Set on the gentle south-east slope of Courthill, Schaw House is the most prominent landmark in Bearsden. The photo is from 1952, the white horizontal lines are marks on the negative. The photo is taken from above (roughly) New Kilpatrick Parish Church looking north-west, so Drymen Road appears part way up the left side of the photo and loops back to the top left corner. Gartconnel and Edgehill Roads are on the right. Baillie and Dumgoyne Drives are in the top right and sheep are grazing on the (future) dry ski slope.
Most people who have read any Bearsden history will know that it was built with money gifted by Miss Schaw in memory of her brother and was originally a convalescent home to take patients from the busy wards at the Royal Infirmary on Castle Street in the busy community of Townhead.
Originally my idea was to find the residents of the home and profile them, but that proved difficult due to the number and linking between records where people have names with lots of matches.
Instead I have assembled the story of the Schaws and the building of the home. It’s beyond my scope to write a history of the home in operation but I finish with some interesting snippets.
Who were the Schaws?
The Lillie Gallery has a bust of Dr Archibald Schaw:
This is the man the home commemorates. I have to caveat this immediately by saying the inscription reads Dr Archibald Schaw and I have no evidence he was ever a doctor – but it also says “died 1889” and that s correct, plus there’s no evidence any other person called Schaw died in Scotland in that year, so the probability seems high.
He described himself as a merchant, a flexible term that seems to describe making a living from buying raw materials or a part-finished product and selling to someone else at a profit, but it might have the modern definition of “businessman”. We know nothing of his character, but we do know he was good at business and amassed quite a fortune. Some of the companies he was involved in included:
- McCrindell, Schaw and Co bought and sold ores, metal and minerals, also owned a ship later in the 1800s
- Tharsis Sulpher and Copper Company bought minerals from Tharsis in the south of Spain and shipped them to the UK for resale
- Nobel Explosives Company, well known for making dynamite, although I cannot find another record that links Archibald to this company
- The Steel Company of Scotland, which produced the steel for the Forth Rail Bridge (link)
- River Plate Telegraph Company established telegraph lines and underwater cabling for communication in South America.
After his death, his estate was valued at £379,208 (adjusting for inflation this is equivalent to £63 million today); the North British Daily Mail published a ‘league table’ in January 1890 showing the wealthiest people who died the previous year in the West of Scotland and Archibald was third.
Archibald was born on 22nd November 1819 in the Gorbals:
He lived with his parents, George (a merchant) and Margaret, and his elder brother, John at Wellington Place which I assume refers to South Wellington Place, per the 1860 map:
On the south-east edge of Glasgow and looking over the river to Glasgow Green, this seems a lovely location, if you ignore the ironworks next door – of course, these may not have existed 40 years earlier.
Here’s the same spot today:
Two sisters followed, Marjory in 1822 and Catherine in 1826.
There’s a gap of 25 years and Archibald’s parents and sister Catherine vanish from the records. At the time of the 1851 Census he was visiting Dunoon, staying in an inn on Clyde Street:
It looks to have been a fairly humble place so while Archibald described himself as a merchant (like his father) he looks to have still been relatively junior (an apprentice?)
The next news we have of the family is about his brother John, in 1854:
Clearly, John (the eldest son) had joined the army. In 1854 the British and French sent troops to the Crimea to (from their point of view) curb the ambitions of Russia to access the Mediterranean and the Battle of the Alma was fought on 20th September. British accounts speak of lines of red-coated infantry advancing uphill against the Russians and is regarded as a victory for Anglo-French alliance (the origin of Pont de l’Alma in Paris), but 2000 British troops were killed or wounded:
The following month the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade took place.
The next glimpse we have of Archibald is in 1857 (North British Daily Mail, 28th December):
What odds would you have given me on that being the final sentence of that clipping? I can only surmise Archibald’s career now took him to foreign countries, something that would be consistent with what we know of him after this date. He was clearly prospering because in 1858 he lived at 18 Windsor Terrace (now Kirklee Terrace) in the west end of Glasgow.
The Census record for 1871 is significant for several reasons:
It is the first record I can find of Marjory’s existence (we don’t have a birth record or an earlier Census appearance). And their address is the magnificent 26 Park Circus in the west end of Glasgow, speaking to Archibald’s wealth. This property was on the market in 2025, and it is worth looking at some of the publicity for it (the asking price was £2.2 million) (link and link).
The property had been completed by 1864 and the Schaws moved in three years later (from the Glasgow West Addresses website):
Before we leave the 1871 Census, Marjory’s rank profession or occupation reads “Income from Dividends” on shares etc. But note the ages they gave to the Census taker: 45 and 35 when we can estimate they were 51 and 49! (Archibald’s age, which should have been increasing by ten years each Census, is successively 28, 37 and 45). The final thing to note is that neither of them was married, nor would they.
Here’s the 1881 Census:
Marjory’s occupation reads “Annuitant” i.e. obtaining an income from dividends and interest. Archibald is now retired – he gives his age as 60 (he was 61) and Marjory said 40 (five years older than in the 1871 Census, she was actually 59).
Around 1884 Archibald started showing signs of “softening of the brain” as the record of his death says (presumably dementia) and he died on 12th August 1889:
In the bottom left corner it describes him as Merchant Drysalter – a drysalter was someone who dealt in the chemicals for dyes, colourings and glue (link).
Here is his obituary (Glasgow Herald 17th August 1889):
He died at Lowlands House, Kilmun – actually in Strone and now known as Strone House (link).
Marjory would have inherited the bulk of Archibald’s estate. Apart from the gift of the money for the convalescent home she lived out her life attracting no more publicity. In the 1901 Census she lived with three servants, admitting to an age of 65 when she was actually 79.
Marjory died on 11th February 1915, aged 92, of senile decay and syncope. The record of Marjory’s death notes the name of the informant, usually a spouse, child, relation or even friend; in this case it was her medical attendant.
Sadly, very little was said in the newspapers about her life, other than the donation of money for the convalescent home at Bearsden. Much more interest was shown in what would happen to her estate; for example the Edinburgh Evening News of 30th April 1915:
or the London Evening News of 5th May 1915:
Her trustees were appointed to divide the remaining estate between good causes and their decision was covered by the London Daily Chronicle on 4th January 1917:
This was used to fund Wards 28, 29 and 30 for the new endocrinology unit at the Royal Infirmary and the second floor of the surgical block was known as The Schaw Floor (link).
Here is a bust of Marjory, in the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow:
The inscription underneath says, “Marjory Shanks Schaw 1913. Miss Schaw erected this home in memory of her brother Archibald Shanks Schaw, Merchant, Glasgow, and gifted it to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in the year 1895.” (For this and the photo I am indebted to Alison McCall who posted them on the Women of Scotland website (link)). Evidently, this was intended to be located in the convalescent home in Bearsden and I wonder if it is a pair with the one we saw earlier of her brother?
What do we know about the building of the house?
In this section I have drawn on two additional sources:
The Royal: The History of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary 1794-1994 by Jenkinson, Moss and Russell (which I will refer to as JMR)
“The Schaw Convalescent Home at Bearsden: Not Another Costly Pile?” by Jenny Cronin, a paper from 1917 published the a journal called The Scottish Archives (which can be read for free, link here)
Both are excellent readable accounts.
After Archibald’s death, Marjory’s thoughts turned to a way to commemorate him. In 1890 she gave funding for a bed in the Western Infirmary:
But she wanted something grander but also of benefit to the people of Glasgow. Philanthropy of this type had become more common since the 1860s at a time when it was accepted that hospitals should be funded through endowments and fees.
The newspaper announcement came on 26th September 1891 (many examples but this clipping from the Dundee Evening Telegraph):
It’s clear the project was already well underway: the sum is specified, the purpose, a site had been secured and a committee set up to assist.
Convalescent homes were for patients who no longer required active treatment (Schaw Convalescent Home would have one matron and one nurse for up to 74 patients) but who may struggle or relapse at home. JMR say the idea was they stayed a for a week or two. Bearsden made sense as a location – convalescent homes were located out of the city for fresh air and light (a bit like plants?) but with good transport links. The Royal Infirmary already sent patients to several local homes, but did not control one itself.
James Thomson was appointed architect (from the company Baird and Thomson). According to the Dictionary of Scottish Architects, his practice was one of the biggest in Scotland, “focused on commercial architecture, pioneering the concept of large city office blocks with shops built for rental. These tended to be an astylar Italian Renaissance which became richer in details in the early 1890s, if somewhat repetitive in composition.” In Glasgow, the Pearl Assurance Building on the corner of Renfield Street and West George Street is one of his from the 1890s (you might know it better as the building above Tony Macaroni’s restaurant!):
(Photo Credit to This is My Glasgow Facebook page, modern photos with a little history of each one, which I thoroughly recommend you follow (link)). It was one of James’s sons, William Aitken Thomson who produced the working drawings of the Schaw Convalescent Hospital – described as Tudor Gothic – under the direction of his father.
We don’t know many details, for example:
- Who was on the committee? We can probably guess from the prominent people named at the opening.
- Who were the builders?
- How was the site chosen (why Bearsden?) and was the land donated for free? From the 1860 map the site (12 acres according to JMR) was previously a field on Gartconnel Farm:
Work progressed quickly, and when the Glasgow Herald of 19th May 1893 reported on the ceremony to lay a memorial stone, the building was “nearing completion”:
You will note the segregation of male and female patients and be gratified to know that while the men had a smoking room, the women had a working room, presumably for sewing, knitting, etc.
Many thanks to Linda Aitken for providing this photo of the wall-mounted tablet in today’s Schaw House:
We both wonder if it is the original or part of the changes to the fabric that were made to convert it into flats. Does anyone have further information?
This sign (which looks to have replaced the original, judging by the bolt holes) is still visible to the right of the entrance gateway:
Sadly, there are no photographs of the building as it progressed – surely with Bearsden’s growing, affluent (to afford a camera) and curious population someone took one?
Patients were admitted from August 1895 (more than two years after it was ‘almost completed’ above!) and the formal ceremony to hand over to the Royal Infirmary was reported in the Glasgow Herald of 23rd March 1896:
I believe the Mr T. Warren who spoke on behalf of Miss Schaw was her lawyer – what he says is interesting because it is the closest we come to hearing Marjory’s voice and thoughts.
The building cost was £32,000 but Cronin points out that other homes of the same size or bigger were built for a fraction of the sum – the home at Lenzie (later, the hospital) cost £6,000 for 60 places and included a farm in the grounds, while one in Dunoon cost £3,000 for 100 places. This suggests around 80% of the cost of building Schaw House went on the “decoration”. This is more than aesthetic issue: in 1898 the Royal Infirmary had income of £25k and expenditure of £32k, so the excess spend on ornamentation would have kept the hospital solvent for six years.
I’ve included this photo from the book by McKinlay and Hamilton because (judging by the trees) it is the earliest:
From the 1901 Census the staffing was: a matron (responsible for day-to-day running), a nurse, a nurse maid (Jemima Primrose), a cook, a laundrymaid, four housemaids, an engineer (mainly for the boiler), and a gardener. That there were only two nurses shows that patients had ended their active treatment and were nit in medical need.
The final number of places in the Home was 74, 37 for men and 37 for women. In 1898, 968 people went to the Home for convalescence; assuming a stay of about three weeks on average, that gives 50% occupancy. Cronin identifies that while there were plenty of male residents there were comparatively few females. Looking at the names in the Census records for 1901, 1911 and 1921 bears this out:
| 1901 | 1911 | 1921 | |
| All female | 15 | 11 | 16 |
| All male | 39 | 37 | 27 |
| Younger than 14, female | 3 | 0 | 5 |
| Younger than 14, male | 7 | 3 | 9 |
| Single female | 8 | 6 | 7 |
| Single male | 20 | 20 | 9 |
| Married female | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| Married male | 9 | 13 | 8 |
| Widowed female | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Widowed male | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Average age | 29 | 33 | 29 |
With 37 places for males and 37 for females, the Home was at capacity for males in 1901 and 1911, but even in its peak year for females (1921) it was less than half full.
The average age is quite low to modern eyes, but possibly reflects a time when people were admitted for industrial accidents (there area lot of colliery workers, for example).
The Census also records occupation; just taking the first three people listed in 1901 there was a coal miner, an iron dresser and a plumber. In 1911 female occupations included french polisher, bookfolder (stationers), and domestic servant. In 1921 the first three listed are: seedman’s labourer, coal miner, machineman on the railway.
I offer these simply as background to the following story from JMR: “In April 1896 the Board [of Management of the Royal Infirmary] received complaints from a number of Bearsden residents that patients from Schaw Home were loitering at the gates of their houses. Two years later, in August 1898, another complaint was received of ‘patients from the Convalescent Home blocking the footpath of the railway bridge, expectorating all over the place [coughing phlegm or spitting], and frequently making rude comments on passers-by …’. Finally, as complaints continued to come before them, the Board decided in June 1899 to confine the patients to the grounds of the house. It would appear that the two communities were able to co-exist relatively amicably after this.” (page 149).
Wartime service
In the First World War, 40 places were dedicated to servicemen convalescing. JMR report, “In rather more mean-spirited mood, the managers decided in October [1914] to dismiss the gardener at Bearsden, Mr Lange, on the grounds that he was a German. It was subsequently pointed out that the unfortunate man was born in Schleswig-Holstein before it was ceded by Denmark to the German states in 1864, and therefore he was a German citizen only by force of conquest. The managers relented and reinstated the gardener. This was a time of widespread public alarm about spies and saboteurs, however, and Lange was forbidden to enter or work on the building for the duration of the war.” (pages 165-166).
Anton William Lange (known as William) was the son of John, a coachman in domestic service, and Lisetta, born around 1852. Aged 27 and a cabinet maker, he married Isabella Weir at his home, 21 Lumsden Street, Yorkhill. They had (at least) six children, five girls and a boy. He was a gardener at the time of the 1891 Census, now living on Berkeley Street and he was at SCH by 1901 (so may have been the original appointment). After the incident above, he seems to have dropped the ‘e’ from the end of his surname and continued in his post until he died the Lodge at SCH in 1931, aged 79.
Photos of anything other than the building are very unusual, so here is one from the First World War, taken from Sheena Peters’ book:
I don’t know what age you would think Matron Scott was here, but she was actually about 55. Nurse Scrivener is unknown but there was a family living on Thorn Road by this name and I wonder if she was a daughter?
At the start of the Second World War, it was assumed mass attacks by aircraft would lead to the bombing of all British cities with massive casualties. The Royal Infirmary, in common with all other hospitals, evacuated everyone who could be moved to its outlying sites: Canniesburn, Schaw, East Park and Lenzie.
Schaw House in 2026
