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Niven, William
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William Niven (born 26th August 1890) was a student at The Glasgow School of Art between 1915-1917 and then again for the 1919-1920 session. William was initially an evening student who studied life drawing with his address during this time given as both Forsyth Street, Greenock and Espedair Street, Paisley and his occupation being a clerk. In his subsequent years with the School, he was a student of drawing and painting who attended during the day and was resident at Fox Street, Greenock by 1919. In 1915-1916, he won the Messers, Winsor and Newton Ltd Day School Student Prize for Painting award, as well as the first prize in anatomy school. The following year, he contributed artwork including posters for a newspaper.
Noted as being both a painter and engraver, he produced an etching of William Heddle in 1941 and also a "Punch and Judy" sketch for "The Glasgow Herald" newspaper in 1926. Niven's wife, Jean N Niven was also an engraver who was most prevalent in the 1930s completing etchings "Segovia" and "St Etienne du Mont, Paris".
William was born to parents Archibald Fraser Niven (1861-1918) and Elizabeth Lawrie Lumsden Niven (1863-1940) in Greenock and had three younger siblings, two brothers and a sister. Both brothers fought in WWI with the younger, Alexander C L Niven being killed in action on 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. It is not clear what happened to John L L Niven, but there seems to be no record of him after the time of the war. William appears to have been well travelled as passenger ship records show he travelled from Lisbon to Southampton in 1933, 1934 and 1936 on "Highland Patriot", "Zealandia" and "Almanzora" respectively. The second trip was with his sister, Jane P C L Niven and the others with his wife Jean. During the 1934 journey, his occupation was given as being a journalist. William outlived all his immediate family members, with his father passing away in Chicago, Illinois on Armistice Day 1918, and his mother and then sister in Greenock in 1940 and 1966 respectively.
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Sources: ancestry.co.uk, The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts 1861-1989 (Roger Billcliffe) and The Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture (Peter J.M. McEwan).
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