FOR a generation there have been few charitable
enterprises of the larger sort carried on in Glasgow with which the name of the
late Manager of the Glasgow Office of the Bank of Scotland has not been
associated as Honorary Treasurer or in some other vital capacity. Born in the
city in 1840, and educated at Glasgow High School and University, he entered the
Laurieston Branch of the Bank of Scotland, of which his father was agent, in
1856. Thence he was transferred in 1861 to the Head Office, Edinburgh. He
returned to Glasgow in 1865 as Sub-Agent to his father; and in 1869 was
appointed Sub-Manager at the Glasgow Head Office. Ten years later he became
Manager. From this position he retired only in 1905, and upon that occasion he
was presented with an address and a valuable gift of plate. In addition to his
services as director and honorary treasurer of numerous philanthropic
enterprises, he is a Justice of the Peace for the County of the City of Glasgow,
and in 1900 was elected Lord Dean of Guild. In the following year, upon the
celebration of its ninth jubilee, Glasgow University conferred upon him the
degree of LL.D.
Dr. Gourlay married first, in 1868, Mary Brown Hastings,
daughter of James Moffat of Sanquhar. She died in 1877, and he married secondly,
in 1899, Jane, youngest daughter of Duncan MacPhail, cotton spinner, Glasgow. By
his first marriage he had three sons and two daughters, of whom the latter died
in childhood.
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Index of Glasgow Men (1909)