John Henry Saville (real name Sparrow) was born into an East Anglian family of landowners and bankers. His father was a Norwich solicitor who he followed into the law profession. However, this career was short-lived and Saville soon became involved in the theatrical world. He became manager of the Theatre […]
William Farquhar (1770 -1839) is known with Stamford Raffles to have been instrumental in the founding of the colonial settlement at Singapore. When Stamford Raffles left the colony, William Farquhar became for four years first British Resident and Commandant of Singapore (1819-1823). He retired to Perth where he died 11 […]
Frederick Douglass was a former slave in 19th Century America who became an internationally renowned abolitionist leader and statesman. Douglass campaigned and spoke on the immorality and brutality of slavery both in America and abroad. During the Civil War he was an adviser to Abraham Lincoln. He served the United […]
Charles II was crowned at Scone in 1651 where he agreed to subscribe to the Solemn League and Covenant, and within a year of this coronation Oliver Cromwell dispatched his Parliamentarians to take the fair city. As Cromwell’s forces arrived in Scotland, the Burghs of Perth sent 100 men under […]
James Connolly was born at 107 Cowgate in Edinburgh (an area known commonly as Little Ireland) on June 5 1868 and went on to become the General Secretary of the Irish Transport & General Workers Union (IT&GWU), one of the seven signatories to the 1916 Proclamation of Irish Independence, and […]
James Clark Cameron (1905-91) – medical doctor and Chair of the BMA – was born at Bridge of Earn on 8 April 1905 to a Perthshire family. After schooling at Glencarse School, Acharn School, Breadalbane Academy and Perth Academy, Cameron went up to University College, Dundee to study medicine (MB […]
Helen Crawfurd (1877-1954) was born Helen Jack on 9 September 1877. Her family moved to Ipswich when she was quite young and it was in England that she was educated. At the age of 17 Helen Crawfurd returned to Glasgow with her family. Coming from an intensely religious family (her […]
Annie Erskine Robinson – Suffragist, Socialist and Pacifist was born 8 June 1874 in Montrose. Her father was a down at heel laird’s son and her mother a schoolteacher. Early life was economically hard for Annie Erskine. However, despite hardship she enrolled as a trainee teacher in Edinburgh and achieved […]
Peter Robert Drummond (1802–1879), bookseller and agriculturist, was born at Madderty, Perthshire, the son of John Drummond, a small farmer, and his wife, Jean Gow. He was educated in Madderty, and in early life worked as a carpenter. He attained skill as a maker of picture frames, which brought him into the society of picture […]
George Ballingall – Military surgeon and Medical pioneer – was born near Banff in 1780. After Edinburgh University where he went on to work with John Barclay the anatomist, Ballingall became a surgeon in the 2nd Battalion Royal Scots – First Royals – (1806). During his army career, Ballingall saw service […]