scotland – Glasgow Museums Art Donors Group

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

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

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

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

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

Fig. 2 Label from the reverse of the painting.

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

Fig. 3 Record card for the painting (GMRC)

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

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

Fig. 4 Wellwood House. Selkirk ²³

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

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

Mary Ellis (Possible Donor)

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

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

Clip of Mary Ellis performing in Glamorous Nights ⁵⁸

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

Fig. 6 Dundee Courier 28 June 1938 p2

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

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

References

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

Draper

Gilbert James Innes (1888-1971)

Donor . Gilbert James Innes OBE (1888-1971)

**Figure 1 Sowing the Seed** 1913 by William Newenham Montague Orpen¹ (1878-1932) © CSGCIC Glasgow Museums and Libraries Acc 2941

The Painting

This painting , a watercolour, gouache on paper ,appears to be a study for a larger work Sowing New Seed for the Board Of Agriculture and Technical Instruction In Ireland (see below Figure 2))which was described by one newspaper as ,’a baffling but beautiful piece of imaginative painting’ when it was exhibited at The New English Art Club in December 1913. ²(See Appendix A)

The completed painting is now in the collection of the Mildura Arts Centre in Victoria, Australia. ³

The painting was donated in February 1952. The work appears to have been previously owned by T. & R. Annan Ltd , Photographers and Fine Art Dealers of 518 Sauchiehall Street ,Glasgow. According to a letter dated 21 January 1952 from Thomas Craig Annan, one of the directors of the firm, to Dr Tom Honeyman ,the Director of Glasgow Museums, a ‘visitor’ had approached him wanting to know if Dr Honeyman would be interested in the painting if it was presented to Glasgow Corporation and if it might then be loaned to Glasgow School of Art for the students to study. Apparently some of the instructors at GSA had praised the work and had sent students to the Annan Gallery to study the work. The visitor referred to was probably Gilbert J Innes or his representative as the work was presented by Gilbert to Glasgow Museums the following month. There is no information at this date that the painting was loaned to Glasgow School of Art at any time .⁴

Figure 2 Sowing New Seed c 1913 by Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen (see Appendix B)

By kind permission of the Mildura Art Centre Collection

Senator RD Elliott Bequest. Presented to the City of Mildura by Mrs Hilda Elliot 1956

Donor. Gilbert James Innes (1888-1971)

1888-1914

Gilbert James Innes was born on 5 April 1888 at 24 Oakfield Terrace ,Hillhead in Glasgow. His father was Gilbert Innes ,a draper and warehouseman, and his mother was Margaret Richmond .⁵ Gilbert was the eldest of four boys . John Richmond was born in 1891, Frederick in 1892 and Thomas in 1894.⁶ Frederick had a twin sister Margaret who sadly died of whooping cough when eight weeks old .⁷ By 1901 the family were living at 27 Hamilton Drive in Partick and employed two servants .⁸ All the Innes boys attended Glasgow Academy ,a private school for boys near Kelvinbridge in Glasgow’s West End. Gilbert was in the Latin Class and attended the school from 1898 to 1904 when he left aged sixteen .⁹ Gilbert retained a connection to the school throughout his life. For example he was an Honorary Governor of the Glasgow Academicals War Memorial Trust from 1957 to 1971.¹⁰ In 1961 he gave £2000 to the school to provide new laboratory equipment for the school .¹¹

In 1908 Gilbert became a member of the Incorporation of Weavers at Trades House in Glasgow. The Innes family had connections to the weaving industry. His father ,Gilbert was a draper and his grandfather, James Innes, was a calico printer and mill manager .¹²

The family had moved to 16 Kirklee Road in Hillhead by 1911. This remained the family home for many years . Gilbert was twenty-two years old in 1911 and was employed as a clerk in a shipping agency .¹³ His employer was probably P Henderson & Company where his uncle, John Innes, had been a partner since 1887. John Innes was managing director of the company from 1884 to 1927.¹⁴ John Innes was a knowledgeable and wide collector of art. He was especially known for as a collector of prints. In the 1920s he presented over 170 prints and etchings to Glasgow Art Galleries including works by Albert Durer, Lucas von Leyden , Rembrandt, Whistler ,Cameron and Boner(see figure 3 ). This donation forms a valued part of the ’black and white ‘ section of Glasgow Art Galleries .It may be that this interest influenced his nephew but this is mere speculation.

**Christ Before Pilate** by Albrecht Durer(1471-1528) Glasgow Museums Resource Centre PR1920.6aq

Head of a Young Girl by David Young Cameron GMRC 1920.6

P Henderson & Company had been founded in Glasgow in 1834 by twenty-five year old Patrick Henderson. The company were ship owners, agents and managers. From about 1854 the company began to transport Scottish emigrants to New Zealand in sailing ships and had the contract for Royal Mail to New Zealand. As there was little cargo to carry back from New Zealand at that time the company ships began calling regularly at Burma for cargo such as teak to take back to Glasgow. So successful was this venture that to increase the supply of much needed capital more investing partners were taken on in 1860 and formed The Albion Shipping Company Ltd which dominated trade with New Zealand and in 1882 pioneered the first refrigerated frozen meat shipment from New Zealand to London using sailing ships as there were no coaling stations en route at that time.

Figure 4 Poster advertising emigration from Glasgow to Otago, New Zealand.

In 1865 the opportunity arose to become involved in the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company which operated a ferry service on the Irrawaddy River in Burma. This company was managed by P. Henderson and Company from Glasgow and by the nineteen twenties operated over 600 ferries on the river .¹⁶ The company also started a steamship service between Glasgow, Liverpool and Burma in 1870 which in 1882 need capital for expansion and amalgamated with Shaw Savill and Company becoming Shaw, Savill &Albion Co Ltd. The ships continued to be managed by P Henderson & Company for whom our donor probably worked after leaving school at sixteen .¹⁷

1914-1919

Gilbert and his three brothers all served in the army during World War One. Gilbert’s service at the beginning of the war is rather confusing as he appears to have originally enlisted with 9^th Battalion Highland Light Infantry as a private but in August 1915 he was transferred to the 8^th Battalion Scottish Rifles(The Cameronians) as a 2^nd Lieutenant .¹⁸ It appears that these two battalions both served at Hamilton Barracks at the beginning of the war and transfers between battalions were quite common ¹⁹, especially if a soldier had previous officer training as Gilbert may have done in the Glasgow Academy Officer Training Corps which was attached to the 9^th Battalion HLI from 1908.²⁰ Gilbert served in Egypt, Palestine and in France between 1916 and 1918. He was wounded in France in July 1918 by which time he was a captain in the 8^th Battalion Scottish Rifles. Lt Colonel J.M. Findlay who was the commanding officer of the 8^th Battalion in his book With The Scottish Rifles 1914-1918, writes , ‘Innes ,my adjutant, was badly wounded ‘. This was at a battle in Baigneux which was fought between 28 July and 4 August 1918.²¹ Gilbert’s brother John was also serving in the 8^th Battalion though John may have ended war as a captain in Royal Engineers .²² All the Innes brothers survived the war.

Post War Years

Gilbert was made a partner at P. Henderson and Company in 1920.²³ He was principally concerned with the design of ships and later with the passenger side. He played an active part in the world of shipping becoming a member of several organisations connected to shipping. For example he was a member of the management committee and later chairman of The British Corporation Classification Society, later The British Corporation Register of Shipping and Aircraft, before its absorption by Lloyds Register of Shipping. He was elected as a member of the General and Technical Committee of Lloyds Register of Shipping ²⁴ and was an underwriter for Lloyds. ²⁵ He served as honorary treasurer of The Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland ²⁶ and also became chairman of the Clyde Lighthouse Trust .²⁷

At the time of the 1921 census Gilbert was a boarder staying at Ellerslie, a guesthouse in Cove, a popular holiday destination on the Clyde Coast. Also staying the house were two nurses, one of whom was Dorothy S.Prain .²⁸ We do not know if Gilbert and Dorothy already knew each other or if this is when they first met but they were married on July 12 1922 in Dundee .²⁹

Dorothy was born in Longforgan , Perthshire on 29 April 1893. Her father was John Prain ,a farmer at the time of her birth. Her mother was Nellie Boyd Scrymegeour .³⁰ Dorothy attended the High School of Dundee .³¹Dorothy’s mother died in 1907 aged only thirty-three ³²and her father married again in 1913.³³

There is no information as to Dorothy’s activities during WW1 but she trained to be a nurse at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow and was registered as a nurse in 1919 so presumably she was undergoing nursing training during the war . ³⁴ Perhaps Dorothy and Gilbert met in the hospital while Gilbert was recuperating from his wounds.

According to the tradition at that time Dorothy would have given up her nursing career on marriage. The couple lived at 8 Queensburgh Gardens in Hillhead Glasgow after their marriage and on July 15 1928 a daughter Doreen Prain Innes was born. Doreen was born at a private nursing home at 1 Claremont Terrace in Glasgow. ³⁵There were several nursing homes in Claremont Terrace at that time. 1 Claremont Terrace was run by Henrietta Gunn who was an experienced nurse and midwife. ³⁶

During the nineteen twenties Gilbert travelled abroad several times and spent time in Burma possibly because of P. Henderson &Company’s connection with the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company. In March 1928 he and his uncle John Innes travelled to Rangoon in Burma on the SS Amorapoora and later that year Gilbert and Dorothy travelled to Rangoon on the SS Yoma departing from Liverpool on 26^th October 1928.³⁷ Both ships were owned by the Henderson Line. Whether daughter Doreen travelled with them is unknown as she would have been only three months old at the time.

At the end of the decade the Innes family moved to Killearn in Stirlingshire where they built a house called Gartaneaglais .³⁸The house was designed by a naval architect called Gardener and the garden by J B Wilson. ³⁹

1930-1971

**Figure 5 Gartaneaglis, Killearn** © Killearn Trust

Gilbert continued to be involved in the shipping industry after the move to Killearn both as a partner in Patrick Henderson Ltd and in various shipping concerns as well as being an underwriter for Lloyds. One example in 1953 was his bid to became a major shareholder in the Liverpool Steamship Company. ⁴⁰

Our donor appears to have had an interest in charitable activities throughout his life. In 1930 he was elected a member of the Incorporated Glasgow and Stirlingshire and Sons of the Rock Society an organisation founded to help those in need. The annual dinner was held at the Golden Lion Hotel in Stirling. ⁴¹

He was also a founding member of The Killearn Trust which was founded in July 1932 for the ‘promotion and advancement of the welfare and interests of the Parish of Killearn.’ Gilbert is quoted as ‘the moving spirit’ of the Trust and remained its chairman until his death in 1971.⁴² The activities of the Trust are too numerous to mention here but one of the main activities was to provide housing for those in need in the community. ⁴³

Gilbert was, like his Uncle John, a collector of art including the Scottish Impressionists. He gave several paintings from his collection to The Glasgow Academy. ⁴⁴ He was listed as a member of the council of the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts when it met at the Glasgow Art Club in March 1937.⁴⁵ Gilbert was also a keen photographer. Several local photographs taken by Gilbert were included in the second edition of a book about Killearn The Parish of Killearn. ⁴⁶As we have seen Gilbert also took an interest in Glasgow School of Art (GSA). He was a member of GSA Board of Governors from 1935 and Vice Chairman from 1941 to 1967. From 1936 to 1949 he was Convenor of the School and Staff Committee and Honorary Vice President from 1967 to 1972.⁴⁷

Dorothy Innes also played a part in community activities .To support the war effort during WW2 for example on 2 November 1939 she presided over a meeting of the Killearn Red Cross Society. ⁴⁸ In May 1942 Mr and Mrs Innes invited local people to visit the gardens at Gartaneaglais to view the great show of daffodils, narcissi and flowering shrubs and to give donations to the Women’s Royal Institute (WRI) Comforts Fund for HM Forces. ⁴⁹ In June 1944 on behalf of the Dumgoyne WRI Mrs Innes granted the use of her kitchen at Gartaneaglais for the canning of fruit. ⁵⁰ In December 1945 an advertisement appeared in the Stirling Observer for a Christmas Sale of toys and fancy goods at Gartaneaglais in aid of the Thanksgiving Fund. ⁵¹These are only a few of many such events.

Participation business and the local community is a constant theme in our donor’s life. He was a member of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and was Convener of the Postal, Telephone and Telegraph Committee in the 1940s. ²¹ He was a member of the Glasgow Western Hospital Board of Management. When a new medical rehabilitation and geriatric hospital opened at Killearn Hospital in 1957 Gilbert stated, ’Western Hospitals Group, since the inception of the NHS, had been very much in need of the facilities now provided in Killearn’. ⁵³

Gilbert was also involved in business and commercial education. At some point he became vice-chairman of the Board of Governors of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Commercial College Ltd ⁵⁴ which had been founded in 1915 and which moved to a new building at 173 Pitt Street in Glasgow in 1934. Among its courses the college offered qualifications in business and commerce, librarianship and secretarial studies and ran the Scottish Hotel School which was based at Ross Hall in Crookston in Glasgow. In 1955 this college became The Scottish College of Commerce. In 1964 the college joined with the Royal College of Science and Technology in George Street, Glasgow to form the new Strathclyde University. In 1975 173 Pitt Street became the headquarters of Strathclyde Police. ⁵⁵

There is little further information regarding the Innes family other than they often spent holidays in Iona for which they had great affection. ⁵⁶

Daughter Doreen attended St Andrews University and in 1950 graduated with a BSc in Mathematics and Astronomy ⁵⁷ going on to earn an Honours BSc in 1952.⁵⁸ She married William Thomas Foster in 1956.⁵⁹

It is to be assumed that Gilbert continued his involvement in the various activities described above as his contribution to the community and the business world was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 1963 when he was awarded an OBE in June specifically for his services as chairman of the Glasgow War Pensions Committee. ⁶⁰ Gilbert had been involved in this organisation since at least 1937 when he was vice-chairman. ⁶¹

Dorothy Innes died, aged 74 on November 1 1967 of bronchopneumonia while staying in Perth possibly with a cousin A. M Prain who witnessed the death certificate. ⁶²

Gilbert died on 2 November 1971 aged eighty-three at Cannisburn Hospital Bearsden of ,’peripheral vascular failure’ and artherosclerosis’. ⁶³

References

1. www.newenglishartclub.co.uk/past-members/william-orpen

2. Leicester Chronicle and Leicestershire Mercury 06/12/1913 p. 2

3. https://paulineconolly.com/2021/orpens-sowing-newseedof-protest/the

4. Glasgow Museums Resource Centre (GMRC) Object File 2941

5. www.scotlandspeople.org.uk Statutory Births .1888

6. as above 1891,1892,1894

7. www.scotlandspeople.org.uk Statutory Deaths 1894

8. UK Census 1901

9. https://theglasgowacademyarchive.org.uk

10. MacLeod, Iain The Glasgow Academy. 150 Years.Appendix . p.iii. The Glasgow Academicals War Memorial Trust 1997

11. Glasgow Herald 30/06/1961 p. 2

12. www.tradeshouselibrary.org.uk

13. UK Census 1911

14. Laird,Dorothy ,Paddy Henderson: the Story of P .Henderson & Company 1834-1961. P Henderson &Co 1961.pp.227-8

15. as above p. 156

16. op. cit. Laird p. 113

17. http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P_Henderson_%26_Company

18. Army Lists. Monthly Supplement September 1915

19. https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk>regiments-and-corps

20. op. cit. MacLeod. p. 64

21. Findlay,Colonel J.M. With The Scottish Rifles 1914-18 . Blackie & Sons 1926. p.169

22. Army Lists. Monthly Supplement September 1917

23. op. cit. Laird p. 184

24. Times 11/04/1949 p. 8

25. Liverpool Echo 30/11/1958 p.5

26. Dundee Evening Telegraph 05/04/1939 p. 6

27. op. cit. Laird p. 184

28. UK Census 1921

29. www.scotlandspeople.org .uk Statutory Marriages 1922

30. www.scotlandspeople.org.uk Statutory Births 1893

31. Dundee Courier 27/06 1908 p. 8

32. www.scotlandspeople.org.uk Statutory Deaths 1907

33. www.scotlandspeople.or.uk Statutory Marriages 1913

34. www.ancestry.co uk UK and Ireland Nursing Register.Royal College of Nursing 1898-1968

35. www.scotlandspeople.org.uk Statutory Births 1928

36. www.ancestry.co.uk Midwives Register 1904-1957

37. www.ancestry.co.uk Passenger Lists 1890-1960

38. Glass, Fiona (editor)The Parish of Killearn :the Village and its History. 3^rd edition The Killearn Trust 2009.p.151

39. as above

40. Birmingham Post 22/10/1953 p. 9

41. Falkirk Herald 25/01/1930 p. 6

42. Wilson, Andrew (editor) The Parish of Killearn. 2^nd edition 1988 .The Killearn Trust .p. 146

43. as above

44. Killearn Trust . heritage@kcfc.co.uk

45. Scotsman 24/03/1937 p. 11

46. op. cit. ref 42 pp 40-41

47. archives@gsa.ac.uk

48. Stirling Observer 02/11/1939 p. 4

49. Stirling Observer 07/05 1942 p. 4

50. Stirling Observer 29/06/1944 p.4

51. Stirling Observer 13/12/1945 p. 4

52. Courier and Advertiser 20/03/1947 p. 3

53. Edinburgh Evening News 16/02/1957 p. 5

54. Scotsman 02/07/1955 p. 3

55. http://www.theglasgowstory.com

56. op. cit. ref 38 p. 151

57. St Andrews Citizen 17/06/1950 p. 3

58. Scotsman 05/07/1952 p. 3

59. www.scotlandspeople.org.uk Statutory Marriages 1956.

60. Daily Record 08/06/1963 p. 9

61. Scotsman 11/10/1937 p. 11

62. www.scotlandspeople.org.uk Statutory Deaths 1967

63. as above 1972

Appendix A The Painting

Our study is of the naked female on the left of the full painting. The inspiration for the completed painting was reported to be a reaction to Orpen’s anger that at that time in Ireland government grants for art and education

came from Whitehall under the direction of the Irish Board of Agriculture. Orpen was horrified by this situation which he thought was bizarre and furious that agriculture received far more funding than art. His painting is thought to mock the attitudes of the government using allegorical figures. The nude female(our study) represented the sowing of new ,more progressive ideas while the naked children appear as the offspring of this intellectual enlightenment. The peasant couple on the right and the ramshackle farmhouse with the pig-pen to the left signified the Board of Agriculture’s awkward attitude towards art and culture.

Appendix B The Artist

William Newenham Montague Orpen (1878-1932)

William Orpen was born in Stillorgan ,County Dublin and studied at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Fine Art for six years from the age of thirteen. He won every major prize including the British Isles Gold Medal for life drawing. He then moved to London and studied at the Slade School from 1897 to 1899. He had a private teaching studio in Chelsea along with Augustus John ,a fellow Slade graduate. He split his time between Dublin and London and built a lucrative reputation painting society portraits as well as group portraits known as ‘conversation pieces’ for example The Café Royal in London (1912).During WW1 he was a war artist based mainly in Amiens, travelling to the Somme in April 1917. He painted portraits of Douglas Haig and Sir Hugh Trenchard, commander of the Royal flying Corps. He continued to be successful after the war exhibiting at the New English Art Club and The Royal Academy .⁴Orpen also had connections to Glasgow School of Art. During the 1914 to 1915 academic year Orpen was an assessor for diplomas, scholarships and bursaries (Drawing and Painting) and one of the judges for the Haldane Travelling Scholarships.

Acknowledgements

I would like to offer many thanks to the following people for their help in the research for this report:

Jillian Peterson of the Mildura Arts Centre ,Victoria, Australia

Fiona Glass ,a member of the Innes family and editor of the 3^rd edition of The Parish of Killearn.

Gill Smith of the Killearn Trust

J.M.M.

Academic, Architect, Uncategorized

Charles Heath Wilson

This portrait was donated in June 1915 by his son, William Heath Wilson, artist, in memory of all that his father had contributed to the teaching of art in the city of Glasgow.

The artist was Sir John Watson Gordon (1788-1864) who was a successful portrait painter of the artists, literati and intellectuals of his day.(1) He was a founding member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1826.

William Heath Wilson

William was his father’s fourth child and the only son of his second wife, Johanna Catherine, daughter of William John Thomson, himself a portrait painter. He was also the grandson of the artist Andrew Wilson.

He was born in Edinburgh in 1849 and lived in the United Kingdom until 1868 when the family moved to Florence, Italy, and he was still living there in the 1870’s and 1880’s.(2)

He was taught to paint by his father at Glasgow School of Art and specialised in genre scenes and landscape painting, mostly in oil and mostly on a small scale. He painted in the Impressionist Style. His paintings are of Scotland, Italy, London and Cairo. Ten of his works are in the Glasgow Museums’ collection in Glasgow Museums Resource Centre at Nitshill.

In 1881 he married Isabella Clements who had been born in 1853.

He used to travel to London every year between 1884 and 1899 to exhibit his work at the Royal Academy, London.

His work was, and continues to be, very popular, and frequently appears for sale in Auction Houses, including Christies. Prices for his works are also increasing.(3) An auction of the contents of Hopton Hall, Worksworth in 1989 saw four of his paintings sold there.(4)

Charles Heath Wilson ‘Missionary Of Art’

Charles was not a donor of paintings to Glasgow Museums although there are some of his works in their collections. He is, however, one of the most important figures in the history of Fine Arts in Glasgow.

He was born in September 1809 in London, the eldest son of Andrew Wilson, landscape painter and art importer, and Master of the Trustees Academy from 1818-1826. He trained for a short period with Alexander Naysmith and worked in London, and was friends with David Wilkie.(5)

Charles studied painting with his father and accompanied him to Italy in 1826, where he studied ancient architectural ornament. He stayed there until 1833, when he returned to Edinburgh, where he practised as an architect, and taught ornament and design in the School of Art. (6)

The 1841 census has him living in Woodhill Cottage, Corstorphine with his wife and daughter.(7)

His pictorial work was principally in watercolour and one of his paintings is in the National Gallery of Scotland – a fine watercolour of Florence and the Arno. He gave several works to Glasgow University in 1869. He was also an expert on Fresco Painting.

In 1835 he was elected ARSA but he did not not exhibit after 1842, which resulted in his resignation in 1858.

He was interested in stained glass and spent 10 years re-glazing Glasgow Cathedral, working with the Board of Trade, and using panels made in Munich. This caused considerable controversy with those who thought that the glass should come from elsewhere but he did have the support of such people as the Duke of Hamilton and Sir John Maxwell of Pollock.(8)

He was twice married – firstly to Louisa Orr, daughter of the surgeon John Orr, in 1838; and secondly, in 1848, to Johanna Catherine, daughter of William John Thomson, the portrait painter. Altogether he had two sons and three daughters.

He was passionately interested in education. Between 1837 and 1843 he was Head of the Department of Design at Edinburgh Trustees Academy. In 1840 he visited the Continent and reported to the Government on Fresco Painting. Between 1843 and 1848 he became Director of the Government Schools of Design at Somerset House in London. It was in this capacity that he co-founded, together with John Mossman and others, the world renowned Glasgow School of Art (then known as the Glasgow School of Design).(9)

In 1849 he moved to Glasgow and lived at 29 St. Vincent Place. He was appointed Headmaster of the Government School of Design in Glasgow, which was housed at 116, Ingram Street. The school was immediately oversubscribed and additional space was purchased in Montrose Street.(10)

In 1853, with the creation of the Science and Art Departments, it became the School of Art. While Headmaster, Wilson made many changes to the school. He introduced life classes and set up a mechanical and architectural drawing class. He taught a class on practical geometry and superintended the advanced class. The courses of study were modified to retain established designers and pattern drawers in the school. He worked closely with the Mossman Brothers who were teaching many of the sculptors and carvers who produced the bulk of the city’s architectural sculpture and monuments in the Glasgow Necropolis and who studied their craft at evening classes in Ingram Street.

Wilson was also involved with the creation of another of the city’s great institutions, the McLellan Galleries whose treasures formed the nucleus of Glasgow’s civic art collection in 1856.

He continued with painting and architecture and was involved in several commissions and competition designs. In 1855, along with the Mossmans, he designed the monument to Henry Monteith of Carstairs in the Necropolis.(11)

In the 1861 census he was living at 286 Bath Street. (12)

In 1864 the Board of Trade masterships were suppressed and Wilson was pensioned off, although his involvement with the School of Art continued for a few more years. He became an Honorary Director of the School of Art and one of the trustees of the Haldane Academy. He gave evidence to several House of Commons Select Committees and prepared a Report for the Commission on the Design of the National Gallery.(13)

After leaving the Art School, he returned to full-time practice as an architect in 1864, opening an office at 29 St. Vincent Place, and formed a partnership with a former pupil, David Thomson.(14)

One of their projects was the monument to John Graham Gilbert in the Glasgow Necropolis, designed in 1867. In the same year they redesigned the interior of the Maclellan Galleries, converting part of the building into a picture gallery for Glasgow Corporation. They made alterations to the stables at Pollok House and rebuilt Duntreath Castle, Strathblane in 1864. These are just some of a long list of commissions and designs worked on by the partnership.(15)

In 1868 he inherited a large sum of money and in 1869 he and his family went to live in Italy. He never returned to Scotland.(16)

He spent his last years in Florence, where he was at the centre of a large circle of artists and writers. He wrote a book entitled Life of Michaelangelo Buonarotti in 1876 and he also illustrated some books for which he was awarded the cross of the ‘Corona d’Italia ‘ by Victor Emmanuel.(17)

He died in Florence in 1882.

Almost every member of his family inherited his artistic capability, the most well-known being his son, William, the donor of the painting.

In 2000 Wilson was the subject of an exhibition of his life and work held at Glasgow School of Art and entitled Missionary of Art: Charles Heath Wilson 1809-1882. This was accompanied by the publication of the book Missionary of Art(ed: Rawson) which contains the above portrait and is lavishly illustrated with examples of his paintings and designs. He is remembered chiefly as ‘one of the most important contributors to (the city’s) art scene that Glasgow has witnessed’.(18)

References

Harris, Paul and Julian Halsby. The Dictionary of Scottish Painters 1600 to the Present. Canongate Books. 2001. ISBN 1 84195 150 1
Ibid
www.artnet.com
www.worksworth.org.
Harris, Paul and Julian Halsby. The Dictionary of Scottish Painters 1600 to the Present. Canongate Books. 2001. ISBN 1 84195 150 1.uk
http:/en Wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Heath_Wilson
https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk
http://www.glasgowsculpture.com/pg biography.php?sub=wilson ch
Ibid
http://www.gashe.ac.uk:443/isaar/PO168.html
http://www.glasgo.php?sub=wilsonwsculpture.com/pg biography.php?sub=wilson
https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
http://www.gashe.ac.uk:isaar/PO168.html
http://en Wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Heath_Wilson
http://www.glasgowsculpture.com/pg biography.php?sub=wilson
http://www.gashe.ac.uk:443/isaar/PO168.html
http://www.glasgowsculpture.com/pg biography.php?sub=wilson ch
Rawson, George (Ed). Charles Heath Wilson, 1809-1882. Foulis Press of Glasgow School of Art

Independent Means

Jessie McInnes nee McEwan (1874 – 1957)

Mrs Jessie McInnes donated The Star Ridge with the King’s Peak by Paul Cezanne to Glasgow in 1951.

Fig. 1 The Star Ridge with the King’s Peak, Paul Cezanne (1839 – 1906)
© CSG GIC Glasgow Museums/ArtUK. Accession Number 2932

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. ⁶Thomas 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

References

Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
ancestry.co.uk, Scotland Census, 1881
ancestry.co.uk, Scotland Census, 1891
Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
ancestry.co.uk, Scotland Census, 1901
ancestry.co.uk, Scotland Census, 1911
Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
Ibid

Farmer

John Alastair Faed (1905 – 1981)

James was born into a family of prominent nineteenth-century artists and engravers who lived at Barley Mill in Gatehouse of Fleet, Galloway. He gifted two paintings to Glasgow 1) Interior With Figures by Thomas Faed (his father), and 2) The Artists Wife, Jane McDonald by John Faed (his uncle).

*Figure 1*. Faed, Thomas; Interior with Figures; Glasgow Museums; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/interior-with-figures-83913

*Figure 2.* Faed, John; The Artist’s Wife, Jane Macdonald (1820-1897); Glasgow Museums; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/the-artists-wife-jane-macdonald-18201897-83907

James Alastair was born on 19 November 1905 to James Faed junior, artist, and Eleanor Annie Herdman, (1) who came from a flour milling family from East Lothian and had moved to 38 Abbey Road, St John’s Wood, London prior to Jame’s birth. (2) James junior (1856 – 1920) was a landscape painter and much influenced by his father, sometimes referred to as James senior.

James senior’s brothers Thomas and John were also artists and Thomas is probably the best known, having moved to London, exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy and become a full member of The Royal Academy in London in 1864. Thomas’s best known work is Last of The Clan which has become an iconic symbol of Scottish emigration, and is currently exhibited at Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow. (3)

*Figure 3.* Faed, Thomas; The Last of the Clan; Glasgow Museums; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/the-last-of-the-clan-83914

James Faed junior’s uncles excelled in painting pictures of humble Scottish life and people, but James preferred to paint landscapes, especially in Galloway, capturing the colour and depth of the countryside. (4) In 1908 James junior illustrated the book Galloway by J M Sloan, which describes the landscapes and history of Galloway. Each chapter is illustrated with a relevant watercolour such as On The Fleet, Gatehouse. (5)

*Figure 4.* *On The Fleet, Gatehouse* James Faed jun, from *Galloway* by J M Sloan 1908

He married Eleanor Annie Herdman in 1897 and soon afterwards they moved to St John’s Wood in London where there was a thriving artists population. Their first son, James Ronald Herdman was born in May 1899. He entered the royal Navy as a midshipman at the outbreak of WW1 and tragically was killed when his ship Goliath was torpedoed in the Dardanelles in May 1915. He was awarded the Star Victory Medal.(6) By 1913 James junior and Eleanor had moved with the young James Alastair to The Bungalow, New Galloway. The valuation roll of 1915 notes Eleanor Annie Faed of 38 Abbey Road, London as proprietor, with James Faed Junior as tenant. (7) James junior did little painting after 1915 due to paralysis of his hands, although he subsequently did some painting using his mouth. He died on 17 February 1920 and is buried in Kells Churchyard, New Galloway. Eleanor returned to Edinburgh shortly thereafter. (8)

James Alastair emigrated to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) when he was in his twenties. He became a farmer and lived at Cairnsmore Ranch, possibly named after the hill Cairnsmore of Fleet, a short distance from Gatehouse of Fleet in Galloway, the home of his forebears.(9) The farm is near the village of Umvukwe in Mazoe district about thirty five miles north of the capital Salisbury, now Harare.

*Figure 5.* Cairnsmore Estate (top left of image)https://rhodesia.me.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Salisbury4_final_0021.jpg

His mother left Edinburgh and travelled from the UK with James on 18 May 1933 on the ship Llangibby Castle (built by Harland and Wolff, Govan in 1929) to Mozambique,(10) and later that year on 12 October James Alastair married Frances Elizabeth Herdman in Salisbury, Rhodesia. (11) Frances was born in Edinburgh in 1905 (12) to John Herbert Herdman, a flour miller and Edith Marian Paton who lived in Edinburgh and who had been married at St Giles Cathedral on 20th June 1900. (13) James Alastair and Frances had two children, Fiona Joan Faed and Simon James Faed. (13)

*Figure 6.* Llangibby Castle, https://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=9139

James Alastair qualified as MRAC (Member of the Royal Agricultural College) (14) and arrived in Southern Rhodesia at a time when immigration was encouraged, especially from the UK, to establish and build on agricultural output. The Mazoe area was a wilderness up to the early twentieth century, the name being a corruption of the word manzou, meaning ‘place of the elephants’.

Gold mining was an important industry in the area, but as the fertile region developed, farming gained in importance. Orange growing developed in the Mazoe valley, helped by the building of The Mazoe Dam, completed in 1920 by The British South Africa Company which supplied irrigation water to maintain production on a large scale. (15)

Tobacco plantations were developed, with cattle ranches and, to a lesser extent, dairy farming becoming a feature of the area. The decline in mining in the early 1900’s led to The British South Africa Company encouraging settler farmers from abroad. Consequently, agricultural research, settlement schemes and farm training programmes were implemented. By attracting settler farmers with at least £500 capital, the fertile land was developed commercially and led to increased exports, compared to the more traditional subsistence farming of the indigenous population. (16)

The Rhodesiana magazine was published from 1956 by The Rhodesiana Society and promoted historical studies and research about Rhodesia. Occasionally a list of subscribers was included and James Alistair is listed as a member over a number of years.

*Figure 7.* Rhodesiana Magazinehttps://archive.org/details/Rhodesiana/volume23/mode/2up

James Alistair Faed died in Zimbabwe in 1981 and was interred in The Anglican Cathedral cemetery, Mazoe District, Zimbabwe. Frances returned to Edinburgh and died in 1996.