The Model Member - Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Forty Years Representative of the Stirling Burghs #264870

In the middle of last century few firms were held in higher respect in Glasgow than J. 81 W. Campbell. The handsome pile of buildings they erected in Ingram Street was regarded with local pride as evidence not only of the prosperity of an individual business house, but of the ia creasing growth of the world-wide trade of the city. At this time local patriotism was inspiringly active. Among all classes a tendency to boa-st of the greatness of the Second City of the Empire was cherished; and under the influence of the general determination to maintain this pride of place, the heads of large business concerns keenly interested themselves in all kinds of civic enterprise. Their capacity for administration as well as their devotion to the public interest was displayed in their membership of the Trades House in their management of the Clyde Trust, ever deepening the channel of the river, extending its wharves and enlarging its revenues; in their projection of various chari table and educational institutions; in the transference of the University from its old and unsavoury quarters to the breezy heights of Gilmorehill, and to its equipment in a style worthy of the Metropolis of the West; in the zealous direction of church enterprise and policy; also in strictly municipal service, in which what were then considered gigantic pioneer schemes of water supply, park acquisitions.