l Sir William Burrell was born in Glasgow on July 9, 1861.
He died on March 29, 1958.
l The third son of William and Isabella Burrell, he worked from the age of 15 years with his brother to build the family shipping agency.
l He dealt with the commercial aspects of the business and combined this with collecting art.
l He was an Elected Member of the Corporation of Glasgow in the early 1900s and was awarded the Freedom of the City in 1944 following the donation of his collection.
l In the 1920s and 1930s Sir William began to determine what to do with the collection.
l Both Edinburgh and London were considered, but only Glasgow would agree to a series of conditions that were summarised in his 1944 Deed of Gift to Glasgow. There were two main conditions:
i) The collection could not be lent overseas. This condition was placed due to Sir William's concerns about the dangers associated with items travelling overseas.
ii) The collection was to be housed as a separate collection and be within four miles of Killearn and not less than 16 miles from Glasgow Royal Exchange. This condition was placed due to his concerns about the vulnerability of the textile sections of the collection to the atmospheric pollutants present in the city in the 1940s, and the fact he wanted his collection seen in a rural setting.
l The final decision to gift the collection to his home city is the largest single gift by one man of art treasures to one city.
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