Part Five

THE ALLAN LINE
The story of the Allan Line is really the story of shipping between Scotland and Canada. The company, founded by Captain Alexander Allan in 1820, were pioneers of transatlantic trade. Alexander Allan worked so closely with the British and Canadian authorities, it was once said that the prosperity of Canada was the prosperity of the Allan Line and vice-versa.

As well as operating the first steel ships to sail the Atlantic, the Allan Line owned the first turbine-powered liners built for commercial ferry service to Canada. At one time the fleet was composed of thirty wooden sailing ships, sixteen iron sailing ships, forty-eight iron steamers and seven steel steamers, a grand total of one hundred and one vessels.

When Alexander Allan died in 1854 the business was inherited by his five sons. Hugh and Andrew ran the Canadian office of the company in Montreal. Bruce looked after the operation in Liverpool, while James and Alexander managed the Glasgow headquarters. Hugh received a knighthood in 1871.

Allan’s Halls
Alexander, the youngest of the family, was a member of Wellington Street Church. When he heard of the difficulties facing the Mission-workers in Anderston, he offered to fund a building containing several halls and meeting rooms. The building, which was erected at 185 Stobcross Street on the eastern corner of Lancefield Street, became known appropriately as ‘Allan’s Halls’. Alexander Allan never saw the ‘Halls’ in their completed state; he died on 2nd April 1892 whilst on a prolonged business tour abroad. Managed by Wellington Church, the building proved to be a wonderful facility fulfilling its intended role in serving the people of Anderston. The name of the building was changed to ‘Stobcross House’ before it was sold, at a favourable price, to Glasgow Battalion of The Boys’ Brigade in 1949. The property was later sold to Scottish Opera who occupied the premises during its last few years, prior to demolition in 1968. James Allan erected another set of Mission Halls, on a smaller scale, in Piccadilly Street.

THOMAS LIPTON
From humble beginnings in Anderston, Thomas Lipton went on to build a multi-million pound empire. On 10th May 1871, at the age of twenty-one, Lipton opened his first grocery shop, at 101 Stobcross Street. One of his advertising promotions was to have two pigs led through the streets of Anderston; to ensure maximum impact he was careful to ensure the pigs were taken a different route each day. The animals had banners affixed to their sides stating ‘I’m on my way to Lipton’s, the best place in town for bacon’. The pigs became known as Lipton’s orphans.

His business acumen was so good that within a short space of time he was able to open a second shop at Elderslie Street and then a warehouse in Lancefield Street. The story is told that when interviewing prospective employees Lipton would choose the candidate with the smallest hands as he maintained that one pound of butter appeared greater in quantity when held in a smaller hand.

Lipton was a great yachting enthusiast and on a number of occasions represented Britain in sailing competitions against America. He became so popular with the Americans that they presented him with a trophy in 1930, which became the ‘Lipton Trophy’. Lipton led a full and active life and was knighted in 1892. When Sir Thomas Lipton died in October 1932 at the age eighty-two, he left his massive collection of yachting trophies to the City of Glasgow. Part of the collection can be viewed in the Old Glasgow Museum, Glasgow Green.

.
Stobcross Street,1910. Lipton’s first shop can be seen on the right

CRIMEA SIMPSON
Born in Carrick Street, Anderston, on 28th October 1823, William Simpson showed great promise as an artist from an early age. Simpson was working for Day & Sons, London, when the Crimean war broke out in 1854, his employers were approached by Colnaghe and Sons who proposed sending an artist to the Crimea to record a series of sketches of the conflict. The assignment was offered to Simpson and in accepting the job be became the first person to be commissioned as a war artist. By mid-November Simpson was in Balaclava where he witnessed the disastrous campaign from then until the fall of Sebastopol. It was his many sketches of the Crimean Campaign that earned him the title ‘Crimea Simpson’.

Simpson was sent to India in 1858 to record the events of the Indian Mutiny. Three years later, he returned home to Glasgow, with the intention of having his sketches published. He compiled 250 sketches of his experiences, placing the work in the hands of his employers when disaster struck, the firm went bankrupt and Simpson’s drawings were impounded as part of the bankruptcy stock.

Simpson found employment as an artist with the ‘Illustrated London News’ and his first assignment was to sketch the wedding of the Czarewitch of Russia (Alexander III) to Princess Dagnar of Denmark in 1866. The following year he was in Jerusalem sketching archaeological work. He travelled to Abyssinia in 1868, then on to Egypt where he recorded the opening of the Suez Canal. He journeyed to Paris to cover the French-German war of 1870-71. On leaving France he travelled to China, Japan, then on to America, where he sketched the suppression of the Modoc Indians. He returned to India in 1875 and two years later he was in Troy, Ephesus and Mycenae. He accompanied Sir Samuel Brown through the Khyber Pass during the Afghan Campaign. Simpson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1875.

Despite all his world travel William Simpson never forgot his home city. Summing up a book of sketches entitled ‘Glasgow in the Forties’ he said, “Doing these pictures has been a source of great satisfaction to me. I might say it has renewed my youth and I have felt like a boy again in the streets of my native town. I have found myself with an attachment to the spot, but what spot could compare to the place in which one has been born and brought up? I love the place itself; St Mungo’s name meant ‘Dear Friend’ and the town of my early days has always been associated with that feeling towards it, and to that dear friend (Glasgow) I dedicate these drawings with the well-known words ‘Let Glasgow Flourish’.

William Simpson’s last few weeks of life were spent compiling memories and sketches of his early life in Glasgow. He died in 1899 shortly after completing the aforementioned ‘Glasgow in the Forties’. In recognition of his association with Anderston, Crimea Street and Balaclava Street were named in his memory.
 

~

WILLIAM QUARRIER
William Quarrier, founder of Quarrier’s Homes at Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, was born in Greenock on 29th September 1829. The Quarrier family were no strangers to poverty and hardship; William was barely five years old when his father died of cholera. Finding it difficult to make ends meet, William’s mother brought her three children to Glasgow, where she scratched out a living altering and repairing garments. At the age of seven, William was working twelve hours a day in a factory. The youngster eventually found employment as an apprentice shoemaker to a Mrs Hunter, who owned a shop on the south side of Argyle Street, a little to the west of Oswald Street. Mrs Hunter, a devout Christian, undoubtedly left a lasting impression on the young Quarrier that was to stand him in good stead for the rest of his life. Aware that Quarrier had no church connection, she invited him along to her church services. On hearing the well-known Gospel verse of John 3:16, Quarrier was converted to the Christian life.

As the years passed, Quarrier and his mother were able to afford the rent of a small simply furnished house in Alston Street, in the village of Grahamston. In 1852, at the age of twenty-three, Quarrier opened his first shop, which stood at the top of Piccadilly Street. Being a first-rate cobbler his business prospered and before long he was operating a chain of shoe-repair shops throughout Glasgow. Quarrier married Isabella Hunter, daughter of his former employer, on 2nd December 1856, at 5 Douglas Street, Anderston. Both William and his new wife were destined to live long and happy lives together.

Passing through the poorer areas of the city at night, Quarrier was deeply disturbed and challenged by the sights he witnessed. He observed children sleeping in doorways and closes, anywhere that offered shelter. Troubled by what he saw, with the support of his wife, he began planning a home for orphans and abandoned children. His first venture was in organising the boys who earned a living polishing boots in Glasgow’s railway stations. He formed the youths into a uniformed ‘Shoeblack Brigade’. Using his own finances he acquired premises where he housed the waifs and provided them with a basic education. But Quarrier knew his efforts were only scratching the surface of a much deeper social problem, his vision was much greater than what he had achieved this far. He believed that children needed more than just shelter, they needed a safe and caring family environment. In a letter to the Glasgow Herald he outlined his vision:

 “I have no faith in large institutions where hundreds are ruled with a stringent uniformity which eats out the individuality of its members, but I have a great faith in a home where not more than a hundred are placed together, and where each individual is cared for and watched over by a motherly and fatherly love”.

Quarrier continued rounding up waifs and strays and by the early 1870’s he had established a number of ‘Children’s Care Homes’ throughout the city, but still his vision was not fulfilled. When a farm, near Bridge of Weir, came on the market, Quarrier decided to submit an offer for the property. He estimated that it would cost in the region of £20,000 to realise his project. When asked where he was going to find such an amount of money, undeterred, Quarrier replied, ‘this is a large amount, but not too large for our Heavenly Father to send’. And so, with only a few helpers and a steadfast faith in God, he forged ahead. His faith and conviction were rewarded when the foundation stone of the proposed homes was laid at Bridge of Weir, on 10th February 1877. By September of the following year, the long awaited day arrived, the first of two cottages were opened. The success of Quarrier’s Homes is impossible to measure, suffice to say that over the years thousands of young people have benefited from William Quarrier’s vision and determination.

When he died on 16th October 1903, William Quarrier was honoured all over Scotland as ‘the man who devoted his life to caring for children’. The work of Quarrier’s Homes continues to this day, testimony to a great man who had a great faith.
 

William Quarrier 1829-1903

.
Next
.