tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72361491234254088202011-10-16T08:14:27.907+11:00This is the story of several generations of the Wilkie family, from Glasgow of the late 1700s to Melbourne of the 1960s. It includes the story of Millwrights, Cotton Weavers, Tinsmiths, Engineers, Soldiers and Missionaries - from the hardship of Glasgow during the early 1800s, to the horrors of World War I, the Battles of World War II in Borneo, and the challenge of moving to the other side of the world to start again.Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.comBlogger181100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-3040848647428140372007-05-17T19:08:00.000+10:002007-05-18T15:06:09.520+10:00

Published WorksBishop, H.C.W., Kut Prisoner, John Lane, London, n.d.Borland, Frank, Article in the Presbyterian Messenger, 1942 (article clipped from periodical and undated)Braddon, Russell, The Siege, Jonathan Cape, London, 1969Bremner, F., 2nd Battalion Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) Illustrated, Peshawar, India, 1907Burgess, K., 'Authority Relations and the Division of Labour in British

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-78098109484449371962007-05-17T18:53:00.001+10:002008-12-13T08:07:25.859+11:00

Alexander Ernest Wilkie 1913-1969Alexander Ernest Wilkie was born at Calcutta on 7 December 1913. Within a year the First World War had broken out and the families of the soldiers were sent back home. Alex, his older brother Bill and younger sister Mary, were taken back to Glasgow by their mother.In Glasgow Alex lived with his family in the new east end suburb of Dennistoun, only a few blocks

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-27053022091469585722007-05-17T18:44:00.007+10:002008-12-13T08:07:30.043+11:00

Alexander James Gilmour Wilkie 1882 1916For King, Country and EmpireAlexander James Gilmour Wilkie was the seventh and youngest son of William Wilkie the Second. He was born at 101 Greenhead Street, Calton, at ten-thirty on the morning of 30 May 1882 and baptised at Saint James’ Church by the Minister, John Henderson, on 11 July 1882 .When he was old enough Alexander went to the John Street

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-50172801103593846362007-05-17T18:42:00.001+10:002008-12-13T08:07:31.083+11:00

The Family Tradition ContinuesOn 5 April 1896, nearing the age of seventy, William Wilkie the Second wrote a Trust Disposition and Settlement in which he named the trustees of his estate after his death. They were to be his wife, Janet Walker Wilkie, Thomas Porter, an Ironmonger of Glasgow, James Hendry a Saddler of Glasgow, James Kyle of Glasgow, and his son, William Wilkie the Third. It was

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-72638532244912168472007-05-17T18:41:00.001+10:002008-06-09T08:26:07.262+10:00

What kind of family did William Wilkie the Second belong to? Little is known about his parents, William Wilkie the First and Janet Glen, apart from their possible origins in a rural setting south of Glasgow, and their move to Calton. However, significantly more is known of William the Second and his own family.The location and probably nature of William Wilkie's home has been discussed above,

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-38386392102217531632007-05-17T18:39:00.000+10:002008-12-13T08:07:31.534+11:00

Tenements and FactoriesAfter his second marriage in 1859, to Janet Walker McKinlay, William Wilkie the Second moved from Great Hamilton Street to a new home at 8 William Street, less than a quarter of a mile away. It was a tenement building which housed at least two other families Donald MacPhail, a spirit merchant, and John Easton, a skinner. Next door, at number six, was John Crawford,

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-63807136946240152152007-05-17T18:38:00.000+10:002007-05-17T18:39:01.173+10:00

Ebenezer McKinlay - Mill ManagerThe owners of the cotton mills in Glasgow usually employed managers to attend to the daily running of the mills. It was the manager who usually had to deal with problems such as had occurred at Dennistoun's mill in Calton, and who was usually blamed for any poor conditions or ill treatment of workers, as the 1833 Factory Commission found out.One of the many mill

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-13471027042672653882007-05-17T18:36:00.000+10:002008-01-10T08:17:23.754+11:00

William Wilkie the Second - 1827 1910The Work of a TinsmithWilliam Wilkie the Second, was the second son of William Wilkie and Janet Glen, and was born in Calton on 21 January 1827. He grew up with his brothers and sisters at 22 James Street, Calton. By the age of thirteen he was apprenticed as a Wright . It is not known to whom he was apprenticed.The 1834 Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-14032621145276090862007-05-17T18:35:00.000+10:002008-01-10T08:16:55.051+11:00

David Wilkie, the eldest son of William Wilkie and Janet Glen, was born on 17 November 1816 at Pollockshaws. We have just discussed the work of his younger sisters in the weaving mills of Glasgow.On 17 July 1842, at the age of twenty-six, David married Isabel Dryburgh in Glasgow. They subsequently had at least three girls, Margaret Nimmo Wilkie , who was born on 9 June 1842, Janet Glen Wilkie,

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-82354497455954046722007-05-17T18:31:00.001+10:002008-12-13T08:07:32.467+11:00

Power Loom WeaversMary, Elisabeth and Agnes Wilkie were probably sent to work as soon as they were old enough most likely around the age of nine or ten. They were certainly working as power loom weavers at the time of the 1841 census and had probably been working during most of the 1830s. We might assume that William and Janet Wilkie would have weighed up the advantages and disadvantages of

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-80462234062017746232007-05-17T18:30:00.000+10:002008-01-10T08:13:36.572+11:00

During the early decades of the nineteenth century the cotton industry was the main employer of labour in Glasgow. By 1834 there were 134 cotton mills within twenty five miles of the city centre. By 1850 there were 149 mills. As observed earlier, these were mainly in the Anderston district to the west and the Calton district to the east. In 1851 a total of 60,831 workers, over 19% of the male

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-77250893040931502582007-05-17T18:29:00.000+10:002008-01-10T08:15:58.334+11:00

The advent of the factory system began to bring about the end of traditional apprenticeship, and the special relationship that a journeyman had once had with his employer, the Master of the trade . William Wilkie's sons, William the Second, and John, were apprenticed as wrights during the early 1840s, possibly to their father, as journeymen as well as masters could take on apprentices .The

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-55925431563722606542007-05-17T18:28:00.000+10:002007-12-19T22:30:38.797+11:00

The economic and industrial growth of Glasgow during the late 1700s prompted a spate of technological inventions that changed the lives of everybody living there, and elsewhere. The advent of the power operated weaving loom and the hot blast method of producing pig iron were at least two such developments that would directly influence the Wilkie family.As a millwright William Wilkie the First

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-76952754925209170712007-05-17T18:26:00.000+10:002008-12-13T08:07:33.159+11:00

The rapid increase in Glasgow's population soon brought serious overcrowding. Land ownership laws meant that expansion of the city was not easily achieved so most of the incoming workers and their families had to find lodgings in existing buildings. A report to parliament in 1839 claimed that nowhere in England or Europe was there “so large an amount of filth, crime, misery and disease“

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-38106785802565160102007-05-17T18:25:00.000+10:002008-01-10T08:15:05.713+11:00

The expansion of Glasgow meant that it rapidly became a city larger than any in Great Britain other than London. This almost uncontrolled growth brought serious social problems.The growing dependence upon the textile industry meant that any downturn resulted in massive unemployment. This first occurred in 1811 when a cotton shortage threw thousands out of work. By the 1820s there were still

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-67186789194347392782007-05-17T18:24:00.000+10:002008-12-13T08:07:34.077+11:00

The population of Glasgow had been around 28,000 in 1765 and grew to 67,000 by 1791. By 1811 it was well over 100,000 and by the mid 1820s when William and Janet Wilkie moved into the city, it was over 150,000. This sustained increase in population had several major causes.Glasgow had been a major centre of the tobacco industry during the early and mid eighteenth century, processing tobacco

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-41294033262708329692007-05-17T18:22:00.000+10:002008-12-13T08:07:34.329+11:00

William Wilkie the First - 1790 - 1849William Wilkie, whom we will call William Wilkie the First, was the son of David Wilkie and Elizabeth Hart. He was born on 16 July 1790, and baptized at Pollockshaws on 18 July . Pollockshaws was a small rural village of spinners and weavers about two miles southwest of Glasgow. This village was less than a mile directly west of the village of Cathcart.

Douglas Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7236149123425408820.post-53271360824167693052007-05-17T18:21:00.002+10:002008-12-13T08:07:34.501+11:00

Around the year 1700 at Cathcart, a village about two miles south of Glasgow, it is likely that a William Wilkie was born. The chances are that his father was also William Wilkie . On 9 August 1721, at Cathcart, the young William Wilkie married Jean Anderson, a daughter of Nathaniel Anderson. William and Jean eventually had at least nine children. The first, John, was born at Cathcart on 17

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