Author: almacdonald5

Uncategorized

Peter Denniston Ridge-Beedle (1876 – 1952)

Peter Denniston Ridge-Beedle gifted an oil painting of the Molendinar Burn to Glasgow in 1952.

  Fig. 1 The Molendinar Burn c. 1825                  Fig. 2 Elizabeth Reynolds,1825
Elizabeth Walker nee Reynolds (1800 – 1876)                       (Wikipedia)
 (© CSG GIC Glasgow Museums/ ArtUK
Accession Number OG.1952.80)

On 9 February 1871, William Ridge-Beedle (39), a general merchant, married Jane Walker Denniston (25) in Glasgow.1 After spending a few months in Glasgow with Jane’s parents 2, the couple moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina where a daughter, Elizabeth was born on 24 February 1872. 3 A son, Robert, was born in January 1874. Tragically, the same year that a second son, William, was born, Robert died of dysentery aged fifteen months.4 This may have prompted the family to move back to Scotland where on 20 November 1876, their son Peter Denniston Ridge-Beedle was born in his grandparents’ house at 17 Holyrood Crescent, Kelvin, Glasgow. Peter’s birth was registered by his grandfather, Robert Dennistoun, as his father had returned to Argentina and was ‘domiciled in Belgrana, Buenos Ayres’. 5 The following year Peter’s brother William died in Glasgow and on 2 December 1880 his father died of a suspected heart attack at Cathcart Railway Station in Greenock. 6 After his father’s death, Peter his mother and sister continued to live at his grandparents’ house at 17 Holyrood Crescent. 7
It is not recorded where Peter attended school. However

            ‘When I was fourteen, my mother, who was a widow, took my sister and myself for about eighteen months to the Riviera and Switzerland. There, I thoroughly acquired French and extended my knowledge of German, which I subsequently perfected. I then tackled Spanish and, after having reached an advance stage in it, was thinking of starting to master a further language, as I had become keen on acquiring them. ……..in later years I acquired a considerable knowledge of Italian’. 8

On return, the family moved to 12 Ashton Gardens, Govan where Peter’s mother was tenant/occupier. 9 By 1898, the firm of Ridge-Beedle & Co., merchants had been established at 116 Hope Street, Glasgow. 10 The following year there would appear to have been a partner in the business.

Beedle, Peter D. Ridge 12 Ashton Gardens (of MacBean & Ridge Beedle, merchants, 57 West Nile Street), later Ridge Beedle & Co., merchants, 116 Hope Street 11

In 1901 Peter, now twenty-four and a merchant living at 18 Ashton Gardens with his mother Jane who was the head of the household and his sister Elizabeth twenty-nine. There were two servants in the house. 12 It may be that Peter’s mother took more than a passive interest in his business as in 1905 she was the proprietor of a warehouse and workshop at 90/92 Argyll Street, Glasgow. 13
 On the census of 1911 Peter’s mother and sister were visiting his aunt Agnes Denniston in Dunoon. Mother and aunt were living on ‘private means’. 14 Peter does not appear on the census.
Just prior to World War One, Peter submitted a paper on ‘Air Ships in Naval Defence’ to the Navy League but was met with little interest. He warned of the ‘aerial threat’ from Germany particularly from a fleet of Zeppelins that Germany was building. 15 In a speech to the Navy League in Glasgow he warned that compared to Germany, Britain only had three tiny airships and about twenty aircraft. The meeting adopted a resolution requesting a grant of £1,000,000 from the Treasury to the Royal Flying Corps. 16 As the war progressed, Peter became more involved with the Navy League. He was Hon. Treasurer of the Ladies Committee appealing for funds to send ‘comforts’ to Royal Navy personnel and to provide food parcels for naval prisoners of war. 17 He was also an early advocate of a ‘Mid Scotland Ship Canal’ and as Hon. Secretary of the Glasgow and West of Scotland branch of the Navy League he sent a letter to the Government urging that such a canal be constructed on a direct route from Grangemouth to Yoker.18
Perhaps feeling that his political views would be best put forward in parliament, on 24 October 1918 he was adopted as the prospective Unionist candidate for the Clydebank and Dumbarton Burghs constituency. He was described as a ‘prominent iron ore merchant of the firm of Messrs. Ridge-Beedle & Co.’ 19 He appears to have withdrawn his candidacy before the election as his name did not appear on the ballot paper.
On 31 March 1919, Peter arrived in New York having sailed from Liverpool aboard the S.S. Orduna. He intended to stay for one month. On the ship’s manifest he is described as ‘5ft 6 1/4 in, dark brown hair, dark grey eyes, fair complexion, person in old country, Mrs J. W. Ridge-Beedle., mother’. 20 On his return he was involved in a serious accident on the Drymen Road outside Glasgow when his chauffeur-driven car was involved in a collision with another car. His mother and sister who were with him sustained broken bones when the car overturned. He himself had his leg crushed and face lacerated. Luckily the chauffeur managed to turn the engine off to prevent fire. 21
In 1920, Ridge-Beedle and Co. Ltd. was registered as a private company with capital of £40,000 to carry on the business of ore, metal, foreign and general merchants etc. 22 Its offices were at 116 Hope Street, Glasgow with a garage at 17 Elliot Lane, Govan. 23 In 1921 Peter’s mother was still head of the household at 18 Parkville Road, Partick with Peter an ‘ore, metal and foreign merchant’. His sister Lizzie was also present and two servants. 24 In the following three years, Peter again stood for Parliament as a Unionist candidate. In Bothwell in 1922 and 1923 where he lost to Labour and in 1924 in Camlachie where he again lost to Labour but by a close margin of 215 votes.25
  Perhaps encouraged by this result, he was again adopted as the Unionist candidate for Camlachie in the 1929 General Election. In a pre-election address at Dennistoun Parish Church, he directed his ire at the Scottish National Party.
‘There was undoubtedly a sinister aspect about this movement in that
there existed a Roman Catholic tinge amongst its leaders’. 26

He also blamed the influx of Irish people for the fact that many Scots could not find employment. However, he failed to impress the voters of Camlachie and was again unsuccessful.
In the 1930s, Peter was living at 55 Dowanside Road, Hillhead, Glasgow presumably with his mother and sister. 27 Jane Walker Ridge-Beedle died on 30 August 1938 at the age of ninety-two. In 1939 Peter was made a Life Member of the Iron and Steel Institute. He was Governing Director, Ridge-Beedle & Co. of 116 Hope Street, Glasgow. His private address was 6 Albert Gate, Glasgow. 28
During WW2, Peter was again involved with The Navy League, this time as chairman of the Glasgow and West pf Scotland branch. Under the banner ‘Lend a Hand’, advertisements appeared appealing for ‘knitted goods and gifts of all kinds for the men of the fleet’ Subscriptions were to be sent to the chairman. 29 In times of rationing it was clarified later that the wool to be used was ‘coupon free’ and sold at reduced prices. 30
Peter Ridge-Beedle had long been an advocate of the Mid-Scotland Ship Canal. This was a proposal first mooted in the late nineteenth century to build a canal capable of carrying large ships from the Forth to the Clyde via Loch Lomond. It was debated in Parliament in 1913 and a report produced in 1917. However, it was not carried forward. The idea seems to have been revived in the war years, and a Mid-Scotland Ship Canal Committee set up with Peter as a member. The report was submitted to Parliament with a booklet published independently, by Peter in January 1944 entitled ‘Report of Mid-Scotland Ship Canal Committee….The Case for the Canal etc.’ However, the proposal was not well received, not least by the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce which prompted a furious response from Peter. 31  
Peter Ridge-Beedle continued as chairman of the Navy League in Glasgow and in 1945 received a letter from Buckingham Palace informing him that the Queen had instructed that a consignment of comforts be sent to their Glasgow depot. These had been made by the Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral work parties. 32
Consistent with his interest in languages, Peter in 1947 published a book ‘Why Not English?’  Which claimed to contain ‘A New Alphabet for the English Language (The Bedel Alphabet) enabling each word to be spelled as it is pronounced and pronounced as it is spelled’.33  

Fig. 3 Advertisement for Why Not English and ‘The Bedel Alphabet’
(Stratford Press)  

Fig. 4 Example of the Bedel Alphabet in use

A favourable review appeared in the press but the new alphabet seems not to have been taken further.34
On 10 January 1952, two years after the death of his sister, Peter intended to leave Liverpool aboard the Reina Del Pacifico heading for Valparaiso, Chile. It is not clear that he undertook the voyage as his name has a line through it on the ship’s manifest. His address was 8 Albert Gate, Dowanside Road, Glasgow. 35  
Peter Denniston Ridge-Beedle died suddenly on 8 May 1952 at 121 Hill Street, Glasgow. He was seventy-six. 36 Just a few days before his death he had been re-elected as a director of the Scottish General Insurance Co. Ltd. 37 A brief obituary appeared in a local newspaper.

P. D. Ridge-Beedle (76), a well-known Glasgow merchant who in 1947
published the “Beedle Alphabet”, which was designed to make the
spelling and pronunciation of English correspond. He was a director of
two prominent insurance and assurance companies. 38  

He was buried in the Glasgow Necropolis. The inscription on the gravestone reads:

Erected by PETER DENNISTON RIDGE-BEEDLE Merchant Glasgow in memory of his father WILLIAM RIDGE – BEEDLE Foreign Merchant who died 2nd December 1880 aged 48 years, and his mother JANE WALKER RIDGE-BEEDLE who died 30th August 1938 aged 92 years, who are interred in the vault in the 5th avenue to the west of her father ROBERT DENNISTOUN Shipowner Glasgow, also his brothers ROBERT and WILLIAM who died in infancy in 1875 and 1877 and interred in this vault, his sister ELIZABETH( LIZZIE) DENNISTON RIDGE-BEEDLE who died 27h February 1950 aged 78 years, PETER DENNISTON RIDGE –BEEDLE Merchant Glasgow born 20th November 1876, died 8th May 1952

Two years after his death, on 30 December 1954, the firm of Ridge-Beedle & Co., Ltd. was wound up voluntarily. 39

References

  1. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  2. Scotland’s People, Census 1871
  3. Baptisms Recorded at St. Andrew’s Scots Presbyterian Church Buenos Aires, Vol. 3 1871-1878, Jeremy Howat, June 2015
  4. Deaths Recorded at St. Andrew’s Scots Presbyterian Church Buenos Aires, Vol. 3 1871-1878, Jeremy Howat, June 2015
  5. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
  6. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  7. Scotland’s People, Census 1881
  8. Why Not English? The Stratford Press, 116 Hope Street. Glasgow, 1947
  9. Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll, Govan, 1895
  10. Grace’s Guide
  11. glasgowwestaddress.co.uk
  12. Scotland’s People, Census 1901
  13. Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll, Glasgow 1905
  14. Scotland’s People, Census 1911
  15.  Aberdeen Press and Journal, 13 March 1913
  16. The Scotsman, 13 March 1913
  17. Glasgow Herald 30 October 1916
  18. Milngavie and Bearsden Herald 13 July 1917
  19. Glasgow Observer and Catholic Herald, 2 November 1918
  20. New York, Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island) 1892-1925, family search
  21. Daily Record, 15 October 1919
  22. Grace’s Guide
  23. Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll, Govan, 1920
  24. Scotland’s People, Census 1921
  25. United Kingdom Election Results, Wikipedia
  26. John o’ Groats Journal, 9 November 1928
  27. Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll, Glasgow 1935
  28. Grace’s Guide
  29. Daily Record, 22 Jan 1940
  30. Various newspapers, e.g. Linlithgowshire Gazette, 10 October 1941
  31. Daily Record, 1 February 1944
  32. The Scotsman, 10 March 1945
  33. Why Not English, The Stratford Press, 116 Hope Street. Glasgow
  34. Daily Record, 26 January 1948
  35. ancestry.co.uk, UK and Ireland Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960
  36. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  37. The Scotsman 29 April 1952.
  38. Paisley Daily Express, 9 May 1952
  39. The Edinburgh Gazette, 4 January 1955
Uncategorized

Elizabeth Inglis Pollock nee Finlayson (1882 – 1963)

Mrs. Inglis Pollock gifted two paintings to Glasgow in 1953.

 Fig. 1 Cruachan
 John Campbell Mitchell (1862 – 1922)
(© CSG GIC Glasgow Museums/ ArtUK Accession Number 2995)

                                                    Fig. 2 Landscape
 Horatio McCulloch (attributed to) (1805 – 1867)
  (© CSG GIC Glasgow Museums/ArtUK Accession Number 2996)

On 6 September 1881, John McLean Finlayson married Elizabeth Semple in Hillhead, Glasgow.1 The following year, on 17 September, their daughter Elizabeth Campbell Finlayson was born at 19 Shaftesbury Terrace, Glasgow, Kelvin.2 By 1891, the family had moved to 144 Holland Street and Elizabeth now had two sisters, Georgina and Margaret. The family also employed two servants. 3 Ten years later, Elizabeth aged eighteen and an arts student had moved with her parents and siblings to forty-seven Albert Drive, Pollokshields. John Finlayson was now a sugar broker. 4 Shortly afterwards, the family moved again. This time to 8 Matilda Road, Pollokshields 5 and from the census of 1911, Georgina was now twenty-seven and a music student while Margaret, aged twenty-two, was a student in arts. 6

                        Fig. 3.  8 Matilda Road, Pollockshields, Glasgow
 (Google Photos, July 2022)

            On 27 June 1914 at the Trinity Free Church, Claremont Street, Glasgow, Elizabeth Campbell Finlayson, thirty-one, married William Barr Inglis Pollock an ophthalmic surgeon aged thirty-six. The wedding reception was held in the Grand Hotel.7,8 After a honeymoon in Switzerland, the couple moved into the groom’s home at 21 Woodside Place, Glasgow.
In 1916, Dr. Inglis Pollock completed registration for the Medical Recruiting Scheme. He was at that time Consultant Assistant Surgeon, Glasgow Eye Infirmary, Ophthalmic Surgeon, Ayr County Hospital, Govan School Board and Ayr School Board. He stipulated that should his services be required, arrangements had to be made to ensure his present work was carried out during his absence. 9
The couple continued to live at 21 Woodside Place. 10 In 1926, Dr. Pollock applied unsuccessfully for the Chair of Ophthalmic Medicine and Surgery at the Anderson College of Medicine.11 Dr. Inglis Pollock died aged seventy-five at 1055 Great Western Road, Glasgow (usual residence 21 Woodside Place). He was an ophthalmic surgeon, retired. 12
The two paintings were given to Glasgow shortly afterwards, possibly as a result of Elizabeth downsizing. Elizabeth Campbell Pollock died of a cerebral haemorrhage aged eighty-one on 23 September 1963. She was found dead at 14 Royal Terrace, Glasgow. Her death was reported by a nephew John A. Barr Pollock. 13

            References

  1. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  2. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
  3. Scotland’s People, 1891 Census
  4. Scotland’s People, 1901 Census
  5. Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll, Pollokshields, 1905
  6. Scotland’s People, 1911 Census
  7. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  8. Daily Record, 29 June 1914 (This contains a full report of the wedding including a description of the dresses etc. worn by the bride and bridesmaids. Two of the latter were the bride’s sisters, Georgina and Margaret. The best man was Mr. A. Barr Pollock from Hong Kong, brother of the groom).
  9. https:/smsec.rcpe.ac.uk
  10. Scotland’s People, 1921 Census
  11. Archives of Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow.
  12. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  13. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
Architect, Naval Architect

Captain Lewis Pash Renateau (1887 – 1978)

In 1953, Lewis Pash Renateau donated forty-seven artworks by Charles Conder (1868 – 1909) to Glasgow. These included prints and drawings and two oil paintings. 1

Fig. 1 The Trellis (Charles Conder (1868 -1909)
© CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection/ArtUK
(Accession Number 2989)

Fig. 2 The Bridge (Charles Conder (1868 -1909)
© CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection/ArtUK
(Accession Number 2990)

Lewis Renateau’s mother, Florence Pash, was born in Kingsland, Middlesex in 1863.2 She was the daughter of Daniel John Pash (1823 – 1914) a boot manufacturer, and Martha Fassett (1829 – 1906).3.4 In 1887, having gone to France apparently to study art, Florence gave birth to a son in Tours on 11 December that year. Details are contained in a notice of birth:

Fig. 3 Notice of a Birth. 5

The gist of this is that,
On 12th December 1887 at two o’clock in the evening, a midwife called Angele Passelin appeared before the deputy mayor of Tours, to inform him of a male born yesterday at 11 o’clock in the evening at Rue Nationale No. 2, the son of John Pash, aged thirty-four Lieutenant (absent) and Florence Pash his wife aged 25 no profession (married in London, England) given the first name Ludovic.
(Notes in the margin suggest that John Pash was in the English Navy and was ‘passing through and that their home was in London).

Another version is that,

Florence had an illegitimate child born in Tours, France on December 11, 1887, while she was in the country studying art. The father was Albert Carl Gustav Ludovici who was born in Prague in 1852. Lewis (Ludovic) was raised in France by foster parents named Renateau. This version seems to have been verified by Lewis’ grandson. 6
That Albert was Lewis’ father is possibly borne out by the fact that in 1889 Albert Ludovici opened a studio at 132 Sloane Street, London ‘under the management of Florence Pash’. This was a studio where lady artist pupils would be able take life classes, etc.7
Florence was with her parents and siblings at 94 Fordwich Road, Hampstead, London at the time of the census in 1891. She was now an ‘artist painting’. There is no mention of her son.8 In his biography of Walter Sickert, Matthew Sturgis has a description of Florence.

‘(She) was a forceful and handsome figure: tall, dark-haired with heavy-lidded eyes. At 28 and two years younger than Sickert when she met him when they were both showing at Suffolk Street’. ‘She had established herself with remarkable assurance in the London art world. The daughter of a successful North London shoe retailer, she had studied painting briefly at South Kensington and in France’. Sickert painted her portrait and ‘it is possible, even likely, that the friendship with Florence became an affair’. 9

Florence became a successful portrait artist exhibiting at the Royal Society of British Artists, the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy of Arts. A portrait she painted of Walter Sickert was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1924 and subsequently at the Louvre. She also sat as a model for Charles Conder and Walter Sickert. 10
In 1898, Florence, now thirty-eight, married Albert Anthony Humphrey, aged fifty-four, an ‘advertising news agent’ who had been born in Quebec, Canada. Florence and Albert were living at 122 Victoria Street, Westminster, London in 1901 along with Lewis Renateau who is listed on the census, as a ‘visitor’, born in France but now a British citizen.11
Later that year Lewis was in the lower fifth at Borden Grammar School in Kent. He was awarded prizes for being first in mathematics, languages and divinity and second in science. 12  
Lewis attended Dulwich College, London between September 1903 and July 1905. He was listed as living with a guardian, Mrs Humphrey, who was his aunt, at 122 Victoria Street, London.  His final form at the College was the Remove Engineering (roughly equivalent to modern Y12 in England, the penultimate year of school).  In his final term he placed 10th in a class of 18 overall.  In French he came 3/19; workshops 7/25; and in drawing he came 4/26.13
In 1904, Florence Humphrey gave birth to a son, Cecil Albert Humphrey. 14 (Cecil later became a Balliol Scholar and joined the Indian Civil Service. He and his wife had a daughter born in Bengal in 1937. Cecil died in Hampstead, London on 5 September 1949).15
After college, Lewis must have undertaken courses in naval architecture as this turned out to be his profession. However, in 1909, along with his stepfather, he took out a patent on ‘Improvements in and Connected with Aeroplanes’ dated 15/25 December.16
On 4 April 1913, Lewis emigrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Canada. He sailed from Liverpool aboard the Corsican giving his occupation as ‘draughtsman’. 17 The following year on 23 September he volunteered for the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force, Royal Highlanders of Canada. He stated that he was born in London (?) and was unmarried. His next of kin was a cousin, Cecil Albert Humphrey of 122 Victoria Street, London. (Actually, his half-brother). Lewis’s occupation was as a naval architect, and his previous military experience was in the officer training corps. 18
In 1915, having previously been reported missing, 19 it was confirmed that Lewis, (now Lieutenant Renateau of the 13th Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada) had been taken prisoner at St Julien, near Ypres, on 24 April 1915. He had been transferred to the Giessen POW camp.20 While there, a fellow prisoner, Raphael Drouart (1894 – 1972) painted his portrait.

Fig. 4 Lieutenant Lewis Pash Renateau
13th Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada
Raphael Drouart, 1916
National Army Museum, London/ArtUK

The same artist later (1917) completed a painting of the camp under snow. This was done on a box lid of a food parcel originally sent to Renateau. The lid still listed the contents of the original parcel: ‘Margarine/Potted Meat/Biscuits/Prunes/Cherries/Camp Pie/Golden Syrup/Lemonade Powder/Service Rations/Cocoa/Milk/Sugar

Fig. 5    POWs at the Giessen POW Camp, Germany Autumn/Winter 1917
Raphael Drouart
National Army Museum/ArtUK

 In September 1916, The Burlington Magazine published a letter from Lewis.

THE CAMP AT GIESSEN, HESSE – [We have received from a Canadian artist, Mr. Lewis Renateau, with whom we are otherwise unacquainted, the letter published below, which may relieve the anxiety of the friends of prisoners in one German camp. We have also received from Mr. H. Walter Barnett, as specimen of the work of this imprisoned society of artists, a photograph of a very pleasing pencil drawing of our correspondent, Mr. Renateau, by one of his fellow-prisoners, Mr. Albert Venelle. Mrs. A. A. Humphrey, 122 Victoria St., S.W., desires us to say that she will gladly receive any gifts on behalf of these interned artists. -ED]

GENTLEMEN, – We have received many numbers of The Burlington Magazine from Mrs. A. A. Humphrey (122 Victoria St., S.W.), and she writes to me that you were the kind donators. We appreciate them greatly and send you our most grateful thanks and best wishes,
The “we” consists of about twenty men of many various talents and qualities, from theatrical scenic painters to wood-carvers. The best artists here are Raphael Drouart (Parisian), A. Nantel (on“The Standard” Montreal), Tisseire, caricaturist (Parisian), and as students of art, A. Venelle (Brussels), Patoisseaux (Nantes), Beddoe (Ottawa). The rest are architects, decorators, furniture designers, etc.
We are very well treated and can work as we can work as we like and get in any materials from the town we need that we can afford, so that we are really very well off.
Thanking you again for your, kindly thought and gifts on behalf of the Giessen Art Fraternity,
I remain, Yours truly,
LEWIS RENATEAU.

The pencil drawing referred to above by Albert Venelle was offered for sale during the London Art Week on 6 December 2023 priced at £1200.00.

Fig. 6     Lewis Renateau by Albert Venelle 1916, Blue chalk on paper
londonartweek.co.uk Forgotten Masters/Enduring Images III 6
December 2023

Lewis’ stepfather died in 1917 and on 12 May 1923, his mother married Major C. T. Holland in Kensington Registry Office, London. 21

Fig. 7 Marriage of Florence Humphrey and Charles Holland. 22

However, the marriage ended with the death in London of Major Holland aged sixty-nine in 1927.
After the war, Lewis returned to Canada to be demobilised and on 8 April 1919 he married Ruth Meryl Smith in Montreal.

Fig. 8 Marriage Certificate 23
Lewis Pash Renateau, bachelor, son of John Renateau and Florence Pash and Ruth Meryl Smith daughter of Samuel Smith and Jane M Roberts both of the City of Montreal united by me by Authority of License in the holy bonds of matrimony on the eighth day of April nineteen hundred and nineteen.
Ruth Meryl Smith was born in Dorking, Surrey in 1882. Her family was living in Amhurst Road in Hackney in 1891 24 suggesting that her parents emigrated to Canada later. Sometime in the early 1900s she worked for six years for a Scottish engineering company, 25 but by 1911, aged twenty-seven, she was living with her sister Alice Margaret in Greenwich, London. 26 She moved to Canada in 1912 27 where she met Lewis but returned to England in 1915 to engage in war related work. She became secretary to Sir Frank Sanderson the then Controller of Trench Warfare, National Shell Filling Factories and Stores at the Ministry of Munitions. After the armistice, she returned to Canada in arriving at St. John’s Newfoundland on 1 March 1919 28 on her way to a job in Manchuria. However, she got a cable from Lewis asking her to marry him. 29
The couple returned to England, initially to Kensington in London where a son, John Pash Renateau was born on 6 November 1919. A daughter, Ann Meryl Pash Renateau, was born on 29 January 1921 at 9 Highland Road, Upper Norwood, London, the family home. From the census of that year, Lewis, aged 33 years and 6 months, born in Tours, France but a British subject was employed by the Port of London Authority as a naval architect. Also listed were Ruth Renateau aged 39 years and 2 months and their children. 30 9 Highland Road remained their address throughout the 1920s. Ruth must have returned to Canada after the birth of her daughter (possibly to introduce her children to her parents?). She returned in 1922 to resume her role as secretary to Sir Frank Sanderson after he became MP, a position she retained until 1940.31
An entry for Lewis (possibly in a list of foreign nationals) appeared in the London Gazette on 5 April 1929.
Pash, Ludovic (known as Lewis Pash Renateau); Doubtful Nationality;
Naval Architect; 39, Sylvan Road, Upper Norwood, Croydon. 18 March 1929.

 Lewis joined the Port of London Authority as a naval architect and remained with them for forty years.  His pastimes included swimming, tennis and cricket: he was for a time secretary of the Port of London tennis club. 32 He was also a talented amateur artist as this review of a Painting Exhibition held at the Port of London Authority indicates.

‘The best paintings are those of Mr. L. Renateau, an engineer’s draughtsman, whose normal occupation has scarcely any influence upon his pastime. Mr. Renateau’s portraits are virile and to the point, although their colour is often unsound.’ 33
The family moved to The Nutshell on Hamhough Island in the Thames and were there from 1936 until at least 1946. In 1939, Lewis was a ‘shipbuilding draughtsman and Ruth a ‘private secretary’ while Ann Reniteau claimed to be, single and an unpaid domestic, living at The Nutshell, Sunbury on Thames, with her parents. 34 During WW2, Lewis saw service in the War Office until 1947. He was in the Corps of Royal Engineers (Transportation) involved in design and construction of ports and opening up rivers etc. He was made second lieutenant on 3 March 1941 (later promoted to captain in 1944). 35
After the war, the family moved to 21 Bowes Road, Walton-on-Thames. In 1950 the occupants at this address were, Lewis, Ruth, their son John and Ruth’s sisters Alice and Frances. 36 In the same year, Ann Renateau married Arthur Douglas Eade in Cornwall and John Renateau married Gwendoline D. Fleet. 37
Lewis’ mother, Florence Pash Humphrey Holland who was still actively exhibiting in her 80s, died on 25 June 1951 aged eighty-nine. 38 His wife, Ruth Meryl Renateau died in October 1952 at 21 Bowes Road, Walton-on-Thames. She was buried on the 27th at Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, Surrey. 39 The following year, Lewis married Avalon Ethelston Osborne in Surrey. 40
(Perhaps as a result of moving house after his marriage, Lewis decided to clear out some items. Ruth may have been employed by a Glasgow firm during her time in Scotland and would have been acquainted with Kelvingrove Art Gallery. This may have prompted Lewis to deposit the Charles Conder materials there.)
In 1958, Lewis penned a letter to his local newspaper.

To the Editor Sir, – Like Major Kirkpatrick, M.C., I suffered for many years from dyspepsia and indigestion and was treated with many medicines and diets. I had all my teeth extracted and appendix removed, all of which was quite unnecessary, as I found out the cause and cured myself. Tannin in tea and food fried in a pan was the cause. Lewis Renateau, Common Moor Cottage, Burley Street, Burley. 41                    

Lewis Pash Renateau died on 9 October 1978 at Couch Hill Lane, Burley Ringwood, Hampshire. His funeral was held at Bournemouth Crematorium on 17 October. He was survived by his wife Avalon, two children and two grandchildren. An obituary was published in a local newspaper. 42 According to Sturgis, he left a manuscript, ‘Life of Florence Pash’ which is to be found in Islington archives in London. 43

Lewis Renateau and Charles Conder
Alexander H. MacAdams, a lumber merchant, married Sarah Emma Humphrey about 1858 in Quebec, Canada. Sarah was a sister of Albert Alexander Humphrey who married Florence Pash. The couple had a daughter Stella Maris MacAdams born in 1862. 44 In 1889, Stella married George Noel Belford in Kensington, London but she was widowed within ten years. In early summer 1901, Florence Humphrey invited Stella, her niece, to tea to meet Charles Conder.

Fig. 9 Charles Conder, Stella Maris Belford (MacAdams) and Florence Pash

The couple seem to have hit-it-off immediately so much so that Conder was heard to declare at that first meeting, ‘I’m going to marry that woman’. 45 After a holiday in Normandy with her sister Annie and Florence, Stella married Charles Conder in the British Embassy in Paris in 1901.  Condor suffered from syphilis and died in a mental home in Virginia Water on 9 February 1909. 46 When Stella died three years later, it is probable that some of Charles’ artwork would have passed to Florence and thence to Lewis.

References

  1. https://collections.glasgowmuseums.com/mwebcgi/mweb?request=jump;dtype=d;startat=17
  2. FamilySearch, England Census 1871; artbiogs.co.uk
  3. FamilySearch, England and Wales, Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005
  4. ancestry.co.uk, England and Wales Census 1881
  5. www.jtrforums.com
  6. Sturgis, Matthew, Walter Sickert: A Life, , HarperCollins, London, 2005 (Sickert and Ludovici, both artists, met while painting in St. Ives, Cornwall). This version is also quoted in www.jtrforums.com
  7. www.jtrforums.com
  8. ancestry.co.uk, England and Wales Census 1891
  9. Sturgis, Matthew, Walter Sickert: A Life, , HarperCollins, London, 2005
  10. Wikipedia, Florence Pash
  11. ancestry.co.uk, England Census, 1901
  12. Sittingbourne East End Gazette, 14 December 1901
  13. Information from Dulwich College Archivist
  14. FamilySearch, England and Wales Births, 1837 – 2006
  15. FamilySearch, England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957
  16. GB Patents Number GB190930194A, econterms.net
  17. ancestry.co.uk, Uk and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists 1890-1960
  18. ancestry.co.uk, Canada WW1 CEF Personnel Files, 1914-1918
  19. Ottawa Free Press, 9 July 1915
  20. FamilySearch, National Archives, Military Prisoners of War, 1715-1947
  21. ancestry.co.uk, England and Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005
  22. The Graphic, 26 May 1923, p 5
  23. ancestry.com, Canadian Marriages
  24. ancestry.co.uk, England and Wales Census 1891
  25. London Evening News 2 April 1940
  26. ancestry.co.uk, England and Wales Census 1911
  27. ancestry.com, Canada Incoming Passenger Lists, 1865-1935
  28. ibid
  29. London Evening News, 2 April 1940
  30. ancestry.co.uk, England and Wales Census 1921
  31. London Evening News 2 April 1940
  32. New Milton Observer 21 October 1978 p5
  33. Daily News and Westminster Gazette, 26 November 1929 p9
  34. ancestry.co.uk, National Register, England and Wales, 1939
  35. London Gazette 2 May 1941
  36. ancestry.co.uk, London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1972
  37. FamilySearch, England and Wales, Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005
  38. Pash, Florence 1863-1951 Artist Biographies Ltd. Quoted in Wikipedia.
  39. Herald and News, 24 October 1952
  40. FamilySearch, England and Wales, Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005
  41. New Milton Advertiser & Lymington Times, Saturday, 1 March 1958
  42. New Milton Observer 21 October 1978, p5
  43. Walter Sickert: A Life, Sturgis, Matthew HarperCollins, London, 2005. Florence Pash Papers, S/SFC/2/1/9, !896-1999
  44. FamilySearch, Canada Census 1871
  45. Charles Conder the last bohemian, Galbally, Anne, Melbourne, 2002, pp.224-25
  46. ibid

Teacher

 Helen Robertson Carmichael (1869 – 1953)

A watercolour painting entitled Hagar was donated to Glasgow by Helen R. Carmichael in 1952. Helen was the sister of the artist.

   Fig. 1        Hagar  
Stewart Carmichael (1867 – 1950) Scottish (Accession Number 2946)
© CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection     

Helen Robertson Carmichael was born on 28 March 1869 at 13 Balfour Street, St. Peter, Dundee.  She was the seventh child of James Carmichael, a leather merchant and his wife Helen Robertson who had married on 19 June 1857 in Dundee. 1,2 Her brother, Stewart was born on 8 February 1867 at 4 Heathfield Place, Hawkhill, Dundee. 3 An eighth child, Lizzie Batchelor Carmichael was born on 8 October 1871. 4 Helen’s father was widowed on 15 January the following year when Helen’s mother died from heart disease. 5 By 1881 the family had moved to 51 Park Wynd, Dundee. 6 Helen attended Aberdeen Teacher Training College from 1890 – 91. 7 While at the college, she was lodging at 18 Balmoral Lane, Aberdeen and in the census was described as a ‘normal student’. 8 The following year she began teaching at Blackness Primary School in Dundee. 9 In the 1901 census she was aged thirty and living with her brother John at 10 Airlie Terrace, Dundee. Her occupation was ‘school board teacher’. 10 From 1915 till at least 1940, Helen was a tenant at 89 Magdalen Road, Dundee. 11 In August 1931, she was one of a group of tenants which sought an interim interdict to prevent the town council from closing Magdalen Park to hold the annual flower show with the resultant expected disturbance. 12 However, the matter was resolved when the council agreed not to hold the show there in subsequent years and to take steps to minimise noise etc. in the present year. 13
Helen retired from Blackness Primary School in 1932 after forty years as a teacher there. 14 She died on 25 February 1953 at Maryfield Hospital, Dundee. She was 83. Her usual address was 2 Windsor Street, Dundee. 15

References

  1. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
  2. Scotland’s People, Census 1871
  3. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
  4. Ibid
  5. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  6. Scotland’s People, Census 1881
  7. Dundee City Archives
  8. Scotland’s People, Census 1891
  9. Dundee City Archives
  10. Scotland’s People, Census 1901
  11. Scotland’s People, Valuation Rolls
  12. Dundee Courier 25 August 1931
  13. Dundee Courier 27 August 1931
  14. Dundee City Archives
  15. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
Clothier/Politician, Uncategorized

Sir John Roberts (1876 – 1966) Alexander Thomas Roberts (1885 – 1972) Mrs John Roberts nee May Belle Elsas aka Mary Ellis (1897 – 2003)

Fig. 1 Mrs. Roberts
Alexander Ignatius Roche (1861 – 1921)
Accession Number 2967, 1895 © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection
The painting was presented by (Mrs.) John Roberts, Wellwood, Selkirk (on behalf of an American cousin). *
It was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1896 and at the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1901.

*There would seem to be a doubt as to who donated the painting. The Paintings’ Register at Glasgow Museums’ Resource Centre (GMRC) states that it was Mrs John Roberts while a record card in the Object File at GMRC says John Roberts.

The Roberts Family
George Roberts (1798 – 1877) was a clothier in Selkirk. In October 1838, he purchased Forest Mills in the town to build a spinning mill in partnership with Andrew Dickson a manufacturer in Galashiels. In January 1843, George married Agnes Scott Fowler (1871 – 1901) in Melrose. The couple had a daughter Eliza and six sons. The company prospered and expanded. When George died in 1877, he was succeeded by his sons George, Alexander and Thomas James Scougal and his nephew Frank. Another son, John (1845 – 1934) emigrated to New Zealand but his son, also John (1876 – 1966), returned to Scotland and in 1894 joined the firm and played a major role in its development. The firm became very prosperous and up till the outbreak of WW1 was one of the leaders of the Scottish woollen industry. The two relatives associated with this painting are John junior and Thomas Scougal Roberts. 1

Thomas Scougal Roberts (He commissioned the painting)
Thomas Scougal Roberts was born in Selkirk on 24 January 1850, the son of George Roberts and Agnes Scott Fowler.2 In the 1861 census he was aged 11, a scholar living at Wellwood Park, Selkirk with his parents, brothers and a sister.3 On 31 March 1875 he married Hyndmer Rutherford Crawford aged eighteen of Caddenfoot, Selkirk.4 The couple moved to Byethorn House in Selkirk and had two children, George Crawford born in 1878, and Alexander Thomas born in 1885.  (Alexander became the ‘American Cousin’ mentioned in the donation). In 1881 Thomas was 31, a tweed manufacturer living at Byethorn House, Selkirk.5 By 1891, he had moved with his wife and son Alexander aged 5, to the Mansion House, Stow, Caddonfoot, Selkirk.6 (His son George had died in 1885.) It was possibly here that he commissioned the present painting of his wife, Hyndmer, from Alexander Roche in 1895. In 1901, the family was living at Drygrange, Melrose, Roxburghshire, with eight servants.7 Hyndmer Roberts died in 1911. The following year, Thomas travelled to Canada arriving in Victoria aboard the Makura in May 1912 8 and then on to Vancouver in June 1912 aboard the Empress of Japan.9 Thomas Scougal Roberts died on 3 February 1921 in Edinburgh. 10 Probate was granted in Edinburgh on 16 May 192111, on 16 June in London.12 and in Otago and Wellington, New Zealand in the same year. Among his executors were his brother Alexander Fowler Roberts, Fairnielee, Galashiels, and his son Alexander Thomas Roberts. His will was dated 4 March 1920 and recorded in Jedburgh on 16 May 1921. The value of his estate was £253,246.4s.2d.

Fig. 2 Label from the reverse of the painting.

This label indicates that the painting was owned and exhibited in 1908 by Thomas James Scougal Roberts who was now living at Drygrange, Melrose.

   Fig. 3 Record card for the painting (GMRC)

This record card states that the subject of the painting is the mother of the ‘American cousin’. This is Alexander Thomas Roberts who was born in Selkirk but emigrated to America in the early 1900s. The card gives the donor as John Roberts.

Sir John ‘Jack’ Roberts – Mill owner and Provost of Selkirk.
(Possible Donor of the painting)
John Roberts (1845 – 1934), a brother of Thomas Scougal Roberts emigrated to New Zealand from Selkirk and married Louisa Jane Kettle (1848 – 1922) on 26 January 1870. Their son, John Roberts junior was born in 1876. He was educated at Otago Boys High School from 1888 to 1892 and then emigrated to Scotland where he attended Merchiston Castle School from 1892 to 1894. After leaving school, in 1895 he joined the family firm of George Roberts and Co Ltd.13 At the 1901 census he was lodging at 4 Marion Crescent, Selkirk, and was a ‘manufacturer of wool.14 Later the same year, on 18 September, he married Agnes Amelia Muir, daughter of Dr. John Stewart Muir the local GP in Selkirk.15 This was the same year that his grandmother Agnes Scott Roberts (nee Fowler) died. She had occupied the house and lands around Wellwood in Selkirk which had belonged to her husband, George, and then to her son, John Roberts senior, who, in 1902 was listed as the proprietor of Wellwood and Haugh, Railway Station Lands and in 1903 of a house with garden and stable at Wellwood, Ettrick Terrace, Selkirk.16 These properties were passed on to John junior by at least 1914.
In the census of 1911, John and Agnes were boarding at the Gordon Arms in Selkirk with their children, Andrina Barbara Henderson Roberts, 8, John Stewart Roberts, 6, Louisa Jane Roberts, 4, Stewart Muir Roberts, 3, and George Edward Roberts, six weeks.17 In 1914 he gave ‘an interesting lecture’ in the Masonic Hall in Motherwell in which he described a trip to New Zealand.18  In the same year he subscribed to a fund for the relief of the Belgian People.19
John Roberts was Provost of Selkirk three times, the first of these in 1908 and then in 1915-1920 but he resigned from the latter term for health reasons and stated in a letter to the local newspaper that he would remain in office until the new Council was elected. 20 He was again Provost in 1935 until 1941 when he resigned both as Provost and Councillor. 21 He does not appear on the 1921 census, but he was the proprietor/occupier of Wellwood House at 52 Ettrick Terrace, Selkirk.22

   Fig. 4 Wellwood House. Selkirk 23

John Roberts was a prominent member of the Roxburgh and Selkirk, Unionist Association, 24 later becoming vice-chairman.25 He was made a Freeman of the Royal Burgh of Selkirk in 1952. The following year, he received a knighthood in the Coronation Honours ‘For political and public services in Selkirkshire.’ 26 Sir John Roberts died at the age of ninety at Craigallan, Heatherlie Park, Selkirk on 23 January 1966 having outlived his wife by eighteen years. His son Stewart reported his death. 27

Alexander Thomas Roberts (Inherited the Painting and donated it remotely)
Alexander Thomas Roberts was born on 8 May 1885 in Byethorn House, Selkirk to Thomas James Scougal Roberts and his wife Hyndmer Rutherford Crawford who had married on 31 March 1875 at Mountainview, Duns(e). Perhaps his parents had second thoughts about his name as it was Thomas Alexander Roberts on his birth certificate, later changed on 23 July. 28 At the age of fifteen, he was a pupil at Fettes College, Comely Bank, Edinburgh.29 In the early 1900s Alexander emigrated to America. He is recorded as arriving at Ellis Island, New York in 1913 aboard the S.S. Campania. His place of residence was Melrose, Scotland.30 This was probably a return trip from Scotland as on 15 June 1913 he married Evelyn Laura Henderson, 22, in Detroit. On the marriage license he was described as a ‘manufacturer’.31 It is possible that his father attended the wedding as he had been travelling in Canada the year before.32 In 1916, Alexander and Evelyn visited Scotland and stayed at Drygrange, Melrose with Alexander’s widowed father. They returned from Liverpool to New York aboard S.S. St. Louis on 25 November. He did not list an occupation. 33 On 12 September 1918 Alexander provided the following details for a draft registration card. He was a British citizen, living with his wife at 10 Longfellow Avenue, Detroit and was an officer in the British War Office on sick leave. He was of medium build and height with blue-grey eyes and black hair.34 (According to his obituary, he had attained the rank of Captain in pre-war service in the King’s Own Scottish Borderers).35 Alexander and Evelyn again travelled to Scotland to stay at Drygrange, Melrose with Alexander’s father. They returned to Detroit by way of Liverpool and the S.S. Orduna on 19 December 1919.36
Thomas Scougal Roberts died on 3 February 1921. Alexander and Evelyn may have spent most of that year in Scotland. Alexander was in Edinburgh on 9 May for the reading of his father’s will. As an only child he would have inherited the bulk of his father’s £253,246.4s.2d estate. This enabled him to purchase the Park-Ward company of London which manufactured automobile bodies for Rolls-Royce and Bentley. He retained ownership of the company until 1939 when he sold it to Rolls-Royce.37 Alexander and Evelyn arrived back in America on 2 December 1921 having sailed from Liverpool aboard the S.S. Baltic. Both had ‘nil’ under ‘occupation’ and both listed an aunt, Mrs. A. F. Roberts of Fairnielee, Galashiels, as their nearest relative in Scotland.38 In April 1922, Alexander and Evelyn again travelled to Scotland for an extended stay in Melrose.39 They returned to New York from Southampton travelling first class aboard S.S. Mauretania on 19 October 1923.40 Sometime afterwards, Alexander and Evelyn were divorced. Evelyn married William Frue, ten years her junior on 22 June 1931 in Fulton, Ohio.41
It seems that Alexander also remarried about this time as on 2 February 1935 he sailed from Southampton aboard S.S. Bremen presumably bound for New York. His place of birth was given as ‘Selkirk’ and his last permanent residence ‘London’. He was accompanied by Mary Elizabeth Roberts who was 37 and born in Toronto. Both were listed as ‘married’. 42 They must have returned to Britain later that year as on 26 February 1936 they again left Southampton aboard S.S. Bremen and while Alexander lists his occupation as ‘none’, Mary is a housewife. 43
On 25 April 1940, Alexander flew from Havana in Cuba where he had been staying at the Hotel Plaza to Miami. He was now fifty-five and retired. His home address was 11 Keofferam Road, Old Greenwich, Connecticut. 44 In 1941 he was required to complete a Draft Registration card. His address was now 5 Grant Avenue, Old Greenwich, Connecticut. His ‘named person’ was David Rosen of 105 Bedford Street, Stamford, Connecticut, possibly suggesting that he was now widowed or divorced. 45
In any event, on 14 February 1946, Alexander now aged sixty obtained a licence to marry Emily Wright Johnston who was thirty-nine from Buffalo, New York. According to the licence, obtained In Marlboro County, South Carolina, Alexander was an American citizen.46 After their marriage, and possibly as late as 1952, the couple moved to Pinehurst, North Carolina.47 Alexander had been a frequent visitor to Pinehurst since travelling there to play golf in 1917. 48 This is about the time he gave instructions for the painting of his mother to be given to Glasgow. Alexander Thomas Roberts died of a cerebral thrombosis on 14 May 1972 aged 87, at the Moore Memorial Hospital, Pinehurst, North Carolina. His wife Emilie Wright Roberts reported his death and gave his occupation as ‘owner, auto body manufacturer’. 49 He was buried at the Mount Hope Cemetery, Southern Pines, North Carolina. Still apparently a Scottish citizen. 50 He was survived by his wife and a stepdaughter. 51

Mary Ellis (Possible Donor)

Fig. 5 Mary Ellis about 1936 (Archiveradio1930@archiveradio1930-dw5kg, YouTube)

May Belle Elsas was born on 15 June 1897 in Manhattan, New York to Herman and Caroline (nee Reinhardt) Elsas. Her father had emigrated from Germany; her mother was born in Texas to a German father. In 1900 the family was living at 88th Street, New York. Herman was a paper manufacturer. 52 As a child, May made several trips to Europe with her family. For example, on 28 September 1909 aged 12 she, along with her parents and twenty-one-year-old sister Lucile who was born in Texas, arrived back in New York from Southampton aboard the S. S. Kronprinz Wilhelm. Her father was forty-five and her mother forty-one. All were U.S. citizens. 53 Herman Elsas was a manufacturer in the paper industry. 54 Caroline Elsas was a talented pianist. May began studying music and taking singing lessons in her teens. She made her professional debut, with her name now Mary Ellis, in December 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera in the world premiere of Puccini’s triptych Il trittico , creating the role of Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica and understudying Florence Easton in the role of Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi . She was only the second singer to perform the aria ‘O Mio Babbino Caro’ when Florence Easton became ill. Her performance was very well received and was followed by roles as Gianetta in L’elisire d’amore with Enrico Caruso and in Charpentier’s Louise with Geraldine Farrar. 55
During the war years, Mary met a young airman, Louis G. Bernheimer, who had been ‘sent home from France with medals and a nervous breakdown’. 56 After the first season of the opera, he persuaded Mary to marry him and on 6 February 1920, escorted by her parents, Mary married Louis in City Hall, Lower Manhattan. The subsequent honeymoon in Paris proved to be ‘traumatic’ as Mary recounts in her autobiography. ‘Louis told me he longed to see his mistress of the war days, Marie Delorme. Finally, I had the sense to tell him to go and visit her. He said that if he did not come back to the hotel by six that evening, he would be staying with her and that we would take it from there’. After a day spent on a bench on the Champs Elysees, Mary returned to the hotel to find Louis there. However, he was inconsolable as Marie had died months before. ‘Added to this he was suffering unromantically from piles, to which I had to apply some healing ointment every few hours. The Paris honeymoon was over’. The couple divorced within the year.
Mary’s next venture was in to classical theatre, possibly while waiting for her voice to mature. She signed up with David Balasco to appear as Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice. This opened in the Lyceum Theatre, New York on 26 February 1923. Perhaps because of the staging and although it ran for several months, it was not a success. However, Mary later said ‘it gave me an experience the like of which I have never had again’.  Later that year, on 30 April 1923, despite misgivings and advice from friends, Mary married Edwin Harris Knopf in Manhattan, New York. 57 Again, the marriage was short-lived. The following year on 2 September at the Imperial Theatre in New York, Mary appeared in the title role in the operetta Rose-Marie ‘and the ‘Indian Love Call’ became theatre history. All I remember of that first night is sitting cross-legged on the table in Act One and reaching a pianissimo high B-flat which brought the house down’. After a successful year, Mary felt she had had enough and persuaded the producer Arthur Hammerstein to let her leave. However, he made her sign an injunction which prevented her from singing for any management but his. This meant she never sang professionally in the United States again. In a return to the stage, Mary played Leah in The Dyubbuk in 1925 and in 1927 she played Kate in The Taming of the Shrew opposite the British actor Basil Sydney. The play ran for thirty-two weeks, the longest ever consecutive run of a Shakespeare play! In 1929, in New Milford, Connecticut, Mary and Basil were married and subsequently settled in Britain. Her first London appearance was in Knave and Quean opposite Robert Donat at the Ambassadors Theatre in 1930, and she played Nina in the British premiere of Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude a year later. Her marriage to Basil Sydney ended in 1934 when Basil left her to live in New York with a young actress who had appeared in his play Dinner at Eight. Mary was offered a two-year contract with Paramount to do three films in Hollywood including All the King’s Horses ‘a pretty mediocre effort’ and Paris Love Song.
In 1935, she travelled back to London to star as Militza Hajos in Ivor Novello’s musical Glamorous Night at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. When it closed, she completed her contract in Hollywood with a third film Fatal Lady. While there, she obtained a divorce from Basil in Nevada. Back in London, Glamorous Night was made into a film in 1937 at Elstree Studios with Mary in the leading role.

Clip of Mary Ellis performing in Glamorous Nights 58

In January 1938, Mary met Jack ‘Jock’ Roberts the oldest son of Provost and Mrs Roberts of Selkirk (above) while she was appearing in The Innocent Party at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. 59 It was just after Mary had learned that her father had died. Jock told her that he had been so excited to see her that he had crashed his car on leaving the theatre. As a result, he had stayed overnight and was still in his evening clothes and a bit dishevelled. He asked for her to forgive him which of course she did but also told him she was in deep distress. ‘An hour later my room at the hotel was filled with flowers from him’. After six months of ‘the most hectic and instructive courtship’ during which Mary met Jock’s family ‘(his mother had her doubts about me, but his father liked me)’ the couple announced their engagement on 28 June that year although they had been engaged for some weeks. 60

 Fig. 6 Dundee Courier 28 June 1938 p2

Mary Ellis married Jock Muir Stewart Roberts on 1 July 1938 at Westminster City Register Office (Caxton Hall). Miss Ellis’s mother and two friends were the only people present. 61 They spent their honeymoon in Norway.
Mary co-starred again with Novello in The Dancing Years which opened in March 1939 in Drury Lane. After that she gave up the stage temporarily during the war years to engage in ‘Welfare and occupational therapy work in Emergency Hospitals’. Her first posting was to an RAF Coastal Command unit on the Isle of Islay in the Inner Hebrides. This was followed, months later, by a posting to an emergency hospital near Peebles. After a spell in Iceland, Jock was posted back to London and Mary Joined him. On 9 November 1943 she returned to the stage at the Phoenix Theatre in Ivor Novello’s Arc de Triomphe. When this closed in 1944, she returned to Scotland to stay with Jock and his family until he was called away on war duty. ‘I loved his family, and I could talk for hours to his father about Edwardian life and listen to his Scottish stories.’
Post war, Mary’s created the roles of Millie Crocker-Harris in The Browning Version and Edna Selby in Harlequinade in Terence Rattigan’s Playbill in September 1948. The following year she was asked to appear at the Edinburgh Festival in a Peter Ustinov play The Man in the Raincoat. This gave her the opportunity to meet Jock’s family again and they all came to the theatre. However, relations with Jock were strained. She also appeared in several television plays; all broadcast live. On 6 March 1950 while preparing for a trip to Switzerland, Jock Roberts was killed in a climbing accident in Thornbush Quarry on Selkirk Hill.
In 1952, Mary appeared as Volumnia in Shakespear’s Coriolanus at Stratford-Upon Avon and in Mourning Becomes Electra, directed by Peter Hall in 1955. Her final musical role was in 1954 as Mrs Erlynne in After the Ball, Noel Coward’s musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windemere’s Fan. Her final West End performance was in Look Homeward, Angel in 1962 at the Vaudeville Theatre and her last theatre appearance was in Mrs Warren’s Profession at Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford in 1970.
In the same year as she published her autobiography, Mary was interviewed on the Christmas Day edition of Desert Island Discs. She made two appearances on television in The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, 1993 and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes 1994.
Mary Ellis died on 30 January 2003 at her home in Eaton Square at the age of 105 ‘as a snowstorm flurried around SW1: a friend told me that Miss Ellis had given a drinks party in her bedroom only the previous day’. 62 At the time of her death, she was believed to have been the last surviving performer to have created a role in a Puccini opera.

Hyndmer Rutherford Crawford (The Sitter)
Hyndmer Rutherford Crawford was born on 27 February 1857 in Newtown Street, Dunse, Berwickshire. Her father, Alexander Crawford, was a writer. Her mother was Agnes Hewat. 63 In 1871 she was living at Mountview Villa, Dunse aged fourteen with her brothers William, 33, Richard, 21 and David, 16 and sister Agnes, 28, and three servants. 64 After her marriage to Thomas Roberts the couple moved to Byethorn House in Selkirk where Hyndmer gave birth to two sons, George Crawford Roberts on 20 August 1876, 65 (Tragically, George died of Bright’s disease on 30 March 1885 aged eight 66), and Alexander Thomas Roberts on 8 May 1885. Hyndmer Rutherford Roberts died on 6 September 1911 aged 54 at Drygrange, Melrose. 67 She was buried in Wairds cemetery. The inscription on her headstone reads:
In memory of Hyndmer Rutherford Crawford, Wife of TJS Roberts of Drygrange, Born 27th February 1857 Died 6th September 1911. Also, of his son George Crawford Born 30th August 1876. Died 30th March 1885. 68

References

  1. http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb582-hwuagr
  2. ancestry.com. Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950
  3. ancestry.com. 1861 Scotland Census
  4. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  5. ancestry.com. 1881 Scotland Census
  6. ancestry.com, 1891 Scotland Census
  7. Scotland’s People, 1901 Census
  8. Canada, Passenger Lists, 1881-1922, FamilySearch
  9. ibid
  10. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  11. ancestry.com. Scotland National Probate Index
  12. ancestry.com, England and Wales National Probate Index
  13. https://www.calmview.eu/HUBCAT/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Persons&id=DS%2FUK%2F9193
  14. Scotland’s People, 1901 Census
  15. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  16. Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll, Selkirk
  17. Scotland’s People, 1911 Census
  18. Berwick Advertiser, 30 January 1914
  19. ‘The Brave Belgians’ Provost Allan’s Relief Fund, Southern Reporter, 3 September 1914
  20. Southern Reporter, October 1919
  21. Hawick News and Border Chronicle, 17 October 1941
  22. Scotland’s People, Valuation Rolls, Selkirk 1916 – 1920
  23. Morrab Library Photographic Archive, accessed 13 November https://photoarchive.morrablibrary.org.uk/items/show/20615
  24. Southern Reporter, 7 May 1925
  25. Hawick News and Border Chronicle, 11 May 1934
  26. Supplement to the London Gazette, 1 June 1953, page 2941 and Jedburgh Gazette, 5 June 1953
  27. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  28. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate and Register of Corrected Entries
  29. ancestry.co.uk, Scottish Census, 1901
  30. New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924, FamilySearch
  31. Return of Marriages in Michigan, FamilySearch,
  32. Canada, Passenger Lists, 1881-1922, FamilySearch
  33. New York Passenger Arrival Lists 1892-1924, FamilySearch
  34. United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918″, databasewith images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7T6S XCMM:8July 2024), Alexander Thomas Roberts, 1917-1918.
  35. Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), 15 May 1972, p20 (On findagrave.com)
  36. New York Passenger Arrival Lists 1892-1924, FamilySearch
  37. Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), 15 May 1972, p20 (On findagrave.com)
  38. New York Passenger Arrival Lists 1892-1924, FamilySearch
  39. Ibid
  40. ibid
  41. Ohio County Marriages, 1789 – 2016, FamilySearch
  42. United Kingdom Outgoing Passenger Lists, 1890 – 1960, FamilySearch
  43. Ibid
  44. Index to Aliens Arriving by Airplane at Miami, Florida, 1930 – 1942, FamilySearch
  45. United States World War II Draft Registration Card, 1941, FamilySearch
  46. South Carolina, County Marriage Licenses, 1911 – 1953, FamilySearch
  47. Greenwich Directory, 1952 states that ‘Roberts, Alex. T. and Emilie W. removed to Pinehurst, N.C’. FamilySearch
  48. Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), 15 May 1972, p20 (On findagrave.com)
  49. Death Certificate, North Carolina State Board of Health, Family Search
  50. Find a Grave Index, Database, FamilySearch
  51. Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, NC), 15 May 1972, p20 (On findagrave.com)
  52. Family Search, United States Census, 1900, Manhattan, New York
  53. Family Search, List of Alien Pasengers for United States
  54. Family Search, United States Census, 1910, Manhattan, New York
  55. Some of the material here and subsequently is adapted from the Mary Ellis Archive in the V&A Theatre and Performance Collections, https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb71-thm/307
  56. Here and elsewhere, quotations are taken from Mary Ellis’ autobiography, Those Dancing Years, John Murray Ltd., London, 1982
  57. Family Search, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938
  58. https://www.youtube.com/embed/1maNU3NVJtE?feature=oembed
  59. Southern Reporter, 30 June 1938
  60. Dundee Courier 28 June 1938, p2
  61. Dundee Courier, 2 July 1938, Southern Reporter, 7 July 1938
  62. https://lessenteurs.wordpress.com/
  63. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
  64. Scotland’s People, 1871 Census
  65. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
  66. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  67. Ibid

artist

Robert Hannah (1812 – 1909)

‘The Lord Provost intimated that Robert Hannah, Esq., of 82 Addison Road, Kensington, London, had, through his friend, David Ritchie, Esq., of Messrs. Buchanan, Wilson and Co., Limited, Glasgow, intimated his desire to present to the Corporation, to be placed in the New Art Galleries, Kelvingrove Park, the free gift of a picture entitled  “The Countess of Nithsdale Petitioning George I on Behalf of her Husband who was under sentence of death for rebellion” painted by the donor, and which had been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1854. The Lord Provost moved that, in accepting this picture, the Corporation express their high appreciation of the valuable gift and accord the donor a cordial vote of thanks therefor. The motion was unanimously agreed to.’  1  

Fig. 1 The Countess of Nithsdale Petitioning George I on Behalf of her Husband
© CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection/ArtUK (Accession Number1177)

This painting depicts; ‘The interior of a room in Windsor Castle (in 1716). In the centre is George I making for the door and dragging (Winifred) Lady Nithsdale, who grasps his coat, along the floor. Two courtiers endeavour to release the King from her hold. On the right, kneeling, is Mrs Morgan a friend of Lady Nithsdale, and to the left, seated, are Lady Nairn and the Duchess of Montrose. Various groups of lords and ladies-in-waiting etc. are about the room.” 2

 (The King turned down her petition but Lady Nithsdale (1680 – 1749) was successful in rescuing her husband from the Tower of London by dressing him as a woman. The couple then escaped to France).

            According to the Parish Register, Robert Hannah was christened on 2 July 1812 at Kirkmabreck near Creetown, Kirkcudbright. (Most references state that he was born on 3July in Creetown). He was the fifth of eight children born to John Hannah, a builder and artisan, and Janet Brait. 3 (The family name was originally Hannay but Robert`s father preferred the palindromic symmetry of Hannah). Janet Brait`s father had been a farmer in Chapleton but died relatively young. It was said that his three daughters were ‘remarkable for their personal attractions.’ 4

      Very little is known about Robert`s early life but it may be that, like his eldest brother John, he spent his youth with his mother`s relatives in Chapleton. 5 It was said that John left home at an early age ‘to avoid the possibility of becoming burdensome to his parents.’ Perhaps a similar sentiment influenced Robert`s decision to leave home early. He studied first in Liverpool and then at the Royal Society of Arts Schools in London. He also spent some time in Rome and by 1842 was exhibiting his paintings at the Royal Academy (RA) in London. His address at this time was Shubbery House, Brompton Road, London.6 In all he exhibited 22 works at the RA between 1842 and 1870.7 Two of his paintings – The Novel and The Play – which were exhibited at the RA in 1852 – were bought by Charles Dickens.

Two small oil paintings (10 inches x 7.2 inches) of Dickens giving a public reading are in the Charles Dickens Museum in London. These were made from memory by Hannah the morning after he had been present at one of Dickens` readings. The paintings were given to Georgina Hogarth, Dickens` sister-in-law, by Hannah in January 1904. They were gifted to the museum in 1941 by Comte Alain de Suzannet.8 One of these paintings was exhibited at the 34th Annual ‘Dickens on the Strand’ festival in Galveston, Texas in December 2007 9.

 Figs. 2 and 3 Charles Dickens giving a public reading
Charles Dickens’ Museum, London/ArtUK
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

In 1845 Robert Hannah married Emma Cordy Baxter in Kensington, London. 10 She was born in St. Pancras on 26 June 1820.11 In 1851, the two were living at 2 Alfred Place West, Kensington. His occupation was ‘artist and painter’ and he employed two servants. 12

In 1851, Robert`s eldest brother John (b. 1802) was living in Burton-on-Trent with his sister Agnes. He was a widower with three young daughters and a son. John was a ‘cheese factor’. 13 He was also a part-time poet; a volume of his poetry was published posthumously. 14 John Hannah died in 1854 and Robert and Emma, who had no children of their own, took over the task of raising John`s three girls; Janet Sarah, born 1837, Gertrude, born 1841 and Bessie (Elizabeth?), born 20 August 1842. They afterwards became the subject of many of Robert’s paintings.15  

 Fig. 4 Portrait of Bessie Hannah painted by
her uncle and given to her as a
wedding gift.                                                                  

     In the 1861 census Robert Hannah (listed as Hannay) was a ‘bond fund holder and proprietor of houses.’ Bessie aged 17 was still living with Robert and Emma while Gertrude had found employment as a governess at Eton. In 1863, the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts held an Exhibition of Works by Living Artists. Robert Hannah whose address was 2 Alfred Place West, Old Brompton, London, exhibited two works: Sisters of Charity (no price given) and A Birthday Present priced at £105.00.16 Both pictures had been exhibited at the RA in London the previous year.

      By 1871 Robert and Emma had moved to 153 Upper Church Street, Chelsea. From the census, Robert was living on ‘income from houses and dividends’. Emma and his niece Janet were with him. It seems that he was now part of the thriving artistic community in Chelsea and was a friend of William Holman Hunt.

In 1870 Birnie Philip moved his workshop to a villa in Manresa Road, and artists were also starting to move into Upper Church Street: Robert Hannah, the Scots historical painter, made large additions to (the house at) number 153. He was still at the same address in 1881.

In the 1890s several artists moved into Upper Church Street. Number 123 on the corner of Elm Park Road was built in 1894 for Felix Moscheles, and by 1901 the Chelsea Arts Club had moved into two old villas at numbers 143-5. Evelyn and William de Morgan moved to numbers 125-7 (8-9 Bolton Place) Upper Church Street, where two terraced houses were adapted for them in 1909-10. Augustus John occupied Robert Hannah’s house at number 153, until he moved to Mallord Street. 17

Fig. 5 Robert and Emma Hannah in their London Home.

By this time (1891) Robert and Emma had moved to 82 Addison Road, Kensington. In the census of that year, Robert is described as ‘living on his own means’ and employing two housemaids, a cook and a footman. He was still at the same address in 1901, aged 88 and an ‘artist and painter’. He had four servants.

Emma Hannah died at home the following year aged 82. Robert Hannah died in Kensington on 5 April 1909 aged 97 after a long illness. 18

It may be that Robert Hannah made more from his property dealings than from his paintings. He does not rate a mention in the Dictionary of National Biography.

Among his listed paintings are:
 Astronomy in the Castle Douglas Art Gallery, Stewartry Collection 19.
Confidence (1844).
Refreshing the Weary (1847) which was bequeathed anonymously to York Art Gallery in 1970 20.
William Harvey Demonstrating the Circulation of Blood to Charles I (1848).
(A wood engraving of this painting was published in the Illustrated London News, in 1851 and was also reproduced in Nuland, Medicine: The Art of Healing, 1992).
Master Isaac Newton in his Garden, (1856)
Portrait of the Artist, J. C. Hook, A.R.A. (1859).
Eton College from the Thames, In the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. (Dixon Bequest)
Honeymoon (This painting was sold in London on 5 November 1997, for £4,485) 21. 

Robert Hannah was described as a painter of portraits, genre scenes, landscapes and historical subjects with a style similar to that of the Faeds. 22

References

  1. Minutes of the Corporation of Glasgow, 22 February 1906, C1/3/34 page 876, Mitchell Library, Glasgow
  2. Glasgow Art Galleries Catalogue, 1935.
  3. Parish Registers, Family Search, familysearch.org
  4. John Hannah of Creetown, Poet’ http://www.kirkcudbright.co/historyarticle.asp?ID=296&p=5&g=4
  5. ibid
  6. McEwan, Peter J. M., Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture, Antique Collectors Club 1994
  7. Parkinson, R., Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, London: HMSO, 1990, p. 117
  8. Dexter, Walter, The Dickensian, June 1941. (From Michael Slater, Emeritus Professor of Victorian Literature, Birkbeck, University of London – by e-mail).
  9. molly.dannenmaier@galvestonhistory.org
  10. England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005, database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/
  11. England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/
  12. ancestry.co.uk, Census 1851, England
  13. ibid
  14. Hannah, John, Posthumous Rhymes 1854, Samuel Wilton Rix. http://www.kirkcudbright.co/historyarticle.asp?ID=296&p=5&g=4
  15. My Ancestry; http://www.feeshowell.com/…/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Ch1%20-…
  16. Exhibition Catalogue, Mitchell Library, Glasgow
  17.  ‘Settlement and building: Artists and Chelsea’, A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 12: Chelsea (2004), pp. 102-106. http://www.britishhistory.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=28699. Date accessed: 07 July 2012.
  18. Parkinson, R., Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, London: HMSO, 1990, p. 117
  19. www.artistsfootsteps.co.uk
  20. ibid
  21. Benezit, Dictionary of Artists. Paris, 2006
  22. ibid

Ship Owner, Shipping

Andrew Weir – The Right Hon. Lord Inverforth of Southgate (1865 – 1955)

Fig. 1 The Rt. Hon. Lord Inverforth, P.C
Frank O. Salisbury, C.V.O., LL.D., R.P., R.I. (1874-1962).
       Acquisition Number 2310.
© estate of Frank O. Salisbury. All rights reserved, DACS 2024.
     Image credit: Glasgow Life Museums/ArtUK

‘The Town Clerk submitted a letter from Lord Inverforth offering to present to the corporation his portrait by Frank O. Salisbury, at present on exhibition in the Kelvingrove Art Galleries, and the committee agreed that the gift be accepted and that a letter of appreciation be sent to the donor.’ 1

            Andrew Weir was born on the 24 April 1865 in Glasswork Street, Kirkcaldy. He was the eldest son of William Weir a cork manufacturer and Janet Laing who were married on 2 January 1865.2 According to the census, 3 the family was still at Glasswork Street in 1871 but by 1881 had moved to 269 High Street, Kirkcaldy.4 Andrew, aged 15, having attended Kirkcaldy High School was now an apprentice clerk with the Commercial Bank of Scotland living with his parents, brothers Thomas (13), William (8), David (1) and sisters Jessie (6) and Isabella (4). Thereafter, Andrew moved to Glasgow and worked for a time in a shipping office. Then, in 1885, at the age of twenty, he bought his first ship – the barque Willowbank. On 5 May that year he opened a small office in Hope Street, Glasgow 5 (According to The Bailie it was at 70 Waterloo Street. 6) and used his ship in the coasting trade. The business prospered and within ten years he had built up a fleet of fifty-two ships of modern design and created the firm of Andrew Weir and Co. Shipowners of Glasgow. This firm ‘controlled the largest fleet of sailing ships in the world’ under one owner. 7 It became managing owners of the Bank Line (named after Weir`s first ship), Invertanker, Inver Transport, Trading Company, and several other shipping companies.  

            On 1 August 1889 Andrew Weir married Tomania Anne Dowie, daughter of Thomas Kay Dowie, a coachbuilder, in her home at 28 Thomson Place, Kirkcaldy. Andrew`s address was 185 Kent Road, Glasgow. His younger brother William was a witness. 8 Two years later, Andrew and Tomania were living at 4 Edelweiss Terrace, Partick, Glasgow with their newborn daughter Anne Forrestdale.  With them were Andrew`s siblings, William Weir (19), Jessie B. Weir (16) and Bella B. Weir (14). 9

            In 1896 Weir began to modernize his fleet by converting it to steam. His first steamship was launched under the banner of the Bank Line. At the time of the 1901 Census, he was with his family (now four girls and a boy) at Blanefield Mansion, Kirkoswald, Ayrshire. 10 Sometime after this he moved to London and at the 1911 Census his address was 57 Holland Park, Kensington, London. 11

                 In 1917 Weir was asked to investigate the way in which materials were supplied to the army. Among his recommendations was the appointment of a Surveyor-General of Supply to oversee the task of providing the army with all its stores and equipment other than munitions. His recommendations were accepted, and he was given the job of Surveyor-General with a seat on the Army Council.

                                  Fig. 2    Andrew Weir in 1917 12

                In 1919 he was appointed Minister of Munitions, and he remained in this office until March 1921. His focus now changed to the sale of the vast quantities of army stores which had accumulated during the war. ‘Again, his genius for organization and great business acumen converted what might have been worthless goods or liabilities into considerable assets. It was not without reason that he was termed the man who saved Britain millions.’  For his services he was raised to the peerage as Baron Inverforth, of Southgate on 5February 1919. 13 He was also made a member of the Privy Council and received the American Distinguished Service Medal.

            After the war he invested in diesel-powered ships and broadened his business interests. He became chairman of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company and president of the Radio Communications Company, the Marconi International Marine Communications Company and Cable and Wireless which was formed by a merger of all the transmission companies. He was chairman of the Anglo-Burma Rice and Wilmer Grain companies and was on the board of Lloyds Bank. He was founder and first chairman of the United Baltic Corporation set up at the instigation of George V to replace German shipping interests in the Baltic. 

            In 1925, Inverforth bought the 60-room mansion, and eight acres of grounds called The Hill, Hampstead Heath. This property had formerly belonged to Lord Leverhulme. (When Inverforth died in 1955 he bequeathed the house, now known as Inverforth House, to Manor House Hospital. Inverforth House became the women’s section of the hospital and became known as Inverforth House Hospital).14

            Andrew Weir and his wife celebrated their golden wedding in 1939, but Lady Inverforth died two years later in 1941. He continued to go to his office four days a week into his ninety-first year. He died at his home in Hampstead on 17 September 1955.15,16 An obituary was published in the Glasgow Herald.17(Appendix 1) His wealth at death was £548,214 1s. 8d.18

            ‘One thing more remains to be said. Mr. Andrew Weir inherited the moral traditions of Scottish industry. He grew rich, but not ostentatious. His increasing fortune went back and back into trade. He never dreamed either of cutting a figure in plutocratic society or making himself a public character. A quiet, rather shy, and not often articulate person, he lived a frugal life, loving his business because it occupied all his time and satisfied nearly every curiosity of his inquiring mind.’19

            ‘Inverforth possessed great energy and enthusiasm, and also that almost essential quality of leadership: the ability to select suitable subordinates and leave them to carry on without interference. His integrity, great driving force, and brilliant organizing ability made him a man of power and influence in the commercial world although he shunned the limelight of publicity. His friends and employees, terms frequently synonymous, knew his unobtrusive generosity and kindness. He was particularly approachable: even the most junior employee who had some suggestion towards the improvement or well-being of the firm would be sure of a patient and appreciative hearing and would carry away the remembrance of a kindly twinkle in Inverforth’s eye and a good-humoured quiet voice. In many ways he was a model employer, taking interest in the welfare of his staff and their families both during and after their service with him. For many years, until he was eighty, he was treasurer of the Royal Merchant Navy School and, even after he had handed over this office, he continued to take a deep interest in the children.’ 20

References

  1. Minutes of Glasgow Corporation, 19th January 1943, page 394, Mitchell Library.
  2. Scotland`s People, Birth Certificate
  3. Scotland’s People, 1871 Census
  4. Scotland’s People, 1881 Census
  5. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  6. The Bailie, No. 2321, Mitchell Library, Glas
  7. Begbie, Harold, The Mirrors of Downing Street Chapter XII, G. P. Putnam and Sons, 1921 http://www.readcentral.com/Books/Harold Begbie
  8. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  9. Scotland’s People, Census 1891
  10. Scotland’s People, Census 1901
  11. ancestry.co.uk, England Census, 1911
  12. The Bailie, No. 2321, Mitchell Library, Glasgow
  13. The London Gazette 7Feb 1919, p 1956
  14. www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/…/Hampstead-heath-inverforth-house-heritage#
  15. Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Weir,_1st_Baron_Inverforth‎
  16. Glasgow Herald 19 September 1955, page 1
  17. Glasgow Herald 19 September 1955, page 8. (There were also obituaries published in The Times, Manchester Guardian and The Scotsman)
  18. probate, 3 Oct 1955, CGPLA Eng. & Wales
  19. Begbie, Harold, The Mirrors of Downing Street Chapter XII, G. P. Putnam and Sons, 1921 http://www.readcentral.com/Books/Harold Begbie
  20. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Obituary Glasgow Herald 19 September 1955 page 8

            The death occurred on Saturday of Lord Inverforth at his home, The Hill, Hampstead Heath, London. He was in his ninety-first year.

            Lord Inverforth was one of the greatest shipowners of his time, and his work as Surveyor-General of Supply at the War Office during the First World War and later as Minister of Munitions was of the greatest importance to the nation. He was Andrew Weir and was born in Kirkcaldy in 1865 and educated at Carlyle`s High School. He originally chose banking as a profession but at a very early age his interest turned to shipping.

            At the age of 20, having purchased two sailing vessels, he founded the firm of Andrew Weir and Co., with offices in Glasgow. The two ships soon became a fleet, and one of his barques, the Willowbank, gave her name to the Bank Line. In 1896 his first steamship was launched, and this was the beginning of the Bank Line which Andrew Weir and Co. managed.

War Services

            During the First World War, Mr. Weir placed his services at the Government`s disposal. In 1917 he was made Surveyor-General of Supply at the War office and a member of the Army Council. Two years later he became Minister of Munitions and remained in that post and a member of the Cabinet until 1921. For his war services he was created a baron in 1919 and made a member of the Privy Council.

            On entering the Government he severed his connection with Andrew Weir and Co. and thereafter his business interests lay in wider fields. He became chairman of a number of companies, including the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, and when in 1929 the merger of all the transmission companies was arranged Lord Inverforth became the chairman of the new Cable and Wireless, Ltd. and later president and then honorary president. He was also the president of the Andrew Weir Shipping and Trading Company, chairman of the United Baltic Corporation, and the Bank Line. He had been a director of Lloyds Bank and the National Bank of Australasia.

Heir to the Peerage

            In 1889 Lord Inverforth married Anne (who died in 1941), younger daughter of Mr Thomas Kay Dowie and they had one son and four daughters. The son, who succeeds to the peerage, is the Hon. Andrew Alexander Morton Weir. He was born in 1897 and is a partner in Andrew Weir and Co. In 1929 he married Iris Beryl, daughter of the late Charles Vincent, 4th battalion, The Buffs, and they have two sons.

Private Means

Mrs. Clara Graham nee Gertrude Lawrence Clara Dunsterville (1853 – 1932)

An oil painting titled Barden Moor by Cecil Lawson was received by Glasgow Corporation from Mrs. Graham, 4 Belgrave Crescent, Edinburgh on 29 February 1924.1

Fig. 1 Barden Moor, Yorkshire , 1881 Cecil Gordon Lawson (1849 – 1882)
 © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums/ArtUK. (Accession Number 1572)

Gertrude Lawrence Clara Dunsterville (Mrs. Clara Graham) was born on 16 September 1853 in Bombay, India. She was christened at Naseerabad, Bombay on 11 October 1853. 2 Clara (as she preferred to be called) was born into a family with a history of service in the Indian Army. She was the eldest daughter of Colonel James Barnes Dunsterville and Harriet Birch who had married in Deesa, India in 1847. Her father was attached to the 19th Regiment of Native Infantry and at that time was Assistant Commissary General of the Bombay Army. Her grandfather, General James Henderson Dunsterville, was Commissary General of the East India Company. He married Clara`s grandmother, Lucy Barnes, in Bombay in 1817. Clara`s sister, Harriet Mary, married Lt. Col. Arthur Shewell in Bombay in 1869 3. One of Clara`s cousins, Major General Lionel Charles Dunsterville, was a friend of the author Rudyard Kipling and served as the model for ‘Stalky’ Corkran in the author`s stories of Stalky and Co.4
On 3 August 1872, aged eighteen, Clara married twenty-eight year old Donald Graham in Bombay 5. He was a son of John Graham of Skelmorlie, Ayrshire who had extensive business interests in Scotland, India and Portugal based on textiles and port wine.

                           Fig. 2 Mrs. Clara Graham in her wedding dress 6

            Very soon after their marriage the couple travelled to Scotland and took up residence in Skelmorlie Castle in Ayrshire the home of Donald`s parents and on 15 May 1873 their first child, James Dunsterville Graham was born. 7 The family then returned to Bombay probably because of Donald`s business interests but also because Clara`s widowed mother was still living there. Two further sons were born in Bombay, Donald M. N. Graham on 12 November 1874 and Charles T. J. Graham on 4 December 1877. 8 Thereafter the family returned to Scotland possibly as late as 1880. They were probably accompanied by Clara`s mother and sister who was widowed that year.9 In the 1881 census Donald, Gertrude (Clara) and their three sons were living at Skelmorlie Castle 10. A fourth son, Archibald, was born in Edinburgh in 1882. This birth was registered in both Largs and Edinburgh. Another son, Maurice, was born at Skelmorlie in 1888. 11
Donald Graham bought Airthrey Castle and estate in Stirlingshire from Lord Abercrombie in 1889 for the sum of £75,000. He built a large extension to the castle at a cost of a further £15,708 and planted the grounds with conifers and rhododendrons. 12 In the 1891 census, Donald and Gertrude and four of their sons were living at Airthrey Castle. 13 Clara gave birth to three more sons there between 1892 and 1898.

Fig. 3 Donald and Clara Graham and family , Airthrey Castle (about 1898) 14

Donald Graham died at Airthrey Castle on 23 January 1901 after a short illness. He was buried in Logie Churchyard and Clara commissioned a stained-glass window to be placed in the new Logie Church in his memory. 15 Clara continued to live at Airthrey Castle and in the 1901 census she was the head of the family, aged 47 with four sons at home. 16
Ownership of the estate was formally handed over to her by Donald`s trustees on 15 May 1902 17. In the 1911 Census, Clara and two of her sons, John and Nigel were living at Airthrey Castle together with her widowed sister Harriet (Shewell) and a niece. 18
In 1924, Airthrey Castle was leased to Charles Donaldson of the shipping family Donaldson Brothers.19 This coincides with the date of donation of the painting and most probably resulted from Clara ‘downsizing’ to move in, at least temporarily, with her niece in Belgrave Crescent, Edinburgh. The painting would have been given to Glasgow because of her husband`s business connections with the city.
Clara Graham died aged seventy-nine on 20 April 1932, at 9 Weymouth Street, Portland Place, London. 20 She was buried beside her husband and two of her grandchildren in the Old Churchyard of Logie Kirk, Bridge of Allan on 23 April. Six of her sons acted as pallbearers. 21
In the course of her funeral service, the Rev. W. McIntyre referred to the work Mrs. Graham had done as a heritor in the parish, (with which she had been associated for nearly fifty years), and of the widespread interest she took in its welfare. He commented that ‘she was esteemed for her charity and her own spirit and personality and her loyalty to those who served her’. 22

 Fig. 4 Memorial plaque to Donald and Clara Graham on the wall of 
Logie Old Church. (Photo by author)

  Airthrey Castle became a maternity hospital in 1939. Airthrey Estate continued in family ownership until 1946 and eventually became the campus for the University of Stirling.

Edinburgh Connection
Donald Graham`s sister Margaret married Henry Hill Lancaster an advocate and essayist. Their daughter, Elizabeth Ethel Graham Lancaster married Sir Ludovic James Grant, Regius Professor of Public Law at Edinburgh University. The Grants owned the house at 4 Belgrave Crescent, Edinburgh from where the painting was donated in 1924. Elizabeth Grant was Clara’s niece with whom she was living at this time, Airthrey Castle having been leased to Charles Donaldson.
The writer and broadcaster Sir Ludovic Kennedy was born at 4 Belgrave Crescent in 1919. He was the grandson of Sir Ludovic and Lady Grant.

The Painting
The painting was bought by John Graham (father-in-law of Clara) soon after it was completed in 1881. It was lent by him to the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (RGI) Exhibition of 1882. 23 The painting then passed to Donald Graham and was lent by him to the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1888. The minutes of Glasgow Corporation of 5 January 1934 record that the painting was lent to the Paisley Art Institute for their 58th Exhibition to be held that year. 24

The Graham Family
The firm of W. & J. Graham & Co has its roots in a Glasgow based textile concern. However, the family had extensive business interests not just in their native Scotland but also in India. The success of their affairs led to them being described by a contemporary historian, as being ‘among the merchant princes of Great Britain’.
At the early age of fifteen, John Graham undertook the establishment of a branch of the firm at Leghorn, which continued until the success of Napoleon’s policy excluded British commerce from all the continental markets except Portugal. Therefore, an office of the company was established in Oporto, Portugal`s second city. In 1820 John and his brother William, who were then managing the office, accepted 27 pipes of Port wine in settlement of a bad debt. This Port was shipped to the parent company in Glasgow which initially reprimanded the brothers for not sending cash. Fortunately, however, the Port turned out to be very popular and soon William and John were being urged by their parent company to acquire and ship more of this wine.
The brothers formed the partnership of W & J Graham & Co. with the aim of specialising in the production of the finest Port wines. They channelled their considerable resources and energy towards the pursuit of this goal.
In 1839 the firm, by the formation of a house at Bombay, extended its business operations to India; and again in 1863 a separate firm was established at Calcutta and later a branch was formed at Kurrachee. 25
John Graham retired to Skelmorlie Castle in Ayrshire. He was well known in Glasgow as an enthusiastic supporter of the fine arts. From its foundation in 1861 he had contributed paintings each year to the RGI Loan Exhibitions and in 1878 this amounted to twenty-six pictures including works by Turner and Gainsborough. ‘All the canvases shown …..are no more than so many specimens of what his private gallery really is. They only enable us to judge ……of the wonderful treasures of the Skelmorlie mansion’. 26 He died at Skelmorlie Castle on 4 October 1886 aged 89 years.
Donald Graham, C.I.E., was born in Oporto, Portugal in 1844 and educated at Harrow. He was a son of John Graham of Skelmorlie and Elizabeth Hatt Noble. His business interests were centred in Glasgow and Bombay. He was made a Companion of the Most Eminent order of the Indian Empire (C.I.E.) for his services on the Legislative Council of Bombay. In 1896 he was vice-president of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and was elected Lord Dean of Guild the following year. His business address was ‘W. & J. Graham & Co., 55 Cathedral Street, Glasgow’ later becoming ‘Graham, D. and J. & Co., merchants’.27 He was also a JP for Lanarkshire and Deputy Lieutenant of the City of Glasgow and Stirlingshire.

References

  1. Minutes of Glasgow Corporation, Sub-Committee on Art Galleries and Museums, 29February 1924.
  2. FamilySearch, United Kingdom, British India Office, Births and Baptisms, 1712 – 1965. (Her date of birth is given incorrectly in Family Search. The correct date is taken from the plaque in Logie Old Churchyard).
  3. http://www.swinhopeburnfamilies.com/grpf1266.html‎
  4. Information from Mrs. Christina McLaren, (great granddaughter of Clara Graham). Also archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb012-ms.add.9498‎
  5. FamilySearch, India Marriages, 1792 – 1948
  6. From a picture in the possession of Mrs Christina McLaren, with permission
  7. Scotland`s People, Birth Certificate
  8. FamilySearch, India Births and Baptisms, 1786 – 1947
  9. Information from Mrs. Christina McLaren,
  10. ancestry.co.uk, Scottish Census, 1881
  11. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificates
  12. Ferguson, R. Menzies, M.A., Logie, A Parish History, Vol II, Alexander Gardner, pub., Paisley, 1905, pp 61-63.
  13. ancestry.co.uk, Scottish Census, 1891
  14. The original photograph is in the possession of Mrs. Christina McLaren. Used with permission
  15. Information from Mrs. Christina McLaren
  16. ancestry.co.uk, Scottish Census, 1901
  17. Ferguson, R. Menzies, M.A., Logie, A Parish History, Vol II, Alexander Gardner, pub., Paisley, 1905, pp 61-63.
  18. Scotland’s People, Census 1911
  19. Information from Mrs. Christina McLaren
  20. Bridge of Allan Gazette 23 April 1932
  21. Bridge of Allan Gazette 30 April 1932
  22. ibid
  23. Billcliffe, Roger, The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, 1861-1989: A Dictionary of Exhibitors at the Annual Exhibitions, Woodend Press, 1990
  24. Object File, Glasgow Museums Resource Centre
  25. Memoirs and Portraits of One Hundred Glasgow Men, James Maclehose and Sons, Glasgow, 1886
  26. The Bailie, No 296, 19June 1878, Mitchell Library, Glasgow
  27. Glasgow Post Office Directories 1888 and 1901
Physician

Dr Arthur James Ballantyne (1876 – 1954)

There was submitted an offer by Dr A. J. Ballantyne, 11 Sandyford Place, Glasgow C3, to gift the oil painting Interior by Tom McEwan, and the committee, after hearing a report from the director, agreed that the picture be accepted and that a letter of thanks be sent to the donor.1 The painting was received on 30 January 1942.

Fig. 1 Interior – (The Spinning Wheel) (2268) – Tom McEwan

© CSG GIC Glasgow Museums (Not listed on ArtUK)

The painting was exhibited at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts Annual Exhibition of 1895, priced at £65 2

  Fig. 2 Arthur James Ballantyne (1876 – 1954)

            Arthur James Ballantyne was born on 13 July 1876, at 36 Dalhousie Street, Blythswood, Glasgow 3. He was one of a ‘large and brilliant family of a Glasgow merchant.4

His father Thomas Ballantyne was a pawnbroker and jeweller who had married Jane Kate Chalmers on 20 September 1870 in Glasgow 5. Thomas Ballantyne was born in Paisley in 1828, and this was his second marriage. Jane Kate was born in Dundee in 1838. According to the 1881 Census, in addition to Arthur, aged four, there were nine other siblings at 36 Dalhousie Street ranging in ages from 20 years to 2 months 6. Thomas Ballantyne died of cancer in 1887 leaving Jane ‘living on private means’. 7 The family moved to 260 Renfrew Street, Glasgow and in the 1891 Census there were eight children at home with one servant employed 8.

            Arthur Ballantyne was educated at Garnethill School, Glasgow and graduated M.B., Ch. B. in 1898 and M.D. in 1901 from the University of Glasgow. 9 His doctoral thesis was entitled Contusion Injuries to the Eyeball. 10 After spending a year at the University of Vienna, he returned to Glasgow and spent two years as Assistant House Physician and Assistant Surgeon at the Glasgow Eye Infirmary. He joined the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom in 1903 and in 1906 was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He was appointed Surgeon at the Glasgow Eye Infirmary in 1909 – a post he held until 1935. In 1909 he was appointed Professor of Physiology at Anderson`s College of Medicine. This post was relinquished in 1914 when he became Professor of Ophthalmology at the College. The previous year he had held a similar post at St. Mungo`s College. 11

            At the 1911 Census,Arthur was living with his mother and brother Thomas who was a civil engineer and two servants at 11 Sandyford Place, Anderston. His occupation was ‘physician, eye-specialist. 12 On 14July 1916 he attended a meeting of the Oxford Ophthalmological Congress where he read a paper on Quinine Amaurosis. He was then ‘Surgeon to the Glasgow Eye Infirmary’ 13. During the latter stages of the First World War, he was given a temporary commission as a lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was appointed Ophthalmic Surgeon to the 67th General Hospital in Salonika 14. When he arrived in Salonika, he was to take the place of a certain Dr Tom Honeyman (later Director of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow) who had become ill due to an attack of fever.15

            In 1920, Ballantyne was appointed Lecturer in Ophthalmology at the University of Glasgow. In the same year, on 23 June, at the age of 43, he married Jessie Snodgrass, the daughter of one of his colleagues. She was 27. The marriage took place in the Grand Hotel, Glasgow 16. Sadly, Jessie died from eclampsia on 27January 1928. 17 It may have been on this occasion that he reportedly wrote to a colleague, ‘These have been sad days for us, but work and service remain to make life worthwhile.’ 18

            Part of this “work” involved travelling to give lectures on his research and on 15 August 1930, he arrived in Montreal, Canada aboard the Duchess of Bedford. His final destination was St. Albans, Vermont in the U.S.A. 19 almost certainly to deliver lectures there.

            He was appointed the first Tennent Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Glasgow in 1935, a post he held until his forced retirement in 1941 due to age rules. (The Tennent chair was the first in Ophthalmology to be founded in the United Kingdom. It was endowed by Gavin Patterson Tennent who graduated M.D. from the University in 1870). On his retirement, Arthur Ballantyne was awarded an LL.D. by the University and made an Emeritus Professor. 20

               Fig. 3 Arthur Ballantyne`s signature on the Register of Awards of
Honorary LL.D. s 21

He ‘continued his ground-breaking research in diabetic retinopathy’ and was awarded the Mackenzie Medal in 1942. (This award was established in 1924 to mark the centenary of the Glasgow Eye Infirmary. It was named after its founder and was awarded to an eye surgeon who had made a special contribution to ophthalmology). In 1943 Dr Ballantyne delivered the Montgomery Lectures in Dublin and in 1946 the Doyne Memorial Lectures at Oxford. 22

            In 1947 he travelled to Roanoke College in Virginia to be awarded an honorary D.Sc. degree. It was recorded in the immigration papers that he was ‘aged 70 and a widower, 5 ft 5 ins tall, fair complexion with grey hair and grey eyes’.23 He continued to publish original research and in 1950 was awarded the Nettleship Medal for the ‘best piece of original work by a British ophthalmologist published in any journal during the previous three years’. 24

            Despite living all his life in the West End of Glasgow, Arthur Ballantyne retired to the village of Killearn, and he died there on 9 November 1954 aged 78. The cause of death was cardiovascular degeneration. 25 His estate was valued at £83,051:14:0 26. An obituary recorded that while ‘His professional work claimed most of his time, he was an expert in colour photography and a connoisseur of art in which he was not a mere dilettante; he was a member of the Committee of the Glasgow Institute for Fine Arts and was on the hanging committee’ (of that Institute). 27 An obituary was also published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.28

            Arthur Ballantyne was a ‘prolific contributor to medical literature’  and had an international reputation for his research activities. He served upon the editorial committees of the Glasgow Medical Journal, the Ophthalmoscope, Ophthalmologica, and the British Journal of Ophthalmology. He was co-author of the Textbook of the Fundus of the Eye which was published posthumously in 1962. A description of the book stated that; “The problems of the fundus of the eye were the life-long study of the late Professor Arthur J. Ballantyne who brought to them an unusual patience fordetail and an appreciation of their importance in the understanding of the total picture. He stimulated a generation of Glasgow ophthalmologists with his interest”. 29

References

  1. Minutes of Corporation of Glasgow, 17 February, 1942, C1/3/105, p791.
  2. Billcliffe, Roger, The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, 1861-1989: A Dictionary of Exhibitors at the Annual Exhibitions, (Woodend Press, 1990).
  3. Scotland`s People, Birth Certificate
  4. Thomson, A. M. Wright The Glasgow Eye Infirmary, 1824-1962
  5. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  6. ancestry.co.uk, Scottish Census, 1881
  7. Thomson, A. M. Wright The Glasgow Eye Infirmary, 1824-1962
  8. ancestry.co.uk, Scottish Census, 1891
  9. www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk
  10. www.bjo.bmj.com
  11. www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk.
  12. ancestry.co.uk, Scottish Census, 1911
  13. British Journal of Ophthalmology, 1917; 1; 153 -161
  14. British Journal of Ophthalmology, 1917; Supplement to the London Gazette, 2 July 1917.
  15. Webster, Jack, From Dali to Burrell, The Tom Honeyman Story, B & W Publishing, Ltd., Edinburgh, 1997
  16. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  17. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  18. British Journal of Ophthalmology, 1955; 39:1, 63 – 64.
  19. ancestry.com, Border Crossings: From Canada to U.S., 1895 – 1954
  20. Archives of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons,
  21. Glasgow; University Archives
  22. Minutes of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 6 December 1954.
  23. ancestry.com, New York, Passenger Lists, 1820 – 1957.
  24. Minutes of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 6 December 1954.
  25. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  26. Confirmations and Inventories, 1954. National Records of Scotland.
  27. British Journal of Ophthalmology, 1955; 39:1, 63 – 64.
  28. Minutes of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 6 December 1954.
  29. http://www.amazon.com/Textbook-Fundus-Arthur-Ballantyne-F-R-F-P-S/dp/B007LVOPXY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372834404&sr=1-1

Appendix

The library of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow has a set of instruments called Ballantyne Droppers. These were used and probably designed by Arthur Ballantyne.

Fig. 4, A Set of Ballantyne Droppers

Fig. 5, A Ballantyne Dropper

Bookkeeper, Private Means

Mrs John Arnott nee Eliza Stiven Cuthbert (1879 – 1942)

Two paintings were received by Glasgow Corporation on 20 April 1943. They were bequeathed by Mrs Arnott. 1

Fig. 1 Mr John Arnott                                 Fig. 2 Mrs John Arnott
Robert Cree Crawford                                 James McBey
1920 *                                                             1927 2
 © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums/ArtUK.

Accession Number 2321                                Acc. No. 2322

  • A plaque attached to the painting has the following inscription: –

‘Presented to Mr. John Arnott of Messrs. J. & B. Stevenson by the employees at Cranston Hill Bakeries in appreciation of the happy relations which have always existed between him and them and to celebrate the occasion of his completing a connection of forty-five years with the firm. Glasgow, May 1920’.

(The firm of J. and B. Stevenson was established in Glasgow in 1865 and grew to become one of the largest bakers of bread and cakes in the world. By 1891 they had established bakeries in Cranstonhill and Plantation each of which was seven stories high and capable of producing 100,000 loaves daily. Each bake house was “under the careful supervision of an efficient foreman personally responsible for the conduct of a large staff of bakers”. The firm later opened bakeries in Battersea in London). 3

            John Cuthbert (Eliza’s father) was born about 1825 in Kirriemuir, Forfarshire. His occupation initially was as a ‘seedsman’ 4 but by 1871 he was the manager of the Wick and Pulteney Gas Works in Pulteneytown, Wick. 5 He married Margaret Stiven, who was born in Arbroath, in Inverness on 15 February 1866 and thirteen years later, on 26February 1879, Eliza Stiven Cuthbert was born in Burn Street, Pulteneytown. 6 Eliza was the youngest of seven children. In 1882, John Cuthbert died in Wick, aged 58 7 and the family moved to 14 Kersland Street, Partick, Glasgow with Eliza`s older sisters variously employed as dressmaker, milliner and pupil teacher. 8 Eliza`s mother died in Partick in 1900 aged 62.9 The family remained in Kersland Street and in the 1901 census, Eliza`s oldest sister Margaret aged 32 was head of the family. Also living there were Isabel Jane Cuthbert, 25, William Stiven Cuthbert, 23 and Eliza, 22. 10 However, by 1908 Eliza had moved to 14  Glasgow Street, Hillhead and was employed as a bookkeeper. 11 This seems to have remained her address until 1929.

            On 15 November 1923 at 22 Woodlands Terrace, Glasgow, Eliza Stiven Cuthbert married John Arnott. She was 44 and he was 72. Eliza`s sister Isabel was one of the witnesses.12

            John Arnott was born in Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire in 1851, but his family moved to Glasgow and by 1861 were living at 2 Orchard Street in Govan. John’s father, also John, was born in Fordyce, Banff in 1826 and was a wool sorter. 13 He married Janet Drummond on 5 September 1847. In 1871 the family was living at 53 McNeil Street, Hutchesontown. John, aged 19, was a ‘dyer’. Jane Arnott, 44, was head of the family. 14 In 1875, John Arnott joined the firm of J. and B. Stevenson (see above). By the time of the 1881 census, the family had moved to 120 South Wellington Street, Hutchesontown and John was now a ‘baker’s shopman’. His father was fifty-six and his mother Janet fifty-four. 15 On 4 July 1882 at 110 Thistle Street, Glasgow, John aged thirty-one, married Mary- Jane Middlemass who was twenty-six and a milliner. Their respective addresses were 120 South Wellington Street and 211 Hospital Street, both Glasgow. John was now a ‘baker’s foreman’. 16 John progressed through the firm becoming a master baker and eventually bakery manager. In the 1891 census he was at 31 Dover Street, Glasgow, aged thirty-eight, with his wife Mary Ann Arnott (sic) who was thirty-five and born in Ireland. 17 Ten year later, the couple had moved again, this time to 53 Bentinck Street, Sandyford, Glasgow and they now employed a servant. 18 From 1906 they lived at 6 Royal Terrace, Glasgow. 19 and that was their address in the 1911 census having been married for twenty-eight years but had no children. Mary Arnott died on 14 August 1918 at 3 Claremont Terrace, Glasgow. On her death certificate her name is given as Mary-Jane Arnott nee Middlemass, aged sixty-two. 20

After his marriage to Eliza, the couple probably moved to 6, Royal Terrace but it seems that Eliza retained her property at 14 Glasgow Street. 21 Eliza`s portrait was painted in 1927 when she was 48. John Arnott continued to work at J. and B. Stevenson until his death in 1928. He died at The Deans, 28 Drummond Terrace, Crieff from a cardiac syncope leaving an estate valued at £11,489. 22,23 

            After his death Eliza remained at 6 Royal Terrace with her sister Isabel at least until 1931 when she made her will. 24 Later she gave up her flat in Glasgow Street and the house in Royal Terrace (she is not listed in the Glasgow Post Office Directory at either address). She moved to Kilmacolm with her sister. 25

            Eliza Stiven Arnott died aged 63 at Oakfield, Kilmacolm on 28June 1942. Her death was caused by a thrombosis following an operation to remove a gall bladder. 26 She was buried in Cathcart cemetery on 1 July. 27 Eliza`s name was added to the family memorial stone in the Old Municipal Cemetery in Wick. 28 Her estate was valued at £3,183:10:0. Her sister Isabel who was her executor and the sole beneficiary, died aged 90 in Glasgow in 1960.29

References

  1. ArtUk
  2. Ibid
  3. Index of Firms in Glasgow,1891 
  4. glasgowwestaddress.co.uk/1891_Book/Stevenson_J_&_B.htm‎
  5. ancestry.co.uk, 1851 Scottish Census
  6. ancestry.co.uk, 1871 Scottish Census
  7. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
  8. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  9. ancestry.co.uk, 1891 Scottish Census
  10. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  11. ancestry.co.uk, 1901 Scottish Census
  12. Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1908-09
  13. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  14. ancestry.co.uk, 1861 Scottish Census
  15. ancestry.co.uk, 1871 Scottish Census
  16. ancestry.co.uk, 1881 Scottish Census
  17. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  18. ancestry.co.uk, 1891 Scottish Census
  19. ancestry.co.uk, 1901 Scottish Census
  20. Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1906 – 7, and subsequent years
  21. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  22. Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1906 – 7, and subsequent years
  23. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  24. Index of Confirmations and Inventories, Mitchell Library, Glasgow
  25. Index of Confirmations and Inventories, National Records of Scotland
  26. Glasgow Post Office Directory, 1931 – 32
  27. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  28. Glasgow Herald, deaths, 1 July 1942
  29. gravestonephotos.com
  30. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate