William Dudgeon Graham Menzies (1857-1944)
W.D. Graham Menzies, Chairman of the D.C.L., of Hallyburton House, Coupar Angus
He was born in Edinburgh and was educated at Rugby in England. In 1880, he succeeded his father as head of Graham Menzies & Co., distillers. Four years later (1884), their company became the seventh to merge with the Distiller's Company Limited (DCL). In 1897, in the same year that W.H. Ross became General Manager and Secretary of the DCL, Menzies was appointed its Chairman, a position he held for 28-years. They made a redoubtable team and together they are credited with building the DCL. Menzies died leaving a fortune of £1.4-million. He lived between London and Hallyburton House that he inherited from his elder brother in 1889. In 1890, he married Cecilia, the youngest daughter of Sir George Orby Wombwell 4th Bt., of Newburgh Priory, Yorkshire, former A.D.C. to Lord Cardigan during the Crimean War and a survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade. They had three sons, one of whom (Alastair) was killed in World War I and another of whom (Victor) was declared bankrupt in 1920 but a year later inherited Newburgh Priory and changed his surname to "Wombwell".
