William McCandlish
William McCandlish (1824-1897)
1824 October 27th. Born in Edinburgh the son of William McCandlish and his wife Felicite Leslie Mcgregor
1851 Visitor at Ballamile, Ayrshire: William McCandlish (age 26 born St. Cuthbert, Midlothian), Civil Engineer.[1]
1869 Married in Llanfyllin to Letitia Clementina Mytton
1871 Living at The Knolls, Lewisham: William McCandlish (age 46 born Scotland), Civil Engineer and Contractor. With his wife Letitia C. McCandlish (age 26 born East Indies) and their son William H. McCandlish (age 1 born Lewisham). Five servants.[2]
1881 Director of the Madras Gold Mining Co and the Nine Reef Gold Mining Co.[3]
1897 January 31st. Died. Probate to his widow Letitia Clementine McCandlish
1897. Inquest. 'Dr. Vera Benson resumed his inquiry last evening at Willesden as to the death of Mr. William McCandlish, aged seventy-two, a civil engineer, whose dead body was found with a bullet wound in the head in a field near the residence of the Earl of Aberdeen, at Dollis-hill. The deceased lately resided at Chichele-road, Cricklewood, and and was well known in the city. Mr. John Alexander McCandlish, son of the deceased, recalled, said he had made inquiries during the adjournment in order to see if the deceased had any particular business troubles about the time of his death. All he could discover was that his father had lost the chairmanship of a public company which was in process of formation. Police-sergeant Pert, the coroner’s officer, said that since the adjournment he had made inquiries of Messrs. Colt, gunmakers, and found from entry in the firm’s books that the identical revolver which was found by the aide of the deceased had been cleaned and repaired by them in February, 1892, and that the person who gave the order for the repairs was entered as “William McCandlish, of 36, Walbrook, E.C.” Mr. Daniel Dixon, farm bailiff, of Lower Oxgate Farm, Cricklewood, produced a plan of the farm, shewing the spot where the deceased’s body was found. It was impossible to get into the field without climbing over the gate or the barbed-wire fencing. The spot was one of the most secluded in the neighbourhood, and the field was rarely entered except by someone connected with the farm. The jury, after long consultation, returned a verdict of “Suicide daring temporary insanity.”'[4]