John Dick Peddie

John Dick Peddie (24 February 1824 – 12 March 1891)[1] was a Scottish architect, businessman and a Liberal Party politician.

The twins were educated at the University of Edinburgh, studying law, but in 1842 John was articled to the architect David Rhind.

Through another family connection, his cousin Benjamin Blyth, Peddie also secured work for the Caledonian Railway at their Princes Street station (demolished).

[3][4] Peddie was also involved in the creation of Cockburn Street, linking Edinburgh's Royal Mile with Waverley Station, from 1851, which led him to take on his assistant Charles Kinnear as a partner from 1 January 1856.

Peddie narrowly lost his seat in the 1885 general election, due to a split in the Liberal vote.

[9] However, the greater shame came when his uncle (his father's brother) Donald Smith Peddie, fled to the US, having been discovered to have embezzled over £75,000 from various parties for whom he acted as accountant.

To compound the family's problems, John had invested heavily in several new self-designed Hydropathic Companies (including Dunblane and Craiglockhart) and in 1880 these all went into liquidation.