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Blantyre Folk

Alexander McMillan, J.P.

1852 - 1940

The Late Mr Alexander McMillan, J.P.

We regret to intimate the death, which took place on Wednesday, after a short illness of a well-known and highly respected citizen in the person of Mr Alexander McMillan, at the ripe age of 88 years.

He was born at Springwell Cottage, which stood immediately at the junction of Auchinraith Road and Glasgow Road , now the large property known as Henderson’s Buildings. His first school days were spent in a school consisting of a small room and kitchen, in a property (now demolished) at the rear of Stonefield Tavern at the end of Station Road , and he finished his schooling in the old Blantyre Village School .

He started work on the surface at Greenfield Colliery, Burnbank, and afterwards learned the joiner trade, As a joiner he was employed at Blantyre Collieries, High Blantyre, at the time of the great disaster there in 1877 when *226 men and boys were killed.

Mr McMillan was returned top of the poll as a member for Blantyre Parish Council for the Stonefield Division in 1898, and sat continuously on the Council till 1922, when he retired. On his retiral he was created a Justice of the Peace for the County of Lanark, and up till quite recently he took his full share of the duties in the J.P. Courts.

He was a keen churchman, was baptised in the Anderson Church of Scotland (then the old Free Church of Scotland) and he had the remarkable record of having been a deacon in the church for nearly 63 years.

In earlier life he was a staunch supporter of the Liberal Party, and took an active interest in the return to Parliament of Mr J, Wynford Phillips, Mr Whitehouse, and the Liberal champion, Mr James Caldwell, each of whom represented the old Mid-Lanark Division (now the Rutherglen Division.)

Mr and Mrs McMillan celebrated their diamond wedding in 1933 and Mrs McMillan died three years later. Mr McMillan was the father of Mrs B. Harper owner of Harper’s Garage, and a well- known lady in the O.E.S., and a P.G.W.M. of Lanarkshire.

Ref. Hamilton Advertiser. 17/8/1940. Page 7.  (photograph included in article.

Wilma Bolton. 2006.

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