BAILIE BORLAND is the son of a farmer, and was born at
Ochiltree, Ayrshire, in September, 1839. He attended school first at Symington,
near Kilmarnock, but on his father selling off the farming property and coming
to Glasgow in 1848, the boy was sent to St. George's Academy, where he was under
the mastership, successively of the late Rev. John Lennie, the late Rev. John
Torrance, and Mr. M'Gregor. His first employment was with Hitchener & Hunter,
gunpowder mills, Gorebridge, near Edinburgh. At the age of sixteen he entered
the Cumberland Foundry in Gallowgate - the oldest foundry in the country
excepting that of Carron. For eleven years he was an employee, filling
successive positions in the counting-house, and for over four years acting as a
traveller; then, at the age of twenty-seven he was made a partner of the firm.
Six years later, in 1872, he split off from that partnership and founded the
City Iron Foundry. In connection with his conduct of that business he possesses
a souvenir almost unique. At a dinner at which he was entertained in St. Enoch
Hotel in 1901, he was presented with a cabinet escritoire, silverplate, books,
and a valuable watch containing the following inscription - "Presented to
William Borland, Esq., by a number of old business friends as a mark of their
esteem and appreciation of his upright and honourable business dealings, 25th
April, 1901."
In the spring of 1903, on the retiral of Bailie Sinclair, he
was induced to enter the Town Council, and in November, 1908, was elected to the
full magistracy without the usual preliminary service as a River-Bailie.
Although, partly as a result of the interest he took in various debating
societies in his youth, he has proved himself an able speaker and sensible
debater in the Council's deliberations, he is debarred from much public
appearance as an orator by a somewhat longstanding trouble of the throat. In the
more solid committee work of the Council, however, he has done much substantial
service, especially in connection with Parks, Sewage, and Water affairs. He is
also deeply interested as a member of the committee on Inebriates.
Partly as a result of his throat trouble, he has travelled
widely. His first trip, twenty years ago, was one of six months to Canada, and
twenty-two of the United States. Afterwards he spent twenty-one months by
doctor's orders in a visit to Australia. His third trip was one of three months
to Ceylon. And in 1907 he spent over four months, along with Mrs. Borland, in a
visit to Egypt. On this occasion he did much walking in the desert, and
journeyed up the Nile to see Karnak, Thebes, Philae, and the other remains of
ancient Egyptian greatness. He was, however, much attracted by Ceylon, where he
visited the great ruined city in the north, Anuradhapurah (the City of 90
Kings), 240 square miles in extent, ascending the famous stairway of 1860 steps,
and being entertained by the hermit priest of the central temple. In the great
Temple of the Tooth at Kandy, where the chief priest was his cicerone, he was
somewhat surprised to find among the sub-priests a Scotsman of the name of
Macgregor.
At the age of thirty Bailie Borland became an elder in John Street U.P. Church.
He afterwards filled the same office at Lenzie Union Church for ten years, and
for the last 25 years he has held office at Queen's Park. He is a member of the
Bakers' Incorporation, and a director in various companies.
In 1864 he married Jeanie Bogle, daughter of the late Matthew
Anderson, a noted member of the Trades' House. He has a family of three sons and
two daughters. Two of his sons were assumed as partners in the business in 1905.
The second son is Glasgow manager of the Law Union and Crown Insurance Company.
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Index of Glasgow Men (1909)