People

THE remarkable story of the life and times of a Helensburgh girl who was taken to Canada as a bride and started a family dynasty features in the first of a series of three books which has now been published. 

It is a labour of love by her grandson, John McLeod, who lives in Toronto, and he took on the project after his mother, Mary Marvin McLeod, died in 2003 at the age of 82 after working on the books since 1980.

A BOY whose parents ran a hotel at Garelochhead grew up to have a colourful and successful career in journalism and politics before his premature death at the age of 48.

Hector McNeill was born at the Temperance Hotel in the village’s main street on March 10 1907, and went on to become Secretary of State for Scotland.

ONE of Garelochside’s most famous and colourful sons was known as Jolly Jack Phosphorus and invented a six pound gun . . .

But, much more importantly, he was the man who founded a Glasgow educational institution which became the University of Strathclyde.

A HELENSBURGH-born artist had a remarkable life . . . as the wife of a politician who twice tried to become President of the United States and a friend of heads of state.

Nancy Patterson Pigott was born on January 21 1911 at St Anne’s, Charlotte Street, but became a significant figure in American politics under her married name of Nancy Kefauver.

AN Australian’s search for where a celebrated ancestor was buried led him to Helensburgh.

John McClean believes the last resting place of Hugh MacLean, the 16th and last Laird of the island of Coll, may be one of the local cemeteries.

ONE of the great characters of Helensburgh and district history is Susie, of Susie’s Castle fame, and in the summer of 2010 new information and pictures came to light.

Born Susan McGlone in 1847, Susie — or Suzie or Suzy, as her name was sometimes spelled — was a well-known character, not only at Portincaple, where she lived for many years until her death on January 20 1929, but also much further afield as well.