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James Tate (born 10th September 1899) was an evening student of Architecture at The Glasgow School of Art during the 1918/19 session. He worked as Timekeeper.

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Edith Margaret Tatlock (born 10th March 1896) was a day student of Drawing and Painting at The Glasgow School of Art between 1914 and 1916. During the 1917/18 session, Tatlock studied Design (Fashion) as an evening student.

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Robert Rattray Tatlock was born in Kelvin, Glasgow on the 25th January 1889 to Hannah Tatlock (née Butterworth) and John Tatlock, a chemical merchant and scientific instrument manufacturer. He was educated at the Glasgow Academy and Royal Technical College (now the University of Strathclyde), and from 1910 to 1913 attended evening classes in drawing and painting at The Glasgow School of Art. During the First World War Tatlock undertook non-combative relief work in France and Russia with the Friends' War Victims Relief Committee, an organisation formed by the Quakers in 1870. In 1920 he was appointed editor of The Burlington Magazine, and remained in this role until 1933. Is it said that it was under his editorship that the Burlington became one of world's leading art periodicals. Tatlock wrote prolifically as an art writer, and during his time as editor he was also employed as chief art critic of the Daily Telegraph (c1924-1934). His criticism was featured regularly in several prominent cultural publications such as the Contemporary Review and the New Statesman. He died in Essex in 1954. Robert R Tatlock is listed on The Glasgow School of Art's First World War Roll of Honour.

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Sources: Scotland's People: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk; the Burlington Magazine Index Blog: https://burlingtonindex.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/robert-rattray-tatlock-1889-1954-scottish-editor-of-the-burlington-magazine-1920-1933-2/

Atticus Tayar studied Painting and Printmaking at The Glasgow School of Art and graduated in 2019. In 2019 he won the Landscape Drawing Prize and The James Nicol McBroom Memorial Prize for Fine Art. In January 2020 he won the RSW [Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour] New Graduate Award for his painting, ‘Birch Trees in Winter’.

Source: https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/lifestyle/18185062.chloe-colquhoun-awarded-alexander-graham-munro-travelling-scholarship/

Arthur John Taylor (born 4th February 1890) studied Life and Drawing and Painting as an evening student at The Glasgow School of Art between 1915 and 1919. During his studies, Taylor worked as a Designer and Illustrator. Between 1920 and 1951, Taylor exhibited at the Royal Academy (1 work), Royal Scottish Academy (16 works), The Royal Scottish Academy of Painters in Watercolour (3 works) and The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts (39 works). Taylor produced oil and watercolour paintings as well as engravings of local Clydeside landmarks, fishing scenes and landscapes.

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Benson Taylor (date of birth unknown) studied Modelling and Life as an evening student at The Glasgow School of Art between 1912 and 1918. During his studies, Taylor was employed as a Naval Architect and worked at the British Corporation during the 1916/17 session. In 1917 and 1918, Taylor exhibited sculptures at The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, including works entitled, 'John Seaton M'Gibbon, Esq' and 'Miss Eileen Jefferson and Master Jim Reith'. The Scottish Dictionary of Art and Architecture describes Taylor's work as 'mainly portrait busts'.

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Charles Taylor (born 22nd May 1902) was an evening student of Architecture at The Glasgow School of Art for the 1917/18 session. He was working as an Apprentice Architect at the time and living on High Street, Glasgow.

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David Allan Taylor (born 10th June 1901) attended The Glasgow School of Art as an evening student of Drawing and Painting between 1918 and 1920. He was employed as a Process Operator/Engineer and lived in the Dennistoun area of Glasgow.

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Born in the UK in 1960, Fraser Taylor is an interdisciplinary artist who works with a range of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking and animation. After receiving his bachelor of art in printed textiles from The Glasgow School of Art, Taylor went on to complete his masters in fine art at the Royal College of Art, London.

In 1983 he co-founded ‘The Cloth’, a collaborative studio established to enable artists to move freely between fine art and design projects. The Cloth designed numerous textile collections, which were manufactured in Tokyo, Milan, Paris, London, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. They also produced seasonal collections of ready to wear men’s and women’s apparel, which retailed at leading department stores in Europe, Asia and the US. The Cloth disbanded in 1988 to allow each artist to pursue individual direction.

Since 1983, Taylor has exhibited internationally; venues include: Jill George Gallery and StART Space, London; Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow; Gallery Boards, Paris; Galeria Jorge Alcolea, Madrid; Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney. From 1996 to 2001, he was the assistant curator of ‘Japanese and British Art Now’, an exchange program established to provide a curriculum of exhibitions and workshops, encouraging discourses between artists working in London and Tokyo. This enabled Taylor to participate in group and solo exhibitions, at Axis Gallery, Gallery Aoyama, Sigacho Bis and SPICA Art, in Tokyo.

Since 1983 he has lectured at fine art and design schools including Goldsmiths College University of London, Central St Martin's, The London Institute, The Royal College of Art and The Glasgow School of Art. In 1999 Taylor was invited to take part in a summer program, 'London in Chicago’ at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, which led to his appointment as Visiting Artist, in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies in 2001. Subsequently Taylor began to exhibit in the US. Venues include: Thomas McCormick Gallery, Bucket Rider Gallery, Alfedena Gallery, mn Gallery, Evanston Arts Center, Hyde Park Art Center, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Sybaris Gallery, Linda Ross Contemporary and Aurobora Press. Taylor currently lives and works in Chicago.

Ina Hay Taylor (date of birth unknown) attended The Glasgow School of Art for a fortnight during the 1916/17 session. Taylor travelled from Aberdeen with fellow student Susan Davidson to join Miss Macbeth's Needlework and Embroidery class.

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Taylor enrolled at the GSA between 1907 and 1913, where he studied architecture under Eugene Bourdon. Throughout his time at the School, his home address was 242 Crown Street, Glasgow, with his occupation listed as Architect’s apprentice until 1912-13, when he describes himself as an Architectural Draughtsman.
In 1909 he won a Haldane bursary and a Glasgow Institute of Architects prize of three pounds three shillings.

Joe Taylor was a student at GSA c1945-1960. He went to on work as an architect for GKC, Robert Rankin and Clydebank District Council.

The son of an upholsterer, John Taylor was born in Ayr in 1856. At the age of 13 he was apprenticed to an upholsterer in London, where he also attended night school classes. He returned to Ayr and took over the family upholstery business following the death of his father, but by 1900 he was living with his wife and family in Glasgow where he was described as a warehouseman upholsterer, possibly working for Wylie & Lochhead.

Taylor was a correspondent for “The Studio” and “The Furniture Record” from about 1898 to 1934, and also contributed to other publications, such as the American periodical, “House Beautiful.” From 1921 he had a business at 12 Renfield Street as a "Manufacturers Agent" for American furniture makers and furnishing supplies, probably including Fabrikona, a fashionable textile-like wall covering, which he regularly praised in his “Furniture Record” articles. He wrote two books on Interior decoration in partnership with John Ednie, the architect and designer; it is likely the men met while working for Wylie & Lochhead.

A member of the Glasgow Business Club from 1921 to 1934, Taylor latterly served as its President. He was a Glasgow City Councillor for Maryhill, his home district, and attempted to become the local MP. From 1899 to 1925, he lived at 150 Cambridge Drive, Maryhill, later moving to 150 Fergus Drive. He was also a magistrate and served as a Governor of the GSA

John Taylor was born in Darvel, Ayrshire in 1936. He gained a Diploma of Art in Drawing and Painting at Glasgow School of Art in 1959 and Higher Diploma of Art at Birmingham Polytechnic 1972-73 where he learned to screenprint.

Margaret Alexandra Taylor (born on the 2nd of June 1891) studied Drawing and Painting as a day student between 1909 and 1913. Taylor was absent for the 1913/14 session but returned to The Glasgow School of Art for the 1914/15 session. Taylor took part in the Belgian Tryst to raise money for Belgian refugees and The Red Cross during WW1. Taylor helped in the tearooms and perhaps even starred in the Illusions Act as part of the Chinese Theatre.

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Nell Sutherland Taylor (born 30th September 1900, from Kilmacolm) studied Drawing and Painting and Design at The Glasgow School of Art between 1917 and 1919. Taylor attended the School three days a week.

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Robert Henry Taylor was born on 11 July 1886 in Perth, one of 3 children of Mary (nee Jackson) and Robert Duncan Taylor, a draper. He studied at The Glasgow School of Art for the 1913-14 session as an evening student of architecture. He worked during the day as an assistant architect with Glasgow architectural practice, Stewart and Paterson, accomplished designers in late Gothic, Scots Renaissance and Scots vernacular. At the beginning of the 1914-15 session, Taylor resigned from his place at art school to join the army. He served with the Royal Engineers in France with the 102nd Field Company in the 23rd Division of K3, Kitchener's 3rd New Army. In 1916, 102nd Field Company took part in the Battles of the Somme including the Battle of Albert, in which the Division played a part in the capture of Contalmaison, The Battle of Bazentin Ridge, The Battle of Pozieres, The Battle of Flers-Courcelette, The Battle of Morval and The Battle of Le Transloy and were involved in the capture of Le Sars. On 5 February 1917, Taylor married Catherine Stewart Wilkie of Carnock House, Carnock, Fife, the daughter of a retired factory manager. They were married in Dunfermline by the minister of Dunfermline Abbey, Taylor was 30 at the time and his wife, 38. It is probable that Taylor was subsequently injured in battle and returned to England. He died from his wounds on 13 June 1917, just a few months after his wedding day, and is buried at Earlsfield Cemetery in Wandsworth. Robert H Taylor is commemorated on The Glasgow School of Art's First World War Roll of Honour.

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Sources: Scotland's People: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk; Ancestry: http://www.ancestry.co.uk ; the Dictionary of Scottish Architects: http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk; The Long Long Trail: http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk; Commonwealth War Graves Commission http://www.cwgc.org

William Taylor was born in Glasgow on 13th August 1895, son of Christine Brown Taylor (née Knight) and William Taylor, a journeyman joiner. Taylor attended The Glasgow School of Art from 1912 to 1915 as an evening student of drawing and painting. As noted in the student registers, Taylor's occupation changed from designer (1912-13), to colourist (1913-14) and finally to carpet colourist (in 1914-15). During 1913 -14, Taylor was awarded £3 bursary and his address at that time was given as 114 North Street, Charing Cross, Glasgow.

During the First World War, Taylor was a Private assigned to the Territorial Force in the 5th Battalion of the Scottish Rifles, and his regiment number was 415913. From the medical inspection form signed by Taylor on 19th January 1916, it seems that he was employed as a woodcarver in Glasgow and his address at that time was given as 38 Phoenix Park Terrace, Glasgow.

Taylor was wounded in action on 25th September 1915; however he re-joined his unit on the 6th of October 1915 and continued his service. William Taylor seemed to serve in the army for over 4 years and 203 days, a much longer period of time than most of the men during the First World War. According to the military records, on 4th September 1918 Taylor's father also joined the army, at the age of 45, and was assigned to the 1st Battalion Army Service Corps (823/18) as a learner driver, guaranteeing him 4th Rate Corps Pay.

It is unclear what happened to William Taylor after the war, even though we know he came back to Glasgow and was awarded the OHMS Medal in March 1922. His death and date place is still unknown. William Taylor is commemorated on The Glasgow School of Art's First World War Roll of Honour.

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Sources: Ancestry http://www.ancestry.co.uk

Born Lennoxtown. Painter in oil of portraits, landscapes, figures and abstracts. Trained Glasgow School of Art and Melbourne University. Influenced by J D Fergusson and Picasso. His output was limited by preoccupation with the mental techniques of his art. Exhibited GI from Whitefield Lodge, Lennoxtown.

Hock Aun Teh (郑 傅 安) (b. Malaysia), was the first graduate of The Glasgow School of Art’s Drawing and Painting Department from Asia, (studying 1970-1974). Teh was born to Chinese parents and grew up in Sungei Gedong, a remote village in Malaysia, and did not know where Glasgow was until he applied for a visa.

He was trained originally in Malaysia focusing on traditional Chinese ink painting, focusing on birds, bamboo, flowers and landscapes with waterfalls. He asked for extra lessons from his art teacher at secondary school, Tan Guan Hin and went to classes every Sunday at his house. When he arrived in Glasgow in 1970 he was fascinated by the variety of coloured paper available to him, hence many of his drawings were made on coloured paper. In his 1st year at GSA he was looked after by Mrs Josephine Davidson at 14 Banavie Road. Her husband was a soldier who had been stationed in Teh's hometown of Taiping in Malaysia. In his 3rd year at GSA he discovered Soutine and Willem de Kooning, then in his 4th year he discovered Clavé. He spent many weekends and holidays with the Barge family in Rhu near Helensburgh where he made many drawings and watercolours. He was involved with the GSA summer school in San Gimignano in Italy in the late 1970s and taught occasionally at GSA from 1975-1980.

In the early 1980s he worked mainly in collage. In 1985 he began working with acrylic gel, a technique he had learned from New York artist Edvins Strautmanis. He soon found it too troublesome a medium and abandoned it in 1989, returning to work on paper.

Teh considers his work to contain four different cultural elements: his sense of colour which is bright and strong, and is unmistakably tropical; the calligraphic effect, which is Chinese; the materials, which are Western, and his techniques, which are unique and personal to his ways of working. His works are in collections including GOMA and The National Art Gallery of Malaysia.

In recent years, Teh has begun to include sculpture in his oeuvre. This has resulted in several large-scale public commissions in mainland China, including a piece for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a 17.2m painted steel structure for Yantai Universal in Yantai (2010), a 4m bronze for the City of Tonglin (2013) and an 8m painted sculpture for The City of Chang Chun (2019).

Between 2013 until just before the Covid lockdown of 2020, Teh spent many months in Taiping, where he had been given a mansion to stay in which included a very big sitting room to use as a studio. He named it "Dragon Studio", as the mansion itself was called "Dragon Place". This accommodation at No.13, Lorong 4, Jalan Dato Sri Ahmad, Asam Kumbang, 34000 Taiping, was generously provided by an alumni of Hua Lian High School, Kim Leng Lee (also known to many of his friends as Kevin). He has been guaranteed by Kim Leng himself that the whole place will be at his disposal for as long as he wishes to use it, and most importantly, he has confirmed that he will never sell the property during his lifetime. This assurance has alleviated all Teh's concerns and misgivings that he might one day be compelled to move to another location. Following Covid-19, Teh has been going out to stay there at least once a year for a minimum of two months at a time. Many of his important works were created either there or at WASPS Studio in Glasgow, which he rented from 1979 until Aug 2024, when he moved back to his own house to work.

Teh holds Black Belt 6th Dan in Taekwon-Do and is the Grandmaster and Founder of Tukido.

Alex Telfer was a student at the Glasgow School of Art c1914. He is listed in the School's World War One Roll of Honour.

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John Telford is noted on The Glasgow School of Art registers as being born on the 12th of November 1881, though there are no exact matches on Scotland's People or Ancestry to confirm his date and place of birth. This may be an error in the student registers. Telford attended The Glasgow School of Art from 1905 to 1906, and again from 1907 to 1908 as a part time student of drawing and painting. From 1908 to 1912, he studied as a full time student of drawing and painting. From 1907, he is recorded as holding an occupation as a teacher. During the First World War, Telford served as a Corporal in the Royal Scots Fusiliers as well as the Royal Scots. He was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal. He is commemorated on The Wishaw High School First World War memorial which was unveiled by Reverend J. A. F. Dean on the 24th of June 1920. It is likely that this is the school he taught at whilst studying at The Glasgow School of Art. Telford is commemorated on The Glasgow School of Art's First World War Roll of Honour.

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Sources: The Scottish Military Research Group: http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/warmemscot-post-71035.html

George Tennant was a student at The Glasgow School of Art between 1892 and 1894.

George Ternent (born on the 31st May 1890) attended The Glasgow School of Art between 1908 and 1918. He worked as an insurance clerk during this period. Ternent studied drawing and painting and life as an evening student. In 1915, Ternent exhibited an engraving entitled 'The Visitor' at The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts and a painting, also entitled 'The Visitor', at The Royal Scottish Academy. In the Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture, Ternent is described as an 'obscure Glasgow engraver'.

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David Gray Terrace was born on the 15th of March 1893 in Carmyle, son of Janet Terrace (née Gray) and John Alexander Terrace, a master plumber. Terrace attended The Glasgow School of Art from 1913 to 1914 as a part time student though his class is unmarked. He is noted to have had a senior art bursary. He was also enrolled to study from 1914 to 1915 but dropped out to serve in the First World War as a Private in the Royal Scots Labour Corps 13th battalion. He first served in France from the 9th of July 1915. After the war, he returned to GSA to study part time design from 1920 to 1921 whilst employed as a sanitary engineer. Terrace's Short Service Report details that his trade was engineering and that he was an apprentice plumber alongside his father for four years, but also that he has "given up". From the Parish of Old Monkland, Terrace enlisted on the 1st of September 1914 and was made a special reserve on the 3rd of September. On the 6th of July 1916, he was admitted to hospital in Boulogne with a gunshot wound to his left leg and remained there for 57 days before being discharged. The record also details minor offences committed such as on the 11th of January 1915, when on active service he was absent from a parade at 5:30pm. As a punishment, Terrace was confined to the camp for two days. Other offences such as a parade absence until 8:30pm on the 17th of November 1916 resulted in Terrace being refused 8 days of pay, and also for having a dirty rifle while on active service for which he spent another two days confined to camp. He is described as being 5 foot 3.5 inches tall, weighed 8 stone 9lbs, had a "fresh complexion" with brown hair and bluish grey eyes. He is also noted as a Presbyterian. Terrace died in the South of Glasgow in 1968, aged 75. Terrace is commemorated on The Glasgow School of Art's First World War Roll of Honour.

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Sources: Ancestry: http://home.ancestry.co.uk/; Scotland's People: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk;

Mabel Thatcher (date of birth unknown) was an evening pottery and stained glass student at The Glasgow School of Art for the 1918/19 session. She lived in the Garnethill area of Glasgow.

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Architectural journal, based in Manchester.

The Carron Company was an ironworks established in 1759 on the banks of the River Carron near Falkirk, in Stirlingshire, Scotland. The company was one of the largest iron works in Europe through the 19th century. After 223 years, the company became insolvent in 1982 and was later acquired by the Franke Corporation, being rebranded Carron Phoenix.

Albert Gordon Thomas was born on the 17th November 1893 and from Springburn in Glasgow. He attended The Glasgow School of Art for a total of 6 years between 1912-16 and 1918-20. Thomas studied drawing and painting as a day student. He was awarded the Haldane Travelling Bursary of £50 for the session 1918/19. Thomas primarily worked in oil, watercolour and tempera and his subjects included figures, topography and landscapes. He was elected a member of The Royal Scottish Academy of Painters in Water Colours in 1936. Thomas exhibited extensively; for example at The Royal Scottish Academy, The Royal Scottish Academy of Painters in Water Colours, The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Aberdeen Artists' Society and Liverpool. Thomas' paintings are now part of collections held by institutions such as; Perth and Kinross Council, Paisley museums and Art Galleries and the Museum of The University of St Andrews.Thomas worked as a teacher, settled in Milngavie and died in 1970.

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Examples of Albert Gordon Thomas' work can be found by following the links below.

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/lochlomond-128929

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/weymouth-190485

https://museumoftheuniversityofstandrews.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/new-art-display-in-musa/hc115/

Thomas Jack was born on 25 January 1895, the son of Robert Jack, master builder, and his wife, Marion Sharp. In 1910 he was apprenticed to the architect Hugh Campbell at his office in St Vincent Street, Glasgow. Whilst working, he commenced his studies at The Glasgow School of Art in 1913 taking evening and Saturday classes in architecture before his studies were interrupted by WW1. He served with the Royal Engineers from 1915 to 1919 but he returned to architectural practice thereafter. He also returned to his studies at The Glasgow School of Art in 1919 funded for one year by the Ministry of Labour and then subsequently took evening classes in life drawing in 1919-20 and in drawing and painting in 1921-22. By this time he was living in Rothesay and in 1920-22 he carried out extensions and alterations to Castle Toward, presumably in association with Francis William Deas. In 1922 he joined the Glasgow Office of Public Works where he worked on halls, libraries, baths, markets, hospitals and other building types until 1929. From 1930 to 1933 he carried on a private practice involving churches, schools, colleges and commercial buildings, and he spent the following two years supervising housing developments, factories, warehouses and reconditioning projects for Fryers & Penman of Largs, Bryden & Robertson of Glasgow, Magnus Duncan of Glasgow, and the Glasgow & West of Scotland Agricultural College. In 1935 he was appointed Architectural and Civil Engineering Assistant (Grade II) with the War Department, and whilst there he passed the Civil Commission Examination in 1938. He remained there until at least 1944, many of his drawings being destroyed in enemy action in 1941. He was admitted LRIBA on 13 January 1945, his proposers being William James Smith, Andrew Graham Henderson and Joseph Weekes. By 1950 Jack had moved to Blackford in Perthshire but it is not clear if he was working in independent practice or in a firm at this time. Jack died at the Burghmuir Hospital, Perth on 10 July 1979. His wife, Doris Girling Eagle, had predeceased him. Thomas Jack is commemorated on The Glasgow School of Art's First World War Roll of Honour.

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Sources:The Dictionary of Scottish Architects: http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk; Jack Thomas was a student at the Glasgow School of Art c1914. He is listed in the School's World War One Roll of Honour.

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Maud Boniwell Thomas (born on the 30th March 1897) attended The Glasgow School of Art sporadically between 1910 and 1922. Thomas was a day student of drawing and painting. During the 1918/19 session, Thomas was employed as a teacher and by the 1921/22 session she was working as a fashion artist.

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Helen was born in Burma where her father worked as a merchant trader; her great grand-uncle had been a founder of Burmah Oil. On the eve of war in 1939, Helen, her parents and two brothers returned to Glasgow to live with her grandparents in Mirrlees Drive, close to the Botanic Gardens. Helen’s father was a liberal who enjoyed hosting salon-style intellectual discussions, and Helen – when she was not away at Cheltenham Ladies College – was encouraged to join in, pitting her wits against professors, judges and senior clergy. She spent her holidays in France as a companion to an elderly lady.

She studied Physiology and Pharmacology at St Andrews University, and went on to do a PhD (which involved research into the contraceptive pill) at Edinburgh University. However, after ten years as a research scientist she wanted a change, and when the Office for Scientific Information launched a campaign to recruit scientists to work in libraries as information officers, she applied and was accepted. In 1970 she came to work in the Andersonian Library at Strathclyde University, trained in librarianship and never looked back.

In 1982 she was appointed head of the library’s new Reference and Information Division, a post she held until her retirement in 1999. Many students received their induction to the library from Helen, and later found that the rather forbidding librarian with the braided hair would go out of her way to help when they needed it. Just before she retired, she was awarded a medal by the Princess Royal for services to librarianship.

Her interest in art had begun in childhood when she was taken by her parents to museums and galleries in Glasgow. She liked to say she began collecting in earnest in 1985 “when Maggie Thatcher brought down income tax and I had some spare money”. She became a regular at openings, with many galleries reserving a seat especially for her, and enthusiastically attended graduate shows at Scottish art colleges, indulging her particular interests in painting and silversmithing.

Her tastes were eclectic and she bought widely, once saying that she preferred “to put jam on the bread of youngsters, rather than established artists”, although she did buy the work of some well-known artists too. She did not regard her collection as an investment, gifting some 350 paintings to Strathclyde University in 1999, and gifting part of her silverware collection to Glasgow School of Art.

She lived frugally, never taking a taxi to a gallery, saying this allowed her to spend more on art. She was adept at turning up at a favourite gallery when she knew there would be a fresh pot of coffee brewing.

Helen, who never married, was a staunch supporter of a variety of charities. She was president of the Graduates Association at Strathclyde University, and an active supporter of its fundraising events. When the Association hosted biennial fashion shows to raise money for water purification in Malawi, she joined fellow staff and graduates on the catwalk, on one occasion spying a teal silk dress on a size 6 model and promptly commissioning the young designer to size it up to a 22.

At the age of 73, as treasurer of Charity Education International, she travelled to Kakina in Bangladesh where Uttar Bangla University College had been founded to encourage the poorest people into higher education. As well as auditing the library, she spotted a derelict Raj-era building in the grounds and donated a substantial sum to help renovate it. The main hall in the college is named after her.

She was treasurer of the Scottish Pakistani Association, looked after the library for the Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society and was a loyal supporter of the National Trust for Scotland, for which she was honoured by Prince Charles, and to which her house in Mirrlees Drive has been bequeathed.

After the deaths of her parents, she continued to live in the family home, which retained many original features going back to the early years of the 20th century, including the original leather and silk wallpaper, and a bell system for summoning servants to various rooms. She worked hard to maintain it – when the lino in the kitchen needed replacing, she persuaded the original manufacturers to recreate the long-discontinued pattern by hand. She hoped the house could become a museum, the upper-middle-class sibling of Glasgow’s Tenement House.

She even offered tours of the house in aid of charity, inviting guests to “the CT experience”. Visitors report seeing still-wrapped paintings stacked against the wall in every room, silver objects in boxes behind the sofa and her collection of vintage wines, ports and champagnes making its home on her father’s full-size billiards table.

Artists and dealers paid tribute to “an amazing woman who supported the arts in so many ways”, who did not suffer fools gladly, but was also generous and mischievously funny. One art dealer said: “There has never been another collector like her, who supported artists like no other.”

She died in hospital in Glasgow after a short illness. She is survived by seven nieces and nephews.

James Thompson (born on the 5th December 1895) attended The Glasgow School of Art for 6 years between 1913 and 1923. From 1913 until 1918 (absent for 1916/17 session) Thompson studied drawing and painting as a day student. The 1919/20 records show that Thompson was working as an art teacher while studying life as an evening student. In his final year which was 1922/23, Thompson studied etching.

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Alexander ['Greek'] Thomson was born at Endrick Cottage, Balfron, on 9 April 1817, the seventeenth child of John Thomson and the ninth child of his second marriage to Elizabeth Cooper. John Thomson was the bookkeeper at Kirkman Finlay's cotton works there and had previously held a similar position at Carron Ironworks. Advancement with both firms was precluded by his strict Burgher beliefs which were shared by his wife: she had come to Balfron with her brother, the Rev John Cooper. The family was educated at home, partly by Cooper, but John Thomson died in 1824 and the family had to move from Balfron to the outskirts of Glasgow. Elizabeth died in 1828, leaving the family in the care of her son William, a brilliant classical scholar who was briefly professor of humanity at the University of Glasgow.

In 1834 William Thomson moved to London as a missionary, leaving his brothers and sisters at his house at Hangingshaw. In the same year Alexander became a clerk in a Glasgow lawyer's office. There his drawing skills attracted the attention of a client, Robert Foote, who had inherited the large plasterer's business of David Foote & Son in 1827 and had commenced practice as an architect in 1830. Foote's architectural practice was small but in association with the decorative plasterwork side of his business he had amassed a magnificent library and a large collection of classical casts from which Thomson learned much in the two years he was articled to him. In 1836 a spinal complaint obliged Foote to withdraw from architectural practice and Thomson completed his articles with John Baird, remaining with him first as assistant and later as chief draughtsman when much of his time was spent on the unbuilt college on Woodlands Hill. In the early 1840s Thomson's younger brother George, born at Balfron on 26 May 1819 was also articled to Baird, after recovering from a respiratory complaint which had been thought to be consumption.

On 21 September 1847 Alexander Thomson married Jane Nicholson, daughter of the London architect Michaelangelo Nicholson and granddaughter of the architect-writer Peter Nicholson. It was a double wedding, her sister Jessie marrying another John Baird ('Secundus') who, although an architect, had no family or professional connection with the Thomsons' employer. Born in Ayr in November 1816, Baird was some five months older than Thomson. He had been articled first to James Watt and then to John Herbertson before finding a place in the office of David and James Hamilton where he was, very unusually, named in the Directory entry. After David Hamilton died in 1843 and his firm was sequestrated in 1844, Hamilton's son-in-law James Smith continued his practice and John Baird commenced practice on his own account. After the financial problems of the Hamilton and Smith businesses were resolved Smith and Baird merged their practices as Smith & Baird. Their partnership does not seem to have been a happy one and was dissolved in 1848 when Baird invited his brother-in-law to join him, the new partnership being entitled Baird & Thomson.

Within two years the Baird & Thomson partnership was extremely successful with a large clientele for medium-sized villas and terraces of cottages in Pollokshields, Shawlands, Crossmyloof, Cathcart, Langbank, Bothwell and Cove and Kilcreggan. At Cove and Kilcreggan they enjoyed the support of the builder, railway contractor and ironfounder John McElroy who commissioned Craig Ailey in 1850 and built a considerable number of other marine villas either speculatively or for clients. These early villas were generally either Gothic, sometimes with Pugin-derived details, or Italian Romanesque but a few, most notably Glen Eden at Cove, had very original elements which, as Gavin Stamp has shown, have their origins in the publications of the architectural historian and theorist James Fergusson.

In 1854 Thomson began designing in a picturesque, asymmetrically-composed, pilastraded, neo-Greek idiom which derived from Schinkel at Rockbank, Helensburgh and the Mossman studio on Cathedral Street. These were followed by the Scottish Exhibition Rooms in Bath Street which he and some architect friends built to provide a Scottish counterpart to the period courts in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. This decisive shift to the neo-Greek which would remain characteristic of him and by then had no counterpart either in Edinburgh or south of the Border was quickly followed by a change of partner. In 1856 the partnership of Baird & Thomson was amicably dissolved so that Thomson could form a separate practice with his brother George who may still have been in the office of John Baird Primus: the record is not absolutely clear. The new partnership quickly acquired influential contacts, notably the builder John McIntyre. Others were probably made through UP Church contacts.

In 1856-57 Thomson's architecture developed rapidly. The neo-Greek of Rockland achieved a much more sophisticated maturity in the Double Villa at Langside and his finest house, Holmwood at Cathcart. In the same years a more monumental but still asymmetrical Greek idiom was applied to church design at Caledonia Road UP, where both the lower façade and the tower were of Schinkelesque banded masonry. This banded treatment was extended into the adjoining tenement blocks for which he devised a repetitive bay design with pilastered first-floor aedicules and third-floor recesses containing anthemeon ornament. In the following year, 1857, this theme was further developed on a vast scale at Queens Park Terrace in which Thomson adopted his familiar device of linked Egyptian architraves set against a recessed wall plane and omitted the banded masonry. With subtle variations this formula was to remain a feature of his more upmarket tenements for the remainder of his career. The same motifs, now with a top-floor pilastrade, were to feature at Walmer Terrace and the first of his commercial blocks, 99-107 West Nile Street, both built in 1857.

In 1858 Alexander and George Thomson bought the Gordon Street UP Church in which they worshipped in order to build a showpiece warehouse with ground-floor shops - a fairly innovative concept at the time - in which the David Hamilton theme of interpenetrating pilastrades was developed into the same repetition of absolutely regular single-bay units, here much more complex in design, crowned by a deeply shadowed eaves gallery. It did indeed attract commissions for similar structures in which the same themes were further developed with an ever-increasing subtlety in which overlaid and superimposed pilastrades and dwarf eaves gallery colonnades varied the original formula. The Gordon Street development financed the Gordon Street congregation's new church in St Vincent Street, built in 1857-59, which again must have been intended as an advertisement for their services. Stylistically it marked a further advance drawing upon wider areas of antiquity than Caledonia Road, but in the event it attracted only one further church commission, that for Queen's Park Church, built in a similar but externally less ambitious idiom in 1868-69.

Thomson's widely recognised professional successes in the 1850s were clouded by a series of tragic events at home. In the early years of their marriage Alexander and Jane lived at 3 South Apsley Place in Laurieston. Agnes Elizabeth was born on 24 April 1849, Elizabeth Cooper on 31 January 1851 and Alexander John on 27 November 1852. But Laurieston, although then still a good address, proved vulnerable to the cholera epidemic of 1854 and on 14 March of that year Agnes Elizabeth died. Jane Nicholson, born 8 August 1854, died on 13 February 1855, George born 8 August 1855 survived only until 31 December 1856, and on 3 January 1857 Alexander John died leaving Elizabeth Cooper the only survivor from a family of five. Later in that year the Thomson household moved to Darnley Terrace, a recently completed development he had designed at Shawlands. There on 12 April Amelia was born, followed by Jessie Williamina on 10 April 1858 and the future architect son John on 20 June 1859. In 1861 the Thomsons moved again to Moray Place in Strathbungo, taking the northmost house in a two-storey terrace block built as a speculative venture in association with his measurer John Shields and the builder John McIntyre. Designed in 1859 it was predictably the finest and most original of his earlier terraces, the large end houses being advanced and pedimented with a giant order of pilasters. There Helen was born on 9 July 1861, Catherine Honeyman on 11 February 1863, and Michael Nicholson on 13 October 1864. Peter was born on 19 March 1866, but survived only sixteen days. The size of Alexander Thomson's family seems to have restricted travel. Family holidays were invariably spent in a rented house on Arran. His only recorded trip to London was in 1861 when he visited John James Stevenson, but he may well have made earlier visits. His knowledge of antiquity and of contemporary architecture seems to have been derived from a magnificent library and from the building journals, one of these being the 'British Architect', of which he was one of the founding shareholders in 1874.

In the 1860s the practice was notably prosperous, in large part as a result of the developments undertaken by the accountant Henry Leck, the cab hirer John Ewing Walker and the builder William Henderson who was the client at North Park Terrace (1863-66); 126-138 Sauchiehall Street (1864-66); 249-259 St Vincent Street (1865-67); Grecian Buildings, 252-270 Sauchiehall Street (1868-69); and Great Western Terrace (begun 1869). All of these were built with borrowed money and the practice must have suffered a notable drop in income when Henderson died in May 1870, his property being sequestrated in June. With the practice at a relatively low ebb George Thomson carried out his long-planned intention of becoming a missionary and emigrated to the Cameroons in the Spring of 1871, although he was to remain a partner until 1873.
By 1872 Thomson was in failing health because of asthma and bronchitis, and it was probably because of illness that in February of that year Henry Leck, hitherto a faithful client, commissioned first John Baird and then Peddie & Kinnear to design his building on Gordon Street, replacing an earlier Thomson scheme for a different site which had been stalled by the Caledonian Railway's proposals for Glasgow Central Station. In February 1874 Thomson took Robert Turnbull into a partnership which was backdated to October 1873, probably on account of services rendered since that date. Born in 1839, Turnbull was the son of William Turnbull, joiner and his wife Mary Deans and was more inspector of works than architect, engaged for the 'outdoor' side of the business as correspondence with the Thomson trustees in July 1876 makes clear. But through the family joinery business he did bring new clients in the Lenzie area, for which earlier Thomson villa designs were either reused or adapted. The immediate catalyst for this partnership may have been Thomson's commitment to the Haldane lectures, a series of four delivered in the Spring of 1874. These were a final statement of ideas developed in earlier lectures delivered from 1853 onwards, most of them to the Glasgow Architectural Society and the Glasgow Institute of Architects. These he had co-founded in 1858 and 1868 respectively: he was President of both, the Society in 1861 and the Institute from 1870 to 1872.

In August 1874 Thomson wrote to his brother that 'Mr Turnbull and I are getting on pretty well we are busy with a number of smallish jobs'. But in the winter of 1874-75 his asthma and bronchitis deteriorated and his decision to winter in Italy to regain his health had been left too late. Thereafter he worked mainly at Moray Place and at the time of his death on 22 March 1875 he had been working on a competition design for a town hall. This may have been for Paisley or for Annan, or more probably both: the Annan design is preserved in a relatively coarse presentation perspective made after his death.

In 1897 one of Alexander Thomson's former assistants, William Clunas, put on paper a vivid pen portrait of him at the request of Thomas Ross, together with an indication of what it was like to work in his office. Clunas remembered him as: 'a distinguished looking man of good average height, stout, well and proportionally made, a fine manly countenance with a profuse head of hair. His general appearance was indeed, very much in harmony with the strength and elegance which he imparted to the structures he designed, while the genial smile which so often overspread his face might be fittingly compared to the finished enrichment which was so marked and pleasing a feature of his compositions. … 'In general character he was very unassuming and to those in his employment he was always considerate and even affectionate. By his professional brethren he was held in the highest esteem if one judged from the numbers of the best of them who used to call upon him. 'His pupils were well aware of the great Art Master they were under and experienced the inconveniences as well as the advantages of such a position … for the strictly professional side of business he had little capacity - punctual he was not, neither was he persevering. You could not say he was indolent, but there was a dreamy unrest about him even when engaged on important work which caused matter-of-fact people who were waiting for further details or instructions some annoyance. But when he did plunge in to a piece of work his attitude was that of a real devotee - patient, forceful, and painstaking … While in the mood for work he was apparently urged on by the idea that was moving him … at one time buried in thought, at another wielding the pencil with vigour and precision … His habit in designing was to sketch the work on a small scale on a scrap of paper, and in the course of his cogitations scores of these scraps of paper would be lying rejected about the floor, each with a miniature design that never failed to display the master hand, but to the master himself it was an oft-repeated effort before he was satisfied … 'A notable feature of Mr Thomson's character was his social friendliness. This he displayed in no way more strikingly than the frequent occasions when he had his pupils at his house. He … delighted to speak of examples of antiquity of past ages as well as the more familiar antiquarian lore of his own country. Even ghost and fairies' stories were not beneath his notice.' There is no record of when Clunas was in the office, but the absence of any reference to George suggests that it was in 1871-73. But it can be read as indicating the importance of George's role as the business manager of the practice and explain why the practice briefly went into relative decline until Turnbull took over its management in the autumn of 1873. Turnbull took a more commercial attitude to style, recycling or adapting Gothic and Romanesque designs of the 1850s if they better met the wishes of his clients. Of Thomson himself Campbell Douglas recalled in 1889: 'In my experience I have only known one man who confined himself to one style, and if his proposed employers insisted on building in a different style, why, then, he let them go elsewhere. That architect was a great man, who probably made less money than some others did, but he left behind him monuments more worthy of his genius.' Thomson's moveable estate, none of which was inherited, was in fact one of the largest left by any nineteenth-century Glasgow architect at £15,395 5s 6d; he also had substantial property interests.

Alexander was buried in the Southern Necropolis. George came back from the Cameroons to help settle his affairs and marry Isabella Johnston, who returned with him to the Cameroons to help run the missionary hospital he had designed and built in 1874. He died of a fever at Victoria on 14 December 1878.

Angus Thomson (born on the 16th of May 1901) attended The Glasgow School of Art as a day student between 1917 and 1921. Thomson studied drawing and painting throughout his time at the School and also studied modelling and design during the 1918/19 session.

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Dorothy Thomson (born on the 14th of February 1887) attended The Glasgow School of Art from 1903 to 1916. During these 13 years, Thomson studied design and life as well as drawing and painting under the tutelage of David Forrester Wilson.

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Duncan Turner Thomson was born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire on 23rd December 1888, son of Mary-Jane McKean Thomson (née Turner) and Alexander Thomson, a Bachelor of Medicine, General Practitioner. Thomson attended The Glasgow School of Art from 1904 to 1911 and from 1913 to 1914 as a day student and later as an evening student of architecture. Thomson was taught by the first professor of Architectural Design, Eugene Bourdon who is also listed on the School's World War One Roll of Honour.

During his studies Thomson's occupation is noted as an Architect (1907-08), Architect Apprentice (1908-09) and from 1909-14 as an Architectural Draughtsman. His address at that time was given as Hamilton Park Terrace, Hillhead, Glasgow. The Dictionary of the Scottish Architects informs us that between 1906 or 1907, Duncan Turner Thomson was employed and trained as an architectural apprentice at Honeyman Keppie & Mackintosh, and in later years he became an architectural assistant to Mr Peter Macgregor Chalmers at his Glasgow practice.

During the First World War, Thomson volunteered for active service and joined the 9th Battalion (Glasgow Highlanders), in the Highland Light Infantry regiment. At the outbreak of the war Thomson went to France in October 1914, and served as a Private (his regiment number was #118). He was shot by a sniper at Vermelles in France on the 19th of June 1915, and died of his wounds in the General Hospital in Northampton on the 30thJuly 1915. The British Army records indicate that Thomson served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery Intelligence Corps and was awarded the Victory British Star Medal for his achievements. Duncan Turner Thomson is commemorated on The Glasgow School of Art's First World War Roll of Honour and the UK De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour (1914-1919) and from the records of which (stated below) we can find out more about his personality:

Capt. A.K. Reid wrote: "He was a man for whom I had the highest regard, especially since we came out here, and he was one of the most popular members of the company. His good humour even under the most trying circumstances caused him to be liked by all. He could be trusted at all times to do his duty as a soldier and as a man. I saw him in the Vermelles trenches a few minutes after he was hit, and he left us to walk back to the dressing station with a cheery good-bye to us all"; and one of his comrades, writing to a friend, said: "You doubtless have heard of Duncan Thomson's death. Man! Why is it that all those splendid sportsmen get knocked out, and the rest of us go free. He was an awfully decent chap and I saw quite a lot of him in the G. H. at Dunfermline and in France. A more thorough, straighter, cleaner chap you could not meet. Five of the old 1st Battalion – friends of his - and myself carried the coffin into the Kirk, and than again to the grave. It wasn't a military funeral (military honours having been paid when the body left Northampton), so we could only salute his grave, but if ever a man deserved honours at his graveside he did. We called him 'Sniper' out there, for the simple reason that he was so delightfully cool and casual. He never fired a shot at anything unless he was absolutely certain. If ever you wanted a hot drink. Or anything to cheer yourself up with, you went to Duncan, and sure enough then you got it."[De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour, Vol.1, p. 349].

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Sources: Ancestry: http://www.ancestry.co.uk; the Dictionary of Scottish Architects: http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk;Scotland's People: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.

Hugh Thomson was born in Saltcoats on 7th July 1895, to Agnes (née Kilpatrick) and Hugh Thomson, an architect. His father worked in Saltcoats and his company became "Thomson and Sons" in 1930 before his death in 1935. Thomson attended The Glasgow School of Art from 1913 to 1914 as a part time architectural apprentice. During the First World War, Thomson served as a Lance Corporal in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders battalion. It is possible that Thomson worked for his father's practice. The company worked on a war memorial in Stevenston in 1930. A Hugh Thomson died in 1973 in Saltcoats, aged 77, a possible match for our records. Thomson is commemorated on The Glasgow School of Art's First World War Roll of Honour.

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Sources: Scotland's People: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ The Dictionary of Scottish Architects: http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/index.php

James Thomson was a student at the Glasgow School of Art c1914. He is listed in the School's World War One Roll of Honour.

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James McKelvie Thomson was born in Barrhead, Renfrew, on 5th March 1888, to Jane Thomson (née McKelvie) and George Thomson, a journeyman wood turner. Thomson attended classes in life drawing, design, and drawing and painting at The Glasgow School of Art from 1909 to 1915 and 1919/20, while working as a decorator. He enlisted with the Highland Light Infantry during the First World War and appears on The Glasgow School of Art's World War One Roll of Honour. He died in Paisley in 1965.

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Jane Hoggitt Thomson (born on the 16th of May 1901) attended The Glasgow School of Art for the 1916/17 session. She was an afternoon student of needlework. Thomson was a teacher at the College of Domestic Science.

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Joan Thomson (born on the 12th of November 1899) attended The Glasgow School of Art for session 1917/18. Thomson studied design, needlework and pottery three afternoons a week.

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John T Thomson was a student at The Glasgow School of Art from 1938-1940 and from 1946-1948, specialising in Industrial Design. He was awarded the diploma in Industrial Design in 1948, as well as a £20 Minor Travelling Scholarship.

John graduated from Glasgow School of Art as a mature student, following his service in the Royal Air Force as a wireless operator during WWII. During this time he was based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he trained others at a navigation school.

He trained as a teacher and worked initially in Glasgow secondary schools, before taking up significant posts in further education at the College of Building and Stow College and Cardonald College, where he was head of the department of art and design before being appointed as depute principal.

Throughout his career in further education John developed and established several courses in commercial art and design and was responsible for developments in the modular system and the specialist art/design diploma awards, which are now an integral part of the art and design qualifications of the Scottish Qualifications Authority.

John built his own house in Thorntonhall largely to his own design, where he lived with his wife and children.

Mary studied Silversmithing and Jewellery at The Glasgow School of Art in the 1970s. In 1974 she gained a place at The Royal College of Art Jewellery School. She was awarded the distinguished Princess of Wales scholarship as the most promising female entrant. Under the guidance of Prof. Gerald Benny, Mary concentrated on shallow relief carving in slate, steel and ivory. She married fellow silversmith Michael Lloyd in 1976.