Colonel William Smith Gill CB VD DL (16 February 1865 – 25 December 1957) was a Scottish Volunteer Force officer and paint manufacturer. He was the great-grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Early life

Born at Old Machar, Peterculter, Aberdeenshire, Gill was the son of Alexander Ogston Gill (1832–1908) and his wife, Barbara Smith Marr (1843–1898).[1]

Career

In the 1880s, Gill became an officer of the Aberdeen Volunteers,[2] and between 1908 and 1910 he was Colonel Commanding the Highland Division Royal Engineers (Territorial Force).[3] By 1896, Gill was a partner with his father in Farquhar & Gill, paint manufacturers.[4]

In 1925, Gill was appointed as a Deputy lieutenant of Aberdeen.[5]

Gill died in 1957 at Dalhebity in Bieldside, Aberdeenshire, aged 92.[1] He was buried in Peterculter Cemetery, Aberdeen.[6]

Marriage and issue

On 30 June 1898, at Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen, Gill married Ruth Littlejohn, a daughter of David Littlejohn (1841–1924) and his wife, Jane Crombie (1843–1917). They had five children:[1][7]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d D. Williamson, "The Ancestry of Lady Diana Spencer" in ' Genealogist’s Magazine, vol. 20 (1981), pp. 192–199 and 281–282
  2. ^ Donald Sinclair, The History of the Aberdeen Volunteers: Embracing Also Some Account of the Early Volunteers of the Counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Kincardine (Aberdeen Daily Journal Office, 1907), pp. 302, 303
  3. ^ Supplemental History of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen (1939), p. 119: "Ruth married in 1898 William Smith Gill, C.B., D.L., of Dalhebity, Peterculter, Colonel Commanding Highland Division R.E. (T.F.), 1908-10. Died, 11th May, 1924."
  4. ^ "Alexander Ogston Gill and Another v. William Cutler" in Cases Decided in the Court of Session, Court of Justiciary, and House of Lords (T. & T. Clark, 1898), p. 371
  5. ^ The London Gazette, 15 September 1925, p. 6030
  6. ^ William Smith Gill, findagrave.com, accessed 5 December 2020
  7. ^ Burkes Peerage vol. 1 (2003), p. 1414
  8. ^ Bruce Harrison, The Family Forest Descendants of Sir Robert Parke, p. 389
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