Tourism

FAMOUS PEOPLE

Science and Invention

WILLIAM MURDOCH (1754 - 1839)

William Murdoch was born at Bello Mill, Lugar. Educated at Cumnock school he assisted his father in the millwright business before moving on to work for James Watt and Mathew Boulton at the Soho foundry near Birmingham.

Murdoch had always been interested in vehicular propulsion by steam. The first prototype engine was built by him in 1784 and tested on a country lane but his firm never pursued the project. However, Murdoch could accurately claim to be the first in Britain to construct and use a steam road vehicle.

The steam car was one of Murdoch's many inventions involving steam propulsion but the most famous was yet to come.

William Murdoch was the first man to put the idea of producing gas lighting from coal into practical use. In 1792 he installed gas lighting at the company's offices as well as lighting his home by this method.

Many of Murdoch's experiments in gas lighting were undertaken at a cave near Bello Mill overlooking the River Lugar. The cave can still be seen today. Although Murdoch never patented the idea he prepared a paper on the subject for the Royal Society and was awarded the Rumford Gold Medal by them in 1808.

He spent the remainder of his life in England and died at the age of 85. His remains were interred in Birmingham beside his old friends James Watt and Mathew Boulton.

The discoverer of penicillin, who was born at Lochfield farm near Darvel, is commemorated by a monument in Darvel town square (Opposite the Fleming Memorial is another interesting monument - the prehistoric Dagon Stone, which is thought to have had religious and astronomical significance)

THOMAS KENNEDY (c1797-1874)

The Kilmarnock Standard of 12th September 1874 included the following obituary:

Our obituary this day contains the intimation of the death at the ripe age of 77 of one whose enterprising genius has been the means of adding to the industries of the town an important branch of manufacture which enriches those engaged in it and gives employment to numerous skilled workers. This event, therefore, in association with important benefits, is entitled to public sympathy. Although not a native of Kilmarnock , the deceased has been so long an inhabitant of it, and has occupied so prominent a position amongst us, that he was very widely known. He was connected by marriage with some of the most respectable families in the town, and has filled with ability several offices, ecclesiastical and civil. Mr Kennedy was a native of Argyleshire, but settled here fifty years ago as a watch and clockmaker. This trade he had learned in his own county, where he began business for himself, but not meeting with sufficient encouragement he came to Kilmarnock and was for some time employed by the late Mr George Thomson, watchmaker and jeweller. Having married the daughter of Mr John Hunter, saddler, he again began business on his own account, and added to it the trade of gun-making, for which he acquired a great reputation, and through the influence of Mr Wallace of Kelly he received the honorary appointment of gunmaker to Prince Albert.

Mr Kennedy's place of business in Portland Street was well known to visitors to Kilmarnock , and the “Albert Arms” and the “Gold Gun” were never-failing objects of attraction. The rifles of his manufacture were held in high estimation both in this country and in India , where a ready market was found for them and high prices obtained. Not content with his success as a gun manufacturer, and emulous of higher honours, he devoted his attention to another matter, which was still a desideratum – the construction of a water meter of perfect accuracy. In this he was completely successful, and the patented mechanism Kennedy's Water Meter, is used largely in this country, on the Continent and in America . It has been the means of enriching many in connection with it and directly, as well as indirectly, materially benefits Kilmarnock . Although the late Mr Kennedy has obtained chief credit of the invention, yet it is well known that Mr John Cameron, watchmaker here, had no mean share in the perfecting of the meter. Mr Kennedy was twice married, and leaves a young widow and several of a family, whom his success in business has well provided for. The remains will be interred in the High Church Burying Ground today.

Kennedy Patent Water Meter Co Ltd was formed in 1863 from a syndicate of four partners and marketed the water meter patented by Thomas Kennedy, senior, and a local clockmaker. In 1865 the Glenfield Co Ltd was formed to supply castings and undertake general foundry work. The two companies shared a site in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland , the derelict printworks from which Glenfield took its name. In 1899 the two companies merged to form Glenfield & Kennedy Ltd. The major growth period was between 1871 and 1904, under the direction of Thomas Kennedy (nephew of Thomas Kennedy, senior). ‘The Glen' became an important hydraulic engineering concern in Britain , with substantial export orders to most parts of the world. It had several subsidiary companies, including:

Alley & MacLellan Ltd, founded in 1875 in Bridgeton, Glasgow, Scotland, manufactured valves and later compressors, vacuum pumps and steam engines. It was incorporated in 1902 and was acquired by Glenfield & Kennedy Ltd in the 1940s.

British Pitometer Co Ltd, incorporated in 1921 in Kilmarnock by Glenfield & Kennedy Ltd.

Hydrautomat Ltd, later Hydrautomat (1931) Ltd, incorporated in 1924 in London by Glenfield & Kennedy Ltd. Went into voluntary liquidation and reformed in 1931.

Compagnie Francaise d'appareils Glenfield & Kennedy, Paris , France , ceased trading in 1912.

SIR DAVID CAMPBELL (1889-1978) 

Sir David Campbell, President of the General Medical Council, was born at Patna , Ayrshire on 6 th May 1889 to Agnes Smith Campbell, a seamstress. He was educated at Ayr Academy and Glasgow University , where he graduated in 1911 (B.Sc and MA (Hons)) and 1916 (MB, Ch.B (Hons)). He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1916-1919 – being awarded the Military Cross in France in 1918 as an immediate decoration in the field. On demobilization he returned to Glasgow as assistant to the renowned Professor Ralph Stockman, and in 1921 became Pollok lecturer in materia medica and pharmacology.

In 1924 he took his MD with honours with a thesis on rheumatoid arthritis, winning the coveted Bellahouston gold medal. Between 1925 and 1930 he was Rockefeller medical fellow at John Hopkins University and also worked in the Western Infirmary in Glasgow . In 1928 he published A Handbook of Therapeutics.

In 1930 David was appointed to the regius chair of materia medica at Aberdeen and within 2 years was Dean of Faculty – and he held this post until his retirement in 1959. He influenced the creation of an imaginative medical facility at Foresterhill in Aberdeen by including the clinical and related departments of the university. In 1936 David joined the General Medical Council (GMC) as the representative of Aberdeen University and became President of the GMC in 1949. He left the GMC in 1961. David was knighted in 1953 and received honorary degrees from universities such as Glasgow , Liverpool and Dublin . He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and also Glasgow.

In 1921, David married Margaret, daughter of Alexander Lyle, head teacher at Kerse near Grangemouth. David died – without issue – at his home in Aberdeen on 30 th May 1978.