McManus 168

Alexander Anderson was a very wealthy and philanthropic merchant and land-owner. He inherited the estate of Longhaugh from his father and bought the estates of South and North Grange, in the parish of Mains, from Mr Thomas Kerr.^[8]

According to his obituary in the Dundee Advertiser he “was a highly respected and very popular figure” amongst commercial men in the 1850s and 60s and, by 1897, was “one of the oldest surviving of Dundee’s merchants.” ^[8]

He had a strong liking for all things military and was in the volunteer movement. To gain first hand experience of warfare he went to the battlefields of the Crimea and experienced “life in the trenches before Sebastopol” in 1854.  He was reputed to be “the only civilian in Dundee … under fire” during that war.^[8]

He was renowned for his quiet and unostentatious benevolence and apparently by the time of his death, “there was not a charitable institution in the city which did not steadily benefit from his liberality.” ^[8]

He founded two scholarships for High School pupils studying at St Andrews University and was described as “a warm friend” of that school.^[8]

His will shows his estate to be worth £97,474 7s 10d on his death (nominal value at 2018: Relative to income £77,979,200). The will^[18] (which runs to 15 pages) lists his considerable investments in property and railways, both in the UK and the colonies (Australia, New Zealand and Canada), as well as the USA.

While he left much of his fortune to his family (with very precise instructions), he also made generous bequests to his servants and employees. He also left bequests of £1000 (nominal value at 2018: Relative to income £800,000) to Dundee Royal Infirmary, £1000 (nominal value at 2018: Relative to income £800,000) to the Royal Orphan Institution, Dundee and £500 (nominal value at 2018: Relative to income £400,000) to the Mars Training Ship.

A trust was also set up in his name and operated from 1889-1920. The papers are stored in the Ker Anderson Papers in the University of Dundee Archive Services.

His death certificate records the cause of his death as “senile decay.”^[5]

The Dundee Courier and Argus printed the eulogy on Alexander Anderson’s life, by Rev. Crawford Smith of South Free Church, Monifieth. He spoke of Mr Anderson during the Sunday service after his death.^[7]