Life
Born in Renton, Dunbartonshire, Duncan McLaren was the youngest of 10 children of John McLaren and Catherine McLellan. Apart from two years of schooling, he was self-taught. After school, he was apprenticed to a merchant in Dunbar. In 1824, he set up his own business as a draper in Edinburgh, growing the store into one if Britain's first department stores. In the 1830s, he headed the Scottish Central Board of Dissenters, established in 1834.Fry, Michael (1987), ''Patronage and Principle: A Political History of Modern Scotland'', Aberdeen University Press, p. 38, McLaren became a member of the town council in 1833. He became treasurer in 1837 and found that the royal burgh's finances were in ruin and that the Scottish capital was bankrupt. His work extricated Edinburgh from financial ruin. In 1835, he pioneered free education for all classes and started a building programme of thirteen schools. He was elected Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1851. McLaren was a Liberal and supported the anti– Corn Law campaign of John Bright, the opening of the Meadows to the public, and the establishment of the Industrial Museum (now the National Museum of Scotland). McLaren was also a governor of the Heriot Free School trust. McLaren campaigned against the decision of the trustees of William Fettes to use his bequest to found a ' public school' on the English model, believing that to be a misuse of funds intended for the education of orphans and the needy. He sought unsuccessfully to have the Fettes project remodelled to create free schools on similar lines to those supported by the Heriot Trust. In 1865 he was elected one ofFamily
McLaren married three times. Firstly, in 1829, he married Grant Aitken (1805–1833). Following her death he married Christina Gordon Renton (1813–1841). Finally, in 1848, he married Priscilla Bright (1815–1906), who outlived him by twenty years. All three wives are buried with him. He was the father of John McLaren (son of his first wife), Agnes McLaren, Catherine McLaren (mother of F. S. Oliver) (with his second wife Christina Renton), and then Charles McLaren, Helen Priscilla McLaren, and Walter Stowe Bright McLaren (with his third wife Priscilla Bright McLaren).Artistic depictions
A full-length portrait of McLaren by George Reid RSA hangs in the Old Council Chamber (now called the Diamond Jubilee Room) within Edinburgh City Chambers.Further reading
* Pickard, Willis (2011), ''The Member for Scotland: A Life of Duncan McLaren'', John Donald,References
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