Local Famous People| Cameron Corbett | James Cowan | Thomas McCulloch |
| William Mann, J. P. | James Maxton, Jr. | John Robertson |
| John Shanks | Lord Weir | Robert Wodrow |
Archibald Cameron Corbett was best known for his involvement in politics, later in life becoming MP for Tradeston. He was born on May 23, 1856 and his father, Thomas Corbett, was a doctor who had a practice in the Gorbals. Cameron Corbett took an early interest in politics and contributed significantly to the Act for the Extension of the Franchise. In 1884 he contested North West Warwickshire as a Liberal but was not elected. After the passing of the Redistribution Bill, when Glasgow was divided into 7 constituencies, Mr Corbett was elected to the Tradeston Division; after another General Election the following year he was successful as a Unionist candidate.
 | Perhaps his most significant contribution and lasting legacy was his gifting of Rouken Glen estate and mansion house to the people of Glasgow in 1906; it was opened to the public on May 25 that year. On June 27, 1911 he was created Baron Rowallan; he died March 19, 1933.For more infromation on Rouken Glen see Parks. |
| Cowan Park was a legacy to the people of Barrhead from James Cowan who was born in the town in 1830. When he died he left £10,000 to the Burgh to provide a park. A plaque at the lodge records that the park was the bequest of James Cowan of Rosshall in 1910. Rosshall is the mansion James built at Crookston, which is presently a hospital. The park was officially opened on King George V’s Coronation Day when a children’s treat was laid on by John & Joseph Turner of Parkhall. It was from the Turners’ estate that the grounds for the park had been purchased, which also gifted it many trees, shrubs and other plants. |  |
James’s father, Lachlan, was a hotel owner, saddler, wine and spirit merchant. James also began his working life as a saddler but he soon branched out into the haulage business with a couple of horses and carts. He was a very astute businessman and ended up as the owner of a large firm of railway contractors in Scotland and amassed himself a sizable fortune. He later became a J.P. interested in art and politics.
 | Thomas McCulloch, who was a minister, a doctor and who was also considered one of the greatest educators in Canada, was born in Neilston Parish in 1776 to Michael and Elizabeth McCulloch. His father was a master printer of calico in the Fereneze Field and it is likely that the family lived in Grahamston village. Thomas studied arts, medicine and oriental languages at Glasgow University and was ordained as a minister in the Secession Church in 1799 in Stewarton. In 1803 he arrived with his wife and three children in Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada where, as well as minister he took on the duties of doctor and schoolmaster. |
His first love was education and initially he taught local children at home as there was no elementary education at all in the province. By 1805 he had organised a society to raise money for a college of higher education although the local, Anglican establishment opposed such a college. When the Grammar School Act of 1811 was passed, McCulloch's school became the official District School for Pictou; in 1818 his dream was realised with the opening of the college.
His ideas on education were liberal and, as well as the Classics, he introduced natural philosophy and science into the curriculum. McCulloch was a great collector of insects and classified all species in the province; his collection was later donated to Glasgow University. His enthusiasm for the subject is evident in his establishment of the first scientific laboratory east of Montreal. Although his ideas may have been liberal for his time the academic standards of his students were high; his first theology students, for example, graduated in 1824 to a very high standard with three of the students gaining the award of M.A. from Glasgow University.
Due to McCulloch's intense interest in politics, Pictou became a centre of political radicalism and it is likely to be due to this that the charter for the college was withdrawn in 1832 reducing it to grammar school status. In 1838 McCulloch was appointed Principal of the new Dalhousie College; not an easy post as he was surrounded by critics, but one which he undertook through his desire to promote higher education in the province of Nova Scotia. After a short illness McCulloch died on September 9, 1843.
The Canadian Morning Post of 1839 had described Thomas McCulloch as, "A man of vast mental attainments and a profound instigator into the mysteries of nature." His biographer believed he managed “to bring the best of the Scottish Enlightenment to an area that was limited in its social ideas and reactionary in its government”.
A plaque in Neilston Library states:
“THIS PLAQUE IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS McCULLOCH, NEILSTON PARISH, FOUNDER OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA, THOMAS McCULLOCH 1796 – 1843”.
Born in the parish of East Kilbride in 1853, Mr. William Mann was educated in both East Kilbride and Glasgow, eventually working his way up to Managing Partner in the ship owning company of Messr’s Bell Bros. & McLelland. In 1892 he entered public life when he was returned for one of the divisions of Mearns in the County Council and became well known as a leader in county affairs. He was Vice Chairman of the District Committee of Upper Renfrewshire, Chairman of the Joint Committee on Darnley Hospital and a Justice of the Peace for the county. He was a strong supporter of the temperance movement and in the village that was Mearns he purchased a public house in Main Street, which he then shut down in order to reduce the availability of alcohol. One of the founders of the Glasgow Citizen’s Vigilance Association, he supported the attempts of the authorities in trying to suppress drunkenness by favouring 10 o’clock closing and extending this practice from the country into large towns.
In Eaglesham in 1902 he inaugurated the lighting scheme and supported the village’s proposals for a gravitational water supply and railway. He was notable for his contribution to the improvement of the drainage and water supply of Mearns and sat on the Mearns Water Committee in 1903.
He was a staunch supporter of the Liberal cause and worked hard to secure a ‘Liberal’ willing to contest a seat in Parliament. In memory of his life, and in particular his support of the drainage and water supply to the Mearns, a water fountain was erected to his memory, which after several moves, can be found today at the Ayr Road entrance to The Avenue Shopping Centre at Mearns.
Best known as a charismatic socialist politician and champion of the ordinary man during the inter-war years, James Maxton, Jr. was born in Pollokshaws on June 22, 1885. He moved with his family in 1888 to Barrhead where his father was headmaster of Grahamston Public School. Educated at Hutcheson’s Grammar School, Jimmy, as he was more commonly known, received a grounding in classics which helped him in later life when he became known as a noted orator in the House of Commons. He became a member of the Independent Labour Party in 1906 and was elected M.P. for Bridgeton in 1922, a position he held until his death. |  |
Throughout his life he always retained a strong belief and faith in the decency of ordinary people and firmly believed in the ideal of the brotherhood of man. As a result he was popular with and respected by many ordinary people as well as his fellow colleagues in Parliament. Earning a reputation early on for being a Red Clydeside revolutionary, his brand of Socialism and pacifism was based on a belief that ordinary people could relate to rather than any high-flown theory. His career covered two world wars, the General Strike and Great Depression, the Means Test and Hunger Marches and the rise of the Labour Party. He died on July 23, 1946.
For more information on James Maxton see the Glasgow Story and the Glasgow Digital Library websites.
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Born in Neilston on December 10, 1782, John Robertson started an apprenticeship with a spinning wheelwright as a young boy, gaining work experience in Perth and Glasgow before setting up his own engineering business in the city. He invented the steam engine, which was subsequently installed in “The Comet”, a wooden vessel hailed as the first successful steamship to sail commercially in Europe and credited with being responsible for the emergence of hordes of steam-powered vessels travelling up and down the Clyde.
Robertson’s contribution to the industrial revolution was celebrated in 1912 when his life was marked in his native Neilston, during the centenary celebrations. The unveiling of a memorial to him, which still stands in Neilston today, is reported to have drawn a huge crowd. His contribution is also evident from the presence of his steam engine in the Science Museum in Kensington, London and from an exact replica of the steamship itself, which can be viewed in a special memorial garden in the centre of Port Glasgow.
Sadly, although prosperous for a time during his life, he died bankrupt on November 19, 1868 and is buried in the Necropolis, in John Knox Street, beside Glasgow Cathedral.
 | John Shanks (1826-1895) was a plumber from Paisley who, from small beginnings, built up what was to become the well-known company of Shanks and Co. Ltd. After completing an apprenticeship as a young man with the firm of Wallace & Connell, well-known plumbing contractors of the period, he continued as a skilled tradesman in their employment before setting up his own business in Paisley in 1851 at the age of twenty-five. Two years later he then opened a branch in Barrhead, however, in a further two years he had closed the Paisley branch in favour of the Barrhead premises. Joined in the business later by his brother Andrew, followed by other family members over the years, the family became known as clever inventors who patented many new processes, one of which was a non-return valve, which allowed flushing toilets to be installed in ships. |
At the turn of the century Shanks bought a site in the centre of town known as the Victorian Pottery and manufactured all kinds of bathroom ware. After 1918 they developed vitreous pottery, which was particularly suited to bathrooms and was soon being exported worldwide. In the 1920s the tubal works moved to a site next to the Pottery at Victoria Road. For half a century Shanks was the most important employer in Barrhead. The Shanks family ran the company until 1969, when it merged with another company to become Armitage Shanks. Throughout the 1980s jobs were being lost at the works and they finally closed their doors in 1992. |  |
 | William Douglas Weir was the son of James Weir who founded G. & J. Weir & Co, the Cathcart engineering firm, which went on to become Weir Pumps and then the Weir Group. William Douglas was born on the May 12, 1877 and was educated at Allan Glen’s and Glasgow High School. In 1902 he became managing director of Weir’s and in 1912, chairman. The Weir company built up an exclusive business in auxiliary machinery especially in relation to ships. I |
In the First World War his firm produced shells for the bombs and in July 1915 William Weir joined the Ministry of Munitions with responsibility for the West of Scotland. His factory began to manufacture aeroplanes in 1917. Weir became Secretary of State for the RAF, was knighted in 1917 and in 1918 became Lord Weir. He also became a member of the Privy Council.
After the war he returned to direct G. & J.Weir Ltd. and during the 1920’s Weir’s managed to survive an industrial slump. One of Lord Weir’s major achievements was to secure a continued, independent existence for the RAF in 1923. Another of his achievements was to chair a committee, which saw the establishment of the national, electricity grid. At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Weir became director-general of explosives at the Ministry of Supply.
Weir retired in 1954 and died on July 2, 1959. Throughout his career he was a very successful businessman and benefactor. In 1938 he became Viscount Weir of Eastwood. The Freedom of London was bestowed on him in 1957. He received the Order of the Crown of Italy, the American Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) and was a Commander of the Legion of Honour.
Robert Wodrow (1679 – 1734), also referred to in some literature as Woodrow, is known as the faithful historian of the Covenanters and author of the 2-volume work, “The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution”, 1721. A great collector of material relating to the Covenanting period and a son of the Professor of Divinity at Glasgow University, Wodrow was also a University librarian and in 1703 was ordained minister of Eastwood. He benefited from the Patronage of the Maxwells of Pollok. Many of his manuscripts remain unpublished in the National Library of Scotland. His writing, although partisan and sometimes inaccurate, does nonetheless remain the main source about this period for later historians. |  |
A memorial has been erected in his honour in Eastwood Cemetery.
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