George Drummond

George Drummond (1688-1766) was accountant-general of excise in Scotland and a local politician, elected Lord Provost of Edinburgh a number of times between 1725 and 1764.

Drummond was born in Blairgowrie, Perthshire. He was educated at the High School in Edinburgh and began his career as an accountant, working on the financial details of the Act of Union (1707). He was a strong opponent of Jacobitism, and fought against John Erskine (1675 - 1732), the 6th Earl of Mar, at the Battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715. He also raised a company of volunteers to try to defend the city of Edinburgh against the army of Bonnie Prince Charlie during the Jacobite Rising of 1745.

Drummond first joined the Edinburgh Town Council in 1716. He raised funds to build the Royal Infirmary, designed by William Adam in 1738, which quickly became one of the world's foremost teaching hospitals. In 1760 he was responsible for commissioning the Royal Exchange, which later became the Edinburgh City Chambers. He was also a great supporter of the University of Edinburgh, encouraging its enlargement and establishing five chairs of medicine.

Drummond is best known as the driving force behind the building of Edinburgh's 'New Town'. His aim was to overcome the unhealthy and overcrowded conditions of the Old Town. In 1766 he persuaded the Town Council to support an ambitious plan for a grand extension to the city on its north side and to hold a competition for the design. The competition was won by the young architect James Craig who was then only 21. In 1759 Drummond also had the insanitary Nor' Loch drained and identified the need for the North Bridge as the gateway to the New Town, laying its foundation stone in 1763.

Drummond was also a Freemason and was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland in the year 1752-53.

Drummond is buried in the churchyard of the Canongate Kirk his name being remembered in Drummond Place, the street in his New Town where he had a fine mansion, and Drummond Street, next to the site previously occupied by the Royal Infirmary.

References

*Alexander Murdoch, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8065 ‘Drummond, George (1687–1766)’] , "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004