ROMANCE OF INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13235, 21 July 1906, Page 5 (Supplement)

ROMANCE OF INDUSTRY.

DEATH OF SIR CHARLES TENNANT.

ONE OP THE BUSIEST MEN IN SCOTLAND.

The death is announced of Sir Charles Tennant, 'which'• took place at Broadoaks, the seat of Lady ■ Tennant. Sir Charles became ill at Biarritz about three months ago, and the King then manifested, much kindly interest in ; his condition, and sent his own; physician to visit him. His health so far improved that he was able to come home, and since then his friends believed ■{ that; he ■ was making a good recovery. Sir Charles .had, indeed, made arrangements - : to visit Scotland,, but hemorrhage set in, arid lie died somewhat suddenly. , Sir, Charles Tennant, who was born in 1823, represented a family the story of whose ; rise to fame is a romance of industrial; progress. The i grandfather of the late baronet was born in 1768, in the parish of Alloway, where Robert Burns also was born some nine years earlier. He founded first a weaving business, to which the' poet refers in the couplet

An* no forgettin" wabster Charlie, I'm tauld lie offers very fairly.

"Wabster" in Burns' Doric meant weaver, weaving being Charles ; Tennant's first occupation. The wabster quitted weaving to take up bleaching, at that time a rapidlygrowing industry. As a, bleacher lie saw very early that the secret of success lay in, the discovery of some chemical agent which should be cheap, rapid in operation, and non-injurious to the fabrics. That agent; " after laborious and most acute investigation," he discovered in" chloride of lime. This was. a result of the utmost importance to the industry, but, through some flaw in the'* patent Mr. Tennant was robbed of his rights as patentee. 'But'^

GENIUS DEFIED INJUSTICE. , ; " Soon afterwards he and his partner Knox produced a; solid chloride of lime as bleaching powder, which the whole trade had to use. These - not-able discoveries turned the attention of the . bleacher to manufacturing chemistry, -. and the great ; works of St. Rollox, Glasgow, amongst the largest of their kind' in the world, are the outcome. His son, John Tennant, carried on the undertaking ; his father had established with continued success, and to him as head of the firm succeeded his son, Sir Charles Tennant, now deceased in 1878. These famous St. Rollox works cover an area of 180 acres in the very heart of Glasgow, and they distribute as wages over £200,000 per annum. < Sir Charles Tennant was one of the busiest men in Scotland. Besides, the control of the vast undertaking created by the genius and energy of his family, he was chairman of the Union Bank; of Scotland and - director of some 20 other companies.'. Sir Charles was one of the foremost Liberals in the West of Scotland. He represented Glasgow in 1879-80, Peebles and Selkirk from 1880 to 1886, and a , Gladstonian Liberal contested the Partick, Division of ; Lancashire in 1890. Sir Charles, in fact, himself formed, and: has left .behind him, one of fche finest, though not one of the most extensive, collections of English masters in existence. No more admirable examples of Sir Joshua Reynolds exist than those gathered, together in " : . his town . house in; Grosvenor ,' Square. Not: less memorable than his public activities was ■: Sir Charles Tenna,nt's unfailing interest in the happiness ' of all around him. No claim on his generosity and active f? benevolence :.'■. was ever neglected. He was ; held in universal esteem; " The Rlen," . in. Peeblesshire^-: his favourite : resifence in Scotland, ; was a synonym;for ':■ hospitality. There he ,entertained many of She leading politicians of the ' time, among them Lord Rosebery, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Balfour. Of Mr. Gladstone he was a, »varm personal friend, and it was during lis Premiership in 1885 that Sir Charles ivas twice married, first in 1849. seconly a. 1898. v- Sir Charles' youngest 'daughter jy his'first marriege :'is the wife-of the Sight , Hon. .Henry, Asqujth, now >Chan:ellor of the Exchequer,;:v ' ■' .