A N - E M I N E N T - C A M P B E L T O N I A N
Dugald Stewart Gilkison
by H. Ferguson.
In the last century Campbeltown made a contribution to the development of India far out of proportion to the size of the town. It would take a very long article indeed to do credit and justice to the many Campbeltonians who contributed to the Administration, Commerce and Industry of British India, and, consequently, to the new and great country India now is. Incidentally, though they may be forgotten their native town, this is not the case in India.
Dugald Stewart Gilkison was one of this worthy band, perhaps not the most famous, but certainly one of the most remarkable. He is the "eminent Campbeltonian" of this article.
DUGALD STEWART GILKISON fully deserves the title of Merchant Adventurer though in his case the Adventurer came very much first and the Merchant later. He was born on 13th March 1840 in Campbeltown, which has been the home of many leading business magnates in India. His father died in September 1842 and his mother was left with two sons, of whom D.S. Gilkison was the elder, and one daughter. She was, however, left in comfortable circumstances and was able to give the children a good education. He was educated at the Rothesay Academy, where he was taught French and German, and having a taste for modern languages, got up early in the mornings to teach himself Spanish, and by the time he left school in 1857 he had a reasonable working knowledge of all three languages. He then went into an office in Liverpool, but already the wanderlust had seized him and after eighteen months he left Scotland and joined the Foreign Legion. He was thus in time for the war which Napoleon the Third declared on Austria in April 1859, and though he was not at Magenta he fought at Solferino. France and Austria soon after that concluded a treaty, but the piping times of peace did not suit D.S.G., and his mother, after some trouble and expense, managed to buy him out of the Legion. He did not, however, return home, but went instead to the Argentine, where he led a roving life for the next three years and was actively engaged shortly afterwards in a revolutionary war in Uruguay.
In 1863 he heard of an even better war going on in North America, so he proceeded thither and fought in the 2nd Corps of Grant's Army through the last year of the Civil War. Although Lee surrendered to Grant in April 1865, D.S.G. evidently remained in the Army for a time, as, on 17th May 1865, he received his commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the Tenth New York Regiment of Infantry, and we now have anong our records his original commission signed at the city of Albany under the seal and signature of Reuben S. Fenton, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Military and Naval Forces, and countersigned by J.B. Stonehouse, Assistant Adjutant-General. It might be added that, until his death, he received a pension as a Veteran of the Civil War.
Soon after this, he returned to Scotland where his mother had settled in Glasgow, and where he tried to adapt himself to commercial life in that city, but once again the lust for travel was on him, and he went out to Point de Galle which was then the principal port of Ceylon. Here he was engaged in some capacity in the Coffee business which still flourished in the island; and here his knowledge of Spanish stood him in good stead, as he secured the appointment of Spanish Vice-Consul at Point de Galle, and by 1572 he had become Consul for Spain at the port. This was at the time an important Consular post, for the Cable had not extended further east than Point de Galle. An important despatch from Madrid to Manila had therefore to be cabled to the Consul, and by him transmitted by post to Manila, and similarly in the opposite direction. He had one interesting experience during his time of office, attending a large luncheon given by the Roman Catholic priest at Point de Galle to high Dignitaries of the Church returning to their Sees in Australia, the Philippines and China after the Ecumenical Council of 1869-70, the one which declared the doctrine of the Infallibility of the Pope. D.S.G. attended as the representative of His Most Catholic Majesty. When he resigned his post on coming to India, he was made a Knight of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, which however he did not greatly appreciate, as he was very much of the presbyterian persuasion.
He had previously married Margaret Dunlop Ralston, through whom it was understood that he had been able considerably to augment his capital resources. This is indicated by the fact that from 1879 the profits of the Firm took a decided leap upwards. They had three children; the eldest was Stewart Gilkison who went into the Army and in 1914 was a Captain in the Scottish Rifles; the younger son, James, he first took into the London Office in the hope that he would succeed him in due course, but James also preferred the Arrny and in 1914 was a Lieutenant in the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders; their only daughter, Joan, also married into the Army, her husband bcing Capt. Bramwell of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. They were all killed in the first war, while Mrs. Gilkison survived her husband and eventually died in 1929, and, Mrs. Bramwell, who lived at Meall Mhor, near Tarbert, died in 1945, and, considering Gilkison's views mentioned earlier, it is interesting to note that she died in the Roman Catholic Faith.
The above is only part of the article taken from the link below....................
http://web.archive.org/web/200203070739 ... page6.html