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Colin Dunlop DonaldBorn 1848, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Died 1895. Glasgow.

Colin Dunlop Donald, who was yesterday laid in his grave, had a vivid personality, and one

so intimately connected with Glasgow, that an attempt to say something of the man, rather

than of his work, may nevertheless be of interest to a wider circle than even that within hispersonal influence. Great success as, at the relatively early age of 46, he achieved in business

and professional life, and high as were the qualities of mind and body which he brought to the

discharge of the duties of his daily life, it was the man behind the professional work who most

deeply impressed men. He owed not a little of his character to his parents. Those who knew

Mr. Thomas Donald best will be least likely to underestimate the elements of worth which

Colin Donald drew from his father. But his mother was reflected in him still more deeply. Her

friends can never forget the combination of intellectual power and clearness of vision, with

womanly tenderness and instincts, which characterised Mrs. Donald, nor could they fail to be

ever and again reminded of her by traits in her eldest son. He was emphatically a Glasgow

man proud of his close connection with so many of the old families who built up Glasgow,

rejoicing to carry on their work in his own day; proud, too, of his professional connectionwith a legal firm which dated back to the middle of the eighteenth century, and owed its

commencement to his great-grandfather.

C. D. Donald felt he and his owed much to Glasgow, and he gave it in return hearty love and

pride. His life was greatly coloured by this local patriotism. Most of his writings, much of his

conversation, many of his tastes centred round Glasgow men and Glasgow interests. His

archaeological and antiquarian pursuits flowed originally from interest in Glasgow, though, as

was to be expected, this widened out into interest in the past generally. His special collections

were books of and concerning Glasgow and old Glasgow prints and plates. Yet he was so full

of life and of interest in life it is difficult to think of him at rest. In varied sports walks, golf,

curling; in literature and archaeology; in his profession and business, energetic vitality waswhat perhaps struck one most. His very gait and figure as he swung along betokened this. He

seemed to take for his first rule in life, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy

might. He was the most cheerful and cheering of companions, and was never perhaps more

charming than when throwing himself into some apparent triviality with buoyant, almost

boyish, spirits and excellent humour.

It must not be supposed that he was in any sense narrowly local. He had a wide experience

travelled as he could, had a ripe acquaintance with literature, was, in short, a many-sided

intellectual man with whom anyone on a first acquaintance was struck. He wrote a good deal,

and his writings reflect his culture, ability, and character. They have done not a little to give

life and reality to old Glasgow. Yet they by no means give a full idea of the charm of his

mind. It was in conversation with a friend or friends perhaps most of all at his own table orin his own sanctum that his intellectual force, his contempt for the suspicion of falsehood,

his wide culture, his unfailing memory, his varied interests, were most clearly made manifest.

He delighted in good talk and in the animated No. Few who have spent some of these hours

with him will forget the innocent undisguised satisfaction with which, with a half stutter of

excitement, he clinched an argument, or sketched off a character or a criticism by some happy

phrase.

Colin Donald was no man of clay. He had strong likes and dislikes with regard to persons,

opinions, subjects was on occasions impetuous even prejudiced. But neither feeling or

prejudice ever caused him to deviate into injustice. His high sense of honour a marked

characteristic of his professional life because engrained in the man forbade that. A member

of the Church of Scotland, his religious feelings were, like his personal ones, felt and acted onrather than spoken of. A strong man among men, courtly to women, deferential to old age,

tender to children and the weak, both sexes and all ages regret him. The children, to whom he

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was both father and mother, have at least the comfort of knowing that few men will be more

mourned, and few orphans command wider sympathy.

Donalds own last words, in a biographical sketch of another Glasgow worthy John Guthrie

Smith may well form his own epitaph: The best of him was kept for his own family and his

relatives. For them he had a love at once deep and wise, which ran over in a thousand acts of

generosity and unselfish kindness. All who knew him, however slightly, grieved when he wastaken away; but to those who knew him well and loved him, his death has left the world

drearier and emptier.