Alexander Anderson (1845-1909)

Poet and University Librarian

Early Life

Anderson was born on 30th April 1845 at Kirkconnel, the youngest of 7 children, having an older sister and 5 older brothers. His father was James, a man of many skills, who worked as a herd boy, a coal miner, a ploughman, a builder, and a gardener and it was this latter skill that took him to Crocketford to work at Brooklands House. He was also musical and wrote some poetry himself. His mother was Isabella, a motherly woman always ready with hospitality for visitors.

Alexander attended Crocketford School where he was keen on handwriting, reading and watercolour painting. Any pennies he might receive were saved up and he would walk the 9 miles to Dumfries (and back) to buy a book he wanted. On leaving school he appears to have helped his father with gardening tasks, receiving 1/3d a day for hoeing turnips.

As Surfaceman

The family returned to Kirkconnel when Alexander was 16 and he worked for 2 years in the flag quarry at Old Kello and then at Carronbridge, before beginning his 16 years of work as a surfaceman for the Glasgow and South-Western Railway Company. It was at the age of 19 that he really began writing poetry, following the death of his beloved elder brother Tom.

As Librarian

He was persuaded to apply for the post of Assistant Librarian at the University of Edinburgh in 1880, never having been in a library before his interview, and was selected. It was a huge change from railway life but his grim determination to make a success of the job won him the affection of colleagues, students and professors alike. Ambitious to become better known in the literary world, he applied in 1885 for the post of Secretary to the Philosophical Institution and despite the fact that there were almost 200 applicants, he was successful. This new position enabled him to meet some of the prominent men and women of the literary world but he soon became dissatisfied with the work, which shut him away from ordinary readers, and he hankered to return to the library. He resigned in 1888 and returned to his old post and in 1890 was appointed Chief Librarian, a position he held until his death from cancer of the liver on 11th July 1909. He is buried along with the rest of his family in the churchyard at Kirkconnel.

( text from http://www.crocketford.org/villhall.html )