Alexander Wilson, 'The Colonel'

Alexander Wilson, 1835-1906, ‘The Colonel’, was my mother, Helen’s grandfather. When he first joined the firm, the William Wilson & Son weaving business was doing well, so by 1865 the company had probably reached the peak of its success. The business was described in Nimmo’s History of Stirlingshire, IIIrd Edition, 1880, as, “spinning, dying and weaving of carpets, tweeds and tartans…. The value of the annual production is £80,000 and the number of persons employed is 500 to 600.”

He was colonel - an honorary title - of the Stirlingshire Volunteers and captain of the Scottish Shooting Team. He led Scotland’s winning teams at the international rifle shooting competitions in the 1880s - in those days held at Wimbledon - which, until then, had been dominated by the English. 

In 1859 he married Helen Pearson Galbraith (1837-1919), daughter of Col. W Galbraith, Town Clerk of Stirling. 

In 1883 the Colonel bought Bannockburn House. He made several additions and changes to the house, including a new porch entrance and extension to the library and office. As well as an oil painting of the house, we have a description of it and of other houses in the village and a copy of the 1862 Ordnance Survey map showing the main buildings in Bannockburn belonging to the Wilsons.

The Colonel and Helen had six children. This picture shows the first five - the youngest, Helen's father George, isn’t here, so this picture would have been taken around or before 1874 when he was born. They are, from left, Alexander (Dan), William (Ben), Helen, Christian and Eliza (Dizzy).

This picture shows his three daughters, Christian, Eliza and Helen in later life. The one on the right interests me, firstly because she was called Helen, secondly because she is so like my mother Helen, who was named after her, and thirdly because she married a Douglas Mitchell, and Gill’s mother was a Mitchell.

By the time the Colonel died in 1906 the business was in trouble. It passed into the hands of his older sons, William (Ben) of Viewvale and Alexander (Dan), who sold Bannockburn House in 1910. They tried to revive the business but finally closed it down in 1926.