William Smith Gill Explained

Colonel William Smith Gill CB VD DL (16 February 1865 – 25 December 1957) was a Scottish Volunteer Force officer and paint manufacturer.

Early life

Born at Old Machar, Peterculter, Aberdeenshire, Gill was the son of Alexander Ogston Gill (1832–1908) and his wife, Barbara Smith Marr (1843–1898).^[1] His father was a first cousin of his namesake Alexander Ogston. His sister Sarah Ogston Gill was the wife of Francis Grant Ogilvie.

Career

In the 1880s, Gill became an officer of the Aberdeen Volunteers,^[2] and between 1908 and 1910 he was Colonel Commanding the Highland Division Royal Engineers (Territorial Force).^[3] By 1896, Gill was a partner with his father in Farquhar & Gill, paint manufacturers.^[4]

In 1925, Gill was appointed as a Deputy lieutenant of Aberdeen.^[5]

Gill died in 1957 at Dalhebity in Bieldside, Aberdeenshire, aged 92.^[1] He was buried in Peterculter Cemetery, Aberdeen.^[6]

Marriage and issue

On 30 June 1898, at Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen, Gill married Ruth Littlejohn, a daughter of David Littlejohn (1841–1924) and his wife, Jane Crombie (1843–1917). They had five children:^{[1] [7]}

• Alexander Ogston Gill (1900–1982)
• Jean Forbes Gill (1901–1987)
• Elizabeth Penelope Gill (1904–1995)
• Ruth Sylvia Gill (1908–1993),^[8] mother of Frances Shand Kydd and grandmother of Jane, Lady Fellowes, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer^[1]
• William David Littlejohn Gill (1915–1999)

Notes and References

1. D. Williamson, "The Ancestry of Lady Diana Spencer" in 'Genealogist’s Magazine, vol. 20 (1981), pp. 192–199 and 281–282
2. Donald Sinclair, The History of the Aberdeen Volunteers: Embracing Also Some Account of the Early Volunteers of the Counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Kincardine (Aberdeen Daily Journal Office, 1907), pp. 302, 303
3. Supplemental History of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen (1939), p. 119: "Ruth married in 1898 William Smith Gill, C.B., D.L., of Dalhebity, Peterculter, Colonel Commanding Highland Division R.E. (T.F.), 1908-10. Died, 11th May, 1924."
4. "Alexander Ogston Gill and Another v. William Cutler" in Cases Decided in the Court of Session, Court of Justiciary, and House of Lords (T. & T. Clark, 1898), p. 371
5. The London Gazette, 15 September 1925, p. 6030
6. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/146993681/william-smith-gill William Smith Gill
7. Burkes Peerage vol. 1 (2003), p. 1414
8. Bruce Harrison, The Family Forest Descendants of Sir Robert Parke, p. 389