Claud Andrew Allan (1871-1945)

He was born at 2 Park Gardens, Glasgow. He served in the Boer War at the Siege of Mafeking (1899-1900) where he was captured and taken as a prisoner of war. On returning home, he was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal with three clasps and joined the family shipping firm becoming a senior partner of R. & C. Allan. He was also a lifelong member of the Merchant's House of Glasgow and a director of the British Crown Assurance Corporation Limited. By the time World War I erupted in 1914 he was already a member of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, but transferred the following year to the 9th Glasgow Highland Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry reaching the rank of Captain. In 1901, while living on the Ballochmyle estate at Mauchline near Ayr, he married Ada Mitchell and they had four children, Charles, Bobby, Marion and Sheena. From 1908 he rented the 21-bedroom Kilmahew Castle from another shipowner, John William Burns, from whom he bought it in 1919, remaining there until his death.