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Andrew Ewing

Andrew Ewing was a Scottish entrepreneur and secret philanthropist who founded and managed the Buttercup Dairy Company - a once famous chain of grocery shops.

Andrew Ewing

Business Career

Ewing was born in the small village of Stoneykirk, in remote south west Scotland in 1869. Fourteen years later he moved to Dundee, where he opened his first grocer's shop in 1894. He established the first branch of the Buttercup Dairy Company, in Kirkcaldy in 1904 and, by the late 1920s, it had 250 branches all over Scotland and northern England. In 1928 he built one of the largest poultry farms in the world, in Corstorphine, Edinburgh, which had 200,000 laying hens. The Buttercup shops were each characterized by their beautiful entrance lobby mural which showed a little girl in a blue sunbonnet holding a bunch of flowers and offering one to a big, friendly cow. The shops also had a strong focus on cleanliness, which was further enhanced by the clean white coats of the shop staff - all of whom were women

Personal Life

As a devout Christian, Ewing pledged to help those less fortunate than himself. Ten percent of all his income was donated to the church, but he also gave generously and anonymously to the poor and many others. All of the eggs, laid on a Sunday at his poultry farm, were donated to local hospitals and charities - which, given the output of his farm, amounted to over 100,000 a week or five million a year. During the depression years of the early 1930s, and again during the Second World War, many a person would also find a small packet slipped into their pocket, containing half a pound of butter or some rashers of bacon.

Ewing married twice - first to Nellie Munro in 1898 and, after her death, to Ruth Henderson in 1932. He had no children. He moved to Edinburgh in 1905 and set up the head office of The Buttercup Dairy Company in Leith. In 1922 he bought the estate of Clermiston Mains, on the western outskirts of Edinburgh, where he built his poultry farm and lived for the rest of his life.

As he approached old age Ewing resolved that he wanted to die a poor man and proceeded to give away his fortune to good causes, the church, his employees and indeed many others who were fortunate enough to cross his path. Even tradesmen remember his generosity and one young apprentice recalled working at Ewing's farm in 1949. On Saturday mornings, after a week’s work Ewing would make his rounds, giving each tradesman £1 and the apprentices, ten shillings. Needless to say, they were all peeping around corners awaiting his arrival!

Death

Andrew Ewing died on 9 August 1956. As he had wished, his estate was virtually worthless.

References

Scott, Bill The Buttercup: The Remarkable Story of Andrew Ewing and The Buttercup Dairy Company Leghorn Books (July 2011) ISBN 9780956920607

Young, Margaret Jackson, ‘Buttercups and Dairies’, The Scots Magazine (February 1993)

Soholt, Heidi, 'Dairy Tale' The Scotsman, (30 August 2011)

Lennie, Lindsay, ‘The Tiled Shops of James Duncan Ltd’, Journal of Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society, Volume 15, 2009

‘Scotland’s Biggest Egg Factory’, Weekly Scotsman, (28 December 1928)

‘Edinburgh’s ‘Hen City’, The Scotsman, (8 August 1930)

‘Andrew Ewing’ Tribute, The Record, Charlotte Chapel, Edinburgh magazine, (September 1956)

'Final Disposition and Settlement – Andrew Ewing', (28 June 1957)

External Links

Buttercup Dairy Company Website http://www.buttercupdairycompany.co.uk/

Northumberland Gazette, Rise and fall of a dairy (1 October 2011) http://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/local-news/rise_and_fall_of_a_dairy_1_3828406

Cameron Rose Blogspot( 27 July 2011) http://cameronrose.blogspot.com/2011/07/local-history-buttercup-dairy-company.html