Mcleod, William

Person

Mcleod, William

There are two men with the name William McLeod in The Glasgow School of Art archives records at the time of the First World War and it is unclear which of these men are commemorated as a soldier of The Royal Scots on the Roll of Honour. (1) William Douglas MacLeod was born in Clarkson, Renfrewshire on January the 1st 1892, son of Jeanie Drummond MacLeod (née Maxwell) and Norval MacLeod, a cashier. MacLeod attended The Glasgow School of Art as a full time student of drawing and painting from 1907 to 1908. He studied part time from 1908 to 1909, then from 1912 to 1913 he studied part time design. He is noted to have worked in a bank from 1906 to 1915. He is recorded as having studied full time drawing and painting once again from 1918 to 1922, after the war. It is possible that during the First World War, MacLeod served as part of The Royal Scots battalion. After the war, MacLeod returned to GSA to study, painting landscapes in oil and pastel. He became a cartoonist for the Glasgow Evening Times News from 1920 to 1930. He also etched and painted European landscape scenes from his home in Lenzie. On the 4th of April 1928, MacLeod married Ellen Averill Pratt, also an artist. MacLeod died in 1963 in Kirkintilloch, aged 71. MacLeod is commemorated on The Glasgow School of Art's First World War Roll of Honour.

If you have any more information, please get in touch.

Sources: Scotland's People: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk; Ancestry: http://www.ancestry.co.uk; The Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture by Peter J M McEwan; BBC Your Paintings: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/macleod-william-douglas-18921963. (2) William John MacLeod was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife on January the 23rd 1891, the eldest of three children of Margaret Greig MacLeod (née Mitchell) and William MacLeod, a tobacco manufacturer. MacLeod attended The Glasgow School of Art from 1908 to 1912 as a full time student of drawing and painting. It is possible that MacLeod served as part of The Royal Scots battalion during the First World War. Not much is known of MacLeod after the war though some of his work is kept in the Parliamentary Art Collection and includes oil paintings of the Houses of Parliament. One of these paintings, dating to 1941, shows damage to buildings caused by air raids in the Second World War. It is possible that he worked for the Government Department The Ministry of Works. MacLeod's date of death is unknown but it is likely to have been between 1967 and 1974. MacLeod is commemorated on The Glasgow School of Art's First World War Roll of Honour.

Sources: Scotland's People; http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk; Ancestry: http://www.ancestry.co.uk; BBC Your Paintings: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/william-j-macleod; Government Art Collection: http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/721.html

local