THE PRESENT BOARD.
The members of the present board have served Co-operation well in many capacities, and several of them have had long years of service on the board of the Baking Society. Mr Buchanan, the present chairman, for instance, was elected to the board of the Society in the year in which Mr Bain became secretary. Mr M‘Lean has represented Glasgow Eastern Society for many years, and Mr Young St Rollox for a long period. Mr Monteith had done good work in St George Society before he came to M‘Neil Street, while this is equally true of Mr M‘Lay’s connection with Cowlairs. Mr Hamilton was for a number of years the representative of Pollokshaws Society, and his untimely death while this book was being written served to act as a reminder that “life is but a fleeting vapour.” Another member of the group who has done good service to Co-operation in his own society as well as in the Baking Society’s board is Mr Cadiz, for a number of years the energetic secretary of the Glasgow and Suburbs Conference Association. Mr Johnstone has done good service in Shettleston Society, and Mr Simpson in London Road Society; while Mr Walker, the “baby” of the board—he only joined it two months before the end of the fiftieth year—has been well known for a number of years as a representative of Clydebank Society.
Nor can we close this record of “men who wrought” without reference to some of the men who, while not quite so prominent in its affairs as others, yet had something to do with shaping the destinies of the Society. Prominent amongst such was Mr Alexander, who represented Paisley Provident Society on the board from the election of Mr Brown as president until their society withdrew from the Federation. For the greater part of the time he acted as treasurer of the Federation. Mr Ballantyne, of Thornliebank, also was one of the earliest members of the board, and continued to be associated with its work, as stable inspector, for many years. The late Mr James M‘Murran, of Glasgow Eastern, was the Federation’s last treasurer, the office being abolished during his tenure. Nor must the names of the late Homer Robertson and Michael Shiels be omitted. For a number of years Mr Robertson represented St George Society on the board, while Mr Shiels was for long the representative of Cowlairs Society, and both gentlemen died in harness within a few months of each other. For a long time two gentlemen very well known in another section of the Co-operative movement, Messrs Robert Macintosh and Allan Gray, acted together as auditors of the Society. Mr Wells, the respected secretary of Cambuslang Society, was an auditor of later date, retiring when the amended Industrial and Provident Societies Act of 1913 made it compulsory that auditors of Co-operative societies must be public auditors. He was succeeded by Mr John M. Biggar. The auditor who has served the members of the Society for the longest period, however, is Mr William H. Jack, who has audited the Society’s books for over twenty-one years, having been elected in September 1897 on the retiral of Mr Allan Gray.
The work of many others, who in one way and another helped while they could, has gone to build up the Society. They are gone, leaving often not even a name behind them, but the result of their labours is preserved as by a monument in the strong, virile Society of which we speak so familiarly as “The U.C.B.S.”