Showing 5 results

Names
P0285 · Persoon · 1822 - 1884

Francis Mackison was born at Norrieston, Thornhill, in 1822, the son of William Mackison, farmer, and his wife Catherine Jenkins and younger brother of William Mackison, lawyer and later prison governor of Dundee Prison. He was educated at the parish school and then went to Glasgow University where he graduated with honours in civil engineering. He was then articled to James Leslie, Harbour Engineer at Dundee where his elder brother William Mackison senior was prison governor. While with Leslie he worked on the surveys for the original Dundee waterworks, experience which was to prove useful later. When Leslie moved to Edinburgh to commence independent practice, Mackison and several other assistants moved to Edinburgh with him.

In or about 1848 Mackison left Leslie's office to set up his own independent practice in Stirling as civil engineer and architect. His nephew William Mackison junior, born 1833 in Dundee, was articled to him in 1851. Initially Mackison lived in lodgings in Murray Place, but on 30 April 1855 he married Jessie McLachlan, then aged 28, in a Free Church ceremony in St Ninian's, and set up house at 23 King Street. A daughter, Mary Miller Mackison, was born on 5 May 1857, but Jessie developed an unspecified disease of the chest and died on 10 August.
At that date the family was living at 3 Allan Park and William Mackison junior was lodging with them.

In the following year William Mackison junior was taken into partnership. William Mackison senior left the prison service in 1862, the year of his marriage, and returned to Stirling as a photographer with a house at Allan Park. This seems not to have been a success as he was described as an 'architect's assistant,' presumably in the Mackison office, when he died at Maxwell Place on 2 May 1868. In the same year William Mackison junior withdrew from the partnership to
accept the post of burgh engineer in Dundee, a move whih may have been precipitated by the termination of his appointment as Master of Work, Burgh Surveyor and Town's Architect of Stirling. The census returns for 1861 show that the Stirling office was a relatively small practice with one adult assistant and two apprentices.

Two years before William Mackison junior's departure, on 31 July 1866, Francis Mackison married Margaret Glover in Kensington. The census returns show that she was born at Newton Stewart c. 1834 and that her widowed mother Margaret, who came north to live with them, was from Lancashire. The Lancashire connection was reflected in the name of the house built for them at Bridge of Allan, the Villa de Lancaster, and the middle name of the first of their two daughters, Margaret de Lancaster Mackison, born 2 June 1867. The second daughter, Catherine Violet Mackison, was born on 28 September 1869.

From 1868 onwards Francis Mackison practised alone. Despite his modest business premises he had an extensive practice in railway survey work. He designed many villas in Stirling and Bridge of Allan and numerous schools, particularly after the passing of the Education Act of 1872; and despite the practice's loss of office he continued to be responsible for Stirling Water Works and the sewage scheme for Bridge of Allan. He was a prominent volunteer, in 1859 joining the 1st Stirling Burgh Rifle Corps in which he was promoted to Captain; and when he raised both the men and the money for the 2nd Corps he was promoted to Major. He was elected Town Councillor for the Cowane Street Ward in 1878 but having been on the losing side in a major Council dispute in 1879, he lost his seat in the elections of the following year.

In the late 1870s Mackison had a Glasgow office but there is at present no record of any work there to which it could relate. In 1878 he and the local landowner, William Hunter Marshall W.S., promoted the Callander Hydropathic Company, incorporated in Glasgow on 5 September. For this project Mackison obtained the assistance of Peddie & Kinnear, but as early as January 1879 there were problems of unpaid calls for capital as a result of the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank in autumn the previous year. This resulted in the project being
drastically pared down when built in 1880-82. A hydroelectric plant was planned for it but it is unclear whether this was actually carried out.

Sometime during 1883 Mackison became seriously ill, his condition being aggravated if not actually caused by heavy trading losses at the Callander Hydropathic. He recuperated for a time on the continent with his family and returned to resume practice with his 'wonted activity,' the main business being an extension of the Stirling Water Works at Touch. But later in the year his health again deteriorated: although he continued to attend business up to 8 February 1884 he became ill, suffered a stroke on the 12th and died on the 13th. He was survived by his wife and three daughters.

P0240 · Persoon · 1821 - 1904

David Ballingall was the factor on the Blair Drummond and Ardoch estates. Born in Fife, he was descended from a long line of tenant farmers, his second great grandfather, George Ballingall (1714 - 1793) was a tenant farmer of Rameldry in Kettle Parish, Fife for over fifty years. Ballingall grew up in Rameldry in Kettle Parish and received his education at Madras college and the St. Andrews university and the university of Edinburgh. He spent some time farming his own land before attending the university of Edinburgh for a year and later becoming a factor on the Castle Semple estate in Renfrewshire during the 1840's.

In 1852, he decided to relocate to Kincardine Parish in Perthshire where he was appointed as factor at the Blair Drummond estate by Henry Home Drummond (1783 - 1867). Ballingall held this position for over fifty years and was so well regarded that, on the occasion of his jubilee as factor, he was presented with a portrait of himself, which was also published in the Stirling journal on 23 January 1903. Ballingall remained as factor of the estate until his death in 1904 at age 83.

During his life, Ballingall married Isabella Cunningham Gulland, the two had a family of eight children, seven of whom were all born in the factor's house on the estate of Blair Drummond. He was also a member of several parochial boards, school boards, county and parish councils.

In 2017, a book on the life of David Ballingall written by Michael T Tracy was published.

P0330 · Persoon · 1827 - 1906

Born in 1827, was ordained in 1858. Was assistant and successor to the Rev. Dr. Gray, minister of the parish of Kincardine in Menteith. Died Nov 1939.

P0240 · Persoon · 1821 - 1904

David Ballingall was the factor on the Blair Drummond and Ardoch estates. Born in Fife, he was descended from a long line of tenant farmers, his second great grandfather, George Ballingall (1714 - 1793) was a tenant farmer of Rameldry in Kettle Parish, Fife for over fifty years. Ballingall grew up in Rameldry in Kettle Parish and received his education at Madras college and the St. Andrews university and the university of Edinburgh. He spent some time farming his own land before attending the university of Edinburgh for a year and later becoming a factor on the Castle Semple estate in Renfrewshire during the 1840's.

In 1852, he decided to relocate to Kincardine Parish in Perthshire where he was appointed as factor at the Blair Drummond estate by Henry Home Drummond (1783 - 1867). Ballingall held this position for over fifty years and was so well regarded that, on the occasion of his jubilee as factor, he was presented with a portrait of himself, which was also published in the Stirling journal on 23 January 1903. Ballingall remained as factor of the estate until his death in 1904 at age 83.

During his life, Ballingall married Isabella Cunningham Gulland, the two had a family of eight children, seven of whom were all born in the factor's house on the estate of Blair Drummond. He was also a member of several parochial boards, school boards, county and parish councils.

In 2017, a book on the life of David Ballingall written by Michael T Tracy was published.

P0277 · Persoon · d. 2008

Lilias Graham is an English charity worker after whom the Lilias Graham Trust is named. She dedicated her life to working with those struggling to cope with troubled and poverty-stricken circumstances.

Graham spent most of her childhood in Suffolk, despite being born in London. She was born into a well-connected family with a keen social conscience. Her mother made regular visits to poor families in Ipswich; while on holiday, Lilias sometimes accompanied her paternal grandmother, the Duchess of Montrose, on visits to a home for unmarried mothers in Glasgow. Her mother died in 1936, after which Lilias took over the running of the house and even found time to train the church choir and do voluntary work in east London. During the second world war, she was a sergeant cook in the ATS and later worked for the UN Refugee and Relief Agency (UNRRA) in Egypt, Palestine, Greece and refugee camps in the British zone of Austria. She then took a course at William Temple College, near Chester, designed to make Christianity relevant to social needs, and approached the Bishop of Glasgow about working among the city's poor.

In 1952, Graham's flat in the Gorbals district of Glasgow became the centre of constant activity, she was often approached by local people seeking advice; provided help to groups for women; her flat was home to the sound of children playing; volunteers who came to help; and trainee social workers on placements from the LSE. Her hectic life continued for 20 years until redevelopment demolished the tenements and dispersed the people to housing estates on the edge of the city.

In 1972, Graham moved to Braendam, a country house in Thornhill, Stirling that she had inherited from her aunt. It was there that she set up a holiday and respite centre, taking families from the Gorbals and elsewhere. She later created the Braendam Link group provided a meeting point in Glasgow for families between visits to the house. As retirement approached, Graham gifted the house to the Braendam Trust, which later changed its name to the Lilias Graham Trust in 2006.

For the last few years of her life, Lilias returned to Suffolk to be near her brothers, Ian and Robin, and sister, Margaret, who survive her after her death in 2008.