HD Douglas and Son brass instrument makers of Glasgow
Hugh Dow Douglas
(1833-1887) was a musical
instrument maker who started his business around 1850 at 190 Trongate, Glasgow. His company made or sold a variety of woodwind,
brass and bagpipe instruments aimed at the military and growing
civilian wind band market. Douglas himself was a brass player and is
listed as bugler to the 1st Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers. The 1st
Lanark had a bugle band, but by 1887 it had become a brass band
under Mr Robert Strachan and promoted to the 1st Battalion replacing
the pipe band who were demoted to the 2nd. The 3rd Lanark didn’t
have a band. They had a football team instead! Its probable that
Hugh Douglas started in the bugle band and moved into the brass
band, possibly even supplying some of the instruments.
Douglas seems to have been something of an entrepreneur and saw the
potential for the new brass instruments to supplant woodwind
instruments in civilian bands as a money making opportunity. In 1862
he organised and sponsored the first brass band contest in Scotland
(known as H D Douglas' Contest) with a series of further
competitions in 1864 and 1865. The top prize was £77 - equivalent to
£1600 in today's money.
Credit is due to the late Mr. H. D.
Douglas, musical instrument-maker, Glasgow, who was Field Bugler to
the 1st L.R.V.(1), for having attempted to do something for the
improvement of these bands while they were still brass bands. He
organised contests in 1862,1864, and 1865, with the view of
"increasing the efficiency of the Volunteer and other bands in
Scotland.
However, later in 1862 something appears to have
gone wrong and he was in debt with his assets subject to
sequestration (notice from the Edinburgh Gazette):
Maybe he
was one of the first promoters of brass band contests to find out
that there was no real money in it? This not withstanding, his
business continued and by 1870 included his son at expanded premises
36-38 and later incorporating no 42 Brunswick Street. Then in 1908
the firm moved to no 66 Brunswick Street.
Business Names and
locations:
1850 - 1870 Hugh Douglas, 190 Trongate
1870 - 1907
Hugh D Douglas & Son, 36-42 Brunswick Street
1907 - 1920 Douglas
& Son Ltd, 66 Brunswick Street
By the onset of the first
world war the company was mainly producing bagpipes and seems to
have stopped trading totally around 1920.
Manufacturer?
Its not clear if Douglas & Son made brass instruments themselves or
just marketed other peoples. His premises were rather small and
although that does not preclude manufacturing of small instruments,
manufacturing the full range of larger instruments he sold would
have been difficult. At the time of Hugh D Douglas' death in 1887 he
was selling instruments made by Thibouville Lamy of France
(according to his will which lists a debt to that company), but he
also owed a debt to an electro plating company in Glasgow so he must
have been repairing or manufacturing something.
Family
Birth:
Hugh Dow Douglas was born on 4th Jul 1833
in
Perth, the son of - Hugh Douglas
(also as a musical instrument maker) and Margaret Walker
He married
Christina Gray on 17 Jul 1857 in Edinburgh.
Residences:
1871
census - 37 North Albion Street
With his wife Christina, son John
(aged 11) and Christina Milne (a saleswoman)
Occupation -
assistant instrument maker employing one boy |
1881 census
- 106 Sauchiehall Street
With Christina and son John G
Occupation - music seller |
Hugh and Christina had the following children:
Christina Douglas, 25 Jul 1859,
Glasgow (died in infancy)
Margaret Douglas, 13 Jun 1860, Glasgow
(died in childhood)
Christina Gray Douglas, 24 Nov 1861,
Glasgow (died in infancy)
Christina Douglas, 07 Nov 1863, Glasgow
Hugh Dow Douglas, b 18 Aug 1865, Glasgow (died in infancy)
John Gray Douglas, 03 Jan 1867, Glasgow
Hugh Dow Douglas, 24 May
1869, Glasgow (?
2)
Margaret Walker Douglas, 30 Jul 1870, Glasgow
He died on 4th April 1887,
Glasgow (106 Sauchiehall Street), from liver disease.
According to his will lodged in the Glasgow
Sheriff Court, Hugh D Douglas died with debts including:
£4 to
Thomas Smith and Son Electroplaters
£86 to J Wallis and Son,
London (suppliers of woodwind instruments)
£35 to Thibouville
Lamy & Co, London (manufacturers of brass instruments)
£3 to
Riviere and Hawkes of London (later an instrument maker, but at this
stage making instrument reeds and publishing music for military
bands)
His main asset on death was his shop stock, worth
£689. His cash in hand was insufficient to pay for the funeral. The
business was inherited by his wife along with the rest of his
estate.
From research by Gordon Hudson.
Notes:
1. Probably 1st Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers
2. The death of Elizabeth Douglas on 23 Jun
1923 at Drumclog, Post Office, Avondale, Lanark aged 93 Years,
daughter of George Morrison (Deceased) Shawl Manufacturer 's
Warehouseman and Mary Stirling (Deceased) who was the spouse of Hugh
Douglas, Musical Instrument Maker was reported by David H. Smith,
son-in-law.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
Errors and Omissions
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