THE SALAMANCA CORPUS:

DIGITAL ARCHIVE OF ENGLISH DIALECT TEXTS

GLOUCESTERSHIRE

DING 2022: "Very little is known about him. He was born at Culross, Perth. Sc. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge between 1875 and 1879. He was interested in numismatics and in clocks and published extensively on both topics. He was a member of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society. We have been able to glean the following data through our research in genealogical databases and newspaper archives. He came from an affluent family. In 1871 his parents were living at Kensington, London and had eight servants (Census Records). Robertson lived in Gloucestershire and in Denmark, Germany and South Africa. There is a mention about him and his brother Henry Barr Robertson in the Gloucester Citizen, 21st May 1883, and they are described as "brewers of this city." In the Stroud News and Gloucestershire Advertiser for 16th Oct. 1885 there is a notice saying "The license of Messrs Dunlop, Mackie and Co., wine and spirit merchants, Eastgate Street, was transferred from that firm to Mr. John Drummond Robertson, of the Gloucester Brewery." He appears in Gloucestershire newspapers between 1883 and 1889 because of his contributions to The Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society and The Gloucester School of Science Philosophical Society; he also wrote letters to the editors of Gloucester newspapers complaining about different issues and attended concerts and social functions. In one of them he gave his address as 11 College-green, Gloucester. He was a member of the Committee for the establishment of a public library in Gloucester in 1887. On 5th April 1889 he departed from Southampton, with his brother Henry Barr, going to Cape Town. Apparently he settled in Johannesburg. The following year his Gloucestersire glossary was published and reviewed in The Gloucestershire Chronicle (22nd. Nov. 1890: 3). Because of his moving to South Africa Lord Moreton was in charge of the edition of his Gloucester Glossary. In 1895 and 1896 he is listed in The Gloucestershire Chronicle as making donations to the District Nursing Society Fund. In the Daily Telegraph and Courier (London) of 30th Nov. 1896 Robertson is mentioned as having sent a bagpipe to a friend in a French battalion. This perhaps suggests that his stay in South Africa was brief. However, he does not appear in the Census Records for 1891, 1901 or 1911, although his second wife and daughter do (in Richmond, Surrey, when his daughther was born, in 1902, and living by themselves in Kensington, London in 1911 ). In 1906 he and his wife attended a wedding in Hyde Park, London. In July of the same year he is mentioned as a guest in a hotel in Southampton; Ilford, London is given as his place of residence. In a Letter to the Editor of The Daily Mirror (16th Aug. 1906) his address is Comrie House, Cambridge Park, Wanstead. This is located in the borough of Redbridge, close to Ilford. In 1915 he writes another letter to The Morning Post, a London newspaper. In the London and China Express (3rd April 1930) he is mentioned as living at Comrie Lodge, Torquay. The same address is given in a 1929 letter to The Royal Society (NLB/72/497) In 1931 he is listed as living at Torquay where he died in 1934."

WORKS

1890. A Glossary of Dialect and Archaic Words used in the County of Gloucester. London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, & Co.

NOT IN KINGKONG PROJECT

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT HIS LIFE AND WORKS SEE

Copyright © 2022- DING, María F.García-Bermejo Giner, The Salamanca Corpus, Universidad de Salamanca

John Drummond Robertson

(1857-1934)