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James Craig Annan the pioneering Scottish photographer was born on March 8th 1864 in Hamilton.

The second photographer today, we Scots though are more familiar with Annan’s work, and that of his father Thomas.

James Craig Annan learned photography from his father, he joined the family business T. & R. Annan & Sons, in 1883. In 1883 Annan accompanied his father to Vienna, Austria to learn the photogravure process from its inventor Karl Klic. The Annan’s purchased the rights to the process and brought it home.

In 1887 after the death of This father, James took over the portrait side of the business as well as direction of the photogravure printing. His brother John ran the commercial side of the business. In 1889 the firm T. & R. Annan & Sons became the photographers and photogravures to Queen Victoria.

In the 1890s Annan made prints of the negatives taken by the duo David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson and produced photogravures from these negatives. The much travelled Annan photographed in the northern Netherlands and in 1he travelled to the north of Italy, there are also pics online of his photographs of Toledo and Granada in Spain. 

Annan was elected a member of the pictorial photography group the Linked Ring, London in 1894 and in 1904 he  became the first president of the International Society of Pictorial Photographers (‘Pictorial Photography in Britain’). 

James Annan died of carcinoma of the stomach at his home, Glenbank House, 1 Beechmount Road, Lenzie, Dunbartonshire, on 5thJune 1946 and two days later was buried in the Auld Aisle cemetery at Kirkintilloch. 

It was not until the late 1970s that interest in his work revived. Yet at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, when photography was fighting for recognition as an art in its own right, he was ‘universally conceded … to be “one of the ablest, the most gifted, most artistic of the really great pictorial photographic leaders of the times’

April 21st 1746 saw Glasgow host formal celebrations to mark the defeat of the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden, and award the Duke of Cumberland the freedom of the city.

Cumberland was also given the Freedom of Edinburgh, as well as Chancellor of both Aberdeen and St Andrews Universities.

This shows the complicated situation in Scotland, and that Culloden, and the Jacobite moment in itself was not just a Scotland v England affair.

Of Glasgow, Lord George Murray, Dòmhnall Cameron of Lochiel and Sìm Fraser, apparent of Lovat, all featured prominently on the Jacobite side. Keppoch, indeed, was killed at the Battle of Culloden were all educated at The University, it was also the institution of choice for much of Clan Campbell who were staunch supporters of the Hanoverian establishment as well as several other prominent Whig clans.

Many non-Gaelic speaking Lowlanders, of course, supported the Jacobites while many Gaelic speakers supported the Hanoverian (the ‘Whig’ or King George’s) position.

The victorious Duke of Cumberland gave permission that the regimental colours of the Macdonalds of Keppoch be sent to Glasgow. Keppoch’s colours were treated in the following manner by the authorities in Glasgow, 25th June 1746:

“they this day, being the principal weekly market, between the hours of twelve and one at noon, caused burn them publickly at the cross, by the hand of the common hangman, amidst the huzzaes and acclamations of many thousands of spectators and to the infinite joy of the whole inhabitants of this city.”

Alasdair Macdonald of Keppoch was among the fallen at Culloden and was another Jacobite educated at Glasgow.

On December 30th 1969 two police officers died of bullet wounds during a raid on a house in Allison Street, Glasgow; a third was wounded.

It was the darkest day in the history of policing history in Scotland, two officers were shot dead in the line of duty and a third left with crippling injuries.

Shortly after 4pm two officers were shot dead by a man seen acting suspiciously outside a flat in Govanhill on the south side of the city.

Their suspect had just taken part in an armed robbery and was carrying the proceeds into the Allison Street tenement in suitcases.

When the two cops followed their man into the ground floor apartment, unaware of the earlier hold-up, he pulled out a gun and shot them dead.

The double murder was all the more shocking because it was carried out by a former police officer and colleague.

A few hours later Howard Wilson, married with a young family, was sitting in his police cell in nearby Craigie Street Police Office confessing both murders to his bewildered lawyer Joe Beltrami.

Nineteen years later in his memoir Tales of the Suspected, Beltrami wrote:

“As I listened to him. I kept asking myself what could have possessed him. He looked more like a businessman than a criminal.”

Wilson had quit the City of Glasgow police in 1968 after 10 years’ service when he failed to get promotion to sergeant.

Instead he opened a greengrocers, The Orchard in nearby Mount Florida. But the outlet, along with another shop he’d bought, was losing money.

His two best friends former prison officer Ian Donaldson, 31, and ex-cop John Sim, 21, both had young families and were also strapped for cash.  During one late evening drinking session they joked about robbing a bank to solve all their financial worries.

However, the morning after the night before it began to sound like a plan.

Who would suspect two former cops and a prison officer? They had no criminal records and their fingerprints were not on file.

The money would also be used to pay off debts so it would disappear as quickly as it had been stolen.

The trio recruited a fourth man – Archibald McGeachie – to be their getaway driver, and bought a Russian pistol from the president of the Bearsden Shooting Club, of which all three were members.  On July 16, dressed in smart suits and carrying briefcases they walked into the British Linen Bank in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, and escaped with £20,876 (over £270,000 now).

All three, however, were broke again by Christmas and, having got away with it once, planned another heist – this time a branch of the Clydesdale in Linwood, Renfrewshire on December 30th.

However, McGeachie took cold feet and declined the job of getaway driver, leaving his three pals to do the job on their own.

On December 23, a week before, the second hold up, he disappeared from his home and was never been seen again.

His fellow robbers escaped this time with £14,000 – much of it in silver coins – which later proved significant when they were all spotted by a suspicious Inspector Andrew Hyslop transporting the suitcases.  He recognised Wilson who he had once trained in the use of firearms.

Inspector Hyslop also suspected the trio were carrying stolen whisky, as he didn’t know about the bank robbery.

He confronted all three in Wilson’s ground floor flat, having called in reinforcements from Craigie Street.

When the inspector bent down to open one of the cases, his former colleague shot him in the face.

Detective Constable Angus MacKenzie and PC Edward Barnett, above, were then both shot in the head when they tried to arrest him.

As they fell, Wilson calmly stepped up to DC MacKenzie and shot him again, killing him outright.

His accomplice Donaldson had fled the flat, while Sim watched in horror.

Wilson turned his attention to another former colleague PC John Sellars, who had taken refuge in the bathroom to radio

for help but he couldn’t get through the door.

Wilson then noticed Inspector Hyslop beginning to move on the floor, and went to finish him off.

A fifth officer, Detective Constable John Campbell flung himself across the hall at Wilson before he could fire again, saving his colleagues’ life.

DC Campbell managed to wrestle the gun from Wilson just as his fellow officers alerted by the sound of gunfire rushed into the flat.

There they found a scene of unimaginable horror. DC MacKenzie had been killed outright while PC Barnett would die five days later in hospital.  Wilson only seemed to regret only what he had done to DC MacKenzie, whose wife June he knew personally.  As he was led away, he asked the arresting officers if they  would apologise to her on his behalf.

When the three appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court on February 6, 1970, Wilson admitted the murders of Detective Constable McKenzie and Constable Barnett, attempting to murder Inspector Hyslop, threatening to shoot Constable Sellars, and to the bank robberies at Giffnock and Linwood.  A week later, at the High Court in Edinburgh, Wilson was sentenced to life, with a recommendation that he should serve a minimum of 25 years. Donaldson and Sim were given 12 years each for their parts in the robberies.

Later that year it was announced that the Queen had approved awards of the George Medal to Inspector Hyslop and Detective Constable Campbell.  Awards of the Queen’s Police Medal for Gallantry were posthumously awarded to Detective Constable McKenzie and Constable Barnett.  In 1971, PC Sellars was awarded the Glasgow Corporation medal for bravery by the Lord Provost.

Detective Constable McKenzie left a widow, June, and Constable Barnett a widow, Margaret, and two children.

Of the three officers who survived, Inspector Hyslop suffered most as bullet parts had been left deeply embedded in his neck. After many months on sick leave Inspector Hyslop returned to duty.  But the shock of his terrible experience had left him unfit to carry on and in June, 1971, he had to  resign from the force and died on the island of Islay in 2000, aged 74.

In 2019 wreaths were laid on their graves on the 50th anniversary of their deaths.

In September 2002, Wilson was finally freed after almost 33 years behind bars despite strenuous objections from the Scottish  Police Federation.

At the time its chairman Norman Flowers, said: “We feel that anyone who murders a police officer should never be released. Life should mean life.”

The blaze, which was sparked by – what else? – a chip pan, couldn’t have come at a worse time, as, across the country, a national fireman’s strike was in force. The job of fighting the fire fell to an army of young Marines and Naval ratings, armed only with antiquated Green Goddess fire engines.

Thankfully, their actions stopped the blaze, which caused £3m of damage, from spreading to the rest of, the then recently restored, Grosvenor Terrace, built in 1855.

Neighbouring residents were evacuated, many of them bearing their most prized possessions, which included a collection of Ming vases and a pack of five Yorkshire terriers.

For hours, the huge fire lit up the night sky across the city.

Thankfully, no one was injured in the blaze.

Come morning, the hotel’s owner, Greek-Cypriot-born entrepreneur Reo Stakis, was faced with a smoking ruin.

9th July 1861 saw the birth of the shipping merchant, philanthropist and art lover William Burrell.  

His father and grandfather were involved in shipping. Burrell entered the family firm in 1875 and, on his father’s death, William and his brother took over the running of the firm. They developed the technique of ordering modern, advanced ships at rock bottom prices when the shipping market was in a slump, thus trading with brand new ships when the market recovered and then selling, at a large profit, when the market was at a peak. 

William also had an eye for detail and an astute eye for opportunities. Having learned that a squadron of Royal Navy ships were on a flag waving exercise in distant ports, he realised they were likely to run out of coal and sent some of his ships to one of the ports of call, selling the cargo at a handsome profit.

The brothers amassed a large fortune and Burrell entered into local politics. He was active in the setting up of the Glasgow International Art Exhibition in 1901. At the age of 40 he married Constance Mitchell, daughter of another ship-owner and the following year, with the birth of a daughter, the family moved to a “Greek” Thomson designed house in Great Western Road.

Having again built up a large fleet of modern vessels, the brothers sold most of them during the First World War - at more than three times the building cost. It was at this stage that Burrell effectively retired and devoted the rest of his life to being an art collector. 

He had a wide range of tastes but built up an important collection of Chinese ceramics, tapestries, stained glass, silver, bronzes, Persian and Indian rugs and furniture, travelling widely in the process. In 1916 he bought Hutton Castle in the Borders, although he did not move in to the castle until 1927. The same year he was knighted for his public work and services to art. He always had a good eye for a bargain - a 14th century Chines porcelain ewer was bought for 85 pounds and is now worth over 250,000 pounds.