From the vast lairs within the Southern Necropolis, there is one particular section that I tend, least, to favour when searching – the Western Section (opened in 1850).

Don’t get me wrong, its not that my passion for the cemetery doesn’t extend to it, but rather, when trying to locate a grave for someone, this area always seems to prove the most stubborn to give anyone up (know what I mean?).

But recently there has been some exciting activity within the burial records and via an enquiry through the website, providing another nice addition to the family of characters.

John Kelso Hunter was a cobbler by trade and also a self-taught portrait painter, born 15th December 1802 at Dankeith in Ayrshire. In 1799 his family had moved from Chirnside village in Berwickshire, where his father took employment as a gardener at an Ayrshire estate owned by Colonel William Kelso. It was here, in his younger days, John was employed as a herd boy, later following a shoemaker’s apprenticeship. He was married on 9th August 1822 to Agnes Willock at Low Church in Kilmarnock and within 22 years they had 13 children.

It was at this point in his life, while carrying on his work as a shoemaker, he turned his hand to the ‘canvass and brush’, and taught himself portrait painting. In 1847, JK Hunter had one of his works ‘Self Portrait as a Shoemaker’ on show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and in 1849 another of his paintings entitled ‘A Man’s Head’ was displayed at the Royal Scottish Academy.

Other paintings that he contributed were ‘A Roadside Inn, Ayr’(1868), ‘From Above Port-Glasgow’ and the ‘Self Portrait as a Shoemaker’ both in 1872.

Details from his autobiography state that his youngest son Harry Johnson, also followed the artistic life and was a landscape painter in oil and watercolour – his work is listed in the Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture.

John Kelso Hunter died in Glasgow on the 2nd March 1873, aged 70. Following the website enquiry from JK’s g-g-g-granddaughter Margaret Hunter Weaver, I have contacted the Cemeteries  Crematoria Department giving them the date of death etc. Hopefully they will help locate a lair number for the grave of John Kelso Hunter. Then it will be fingers crossed on a visit to the Southern Necropolis for a wander through the rows, and maybe a headstone – if I’m dead lucky that is!

With reference to last month’s mention of the book ‘City Of The Dead….a guide to Glasgow’ s Southern Necropolis’, both myself and fellow researcher Paul O’Quinn eagerly await its publication later this year.

Paul also has a passionate interest in the cemetery and has worked on the book, delving into history and researching additional character information.

Reservations for the book can be sent via the Local News or by using the following email: orders@cityofthedead.co.uk