WHYTOCK & REID FURNITURE FROM DALMUINZIE HOUSE, BIELDSIDE, ABERDEENSHIRE
Mr Patrick Duncan Gourlay Clark spent nearly all his working life in Sri Lanka initially as assistant curator of the Peradinya Gardens from 1883-1885, a rubber and tea planter, manager and land owner. In 1911 he married Marion Smith, daughter of Hugh Smith (well known engineering firm in Glasgow), in St Andrew's Kirk in Colombo.
Here they enjoyed entertaining, often extending the dining room table to seat a dozen or more guests. Mr Clark was a keen fisherman having a beat on the River Dee. He was an accomplished shot, joining shooting parties on Aberdeenshire estates. Mrs Clark was a keen bridge player, played golf and enjoyed entertaining at home.
On returning home from the East, Patrick and Marion Clark were drawn to the beauty of Aberdeenshire where they enjoyed family life with their two children Patrick born in 1914 and Enid born in 1916. They rented their first home Glenmillan near Lumphanan and then later purchased Alt-na-braigh in Milltimber.
In 1937 PDGC (as he was fondly known) died of a heart attack. The family remained in Dalmuinzie until the outbreak of war when the army took possession of the property. Sadly Patrick, their only son died in action in November 1941. Mrs Clark sold Dalmunizie House in 1947. Some of the furniture was sold to Whytock and Reid following the sale of the house; the remainder was put into storage in Galloway and Sykes, Aberdeen.
In 1927 Mr and Mrs Clark purchased Dalmuinzie House, Bieldside, 5 miles west of Aberdeen from Lady Fleming, widow of John Fleming, Lord Provost of Aberdeen. Mrs Clark was keen to enhance this gracious home and enlisted the professional services of Whytock and Reid purchasing from them furniture, soft furnishings and ornaments. The furniture well suited the large elegant wood panelled rooms and the high ceilings; the principle rooms commanding stunning views to the hills of Deeside.
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Mrs Clark's daughter Enid married a naval officer from Essex in 1945 and so the remaining Whytock and Reid furniture from Dalmunzie House made its way south from Aberdeen to beautify Enid's family home in Essex for a further fifty years Fiona Bundock, grand-daughter of Mr and Mrs P D G Clark November 2011