David Robertson

David Robertson trod an astonishing path from poverty-stricken childhood to becoming a widely respected authority on natural history.

At the tender age of eight, he began spending his summers working as a farm herd boy. He was to be a labourer for the next 16 years, gradually teaching himself to read and write, attending public lectures and eventually being awarded a place at the University of Glasgow to study medicine.

Establishing himself as a doctor would have been challenging given his origins, so he chose instead to go into trade, though his passion for natural history remained undiminished and he joined the Natural History Society of Glasgow in 1852.

With his wife Hannah he visited Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae each summer and together they began collecting and researching seaweeds, shells and marine animals. The couple travelled to Norway, Shetland and the Hebrides on subsequent fossil hunting expeditions and he published many papers on their discoveries.

After retiring to Millport, Robertson made a start on realising a long held ambition to establish a local marine research station. In his eighties, he relocated the Ark, a barge which had been set up as a floating laboratory, from Granton to Millport, running it ashore and opening it up to visitors.

The combination of the rich sea-life of the Cumbrae coast combined with his boundless enthusiasm for sharing his knowledge proved irresistible to visitors to the extent that an attendant had to be employed and an entry fee charged.

Robertson was given many awards, including an honorary degree by the University of Glasgow in 1895 but was not content to rest on his laurels. He spent his final years fundraising to replace the Ark with a permanent facility, living long enough to see the laying of the foundation stone.

The station, comprising a laboratory, museum and public aquarium opened the following year.