BORN at Cumbernauld in 1846, Ex-Bailie Brechin is a man still in the freshness of middle life, yet he has a record of varied activity in the public service which extends to twenty-one years. He began as a member of the Fifth Ward Committee, of which he became successively treasurer and chairman. In 1883 he was elected to the City Parochial Board, of which he became, first, Convener of the Finance, Law, and Assessments Committee, and then Chairman. Next he was elected by Dennistoun Ward to the Town Council in 1886, and since then has taken a large share of municipal work. As Chairman for several years of the Churches Committee, he strove to settle the vexed question of the Council's relationship to the city churches; and as Chairman of the Local Authority under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, he exerted himself to have the veto upon the importation of Canadian cattle removed. As a member of deputations he has interviewed no fewer than five Ministers of Agriculture on this and other subjects, and as Convener of the Finance Committee of the Police Department he made masterly exposition of the state of affairs. He also supported the city's tramway and telephone schemes, and on three occasions he represented the Town Council at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. In 1889 he was appointed River Bailie, and was a Magistrate during the three following years. During more recent years he has acted as a Police Judge; and he is on the Commission of the Peace, and a Deputy-Lieutenant for the County of Glasgow.
    Outside the Council Ex-Bailie Brechin has taken an active interest in the Scottish Legal Life Assurance Society, of which he is a trustee, and among philanthropic institutions he is a member of the Merchants' House, the Incorporation of Cordiners, and the Incorporation of Fleshers, of which last body he was elected Deacon in 1903. In private life, along with his five brothers, he is at the head of the largest flesher's business in the city, which was formed in 1904 into a private limited liability company with a capital of £60,000 and seven places of business in Glasgow and two in Edinburgh. He is also a Director of Messrs. John Swan & Sons, Edinburgh, and of Glenburn and Dunblane Hydropathic Establishments. An elder of Titwood Established Church, he has travelled pretty extensively both in Italy and America. Some years ago he visited Egypt, and sailed up the Nile as far as Assouan.

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