Category: Engineer

Our donor John Norman Lang was born in 1890. He was the son of Robert Lang and Margaret White Lang. On 25 November 1942 he presented to the Glasgow City Council a painting named Portrait of a Boy by David Gauld.

He came from a family whose name is famous and important among the mechanical engineering profession. The firm originally started with the grandfather of our donor John Lang senior, who was the founder of the world-famous engineering firm ‘John Lang and Sons of Johnstone, Renfrewshire near Glasgow’.

In 1874 John Lang senior, who had risen to the position of foreman in the engineering works of Messrs. Shanks of Johnstone, started his own engineering company with two of his sons John and Robert. They built small premises in Laigh Cartside Street, Johnstone. [1] Although he did not have much capital, he had the ability, pluck, and some fresh ideas on the subject of iron-turning, and with his sons they worked together to develop their business. Robert was the father of our donor.

The new firm called Lang quickly became one of the most important engineering firms in Britain and had a large work force in Johnstone. They had customers across the world, from Europe to Hong Kong to Russia [2] and accomplished a large variety of engineering jobs. At first, Messrs Lang undertook any kind of engineering work they could get, but gradually they discovered a special line in the making of lathes. [3] This discovery led to far greater success. Their little machine shop of about 70 ft by 30 ft. was gradually extended until it filled the whole space between Mary Street and Cartside Street.

In 1895 they had a visit from the representatives of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. [4] Encouraged by this, the firm later took on 15 acres on the other side of Mary Street and erected splendid machine shops and a modern foundry on part of the ground. This whole plan of the new buildings indicated that further extensions were both possible and anticipated.

Although the town of Johnstone originally got its wealth from coal mining, from the beginning of the nineteenth century, the main industry was cotton spinning. The rapid growth of the town was mainly due to the success of the thread and cotton industry. The first mill in Johnstone was built in 1782 on Mill Brae. The others quickly followed until there were 15 to 20 mills at the peak of the industry. [5]

However, the cotton industry declined towards the end of the nineteenth century, and in Johnstone, engineering took over as the main industry. Many engineering firms had developed alongside the mills, servicing their needs. Among these, John Lang & Sons Ltd. was now one of the most prominent tool-making engineering firms. It was a part of the Associated British Machine Tool Makers Ltd. which was a much larger group of machine toolmakers. It had its registered offices at 17 Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1 and had agents and offices worldwide. In 1966, John Lang & Sons Ltd became Wickman Lang Ltd., but remained in Johnstone until about 1968, when they became Wickman Ltd. and listed their offices as 40/44 Colquhoun Avenue, Glasgow, Scotland. In 1991, a Wickman Machine Tool Co. Ltd. was based in Coventry, England. [6]

The first time we meet John Norman Lang’s name is as a one-year-old in the 1891 Scotland Census with his mother Margaret White Lang and his father Robert who was one of the original founders of the company. Then, he also appears in the 1901 and 1911 Scotland Censuses with his brothers William and Lawrence. In the 1911 Census^, John Norman, who was now 21 and his brother William who was 20 were both recorded as ‘Apprentice Engineer’. His other younger brother Lawrence, who was 14, is recorded as a schoolboy.

On 27 November 1919, John Norman Lang was married to Jeanie Jackson Biggart. In their marriage certificate, his occupation is described as ‘Master Engineer’. This means that he was now a qualified engineer and worked in John Lang & Sons Ltd.  

There were also two notable Provosts of Johnstone, besides being engineers, in the family. These were John and William, our donor’s uncles. In particular, William was knighted [7, 8] for his services to his country and industry in 1937, the same year in which he was elected a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Sir William Lang died 17 February 1942 in his seventy-fourth year.

Our donor seems to had lived a very quiet life, as there are very few records to be found about him. Outside the usual biographical milestones in his life, there were no other records apart from a shipping record found in Ancestry.com. According to the shipping record our donor and his wife Jean J. Lang were on board SS Empress of France sailing from Montreal and Quebec to Liverpool arriving on 19 June 1953. Clearly, they were coming from the Americas after a holiday trip. We just know that on 25 November 1942, he donated the above-mentioned picture to our Gallery through the City of Glasgow Council and at that time, he was living at Thornwood, Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire.

When he died, there was a notice of the death of John Norman Lang in the Glasgow Herald of 21 August 1965 viz.:

Deaths:Lang– Peacefully at Thornwood Bridge of Weir on the 19 August 1965 JOHN NORMAN husband of the late Jeanie Jackson Lang – Funeral on Monday 23 inst. to Woodside Crematorium Paisley. Friends desirous of attending please meet there at 3p.m. No flowers or letters please.

References
[1] http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/John_Lang
[2] https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/science-and-technology/john-lang-lathe/
[3] Op.cit. [1]
[4]https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1895_Institution_of_Mechanical_Engineers:_Visits_to_Works#John_Lang_and_Sons

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstone#History

[6] Reference:  gb 248 GB 248 UGD 048.  Held at Glasgow University Archive Services. https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/57851a2e-95a4-38f0-84a8-6810dce2fc88?terms=Wickman%20Machine%20Tool%20Co.%20Ltd

[7] Op.cit. [1]

[8]  http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/William_Biggart_Lang

Our donor John Weir made a donation of a painting entitled Christ lamenting over Jerusalem by Sir Charles Eastlake P.R.A. to the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum in February 1928 and a copy of it is shown below.

Christ Lamenting over Jerusalem by Charles Lock Eastlake; © CSG Glasgow Museums. (http://www.artuk.org)

John Weir was born in Rothesay on 23 July 1873. He was the eldest child of John and Mary Weir. His father was a boilermaker and plater. When John was still a young boy, his family moved to Govan, then, to Dumbarton and settled there. [1] He attended Rowallan Public School, between 1880 and1883. [2] He then attended College St. School in Dumbarton between 1883 and 1887. In his last year he became the Dux Gold Medallist. Between 1888 -1892 he attended Dumbarton School of Science and Art, where his technical education began. After graduating he attended the Glasgow Athenaeum Commercial College 1892-1897. In his last year, he was once again a Dux medallist. [3] The Glasgow Athenaeum Commercial College was then an important establishment in Glasgow. [4] having first started in 1847 in the Assembly Rooms, Ingram Street, and the inaugural address was  given by Charles Dickens. [5] It was originally built as a centre of adult education and recreation. Fundamentally, it was a go-between the Mechanic’s Institute and the University. However, in 1888 the commercial part of the Glasgow Athenaeum was separated from the Music, Drama and Art sections and became the Glasgow Athenaeum Commercial College. In 1915, it became the Glasgow and West of Scotland Commercial College and in 1955 the Scottish College of Commerce. Nine years later the Scottish College of Commerce combined with the Royal College of Science and Technology to form the University of Strathclyde. [6]

After completing his education, John Weir started work at William Denny and Brothers Limited in Dumbarton as an apprentice clerk between the years 1887 to 1892. It should be noted here that William Denny and Brothers Limited was often referred to simply as Denny or Denny’s which was a very important British shipbuilding company based in Dumbarton, Scotland, on the River Clyde. It built a total in excess of 22,000 vessels in its working life. Although the Denny’s Yard was situated near the junction of the River Clyde and the River Leven, the yard was on the Leven. Denny’s was always an innovator and was one of the first commercial shipyards in the world to have their own experimental testing tank. This is now open to the public as a museum in Dumbarton. [7] During the time he was working at Denny’s John Weir was a Private Secretary to James Denny, who was the son of William Denny, and also to the late Walter Brock, one of the directors.

Between 1897 and 1901, our donor had already left Scotland and gone to London. During this period, he served as Secretary and Estimates Clerk to the Superintendent Engineer of the New Zealand Shipping Co. Ltd., Royal Albert Dock, having been appointed by the Chairman of the Company, the late Sir Edwyn S. Dawes. [8] In 1901 John Weir married Mary Thomson. [9] Mr. and Mrs. Weir lived in West Ham in East London. However, before long, John Weir became a founder director of the shipping firm Silley Weir in London. [10]

In and around 1907 the Thames shipbuilding industry was in decline. One of the larger ship builders of the Blackwall Docks, R. & H. Green Ltd. continued to build ships until 1907. Then, in 1910 they amalgamated with Silley Weir & Company and became R. H. Green & Silley Weir Ltd. The new company grew rapidly until the outbreak of the First World War and then became one of the largest ship building companies in London. Throughout the war the firm constructed and repaired munitions ships, mine-sweepers, hospital-ships and destroyers. Their contribution to the war effort was acknowledged by a visit from King George V in November 1917. [11]

John Weir always considered himself to be a Dumbartonian. [12] He kept in touch with Dumbarton and in 1902, became a founder member of the London–Dunbartonshire Association. [13] He was the Association’s first secretary and for many years the chairman. It was largely due to his interest that the gift of a ‘mountain indicator’ was placed on Dumbarton Rock and also the memorial fountain, which was erected and dedicated at Dumbarton Cemetery shortly after the end of World War II. [14]

Our donor’s interests spread quite widely. Among them was geography, so much so that he applied for a fellowship to the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) on 20 February 1913. [15] His address on his application form is given as: Dunbritton, Alderton Hill Loughton, Essex. He stayed at this address until his death. [16] Around this time there were some notable artistic and scientific communities as well as quite a collection of ship building magnates also living there. Among them were William Brown Macdougall (1868-1936), a Scottish artist, wood engraver, etcher and book illustrator and his wife Margaret Armour (1869-1943) the translator, poet and playwright, both of whom lived at Elm Cottage, Debden Road where a BLUE PLAQUE commemorating them was unveiled in 2012. They were both members of the New English Art Club. William died on the 20 April 1936 in Loughton and after his death Margaret returned to Edinburgh where she died in 1943. [17]

Our donor was also a friend of James Howden Hume [18] who was a keen collector of art and was President of the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts between 1919 and 1924 and more information about Mr Hume may be found in a previous blog under his name at this website.

 He also devoted a great deal of time to social and welfare work in the East End of London. For many years he was the Chairman of the St. Mary’s Hospital for Women and Children Plaistow. [19] From 1915-32 he was a member and chairman of the London County Council’s School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar, where a hall was named after him. [20] He was also a permanent magistrate at West Ham Court. He was considered ‘Father’ of the Court of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, as he was then the oldest member of the Court. [21]

In The Scotsman of 26 September 1949 a news article appeared announcing under the title of GESTURE FROM “BLITZED” LONDON:

Memorial at Dumbarton

There was unveiled and dedicated in Dumbarton Cemetery yesterday a memorial fountain built to the design of Mr Hugh Lorimer, A.R.S.A., and erected by the London-Dunbartonshire Association to commemorate Servicemen belonging to Dunbartonshire who fell in the last war and those of the county who lost their lives by enemy action. The dedication was performed by the Rev. K. Goldie, clerk to Dumbarton Presbytery, and the memorial was unveiled by Major-General A. Telfer-Smollett, Lord-Lieutenant of the county, who formally handed it over to the Town Council for perpetual upkeep. Provost H. Brown accepted custody on behalf of the Town Council.

Mr John Weir, chairman of the London-Dunbartonshire Association, emphasised that the memorial was a county one and was a gesture from “blitzed” London to “blitzed” Dunbartonshire. After the ceremony Major-General Telfer-Smollett took the salute at a march past of detachments and units of His Majesty’s Forces.

It might be of some interest here to mention that a letter written by John Weir on headed notepaper of “R & H. Green and Silley Weir”, the “Ship and Engine repairers” of the Royal Albert Dock in the East End of London in 1926 to the Royal Society of Arts was on sale on e-bay recently (in 2006). [22]. The letter [23] was a request by John Weir for application forms for the competitions for the Fothergill Prize (for the studies in history and philosophy of sciences) and the Thomas Gray Memorial Trust Prize (for the advancement of the Science of Navigation and the Scientific and Educational interests of the British Mercantile Marine). It is signed, in ink by John Weir, and relates to his position of ‘Vice Chairman of the advisory committee of the LCC School of Engineering and Navigation’. It has been stamped with the Royal Society of Arts receiving mark. It is not known if the letter was sold on e-bay.

John Weir’s wife Mary Thomson, who both together were a Freeman of the city of London. [24] Mrs Mary Thomson died aged 71 years old in October 1944. [25] There were no children. John Weir died on 16 November 1957, at the age of 85. There was a funeral service held for him at The Crown Church Covent Garden, London. His family and friends and all the local dignitaries attended. [26]

The remains of John Weir were brought to Dumbarton for interment in the cemetery on Friday, 22 November 1957 according to his wishes. A large gathering was present at the ceremony. [27]

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express her thanks to Sarah Strong, Archives Officer, Foyle Reading Room, Royal Geographical Society, Mr Graham Hopner, Dumbarton Library Study Centre, Cllr C Pond, the local historian of Loughton, Essex for their generous help.

References:

[1] 1891 Census Book-9, Dumbarton Library Archives.

[2] UK Mechanical Engineer Records 1847-1838 for John Weir; Sequence No 20,875.

[3] ibid.

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Conservatoire_of_Scotland

[5] http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Glasgow/AthenaeumGlasgow.htm

[6] https://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSS00017&t=2

[7 https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/William_Denny_and_Brothers

[8] op. cit. UK Mechanical Engineer Records 1847-1838 art. 15

[9] 1901 England Census

[10] The Lennox Herald, Saturday, 23^rd Nov. 1957, Dumbarton Library Archives.

[11] British History online:
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/pp565-574

[12] op. cit. [10]

[13] ibid.

[14] ibid.

[15] Communication with Sarah Strong, Archives Officer, RGS, London.

[16] ibid. and op.cit. [10]

[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brown_Macdougall

[18] Glasgow Council Minutes, February 1928, Mitchell Library Archives.

[19] op. cit. [10].

[20] ibid.

[21] ibid.

[22] Correspondence with Cllr C. Pond.

[23] e-mail by Cll. C Ponds informing a letter written by J. Weir sold on e-bay.

[24] op. cit.[10].

[25] England and Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 for Mary T. Weir.

[26] The Times,18 November 1957, p.12.

http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/ archive/

[27] op. cit. [10].

 

In 1903, James Waddell wrote to the Glasgow museums donating a painting of his father, Revd Peter Hately Waddell by James Lorimer, a leading artist of the day. His letter says that the painting had been well-received when exhibited in Glasgow and Edinburgh and that his father had been well known as a preacher and as a member of the school board in Glasgow. (1)

James Waddell was born on 26 December 1846 (2) in Girvan the oldest son of the Revd Peter  Hately Waddell and Helen Halcro  Waddell. He attended classes at Glasgow University (3) but did not graduate. This was not unusual at that time. He became a mechanical engineer and worked abroad in Singapore and Java. On 5^th February 1881 (4), in Singapore, he married Margaret Little, daughter of a doctor, in the Presbyterian Church. Thereafter his place of work can be defined by the locations of his children’s births(5): Peter Hately Waddell 1881 ; Robert Waddell 1883 ; Mary Campbell Waddell 1885 ; Helen Halcrow Waddell 1887 all in Singapore and Margaret Wardlaw Waddell 1889 in Java . By 1892 he had retired to Glasgow where he made his will. (6) In 1901 he was living in the West End of Glasgow with his wife and family. (7) He died in 1907. (8)

The Rev Peter Hately Waddell LL.D. (1816-1891)

Our donor’s father and the subject of the painting was a colourful character: minister of religion, ardent student of Scottish culture, particularly of the life and works of Robert Burns and author of several books. He was born at Balqhatston, Slamannan on 19 May 1816 the son of Revd James WaddelL and his wife Anne Hately Waddell. (9)  The family moved to Glasgow wherehe attended high school and Glasgow University. He was ordained as a minister at Rhinie in Aberdeenshire. In 1841 he was licensed as a minister in the established Church of Scotland and began his career in Girvan.(10)  In 1843 at the time of the Disruption (11) he joined the Free Church of Scotland as a probationer. However he disagreed on some points of faith and governance with the Free Church, writing pamphlets and letters to Thomas Chalmers and James Guthrie.(12) He left the Free Church in the same year and founded a church in Girvan,  known as Waddell’s Church. He preached there for 19 years.(13 ) He married Helen Halcro in August 1845.(14)

In 1861 he moved to Glasgow to a Chapel in Waterloo Street and the expansion of his congregation led to a move to the City Halls. (15) A church was then built for him in east Howard Street.(16)  In  1874 he had to move back to the City Halls where he continued to preach for several months in the year.  (17 ) By all accounts he was an evangelical “Latter Day “ preacher.

While in Girvan he developed and pursued a love of Scottish culture and literature, particularly the writings of Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Ossian. He gave the oration in Alloway in 1859 at the centenary of Burns birth. (18) After that he was much in demand as a lecturer in Glasgow. He gave a series of three lectures in 1860 (19) in which he compared Burns as a poet to Shakespeare and, significantly to King David who wrote the Psalms. He addressed the problem of Burns as a moral man and as a poet. This led to criticism from the Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland that he had made a profane comparison.(20)

In 1864 he was the Chairman of a public dinner in Burns’ Cottage in Alloway to mark the Shakespeare tercentenary celebrations.(21) He proposed the toast and he said

“Shakespeare was the Glorious Legend, Burns was the Glorious Voice”.

In 1868 The Glasgow Herald reported that the Tusculum College, Tennessee, USA had conferred the degree of LL.D. on him. (22)

He was the author of several books. He edited an edition of the poems of Robert Burns published in 1869 in two volumes. (23) The contents can be read on the electronic Scotland website. He also edited an edition of Scott’s Waverly novels with notes and an introduction.(24)

He intended to produce a translation of the Old Testament in the Scottish tongue from the Hebrew but only the Psalms of David were published in 1871 as The Psalms :Frae Hebrew intil Scottis.(25) This translation was unique in that it was a direct translation from the original Hebrew and not a Scottish version of English translations.  It is a scholarly work. He also translated Isaiah (26) but did not attain his objective of translating all of the Old Testament.

He was supportive of education and was a member of the school Board in Glasgow. (27 )

He died on 5^th May 1891 at 5 Ashton Terrace, Glasgow.(28)

References

1. Minutes of Glasgow City Council 1903
2. Ancestry.co.uk
3. Glasgow University Archives
4. Ancestry.co.uk
5. Ancestry.co.uk
6. National Records of Scotland Wills and Conformations 1907
7. National Records of Scotland Census 1901
8. National Records of Scotland Statutory Register of Deaths 1907
9. Ayrshire Roots www.ayrshireroots.co.uk
10. Matthew, H.C.G. Peter Hately Waddell in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
11. Hamish McPherson in The Disruption . www.thenational.scot
12. Protestant Delusion in the nineteenth century: A remonstrance. Google Books
13. Ayrshire Roots www.ayrshireroots.co.uk
14. Ancestry.co.uk
15. The Bailie August 12 1874
16. ibid
17. Ibid
18. ibid
19. The Glasgow Herald Saturday November 10 1860
20. The Liverpool Mercury Thursday June 11 1863
21. The Glasgow Herald Monday April 25 1864
22. Glasgow Herald Saurday May 2 1868
23. Matthew, H.C.G. Peter Hately Waddell in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
24. Ibid
25. Waddell,Peter Hately : The Psalms in Scots. Reprint of Peter Hately Waddell’s   The Psalms: Frae Hebrew intil Scottis. First published 1871. Aberdeen University Press 1989
26. Waddell,Peter Hately : Isaiah: Frae Hebrew intil Scottis. J Menzies and Co. Edinburgh and Glasgow, 1871
27. Glasgow Mitchell Library Special Collections
28. National Records of Scotland Statutory Register of Deaths 1891

In May 1921, Mr James Howden Hume donated to Kelvingrove Museum a painting which is called “Roses” by Louisa Perman (Mrs. Torrance) and a copy of it is displayed below.

Our Donor, James Howden Hume was born in Glasgow in 1866. His father was William Hume, an iron merchant, and his mother was Ann Howden, sister of James Howden [1]. He was educated at The High School and the Royal Technical College, now Strathclyde University. He lived at 11, Whittingehame Drive, Govan, and Glasgow and spent the last eight years of his life in London [2]. His illustrious uncle, Mr James Howden [3,4], during the end of the nineteen century, took the industrial revolution one stage further by his inventions and modifications which were able to increase the efficiency and the applications of steam power machinery, mainly used in marine engines and boilers [5]. As our donor’s profession and business life were closely linked to his uncle, it is appropriate that at this point, some more information is given about his uncle, Mr James Howden.

Young James, after completing his education at the Royal Technical College, served his apprenticeship as an engineer in the firm founded by his uncle, James Howden (1832-1913), who was born in Prestonpans, East Lothian in 1832 and was educated at the local parish school. His parents were James Howden and Catherine Adams. At this point, as there are too many similar names in this family, to ease the confusion a clarification must be made. The name of our donor is James Howden Hume. His uncle was James Howden whose father was also James Howden.

Mr. James Howden, the uncle, served as an apprentice from 1847 with James Gray & Co., an engineering firm in Glasgow, a firm with an established reputation for stationary engines. It was noticed that his talents for technical drawing were considerable and, even before his formal apprenticeship was concluded, he was promoted to the position of the chief draughtsman.

Mr James Howden, having finished his apprenticeship, started work first with Bell and Miller, the civil engineers, then with Robert Griffiths, who designed marine screw propellers. In 1854 at the age of 22, he set up in business in Glasgow as a consulting engineer and designer. Before long he registered a vast number of patents in many fields of engineering [6].

Mr James Howden’s first major invention was the rivet-making machine. The selling of the patent rights to a company in Birmingham for this invention secured him financially and James Howden & Co. was established as a manufacturer of marine equipment. In 1857, James Howden began work on the design and supply of boilers and steam engines for the marine industry. His first contract was to supply the Anchor Liner’s ship Ailsa Craig [7] with a compound steam engine and water boilers, using steam at 100 lb pressure. Using this sort of pressure was a considerable advance on existing technology. That same year, together with Alexander Morton of Glasgow, he was awarded a patent for the “invention of improvements in obtaining motive power.” On 28 February 1859, he applied for a patent for the “improvements in machinery, or apparatus for cutting, shaping, punching, and compressing metals.” In 1860, he patented a method of preheating combustion air; his patent was granted for the invention of “improvements in steam engines and boilers, and in the apparatus connected therewith”. In 1862 he decided to construct main boilers and engines to his own design and started manufacturing in his first factory in Scotland Street in Glasgow’s Tradeston district [8]. A breakthrough came in 1863 when he introduced a furnace mechanical draught system which used a steam turbine driven axial flow fan.

James Howden’s best-known work was the “Forced Draught System”, introduced in the 1880s, which used waste gases to heat the air in boiler’s combustion chamber and which was adopted by shipbuilders all around the world. This system dramatically reduced the amount of coal used in ships’ boilers. Howden patented this device in 1882 as the ‘Howden System of Forced Draught’. During the 1880s, more than 1000 boilers were converted to this specification or constructed according to Howden’s patent. The first vessel to use the system was the ship the New York City, built in 1885. Amongst the liners to use the Howden system in their boilers were the Lusitania and Mauretania, the fastest liners in the world when they were built [9].

Now, we come to our donor, James Howden Hume. He started his career as an apprentice in his uncle’s firm James Howden & Co. Ltd in the 1880’s [10]. Then, he became a director in 1890. Together with his uncle, he managed the firm until his uncle’s demise in 1913, when young James became the Chairman of the company and remained in this position until his own death in 1938.

Below are the pictures of some of the machinery that were manufactured by Howden and Co. Ltd., the cover of Howden’s Quarterly depicting an artist’s impression of the factory and the main offices of James Howden & Co. Ltd. at 195 Scotland Street, Glasgow, as well as  the cover of Howden’s Quarterly Centenary Edition No 20, October, 1954.

 (Figures 3,4,5, and 6 by kind permission of Mr Nick McLean, Website & Digital Marketing Manager of Howden.)

James Howden was fortunate that his nephew turned out to be an engineer of much the same skill and stature as he was. James Howden Hume had joined the firm just when the “forced draught system” was on the point of being widely used in the 1880s. It was not long before he became Chief Draughtsman and his uncle brought him in as a Partner in the firm. Around the mid-1890s, such was the success of the two gifted engineers, uncle and nephew, that James Howden had hoped to be able to retire from manufacturing and continue working as a consultant. However, he could not find anyone reliable enough to make the fans and other machinery needed to work his forced draught system properly. So, once again, he had to take on manufacturing his inventions himself and leave the management of the firm to his nephew. At that time, his existing factory had been designed to build main engines and boilers and was unsuitable for the much smaller auxiliary machinery needed for the new system. So he constructed another factory at 195 Scotland Street. This remained the main headquarters of the Company for nearly a hundred years. The next advance was when the firm became a private limited Company in 1907, with James Howden as Chairman of the Board and James Howden Hume as Managing Director and James Howden’s son, William Howden, as a Director [11]. On the death of Mr James Howden on 21 November 1913, our donor, Mr. James Howden Hume became the Chairman of James Howden and Company.

In 1914, at the break of the First World War, the first challenge that our donor Mr. James Howden Hume, as the Chairman of the Company, was to cope with the cancellation of orders from German ship owners amounting to about a third of the firm’s marine work. However, new ships needing Howden equipment were being placed by British ship owners, as the German submarines sank large numbers of British merchant fleet, with appalling loss of life. It was then an extraordinary story emerged of a British ship that had escaped from an attack by a German submarine by making full use of its Howden equipment, increasing its speed far beyond the normal by forcing its boilers to the maximum. When the Ministry of Shipping heard of this, they immediately ordered that all ships, replacing those sunk, should be fitted with the Howden forced draught system. In the time gap while these new ships were being built, J.B.MacGillivray, who joined Howden in the 1880s and worked with three generations of the Howden family, using his Howden international contacts, managed to find twelve Japanese built ships, amounting to a total of over 115,000 tons, which were duly delivered to the Ministry of Shipping, making the British government the owners of merchant ships for the first time in their history [12]!

In addition to the war effort shown by Howden Company, in 1914, a 15MW turbo-generator, the largest in the United Kingdom, was supplied to Manchester Corporation and came into operation after a year of the death of Mr James Howden, the uncle of our donor. It is believed that the replacement was not only for the increased demand for electric power but also for the old and very noisy turbine in situ [13].

Later, when the United States had joined the war, they also needed Howden equipment. However, the Glasgow Scotland Street factory was hard pressed to fulfil all its orders, so our donor, James Howden Hume, had decided that manufacturing directly in the USA had become an urgent need. Therefore, in 1918 a factory was acquired in Wellsville, New York. His eldest son, Crawford William Hume, who had joined the firm in 1913, was sent out to set up and run this factory [14]. This action gave the Howden Company an international status.

At the end of the Great War, the Howden order books were very full. However, this did not last long as the worsening economic situation forced the cancellation of contracts by the early 1920s. Keeping the Works going at full capacity had become a problem. This problem, however, was solved after our donor’s two sons met Frederick Ljungstrom, an engineer of the Swedish firm, AB Ljungstrom Angturbin, quite by chance in Brussels. In their conversation, Frederick Ljungstrom, having realised that all of them were in the same business, showed them a design of a new mechanical air pre-heater that his firm had developed. When they returned to Glasgow and showed the design to their father they all realised that it was the answer to the problem of pre-heating air for the much larger boilers that were by then being used in the Howden land business. The principle of the modification was that the heat is retained within the system rather than lost up the chimney and the boilers become much more efficient, with a dramatic saving of fuel. Howden obtained the license [15] from Ljungstrom for ‘exclusive rights for manufacturing and sales for land use within the British Empire’ and this turned out to be of great importance to both Companies and has being used in power stations, oil refinery distillation and methanol, ammonia, copper & steel furnaces and many other applications, including ships. In his presidential address to the Institution of Engineers & Shipbuilders, our donor, Mr James Howden Hume described it as [16]:

The latest development in hot air forced draught is a somewhat radical departure from the standard arrangement, involving an entirely novel method of heating air by mechanical means, instead of the original stationary tubular heater.

It was during those precise weeks that a new contract came through for Howden equipment for the boilers of the new Battersea power station in London [17], so the situation was saved from disaster in the nick of time. Looking back, the building of that huge and distinctive red-brick power station with its four giant chimneys became something of an iconic symbol of the recovering economy of the whole nation. Alas, today in 2018, the Battersea Power Station is no more, as it was recently converted to luxury flats.

After the both World Wars, Howden Company continued collaborating with the Swedish partners. In fact, one of the Swedish engineers later became a Technical Director in the Howden Company.

In The Bailie [18] a summary of his life is given. It is mentioned that, in his lifetime, our donor, James Howden Hume, had a wide number of interests in the affairs of Glasgow and was a Deacon of the Incorporation of Hammerman 1924-1925 (http://www.hammermenofglasgow.org/index.htm) as well as being  a Freeman of the City of London and Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights (https://www.shipwrights.co.uk). The Bailie also mentions that from 1923 to 1925 he was the President of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland (IESIS) (http//www.iesis.org/about/presidents.aspx).  About his early age, it is mentioned that James Howden Hume took a keen interest in art, particularly in the works of Guthrie, Lavery, and Henry of the Glasgow School of Art between 1919 and 24, he was President of Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts (https://theroyalglasgowinstituteofthefinearts.co.uk/). He was also a keen collector. He possessed several very notable paintings by  McTaggart and many of his pictures being in constant demand by various exhibitions throughout the country. He was a keen yachtsman and sailed on the Clyde and he loved yacht racing and cruising [19]. In addition to that, as a young man, he also had the skill and spunk to play for Queen’s Park Football Club, Scotland’s oldest amateur soccer team founded in 1867. He spent his last days in London where he died in 1938. He was survived by his wife Agnes, two sons and a daughter [20].

In summary, our donor, James Howden Hume, was working with his uncle in the 1880’s. Subsequently becoming Chief Draughtsman, then General Manager, he became a director of the firm James Howden & Co. Ltd in 1900. On the death of his uncle in 1913, he became the Chairman of the company and remained in this position and continued with the progress of the company until his own death in 1938. In the Obituaries column of the Glasgow Herald of Thursday, May 26, 1938, an article appeared for NOTED GLASGOW ENGINEER, James Howden Hume [21].

After his death, the Howden Hume family continued to run the firm. The business was to grow and became the world’s leading fan makers. They were involved with most of the important engineering jobs of the 20^th century.  A few examples [22] of these are the following great engineering feats of Howden Company:

• In 1947 they supplied the main blowers for two nuclear reactors at Windscale.
• In November 1982, the CEGB (Central Electricity Generating Board) awarded a contract to Howden for the first-ever wind turbine generator in the UK; this was commissioned with an output of 200kW.
• In 1988, two Channel Tunnel drilling machines had been built at James Howden & Co. 195 Scotland Street, Glasgow.

Acknowledgements

I should like to thank Mr Nick McLean, Website & Digital Marketing Manager of Howden for his kind permission to use some of the pictures of early Howden machinery as well as some archive material taken from the book “Douglas Hume a personal story” by David H. Hume whom I owe my thanks for making the Industrial Revolution Era and his family’s contribution to that era a very interesting read.

References:

[1] Douglas Hume a personal story by David H. Hume,Published in aid of the June and Douglas Hume Memorial Fund administered by Foundation Scotland, ISBN 978-1-905989-88-1, Printed by Nicholson & Bass Ltd., Belfast.

[2] Scotlands People, Valuation Rolls 1920

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

[3] Grace’s Guide to British Industry

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/James_Howden_and_Co

[4] Wikiwand, James Howden

http://www.wikiwand.com/en/James_Howden

[5] “A Hundred Years of Howden Engineering” (1954).

by Crawford W Hume, James Howden & Co Ltd. Mitchell Library.

[6] Wikipedia search for James Howden

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Howden

[7] op. cit. Wikiwand, James Howden,

[8] ibid.

[9] ibid.

[10] op. cit. Douglas Hume; p 39

[11] ibid. 

[12] op. cit. Douglas Hume p.48-49

[13] ibid.

[14] op cit. Douglas Hume p.40

[15] op cit. Douglas Hume p.49

[16] op. cit. Grace’s Guide to British Industry

[17] op. cit. Douglas Hume p.49

[18] The Bailie, Man You Know Vol. XCIII, No 2419, 26 Feb. 1919, Mitchell Library

[19] op. cit. Douglas Hume p.54,

[20] Obituary The Glasgow Herald, Thursday, May 26, 1938, Obituaries.

[21] ibid.

[22] op. cit. Douglas Hume p.188-191 . 

Mrs. A.B. Clements donated two paintings by George Leslie Hunter in September 1940

Her address was given as 186 Woodville Street, Govan, Glasgow. This was the address of the Scottish Machine Tool Corporation at the time of the donation. That, plus the lack of a residential address and first names for the lady meant that initial research focused on the history of the company. As my researches progressed it became clear that Mrs. Clements husband was the originator of the donation (he gave seven paintings in total between 1940 and 1945) which he chose to make in his wife’s name. For that reason, whilst I have biographies of them both, Mr. Clements is more detailed and extensive.

The late Mrs. Jane Pelosi (granddaughter) provided me with a good deal of information about her grandfather and allowed me to take photographs of the several family items which illustrate this article.

Albion Works at 186 Woodville Street was the place of business of G. and A. Harvey who were engineers and machine tool makers. The company was founded in 1857 (Woodville Street being its original place of business) and remained independent until 1937 when along with four other Scottish engineering and machine tool makers (James Allan Senior & Sons, Loudon Bros., James Bennie & Sons, Craig & Donald) it became part of the Scottish Machine Tool Corporation.[1] The new company prospectus dated 18 March 1937 identified Alexander Blair Clements as joint managing director of Harvey’s.[2]

His wife Margaret was the ostensible donor of the George Leslie Hunter paintings.

Alexander Blair Clements was born in Shanghai China on 3^rd March 1884.[3] His father Ebenezer Wyse Clements (1850 – 1928)[4] worked as a ship’s engineer with Alan C. Gow and Company (known informally as the Glen Line at that time), sailing on the company’s Far East routes. At the time of Ebenezer’s marriage in 1877 to Jeanie Ramsey Blair (1848 – 1919)[5] he was an engineer on board the SS Glenroy sailing to Penang, Singapore and China.[6] His first  son (also Ebenezer Wyse Clements) was born in Glasgow on 10^th June 1878[7] and the 1881 census shows that Jeanie and her son were staying with her mother in Glasgow.[8] It’s safe to assume therefore that sometime between 1881 and Alexander’s birth the family moved to Shanghai where Ebenezer presumably pursued an on-shore engineering career possibly with the Shanghai Dock and Engineering Company. Alexander’s younger brother Edward Joshua Wyse Clements (1886 – 1958) was also born in Shanghai.[9]

Alexander’s schooling was initially in China where he attended the Shanghai Public school. His secondary education was completed back in Glasgow where he was a pupil at Allan Glen’s Grammar school.

On his return to China he served an engineering apprenticeship with the Shanghai Dock and Engineering Company. During his apprenticeship he attended evening classes and in 1905 distinguished himself by winning the prize for ‘Best Paper Submitted by a Student at the Evening Classes’ presented by the Shanghai Society of Engineers and Architects.

The prize consisted of three technical publications: ‘The Construction of Locomotives’, ‘Marine Propellers’, and ‘Petrol Motors and Motor Cars’. He also subsequently gained an Extra First-Class Board of Trade certificate. He was subsequently employed as a third, then a second engineer with the China Merchants Shipping Company from 1906 to 1908.[10]

What he did in the years immediately after 1908 is not particularly clear however he and other members of his family travelled to the USA and Australia, New South Wales. In 1908 Alexander sailed from Yokohama to Seattle on the SS Minnesota arriving on 13^th May. The passenger list details his destination as London and his next of kin as his father at Nayside Road, Shanghai.[11] What he did there and when he returned to China has not been established. In 1910 his brother Edward and his father and mother travelled from Sydney, Australia to St. Albans, Vermont via Canada on the SS Manuka. The passenger list indicates that both men had no employment and that Alexander had remained in Shanghai.[12] Alexander was again travelling in May 1911 when he sailed from Kobe to Sydney on the SS Empire.[13] He subsequently ended up in New Zealand but returned to New South Wales that year on board the SS Maheno sailing from Auckland to Sydney arriving on 4^th August.[14] It could be concluded perhaps that the family were looking to leave China maybe to improve their situation or simply to seek employment. Another consideration perhaps was the fact that China was in turmoil at the time which resulted in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, headed by Sun Yet Sen.

What Alexander did in New South Wales is not known but in due course he met his wife to be Margaret Fraser Harvey of Blackburn, Yass.

Margaret was the daughter of Robert Harvey (1853 – 1921)[15] and Margaret Adair (1852 – 1931)[16] both originally born in Scotland and married there in 1884.[17] Margaret was born in Shelby Springs, Birmingham, Alabama on the 2^nd August 1890.[18] She may have been born there due to her grandfather Thomas Harvey being a ship’s master. It’s possible that her parents sailed with Robert’s father hence her birth place.

She was the third of four children, one (a son) was stillborn in Cumberland in 1885,[19] the second (a girl) also born in Alabama died at one year in 1889[20].

The youngest, Thomas, (born 1893 in Alabama)[21] reached adulthood only to be killed in action in Gaza, Palestine in 1917. At some point the family ended up in Yass, New South Wales where Robert became a sheep farmer.

The family had a connection with Yass through Margaret Adair’s mother Jane Kirkland Blair (1830[22] – 1914[23]) who married George Weir[24] (1833 – 1909)[25] after her first husband George Frederick Adolphus Augustus Adair died in Calcutta in 1856.[26] Sometime after 1895 the Weirs moved to Yass where they lived until their deaths.

An interesting aside is that George along with his brother James (1843 – 1920) formed in 1872 the engineering company G & J Weirs (Weirs of Cathcart).  In 1887 or thereabouts Weir’s design for a horizontal boring mill was built by G and A Harvey. After the business became a limited company in 1895 James bought out his brother (he was apparently annoyed at George casting church bells in the company forge for free) who shortly afterwards moved to Australia with his wife.[27]

The Weir’s mother Jane Bishop (1811 – 1899) was a granddaughter of Robert Burns. Her mother was Elizabeth Burns (1785 – 1817) the illegitimate daughter of Burns and Elizabeth Paton (b.1760).[28]

Alexander married Margaret on the 4^th June 1912 at St Andrews Church, Yass with both sets of parents present.[29] Shortly afterwards Alexander, Margaret, and his parents set sail for London on the T.S.S. Themistocles arriving there on the 15^th August.[30] A small painting of the ship executed by Alexander during the voyage was autographed by several passengers and crew. One of the signatories was Robert Baden Powell.[31]

By 1913 Alexander and Margaret were living in Glasgow at 79 Fotheringay Road, with Alexander being employed by G and A Harvey, as was his father and his brother Edward who lived at 12 Kelbourne Street.[32] How this came about is not known; were Margaret’s family connected to G and A Harvey in some way? Did the Weir connection play a part? At any rate all three were to remain in employment there for some time.

In 1913[33] and 1918[34] respectively their daughter Margaret Jean and their son Eben Harvey were born in Glasgow. By this time, they were living at 6 Larch Road Dumbreck.[35] Around 1923 Ebenezer moved in with the family subsequently dying there in 1928.[36]

Alexander and Edward remained with Harvey’s until 1947[37] by which time it had become part of the Scottish Machine Tool Corporation. In the new company’s 1937 prospectus it was stated that Harvey’s held 50% of the new company equity. As joint managing director Alexander was clearly a senior employee and probably had shares in the new company.[38] Additionally, he jointly with the company in 1943 and 1944 was granted patents in the UK and Canada, relating to the manufacture of briquetting machines[39] and lathes respectively.[40] The new company traded from 1937 (having become an associate of a forge equipment manufacturer in the 1960s) until 1982 when it went into liquidation.[41]

For a period after 1947 Alexander was chairman of C. and A. Stewart Ltd, located at Spiersbridge Industrial Estate Glasgow.[42]

Alexander had a number of interests and it has been established that he was a reasonably serious collector of paintings albeit with no obvious theme in mind. At some point he became friends with Tom Honeyman (prior to Honeyman’s appointment to Kelvingrove) and was proposed as a member of the Glasgow Art Club by him in 1941. He was seconded by the famous Glasgow photographer James Craig Annan. He remained a member of the club until resigning in October 1948.[43]

Amongst his collection were works by J. Pettie (‘The Step’), S.J. Peploe (‘Roses’), D.Y. Cameron (various), Leon L’Hermitte (‘Figures in Field’) and George Leslie Hunter. He donated a total of seven paintings to Kelvingrove from 1940 to 1945. This was confirmed in a letter to his son in 1990 from Anne Donald who was Keeper of the Fine Art Department of Kelvingrove at that time. As it happens one of these paintings (a Leslie Hunter) was gifted to the Brest Museum in France, the museum being destroyed during the war.[44]  The letter is shown below – Figure 10.

It may be that his donations (and his purchases) were inspired by Tom Honeyman, which would certainly fit with Honeyman’s  modus operandi of seeking to influence industrialists of the day towards purchasing paintings. Where and when he bought is generally not known however he did buy the Pettie in 1947 for £150 from W.B. Simpson of St. Vincent Street and gave it to his son Eben.[45]

He was also something of an amateur artist, his favourite subject being ships. Some of these drawings are in a sketch book in the possession of his granddaughter Mrs. Jane Cossar Pelosi.[46]

He had a keen interest in music and the theatre. He had an eclectic taste in music ranging from classical (Aida, La Boheme) through cinema (Dianna Durban, Paul Robeson) to music hall (Will Fyfe, Harry Lauder). His record collection was large and meticulously recorded in a notebook currently in Mrs. Pelosi’s possession. He was a life member of the Glasgow Citizens Theatre society – possibly another Honeymoon influence at work?[47]

He was also a keen stamp collector being President of the Caledonian Philatelic Society in 1920-21 and again in 1956, its golden jubilee year. Incidentally an exhibition of the society’s collections was held in Kelvingrove from the 27^th February to the 11^th March of that year to celebrate the occasion.[48]

Alexander and his wife Margaret lived at a number of addresses in Glasgow finally resident at 69 St. Andrews Drive where he died on the 20^th April 1966 from cancer of the oesophagus.[49] His wife died on the 21^st October 1980.[50]

Alexander’s collection of paintings in due course passed to his son Eben and daughter Margaret. Margaret married Douglas Alexander Wright in 1939[51] and had two sons who inherited their mothers share of the collection on her death in 1994.  I understand these paintings remain in the family.[52]

Eben married Jane Brown Cossar of the Cossar publishing family in 1941[53]and had a daughter Jane (Mrs. Jane Cossar Pelosi).  In 1969 he had his paintings assessed for insurance purposes by Tom Honeyman who valued them at £5615.[54]

On his death in 1982 his paintings passed to his wife who subsequently bequeathed them to the National Trust for    Scotland on her death in 2004.[55]

‘The Step’ by Pettie has recently been seen by the author on display in ‘Greek’ Thomson’s Holmwood House in Cathcart.

 

[1] Glasgow University Archives Services. Records of Scottish Machine Tool Corporation. GB 248 UGD 175/1 http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk

[2] Archive Reference number: TD 482/21 (no.93), page 294. Mitchell Library, Glasgow.

[3] Birth Certificate in the possession of Mrs. Jane Pelosi. ‘Births within the District of the British Consulate General at Shanghai. Registration No. 335, dated 21 July 1884.’

[4] Deaths (CR) Scotland. Pollokshields, Glasgow. 15 April 1928. CLEMENTS, Ebenezer Wyse. 644/18 0182.  http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk:

[5] Deaths (CR) Scotland. Pollokshields, Glasgow. 26 July 1919. CLEMENTS, Jeanie Ramsay. 644/18 0305. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk:

[6] Marriages (CR) Scotland. Kinning Park, Lanark. 27 April 1877. CLEMENTS, Ebenezer Wyse and BLAIR, Jeanie Ramsay. 644/14 0063. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk:

[7] Births (CR) Scotland. Kinning Park, Lanark. 10 June 1878. CLEMENTS, Ebenezer Wyse. 644/14 0637. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk:

[8] Census. 1881. Scotland. Govan, Glasgow. 644/14 012/00 0271. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk:

[9] Deaths (CR) Scotland. Govan, Glasgow. 02 December 1958. CLEMENTS, Edward Joshua Wyse. 644/10 1312. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk  Place of birth confirmed by Mrs Jane Pelosi.

[10] Mrs. Jane Pelosi.

[11] Passenger List for S.S. Minnesota departing Yokohama. CLEMENTS, Alexander Blair. 1 May 1908. Collection: Washington, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1965. http://ancestry.co.uk

[12] Passenger List for S.S. Manuka departing Sydney. CLEMENTS, Ebenezer Wyse, wife Jeanie and son Edward Joshua. 9 May 1910. Collection: Washington, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1965. http://ancestry.co.uk

[13] Passenger List for S.S. Empire departing Kobe. CLEMENTS, Alexander Blair. 24 May 1911. Collection: New South Wales, Australia, Unassisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1826-1922. http://ancestry.co.uk

[14] Passenger List for S.S. Maheno departing Auckland. CLEMENTS, Alexander Blair. August 1911.

Collection: New South Wales, Australia, Unassisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1826-1922. http://ancestry.co.uk

[15] Deaths (CR) Scotland. Aberfoyle, Perth. HARVEY, Robert. 21 August 1921. 325/00 0010. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk:

[16] Deaths (CR) Scotland. Pollokshields, Glasgow. 7 March 1931. HARVEY, Margaret. 644/18 0110. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk:

[17] Marriages (CR) Scotland. Cathcart, Renfrew. 11June 1884. HARVEY, Robert and ADAIR, Margaret. 560/00 0043. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk:

[18] Mrs. Jane Pelosi. Recorded in family Bible originally owned by Thomas Harvey.

[19] Ibid

[20] Ibid.

[21] Ibid

[22] Births (OPR) Scotland. Kilmarnock, Ayr. 16 December 1830. BLAIR, Jane Kirkland. 597/00 00

[23] Deaths. Australia. Yass, New South Wales. 1914. WEIR, Jane Kirkland. Registration Number 3109/1914. https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search/result?3

[24] Census 1881 Scotland. Cathcart, Renfrew. 560/ 6/14. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk:

There is a date of 1864 for the marriage but have not been able to identify a reliable source.

[25]  Deaths Australia. Yass, New South Wales. 1909. WEIR, George. Registration Number 15829/1909

https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search/result?7

[26] I have not been able to identify an acceptable source for this death. It comes from an Ancestry family tree. http://ancestry.co.uk

[27] Weir, William (3^rd Viscount) (2008) The Weir Group: The History of a Scottish engineering legend 1871-2008. London: Profile Books.

[28] Burness Genealogy and Family History. Person pages 99, 145, and 2431. https://www.burness.ca/

[29] Marriages Australia. Yass, New South Wales. 4 June 1912. CLEMENTS, Alexander Blair and HARVEY, Margaret Fraser. Certificate of Marriage in the possession of Mrs. Jane Pelosi. Minister’s register number 31, registration number 55883.

[30] Passenger List for T.S.S. Themistocles departing Sydney. CLEMENTS, Alexander Blair.1912.

Collection: UK Incoming Passenger Lists 1878-1960. http://ancestry.co.uk

[31] Painting of the Themistocles by Alexander Blair Clements in the possession of Mrs. Jane Pelosi.

[32] Directories Scotland. (1913-1914). Post Office annual Glasgow Directory: Clements. p. 170/171.

https://archive.org/stream/postofficean191314glas#page/170/mode/2up

[33] Births. (CR) Scotland. Pollokshields, Glasgow. 14 March 1913. CLEMENTS, Margaret Jean. 644/18 180. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

[34] Births. (CR) Scotland. Pollokshields, Glasgow. 1918. CLEMENTS, Eben Harvey. 644/18 332. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

[35] Directories Scotland. (1916-1917). Post Office annual Glasgow Directory: Clements. p. 166. https://archive.org/stream/postofficean191617glas#page/166/mode/2up

[36] Deaths (CR) Scotland. Pollokshields, Glasgow. 15 April 1928. CLEMENTS, Ebenezer Wyse. 644/18 0182.  http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

[37] 1947 left SMTC

[38] TD 482/21 (no.93), page 294. Mitchell Library, Glasgow

[39] Espacenet. Improvements in or relating to Briquetting Machines. No. GB55505. 25 August 1943. Scottish Machine Tool Corporation, Alexander Blair Clements.https://worldwide.espacenet.com

[40] Canadian Intellectual Property Office. Lathe Driver Device. No CA423996. 21 November 1944. Scottish Machine Tool Corporation, Alexander Blair Clements. http://www.ic.gc.ca/opic-cipo/cpd/eng/search/number.html

[41] Glasgow University Archives Services. Records of Scottish Machine Tool Corporation. GB 248 UGD 175/1 http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk

[42] Mrs. Jane Pelosi.

[43] Glasgow Art Club Archives.

[44] Ibid

[45] Ibid

[46] Ibid

[47] Ibid

[48] STAMPS

[49] Deaths (CR) Scotland. Glasgow. 20 April 1966. CLEMENTS, Alexander, Blair. 644/4 397 http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

[50] Deaths (CR) Glasgow. 21 October 1980. CLEMENTS, Margaret Fraser. 617/00 0779. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

[51] Marriages. (CR) Scotland. Pollok, Glasgow. 1939. WRIGHT, Douglas Alexander and CLEMENTS, Margaret Jean. 644/18 0448. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

[52] Mrs. Jane Pelosi

[53] Marriages (CR) Scotland. Tradeston, Glasgow. 1941. CLEMENTS, Eben Harvey and COSSAR, Jane Brown. 644/16 0726. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

[54] Mrs. Jane Pelosi.

[55] Ibid.