India
Collection: John Lean and Sons Ltd (GUAS Ref: UGD 2)
John Lean & Sons Ltd, muslin and rayon manufacturers, was first established in 1840 by John Lean and his second son, Daniel. Moving from their first premises in Lanark, they set up company in premises in Wilson Street, Glasgow, specialising in buying and selling cloth. By 1846, they had broken out of the home markets, beginning to send regular consignments to India. 1849-50 saw a determined push into Indian markets and a marked increase in the scale of the business.
By the 1870s, they had move production to a new weaving factory in Bridgeton, Glasgow, and their main markets lay abroad. John Lean & Sons maintained their markets through agencies, their principal Indian agent being Gladstone Wyllie & Co, a division of Gladstone & Co of Liverpool. The company continued the production of muslin and later rayon throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, until it ceased trading in 1960.
The John Lean & Sons Ltd Archive contains a considerable amount of information regarding the company’s foreign trade, particularly with Calcutta, Bombay and Rangoon. This document is taken from the series of agents’ letterbooks for Bombay, which date from 1899 to 1950. The company’s agents in Bombay was Bell, Russ & Co Ltd.
(GUAS Ref: UGD 2/11/1 p1. Copyright reserved.)
For further information on the papers of John Lean & Sons Ltd archive, please see the online catalogue.
Collection: United Turkey Red Co Ltd (GUAS Ref: UGD 13)
United Turkey Red Co Ltd, bleachers, finishers and dyers, Alexandria, Dunbartonshire was incorporated in 1898 through the amalgamation of John Orr Ewing & Co, Archibald Orr Ewing and William Stirling & Sons. The firm specialised in Turkey red dyeing and exported cloth around the world, but particularly to India.
The collection has a large selection of colourful decorative labels that were put on the bales of cloth. This example was used on the bales destined for Wilson & Co for the southern Indian markets in Chennai (formerly known as Madras).
View larger image (GUAS Ref: UGD 13/7a/6/4. Copyright reserved.)
For further information on the papers of United Turkey Red Co Ltd archive, please see the online catalogue.
Collection: Birkmyre Brothers (Calcutta) Ltd (GUAS Ref: UGD 42/6/81)
Birkmyre Brothers (Calcutta) Ltd was founded in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) in the late nineteenth century as part of the Gourock Ropeworks Co’s further expansion into the world’s textile markets. Birkmyre Brothers (Calcutta) Ltd established the Hastings Mill in Kolkata (a jute mill), and ran two other mills in Serampore and Mumbai (formerly Bombay).
This contract secured the continuation of the company in 1911, following the death of one of the partners, John Birkmyre. It highlights the continued link between Britain and India in the textile market.
(GUAS Ref: UGD 42/6/8/1 p1. Copyright reserved.)
For further information on the papers of Birkmyre Brothers (Calcutta) Ltd archive, please see the online catalogue.
Collection: Queen Margaret College (GUAS Ref: DC 233)
The first female Asian graduate of the University of Glasgow was Marbai Ardesir Vakil, who was born in Bombay in 1868 and graduated with a BA from Wilson College, Bombay, in 1888. She came to Glasgow’s Queen Margaret College Medical School in 1893, just as that college for the higher education of women was merging with the University.
After graduating with MB CM in 1897 she spent two years’ working as a postgraduate in Glasgow, before returning to Bombay to work in hospitals. Dr Vakil left for Aden in 1927, where she worked in Government service and private practice until 1941.
(GUAS Ref: DC 233/2/22/2/51/1. Copyright reserved.)
For further information on the papers of Queen Margaret College archive, please see the online catalogue.
