James White (1812–1884)

In 1890 he was honoured posthumously with a statue in Glasgow’s Cathedral Square, designed by John Mossman (although he died before its completion) and sculpted by Frank Leslie.

[2] White was born in 1812 at Shawfield House in Rutherglen which at that time was a rural country estate on the banks of the River Clyde.

As a result, Shawfield is one of the most dangerously contaminated sites in the UK, with carcinogenic hexavalent chromium deposited in the ground.

At the invitation of his father and older brother (another John White, who had joined the business in 1833), James White became a partner in the family firm in 1851, focusing on the commercial aspect whilst his brother and father (who died in 1860) were more concerned with the manufacturing.

[3] Now wealthy from the success of the chemicals business, in 1859 White purchased land near Dumbarton which was his wife's hometown and far from the polluted atmosphere of the Shawfield works.