In last week’s post we looked at the process of building the Caird Hall and why it took so long. This week we thought we would take a look at what we were able to find out about the people who were actually involved with the construction.
We know the names of the companies – the Yorkshire Hennebique Contracting Company and Neil McLeod & Sons. However as neither were locally based the vast majority of their workforce was employed locally. Sadly no detailed lists of the people who worked on site have survived, however there are some other sources we can use to find some information – the newspapers. Unfortunately when it comes to things like building sites, the only times newspapers reported on them was when something went wrong. We know the names of some men who worked at the City Hall site but only because they were involved in accidents.
Ref: TC/CHA/102
We know that the Yorkshire Hennebique Company were onsite in by 13th April 1915. According to the newspapers there were no accidents (or at least no news worthy accidents) until February 1916. By this point construction had reached the second floor. On the afternoon of 29th February 1916, William Reid a 40 year old labourer and John Hennessey a 28 year old labourer fell from the height of 15 feet. One of the boards they were standing on gave way. This would fit as they would have probably been working on the first floor (our office is on the first floor and is just under 12ft high). Both were employed by the Yorkshire Hennebique Company and removing “staging” which was moulds for the concrete structure. Both were taken to the Royal Infirmary by ambulance. Luckily there were no major injuries – Henessey had injuries to the forehead so was kept in the hospital for treatment and Reid had his left wrist dressed and sent home.
There were two further accidents in 1916. On 16th June, Archibald McDonald (57 and lived at 10 Wilson Street) was pushing a wheelbarrow of cement along a window ledge when the plank he was on snapped. This cause Archibald and the barrow to fall 15 feet to the ground. An ambulance was called but he was recovered enough to walk to the ground floor to the awaiting vehicle. He appears to have sustained injuries to the back and body. A couple of weeks later David Lumsden (50, lodging at 74 Gray Street Broughty Ferry), another labourer employed by the Yorkshire Hennebique Company also fell. He was on the second floor and fell about 20 feet. He also injured his back and was taken to the DRI.
I could then find no mention of any accidents in 1917 or 1918. Was this because the work was easy off? As more men were conscripted and the council had agreed to only employ men over fighting age who couldn’t work in munitions factories, its likely this was the case. Perhaps the local papers just weren’t reporting on accidents like this. I would also suggest that things got a bit safer but there were quite a few accidents after the war.
Date: 2 March 1916 Ref: TC/CHA/172
In fact the first reported accident in 1919 was a terrible one. On 24th June 1919 a labourer called James Murray (65, lived at 20 Watson Street) was on the flat roof of the hall on the north side. He was carrying a hod of bricks on his shoulder. As he was walking across the roof he lost his balance and fell through an opening that would later be a skylight. Presumably his hod and bricks followed after him. According to the Courier he fell 14 feet and was knocked unconscious. He was taken to the Infirmary but never recovered and died later that evening. His death certificate confirms that he was actually 60 years old and fell 16 feet. James was born on 13th June 1859 in Barry, so had celebrated his 60th birthday just 11 days before his death. His death certificate confirms he was a Mason’s labourer, so was working on the stonework in the building. Earlier in life he had been a stone quarrier at Carmyllie and Murroes. Possibly the downturn in building work had forced him to seek work as a labourer. In 1882 he had married Jane Ann Myles from Tulloes. They had a whopping 14 children together, although only 11 were still alive by 1911.
Date: 22 April 1916 Ref: TC/CHA/178
There were 3 further accidents reported in 1919. Thomas Burrows (45, 24 Pole Street), a steel fixer, was knocked semi-unconcious by 5 cwts (about 250 kgs) of timber on 20th August. Less than a week later on 25th August, John McKelvie (9 Lawrence Street) fell 12 feet injuring his head and legs. Another accident came soon afterwards on 2nd September when John Martin a 24 year old labourer fell from the scaffolding and sustained injuries to his ankles and knees.
I couldn’t find any reports in 1920 but there were 3 accidents in 1921. On 5th April 1921 some excavation work mean that a gas main needed to be cut. It wasn’t properly sealed and two workers named Dow and McKinlay were affected by the fumes. According to reports in the Evening Telegraph they were able to walk it off and go straight back to work. By 1921 construction work had moved to the front of the hall and the building of the columns. Alexander Simpson, a 29 year old labourer who lived at 25 South Lindsay Street was putting up some scaffolding round one of the columns on 25th October when a plank broke and he fell 16ft to the hall’s entrance steps below him. He had an injury to his head and a cut of the right eyelid. The plank that had broken under him flew off and hit 55 year old mason William Paterson of 8 Forfar Road on the head. He had minor cuts to his head and right hand.
Date: 22 May 1916 Ref: TC/CHA/186
However the worst accident was on 1st October 1921. Work was bring carried out on a wall that was to form part of the “new public market”, on the Castle Lane side (north) of the hall. Christopher Gallocher (38, 60 Marshall Street) was operating a 3 ton electric crane, about 60 foot high, which was moving rubble to fill in a hole in the ground. Three masons were working on a scaffolding nearby: William Denholm (53, 16 Balmore Street), John McIntosh (43, 87 1/2 East High Street, Forfar) and George Robertson (64, 15 Green Street, Forfar). They were about 1st floor level, about 11ft off the ground. All of the men were in the employment of D K Symington, a building contractor. The crane had been on site for 3 weeks, and had previously been used to build the homes at the Taybank Housing Scheme off Arbroath Road. Gallacher had been the operative at Taybank as well as on the Caird Hall site. At 4.30pm, as the crane was moving an empty iron rubble box back up the jib on the crane broke and came crashing down about 50ft onto the scaffolding containing our 3 masons. Denholm was lucky and appears to have been unhurt. He looked to Robertson who had been hit by the empty rubble box on the head and was now lying underneath the weight of it. McIntosh was hit by the jib and knocked clean of the scaffolding. When he was picked up of the ground he was found to be bleeding from the nose and ears. Meanwhile another part of the jib had gone the other way towards the crane, piercing the roof before hitting the ground. Gallocher, the driver, however had a very lucky escape. Sadly John McIntosh was the worst hit, and just a few minutes after the accident he died. Robertson was taken to the Infirmary but recovered enough to be discharged. A fatal accident inquiry on 20th October 1921 found that a clutch wheel had broken on the crane, forcing extra pressure on the gears which ultimately led to the jib coming down.
John McIntosh was born in Forfar on 4th September 1877, the 2nd youngest of at least 7 children. He then moved to Edinburgh to work as a mason, where he probably met Georgina Sandison McKay. They married 1900 (although they already had a son, also John, born in 1898 – their only child). Georgina had sadly died of cancer in August 1920 aged just 46. In February 1921 John married his cousin Mary Ann Gray Williamson in Woodside, Aberdeen. Mary had two sons from a previous marriage, James aged 8 and John aged 7. Her first husband had been killed during WW1 in 1915. She appears to have gone back to Aberdeen and later married a Mr Shaw in 1934. John McIntosh Jr appears to have moved to Stirling.
Date: 19 May 1916 Ref: TC/CHA/184
It wasn’t all accidents, there were a few other reports mentioning men who had worked at the site. One unnamed stonemason appear before the Monifieth Military Tribunal in February 1917. He was working at the City Hall site and asked for a conditional exemption from conscription to the army. Its noted that he was a 41 year old man with 7 children. Thanks to these military tribunal reports in the paper we know the name of the foreman. Joseph Hutcheson Reid had been working for the Yorkshire Hennebique Contracting Company who were building the foundations and structure of the hall. He had also worked for them on the site of the new electricity station at the Stannergate. He appeared before the tribunal in December 1916 (when we was at the electricity station) and March 1917, when it was estimated that the work he was doing would last 5 months. He was granted an exemption, which appears to have been eventually lifted in May 1918. Its not clear if he was conscripted.
Of course many dozens, if not hundreds, of other men worked on the City Hall. Chances are if they were a mason living in Dundee and weren’t called up the army, they probably worked on the hall. As part of the centenary celebrations we should remember the hard work that went into building the hall, in particular James Murray and John McIntosh.
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