COLONEL CHARLES
MACDONALD-WILLIAMSON
COLONEL MACDONALD-WILLIAMSON of the Glasgow Highlanders, late
5th V.B.H.L.I., is an enthusiastic Celt, tracing direct descent on his mother's
side from Clanranald and Somerled the ancient Lord of the Isles. His father,
Thomas Williamson, of Messrs. Middleton & Co., West India merchants in Glasgow,
was a native of Kirkcaldy and a pupil there of Thomas Carlyle. Colonel
Williamson was born in Glasgow, 21st May, 1848, and was educated at the
Collegiate School and at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. In 1872 he became a
member of the Faculty of Procurators, and he is a Notary Public and a partner in
the firm of Williamson & Bell, writers.
Among offices which are or have been held by Colonel
Williamson are those of Honorary President of the Glasgow Skye Association,
President of the Glasgow Celtic Society, of the Glasgow Highland Club, and of
the Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan Charitable Society. He is a member of the
Merchants' House and the Trades' House, and belongs to the Incorporations of
Hammermen, Gardeners, Masons and Maltmen, of which last he is an ex-Visitor. He
is also a member of the Weavers' Society of Anderston, and an honorary member of
the Ancient Order of Foresters.
As a volunteer, Colonel Williamson was one of the originators
of the Glasgow Highland Regiment, and took part in its first full-dress parade,
on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone of Glasgow University on
8th October, 1868, by the Prince of Wales, now King Edward. The corps now
numbers close on 1,700 members, and is one of the strongest volunteer battalions
in the country.
Colonel Williamson married, first, a daughter of the late Sir
John Watson, Bart., of Earnock, and secondly, a daughter of
Deputy-Inspector-General William Hoggan, R.N. He has a family of three sons.
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Index of Glasgow Men (1909)