‘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
Minutes of Glasgow Corporation, 19th January 1943, page 394, Mitchell Library.
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.
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
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
Minutes of Glasgow Corporation, Sub-Committee on Art Galleries and Museums, 29February 1924.
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).
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
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
Minutes of Corporation of Glasgow, 17 February, 1942, C1/3/105, p791.
Billcliffe, Roger, The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, 1861-1989: A Dictionary of Exhibitors at the Annual Exhibitions, (Woodend Press, 1990).
Scotland`s People, Birth Certificate
Thomson, A. M. Wright The Glasgow Eye Infirmary, 1824-1962
Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
ancestry.co.uk, Scottish Census, 1881
Thomson, A. M. Wright The Glasgow Eye Infirmary, 1824-1962
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.
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
The painting was bought by Glasgow collector William McInnes from Alexander Reid and Lefevre in 1942 in what turned out to be to his final purchase. The painting then passed to his son Thomas and then to Thomas’s widow Jessie.
Jessie McEwan was born on 27 September 1874 at 13 Cedar Street in the Hillhead district of Glasgow. She was the daughter of Thomas McEwan a journeyman baker and his wife Jessie Ewing who had married on 15 November 1867 in Milton, Glasgow. Jessie’s mother registered the birth. 1 By the 1881 census, the family had moved to 31 Crossburn Street, Milton. 2 Ten years later, Jessie was employed as a stationer’s assistant still living at 31 Crossburn Street with her parents and seven siblings. 3
On 5 July 1899 at 30 Berkeley Terrace, Glasgow, Jessie married Thomas Macdonald McInnes a draughtsman and a younger brother of William McInnes (qv) who was a witness at the ceremony. The other witness was Jessie’s sister Nellie. 4 The couple took up residence at 40 Nithsdale Drive, Strathbungo, Glasgow. Jessie was described as a ‘sanitary engineer draughtsman’s wife’. 5 By the time of the next census, Thomas and Jessie had moved to 74 Norham Street, Shawlands, Glasgow. 6 Thomas McInnes died at 17 Darnley Gardens, Glasgow in 1951 aged 79. He was a retired sanitary engineer. Jessie reported his death. 7
Jessie Ewing McInnes died on 21 January 1957 at 17 Darnley Gardens, Glasgow. She was 83. Her death was reported by her niece, Jessie Chase. 8
The painting was presented in memory of John Young by his family. 1 It was purchased by Mary’s grandfather, James ‘Paraffin’ Young, in 1877 and passed to her father John Young. 2
Mary Young was one of twelve children, and the second daughter, born to John Young ‘a landed proprietor’ and his wife Christina Maclellan who married at 17 Royal Crescent, Glasgow on 17 July 1877. 3, 4 The couple were given the estate of Durris in Kincardineshire by John’s father. John and his brother James managed the chemical works at Addiewell and Bathgate established by their father. 5 Mary was born on 13 July 1881 in Durris House. Which Mary’s grandfather James Young had bought together with the estate in 1871 from Alexander Mactier. The house was apparently later known locally as ‘Paraffin Ha’. 6 In the census of 1881, Durris House was in the possession of John Young who gave his occupation as ‘chemist’. 7 By 1885 the estate seems to have been shared between John Young and his younger brother Thomas Graham Young. 8 It was sold in 1890 9 In 1891 Mary was a scholar aged nine living with her family at 22 Belhaven Terrace, Govan, Glasgow. 10 By 1901 Mary was still a scholar, but the family had moved to 2 Montague Terrace, Partick, Glasgow. As well as Mary and eleven siblings, there were six servants. 11 On 6 June 1912 at Westbourne United Free Church, Glasgow, Mary married James Alexander Mackenzie a writer of 3 Queen’s Gardens, Glasgow. 12, 13 The couple moved to 11 Montgomerie Quadrant, Hillhead, Glasgow and by 1921 had three children, James Y., born 1914, Mona C., 1916 and Helen H., 1920. They also employed a table maid, cook and a nurse. 14 James Mackenzie died in 1960 aged 82. 15 Mary Mackenzie died on 10 October 1968 in a nursing home at 50 Cleveden Drive, Glasgow. She was 87 years old. 16 Her funeral was held at Glasgow Crematorium, Maryhill on 12 October. 17
References
Catalogue of Donations to Glasgow Museums, Glasgow Museums Resource Centre
VADS
Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
Glasgow Herald, 18 July 1877
Leitch, Mary Muir Paraffin Young and Friends, A Biography of James Young, 1811-1883, the World’s First Professional Oilman, Alan Fyfe, 2012
This painting was donated by ‘Miss Rule’ from Perthshire on 19 December 1951.1 According to Scotland’s People there were four ‘Miss Rules’ who died in Perthshire after 1951. Two of these were in the wrong timeframe and only one of the others was a ‘Miss’. This left the likely donor as being Miss Elsie Spiers Rule. 2
Elsie Spiers Rule was born at 7 Montgomerie Crescent, Kelvinside, Partick on 25 April 1879. Her birth was reported by Catherine Black, a nurse. Elsie’s parents were Robert Rule (a soft goods manufacturer) and Louisa Shand who had married on 9 June 1868 in Partick. 3 Elsie was their youngest child in a family of four girls (Louisa E. born 1871, Helen Margaret, born 1872, Mary Shand, born 1876 and Elsie) and a boy, Robert born 31 May 1873. 4
The family was at 7 Montgomerie Crescent in 1881 with Elsie S. Rule aged 1. Elsie’s father Robert who was born in Rothesay in 1837, was a ‘manufacturer of cotton and woollen dress goods employing twenty men and ten women’. 5 He was the second son of Robert Rule, a Paisley yarn merchant. Elsie’s mother, Louisa, was a sister of Baron Shand of Woodhouse, Dumfriesshire who sat as a Lord of Appeal in the House of Lords. She died on 28 September 1888 aged 53. 6, 7
All three of Elsie’s sisters married. On 19 January 1898, Louisa married J (I?) Graham, an East India Merchant at 7 Montgomerie Crescent. Two years later, on 18 April 1900, Helen, married J. D. Nimmo, also an East India Merchant at the same adress. Mary married Robert Spiers Fullarton, a General Practitioner at The Grant Arms, Grantown on Spey on 11 July 1908. Elsie was a witness at this wedding. 8
In 1891, Elsie and her sister Mary both scholars, were in Dollar visiting a Miss Jane Macalister in Academy Street, Eglinton Place. 9 Also present were Margaret Cameron, pupil governess and Elizabeth Birch, lady housekeeper. This latter person remained with the family until her death in 1939. 10
Eight years later, Elsie passed the Arts and Sciences Preliminary Examination at Glasgow University. 11 Her brother Robert had earlier graduated with an MA from the same University.
Elsie does not appear on the 1901 Census, however, her father Robert Rule aged 63, widowed, and retired was residing at Pokesdown, Hampshire. 12 The family home remained at 7 Montgomerie Crescent, Govan. 13 On 5 October 1905 a Miss E. S. Rule left England for Calcutta aboard the Oceana although it is not clear that this is the same Miss Rule. 14 In 1911, Elsie was still at 7 Montgomerie Crescent with her father and four servants, living next door to Mary Kirkpatrick (qv) who was also a donor of paintings to Glasgow. 15 On 6 December 1913, Elsie sailed from Glasgow to New York aboard the California. She had no occupation listed. 16
By 1915, Robert Rule had become the proprietor/occupier of Benachie House and Grounds in Crieff, as well as retaining his house at 7 Montgomerie Crescent, Govan. 17 Benachie was to become Elsie’s future home. The family seems to have taken up a prominent place in Crieff society. In 1921 Elsie attended the Crieff Highland Gathering among the ‘fashionable attendance’ in the grandstand. She was accompanied by Mrs Robert Rule and Miss Birch. 18 In the census of that year Elsie is listed at Benachie with her father and his grandson, also Robert, along with four servants. 19 Later, Elsie’s father acquired more property in Crieff with a house and offices in Ferntower Road. 20 Robert Rule died at Benachie on 19 October 1929 aged ninety-two. His death was reported by his son Robert. 21, 22,23
The following year, Elsie donated a view indicator to be placed on the Knock of Crieff, a small, wooded hill to the north of the town, in memory of her father. 24 The inscription reads:
IN MEMORY OF ROBERT RULE
BENACHIE CRIEFF
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help”
Fig. 2 View Indicator on the Knock of Crieff 25
Thereafter, Elsie Rule became ‘one of Crieff’s most respected residents, a lady who gave unstintingly of her wealth – through channels publicly and anonymously’. 26 In the same year as her father’s death she contributed £200 to the miners’ relief fund. 27 In 1934 she again travelled to America arriving in Boston on 1 September aboard the St. Louis. 28In 1940 she was still the proprietor of the house at 3 Cleveden Crescent, as well as Benachie House and grounds, The Haven, Ferntower Road West and a house on Ferntower Road, all Crieff. During the war years it was reported that she donated a ham to Crieff Cottage Hospital 29 and provided funds so that the men of the 3rd Battalion Home Guard could be provided with a ‘Balmoral’ in place of the F.S. Cap. 30 She attended various fund-raising events and at the Crieff Ladies’ Lifeboat Guild sale, held to raise funds for the RNLI, she won one dozen (13) eggs in a raffle. 31 She was especially generous to ex-servicemen who were down on their luck by providing money and purchasing of various items of clothing. She also supported events at Morrison’s Academy, presenting the Senior Shot Putt Cup in 1958. 32
In 1952, the year after her donation of the painting to Glasgow, she gifted her house ‘one of the finest mansions in Strathearn’ to Crieff Old Peoples’ Welfare Committee as a ‘home for old folks’. 33
Elsie Spiers Rule died aged 83 on 27 October 1962 at Benachie, Crieff. Her death was reported by her personal servant William F. Eades who was living at Benachie Cottage, Ferntower Place, Crieff. 34 A memorial service was held at Woodside Crematorium Chapel in Paisley on 30 October. 35
In the grounds of the crematorium stands a stone marking the Rule Family Memorial. An inscription contains the following information:
‘Erected in the Abbey burying ground by Robert Rule (Elsie’s grandfather), merchant in Paisley, in memory of Margaret Spiers his wife, who died 24th Sept 1842 aged 35 years, and was buried in the angle formed by the north transept and nave of the church, where was also buried Robert Rule (Elsie’s father) who died 7th Feb’y 1854, aged 53 years. This stone was removed by their son Robert, in consequence of the ground being required for the late repairs upon the Abbey Church and is placed here to mark the spot where lie the mortal remains of his beloved sisters’ (Helen, and Jessie Currie Rule).
Various tributes were paid to Elsie including at the AGM of the local Horticultural Society. An obituary in the local paper noted that she had ‘disbursed thousands of pounds to deserving causes and to people in Crieff and further afield over the past 30 years’. She was a Christian Scientist and attended the Crieff South Church. 36 In her will, she left £73,397. Her house at 3 Cleveden Crescent was left to her caretaker Ian David Eades and his wife Jean ‘with the hope that it would not be turned into flats’. Her chauffeur was given the house that he occupied at the time of her death. 37
The painting was initially owned by ‘Mrs Edwards’. (This was Ruth Edwards who with her husband, were Fantin-Latour’s British agents. He often visited the Edwards at Sunbury-on-Thames during the 1860s. 38,39 The painting was exhibited at the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Glasgow in 1892, cat. no. 369, as Baigneuses. It was priced at £31. This may have been where it was purchased by Robert Rule and passed to his daughter.
References
Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, List of Donations to Glasgow.
Scotland’s People, Death Certificates.
Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate.
Ibid
Scotland’s People, Census, 1881.
Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
Glasgow Herald, 29 September 1888
Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificates.
Scotland’s People, Census, 1891.
Scotland’s People, Death Certificate.
Glasgow Herald, 20April 1899, p3.
ancestry.co.uk, 1901 Census, England.
Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll 1905
ancestry.co.uk, UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960.
Scotland’s People, Census, 1911
ancestry.co.uk, UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960.
In 1956, the same couple donated two paintings by the same artist to Michigan State University via the Carlebach Gallery of New York. Information about these donations is contained in the following letters.
Fig. 3 Letter offering paintings. Michigan State University Archives, Used with permission.Fig. 4 Letter acknowledging receipt of the paintings. Michigan State University Archives, Used with permission.
These letters provided the background to Mr. E. K. Perry and gave an address to work from. One also provided some information about the artist. One of the paintings Dancing in Harlem was painted in the 1940s.
John Edmund Liggett was born on 11 June 1826 in St. Louis. He was a co-founder, in 1873, of the Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company which became the fourth largest tobacco company in America. The company had its origins in a snuff mill in New Egypt, New Jersey owned by Christopher Foulks. When the mill was destroyed by British soldiers in 1812, Foulks moved to Illinois and then to St. Louis to set up business. His daughter, Elizabeth married Joseph K. Liggett and their son John Edmund entered the business about 1845. The company became J. E. Liggett and Brother until a partnership was formed with George Smith Myers in 1873. 2
John Liggett married Elizabeth J. Calbreath on 21 December 1851. 3 They had one son and four daughters one of whom, Dorothy (‘Dolly’) married Claude Kilpatrick about 1883. One of their two daughters, Mary Lois Kilpatrick (born 1885) married Eugene Albert Perry and their only son, Eugene Kilpatrick Perry was born in New York on 18 December 1918. 4 In the fourteenth US Census of 1920 5 the family was living in Manhattan with Eugene A. Perry a stockbroker aged 39, born in Virginia. However, his wife, a ‘housewife’, is listed as Georganne Perry aged 34, born in St. Louis.
In 1927, the nine-year-old Eugene and his parents sailed from New York aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam. They arrived at Plymouth on 12 September before travelling on to London and staying at the Park Lane Hotel. 6
In the 1930 census 7 the details are essentially the same as in 1920, but the wife’s name is now Lois K. Perry who is aged 44. The family was employing three maids and a servant. Shortly after this, Eugene’s parents were divorced, and his mother married Russell L. McIntosh a textile dealer. In 1934, Eugene, with his mother and stepfather, were in Hamilton, Bermuda and on 6 April sailed from there aboard the S.S. Monarch of Bermuda, arriving in New York on 8 April. The family’s address was now Darien, Fairfield, Connecticut. 8 Later in August the same year, Eugene, aged fifteen, sailed with his family to Britain. They left Southampton on 25 August aboard the S.S. Statendam and arrived in New York on 1 September. 9 The following year, after a stay in the Ritz Hotel in London, the family left Southampton aboard the S.S. Bremen on 11 September 1935 bound for New York. Russell L. McIntosh was now retired, and Eugene was a student aged 16. 10 In 1937, the family was again on holiday. This time leaving Vancouver, British Columbia on 7 August and sailing to Hawaii aboard the S.S. Empress of Canada. They arrived in Honolulu on 12 August and stayed at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. 11 On 1 September 1939, the family sailed from Buenos Aires aboard S.S. Brazil arriving in New York on 18 September. Their address was East Trail, Darien, Connecticut. 12
In the census of 1940 13 Eugene was at the same address ‘stepson to Russell L. McIntosh’, aged 21. His parents were in Miami and the family employed three servants, all German.
In 1940, Eugene competed a Draft Registration Form giving his address and stating that he was unemployed. It also gave some personal details. On 18 November he enlisted for three years in Battery C of the 207th Coastal Artillery, National Guard.
Fig. 5 Draft Registration Form 14
Eugene’s father, Eugene Albert Perry died aged sixty-four on 26 May 1944 in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was a stockbroker divorced from Lois Kilpatrick Hayes. 15 A Florida state census of 1945 recorded Eugene K. at Boca Raton with his mother and stepfather. His occupation was ‘army’. 16
Fig. 6 Posting and Demobilisation 17
Eugene was demobilised on 13 January 1946 and on 12 March he married Cristina DeLeon in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Fig. 7 Marriage License 18
A report of the wedding in a local newspaper contained the information that Eugene was an ‘alumnus of the Hun School in Princeton, N. J. and that he enlisted in the old 7th Regiment of New York’. ‘Until recently (he) served in the Army Medical Corps in the Philippines and Japan’. In the same report, Cristina was described as the ‘daughter of Mrs. Amanda B. de Leon of 1185 Park Ave., New York’. One of the bridesmaids was Miss Nara de Leon, the bride’s sister. Cristina’s father was ‘the late Diego de Leon of Madrid and her grandfather was Rafael Lopez Andrade, court painter to the late King Alfonso’. A reception took place ‘at the winter home of the bridegroom’s mother, Mrs. Russell L. McIntosh, and Mr. McIntosh in Boca Raton’. 19
The bride’s mother was Amanda Rangel, daughter of Domingo Rangel and Luisa Espinal. She was born in Caracas, Venezuela on 19 April 1901.20 She married Diego De Leon and had three children: Ester born 27.10.1917, Edna (27.12.1918) and Ralph (21.7.1922) Diego died in May 1922 and Amanda married Albert Bencid. Her children took their stepfather’s surname. However, Albert died in 1923 and Amanda emigrated to the United States with her family. She landed at New York on 13 May 1924, aboard the S.S. Prins Frederik Hendrik. This information is contained in her application for naturalisation. When she applied, on 29March 1938 she was living at 353 Central Park West, New York. 21 She was granted naturalisation on 19 December 1940. Her address was now 1 West 85th Street, New York and her occupation was ‘housekeeper’. She declared that all children were the issue of (her) first husband, Diego de Leon, who died in May 1922 in British West Indies. She also stated that all her children were born in the British West Indies rather than in Caracas as stated previously. Her witnesses were a millinery designer and an art student perhaps reflecting her own artistic endeavours. 22
Fig. 8 (Ref. 21)
At some point after entering the US, both daughters changed their names, Ester Bencid became Nara de Leon and Edna became Christina (or Cristina) de Leon. In the 1940 census, Amanda Bencid was living in Manhatten, a widow aged 39 with no occupation listed. With her were her son Ralph Bencid, 17, and daughters, Nara de Leon, 21, and Cristina de Leon, 20. Both daughters were employed as models in advertising. All four were listed as born in Venezuela.23
Cristina completed a Declaration of Intention to seek naturalisation on 30 April 1938. She stated that her full name was ‘Christina de Leon of 352 Central Park West, New York. She was born in Trinidad, B.W.I. on 27 December 1918 and had arrived in the US on 13 May 1924 under the name of Edna Bencid. She was a model and had dark hair, brown eyes and was five foot three inches tall.
Fig. 9 (from ref. 24)
A petition for naturalisation was completed two years later. Her address was now 1 West 85th Street and she was an art student. 24 On 8 December Cristina was issued with a passport. She became a US citizen in July 1942. 25 Her sister, Nara, received naturalisation on 7 June 1943. She stated she was born on 27 October 1917 in Port of Spain, British West Indies. Cristina and her mother were witnesses, both living at 1185 Park Avenue, New York. Cristina’s occupation was ‘artist’ and her mother’s ‘housewife’. They both claimed to have known Nara continuously in the United States since 13 May 1924. 26
On 21 May 1949, Eugene’s mother, Mary Lois Kilpatrick McIntosh died aged 64 in New York. She had been married three times. Firstly, to Louis Lee Hayes in 1907, secondly to Eugene Albert Perry and finally, to Russell L. McIntosh. In 1928 she inherited a one-million-dollar estate from her mother Dolly Kilpatrick. She was buried in the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis on 24 May. 27
On 28 December 1949 the family again set sail, this time bound for Genoa, Italy. Eugene and Cristina were accompanied by Amanda Bencid, Nara and her husband Gerard Heim. The ship, S.S. Vulcania left New York and was due to arrive in Genoa on 8 January 1950. According to the ship’s manifest, Eugene, Cristina and Amanda planned to stay abroad for six months while the Heims’ stay was to be indefinite. 28
However, there was obviously a change of plans as on 7 April 1950 the whole family Amanda Bencin, Andrew Gerard Heim, Nara Heim, Eugene Kilpatrick Perry, Cristina Perry, all with an address at 1185 Park Avenue, New York, arrived at La Guardia airport from Maiquetja, Venezuela.29 The census of 9 April 1950 records that Nara E. Heim, aged 28, born in Venezuela, was married to Andrew G. Heim, aged 35, born in New York. He was a freelance artist. 30 Nara Heim was now a painter and sculptor with works in several galleries.
After their return, the Perrys moved to Pelham, New York – one of the oldest settlements in the USA. On 7 March 1952, they set off on a cruise accompanied by Amanda aged 50 and her son Ralph, 29. They all gave their addresses as 165 Boulevard, Pelham, New York. Cristina’s age is mistakenly listed as 25. The cruise was aboard Nieuw Amsterdam and returned to New York on 15 March. 31
Cristina Perry became an accomplished portrait painter. ‘She recently painted a large portrait of Helen Hayes which the actress claimed was the only one ever to capture her true likeness and personality’.
Fig. 10 Helen Hayes by Cristina Perry. US National Portrait Gallery website.
Due to the favourable reception of this painting, a second one, depicting Helen Hayes in her role of Queen Victoria, was commissioned. Both canvases were placed on exhibition in the Helen Hayes Theatre. 32
Fig. 11. Pelham artist, Cristina Perry (right) and Helen Hayes, take a pleased look at the picture of the actress painted by Miss Perry. The occasion was the unveiling of two portraits executed by Miss Perry.’ 33
Cristina also wrote an account of her meeting with Miss Hayes which took place in the Spring of 1956.
Cristina Perry, one of the country’s distinguished portrait artists who makes her home on the Boulevard, Pelham Heights, with an artist’s sensitivity records impressions both on her canvas and with words. Her work brings her into contact with many of the world’s great and near great and she presents for Pelham Sun readers this week a discerning pen portrait of one of her famous sitters, Helen Hays.
A member of a notable artistic family. Mrs Perry, wife of E. K. Perry, is the daughter of artist Amanda de Leon and sister of another artist Nara Heim. They all make their home in Pelham.34
Thereafter, the couple set about disposing of their collection of Amanda de Leon art. This consisted of donations to various art museums around the world. Cristina gave two paintings, Summer and FlowerVendor to the Lowe Art Museum in Miami on 12 January 1953 35 and Eugene is credited with donations to the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona 36 and the Kunsthaus in Zurich in 1954.37 Thereafter the donations are invariably made under their joint names. Information from the Kunstmuseum in Basel may indicate how the donations were made.
‘The work (Evening in the Country) was bequeathed to the Kunstmuseum by Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Kilpatrick Perry in 1954. According to a letter (in the museum archives), they decided to give a work to the museum after a visit to Basel. The work was shipped from New York to Basel in the spring of 1954 after the Kunstmuseum confirmed its acceptance. There is no evidence that Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Kilpatrick Perry personally delivered it to Basel. According to the archive, a selection of several works was presented to the museum, which then decided on Evening in the Country. The only information we have about the artist Amanda de Leon is that she was born in Madrid on April 19, 1908, and trained in Caracas, Venezuela, before becoming an American citizen. She is also described as a peintre naif.’ 38
In 1954 they donated two paintings to Glasgow and on 23 November 1955 they gave ‘two modern paintings by Amanda de Leon, Boy with Dogs and At the Horse Races’ to the Art Gallery of the University of Notre Dame to ‘augment the galleries’ growing collection of modern art’. 39 A label from the reverse of Park Scene confirms their donation to the Saginaw Museum, Michigan in 1956. 40
Fig. 12. Label from reverse of Park Scene. From auctioneers Du Mouchelles website.
On 3 February 1957, the McGuire Hall Art Galleries in Richmond, Indiana were gifted a painting Mother and Child by Nara Heim, sister of Christina Perry. This was donated via the Carlebach galleries of New York. (A list of the couple’s other donations is contained in the appendix)
In 1957, Eugene and Christina embarked on a cruise aboard the British ship T.S.S.Ocean Monarch to Hamilton, Bermuda and Nassau, Bahamas. They left New York on 15 February returning to New York on 23February. In the column headed ‘U.S. Passport Number/Place of Birth’ Cristina’s details are listed as ‘U. S. Dist. CT. N.Y.C Dec. 8/40, S. America’. 41
In 1960, the following intimation appeared in the Pelham Sun,
Mr and Mrs Eugene Kilpatrick Perry have moved from the Boulevard to New Rochelle. They have purchased a new home at 100 Pryer Terrace.42
Fig. 13. – 100 Pryer Terrace, New Rochelle (Redfin Real Estate App)
However, before moving they donated two oil paintings by Amanda de Leon, Peasant Woman of Avila, Spain, and Shanti Town to the Hunter Art Gallery, Chattanooga on 8 September 1962. 43
Amanda Bencin (Rangel, de Leon), Cristina’s mother, and the artist responsible for all the paintings, died on 1 March 1996 in Miami Beach, Florida aged ninety-five. 44
Having retired to Miami, Eugene Kilpatrick Perry died at 5080 Alton Road Miami-Dade, Miami Beach on 11 May 1998 aged seventy-nine. His occupation was ‘Investor in Stock Market’, married to Cristina De Leon who was the informant. 45 Ralph Bencid (de Leon) died at Broward, Florida on 2 August 2001. He was 79. 46
References
Catalogue of donations to Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow
Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 4.0
Nisinger, Connie, findagrave.com
ancestry.com, Find a Grave Memorial ID 107675665, US Records
ancestry.com, United States Census 1920
ancestry.com, UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960
ancestry.com, U.S. Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island) 1820 – 1957
ancestry.com, UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890 -1960ancestry.com, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1900 – 1959
ancestry.com, U.S. Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island) 1820 – 1957
ancestry.com, United States Census 1940
Connecticut, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940 – 1945,
The Palm Beach Post, West Palm Beach, Florida, 13 Mar 1946 also reported in The Miami News
familySearch.org, United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007database,
New York, U.S. District and Circuit Court Naturalization Records, 1824-1991, familysearch.org
ibid
ancestry.com, United States Census 1940
familysearch.org, New York, U.S. District and Circuit Court Naturalization Records, 1824-1991
ancestry.com New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1967, S.S. New York, U.S. District and Circuit Court Naturalization Records, 1824-1991, familysearch.org
St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 23 May 1949
ancestry.com New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1967, S.S. Vulcania
familysearch.org, New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists 1909, 1925-1957
familysearch.org, United States Census 9 April 1950
ancestry.com, New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820 – 1957
Pelham Sun, 2 August 1956
Pelham Sun, 5 December 1957
ibid
Information from the Lowe Art Museum, Miami, by email.
Information from MACBA, Centre d’Estudis, Barcelona, by email
Information from the Kunsthaus Zurich, by email
Information from the Kunstmuseum Basel by email
University of Note Dame, Dept. of Public Information, 18 November 1955
The painting was auctioned by Du Mouchelles, 409 East Jefferson Ave., Detroit in July 2016. Image from their website.
ancestry.com, U.S. Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island) 1820 – 1957
familysearch.org, United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007
Ibid
Ibid
Appendix 1
Paintings by Amanda de Leon Donated by the Perrys
Title Year of Gallery Donation
Flower Vendor 1953 Lowe Museum, Miami* Summer 1953 Lowe Museum, Miami* Man with Snakes 1954 Kunsthaus, Zurich * Nativity 1954 Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona * Evening in the 1954 Kunstmuseum, Basel * Country (1953) Spanish Dancers 1954 Glasgow Museums * The Papaya Tree 1954 Glasgow Museums * Girls with Kittens 1954 Musee des Beaux Arts Lausanne * Chinatown 1954 Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin * Night Scene 1954 Art Gallery of Toronto * Tropical Scene 1954 Hamburger, Kunsthalle * Boy with Dogs 1955 Notre Dame * At the Horse Races 1955 Notre Dame * Park Scene(1950) 1956 Saginaw Museum, Michigan * In the Seminary 1956 Krannert Art Museum, Ill* Dancing in Harlem 1956 Krannert Art Museum, Ill* Peasant Woman of 1962 Hunter Art Gallery, Chattanooga* Avila, Spain Shanti Town 1962 Hunter Art Gallery, Chattanooga.*
Others probably donated by the Perrys but not confirmed.
Gypsy Cave Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna (4) The Market Place Municipal Art Museum, Dusseldorf (4) Volcano Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum Linz, Austria (4) Cock Fight Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paulo (4) Convent Bound National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (B) Scene from “Giselle” Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Genoa (B) The Bathers National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (B) On the Lake National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome (B)
N.B. * Confirmed by the museum; “4” Is from 4rarefinds a seller on eBay. The seller lists prints of Amanda’s paintings for sale and helpfully gives the gallery where the originals can be found. “B” indicates information from a book containing prints of Amanda’s paintings. (Osbourne, Duncan, Contemporary Masterpieces Series, 1954.)
Some, possibly all of these donations were arranged through the Carlebach Gallery in New York. The Perrys also offered a painting to the Tate Gallery in London which was declined.
Paintings Sold at Auction Nuns on Horseback Sold 2017 Du Mouchelles, Detroit $150.00 Farm Scene c1940 Sold 2008 Toomey & Co.
On occasion, the Perrys also donated paintings by Cristina’s sister, Nara e.g. Mother and Child, 1957 to the McGuire Hall, Richmond *
Appendix 2
Amanda de Leon (1901 – 1996)
It has been difficult to pin down this artist. This is partly because references to her always give her dates as 1908 – 1990 and state that she was born in Madrid, the daughter of Rafael Andrade, ‘a well-known portrait painter in his own right’.1 However, it has been impossible to trace any reference to this painter. Initial findings said she was raised in Venezuelaand educated at theSan Jose de Tarbes, Convent in Caracas.2 She lived in the US in Pelham, New York throughout her creative period.3 She painted mainly on Masonite (hardboard) and was described as a Peintre naif.4
In fact, she was born Amanda Rangel in Caracas, Venezuela on 19 April 1901, the daughter of Domingo Rangel and Luisa Espinal.5 She married Diego de Leon about 1917 and had three children, all born in the British West Indies; Esther, 27 October 1917, Edna, 27 December 1918 and Ralph 21 July 1922. Diego died in May 1922, and she moved back to Caracas. She then married Albert Bencid on 15 April 1923, but he died the same year. She emigrated to the United States from La Guaira, Venezuela arriving on 13 May 1924 aboard the Prins Frederik Hendrik. At the time she applied for naturalisation she was living at 1 West 85th Street, New York and was employed as a housekeeper. 6
In the 1940 census, she is listed as Amanda Bencid and was living in Manhattan, a widow aged 39 with no occupation given. With her were her son Ralph Bencid, 17, and daughters, Nara de Leon, 21, and Cristina de Leon, 20. 7 After her daughter Cristina (formerly Edna) married Eugene Kilpatrick Perry in 1946, Amanda moved in with her daughter and son-in-law at 1185 Park Avenue, New York. On 28 December 1949 she sailed with the family including her daughter Nara (formerly Esther) and Nara’s husband Andrew Gerard Heim, to Genoa arriving there on 8 January 1950. The visit must have been curtailed as on 7 April 1950 the whole family arrived at La Guardia Airport, New York having visited Venezuela. Shortly after this, the family moved to 165 Boulevard, Pelham NY which was the address given when Amanda this time accompanied by her son Ralph as well as Eugene and Cristina cruised from New York aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam.
The following year, her daughter and son-in-law began donating some of Amanda’s paintings to various art museums around the world. This began with a gift to the Lowe Museum in Miami of Flower Vendor and Summer.
In 1954 a booklet of copies of fourteen of her paintings was published in the Contemporary Masterpieces series with an introduction by Duncan Osbourne.
A volume of color reproductions of paintings by Amanda de Leon, noted artist who resides at 165 Boulevard, Pelham Heights has recently been published by the Fine Arts Publishers of New York. The paintings reproduced in the book are from the collections of museums in 14 different countries.
Miss de Leon’s works are represented in over 50 major museums throughout the world, including the Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris, the National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome, the Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona and the Glasgow Art Gallery, Scotland.
Universally famous, Amanda de Leon is considered to be one of the most notable self-taught painters of the generation. 8
Each painting has a legend indicating the gallery to which the original was donated. However, there is little in the way of biographical detail. One copy of the book was gifted to the Joslyn Memorial Art Library in 1957 by Eugene Kilpatrick Perry.
Exhibition of Paintings by Amanda de Leon An exhibition of paintings by internationally known Amanda de Leon of 165 Boulevard began Monday at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Conn. The one-man show will continue until Jan. 30. Many of the works on display have been loaned by museums, universities and distinguished private collectors. Miss de Leon, outstanding in the primitive style, has had several one-man shows in Paris and New York. 9
In 1955 she held an exhibition of her works in Washington D.C. Venezuelan painter Amanda de Leon held a successful exhibition of her works last June at the Pan American Union building in Washington D.C. by special invitation extended to her by that organisation.10
And later the same year she had an exhibition at the Carlebach Gallery in New York.
Paintings of Amanda de Leon on Exhibition A reception in honor of Amanda de Leon famous Pelham artist was opened on Monday evening September 19 by Mrs. Vincent R. Impellitteri wife of the former mayor of New York City. The occasion was the opening of her new exhibition of paintings at the Carlebach Gallery of 943 Third Avenue in New York. Many notables attended the reception including leading artists, sculptors and museum directors. Miss de Leon resides on the Boulevard, Pelham Heights. Last week Mayor Stanley W. Church of New Rochelle appointed Amanda de Leon as ambassador at large of New Rochelle. As the artists paintings hang in over (?) major museums throughout the world, Mayor Church said she has done a wonderful job fostering cultural relations between this country and the nations where her work is exhibited. Miss de Leon who is one of the leading contemporary painters of our time is noted for her originality and mastery of color and design. Although the daughter of a famous portrait painter of Madrid, the artist is independent of any tradition and paints in a style completely her own. The forcefulness and vitality of her work is enhanced by her rich and sumptuous colors. Amanda de Leon is the mother of two daughters, Cristina Perry and Nara Heim, successful artists themselves who are following in the footsteps of their illustrious mother. During the exhibition at the Carlebach Gallery, Miss de Leon will be the subject of numerous interviews on radio and television shows. 11
Five Years Ago Pelham Artist Amanda de Leon, an internationally known painter, has been included in the 1957 edition of “Who’s Who in the East,” as well as “Who’s Who in American Art.” The artist, whose paintings are represented in over 70 major museums throughout the world, is currently having a one-woman show in the Museum of Modern Art in Genoa. Subsequently, the exhibit will travel to museums in Barcelona and Dusseldorf. Amanda de Leon is the mother of the well-known artists Christina Perry and Nara Heim, all of whom have their residence and studios at 165 Boulevard. 12 Presumably Amanda continued to paint but there is no record after this point of any further donations of her artworks. Amanda de Leon (nee Rangel), also known as Amanda Bencid, died on 1 March 1996 aged ninety-five in Miami Beach, Miami-Dade, Florida. 13
Information from the archives of the Kunstmuseum Basel via. Marion Keller
familysearch.org, United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (Numident), 1936-2007
familysearch.org, Petition for Naturalisation 19 December 1940
ancestry.com, U.S. Census, 1940 (Check same as before)
Pelham Sun, 28 April 1955
Pelham Sun, 14 January 1954
Venezuela Up-to-date, 1956, Volumes 7-10, p 19. Google e-book.
Pelham Sun 22 September 1955
Pelham Sun 4 October 1962
Florida Death Records (Check)
Appendix 3
Nara Heim
Ester de Leon was born in Port-au-Spain Trinidad on 27 October 1917 to Diego de Leon and Amanda Rangel. When her father died, her mother married Albert Bencid and Ester took his name. After emigrating to the United States, she adopted her father’s surname and changed her first name to Nara. She worked as a photographic model in New York before marrying Andrew Gerard Heim. She studied at the Art Students League of New York and at the National Academy of Design School also in New York,and the Sculpture Center in New York.1 She exhibited at the Carlebach Gallery, New York (1950), New Rochelle AA (1952*, 1954), Manor Club (1952* – 1954), Westchester Arts and Crafts (1954 – 1955*) and Mount Vernon AA (1955*). (* Her exhibit was awarded a prize). Her work was exhibited at Everhart Museum of Art, Scranton, PA; Lyman Allyn Museum; Howard University; Farnsworth Museum of Art, Wellesley, MA; Georgia Museum of Art, Athens; Hickory Museum of Art, NC; and Mills College, Oakland, CA.2 She has an entry in Who Was Who in American Art, 1564 – 1975. 3 Nara Heim died on 13 March 2004 in Miami Shores. 4
In 2010, the following appeared on an art auction site,
Nara Heim painting (Venezuela/New York, born 1921), “The Sun Bathers”, signed upper right “Nara Heim”, mixed media on Masonite, 30 x 20 in.; lattice style gilt and painted wood frame. Some losses to composition material; frame with abrasions. Carlebach Gallery, New York City; Mr. and Mrs. E.K. Perry, Pelham, New York; Property of the Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, North Carolina. 5
References (Appendix 3)
askart.com
fr.artprice.com
Who Was Who in American Art, 1564 – 1975, Falk, Peter Hastings, 1999
Isabella Ure’s parents were Alexander Ure (b.1788), a writer in Glasgow, and his wife Mary Ross (b.1800) the daughter of a grocer in the Gorbals. Alexander and Mary had married on 4 December 1819 in the Gorbals and had four children; John Francis, b. 1820, Margaret, b. 1822, d. 1829; Mary, b. 1824, d. 1826; and Isabella who was born on 15 March 1828 at 13 St. Vincent Place, Glasgow. Isabella of Alexander Ure and Mary Rofs in Hutchesontown, 15th March, bapt. 27th1 Alexander Ure died on 23 November 1830 when Isabella was only two years old and was buried in the Old Gorbals Cemetery alongside his two infant daughters. Mary Ure and her two surviving children moved to 145 Hill Street, Garnethill. Later John Francis was sent to a boarding school in England leaving Mary and Isabella on their own. In the 1851 Census, they were visiting 34 Portland Street, Gorbals 2. John Ure became a civil engineer and then Resident Engineer with the Clyde Trust. In this capacity he is likely to have met John Elder of ‘Randolph, Elder and Co.’, marine engineers on the Clyde. There would then follow an introduction to his sister Isabella. In any event, on the 31 March 1857 ‘in her mother`s home’, Isabella, now aged 28 married John Elder (b. 1824) master engineer and shipbuilder 3. He was the third son of the marine engineer David Elder. The service was conducted by the Rev. Norman MacLeod after banns had been read in the Barony Church where Isabella was a member. An ante nuptial contract had been signed on 30 March 1857. By this agreement, Isabella was free to do whatever she wished with her own estate without reference to her husband. In the event of his death all his estate was to pass to her. After their marriage, John and Isabella moved as tenants to 121 Bath Street (built in 1840) and were listed there with three servants in the 1861 Census 4. The business of ‘Randolph and Elder’ which was concerned in the manufacture of marine engines, continued to flourish and in 1863 the Fairfield Estate in Govan was purchased, and the firm diversified into shipbuilding. This necessitated a move by John and Isabella to Elmpark, a villa in Govan Road. The Elders seem to have been very happy together sharing a common interest in music (Isabella played the piano) and they had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances among whom were Professor Macquorn Rankine, Regius Chair of Civil Engineering and Mechanics at Glasgow University and the Reverend Norman Macleod who was later to preach to Queen Victoria at Crathie Church. Both John and Isabella had strong religious convictions and were motivated to try to improve the lot of their Govan workforce. Apprentices were encouraged to attend evening classes with expenses paid where necessary; an accident fund was set up and a cooking depot provided at the gate of the shipyard. The business was expanding and when Charles Randolph retired in 1868 it was renamed ‘John Elder and Company’. However, in 1869, John Elder`s health began to decline. He and Isabella went to London to consult specialists, but it was to no avail. John Elder died in London on 17 September 1869. His body was returned to Glasgow and interred in the Necropolis on 23 September. The business of John Elder and Co. now employed about five thousand workers and had many orders to fulfill. For nine months after John Elder`s death, Isabella ran the business single-handedly until strain and exhaustion forced her to seek partners. The senior partner nominated was her brother John Francis Ure. It was also at this time that she decided to move from Govan back to Glasgow. She bought Claremont House, a mansion in the West End which had been designed by John Baird I and built in 1842. Also, at this time because of the state of her health, Isabella was advised by her doctor to embark on a tour of the Continent. She and a lady companion, Miss Caroline Jay set of from Glasgow in November 1870 apparently with no great enthusiasm. She wrote,
I certainly expected no enjoyment from this Continental tour but went as a duty – I was too crushed by my great sorrow and unnerved by long anxiety and fatigue during Mr. Elder`s illness and afterwards, to look to the right or the left for anything of the kind.
They visited England, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Italy. While staying at the Hotel Danieli in Venice they first encountered the man Isabella referred to in her notes as ‘the Russian’ and later just as ‘R’. After her return to Glasgow in May 1871, ‘R’ turned up unexpectedly at Claremont House. He subsequently proposed marriage in a letter. She immediately wrote back rejecting his proposal which she had received with some alarm. In the summer of 1872, Isabella travelled to Florence to commission a bust of her late husband. On the way she received two letters from ‘R’ one of which claimed they were now engaged! While she was staying at Ems on the return journey ‘R’ turned up at her hotel. He pleaded with her to give him money to repay a debt. ‘I, very foolishly perhaps, gave him £50….‘ On this visit, ’R’ also met John Francis Ure who was visiting his sister but who was unaware of the situation between them. All three left Ems to journey to Metz where they visited the battlefields of the Franco-Prussian war. On the way, Isabella lent ‘R’ her watch which had been a present from her husband and precious to her. In October 1872, ‘R’ turned up unexpectedly at Claremont House and was asked to stay to dinner to meet John Francis. Before dinner he apparently said to her, ‘If you don`t accept me, I`ll hunt you like a Red Indian as long as you live’. This eventually prompted Isabella to tell her brother the whole story. He visited ‘R’ and told him to discontinue his visits. Later, through her lawyer, Isabella received her letters and her watch. She never saw ‘R’ again. In the 1880s a man called Romanoff was executed in Paris. Her law agent at the time told her that ‘R’ and Romanoff were one and the same. Isabella was now a wealthy widow with a comfortable and commodious house. Its walls were hung with pictures including A Lake Scene by Corot and Flowers by Narcisse Diaz which were later bequeathed to Glasgow. However, she felt the need to return something to the community, especially that of Govan where her husband had made his fortune. She began in 1873 by giving £5000 to Glasgow University as a ‘supplementary endowment’ to the Chair of Civil Engineering in memory of her husband. This ‘augmented the Professor`s salary ….. by £225 a year’5. Professor McQuorn Rankine was a close friend whom Isabella held in high regard. Earlier that year he had published a Memoir of John Elder which had a very favourable reception in the press. (Professor Rankine was also one of those who proposed the idea of supplying Glasgow`s water from Loch Katrine). Isabella`s mother died in Dunoon in 1876 aged 79 years. Her death was reported by Isabella`s brother John Francis 6. Because of failing health, John Francis retired in 1878 and took up residence in Cannes. Isabella spent the winters there with him until he died of a stroke in 1883. In 1883 Isabella gave a further donation of £12,000 to Glasgow University to endow the “John Elder Chair of Naval Architecture” the first such chair of its kind in the world. In the same year, she purchased 37 acres of land opposite Elder`s shipyard and had it turned into a park for the people of Govan at a total cost estimated at £50,000. The park was eventually opened in 1885 by the Earl of Roseberry amid great fanfare and a public holiday.
Figure 1. Isabella Elder (The Bailie, 12 December 1883).
In 1884, Isabella bought North Park House and grounds near the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow for £12,000 and gave it to Queen Margaret College (QMC) to be used for the Higher Education of Women on condition that the College raised £20,000 as an endowment fund. When Queen Victoria visited the College in 1888, Isabella was presented to her as ‘a true benefactress to women`s education’. To commemorate the visit, Isabella presented the College with a new set of gates for the main entrance. Reporting on a Bazaar organized to raise funds for the endowment of the College, the Glasgow Evening Times observed that Mrs. Elder, who gave the opening speech, ‘is a buxom, well-preserved lady, with a self-possessed manner, and she said what she had to say with calm deliberation’. 7 She was then 64 years old. As a result of the bazaar, the endowment fund was now raised, and Isabella gifted North Park house and grounds to the university in October 1893. When the College extended its teaching to include female medical students, Isabella undertook to meet the running costs for the first few years. The College became incorporated into the University of Glasgow and the first female medical students graduated in 1894. Another project with which Isabella was involved was the School of Domestic Economy in Govan. The aim was ‘to improve the ability of women to cook nutritious meals cheaply and well and also to manage a home’. This was established in 1885 in the Broomloan Halls. Isabella met all the costs of the School and contributed money for prizes. An article praising the work of the school appeared in the British Medical Journal 8. She was one of the subscribers (ordering two copies) to Memoirs and Portraits of One Hundred Glasgow Men in 1886. This contained entries for both her husband and brother 9. A statue of John Elder which had been paid for by public subscription was unveiled in the Elder Park, Govan on 28July 1888. In 1891, Isabella arranged and paid for a course of lectures to be given at QMC on Astronomy. This was to continue for three years. She also gave an orrery to QMC. In her will she left £5000 to the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College to found a course of lectures on astronomy. These ‘David Elder Lectures’ (named after her father-in-law) are still given today at the University of Strathclyde. Isabella continued to take an interest in medical education for women both in Queen Margaret College and elsewhere. In October 1895 she gave an address to the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women in which she described what had been established in Glasgow at QMC. She concluded,
It is always a great happiness to me when women, wherever educated, distinguish themselves and prove their sex worthy of the higher education so long withheld.
In 1901 as part of the 450th anniversary celebrations of the University of Glasgow, Isabella was one of four women awarded an Honorary LLD degree. This was the first-time women had been awarded honorary degrees by the university. In the same year she provided a home in Govan for the Cottage Nurses Training Scheme and donated £27,000 to establish the Elder Park Library which was opened by Andrew Carnegie in 1903.
Figure. 2 The Elder Park Library. (photograph by author)
She also gave £5000 to the building fund of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. Another gift, the Elder Cottage Hospital was opened in Govan in 1903. Isabella paid all of the hospital expenses up till her death and in her will she gave an endowment of £50,000 to assist with running costs Isabella Elder died at home on 18 November 1905 leaving an estate valued at £159,404. 0s. 6d. (about £15,000,000 today). Her death certificate stated that she died of heart failure, gout, bronchitis and cerebral effusion 10. Appropriately it was signed by Dr. Marion Gilchrist – the first female medical student to graduate from Queen Margaret College. Isabella was buried in the Elder Family Tomb in the Necropolis on 22 November 1905.
Figure 3. The Elder Family Tomb in the Glasgow Necropolis. (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)
A statue of Mrs. Elder, paid for by public subscription, was unveiled in Elder Park on 13 October 1906 by the Duchess of Montrose. In the same year the ‘Ure-Elder Fund for Indigent Widows of Glasgow and Govan’ was set up under the terms of her will.
Figure 4. Statue of Isabella Elder in the Elder Park in Govan. (photograph by author)
The 500th anniversary of the University of Glasgow was marked in 1951 with the erection of new wrought iron gates at the main entrance. These incorporated the names of twenty-eight people associated with the University. One of these was Isabella Elder – the only woman so honoured.
Figure 5. Glasgow University Main Entrance Gates. (photograph by author)
References
Much of the material for this report was taken from the biography of Isabella Elder The Lady of Claremont House, Isabella Elder, Pioneer and Philanthropist, by C. Joan McAlpine, Argyll Publishing, 1997.
The same author also wrote the entry for Isabella Elder in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, OUP 2004-13, May 2006.
Scotland`s People, OPR, Glasgow, 1828.
Scotland`s People, Census Record 1851
Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
Scotland’s People, Census, Glasgow, 1861
The Bailie, 12 December 1883.
Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
Glasgow Evening Times, 25 November 1892.
British Medical Journal, 14 June 1890.
Memoirs and Portraits of One HundredGlasgow Men etc. Maclehose, James & Sons,Glasgow, 1886
Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
Appendix 1
Mrs. Isabella Elder of 6 Claremont Terrace, Glasgow, bequeathed twenty paintings to Glasgow in February 1906:
Oil. John Linnell. (1792-1882). The Disobedient Prophet (1854). Acquisition 1153. Destroyed by enemy action 1939-451
Oil. James Archer R.S.A. (1823-1904). Portrait of J. F. Ure (1884). Acquisition 1171.
Oil. Sir Daniel Macnee P.R.S.A. (1806-1882). Portrait of John Elder (after 1826). Acquisition 1172.
Another version of this painting is in the Harris Museum and Art Gallery.
This was called Hero and Leander.
This was bought at Sir Richard Wallace`s sale as by Canaletto.
This was painted by Sir Peter Lely and had the title, Nell Gwynne.
This was by Artois ‘with figures added by Teniers’.
She also gifted busts of John Elder by Powers, David Elder, senior by Ewing and Diana by Powers.
Appendix 2
Isabella Elder`s Will – Abridged – The Scotsman, 24 November 1905, p 8.
The trustees are instructed to hand over to the Corporation of Glasgow the following paintings in the house at 6, Claremont Terrace, Glasgow, along with the busts of John Elder by Powers, of David Elder, sen., by Ewing and of “Diana” by Powers.
“The Disobedient Prophet”, by John Linnell, “Hero and Leander”, by Armitage, “Royalists Seeking Safety”, by Marcus Stone, “Grand Canal Venice”, bought at Sir Richard Wallace`s sale as by Canaletto, “Sea Piece”, by Lambinet, “Nell Gwynne”, by Sir Peter Lely, “Roses”, by Diaz, “Wood Scene”, by Corot, “Four Faces”, by Fosco Fritta, “Passing the Cross”, by Goodall, “The Chess Players”, by Serra, “Playmates”, by Duverger, “Sea View” by Peter Graham, “Loch Achray”, by Sam Bough, “Cattle”, by Cooper, “Sheep”, by Cooper, “Children Coming from School”, by Lionel Smythe, And landscapes by Artois, with figures added by Teniers.
They are also directed to hand over to the Corporation the portraits of the testator’s late brother and husband upon the condition that the two pictures be hung together in such gallery or other suitable place as the Corporation may see fit to locate them in. And, in addition to the paintings and portraits enumerated above the trustees are given the fullest power, should they think fit to do so, to hand over to the Corporation of Glasgow such others of the remaining paintings and watercolours as the Corporation may desire, declaring that as this bequest in intended entirely for the benefit of the public in all time coming, the Corporation shall at no time be at liberty to sell the said paintings and others or any of them.
Appendix 3
Deaths: Glasgow Herald, 20 November 1905.
ELDER – At 6 Claremont Terrace, Glasgow, on the 18th inst., Isabella, widow of John Elder, engineer and shipbuilder in Glasgow. – Funeral from 6 Claremont Terrace to the Glasgow Necropolis on Wednesday, the 22nd curt (?) at 2 p.m. to which all friends are invited; carriages at St. George`s Church at 1.40; those desiring to attend will please notify Messrs Wylie & Lochhead, 96 Union Street.
Obituary:Glasgow Herald, 20 November 1905
Mrs. John Elder of Govan. A Noted West of Scotland Philanthropist.
By the death of Mrs. John Elder, which took place on Saturday evening at her house, 6, Claremont Terrace, Glasgow, the West of Scotland loses one of its most distinguished and philanthropic ladies and the burgh of Govan one who has been closely associated for many years with its principal industry, and who has besides conferred on it many benefactions. Than “Mrs. Elder of Govan” there is no better known on the Clydeside, and even among those who had not seen her she was respected and revered, not only because of her husband, who predeceased her by thirty-six years, but also because of the way in which she has spent her life in good works, always more than ready to anticipate any possible method whereby she could help a good cause quietly, and above all to do something for the social and moral welfare of the West of Scotland in general and the burgh of Govan in particular. In Govan her name has all along been a synonym for open-handed though discreet philanthropy, and she could always be depended upon to contribute to any movement likely to benefit the public of the burgh.
Association with Shipbuilding
Mrs. Elder was the widow of Mr. John Elder, the famous shipbuilder and engineer, whose improvements on the marine steam engine have always been considered as second only to those made by James Watt. Mr. Elder with his friend Mr. Randolph founded the engineering firm of Randolph & Elder, and after about eight years as millwrights and engineers began, in 1860, to build ships. Their business increased immensely and ultimately became the great works which afterwards developed into Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company (Limited), Govan. Mr. Elder in his later years had entire chargeof the works, which he carried on with great success until his death in1869 at the early age of forty-five. To these works or to Mr. John Elder himself it is unnecessary to make more extended reference here. Mrs. Elder was the only daughter of Mr. Alexander Ure, who was in his day a well-known writer in Glasgow, and her only brother was Mr. John F. Ure, one of the most distinguished of civil engineers, and a man who, as engineer of the Clyde Navigation Trust, laid the foundation of many of the improvements which were afterwards made in the harbor and the river. When Mr. Elder died his widow was left sole proprietrix of the extensive business at Fairfield. This position, however, she retained for only nine months. First her brother became a partner and some time later the works passed entirely into other hands and became first a private and then a public limited liability company. Mrs. Elder, however, never ceased to take a personal interest in everything that concerned Fairfield and she was a frequent and welcome visitor at the establishment, which is even yet among those who have known it long spoken of as “Elder`s Yard”.
Mrs. Elder and Govan
Of Mrs. Elder`s methods of spending the wealth which her husband`s genius and industry endowed her it is hardly possible to speak with adequate fullness. Her private benefactions were many but of those the public were always kept in ignorance.
Annie Isabella Cameron was born at 16 Grafton Square, Glasgow on 10 May 1897. Her parents were James Cameron, a civil engineer who had been involved in the construction of the Glasgow Underground and Mary Sinclair Cameron whom he married on Christmas Day 1894 at 42 Church Street, Ayr. 1 16 Grafton Square was Annie’s father’s home before his marriage. In 1901, Annie and her two siblings, Donald aged one and Mary four months with their parents were visiting James Gray, a grocer and his family at 60 Church Street, Ayr. 2 By 1911 the family had moved to Willbraepark, Overton Road, Strathaven. James Cameron was now aged 62, a civil engineer and contractor, with Mary 44, and children Annie 13, Donald 11, Mary 10 and Ewen 9. The children were all scholars. The family employed one domestic servant. 3 Mary Cameron became the tenant/occupier at Willbraepark after the death of her husband in 1921 and remained there until at least 1925. 4
After attending school in Strathaven, Annie Cameron enrolled at Glasgow University and graduated with a first-class honours degree in history in 1919. 5 She then undertook teacher training at Jordanhill College in Glasgow. After a brief spell of teaching, she returned to academia to study for a PhD supervised by Professor R.K. Hannay at Edinburgh University. Her subject was James Kennedy, Bishop of St Andrews (1408 – 1465). She completed her PhD in 1924 6 and in 1928 was awarded a Carnegie Research Fellowship which enabled her to live in Rome and to attend the Vatican School of Palaeography. In the Vatican Archives she found a rich source of fifteenth century material relating to Scotland, in particular the Scottish Supplications to Rome. The research and publication (from 1934 to 1970) of this material became her life’s work. Her frequent visits to the archives in this connection resulted in her affectionate nickname Nonna (grandmother) of the Archivo Vaticano. 7
Figure 1. Dr Annie I. Dunlop (nee Cameron) National Library of Scotland, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence 8
Annie Cameron was awarded a DLitt from the University of St Andrews in 1934 9 and was employed in the Scottish Record Office until she married George Dunlop (qv) on 23 August 1938 at Juniper Green in Edinburgh. 10 The couple then moved to Dunselma in Fenwick about five miles from Kilmarnock. Annie taught part-time at Edinburgh University and contributed regularly to her husband’s newspaper the Kilmarnock Standard. She was awarded an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours of 1942 (Annie Isabella Cameron, MA, PhD, DLitt, (Mrs. G. B. Dunlop), Member of the Council of the Scottish History Association). After the war she was able to resume her research in Rome in 1947 – accompanied on this occasion by her husband. She was awarded an honorary LLD from St Andrews University in 1950 – the same year she was widowed. After her husband’s death, Dunselma was given to the Church of Scotland as a residential home for the elderly although Annie continued to live there. Thereafter she travelled widely continuing her research, lecturing and writing. She embarked on a lecture tour of the United States in 1955 promoting Scottish history. 11 She was appointed to the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland on 26 April 1955 and was a member of the Scottish History Society whom she addressed on 12 December 1964 12 and the Scottish Church History Society. In 1972 she was awarded the Papal Benemerenti medal by Pope Paul VI. A particularly rare honour especially for a non-Catholic but reflecting the esteem in which she was held by the Vatican. 13
Annie I. Dunlop died at Dunselma on 23 March 1973. 14 Her funeral service was held at Masonhill Crematorium, Ayr on 27 March. 15 She was remembered as a kind, gentle, diligent personality who was always willing to offer help to others. 16 She was instrumental in ensuring that her husband’s bequest was delivered to Glasgow and to the National Galleries of Scotland. She also donated paintings on her own behalf to Glasgow’s Hunterian Art gallery.
The Annie Dunlop Endowment was set up at the Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies at the University of Glasgow. Funds from the endowment are awarded bi-annually for the purpose of ‘promoting historical research into documents relevant to Scotland that are located outside Scotland’.
Figure 2. Roses and Larkspur (Roses et pieds-d’alouette Henri Fantin-Latour (1836 – 1904) Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow/ArtUK Gift from Annie Dunlop from the estate of her husband, George B. Dunlop, 1951
Figure 3. Fisher’s Landing. William McTaggart (1836-1910). Hunterian Art Gallery/ArtUK Gift from Mrs Annie Dunlop, widow of George B. Dunlop, 1951Figure 4. The Seashore (Sur la plage). Eugene Louis Boudin (1824-1898) Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow/ArtUK. Gift from Annie Dunlop, widow of George B. Dunlop, 1951Figure 5. Evening Thoughts, 1864. Robert Inerarity Herdman (1869-1888). Presented to the National Galleries of Scotland by Mrs. Annie Dunlop from the estate of George B. Dunlop, 1951. (ArtUK)Figure 6. Loch Katrine. John Lavery (1856-1941). National Galleries of Scotland /ArtUK. Presented by Mrs Annie Dunlop from the estate of George B. Dunlop, 1951
Glasgow Herald, 26 March 1973. This is from an obituary which also claims erroneously that she was born in Strathaven and attended the Glasgow High School for Girls.
Close, Rob, FSA (Scot) Ayrshire Notes No. 2018/1 Spring 2018 ISSN 1474-3, Ayrshire Archaeological & Natural History Society (pub.) in association with Ayrshire Federation of Historical Societies
Frontispiece of Calendar of Papal Letters to Scotland of Clement VII of Avignon, 1378-1394, Scottish History Society
The Apostolic Camera and Scottish Benefices, 1418 – 1488 Humphrey Milford, OUP (pub) for St Andrew’s University 1934
Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
Ewan Elizabethet al. The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women from the earliest times to 2004. Edinburgh University Press, 2007
St. Andrew’s University Archives
Ewan Elizabethet al. The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women from the earliest times to 2004. Edinburgh University Press, 2007
Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
Glasgow Herald, 24 March 1973
Close, Rob, FSA (Scot) Ayrshire Notes No. 2018/1 Spring 2018 ISSN 1474-3, Ayrshire Archaeological & Natural History Society (pub.) in association with Ayrshire Federation of Historical Societies
Glasgow Museums Art Donors Group 