Campbeltown, Kinloch Street, Statue Of William Mackinnon

Bronze statue of Sir William Mackinnon, dated 1899, by Charles McBride of Edibnburgh, whose bequest founded Keil School on its original site in Southend, Argyll. Following closure of the Dumbarton school site around 2004, the statue was dismantled and re-erected in Campbeltown.

Information from RCAHMS (IF), 25 July 2013.

The statue of Sir William Mackinnon in Kinloch St, Campbeltown was never at Keil School, Southend as stated in the Buildings of Scotland’s ‘Stirling and Central Scotland’ (Gifford and Walker 2002). It went to Keil School, Dumbarton from Mombasa in Kenya, where it was first erected in 1900. It was removed from Treasury Gardens Mombasa on 19 February 1964 and re-erected at the school in Dumbarton on 5 May 1964.

There are a number of postcards published by Mombasa-based photographers with photographs of the statue in situ in Treasury Square Gardens in Mombasa. The Heritage Centre at Dumbarton Library has copies of photographs of the dismantling of the statue on 19 February 1964 following Kenyan independence. The handstamps on the back these photographs indicate they came from the archive of East African Newspapers. This is clearly the same statue as the one now in Campbeltown. All the evidence would suggest that the statue was in Mombasa soon after its creation in 1899.

Information from Mr Ian Mitchell, 21 March 2018

Sources:

Kenya Gazette 15 Dec 1900 (index) which refers to 'tender re Statue Sir William Mackinnon'. The same publication at page 7 has a list of 'Subscribers to the Sir William Mackinnon Memorial'

Kenya Gazette 7 June 1927 refers to the statue in 'Memorandum upon the Ancient Monuments Preservation Bill' at p686'

'Keil School - A History' by Roddy MacAskill. It has a colour plate showing the erection of the statue at Keil School Dumbarton on 5 May 1964.

'Maritime Enterprise and Empire: Sir William Mackinnon and his Business Network 1823-93' by J Forbes Munro refers to the statue being in Mombasa (Page 510).