Published: Thursday, 22nd February, 2007 16:11
100 years of memories
By Rachel Lamb
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A PAINTING and decorating firm which has been handed down from father to son over three generations celebrated its 100th year in the family this month.
Gordon Burgess, aged 72, has worked for the family business, JG Burgess and Son, for more than 50 years.
His grandfather James Gordon Burgess, bought the firm from Alexander Bisland for £45 in February 1907 and gradually built up a successful and well respected business.
James had an eventful life. He was born in Glasgow in January 1865. When he was just nine months old, his father drowned in the River Clyde, leaving his young wife to bring up three children on her own.
Gordon said: “They had no money so his mother had to put his two older sisters in the poor house. My grandfather was 'farmed out' to a farm in Glen Fruin when he was still a baby but she worked hard and eventually made enough to get the family back together.”
James picked up his trade while apprenticed to a painter and decorator in 1884. He also studied at the Helensburgh branch of Dumbarton School of Art in the early 1890s, gaining a teaching certificate in 1893. He was a talented artist, exhibiting in the Glasgow Institute Exhibition and the Royal Scottish Academy.
He bought his own business at the age of 42. Gordon’s father took over the family business in the late 1920s but had it not been for the First World War, things might have been very different.
Gordon said: “My father wanted to be a solicitor. He started out with what is now McArthur Stanton but my grandfather’s men were all taken away at the start of the war and he offered to help him out. That was him for life.”
“He built up a good reputation in the town, then World War Two came along and his men went away to the army. It wasn’t until after that he could get going again properly.
“A lot of materials were on allocation [rationed]. There were only six patterns for wallpaper at the time and you were only allowed 30 rolls of each. You would get it delivered in a big parcel and you didn’t know what you were getting until you unwrapped it.`
Gordon started his apprenticeship in 1952, when he was 17.
“Things happened quickly then”, he said. “There was no such thing as taking a year out. I left school on Friday afternoon and had a pair of white overalls on by Monday morning.
“My own children will not be following in the family footsteps and in some ways that’s sad but you have to accept that family business has had its day. They are all doing well and doing what they want to do.
“When I go, the shop will be sold or shut down but it’s been great fun. I have met a lot of nice people and done a lot of interesting things.”
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