Lesley Langley
This hat is from a larger group of material which was donated by the family of Leslie Langley, a University of Glasgow graduate who was born in British India in 1889. Leslie Langley was born on the 13th November 1889 in Allahabad, North West Provinces, India. One of five children, he was the last generation of his family to live in British India, and the first to attend the University of Glasgow. The term “British India” was used to describe the area of the Indian subcontinent which was under the control of the British East India Company and then the British Crown between 1600 and 1947.
In 1909 at the age of twenty, he won an All-India scholarship to the University of Glasgow. Taking up residence in Gibson Street, Hillhead, Leslie matriculated into the Faculty of Science to study Engineering. he graduated with his B.Sc. in 1912 and returned to India where he was employed by the Public Works Department as an Assistant Engineer and posted to Burma (now officially the Union of Myanmar). Leslie lived near Putao (Fort Hertz) in the Mandalay District and it is here that he collected the objects which formed the later donation to the Hunterian Museum. Leslie left in 1922 to return to Scotland where he married, eventually becoming assistant science master of Hutcheson’s Grammar School in 1932. He remained there until he retired in 1955.
This project is based on original research by Mr Mac Robertson who is married to Leslie’s daughter Maureen and who is himself a graduate of the University of Glasgow. The generosity of donors like the family of Leslie Langley emphasises the role that University of Glasgow graduates play in the continuing development of The University of Glasgow and The Hunterian.