Who's Who in Glasgow in 1909

K: Kay to King

GEORGE JARDINE KIDSTON

THE chairman of the Clyde Shipping Company, Limited, was born at Glasgow on 12th February, 1835, and is of a name well known in various arenas of Glasgow enterprise. The company of which he is the head is understood to be the oldest steamship company in existence. It was started in 1815 for the purpose of carrying goods by lighters and steamers from the shipping at Greenock up the shallow Clyde to Glasgow. In 1856, when the concern was sold, its fleet consisted of four small tugs, three small luggage steamers, and eight lighters. One of the steamers was the famous Industry, which figures in so many old pictures of the Clyde, and whose engines are preserved at Kelvingrove. The purchasers of the business were Mr. Kidston and his two brothers and two other friends, and from that day to this the fleet has grown till it comprises twenty-six steamers of from 5000 tons downwards, and nineteen tugs, and is familiar in all the coasting ports of the United Kingdom.

Mr. Kidston is now the only survivor of the original firm. He lives at Finlaystone, Renfrewshire, and long found his chief recreation in the hunting field and shooting. Among other positions of public responsibility he is chairman of the Clyde Lighthouses Trust.