger sister .¹⁷ At this point no record of the second marriage has been found but according to William’s will Helen was certainly his wife .¹⁸

Uncle William died age sixty-seven on 24 September 1894 at 5 Windsor Terrace of ‘general debility’ so did not see his niece Edith marry .¹⁹ Edith married John Willison Anderson, an East India merchant, on November 7 1900 . John was twenty-seven and Edith was thirty .²⁰

The Anderson family were cotton manufacturers in Glasgow so both families were involved in the cotton textile business which may be how the couple met. The business began in 1822 as Anderson & Lawrie, cotton manufacturers .²¹ It was taken over in 1839 by brothers David and John Anderson who was John W. Anderson’s grandfather .²²They built the Atlantic Mills in Bridgeton in 1864 which was a major employer in Bridgeton with 700 looms. The company concentrated on high quality fabrics with short production runs. Their shirt fabrics in particular earned a strong reputation at the top end of the market. D &J Anderson expanded in the early twentieth century becoming a limited company in 1911. In 1959 the company was absorbed into the House of Fraser .²³

John Anderson, our donor’s husband, worked for Steel Brothers Co. Ltd, Burma²⁴ which had originally been W S Steel & Co founded in Burma by Glasgow merchant William Strang Steel(1832-1911) in 1870. After moving to London in 1873 the founder was joined by his brother James Alison Steel as Steel Brothers Co. Ltd. The company traded in rice from 1871, in the export of teak from the 1890s and in 1906 became involved in the Indo -Burma Oil Company of which they eventually took control .²⁵

Edith and John were married at St Georges Church in Buchanan Street Glasgow which was popular with wealthy Glaswegians .²⁶ Only ten days after the wedding Edith and John boarded the SS Derbyshire in Liverpool bound for Marseilles and from there to Rangoon (now Yangon ), in Burma ( now Myanmar) where they appear to have spent the next ten years or so .²⁷ Both their children were born in Rangoon: Hilda Constance Willison on 12 August 1905²⁸ and Freda Campbell Willison on 19 November 1910 .²⁹ Neither Edith nor her husband appear in either the 1901 or the 1911 UK Census so it would appear they were living in Burma during this period.

The couple returned to Britain for a visit in 1903³⁰ and Edith and daughter Hilda came back in 1910. Mother and daughter sailed on the SS Derbyshire arriving in London on March 24^th 1910 via Port Said and Marseilles .³¹ This journey may have been made for the purpose of bringing five year old Hilda to live in England as she appeared in the 1911 census living with her mother’s elder sister Elizabeth and her family in Willsden , Middlesex .³² Elizabeth had married Archibald E. Scott, a civil engineer, in 1886.³³ Perhaps the climate in Burma did not suit such a young child. Edith herself certainly returned to Rangoon because as we have seen her second daughter Freda was born there on 19 November 1910.

By 1918 the Andersons had returned to Britain though the exact date of their return is not known. In 1918 they were living in a house called Greystones ,St Georges Hill, Weybridge. ³⁴ St Georges Hill was a luxurious ,gated estate some 19 miles from London and had been developed by builder Walter George Tarrant . Tarrant had begun as a carpenter but in 1895 set up the building firm of W. G Tarrant Ltd. In 1911 he bought 964 acres of Surrey scrubland from the Edgertons, the family of the Earl of Ellesmere, on which he planned to build homes for wealthy London businessmen, the estate being near to Weybridge Railway station thus within easy commuting distance of London. No house was to be built on less than one acre of land and most had grounds of up to 10 acres. St Georges Hill was to contain not only a championship golf course which was laid out in 1912 but also tennis courts, croquet lawns, bowling greens , a swimming pool and an archery range. Such was the prestige attached to the development that the Surrey Advertiser issued a special supplement in 1912 describing all the features of St Georges Hill in glowing terms. Each plot was to be sold freehold to individuals and several different architects were contracted so most houses were custom- designed, many being very large mansions .³⁵ Greystones was built in 1913 to a design by architect Theophilus A. Allen . There is no information to date when the Andersons bought the house. The original name was Blythewood but the name was changed to Greystones in May 1914 so one could speculate that that is when the Andersons bought it. There is no image available of the house at this time but it was,’ three storeys high, classical style, buff roughcast ,red pantiles ….stone surround to front door.’ ³⁶

There is little information about the life the Andersons led at Greystones .They employed several servants so one can presume they were affluent. There are references in local newspapers to a Mrs Anderson and a Miss Anderson taking part in tennis tournaments but we do not know if these referred to our donor and her daughters .³⁷ There is also some evidence that a Miss H. Anderson(Hilda perhaps?) was involved in the Oatlands and Weybridge Girl Guide Association during the nineteen thirties.³⁸

During World War Two both daughters served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment ³⁹, a voluntary unit of civilians who provided nursing care for military personnel both in Britain and abroad .⁴⁰According to the 1939 Register Hilda was Acting Commandant of presumably a local VAD unit ⁴¹ while Freda served abroad where she probably met Major Edwin Archer of the Royal Army Service Corps. Major Archer was Scottish and was born in Morningside ⁴², Edinburgh in 1914 .They were married in Colombo, Ceylon(now Sri Lanka) on 17 May 1944. Eldest daughter Hilda did not marry .⁴³ There is no further information at this point regarding John, Edith or Hilda Anderson during World War Two.

John And Edith remained at Greystones along with Hilda until their death. John died on 22 October 1945⁴⁴ and Edith died on 27 October 1952.⁴⁵

St Georges Hill remains an exclusive gated community today where houses sell for millions of pounds. In recent decades it has been home to celebrities such as John Lennon, Ringo Starr .Cliff Richard and Elton John .⁴⁶

References

1.www.tradeshouselibrary.org/uploads/4/7/7/2/47723861/the_royal_scottish_academy_1826_1916

2. www.scotlandspeople.go.uk Statutory Births

3. Glasgow Post Office Directories from 1829

4. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk Statutory Births

5. www.scotlandspeople.go.uk Census Records 1871

6. http://www.parkheadhistory.com

7. as above ref 4

8. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk Statutory Deaths

9. As above. Will of John Adam

10. Glasgow Post Office Directory 1875

11. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk Census Records 1881