ANDREW
MACDONALDAS Chairman of the Scottish Railway Shareholders' Association, Mr. Andrew Macdonald has played a conspicuous part in beginning a revolution in railway management which may have far-reaching effects. Born in Gorbals in 1847, and educated at the Gorbals Youths' School, he was in the employment of Messrs. John Poynter & Son from 1868 to 1887. In this year he and his brother began business for themselves. Four years later his former employers' firm was united with his own, under the name of John Poynter, Son, & Macdonalds, and in 1893 the Messrs. Macdonald remained the only partners in the concern. It was an old business, begun with works in Low Green Street and Drygate in 1825, removed to Greenock seven years later for the sake of the water supply, and noted for its initiative in such manufactures as those of superphosphates, saltpetre, and flowers of sulphur, as well as of sulphate of ammonia from the shale of its oil works at Calder.
Mr. Macdonald has long been prominent in the public life of Glasgow. In the Trades' House he is a member of four incorporations - the Hammermen, the Wrights, the Gardeners, and the Bonnetmakers and Dyers, of which last he was chosen Deacon in 1900. He was chosen Collector of the Trades' House in 1904, and at present occupies the honourable position of Deacon-Convener. He represents the Trades' House in the Town Council and on the governing board of the Technical College, and has been a manager of the Royal Infirmary. He is also a member of the Merchants' House and of the Chamber of Commerce, and he takes an active part in the management of a number of the city's benevolent institutions.
He married, in 1872, Elizabeth Linnwood. daughter of Mr. John Cochrane, engineer, by whom he has a daughter and two sons.