ABSTRACT
ABERNETHY, William Gray (1890-1966) IAAG (1913) William Gray Abernethy (WGA) was born in 1890 at Paisley in Renfrewshire. Paisley is a town situated directly west of the city of Glasgow and was famous in the early nineteenth century for cotton spinning and later for its textile industry, including the weaving of shawls and thread manufacturing (particularly with the firm of J. & P. Coats). Paisley’s population in 1881 was approximately 56,000. WGA’s father, John Adamson Abernethy, was ordained in 1880 and became the Church of Scotland minister for the Linwood parish. His mother was Margaret Arneil Gray, the daughter of William Gray and Margaret Arneil of the village of Kilbarchan on the western outskirts of Paisley. William Gray was a farmer of 115 acres and had six employees on his farm at the time of WGA’s birth. His son, WGA’s uncle, was a factory worker in Paisley. The paternal grandparents were Peter Abernethy, a Glasgow woollen and wincey manufacturer, and Marion Adamson. WGA had another uncle, also Peter Abernethy, who was a medical practitioner in Glasgow.
