William was voice of reason
Will William Gilmour Wallace was born on J January 10 ,1861, at the Coa Coachman’s House, Barskimming, Ma Mauchline, to George and Ma Margaret Wallace.
H His father was the estate coa coachman, later moving to Oc Ochiltree, where he ran the Co Commercial Inn.
William attended the village school.
By the time he was 18, his fa father was dead, possibly of an a alcohol- related illness. Great- granddaughter C Carolyn O’Hara said: “I cannot help but think that his strong stance on the dangers of a alcohol, expressed in his w writing – and the decision to be teetotal to which he often refers – could well stem from his first- hand experience of life at the Commercial Inn during his childh childhood.”
At the age of 20, William is listed in the 1881 census as a ‘ carriage hirer.’ The next 10 years brought big changes in William’s life – he moved to Edinburgh and became an errand boy in a legal office, where he got to know the streets of Edinburgh on foot.
William then moved on to become manager of the Textile Trade Review, before joining the staff of the Glasgow Evening News, were he would cut his teeth as a reporter.
In 1889, he moved to Ayr to become the manager of the Ayrshire Post and by 1892, he had married local girl Helen McMurdo.
Carolyn said: “The Ayrshire Post was a small, struggling concern having been founded in 1880 as a voice of Liberalism, in direct competition to the Ayr Advertiser – its Tory rival – the Ayr Observer and the radical Ayrshire Express.
“Within a year, he began writing weekly columns commenting on current affairs – both local and national – signing himself Oculeus, a name which he continued to write under until his retirement after his final column published on November 8 1940.”
During his tenure at the Ayrshire Post, William supervised the move of the newspaper from its home in Newmarket Street to Nile Court, where the Ayrshire Post is still produced to this day.
He also oversaw the technological changes that took place in the industry when the newspaper left what was then traditional flatbed printing to rotary printing in 1918.
In addition, William, for more than two decades, was director of Ayr County Hospital and used his position at the Post to help raise funding to the tune of £ 12,000 – with the help of the Post’s readership. That money helped the hospital to build a new wing.
Later, he became a Justice of the Peace for Ayrshire.
Mr Wallace passed away at his home in Dongola Road, Ayr, on October 1 1944 aged 83.