Graham Menzies (1820-1880)
Distiller & Owner of the Caledonian Whisky Distillery, Edinburgh
Father
He was born at Paisley in Renfrewshire. In 1795, his father (originally a maltman) and other family members formed a company to take ownership of the struggling Saucel Distillery in Paisley. By the time his father went bankrupt for the second time in 1817, he was in debt £9,000 and despite his brother's best attempts to rescue it, he too went bankrupt and they sold up to James Stewart in 1823. Their failure can be easily explained: Back then, nearly half of the whisky sold in Britain came from illegal distilleries in the Highlands, and because the illegal distilleries used malt grain when legal distillers such as Robert Menzies & Co. were cutting it out to avoid the high rate of tax imposed on it, it was the illegal distilleries that produced the superior drink and by doing so they commanded a far higher price on which they didn't pay any tax.
In 1823, having failed in all their attempts to control the whisky trade, the British government finally legalised the commercial production of whisky in Scotland and under Menzies' uncle, James Stewart, the Saucel Distillery finally became profitable. In 1841, Menzies was listed as a distiller in the employ of James Stewart & Co. and he was living with his uncle next to the Saucel on King Street. When Stewart died, the Saucel devolved to Menzies. Four years later Menzies was in Glasgow with James Stewart & Co., and in 1849 he came to Edinburgh and leased the Sunbury Distillery near Dean Bridge in Leith from the Haig family. It was a large distillery and Menzies employed 100-men to run it while he lived next door (with his half-sister, Margaret) at Sunbury House, then described as, "a neat cottage residence with garden and plot of ornamental ground attached, the property and residence of Mr. Menzies of the firm Graham Menzies & Co., distillers".
By 1851, Menzies had been appointed to the honorary position of Box-Master of the Maltmen's Society in Paisley and in the same year was made a Justice of the Peace for Sunbury. But, by 1854, he had fallen foul of the law on, "a variety of counts for alleged contraventions of the revenue laws" and just three years after his most socially important appointment, his name was dishonourably scratched from the magistrature. However, he was already a major player in the distilling world and his lawyers managed to reduce his charges to just one count on which he was found guilty and fined £1,000. At the time, it was a slap on the wrist, but the significant long term effects would later be cruelly felt.
Just one year after his conviction (1855), Menzies disposed of the Sunbury in order to build the Caledonian Distillery on what was then five acres of farmland strategically positioned next to the Union Canal and the Haymarket train station. "The Cally" became the largest - and according to James Grant "the greatest" - distillery in Scotland, the second largest in Europe and the first purpose-built distillery of its kind. It started operation with a single column before incorporating two pot stills which produced an Irish-style grain whisky.
In 1856, Graham Menzies & Co. signed the lowland distiller's "Trade Arrangement" that allocated trade between six distillers to control prices. His firm had the largest stock of whisky and was given 41.5% of the trade whereas the next largest had just 15%, reflective of the firm's increasing dominance and by 1858 the Caledonian was producing just over two million gallons of whisky a year. To give some of idea of the profit he was then making, the same year saw him pay a whopping £1,040,000 in taxes. By 1869, the Caledonian was also producing Gordon's London Dry Gin and this precipitated his move from Edinburgh to London as a partner in Menzies, Drysdale & Co. His fortune secured, it was at about this time that he began to lobby for a title only to find himself stonewalled, principally because of his earlier conviction despite the millions he'd since paid in tax.
In February, 1880, Menzies paid £235,000 for the 5,700-acre Hallyburton estate in Forfarshire and employed two of Britain's leading architects to transform the old existing house into a sprawling Elizabethan-style mansion. But years of hard work and his ruthless reputation took its toll and he died just nine months later in November, 1880. It would also take a further two decades (1904) before his family were permitted a coat-of-arms: "Parted per pale argent and gules, three escallops and a chief all counterchanged" with a crest on a wreath of his liveries, a savage's head proper; motto, "Will God I Shall".
In 1855, Menzies was married in Edinburgh to Beatrice, one of the three daughters of William Dudgeon, Merchant, of Leith. They took up residence at 8 Atholl Crescent in the New Town before moving to London where they lived first at 58 Westbourne Terrace in Paddington before moving to 32 Queen's Gate in South Kensington. They were the parents of six children (listed above) who included W.D. Graham Menzies, the Chairman and leading force behind the all-powerful D.C.L. (Distiller's Company Ltd.) with which Graham Menzies & Co. merged in 1884 four years after Graham's death. The DCL continued to own and operate the Caledonian Distillery until it merged with Guinness in 1986 to form United Distillers, and in 1988 the Caledonian was closed for good.
In 1823, having failed in all their attempts to control the whisky trade, the British government finally legalised the commercial production of whisky in Scotland and under Menzies' uncle, James Stewart, the Saucel Distillery finally became profitable. In 1841, Menzies was listed as a distiller in the employ of James Stewart & Co. and he was living with his uncle next to the Saucel on King Street. When Stewart died, the Saucel devolved to Menzies. Four years later Menzies was in Glasgow with James Stewart & Co., and in 1849 he came to Edinburgh and leased the Sunbury Distillery near Dean Bridge in Leith from the Haig family. It was a large distillery and Menzies employed 100-men to run it while he lived next door (with his half-sister, Margaret) at Sunbury House, then described as, "a neat cottage residence with garden and plot of ornamental ground attached, the property and residence of Mr. Menzies of the firm Graham Menzies & Co., distillers".
By 1851, Menzies had been appointed to the honorary position of Box-Master of the Maltmen's Society in Paisley and in the same year was made a Justice of the Peace for Sunbury. But, by 1854, he had fallen foul of the law on, "a variety of counts for alleged contraventions of the revenue laws" and just three years after his most socially important appointment, his name was dishonourably scratched from the magistrature. However, he was already a major player in the distilling world and his lawyers managed to reduce his charges to just one count on which he was found guilty and fined £1,000. At the time, it was a slap on the wrist, but the significant long term effects would later be cruelly felt.
Just one year after his conviction (1855), Menzies disposed of the Sunbury in order to build the Caledonian Distillery on what was then five acres of farmland strategically positioned next to the Union Canal and the Haymarket train station. "The Cally" became the largest - and according to James Grant "the greatest" - distillery in Scotland, the second largest in Europe and the first purpose-built distillery of its kind. It started operation with a single column before incorporating two pot stills which produced an Irish-style grain whisky.
In 1856, Graham Menzies & Co. signed the lowland distiller's "Trade Arrangement" that allocated trade between six distillers to control prices. His firm had the largest stock of whisky and was given 41.5% of the trade whereas the next largest had just 15%, reflective of the firm's increasing dominance and by 1858 the Caledonian was producing just over two million gallons of whisky a year. To give some of idea of the profit he was then making, the same year saw him pay a whopping £1,040,000 in taxes. By 1869, the Caledonian was also producing Gordon's London Dry Gin and this precipitated his move from Edinburgh to London as a partner in Menzies, Drysdale & Co. His fortune secured, it was at about this time that he began to lobby for a title only to find himself stonewalled, principally because of his earlier conviction despite the millions he'd since paid in tax.
In February, 1880, Menzies paid £235,000 for the 5,700-acre Hallyburton estate in Forfarshire and employed two of Britain's leading architects to transform the old existing house into a sprawling Elizabethan-style mansion. But years of hard work and his ruthless reputation took its toll and he died just nine months later in November, 1880. It would also take a further two decades (1904) before his family were permitted a coat-of-arms: "Parted per pale argent and gules, three escallops and a chief all counterchanged" with a crest on a wreath of his liveries, a savage's head proper; motto, "Will God I Shall".
In 1855, Menzies was married in Edinburgh to Beatrice, one of the three daughters of William Dudgeon, Merchant, of Leith. They took up residence at 8 Atholl Crescent in the New Town before moving to London where they lived first at 58 Westbourne Terrace in Paddington before moving to 32 Queen's Gate in South Kensington. They were the parents of six children (listed above) who included W.D. Graham Menzies, the Chairman and leading force behind the all-powerful D.C.L. (Distiller's Company Ltd.) with which Graham Menzies & Co. merged in 1884 four years after Graham's death. The DCL continued to own and operate the Caledonian Distillery until it merged with Guinness in 1986 to form United Distillers, and in 1988 the Caledonian was closed for good.
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Contributed by Mark Meredith on 13/01/2023 and last updated on 29/08/2023.