Portrait of John Strang (1795-1863) author, statistician and City Chamberlain.
Strang was born in Dowanhill the son of a wine merchant and inherited the family business. He was well educated and spoke French and German well, touring extensively in Europe. In 1832 he became the editor of Day, a short-lived but influential literary journal to which he contributed articles and poetry. In 1831 he wrote Necropolis Glasguensis in support of proposals to open a "city of the dead" in Glasgow, similar to Pere Lachaise in Paris.
In 1834 Strang became City Chamberlain and won praise as an efficient financial manager, as a writer on social and economic affairs, and as the author of a series of statistical reports relating to industries, public health and living conditions in and around the city. He is best remembered as the author of Glasgow and its Clubs (1856), based on articles he had written for the Scots Times and the about the social and drinking clubs of Glasgow and their members in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Reference: GC 941.435 OLD
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning
Keywords:
authors, City Chamberlains, Day, editors, Glasgow and Its Clubs, historians, Necropolis, statisticians, wine and spirit merchants