Galbraith was born in Strathaven on 30 June 1818. He thought of studying medicine, then chose to train as an advocate. Circumstances prevented this however and he began his working life in a drysalter's office, before working as a clerk for a Glasgow shipbroker. He moved into general broking before joining P Henderson & Co, ship and insurance brokers,
He became principal partner in 1867 at a time when there was an opening-up of trade between Clyde and Rangoon, first by sailing ships, then by steam. He became known and respected in New Zealand, and in 1860 was appointed Austrian vice-consul in Glasgow. In 1869 he became a senior partner in the brokerage firm of Stringer, Pembroke & Co, .
He married Margaret Nelson in 1859, and they had one son. In 1874 he bought Beach House, Wemyss Bay, where he lived until his death in March, 1885.
JAMES GALBRAITH was born on 30th of June, 1818, in the Lanarkshire village of Strathaven. At the time of the birth of his eldest son, the subject of this notice, the elder Galbraith was engaged in business as a manufacturer's agent, but not finding success in that line of life he began to look out for more secure employment, and at the advice and through the influence of his cousin, the late Mr. Downie of Appin, who was at the time M.P. for the Stirling Burghs, he entered the Inland Revenue, Glasgow being the first place in he was stationed. Young James went to school when he was only four years of age, being taken to St. John's Parish School under the care of an elder sister, and even at that early age attracting the master's attention and favour by the brightness of his looks and the intelligence of his answers. When he was a little older he began to attend a private school in North Frederick Street, conducted by Mr. Young, where he remained till he was sixteen, studying not only the usual branches of an English education but also Latin, Greek, and French. At school he took all the prizes which were within his reach, for even as a boy he was noted for the cheerful industry, the untiring energy, the patient accuracy which distinguished him in after life. But, better still, he was conspicuous and admired in his boyhood, and in the days of his dawning manhood for his devotion to his mother, who was a constant invalid, and in whose room he spent many hours, talking with her over the incidents of his daily business life, or reading aloud the speeches of Sir Robert Peel, or the pages of some interesting biography or popular volume of sermons.
Young Galbraith, when he began to think of a profession, had thoughts of entering on the study of medicine, perhaps led to think of that profession by the example of his paternal uncle, who, after some years spent as a surgeon in the Royal Navy, took up his abode in Brussels, where he lived and practised till an almost recent date. But a boyish aim which took a still stranger and more lasting hold on his imaginative and ambitious mind was the wish to enter the profession of the law and qualify for the position of an advocate. Circumstances, however, did not allow him to fix on this profession as his life-work, and he was reluctantly obliged to give up the idea of ever donning the gown and wig of the Edinburgh advocate.
Galbraith had to be content with more ordinary and less ambitious plans, and his first start in the practical business of life was in a drysalter's office, where, however, he stayed only six months, for the work he had to do there was monotonous and uninteresting. Then he got a clerkship in the office of Mr. John Cree, at that time the principal shipbroker in Glasgow. His zeal and quickness were soon noticed by his master, who gave him a handsome present of money at the end of his first year's work. After a few years spent in Mr. Cree's employment, during which time he was making himself master of the mysteries of shipbroking, Galbraith made up his mind to leave Mr. Cree's service, for the gentleman had sons who were entering their father's business, and thus blocking the way of promotion for ambitious clerks.
He left this employment and entered that of William McCall & Co., but this firm soon after getting into difficulties, he, along with Mr. Kilgour, a fellow-clerk, commenced business as insurance brokers. Differences, however, arose between the partners and he left the firm, which soon after came to grief. Shortly after this he entered the office of P. Henderson & Co., ship and insurance brokers, and as he was identified with this firm during the remainder of his life, a brief notice of its history may not be out of place here.
At the beginning of the present century a fisherman of the name of Henderson lived in the Fifeshire village of Pittenweem. He was a man of integrity, industry, and character, and in consequence, although occupying such an humble position, all his family except one rose to a position far above that in which they were brought up, and, strange to say, the one referred to determined the fortunes of the remainder of the family. During the Napoleonic wars the press-gang laid their unscrupulous hands on this the eldest member of the old man's family, and for some years he served in His Majesty's ships, but arguing that as the King had not consulted him when his services were required, there was no great sin in not consulting the King when he wished to bring these to an end, on one occasion when his ship lay off Leghorn, he took French leave, and thus brought an unceremonious engagement to an unceremonious end. He settled down in Leghorn, and although he was not successful in business, yet the letters he sent home induced his brother Thomas to go and settle in the same city, where he was afterwards joined by another brother, Robert. These, commencing in a small way at first under the style of Henderson Brothers, by diligent attention to business gradually extended their operations until they became the principal merchants in the city of their adoption. In the meantime a fourth brother, Patrick, had established himself in Glasgow in the soft goods trade, whilst a fifth, George, was captain and owner of a small vessel. The brother in Glasgow became agent for, and traded with the brothers in Italy, while George in his little craft, the "Tom and Jessy," carried the produce in which they dealt to and from the Mediterranean, and thus the four brothers, working into one another's hands, and interested in one another's business, prospered. When Patrick died, George gave up the sea and settled in Glasgow, and from his connection with maritime matters, he naturally engrafted shipbroking on the soft goods trade; but not understanding the latter, he was eventually joined by Robert,(1) who left Italy and finally settled in Glasgow.
It was at this juncture, when the shipbroking branch of the business was extending, that Mr. Galbraith entered the firm's employment as managing clerk, but he was soon advanced to the position of a partner.
Mr. George Henderson died suddenly soon after Mr. Galbraith joined the firm and he and Robert were left alone. Mr. Robert Henderson died in 1867, and Mr. Galbraith took his place as principal partner in the firm. Here as in other spheres his energy of character and clear business foresight soon manifested themselves, and before long, under his guidance, the whole character of the business was changed, and new enterprises entered upon.
One of the first of these was the opening up of the trade between Clyde and Rangoon by means of sailing ships, which made what would now be looked upon as a tedious passage round the Cape. Soon after the opening of the Suez Canal, Mr. Galbraith saw that if the trade was to be maintained recourse must be had to steam, and the consequence was that the business carried on by means of a few small vessels is now done by the magnificent steamers comprising the fleet of the British and Burmese Steam Navigation Co., Limited.
New Zealand soon attracted his attention, and commencing in a small way again, the trade rapidly developed until the fleet of fine vessels possessed by the Albion Shipping Co., Limited, was the result, and the care and attention with which these were managed is attested by the fact that although till this date they have carried upwards of 50,000 emigrants to New Zealand, not a single life has been lost in consequence of the loss or wreckage of any of the ships. By this connection with the Colony Mr. Galbraith was well known and highly respected there; the Government of New Zealand, on all occasions when advice in regard to maritime matters was required, consulted him, and at his death they telegraphed home their sense of the loss the Colony had sustained, and gave expression to it in a letter from Sir F. Dillon Bell, addressed to Mr. Galbraith's son.(2)
Another enterprise upon which he embarked was the opening up of the River Irrawaddy to English trade by means of steam. This immense river traverses both British and native Burmah, and is navigable for 1,000 miles above Rangoon close to the Chinese frontier. It also possesses a delta which for extent and for the number of navigable watercourses by which it is traversed, is unequalled by any other river in the world. Previously the trade upon it was carried on by means of native craft, which was both slow and expensive. Great difficulties had to be encountered at the first, but convinced that there was backbone in the concern, with his usual indomitable perseverance these were faced and overcome, and now the Irrawaddy Flotilla Co., Limited, into which the concern was formed, has upwards of 100 vessels trading upon the river, and the British Commissioner in Burmah has acknowledged that this enterprise has done more to develop the resources of the country than all the Government has been able to do.
In 1860 Mr. Galbraith was appointed Austrian Vice-Consul in Glasgow - an office which he held with dignity and courtesy, and the duties of which he discharged to the satisfaction of the Austrian Government, winning at the same time the regard and even affection of the diplomatic representatives of Austria in Britain with whom he was brought into contact.
In 1869 Mr. Galbraith joined as senior partner the firm of Stringer, Pembroke & Co., ship and insurance brokers, London, founded originally by the well-known Mr. W. S. Lindsay, M.P. Both this and the Glasgow business were managed by Mr. Galbraith up to his death.
He was ever in sympathy with all philanthropic efforts. In the Clyde training-ship "Cumberland" he took a special interest. After Mr. Galbraith's death the Executive Committee in their annual report said that they had to deplore the loss sustained by the institution through the removal of Mr. Galbraith, who might be said to have been the founder of the institution, and to his unwearied exertions as chairman of the executive committee since its foundation might be attributed, in a great measure, the success which had attended it down to the present moment.
In 1859 he married Margaret Nelson, daughter of Alexander Kirkwood of Glasgow, by whom he had an only son. In 1874 he purchased Beach House, Wemyss Bay, which formed for the remainder of his life the family headquarters. It was whilst living here that, although in earlier years he had a distaste for the sea, he built first the "Sea Snake," then the "Sea King," and lastly the "Sea Queen," all fine steam yachts; but the last especially was considered the pride of Clyde yachts. It was in the "Sea Queen" that he visited the classic shores of the Mediterranean, the grand old fiords of Norway, and the tamer but no less beautiful islands and lochs of our own Western Highlands. His hospitality on board of this magnificent vessel was boundless, and whenever his health permitted him, his juvenility of spirit burst forth, and he became the very soul of all the merriment indulged in.
To all who were intimate with him his wondrous kindness of heart was the characteristic which above all others impressed itself, and made him beloved by those who formed the inner circle of his acquaintance. He was never appealed to in vain for help in any case of need, and the number of deeds of private kindness which he did were only known to a few, and these were frequently indulged in towards those who, so far from meriting them at his hands, would by most have been deemed worthy of quite another treatment. He was deeply reverent, and always regarded and spoke of divine things as a man who was impressed with a sense of their solemnity and vast importance, and many of his private communications to friends breathe a spirit of submission to the divine will, and a longing after something higher and better than this world can give.
From early life he was a martyr to headache and dyspepsia. The pains and annoyances of these were almost constant companions. In the later years of his life an affection of the throat, in addition to his other troubles, attacked and at last sadly reduced him. In order to have this treated he placed himself under Parisian specialists for such diseases, and it was whilst at Versailles for this purpose that congestion of the lungs supervened, and he quietly breathed his last there on the 4th of March, 1885, at the comparatively early age of sixty-six. His remains were brought to Glasgow, and, followed by a large concourse of friends, laid to rest in the Necropolis, and thus there passed away from our midst another of the men who by integrity, perseverance, and industry have been instrumental in making Glasgow what it is, and of extending to distant lands the beneficent influences of British commerce.
(1) George was kind and genial of heart, attentive to business, and beloved by all. Robert, with a somewhat impetuous temper, possessed withal a generosity of nature which found vent in many deeds of kindness. He had many admirable qualities, and had attained to great fluency in modern languages. On one occasion when an Englishman of considerable eminence was having some money transactions with his brother Thomas, Robert was engaged with various parties transacting business - first with a Frenchman, then an Italian, and then a Spaniard, to each of whom he spoke in their own language, and afterwards noticing that his brother had completed his business with the Englishman, he addressed him in homely Doric, "I say, Tammy, ma man, I think it's time we were gaun hame for oor kail." The gentlemen turned round to Thomas and said, "Your brother is a remarkable man. I have heard him speak in French, Spanish, and Italian with fluency. All of these I know a little about, but now he speaks a language of which I know nothing." He had also a keen sense of the ludicrous, which he often put to good account.
(2) "London, 12th March, 1885. "Sir, - I have received the commands of the Government of New Zealand to convey to Mrs. Galbraith and to yourself their sincere condolence upon the death of your late father, Mr. James Galbraith. The Government could not receive the intelligence of his demise without desiring to record their sense of the eminent service he rendered to New Zealand during many years. Nor can I communicate these their commands to his family without saying how deep is my own sorrow at the loss of a man to whom I was united by the ties of a sincere regard, and whose friendship it was an honour to any one to possess. - I am, &c., "Charles E. Galbraith, Esq." "F. D. BELL.
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