Sir William Mackinnon of Balinakill

(1823-1893)
Ship owner and colonial developer

In 1889, the year in which he received his (English) barontecy, Sir William Mackinnon presented to the University Library the private library of the Rev. Dr Alexander Cameron (1827-1888), Celtic scholar and Minister of the Free Kirk at Brodick on Arran. Mackinnon had purchased the library on Cameron's death.

Born at Campbelltown, Argyllshire, Mackinnon trained as a grocer, but went out to India where he eventually founded the British India Steam Navigation Company which developed a vast trade round the coasts of the Indian Ocean. This extended to the east coast of Africa, between Aden and Zanzibar, where Mackinnon established what was chartered in 1888 as the Imperial British East Africa Company; its objctives included the elimination of the slave trade, the prohibition of trade monopoly, and the qual treatment of all nations. Mackinnon promoted H. M. Stanley's expedition for the relief of Emin Pasha, and in 1891 founded the Free Church of Scotland East African Scottish Mission. He also founded the independent Keil School in Dumbarton. He was created a baronet in 1889. On his death (without issue) he was buried at Clachan, Argyllshire near his beloved house Balinakill.

The Cameron Collection, as it is now known, comprises ca 3,500 volumes on Celtic studies and Scottish theology. All the items appear in the University Library's pre-1985 guard-book catalogue. An author catalogue of the Alexander Cameron and (unconnected) Donald Mackinnon collections is available in the Special Collections Department, and a shelf-list of the Collection is also available.