Few know of the link between Cathcart and the origins of helicopters. However many are aware of the Weir Group, probably one the last remaining great Glasgow engineering firms.

Started by the Weir brothers, they developed innovative devices for steamships and set up at the Holm Foundry, Newlands Road in 1886. Running of the business passed to the sons of James (The J of G&J) in the Edwardian period. Elder son William was more of the manager while the younger James (J.G. Weir), born in Cambuslang, was an intelligent and talented engineer.

Both brothers were interested the latest technology, especially the nascent powered flight scene. JG gained the Royal Aero Club’s 24^th pilot certificate in 1910 and served World War One in the Royal Flying Corps. Both assisted the rapid expansion of the RFC and by the end of the war, Cathcart had produced over 1000 De Havilland DH9s.

JG Weir seems to have been quite the “chap.” He left school at 16 because his maths teacher had nothing left to teach him. In 1911, Barlinnie became his home for two weeks after being found guilty of assaulting Glasgow University’s Professor of Divinity for jilting his sister! In later years, he was probably the only director of the Bank of England with a criminal record.

Like many firms that flourished due to the Great War, leaner times arrived in the twenties. Weirs were unafraid to diversify and managed to maintain the business.

1925 was a significant year in the development of the modern world. Paris held the ‘Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes‘ which ultimately led to the term ‘Art Deco’. John Logie Baird transmitted the first television signal, the Bauhaus commenced building its modernist facility in Dessau to the designs of Walter Gropius and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published.

1925 also saw JG Weir witness a demonstration of a strange futuristic craft called the Autogiro. A Spanish nobleman, Juan De La Cierva found a way of generating lift at very low speeds using a rotating set of blades. Picture an old aeroplane with a helicopter rotor mounted on top of it.

Although never a serious business proposition, JG Weir still provided capital for the Cierva Autogiro Company in 1926 and it produced the first practical rotary wing aircraft.

Over time, problems were solved and it had the notable safety feature of descending in control after a power failure. Also, developments allowed control of the rotor, which, through a licence from Cierva, allowed the German company Focke-Wulf to create the first true helicopter in 1936. Sadly, that same year, Cierva was killed in one of the early airline accidents, when his KLM DC-2 crashed after take-off from Croydon.

Throughout the 1930s, Weirs continued their involvement. JG Weir and his wife Mora (first woman to hold a rotorcraft licence) used an Autogiro to commute from their home, Skeldon House in Ayrshire, to the Cathcart factory. An Autogiro even appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film of The 39 Steps through connections with Weirs.

More seriously, the engineering team brought in by JG Weir to aid Cierva were strong enough to continue after his death. This was the group that developed the UK’s first helicopters post World War 2.

So, imagine walking through the Southside one pleasant morning ninety years ago. You look up after hearing a strange noise in the sky. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Air Commodore James George Weir in his Autogiro heading to work in Cathcart.

By Cameron Winton

Published 27th June 2025

References

The Weir Group – The History of a Scottish Engineering Legend, by William Viscount Weir, Profile Books (2013 edition)

Wikipedia:
The Weir Group
James George Weir
William Weir, 1st Viscount Weir

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On re-reading Jean Marshall’s history of Cathcart ‘Why Cathcart?’ (published 1969) I puzzled again over this mention of the change in local industry towards the end of the 19th Century … “several local firms closed down, among them …Verel’s Photographic Works and the Cassel (Castle?) Gold Extracting Company …”

I knew about the local Mills, Dye and Carpet works; however, I had never thought about the possibility of Gold from the White Cart! Clearly I needed to do some digging (pun intended).

Verel’s Photographic Works

Searching business sources and Ordnance Survey maps for mid to late 1800s, I discovered an Albion Albumenizing Co., founded in 1864 and located at Cathcart. Albumen was used for paper photography and Gelatine was an ideal binder.  It became F.W. Vérel & Co. around 1891 when the manufacturing company spun-off.  Verel’s works were until then part of the Albion Gelatine/Dry Plate manufactory.

The factory was located close to a source of water in the White Cart for use in the manufacturing process. It was demolished before World War One to make way for the extended G And J Weir’s Holm Foundry. This itself has recently been demolished to make way for a new housing development. I was making some progress, with the Photographic Works now located, but I could not find any location for the Cassel Company.

Pumping Gas

Time for a name search. First up was a British publisher, coffee merchant and social campaigner named John Cassell, who had struck liquid Gold – Oil – in Pennsylvania in 1859 and began importing it into the UK under a variant of his own name – Cazeline.

On 27th November 1862 he placed an advertisement in The Times of London for: “…the Patent Cazeline Oil, safe, economical, and brilliant […] possesses all the requisites which have so long been desired as a means of powerful artificial light.”  [Source: Wikipedia]

A slight difference in spelling of surname but he still had a connection to the chemical industry… perhaps there was still a link? I then found note of court proceedings around the patent for the oil. It turns out that sales of the oil had taken a major downturn during 1863, specifically in Dublin.

It transpired that a Mr Samuel Boyd was selling counterfeit Cazeline, changing the name by adding a stroke onto the letter C to ‘create’ Gazeline. Mr Boyd denied imitation. The court ruled in Cassell’s favour – but it’s believed to be the source of a new word to the English language – Gasoline – which is ubiquitous in its use in North America.

The Treasure of the Sierra Tharsis

However, that Cassell would appear to have no connection with Scotland, let alone Glasgow and Cathcart. A sideways search revealed that a Charles Tennant had shares in the Cassel Gold Extracting Company, as well as a mineral mining venture in Huelva Province in Spain, a place known to the Romans as Tharsis.

Charles Clow Tennant (1823–1906) was the grandson of Charles Tennant (1768-1838), the founder of the St. Rollox Chemical Works, and succeeded him in the business.

The mines, in the Sierra de Tharsis, were rediscovered by a French engineer Ernest Deligny in 1853. However, by 1860 there were difficulties especially in relation to transport, and approaches were made to a group of British alkali makers, headed by the second Charles Tennant, to acquire the venture.

The alkali makers were primarily interested in the business as a means of obtaining sulphur, a by-product of the process whereby copper is extracted from pyrites. Importantly, gold could also be recovered from the residue. It was agreed and Tennant renamed the company – the Tharsis Sulphur and Copper Co. Ltd., with its Head Office at 136, West George Street, Glasgow.

Fast forward 20 years and by the 1880s the world’s gold industry was in a precarious state due to the low yields from ores from mines.  Tennant and his partners turned to Henry Rennel Cassel; a German-born metallurgist from New York. The Cassel Gold Extracting Company was formed in Glasgow in 1884 to exploit Cassel’s patents for an electrochemical process. However:

“… his activities proved wholly fraudulent. As The Glasgow Herald noted, ‘Yankee cuteness has been too much for Scotch credulity’. Cassel, having swindled the Glasgow adventurers out of some £8 million at today’s value, absconded to the USA…” [Source: New Scientist 29/6/1996]

This was more a major blow to pride rather than finances, as it is noted of the Tharsis Company that:

“…During the twenty-one years ending December 31st, 1887, the company’s gross profits from all actual industrial and commercial undertakings, have amounted to £5,983,082, of which £3,942,318 have been distributed in dividends. These dividends have, in many instances, been remarkable in their eminently satisfactory character.” [Source: Glasgow Index of Firms, 1888]

‘MacArthur’s’ Gold

What could be done about the existential problem of low recovery rates from ore..? Step forward Glaswegian chemist, John Stewart MacArthur, who was then working in the laboratory of the Tharsis Company as an apprentice chemist.

He entered into a partnership with Doctors William and Robert Forest to develop a process using a dilute cyanide solution and then zinc, to dissolve gold, silver and other ores. On the 19th of October 1887, a patent (No. 14,174 of 1887) was granted to J MacArthur and Wm. Forrest for an invention of “Improvements in obtaining gold and silver from ores and other compounds.”

It soon became the global standard.  Within two years of its introduction in South Africa the total weight of gold produced had risen from forty thousand to one hundred thousand ounces per month. Stagnation in the gold-mining industry was arrested and the new process had striking effects. Instead of being able to refine only around 45% of metal from complex ores, as before, 98% extraction could now be achieved.

John Stewart MacArthur went on to develop processes for the use of radium compounds in medicine, and for luminous paints, and died in 1920 at the age of 63 in his home at 12 Knowe Terrace (now Shields Road) in Pollokshields.

Gold or Poison?

The process development was initially housed in doctors William and Robert Forest’s office in the Gorbals. So how did it end up in Cathcart? I went back to the records for the Tharsis Company (which had a stake in Cassel) to look at its ownership and management.

“…very large and handsome offices are occupied in West George Street, and the routine business of the concern receives the attention of an executive staff, consisting of Mr. Jonathan Thomson Secretary; Mr. William A. Verel, General Manager; and Mr. Theodore Merz, Technical Manager. At the head of the directorate appears the well-known name of Sir Charles Tennant”  [Source: Bart Glasgow Index of Firms, 1888]

So, the connection seems to be Mr William Verel, the owner of the Photographic works. It would be likely that his company would be well suited to this enterprise, given its background in chemicals and the location close to a supply of both power and water.

The ‘Spanish’ Connection

An interesting aside is that the Tharsis Sulphur and Copper Co. Ltd base in Huelva encouraged a flow of students to the University of Glasgow. As a blog post from the University in December 2012 says,

“…while looking at the Spanish-born students from the late nineteenth-century, we spotted a increased number of those students born in the province of Huelva … Among the students born in Tharsis around that period were Mercedes Margaret Morton, the daughter of Alexander Young Morton, a medical graduate of the University and a doctor for the Tharsis Sulphur and Copper Company Ltd. She returned to the University, following in her father’s footsteps, and graduated MB ChB in 1917…” [Source: University of Glasgow’s International Story, blog post, December 2012]

As well as students coming to Glasgow, Glasgow’s rail infrastructure was added to Spain!

“The company added infrastructure, constructing the Tharsis railway along the river Odiel, which was completed and in use by 1871. Its unusual dimensions also had a direct Glasgow connection: with a width of 4 feet, or 1.220 mm, they were the same dimensions used exclusively for the Glasgow underground. The railway had 53 steam locomotives, serving both industry and passengers, and is today the only mining railway in Huelva that is still used for industrial freight.”  [Source: ibid]

Cathcart’s long association with Spain continued until ScottishPower, part of the Spanish owned Iberdrola Group, moved to its new offices in the centre of Glasgow.

The White Cart is the golden thread that interweaves the industrial, economic and social history of Old and New Cathcart, and indeed much of the Southside. It also created a golden link to a much older story, connecting the Phoenicians who established mining operations in Huelva with Victorian engineering, entrepreneurial expertise and a generous helping of Glaswegian verve.

—

By Graeme Boyle

Published 14th September 2024

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Mrs. Barbour’s Army spread through Glesga like the plague

The maisters got the message and the message wisnae vague

While oor menfolk fight the Kaiser we’ll stay hame and fight the war

Against the greedy bastards who keep grindin’ doon the poor

Alistair Hulett, Mrs. Barbour’s Army

International Women’s Day, 8 March 2023, marked the fifth anniversary of the unveiling of the now-iconic monument to Mary Barbour and her “army” in Govan Cross.  Barbour, whose husband was an engineer at Fairfield Shipbuilding, became a resident of Govan shortly after her marriage in 1896, and she soon became active in the Independent Labour Party, the Kinning Park Women’s Co-Operative Guild, and the Socialist Sunday School, a movement founded in Glasgow to organise society ‘on a basis of love and justice’.  While all of these groups encouraged equal participation among men and women (aside from the lack of women’s suffrage), the co-operative guild in particular encouraged working-class women to value themselves not only in the domestic sphere, but also in social and political matters affecting their communities.

At the turn of the twentieth century, with the proliferation of tenements, Glasgow’s housing was seen as being among the worst in the nation.  At the outset of World War I, as the men of the city were joining the front lines in Europe, profiteering landlords – hoping to capitalise on the influx of workers to the munitions factories and shipyards –  raised rents in the city by 8-23%, assuming that the women left behind would have little recourse but to pay or be evicted.  The Labour Party soon established the Glasgow Women’s Housing Authority, and Mary Barbour was head of the South Govan branch by 1915.

Struggling not only to pay rent but also to secure food for their families, the angry housewives of Govan began to agitate for a rent strike.  Barbour organised the first of these in May 1915 along with what Red Clydesider Willie Gallacher named “Mrs. Barbour’s Army”, and by November, over 25,000 tenants were refusing to pay the exorbitant rents.  When eighteen families in Partick were taken in to the Sheriff Court for failure to pay, Barbour, who was joined by fellow activists Helen Crawfurd, Agnes Dollan, and Mary Burns Laird, organised a massive demonstration throughout the city, joined by men from the factories and workshops, to descend upon the court.  This forced the hands not only of Glasgow officials, but also Parliament, with Lloyd George, then the Minister of Munitions, being forced to cap rents and mortgages at the August 1914 rate through the issuance of the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (War Restrictions) Act 1915.

After the successes of the Rent Strike of 1915, Barbour turned her energy to securing food for the people of Govan by working with local fish mongers to distribute the fish they discarded as too small to sell to families in Govan Cross.  She then advocated for green spaces for children and greater opportunity for working-class women and the working classes in general.  Barbour went on to achieve many firsts in Glasgow.  She became the first female councillor for Govan’s Fairfield Ward in 1920; became Glasgow’s first female magistrate and first female bailie representing Govan in 1924; and founded the woman-staffed Women’s Welfare and Advisory Clinic, Glasgow’s first family-planning clinic for married women, in 1926.  After a life of service to the working classes of Glasgow, Mary Barbour died in Govan in 1958.

Unfortunately, though not uncommon among historical women, her story was soon somewhat forgotten; though, she lived on in the memories of many Govan residents.  As regeneration efforts were undertaken in the community at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Govan Reminiscence Group (GRG), invaluable curators of Govan’s social history, sought to commemorate her achievements by having one of the newly built streets named in her honour.  Esmé Clark, GRG’s secretary, wrote a letter to the Glasgow City Council to make this request and received in return what she called “the cheekiest letter”, which claimed that it was the Council’s policy that no twentieth-century figure be named in the built environment.  Members of the GRG contacted local councillors, who could find no evidence of this rule.  Additionally, Clark cited the fact that Nelson Mandela was honoured with a square in the city centre, so it was unclear why a street in Govan could not be named after Mary Barbour.

Still, the idea of commemorating Barbour in some public and permanent way continued to simmer, and in 2013, The Remember Mary Barbour Association (RMBA) was formed with the aim of installing a monument in her honour.  The group was chaired by Maria Fyfe, a former Labour MP from Maryhill, and when they formally organised as a charity to raise approximately £110,000 for a statue, their stated objectives were ‘to advance education for public benefit in the life, works and importance of Mary Barbour as an iconic figure in the history of Govan, Glasgow, Scotland, and the UK’ and ‘to advance the arts, heritage and culture through the erection of a statue in a public place to commemorate Mary Barbour.’

Esmé Clark was soon invited to join the RMBA, and in fact it was she who came up with the name for the organisation.  As news of the monument began to spread, she recalls how enthusiastic Govanites would hand her money on the street so often that she had to start carrying small envelopes around with her to ensure these impromptu donations were properly documented and accounted for.  Councillor Stephan Dornan, Vice Chair of the RMBA, likewise described “weans giving their pocket money” as excitement began to build.

Through donations big and small (including from Govan legend Sir Alex Ferguson), GRG bake sales, and the sale of merchandise and event tickets, the RMBA raised the funds needed to commission a monument.  After significant community input, a design by sculptor Andrew Brown, which reflected Barbour’s ‘grassroots campaigning and down-to-earth nature’, was selected.  Dr Catriona Burness, who served on the RMBA board and functioned as its historical researcher, believes Brown’s design was chosen because it represented working people coming together to achieve a goal, with Barbour as the leader but still a part of the group.

Though originally intended to be in place by the centenary of the 1915 Rent Strike, the statue was unveiled on 8 March 2018, International Women’s Day (IWD), to a great deal of enthusiasm.  At the event, Maria Fyfe expressed her confidence that ‘the memorial [would] help the people of the area reconnect with their rich social history and heritage [and would] serve as a beacon of inspiration to women everywhere.’

Former Councillor John Kane, Treasurer for RMBA, also noted that it was ‘an exciting, important and proud day for the people of Govan and Glasgow.  It’s highly appropriate that we gather on International Women’s Day to celebrate the legacy of Mary Barbour…who made a massive contribution to this city, and beyond.’  As proof of Barbour’s legacy, the Govan Reminiscence Group has led an IWD celebration at the monument every year since the monument’s installation.

Councillor Dornan and members of the GRG note how the statue has become a rallying place for groups not only in Govan, Glasgow, and Scotland, but across the UK, including housing associations, Scotland’s Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPIScotland), artists, groups against gender-based violence, and politicians from all creeds.  GRG Chair Colin Quigley is pleased to see that the groups that gather are promoting ‘good causes, fitting for what Mary Barbour herself did.’  Furthermore, a week after the monument’s unveiling, one of the figures received the famous Glasgow “cone treatment”, and Barbour and her army have also been “yarn bombed” in hats and scarves on cold nights.

Of great surprise to members of the GRG is the fact that the monument has never yet been vandalised and that “all the kids respect it”.  Clark recalled an incident when two inebriated football supporters were seen throwing chips at the monument.  However, when another local reprimanded them, saying, “You can’t do that! That’s Mary Barbour!”, one of the men apologised and immediately picked up the chips and took them away. Quigley expresses with some satisfaction the fact that more young people now know about Barbour and what she did for Govan, and her activism has since become part of the school curriculum.  In a time when statues are more and more contested in public spaces, he notes that he has never heard a bad word about the statue nor does he know of any occasion when it has been spoken of in a negative context.

Despite not occupying a place among the grand academic narratives of Scottish history, Mary Barbour has been remembered and respected by the citizens of Govan who aspire to her ideals of community cohesion and of neighbours helping neighbours.  The unique nature of Govan’s socialist and industrial community in Mary Barbour’s time helped shape her as a leader, activist, and politician, and she used her influence not to her own benefit but to improve the lives of Glasgow’s working classes by helping them help themselves.

By Erin Burrows

Published 23rd March 2023

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This is a place founded on being ‘on the outside’—sited just beyond the original city limits, the Gorbals built its formidable reputation on the ability to accommodate migrants from around the world, give them a start, and then watch them leave to make way for the next arrivals. A tight community that paradoxically eulogises those that were ‘determined enough to get out’ but who are the people who belong to and stay in such a place? They are those who remain to look after the stories and the myths, and welcome new arrivals, a little bitter about being left behind perhaps—understandably mistrustful of anyone who wants to join them and partake in the myth-making.
– Matt Baker, Lead Artist for The Artworks Programme

At the crossroads between Cumberland Street and Jane Place, a few minutes’ walk from the Co-op Crown Street in the Gorbals, on a high pedestal stands Kenny Hunter’s Untitled. Girl With Rucksack.

The bronze statue portrays a young girl who looks around her as if pondering which direction she should go, or waiting for someone to come and show her around her new place.

The girl is caught in a momentary stop; she has put down her sack between her legs, and relieved her back from the weight of the rucksack, which now rests on her right shoulder. This suspended immobility concentrates a plurality of moves, as if in her short life, the girl would have kept moving, from this place to that place, from one community to another.

As it was created as a piece of public art that accompanied the redevelopment of the Crown Street area in the 2000s, Kenny Hunter’s Untitled. Girl With Rucksack is a powerful metaphor for the thousands of individuals who came to settle in the Gorbals since the industrial revolution, and who were then displaced during successive waves of urban redevelopment plans.

The population of the greater Gorbals area was 5,200 in 1811 but by the 1930s had reached 90,000, equivalent to that of a small city in its own right.

The old tenements were cleared in the late 1950s as part of the Hutchesontown/Part Gorbals Comprehensive Development Area, which was formally approved by the Secretary of State for Scotland in 1957. These tenements had largely been built between 1860 and 1900, themselves replacing previous tenements built between the 1820s and 1840s.

To replace the slums and change the ‘No Mean City’ atmosphere of the area, prestigious architects were asked to imagine the city of the future, a brutalist utopia of modernised and standardised living that nodded to Le Corbusier’s Cité radieuse.

Untitled. Girl with Rucksack is located at the site where the development’s centrepiece, Basil Spence’s Hutchesontown ‘C’ – also known as 16-32 Queen Elizabeth Square – once stood.

Comprised of two twenty-storey dark grey, monolithic tower blocks, its construction took place between 1963 and 1965 and it was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in person. But the utopia of a modern lifestyle was quickly replaced by damp and structural problems. It was demolished in 1993.

Architects CZWG won the competition for the replanning of the area. They proposed a postmodern project of low-rise urban blocks and oases of private communal gardens. A clause in the contract of all private investors in the Gorbals stipulated that they must spend one per cent of their total building budget on art. That’s how the Artworks programme came to life, founded in 1999 by artists Matt Baker and Dan Dubowitz.

The programme commissioned over twenty local and international artists to respond to the new development plan with temporary and permanent pieces of public art. The artists were involved throughout the process of construction of the new buildings, on one side working with the architects to imagine an artwork strategy that directly responded to the built environment, on the other working with the local communities to perpetuate their memories and those of the neighbourhood.

During the creation of Untitled. Girl with Rucksack, Kenny Hunter worked closely pupils from the Blackfriars Primary School, with whom he did a series of workshops. The sculpture was launched in 2004, with eight of these pupils invited to unveil the statue.

Were you present at this launch? Were you, or do you know, one of these pupils? Were you in touch with one of the other artists?  We want to hear from you, get in touch and tell us your stories!

By Francesca Zappia

Published: 19th October 2022

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Further information:

For more information about the Artworks programme and other artists’ commissions see Rhona Warwick, Arcade: Artists and Place-making, Black Dog Publishing: 2006, and the website of the project which was also awarded ‘best website’ by the Scottish Design Awards in 2005: http://www.theartworksprogramme.org/

You can also listen to oral memories of Basil Spence’s Hutchesontown ‘C’ [Interviews conducted 2015-2016 as part of the ‘Housing, Everyday Life and Wellbeing over the long term: Glasgow 1950-75’ project, University of Glasgow]: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/research/historyresearch/researchprojects/housingandwellbeing/onlineoralhistoryresource/#paul%E2%80%93queenelizabethsquare%2Chutchesontown(1966-1981)

More information about CZWG Crown Street Regeneration Masterplan can be found here: https://czwg.com/projects/masterplanning/crown-street-regeneration/

Images copyright of Kenny Hunter, Newsquest, and Canmore / Historic Environment Scotland.

About Kenny Hunter:

Born in Edinburgh in 1962, Kenny Hunter studied sculpture at Glasgow School of Art between 1983 and 1987. Since then, he has exhibited extensively in Britain and abroad including solo exhibitions at Arnolfini in Bristol, Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and CCA and Tramway both in Glasgow. Hunter has also created a number of high-profile, public commissioned works including Citizen Firefighter, 2001, outside Glasgow’s Central Station, and Youth with Split Apple, 2005, Kings College, Aberdeen. In London he has created three major public works – iGoat, 2010, in Spitalfields, Blackbird (the persistence of vision) for Leicester Square, 2016, and most recently The Southwark Memorial to war and reconciliation, 2018.

With unexpected uses of scale, material and subject matter the sculpture of Kenny Hunter runs counter to the expectations of traditional monuments. His artworks avoid singular readings preferring to embrace ambiguity as a positive position that will encourage the viewer toward ethical engagement.
Hunter is a lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art and was the Programme Director of Sculpture from 2014 to 2017, then Director of Outreach from 2018 to 2021.

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Glasgow Golf Club was formed in 1787 and they played originally on Glasgow Green. Industrialisation in the first half of the nineteenth century led to a rapid increase in Glasgow’s population, which meant that there was more pressure on the available green space within the city than ever before. Faced with a lack of alternative courses, the Glasgow Golf Club folded in the 1830s.

Some members of the Prestwick Golf Club, formed in 1851, lived and worked in Glasgow and were keen to establish a club closer to the city and so in 1870 the Glasgow Golf Club was reconstituted.

The recently formed South Side Park or Queen’s Park as it became officially known was the site they chose. Charlie Hunter, the professional from Prestwick, laid out a 9-hole course on the Recreation Grounds but there were no bunkers at this stage. Membership was a guinea per year and a fee of £2 per year was paid to the keeper of Queen’s Park Bowling Club to look after the golf clubs and the greens.

When the first match was played on the 5th of March 1870, Young Tom Morris – the leading Scottish professional at the time and winner of four successive Open Championships by the age of 21 – joined the Lord Provost, the captain of the club and others.

The course would not have compared favourably to courses of today. Lawn mowers had recently been invented but those would have been used only on the greens. The grass on the fairways would still be very long and would need to be scythed but somehow the golfers managed and in 1873 they invited another club, Leith Thistle, to play a competition.

Discussions moved on to building a clubhouse and the Parks Department granted permission for a building to be erected but the sport was not as popular in the city as it was on the coast. The club was still relatively small and, afraid of accruing debt, decided to quit Queen’s Park and move to Alexandra Park in the east end of the city which was more affordable.

There is still to this day, a 9-hole golf course at Alexandra Park but Glasgow Golf Club have prospered and moved on to own two courses, one near Bearsden and another on the coast, near Irvine.

There were calls to bring golf back to Queen’s Park when the park was expanded in the mid-1890s but they came to nothing.

By Bruce Downie
Published March 2022

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Image credits:

Queen’s Park, Glasgow. Oblique aerial photograph taken facing east, Date 8/8/1928 – Photo copyright of Historic Environment Scotland, Aerofilms Collection. Canmore ID 168587 https://canmore.org.uk/collection/1259303

Young Tom Morris; Wikimedia, Public Domain.

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My great aunt Mary died when I was a baby. I don’t recall meeting her. She was my father’s maternal aunt. My mother told me when I was older that she was a nurse during World War One and showed me a family album with her photo in nurse’s uniform.

When my parents died, I inherited the album. I went to look at it in 2015, as I knew there was a photo of Mary’s brother, Thomas, who was killed 100 years ago at the battle of Loos, and I wrote about him.

Sometime later, I was looking at the National Archives website and saw that nurses’ records had now been digitised. I ordered a copy of the records not knowing what I would receive. It turned out to be forty plus pages. These were not in any order and took me some time to sort. Although there are some missing, they still give a remarkably clear idea of her work as a nurse from when she enrolled in the Territorial Forces Nursing Service in 1909 until she finally retired from it (renamed Territorial Army Nursing Service in 1921) in 1933.

I had noticed in her records that although most correspondence was sent to the family home in Queen Mary Avenue, Crosshill, the occasional item was sent to the Headquarters of an organisation called the Glasgow and West of Scotland Co-Operation of Trained Nurses in Sardinia Terrace. Sardinia Terrace, I found, is not far from here, it is the  top end of Cecil Street. I later attended Hillhead Primary School, and for seven years must have – unbeknownst to me – have been very close to where my great-aunt was located.

As part of the Hidden Histories team, I made a visit to the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre. In addition to the suffrage material we had asked to see, various other material relating to women’s work had been put aside for us. One of these was the 1933 Annual Report of the Nurses’ organisation-and it showed by great-aunt’s name on it! Since then I have been trying to find out more, both about where my great-aunt served and about the organisations she belonged to.

This is a timeline of her life. It includes archival details, such as the list of equipment required for overseas nurses, and her arrival at the hospital when it was a few “partially constructed buildings in a sea of mud:”

25^th December 1877             

Born 3 Nellfield Place Old Machar, Aberdeenshire, and registered in 1878.

1891 CENSUS                       

Still with parents in Old Machar.

1901 CENSUS

With parents at 37 Finlay Drive  Dennistoun, Glasgow.

1902-1906

Trained at Western Infirmary.

July 1906

Mary became a member of the Co-operation of Trained Nurses in Sardinia Terrace. This is the first time her name appears in the list of nurses in the Society. Mrs Elder, Govan philanthropist, was previously president of the co-operation.

12^th March 1909       

Enrolled in Territorial Force Nursing Service (TFNS) as Staff Nurse. The TFNS was established by R. B. Haldane (March 1908) following the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act (1907). It was to provide nursing staff for the twenty-three territorial force general hospitals planned for the United Kingdom in the event of war. Hospitals were allocated a staff of ninety-one trained nurses and included two matrons, sisters, and staff nurses, supervised by a Principal Matron.

November 1909

A bazaar raises over £4000 for the Co-Operation.

1911 CENSUS

Location unknown.

21^st December 1914  

Mobilised. Stationed at Scottish Military Hospital No 3 (Stobhill)

26^th September 1915

Mary’s brother is missed presumed killed at the Battle of Loos.

21^st December 1915  

Still at Stobhill. Report on Mary by Matron Jean Chapman:

“Miss Mary M Geddes was mobilized on the 21^st December 1914 and has served under me for twelve months. Her ward work has been very satisfactory. She has taken an interest in instructing and training the orderlies and has got good work from them. She is capable, punctual and her influence generally is very good. I think she is well suited for the position she holds at present.”

Captain John Gracie (Medical Officer at Stobhill) writes that she is “fit for active service.” Report is signed also by Principal Matron Helen Gregory Smith.

21^st December 1916  

Still at Stobhill. Report on Mary by Matron Alicia Hope Kerr (originally from Leith):

“She is a good nurse, punctual, energetic, capable in her work and kind to her patients. Miss Geddes has acted Sister with satisfaction.”

4^th April 1917

Mary signs Army Form W 3548 agreeing to serve overseas.

12^st December 1917  

Still at Stobhill Report on Mary by Matron Alicia Hope Kerr:

“A good surgical nurse and has had experience in eyes, nose and throats and skin wards. She is punctual, energetic, reliable, and very kind to her patients. Miss Geddes is considered suitable for foreign service.”

15^th December 1917 

Captain R Barclay Ness (RAMC) formally certifies that Mary is in “a fit state of health to undertake nursing duties in a military hospital abroad.”

NURSES’ OVERSEAS ACTIVE SERVICE EQUIPMENT

The following articles are to be provided by all members when proceeding on active service abroad.

Uniform only is to be taken; no plain clothes are required.

An allowance of £8. 5s. for active service equipment, and £7. 10s. for camp kit will be given to each member.

1 Trunk not to exceed 30 x 24 x 12 inches
1 Hold-all
1 Cushion with washing covers.
1 Rug
1 Pair gum boots
1 Small candle lantern
1 Small oil-stove and kettle
1 Flat-iron
1 Looking glass
1 Roll-up, containing knife, fork, dessert-spoon, and teaspoon
1 Cup and saucer
1 Tea-pot or infuser
1 Secure tent strap

Instruments
2 Pairs scissors
2 Pairs forceps
2 Clinical thermometers

Camp Kit
1 Portable camp bedstead
1 Bag for ditto
1 Pillow
1 Waterproof sheet, 7ft. by 4ft. 6in.
1 Tripod washstand with proofed basin, bag, and bath
1 Folding chair
1 Waterproof bucket
1 Valise or kit bag to hold the above-mentioned articles with owner’s name painted upon it.

STAFF NURSES’ TIMETABLE

6 a.m. Called
6. 30 a.m. Prayers
6. 35 a.m. Breakfast
7 a.m. Wards
9 a.m. Light lunch and dress
9. 30 a.m. Wards
12. 30 p.m. Lunch
1 p.m. Wards
4 or 5 p.m. Tea
4. 30 or 5. 30 p.m. Wards
8 p.m. Dinner
10. 30 p.m. Bedrooms
11 p.m. Lights out

Times off
Three hours every day, from
9. 30 to 12. 30 or
2 to 5
5 to 8
Half a day every week from 2 to 10
A whole day every month from 6 p.m. previous day to 10 p.m. following day.

Staff nurses on night duty
Hours from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m.
A night off once a month
Two months consecutive duty

20^th January 1918    

Mary joins 73 General Hospital and starts her journey to Trouville at Talbot Road Railway Station (later Blackpool North) and then crosses the channel on the HMT Courtfield.

This was a “Base Hospital.” They were part of the casualty evacuation chain, further back from the front line than the Casualty Clearing Stations. In France and Flanders, the British hospitals were generally located near the coast, often in pre-war buildings such as seaside hotels. They were close to a railway line, in order for casualties to arrive (some also came by canal barge); and were near a port where men could be evacuated for longer-term treatment in Britain.

24^th January 1918    

According to the hospital War Diary:

“After many delays and much discomfort, owing to overcrowding and shortage of rations, the Transport reached le Havre at 7am on 24^th January.”

After their journey from Blackpool to le Havre, the Units marched to a rest camp. On the 25^th, a paddle steamer took them to Trouville, where a band from the adjacent Convalescent Camp welcomed them. At that stage, the camp consisted of “partially constructed buildings in a sea of mud.” In addition “the nurses’ quarters were not nearly ready for occupation, none of the Ward Blocks were completed, there were no paths, and the site was littered with builders’ debris.” Everyone including officers had to help turn the site into the largest yet constructed, with 2,500 beds. Luckily, they were on a ridge above the sea with a “wonderful view of the valley.”

23^rd February 1918  

Twenty-two more nurses and nursing VADs arrive. A VAD was a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachments with some basic training in nursing. The VADs carried out a range of voluntary positions including nursing, transport duties, and the organization of rest stations, working parties and auxiliary hospitals. Women were taught first aid, home nursing and hygiene by approved medical practitioners. They also took classes in cookery. Men were trained in first aid in-the-field and stretcher bearing. Talented VADs could take specialist classes to become a masseuse or use an x-ray machine. Famous VADs include Vera Brittain and Agatha Christie.

Start March 1918     

Work on plumbing and improving “very backward” electric light is ongoing but proves difficult due to heavy snowstorms and frost.

7^th March 1918         

First convoy of 399 patients arrives: “mostly stretcher cases.” On a daily basis, recovering patients are sent to Convalescent Depot No 14. On 26^th March for example, 458 patients are discharged from No 73. The hospital War Diary notes that patients had to be clothed first. In the three weeks in March that the hospital was operational it treated 3805 patients.

3^rd April 1918

40 RAMC reinforcements arrive.

During April  1918

By the end of April, the hospital had 67 General Surgery VADS out of an establishment of 124.

28th May 1918

Report on Mary from Matron Kathleen A Smith, 73 General Hospital in Trouville notes that Mary performed special duties in the field of surgical nursing and that she had acted as Sister in charge of a ward. Smith writes:

“A very good practical nurse but rather slow.”

Spring 1918

German Army breakthrough causes serious concern in Trouville.

June 1918

Concerns about possible attacks by hostile aircraft. Two wards per block were sandbagged and protective trenches dug. Hospital has “population of 3000.”

June –July 1918                   

American Hospital train takes patients to and from Trouville.

August 1918

Large number of admissions to hospital “a full train averaging 425 every third day.” Post Office built “very badly needed.”

15^th September 1918

Ophthalmic centre opened. It was a converted Nissen hut with waiting room, test room with two dark rooms, operating room, and work area for the optician.

October 1918

Hospital “severely taxed.” Many patients coming direct from front line rather than through usual chain of command. Over 1400 in this category, including 91 dangerously ill (20 being penetrating chest wounds). Hospital received additional staffing of Canadian nurses & doctors. The influenza outbreak also hit the hospital. “The nursing was very heavy.” Of the 4998 patients admitted during October; 4957 are discharged.

10^th October 1918                 

123 staff working at 73 General Hospital.

23^rd November 1918 

73 General Hospital visited by Princess Mary. This is the first post-war visit to France by a member of the Royal Family. Princess Mary herself trained as a VAD. She visited the “Eye Department.” My great-aunt’s annual evaluation in January 1919  states “she is especially fitted for ophthalmic nursing” so it would be nice to think that she was working there at the time of the Princess’s visit.

January 1919

Patients gradually being sent back to UK, as hospital winds down. Recovered patients kept amused by daily visits to the cinema, whist drives, and concerts.

21^st January 1919

Mary still at 73 General Hospital. Matron Kathleen A. Smith says:

“Her general professional ability is good, and she is especially fitted for ophthalmic nursing, her administrative capacity is very fair. Her power of initiative and ability to instruct others is good. With the exception of a rather abrupt manner of speech her vocal communications are good. Miss Geddes acted in charge of the ophthalmic block for a short time and gave satisfaction. She is fitted for promotion to Ward Sister.”

20^th March 1919       

No 37 Casualty Clearing Station commences move from Busigny, Northern France, to Deutz-Koln, Germany.

3^rd April 1919

Along with seven others, Mary now “on strength” at the Station.

2^nd June 1919

Visit to Deutz Cologne by Matron in chief Maud McCarthy.

3^rd April 1919

Mary now temporarily attached to Queen Alexandra Imperial Army Nursing Service and posted to 37 Casualty Clearing Station, Deutz, Cologne.

21^st July 1919

Mary temporarily assigned to Hospital Train No.14 for 4 days.

22^nd August 1919      

Mary returns to UK (Folkestone).

3^rd September 1919  

Mary demobilised.

November 1919

Mary registers with the newly created General Nursing Council for Scotland.

31^st March 1920

Proforma letter of thanks and given permission to retain TFMS Badge.

1920   

Approximate date of Mary’s photo. The considered opinion of Health Board Archivist Alistair Tough.

4^th January 1923      

Promotion to Sister in TANS confirmed as of 6 November 1922 confirmed.

9^th January 1929

Mary writes to Matron in Chief asking for her medals.

31^st January 1933

Mary resigns from TANS on account of age (she is now 55 years of age).

1933

Mary is still a member of the Co-operation of trained nurses, now located in Belhaven Terrace, Hyndland.

27^th February 1959

Mary dies in family home, Queen Mary Avenue, Crosshill.

By Ian McCracken, Archivist at Govan High School

Sources

• British Base Hospitals in France.
• British Medical Journal (BMJ).
• General Nursing Council for Scotland Applications 1919.
• HB6/4/55
• Campbell, H.F. Woolfenden. “A Record of Gunshot Wounds of the Knee-Joint: Treatment in a Base Hospital.” The Lancet (Volume 190, Issue 4902) 11 August 1917, Pages 185-194.
• Lyn McDonald’s Roses of No Man’s Land.
• “Report of the Surgeon-General of the Army”
• Royal Army Nursing Corps.
• Scarlet Finders website.
• TFNS application forms can still be found in service records.
• VAD Red Cross: Auxiliary Hospitals.
• War Diary of No 73 General Hospital, National Archives.

[SGHET would like to thank Ian McCracken for also donating to us a copy of a presentation he was due to give in Glasgow in 2020 which was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and other related video and audio oral history materials which are forthcoming. These have (and will be) placed in our Digital Archive. If you have any enquiries about these materials, or would like to access them, please get in touch with us. They will also be avaliable in our online archive once that is launched.]

This article is also part of a series of material we are publishing to coincide with the 150th Anniversary of the founding of Crosshill in 1871 as an independent police burgh before being annexed to the city of Glasgow in 1891. See #Crosshill150 on social media.

The post The True Story of a First World War Nurse from Crosshill appeared first on SGHET.

The connections between Glasgow and the tobacco trade of the eighteenth century are well-known. Furthermore, the links between some of the trades’ most prominent merchants and the slave trade are also becoming known to a growing audience. This is in part thanks to vital research conducted by scholars over the past decade which seeks to address the ‘uncomfortable truths’ of both Glasgow and Scotland’s past. Perhaps more recently, the growth in interest can be attributed to the BLM movement and heightened tensions over the treatment of black people in both the US and the UK. This has brought up discussions as to where our place names, street names, statues and grand city centre buildings come from and whether or not it is correct to hang onto them, with many calling for streets to be renamed and statues to be removed.

Understandably, much of the research has focused on the city centre. However, we at SGHET have looked at how the Southside of the city fits into this dark part of our history. In doing so, we have largely built our research around the estates and grand houses south of the River Clyde. Many of these still exist (such as Pollok House and Aitkenhead House), although dwarfed by the cityscape, while many more were demolished as urban expansion took hold during the twentieth century.

Nonetheless, many of these houses and their grounds stood on the outskirts of the city, which many merchants bought with their newly acquired wealth from the plantations, affording them a degree of disconnect from the rough and tumble of their trade. Here we will focus on two houses which are no longer with us, Craigton and Shawfield, both of which were owned by prominent tobacco merchants during the ‘golden era’ of the tobacco trade which depended on the transatlantic slave trade.

James Ritchie of Craigton (1722–99)

Situated in the old Craigton estate in the parish of Govan, Craigton House was demolished during the inter-war period to make room for housing. The house and its grounds had belonged to one of the ‘Four Young Men’ of the Virginia tobacco trade, James Ritchie. Ritchie, who bought the estate in 1746, was known to have benefited from the transatlantic slave trade in several ways. Firstly, through the trade of tobacco on America’s eastern seaboard, and secondly, perhaps more indirectly, through his connections to the Thistle Bank which he had helped to establish alongside infamous Tobacco Lord and slave trader John Glassford.

Indeed, if you look at compensation records – created following the 1833 British Abolition of Slavery Act (which took effect in 1834) – the Ritchie name is mentioned on two separate claims for compensation following abolition. Both claims were made by James Ritchie’s son, Henry, who had taken over Craigton house in 1830 along with his partnership in the Thistle Bank. Henry Ritchie is listed as a trustee in a joint claim made on the 4th July 1836, along with James Maxwell Wallace and William Stirling. They were compensated over £4000, around £380,000 in today’s money (using MeasuringWorth.com and bearing in mind that such numbers are impossible to calculate exactly) for the loss of 210 enslaved people, of which Ritchie received around a quarter.

Daniel Campbell of Shawfield (1671/2–1753)

Campbell is perhaps better remembered for his tenure as an MP, during which he was one of the signatories to the Act of Union in 1707, and later voted in favour of the much maligned Malt Tax of 1725 leading to the infamous Malt Tax riots. This saw his city centre property of Shawfield Mansion (on what is now Virginia Street) ransacked and its interiors demolished for his troubles. The mansion is also known to have housed John Glassford, one of the most notable of the Glasgow Tobacco Lords, whose links to the slave trade are well-known.

Campbell himself, however, acquired much of his wealth in trading tobacco for iron ore which provided him the means to purchase the Shawfield Estate, next to Oatlands and Polmadie, in 1707. Prior to the Act of Union, Scots were unable to trade with English colonies in the Americas through the Navigation Acts (1651-96) which sought to maintain English monopoly over the colonies. Despite this, Campbell made a considerable amount from both the trade of tobacco and more directly, in the trading of enslaved people.

The house and estate were passed down to his son Walter who then sold it to the chemical works firm J&J White in 1788. Due to ongoing contamination issues, the site which included the 150-year old Shawfield House was pulled down in the late 1960s. Today the area is home to a large industrial estate which sits on the city boundary between Glasgow and Rutherglen.

This blog is part of a wider article which details our research on the Southside’s links to the slave trade.

By Mark McGregor

Southside Slavery Legacies project

In 2020 South Glasgow Heritage and Environment Trust began working on the #SouthsideSlaveryLegacies project, including a potential heritage trail, walks and events, as well as blogs on our website and published articles.

If you would like to know more or become involved, please sign-up to the Southside Slavery Legacies mailing list, message us on Facebook or Twitter, or contact info@sghet.com.

Further Reading 

1. Moss, Michael, ‘Daniel Campbell of Shawfield’ (Online, 2004).
2. SCOS Archive, ‘James Ritchie of Craigton and Busbie’ (Online, year unknown)
3. Mullen, Stephen, It Wisnae Us: The Truth About Glasgow and Slavery (RIAS, 2009)
4. Devine, T M, The Tobacco Lords: A Study of the Tobacco Merchants of Glasgow and their Trading Activities c. 1740-1790 (Edinburgh, 1990).
5. –, Clearance and Improvement: Land, Power and People in Scotland, 1700-1900 (John Donald, 2006)
6. UCL Department of History, ‘Legacies of British Slave-ownership’ (Online, 2009-2020).
7. Shawfield House on Canmore (Historic Environment Scotland, John R Hume collection, online)

The post The Tobacco Lords Part 1 appeared first on SGHET.

Early Life and Education

Hannah Frank (1908-2008) was an artist and sculptor based in the Southside. She was born in Glasgow and lived in the Gorbals in her formative years, first in Abbotsford Road and later in South Portland Street. She then moved further south, living at 72 Dixon Avenue, Crosshill, where she was part of the vibrant local Jewish community around Govanhill.

Her parents were Jewish migrants from Russia. She attended Abbotsford Road Primary School, Strathbungo Public School on Craigie Street, and Albert Road Academy in Pollokshields, before attending the University of Glasgow from 1926–30, and Glasgow School of Art.

Drawings

She is remembered for her distinctive black and white drawings and her graceful bronze sculptures. She produced these drawings, in an Art Nouveau style, from the age of 17, under the pseudonym Al Aaraaf. (This pseudonym was a reference Edgar Allan Poe’s poem of the same name). Her drawings below are reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley but carry Frank’s unique style.

You can see a 2016 reproduction of one of these images, Girl in a Wood (1928), in the 7 Arches of Cleland Street underpass. The 7 Arches was created by Liz Penden and arts group WAVE Particle. Their artworks also depict local legends Thomas Lipton of Lipton teas and boxer Benny Lynch.

Poetry

Hannah Frank was also a poet, and memorised her early poem ‘Faery,’ which she was always happy to recite. It was published in the Glasgow University magazine, GUM, in February 1927.

Faery

I stayed me there in tall trees’ shade
In Faery. And wild strange music played,
Piercing the air with sweetest strain,
So that I trembled. Dimly lit, a train
Moved from the forest’s depths.

I saw them by the weird moon’s gleam
On horses pass. As the riders of  a dream
They passed – noiseless hoofs and harness swaying.
Fair ladies singing songs, and strange words saying,
As olden stories tell.

In Faery I stood in tall trees’ shade.
Dim were the windings of the glade.
They were gone. I heard music still,
Faintlier, wafted faintlier, till
It died in the forest’s depths’

Sculpture

Her sculptures are mostly figure studies, in plaster, terracotta, or bronze, focussing on female forms. There was an exhibition of her work on what would have been her 110^th birthday at Glasgow University Chapel in 2018-2019, which included her Seated Figure (below) from 1989. Her work has been exhibited on three continents and at the Royal Glasgow Institute, the Royal Academy, and the Royal Scottish Academy.

This artistic legacy and body of work makes her one of Scotland’s most significant artists. She produced sculptures well into her 90s and died aged 100 years old, posthumously receiving Glasgow City Council’s Lord Provost’s award for Art, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Glasgow. She is buried in Cathcart Cemetery (who also have website and can be found on Twitter).

You can learn more about Hannah at hannahfrank.org.uk, find some of her prints in the Glasgow Women’s Library archive, buy books about Frank from the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, and explore Southside sites connected with her life on our Govanhill and Gorbals heritage trails in South Glasgow Heritage Trails: A Guide (2019).

By Saskia McCracken

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The children were hunting the ‘Gorbals Vampire’ – a seven-foot-tall monster with long metal fangs who had killed and eaten two local boys.

These vampire hunters returned the following two nights to continue their hunt.

Adults in Glasgow blamed American comics, full of vampires and monsters, for the wild events of that week. Gorbals’ Labour MP Alice Cullen took the issue to the House of Commons, resulting in the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act of 1955, banning the sale of ‘repulsive or horrible’ reading matter to children.

That said, those involved in the hunt later recalled that they had ‘no idea’ what a vampire was, saying, “nobody knew we needed stakes – we didn’t have Christopher Lee [of the Hammer Horror films] to explain you had to put a stake through the heart to kill him. We were just going to cut the head off, end of story. Don’t know what we’d have done if we’d met one, like.” These children couldn’t afford American comics and didn’t have TVs at home.

The vampire was probably the product of big imaginations, local ghost stores, the scary atmosphere of the cemetery with the ironworks in the background, and the vampire’s appetite for children could have been connected to the hunger that was part of everyday life in what was then a deprived area.

The story was adapted for the stage at the Citizens Theatre in the Gorbals in 2016. In preparation for the play, the community ran writing competitions for schools and comic book sessions where children learnt about the 1950s horror comics that were censored after the Gorbals vampire incident.

There was an exhibition accompanying the production featuring recorded interviews, an anthology of the children’s winning stories, and artworks designed by the locals as part of a ten-month project leading up to the show. There’s also a mural of the Gorbals Vampire by teenager Ella Bryson and Art Pistol street artists, in an archway on St Luke’s Place near the Citizens’ which includes a short description of the hunt.

One of the tales in our Stories from the Southside collection is set on the first night of the hunt and takes you right to the heart of the Southern Necropolis. Harry Nixon’s ‘A Night to Remember’ walks you through ‘the ominous gatehouse and into the land of the Dead’ – enjoy a spooky this spooky Halloween read by buying the collection on our website or reading our book on the City of the Dead: A Guide to the Southern Necropolis.

You can also follow the Friends of Southern Necropolis on Twitter, and visit the Southern Necropolis and mural yourself!

By Saskia McCracken

Published: 26th October 2020

Sources

‘The Gorbals Vampire.’ Plays to See.

‘Gorbals Vampire Brought Back to Life.’ Glasgow Live.

‘The Ghastly Tale of the Gorbals Vampire.’ Herald Scotland.

‘Gorbals Vampire Mural.’ Glasgow Discovered.

‘The Gorbals Vampire, Glasgow’s Southern Necropolis.’ David Castleton.

‘Gorbals Vampire.’ Plenty of Nothing.

‘We Went Hunting the Gorbals Vampire.’ Glasgow Live.

‘Children playing in Glasgow’s Southern Necropolis’ (Photo by Bert Hardy, 1948).

The post The Gorbals Vampire appeared first on SGHET.

Bellahouston Park is known for its outdoor artworks, sculptures and House for an Art Lover, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and constructed between 1989 and 1996. Few, however, know of the estate’s connections to the transatlantic slave trade.

This park was, for a long time, farmland on the Maxwell Estate (which included Pollok Park and estate). It was then in the hands of the Rowan family for generations. In the 1800s the Steven family, of Polmadie estate in south Glasgow, acquired the Bellahouston estate. Moses Steven senior was a partner of Buchanan Steven & Co. (later Dennistoun, Buchanan & Co.), a West Indies firm, alongside James Buchanan, whom The Loyal Reformers’ Gazette (1831) called a ‘West India Slave Merchant.’ Indeed, the Stevens’ involvement in the slave trade is confirmed in the University of Glasgow’s 2018 report on its profits from slavery: “Slavery, Abolition and the University of Glasgow”:

“Moses Steven senior (1749-1831) was originally a linen trader and matriculated with the Merchants House as a ‘Home Trader’ in 1790. With his first cousin, James Buchanan, afterwards of Dowanhill, he went into partnership in two prominent West India merchant firms in Glasgow, Buchanan, Steven & Co., and its successor firm Dennistoun, Buchanan & Co. The latter firm had interests in Grenada, Jamaica and South America, likely based on exporting textiles to the West Indies (i.e. connected to commerce based on chattel slavery).”

Moses Steven junior (1806-1871) inherited the Bellahouston estate in 1824, bought Dumbreck House, and renamed it Bellahouston House. In addition to his inherited estates, he purchased other land. He trained as an advocate and graduated from Glasgow University. On his death, he left moveable property of £36,872.166.

The Bellahouston Bequest

After Steven died in 1871, his sisters Elizabeth, Grace (or Grizel), and Margaret – who each inherited £10,000 – established a trust. They feued part of the estate for houses on Paisley Road West and sold the remainder of the estate in 1892 to Glasgow Corporation for Bellahouston Park. When the sisters died, the Bellahouston Bequest was established. The siblings had an accumulated a fortune of £500,000 in 1875 (worth up to £884 million today according to measuringworth.com), much of which came from their father’s firm. The Bellahouston Bequest was administered for the benefit of ‘charitable, educational and benevolent institutions’ of Glasgow, including the university, and Glasgow Museums, which holds Steven’s portrait.

The Empire Exhibition

The 1938 Empire Exhibition was held in Bellahouston Park, featuring over 100 temporary buildings. The 300-foot Tower of Empire, designed by Thomas Tait, was built on the hill in the park, and the two combined reached 470 feet (140m) high. The exhibition, which attracted over twelve million visitors, was a nostalgic celebration of Britain’s involvement in colonialism and paid little attention to the slave labour on which the empire was built. The first British Empire Exhibition, held in Wembley in 1924, displayed peoples from across the colonies as exhibits, but the second exhibition largely erased the more shameful aspects of empire, including this objectifying display practise. The tower was demolished in July 1939 to avoid it being used by German bomber aircraft for navigation purposes. You can still see the Palace of Art, which was built for the event, but little else remains.

Southside Slavery Legacies project

In 2020 South Glasgow Heritage and Environment Trust began working on the #SouthsideSlaveryLegacies project, including a potential heritage trail, walks and events, as well as blogs on our website and published articles.

If you would like to know more or become involved, please sign-up to the Southside Slavery Legacies mailing list, message us on Facebook or Twitter, or contact info@sghet.com.

By Saskia McCracken

References

• “Bellahouston House.” Smith, John Guthrie and Mitchell, John Oswald, The Old Country Houses of the Glasgow Gentry (1878), digitised by Alan Dawson.
• “Bellahouston Park.” c.1906. Mitchell Library, Glasgow Collection, Postcards Collection. Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning. The Glasgow Story, ref: TGSA01241.
• “The Atlantic Restaurant: Bellahouston Park Empire Exhibition.” 1938. Mitchell Library, Glasgow Collection. Ref: ef606.4 (1938). Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning. The Glasgow Story, ref: TGSA00412.
• Moses Steven of Polmadie and Bellahouston, 1806-1871. This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
• Mullen, Stephen, It Wisnae Us: The Truth About Glasgow and Slavery (RIAS, 2009).
• National Trust of Scotland (NTS), ‘Scotland and the Slave Trade’ (2007).
• Runaway Slave. Glasgow Courant (1748-02-01).Mitchell Library. © Glasgow City Archives. Runaway Slaves in Britain. Web link: https://www.runaways.gla.ac.uk/database/display/?rid=51
• Small, Sam Greater Glasgow: An Illustrated Architectural Guide. Rutland Press,
• Stephen Mullen and Simon Newman. “Slavery, Abolition and the University of Glasgow.” University of Glasgow, 2018.
• UCL Department of History, ‘Legacies of British Slave-ownership’ (Online, 2009-2020).

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