William Gallacher / Political Figure
- Name : Gallacher
- Born : 1881
- Died : 1965
- Category : Political Figures
- Finest Moment : Member of Parliament 1935-51
'A Red Clydesider, a communist, and a good constituent member of parliament'.
William Gallacher was born of Highland-Irish parents in Paisley. His father died when he was seven, with Gallacher managing, much like his political friend John Maclean, to complete his schooling by taking part-time jobs.
He joined the Social Democratic Federation and was active in its conversion to the British Socialist Party. In 1914 he became a shop steward at the Albion Motor Works in Scotstoun, later becoming chairman of the Clyde Workers Committee. Like many Red Clydesiders, he was imprisoned for a year, protesting against the provisions of the Munitions Act.
Turning up in Moscow, having been invited to attend the Second Congress of the Communist International, Lenin prevailed upon him to divert his Scottish militancy towards seats in Parliament. He succeeded in persuading most members of the Scottish BSP to join the Communist Party of Great Britain (with the prominent exception of Maclean). For his pains he was arrested for sedition in 1921, and for incitement in 1925, being slammed into the chink again and refusing bail from the likes of George Bernard Shaw.
Calming down slightly, he gained the seat of West Fife as a Communist in 1935, a seat he held for 15 years, energetically trying to better the hard social conditions of his constituents. More pragmatic than some of his colleagues, he initially opposed World War II, then supported the effort, depending on Soviet policy at the time.
President of the CPGB from 1956-63 (he lost his seat to the anti-monarchist Willie Hamilton in 1951), he was also active in the Amalgamated Engineering Union and the Co-operative Movement.
Despite the various honours which came his way (mostly, it has to be admitted, from the Eastern Bloc countries), he remained in his modest Paisley flat, where he died in August, 1965. His coffin, covered in the Red Flag, was watched by 40,000 mourners.
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William Hunter / Medical Pioneers
- Name : Hunter
- Born : 1718
- Died : 1783
- Category : Medical Pioneers
- Finest Moment : First good textbook on gynaecology published
Any visitor to Glasgow with an afternoon to spare could happily spend it wandering around the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University. This houses the extraordinarily versatile and varied collection of William Hunter, born at Long Calderwood, East Kilbride.
Women in particular have a reason to be grateful to William, as he was a pioneer in the anatomy and science of gynaecology. He originally studied at Glasgow University for five years, intending to go into the Church, but he moved to Edinburgh in 1737 switching to Medicine.
In 1741 he moved to London, concentrating on obstetrics, becoming Physician to Queen Charlotte in 1764. Seven years later he founded his own school of anatomy, and published the first textbook with a good illustration of the human uterus. If this appears to be unexciting, consider the surgery which must have gone on before this first accurate 'road map' appeared. From then on, surgical mistakes became less excusable and more women survived the surgeon's table.
His anatomical work continued after his death, his school of anatomy being bequeathed to his nephew Matthew Baillie who went on to further the science of pathology. Hunter also left his collection to Glasgow University, which includes not only scientific interest, but also art and antiquities.
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William Inglis Clark / Mountaineers
- Name : Clark
- Born : 1856
- Died : 1932
- Category : Mountaineers
- Finest Moment : 1st Ascent Raeburn's Arete (30th June 1902); 2nd ascent Crowberry Ridge Direct (1902); inventor drug capsules
Although an Edinburgh man, William Inglis Clark was born in Bombay, India, where his father was minister of the Scots Church. (For the puzzled who might hear the name Inglis spoken in Scotland, it is pronounced "Ing-gils".) Sadly, his mother died of cholera, leading to his return to Edinburgh when one year old, accompanied by his older brother.
Clark, aged nine, made a night ascent of Goatfell on Arran with his brother, to watch the sunrise. He had an uncle, Charles Simson Clark, who had climbed Ben Nevis at least 45 times. He was probably influential in his nephew's mountaineering development and it is known that on one early ascent of Nevis by Clark, he met two important figures in mountaineering circles on the Ben; Foster Heddle, Professor of Chemistry at St Andrews and Colin Philip, a noted watercolour artist and SMC member. Heddle was also interested in geology and was one of the first Honorary Members of the SMC.
Clark entered Edinburgh University to study chemistry. There he proved to be a brilliant student, gaining a D.Sc. before he was 21. Indeed, he was forced to wait until that age before he could be formally "capped". He then left academia to work in the lab of Messrs Duncan Flockhart and Co. later becoming a partner.
Demonstrating his inventive nature, Clark worked out a method for encapsulating ill-tasting drugs, also inventing the machinery necessary to produce the capsules. As a wealthy citizen of Edinburgh, he was able to purchase that city's first motorcar, possessing the registration S1. However, he passed this on to Lord Kingsburgh, the 1st President of the Automobile Association and instead used the next registration, S2, for his own use. This he had placed on an Arrol-Johnston "dog-cart". In Switzerland, he was stopped and fined for driving at 9 m.p.h.
Clark joined the SMC in 1895 and soon made a mark with his enthusiasm and energy, becoming Secretary for 11 years and President from 1914-19, covering the years of the Great War. Connected to his profession as a chemist was a great interest in photography. Not content with normal black and white photography, he experimented in colour and the SMC Journal for 1909 published several of his colour prints. It was not until 1993, some 84 years later, that the SMC Journal switched to colour photographs on a regular basis.
As a mountaineer, Clark was also very competent and seconding Raeburn in 1902, along with his wife Jane, he made the second ascent, and first Scottish ascent, of Crowberry Ridge Direct, then the hardest rock climb in Scotland. His wife Jane, a very fine climber, became the 1st President of the Ladies Scottish Climbing Club.
In June 1902, the Clarks were staying in the small summit hotel on Ben Nevis. Along with G.T. Glover, they made the 2nd ascent of the Very Difficult Staircase Climb, on the west flank of Carn Dearg Buttress. The following day, they made the 1st ascent of Glover's Chimney, the gully which descends from Tower Gap. On the 3rd day of this heat wave, the same trio climbed Pinnacle Buttress of The Tower. It was from the finish of this route that they spied Raeburn, making his solo ascent of Observatory Buttress. Raeburn had arranged to meet up with the Clarks but had been delayed when sailing in the Firth of Forth, ironically by the same good weather, which was making the climbing so good.
The next day the Clarks teamed up with Raeburn, to make the 1st ascent of Pinnacle Buttress on the South Trident Buttress. It was an impressively steep route, with the rope, Clark observed, hanging parallel to the rocks at several points on the climb. All of this, however, was a warm up for Monday's climb, the 1st ascent of the Severe Raeburn's Arete on the First Platform, North-East Buttress.
This brilliant route is still awarded the full three stars in the current SMC guide to the mountain and with its steep, slabby rocks and corners, its high quality rock and exposed positions, it was a superb lead by Raeburn years ahead of its time. It was also another indicator of the competence of the Clarks. As a sign of Raeburn's pre-eminence, it was either on this, or a later ascent of the same route, that Clark described Raeburn soloing alongside them!
The Clarks had two children; a daughter, Mabel, who would become President of the LSCC in it's 21st year and Charles, who would also be an excellent mountaineer and SMC member. Tragically, Charles would be killed in 1919, in the dying months of World War I, in what is now modern Iraq. He was buried outside Baghdad. It was as a memorial to their son that the Clarks paid for the building of the SMC hut on Ben Nevis, the Charles Inglis Clark Memorial Hut. It was finished in 1929, with the formal opening on April 1st. The Inglis Clarks went up by pony the day before. There is, as an interesting point for mountaineering historians, a cine film of the opening ceremony.
William Inglis Clark had an immensely happy family life. After his death his wife Jane wrote a book on their gardens and there is no doubt that throughout their life together they shared the pleasures and pains fully in accord with one another. He died in 1932.
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