Duncan McLaren

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For the author, see Duncan McLaren (author).

Bust of Duncan McLaren, Edinburgh City Chambers
Duncan McLaren Memorial
The McLaren monument, St Cuthberts, Edinburgh

Duncan McLaren (12 January 1800 – 26 April 1886) was a Scottish Liberal Party politician and political writer. He served as a member of the burgh council of Edinburgh, then as Lord Provost, then as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Edinburgh constituency.

Life

Born in

Renton, Dunbartonshire, Duncan McLaren was the youngest of ten children of John McLaren and Catherine McLellan. Apart from two years of schooling, he was self-taught. After school, he was apprenticed to a merchant in Dunbar. In 1824, he set up his own business as a draper in Edinburgh, growing the store into one if Britain's first department stores.[1] In the 1830s, he headed the Scottish Central Board of Dissenters, established in 1834.[2]

McLaren became a member of the town council in 1833. He became treasurer in 1837 and found that the royal burgh's finances were in ruin and that the Scottish capital was bankrupt. His work extricated Edinburgh from financial ruin. In 1835, he pioneered free education for all classes and started a building programme of thirteen schools.

He was elected

Heriot Free School trust.[3]

McLaren campaigned against the decision of the trustees of William Fettes to use his bequest to found a 'public school' on the English model, believing that to be a misuse of funds intended for the education of orphans and the needy. He sought unsuccessfully to have the Fettes project remodelled to create free schools on similar lines to those supported by the Heriot Trust.[4]

In 1865 he was elected one of Edinburgh's two Members of Parliament, a position he held until he retired 16 years later. At Westminster he proved a conscientious and intelligent representative, and acquired a position of so much authority on questions related to Scotland that he was called "Member for Scotland".[3] He was then living in Newington House.[5]

Duncan McLaren was married three times – the third being

St Cuthbert's Churchyard in the heart of Edinburgh. His huge monument lies against the east wall of the first south extension to the graveyard, immediately below Edinburgh Castle
.

Family

McLaren married three times.

Firstly, in 1829, he married Grant Aitken[3] (1805–1833). Following her death he married Christina Gordon Renton (1813–1841). Finally, in 1848, he married Priscilla Bright (1815–1906), who outlived him by twenty years. All three wives are buried with him.

He was the father of

Walter Stowe Bright McLaren (with his third wife Priscilla Bright McLaren
).

Artistic recognition

A full-length portrait of McLaren by George Reid RSA hangs in the Old Council Chamber (now called the Diamond Jubilee Room) within Edinburgh City Chambers.

Further reading

References

  1. ^ "City owes a great debt to its lord of the manor". The Scotsman. 24 August 2011.
  2. ISBN 0080350631
  3. ^ a b c Boase 1893.
  4. ISBN 9781474498302
  5. ^ Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1865
Attribution

Boase, George Clement (1893). "McLaren, Duncan" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 35. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Edinburgh
1865–1881
With: James Moncreiff 1865–68
John Miller 1868–74
James Cowan 1874–81 		Succeeded by
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