John Cowan (steel merchant)

The grave of Sir John Cowan, Grange Cemetery

He was born on a ship going to Jamaica in the West Indies on 12 December 1844, the youngest of seven children and only son of Margaret Marshall (d.1886) and Rev John Cowan.[1] He was educated at the Edinburgh Institution then studied at the University of Edinburgh.[2]

In 1860 he was apprenticed to the firm of Redpath Brown & Co, iron and steel merchants, of 33 Candlemaker Row and 137 Constitution Street in Leith. At that time he lived with his maternal uncle, James Marshall (d.1873), at 15 Regent Terrace on Calton Hill.[3]

By the 1870s Cowan lived in a flat at 28 Nelson Street in Edinburgh's New Town.[4]

From 1887 until death he was living at 6 Salisbury Road, a large Victorian villa in the Grange.[5][6]

From 1900 he was Treasurer and from 1901 to 1903 he was Master of the Merchants Hall in Edinburgh, replacing John Macmillan.[7] In 1915 he was knighted by King Edward VII in his then role of Chairman of Redpath Brown.[3]

He died at home 6 Salisbury Road on 7 February 1929, and is buried in the Grange Cemetery in south Edinburgh.[8] The grave lies in the south-east section. His parents lie immediately to the north.

In 1872 he was married to Marion Dickson Wallace (1851-1932) in Dunfermline. They had at least 11 children, many dying in infancy.

Their son, William Morrison Cowan (1895-1919) died as results of wounds received in the First World War while serving in the Royal Flying Corps.[9] Another son was Andrew Wallace Cowan FRSA (1877-1964).[10]

His portrait by Arthur Nowell is held in the Merchants Hall in central Edinburgh.[11]