GEORGE JARDINE KIDSTON
THE chairman of the Clyde Shipping Company, Limited, was
born at Glasgow on 12th February, 1835, and is of a name well known in various
arenas of Glasgow enterprise. The company of which he is the head is understood
to be the oldest steamship company in existence. It was started in 1815 for the
purpose of carrying goods by lighters and steamers from the shipping at Greenock
up the shallow Clyde to Glasgow. In 1856, when the concern was sold, its fleet
consisted of four small tugs, three small luggage steamers, and eight lighters.
One of the steamers was the famous Industry, which figures in so many old
pictures of the Clyde, and whose engines are preserved at Kelvingrove. The
purchasers of the business were Mr. Kidston and his two brothers and two other
friends, and from that day to this the fleet has grown till it comprises
twenty-six steamers of from 5000 tons downwards, and nineteen tugs, and is
familiar in all the coasting ports of the United Kingdom.
Mr. Kidston is now the only survivor of the original firm. He lives at
Finlaystone, Renfrewshire, and long found his chief recreation in the hunting
field and shooting. Among other positions of public responsibility he is
chairman of the Clyde Lighthouses Trust.
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Index of Glasgow Men (1909)