The Times/1932/Obituary/William George Black

MR. W. G. BLACK

Mr. William George Black, C.B.E., who died in Glasgow on Wednesday, two days before completing his seventy-fifth year, was well known as antiquary, lawyer and politician.

The son of a Glasgow solicitor, he was educated at Glasgow University, of which he was honorary LL.D. He contested South Aberdeen in 1906, and the Elgin Burghs and West Islington in 1910. He was formerly a member of the Committee of Management of the Philip Stott College (Unionist Association), and was chairman of the Glasgow Good Government League. He travelled widely in India and the Far East. He was a trustee and a member of the executive of the Navy League and chairman of the Glasgow and West of Scotland branch. His War work, for which he was made C.B.E., was especially concerned with V.A.D. committees, disabled officers, and the post-War training of officers.

Mr. Black presented to the city of Glasgow in 1930 the re-erected Mercat Cross; he had written works on Scottish market crosses. He wrote other works on folk-medicine, Glasgow archaeology, and a description of Heligoland and the islands of the North Sea. His law books included works on Lands Agents Act, local government in /Scotland, the parochial ecclesiastical law of Scotland, a digest of decisions in Scottish shipping cases, and the history of teinds. He was F.S.A. Lond. and Scotland, a former president of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. In Glasgow he was vice-chairman of St. Mungo's College and chairman of the Ophthalmic Institution, and was active in other educational and charitable institutions. His wife, who was a daughter of Robert Blackie, the publisher, died in 1920.