On Thursday evening, I had the great pleasure of speaking to a large audience assembled by the Inchinnan Historical Interest Group on one of the treasures of Inchinnan Church - the pink granite and "opus sectile" Blythswood Armorial donated to the previous church (demolished to make way for Glasgow Airport) by 1st Lord Blythswood.
The Campbells of Blythswood lived at Inchinnan in Blythswood House (now demolished).
Click for more.....
In 1880, Sir Archibald Campbell (né Douglas) petitioned for the 1672 arms of Campbell of Blythswood from the Public Register.:
When raised to the Peerage in 1893, he quartered his arms again with those of Douglas of Mayne (or Mains) his birth surname:
These are the arms which form the centre-piece of the the Armorial Tablet, impaled with those of his wife:
Rather cheekily, the arms have supporters which had only been granted to the 1st Lord in England:
The situation was rectified by the 4th Lord, Archibald's nephew, another Archibald, in 1920:
Above the main achievement, we find the rather retrospective arms of Lord Blythswood's parents - given that the quartered arms were granted to the son: the arms impale those of Dick of Pitkerro, Mrs Campbell being the former Caroline Dick.
The left hand side of the tablet shows the three married brothers and the the married sister of the 1st Lord Blythswood. Firstly we have Rev Sholto Douglas-Campbell-Douglas of Douglas Support later
2nd Baron Blythswood who matriculated arms in 1880:
His arms have an ermine bordure as the second son.
Sholto married Violet Paget grand-daughter of the Marquess of Anglesey and the arms impale her arms with his.
Sadly, this is where things go a little off the beam with the arms of the next brother, who although the third of the boys was moved to position six in the order of succession by Queen Victoria's patent. None of the rest of the brothers uses any brisure or mark of difference to distinguish himself from the head of the family and in this case, the impaling of the bucket-shop arms of Miller, simply because his wife was a Miss Catherine Miller, is not in the best tradition.
The next coat belongs to Major General Sir Barrington Bulkley Campbell (1845-1913)
3rd Baron Blythswood from 1908 (note the plaque says BUCKLEY).
Barrington married Mildred Hawley, daughter of Sir Joseph Hawley 3rd Baronet and impales his brother’s undifferenced arms with hers.
The right hand-side of the plaque carries the claimed arms of the other three brothers, one of whom sadly died in childhood, and all shown using the undifferenced arms of their brother. The last coat belongs to the unmarried sister.
My quibbles about the legality in Scotland of some of the arms aside, the plaque is magnificent and worth a detour to see. When the building of Glasgow Airport necessitated the demolition of the church which contained it, the huge pink granite slab with its rare opus sectile (crushed glass) coats of arms was moved in its entirety, along with all the superb stained glass, the organ and a tombstone to the new church. Placed as it is in the vestibule of the church, you can see the Armorial even when the church is locked.
The organ, sadly no longer in use, was another donation of Lord Blythswood and bears his arms again:
There is also a memorial tablet to Barrington Bulkley Campbell, 3rd Baron, as before impaling his arms with his wife:
Finally, far away in St Nicholas Church, Shepperton, we find the 1st Lord again:
_(geograph_6239987).jpg)
