East Ayrshire Image
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East Ayrshire Image March 13, 2012
1. The Baird Institute, Cumnock
Date: ca 2005
©East Ayrshire Council
2. James Keir Hardie, 1856 - 1915. Labour leader. Painting by Henry John Dobson.
Date: 1893
Image: National Gallery Collections
Opened in 1891, the Baird Institute Museum lies in the centre of Cumnock.
Displays within the museum include collections of Mauchline Ware, Cumnock pottery and other important items showing the rich social and industrial heritage of the area.
There is a dedicated Keir Hardie room, recently rearranged to include many of Hardie’s personal belongings.
James Keir Hardie (1856-1915)
Born into poverty in Lanarkshire, he worked as a messenger for the Anchor Steam Ship Company at the age of 7. By his 10th birthday his family had returned to the Hamilton area and he was working as a trapper in one of the mines.
In May 1879, Scottish mine owners combined to force a reduction of wages, spurring the demands of their workers for unionisation. Huge meetings were held at Hamilton where workers vented their grievances. On 3 July 1879, Keir Hardie was appointed Corresponding Secretary of the miners, a post which gave him opportunity to contact other representatives of the mine workers throughout southern Scotland. Three weeks later, Hardie was chosen by the miners as their delegate to a National Conference of Miners to be held in Glasgow. He was appointed Miners' Agent in August 1879 and his new career as a trade union organiser and functionary was launched.
Still working as a miner. he moved to Cumnock in 1881. Appalled at the conditions in the Ayrshire mines he led a protest against a cut in wages and organised a union of the Ayrshire miners. This protest collapsed and he was dismissed and black-listed by the mine owners. In 1882 he became a journalist with the ‘Cumnock News’.
Hardie became involved in the Cumnock Community, founding a Good Templar Lodge and promoting the temperance movement. He was invited to become the Secretary to the new Ayrshire Miners’ Union in 1886 and in 1888 helped found the Scottish Labour Party, standing as Labour candidate at the Mid-Lanark by-election. Throughout his career as an MP in London, Hardie continued to live in Cumnock at ‘Lochnorris’, a large house which he had built for his family in 1891.
The Lochnorris Collection
The Lochnorris Collection contains 1200 items relating to the public and private life of James Keir Hardie and his family, principally his daughter Agnes (Nan) and her husband Emrys Hughes.
The collection has been acquired almost exclusively from direct family descendants. Furniture, letters, pictures, books, photos and ceramics are all included. Many items were gifts received by James Keir Hardie on world tours so a strong element of ethnography appears in the collection.