The first Lewisman in the Antarctic
Thomas F. McLeod was 37 and unemployed in New Zealand when Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s ship Terra Nova sailed into Lyttleton Harbour. Tom was born, he said, in Stornoway on 3rd April 1873. But his birth record is to be found in Glasgow, not in Lewis. Like many young...
Emigration from Stornoway
The departure from Stornoway of the Canadian Pacific liners Metagama, Canada and Marloch in 1923 and 1924 is still remembered by those who were children at the time for the emotional scenes at the harbour as they sailed away, tearing asunder many families. Most...
Kenneth Morison
Kenneth Morison is hardly remembered today, yet in his own way, he helped shape British railway history. He was born on 7 March 1806, in a house on South Beach next to the Patent Slip. His father's connections with Lord Macaulay's family were instrumental in getting...
Lodge Fortrose
Lodge Fortrose, No. 108, was officially formed on 16 August 1769, the date on which its Charter was actually received in Stornoway. It had, however, existed since November 1767, when the Brethren had carried on the principles and tenets of the Craft, knowing that...
John Norrie Anderson
John Norrie Anderson John Norrie Anderson was something of a Victorian polymath, into everything that caught his interest and very able to make a great success in all his business matters. He was deeply involved in local affairs and his name was known in national...
Colonel Colin Mackenzie
'The man who mapped India' Colin Mackenzie was born in 1754 to an eminent Stornoway family. His father was the merchant Murdoch Mackenzie, the town's first Postmaster and a founder member of Lodge Fortrose. Colin more than lived up to his family's expectation,...