Charles Duguid, who was headmaster of Saltcoats Academy, took up the post at the age of twenty-six, after leaving his home village of Bucksburn in Aberdeenshire to attend Edinburgh University and Edinburgh Teachers' Training College. He appears to be the first in the line of Saltcoats' Duguids and may indeed be the person after whom Duguid Drive, in Saltcoats is named. Incidentally, he married Jane Snodgrass Kinnier the second daughter of Dr. Robert Snodgrass Kinnier also of Saltcoats. There has been recent mention of this doctor in connection with the Saltcoats Mission Coast Home.down south wrote:... While looking for Saltcoats streets named after political figures, I've just come across the street name Duguid Drive ( a cul-de-sac off Ivanhoe Drive ), which most probably is named for Mr Duguid the headmaster.
A second possibility is that the street was named after the son of Charles Duguid (also called Charles), who had a distinguished career as a doctor and as a defender of aboriginal rights, in Australia. This Duguid from Saltcoats (6 April 1884 – 5 December 1986), was awarded an OBE in 1970 for his work with Aborigines. His biography makes interesting reading. A brief outline is available at Wikipedia and from the Australian Dictionary of Biography. There is a photograph of Charles Duguid at this National Museum of Australia site (although they manage to give his place of birth incorrectly as Glasgow rather than Saltcoats).
One further mention of this Dr Charles Duguid comes from the Rootsweb email archives, where our very own Hughie McCallum recounted the following A&SH story of 1948:
Finally, Charles Duguid's autobiography, 'Doctor and the Aborigines' (published in 1972), includes some insightful descriptions of life in Saltcoats (and Glasgow) in the early 1900s.Sixteen and a half-year-old Walter Ferguson, a cadet in the "Scottish Monarch," while in Adelaide, Australia, last month visited a church there. To Walter's surprise he met Dr Duguid, a native of Saltcoats, whose father was headmaster of Ardrossan Academy and whose grandfather was Dr Kinnear,Saltcoats. Walter was proud to reveal to Dr Duguid that his father Jim Ferguson, his grandfather, the late Walter Ferguson and his grandmother
Mrs Kate Ferguson, at present residing at Scotstoun, were all natives of Saltcoats. Young Walter was thrilled at meeting someone from Saltcoats so far away from home.
