Bill McAllister: 190th anniversary of the birth of the man who made the first phone call in Inverness
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THIS year is the 190th anniversary of the birth of the man who made the first phone call in Inverness – having championed the installation of the burgh’s first telegraph poles and wires.
Henry Cockburn Macandrew, born in Inverness in 1832, was one of nine children of a local solicitor and went on to become a pioneering Provost as well as founding a local legal firm which is now almost 160 years old.
After attending Inverness Royal Academy and King’s College, Aberdeen, Henry joined his father John’s practice before spending several years working for the Bank of England and broadening his business acumen.
Returning to Inverness, Henry joined with James Macpherson to launch a law firm. When Macpherson died, Macandrew took as his new partner Charles Jenkins, son of his sister Catherine and Major General Charles Jenkins. With his nephew, Henry established Macandrew and Jenkins, which still trades in Drummond Street.
Macandrew was only 38 when he became sheriff clerk of Inverness-shire and in 1882 successfully stood for election to the Town Council. A year later, he was chosen as Provost – and used his role to drive forward Inverness’s communications access.
In September 1884, he advertised a meeting in the Town Hall to consider a proposal to establish a telephone exchange in Inverness only four years after Britain’s first opened in London.
“All classes of the trading community were well represented”, said the Courier and the audience included George Walker of Inverness Saw Mills, Mr Galloway the chemist, Mr Robertson of Rose Street Saw Mills, and Mr Macpherson, steamboat agent, plus a host of solicitors.
Mr AR Bennett, general manager of the phone company, explained how “several girls” would join or separate wires to connect callers, and stressed there would be a seven-day 24-hour service. If Inverness agreed, a telephone line would be laid and “when this is accomplished, Inverness people would be able to bargain direct with the merchants of Leith and Glasgow”.
Opening an exchange in Inverness would mean a £10 annual charge to each subscriber within a mile of the exchange, and a minimum of 30 subscribers would be required. Provost Macandrew was the first subscriber. Macandrew told the meeting:”I was one of the first subscribers to the introduction of the telegraph wire to Inverness and there was difficulty in meeting the number of guaranteed subscribers to go ahead. But look at all the telegraph wires now. It will be the same with the telephone.”
Ten subscribers signed up at that meeting. The Provost called a special Town Council meeting a few days later at which it was agreed to become subscribers for the Town Hall, the Post Office and, strangely enough, the Slaughterhouse, presumably for those willing to mince their words….
This completed the subscribers list – the exchange would happen.
Macandrew ensured that in 1885 the Town House acquired the historic number Inverness 1.
That same year he picked up that phone and asked to be connected to Inverness 2, the number of William MacKay of Craigmonie House, now the Craigmonie Hotel. He received a knighthood from Queen Victoria in 1887, two years before stepping down after 16 years as Provost. Amongst his various business activities, he was a director of the Caledonian Bank.
Sir Henry, who was President of the Field Club, lived at Maryfield, Diriebught, where the wee hill was known as ‘Macandrew’s Brae’.
The council commissioned his portrait by Aberdeen-born artist Sir George Reid which hangs in the Town Hall. Across the same room, the roll of the fallen includes his son Henry John Innes Macandrew, a major general in the Seaforth Highlanders, who died in 1919.
This remarkable man died on September 26, 1898. In a lifetime of achievement, by championing the telegraph wire and then the telephone in Inverness, Macandrew became, truly, the master communicator. Long before Instagram and TikTok!
Sponsored by Ness Castle Lodges.
