Who's Who in Glasgow in 1909

H: Halstead to Hutchison

RICHARD HUBBARD HUNTER

THE present managing director and chairman of the firm of Hunter, Barr & Company, Ltd., wholesale warehousemen in Queen Street entered the business in 1866. It had been established in 1843 by his father, and from small beginnings it has grown in the hands of father and son to very considerable dimensions indeed. With factories in Glasgow and Leeds, branches in Edinburgh, Belfast, and Newcastle, and connections throughout the world, it employs over 1,500 persons. Mr. Hunter was for some years the sole partner of the firm, but in 1898 he converted the business into a limited company, in which he retains a large interest. The business does not, however, monopolise the attention and effort of its chief. Along with the late Mr. Quarrier in 1871 he joined in the Orphan Homes of Scotland at Bridge-of-Weir, and for a long series of years that undertaking engrossed a large part of his energy and time. He has always also been deeply interested in religious and philanthropic work among seamen. For ten years from 1882 he held the office of Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Glasgow Seamen's Friend Society; and it was chiefly through his endeavours that the large Seamen's Bethel in Eaglesham Street, Govan Road, and the Seamen's Institute at the Broomielaw, were built and equipped. The cost of these institutions, which was fully paid, was over £14,000.

But the work which has chiefly engaged Mr. Hunter's Sailors' Orphan Society of Scotland. While engaged in evangelical and charitable efforts among seamen, he from time to time met cases in which families, previously living in comfort, were, through the loss of their bread-winner at sea. suddenly brought to want. Along with his friends, the late Mr. Alexander Allan of the Allan Line, and Mr. George Smith of the City Line of steamers, he began in 1889 the work of the Sailors' Orphan Society. For long the undertaking was carried on in three separate establishments - a Receiving and Working Boys' Home at 2 Elmbank Street, a Girls' Home at 5 Thistle Street, and a Boys' Home in the old mansion of Mount Blow, near Dalmuir. In 1896, however, measures were taken to provide a more permanent institution. Sir Charles Cayzer, Bart., M.P., gave a sum of £10,000, and the present Homes at Kilmacolm were built at a cost of £30,000. Up to April, 1907, the total sum received and expended by the charity was over £109,000. A feature of the Society is that no one is ever personally asked for money, and no collectors or bazaars are resorted to. The Directors let the public know of the work that is being done, and trust to public sympathy for the means to carry it on. The children come from all parts of Scotland, and in 1906-7 no fewer than 545 were provided for. One feature of the Society is that if the mother be alive and a suitable person to bring up her family well, the home is not broken up, but a yearly grant is made for one or more of the children.

Mr. Hunter is also a Director of the Merchants' House, of Anderson's Medical College, of Hutchesons' Hospital, etc. He resides at Glentyan in Renfrewshire, and takes an active interest in the social and moral well-being of Kilbarchan. which is partly built on his estate.