Category: Brewer

Brewer, Brewer

Richard Niven Coulson (1879 – 1945)

On 7 April 1955 two watercolours were received from Mrs. R. N. Coulson on behalf of her late husband, Lt. Col. Richard Niven Coulson.

Fig. 1 Kilchurn – Loch Awe
                   Hugh William Williams (1773-1829)
                 Accession Number PR.1955.4.a
                © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection

Fig. 2 Loch Katrine
                   Hugh William Williams (1773-1829)
                 Accession Number PR.1955.4.b  
                    © CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection

Richard Niven Coulson was born at 46 Lauder Road, Newington, Edinburgh on 13 July 1879. His parents were John Laurie Coulson, a master brewer, and Mary McLean Niven.1 The family’s connection to the brewing industry began when Richard’s grandfather, George Francis Coulson, was taken into partnership by James Steel to form Steel, Coulson & Co. in 1865. James Steel had inherited a brewery in Glasgow from his father, and he later acquired the Craigend Brewery in Edinburgh. This was sold in 1874 and a new brewery, later named Croft-an-Righ, was acquired. Steel later sold his interest in the company to Coulson. When George retired, two of his sons, Frank and John Laurie became joint managing directors.2,3

                                           Fig. 3 Steel and Coulson advertisement
Grace’s Guide

            John Laurie Coulson married Mary McLean Niven at the bride’s home, 12 Fitzroy Place, Anderston, Glasgow, on 29 April 1869.4 They had four sons, George Francis (1870 – 1901), Hugh Niven, (1872 – 1901), John (1873 – 1929) and Richard Niven.5
  In the 1881 census, Richard, aged one, was at 46 Lauder Road in the company of three servants but his parents were not at home. Ten years later the family was at Gartincaber Mains House, Kilmadock, Perthshire. Richard was now a scholar with two of his brothers, George Francis, a student civil engineer, and Hugh Niven, an accountant’s clerk.6

                                                       Fig. 4 Gartincaber Mains House

(Michael Dickie, Savills, Country Life 2021)

From 1894-1898, Richard attended Fettes College in Edinburgh based in Carrington House.7 He entered Caius College, Cambridge University on 1 October 1898.8 At Cambridge he joined the Volunteer Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment and was made a Second Lieutenant on 17 January 1900.9 Richard graduated from Cambridge with a B.A. in 1901.10 This was the same year that two of his older brothers died: Hugh Niven on 11 January at Tiverton, Devon aged twenty-nine and George Francis on 7 June aged thirty-one.11 Perhaps his university education was interrupted as a result. He was a ‘student of Natural Science’ in the census of 1901 with his parents at the mansion of Smithston, Tarbolton, Ayrshire.

By 1905 his parents had moved again, to Failford, Tarbolton, Ayrshire where John Laurie Coulson was the tenant/occupier of the mansion and garden, the fishings and shootings in the Parish.12 (It seems that John Laurie Coulson never owned a house but moved from one rented property to another!). Richard completed his university education in 1907 when he graduated with an M.A. from Cambridge.13 In the 1911 census he was a boarder at The Marine Hotel, Elie, Fife He was single, aged 31 and managing director of a brewery. He may have been attending a convention as his fellow boarders were stockbrokers, chartered accountants and ship owners.
In WW1, Richard Coulson served as a Major in the 8th Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) and was later promoted to acting Lieutenant-Colonel. As a result of actions during the war, he was awarded the D.S.O.:
for conspicuous gallantry and determination while commanding his battalion during an attack, when there was great difficulty in maintaining direction owing to fog and smoke barrage. On the advance being checked he went forward and reorganized his own firing line and that of units on his flank. Continuously under heavy fire, his personal example had a marked effect on the men.14
He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, was twice mentioned in dispatches and received the French Croix de Guerre.15
 
By 1920, John Laurie Coulson had moved again, this time to be a tenant/occupier of a house and stables at 114 St Leonard’s Road, Ayr and a house at 8 Corsehill Road Ayr.16 Richard’s mother, Mary Maclean Coulson (Niven) died the same year on 5th October. She was buried in the Glasgow Necropolis.17 The 1921 census recorded Richard and his father at 8 Southdean, Ayr. He was now managing director of Steel, Coulson Ltd., his father having retired from the same position. They employed two servants and two nurses.

Later the same year, the engagement was announced between Richard Niven Coulson, D.S.O., T.D., M.A. (Cantab) and Ada Marion, younger daughter of William Eagle Clarke, I.S.O., LL.D., and Mrs. Eagle Clarke, 53 North Castle Street, Edinburgh.18 The couple were married at St John’s Church, Edinburgh on 18 October 1921. Lieut. Colonel Richard Niven Coulson was forty-two and a brewer of Airthrey, 8 Corsehill Road, Ayr. Ada Marion Clarke was forty-one. Richard’s brother John was a witness.19
  (William Eagle Clarke was Keeper of the National History Department at the Royal
Scottish Museum from 1906 to 1921)20

John Laurie Coulson died aged eighty on 1 March 1923. He was buried in the Glasgow Necropolis. Richard succeeded to the chairmanship of Steel, Coulson and Co. and became proprietor of his father’s house and stables at 114 St. Leonard’s Road but continued to live at Airthrey.21 He rented Cuil Lodge and Shootings at Glenmore for June 1925.22 Richard and Ada were married for just five years when Ada died on 7 April 1927 after suffering from pernicious anaemia.23

In 1935, Richard was elected to the committee of management at the 58th meeting of the Scottish Conservative Club in Princes Street, Edinburgh.24 From 1930 to 1935, he was the proprietor of a house and garage at 30 Rosebank Crescent, Ayr but his main residence appears to have remained at Airthrey.25 This was his address when, on 2 December 1936, he married Emily (Millie) Campbell Warrand at St. Saviour’s Church in Bridge of Allan. She was a spinster aged fifty-six, the eldest daughter of Thomas Alexander Warrand a tea planter in Bengal.26 Their engagement had been announced in October the previous year.27 The couple moved to 5 Victoria Park Road in Ayr where Richard also had offices.

            After several months of poor health, Richard Niven Coulson died from a cerebral haemorrhage at the County Hospital in Ayr on 26th December 1945. He was sixty-seven. His usual address was at 5 Victoria Park Road, Ayr.28,29

Emily Campbell Coulson nee Warrand (1878 – 1968)

The donation was made by Mrs. R. N. Coulson on behalf of her husband.

Mrs. R. N. Coulson was Emily Campbell Warrand who was born on 2 December 1878 in Bengal, India where her father Thomas Alexander Warrand was a tea planter. She was baptised on 26 December 1878 at Ranakhet, Bengal. 30

Thomas Warrand was a notable 19th century tea planter operating out of Bengal and Assam. He helped establish and manage tea estates during the early years of the commercial tea trade.31

He was born in Southwell, Nottinghamshire in 1835. Emily’s mother was Margaret Warrand Connal who was born in Glasgow on 15 May 1854. 32 She married Thomas on 31 November 1877 at her home, 19 Park Circus, Glasgow. 33 After their marriage they travelled to India where Emily was born.
The family did not remain long in India after Emily’s birth. Her younger sister Katharine Sophia Claye was born at 19 Park Circus, Glasgow on 24 August 1880. 34 In the 1881 census, Emily and Katharine (Catherine) were at 18 Woodside Crescent, Glasgow in the care of two nurses; their parents were not at home. Ten years later the family visited Thomas’s brother, Major-General William Edmund Warrand at Westhorpe Hall, Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Thomas was now employed as a pig iron storekeeper. Emily is listed as a ‘niece, aged 12, born East Indies (British Subject)’. 35 At the census of 1901 she was visiting her aunt and uncle at Frimley, Surrey. Her uncle was Nathaniel Spens, born in Glasgow in 1851. He was the managing director of the State Commission and Investment Trust Ltd. Nathaniel’s wife was Emily Jessie Connal, born in Hillfoot, Dunbartonshire in 1860. 36 Their eldest son, William, became 1st Baron Spens in 1959 after retiring from the House of Commons. 37
  Thomas Warrand, meantime, had moved to Polmont House, Grangemouth where he was living on private means with his wife Margaret, sons William, 18 and Alistair, 12 and daughters, Muriel, 16 and Margaret, 13. 38
  In 1921, Emily was at the family home, Lentran, Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire with her parents, their two granddaughters and five servants. Emily was engaged in ‘house duties’. 39 Emily’s father, Thomas Alexander Warrand, died at Lentran on 21st October. He was eighty-nine. 40
Emily was still living at Lentran, Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire when, aged 56, she married Richard Niven Coulson on 2 December 1936. Her mother continued to be the proprietor/occupier of Lentran until her death in 1947. 41
Emily Coulson died aged 89, on 16th January 1968 at 23 Carrick Road, Ayr. 42

         The Warrand lineage can be traced back to Emily’s great-great grandfather Robert Warrand who was born about 1733 near Forres, Morayshire. He bought the estate of Lentran near Inverness in 1787 and renamed it Warrandfield. Robert died on 24 March 1801 at Warrandfield. His son Thomas was a naval officer and Scottish landowner. He had a distinguished career in the Royal Navy and was commander of H.M.S. Sealark. He married Catherine Munro and their son, another Robert, was born at Kirkhill, Inverness on 27 May 1795. He became a major in the 6th Dragoons on 6th May 1828. Two years later, on 2 April 1830, he married Sarah Sophia Clay of Westhorpe Hall, Nottinghamshire. Their son was Thomas Alexander Warrand.

References

  1. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
  2. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/James_Steel_(1792-1891)
  3. Records of Steel, Coulson & Co Ltd, brewers, Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland, University of Glasgow Archives Hub
  4. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  5. Memorial Stone in the Glasgow Necropolis
  6. Scotland’s People, Census 1891
  7. Coulson, Lieutenant Colonel Richard N, d, 26/12/1945 fettes.community@fettes.com
    9 Sept 2025
  8. ancestry.com Cambridge University Alumni 1261-1900
  9. The London Gazette, 16 January 1900, p294
  10. ancestry.com Cambridge University Alumni 1261-1900
  11. Glasgow Necropolis
  12. Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll, Ayrshire 1905
  13. ancestry.com Cambridge University Alumni 1261-1900
  14. Supplement to the London Gazette, 7 November 1918
  15. ancestry.com Cambridge University Alumni 1261-1900; Supplement to the London Gazette, 22 November 1918
  16. Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll, Ayrshire, 1920
  17. Memorial Stone in the Glasgow Necropolis
  18. The Scotsman 29 August 1921
  19. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  20. https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk
  21. Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll, Ayrshire, 1925
  22. Oban Times and Argyllshire Advertiser, 13 June 1925
  23. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  24. Dundee Courier 21 February 1935
  25. Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll, Ayrshire, 1930.1935
  26. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  27. Ayrshire Post 16 October 1936
  28. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  29. The Scotsman, 27 December 1945
  30. Parish Register Transcripts from Presidency of Bengal, India, Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947; United Kingdom, British India Office, Births and Baptisms, 1712-1965 FamilySearch
  31. http://www.hambo.org
  32. Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950, FamilySearch
  33. Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
  34. Scotland’s People Birth Certificate
  35. ancestry.co.uk English Census 1891
  36. Scotland’s People Birth Certificate
  37. https://military-history.fandom.com
  38. Scotland’s People, Census 1901
  39. Scotland’s People, Census 1921
  40. Scotland’s People Death Certificate
  41. ibid
  42. ibid

ettes.community@fettes.com 9 Sept 2025