ROBERT MILLAR
THE late General Manager of the Caledonian Railway was the
son of Robert Millar, schoolmaster at Bannockburn, and was born at Stirling in
1850. He was educated at his father's school, and in 1864 entered the legal
profession. After an apprenticeship with Messrs. Kerr & Cunningham at Stirling,
and some time in the office of Mr. Robert Campbell, Procurator Fiscal in the
same town, he in 1868 gave up law and entered commercial life. He was in the
employment successively of the Lawes Chemical Manure Company at Dublin, and of
Messrs. Arthur & Company, Glasgow, with the latter of whom he was shipping
clerk. He began service with the Caledonian Railway Company in 1874, as a clerk
at Buchanan Street Goods Station. Thence he became an assistant canvasser in the
office of the General Goods Manager, and in 1879 he was sent to Ireland as
Traffic Agent. Ten years later he was brought back to Glasgow as Chief Traffic
Agent, and in 1895 was transferred to the General Manager's Office. Among the
special duties which he undertook here was a close and careful enquiry into the
working of the Caledonian Mineral Traffic. He was made an Assistant District
Superintendent (unattached) in 1898, and three years afterwards was promoted to
be Superintendent of the Western District. He did not, however, enter upon the
duties of this office, for the General Manager, Mr. William Patrick, died just
then, and he was appointed to the post.
Of the Caledonian Railway developments which marked Mr.
Millar's management the best known perhaps are the building of the Station Hotel
in Princes Street, Edinburgh, the vast extension of Glasgow Central Station and
its hotel, and the extension of Grangemouth Docks. Under his guidance the great
organisation, upon which so much of the prosperity of Scotland depends, more
than maintained its reputation for energy, enterprise, and efficiency.
Mr. Millar married, in 1879, Jeanie Forgie, daughter of Mr.
James Calder, farmer, Milton Mills, St. Ninians, by whom he had one son. He died
in Glasgow 18th September, 1908.
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Index of Glasgow Men (1909)