Quick Facts
Biography
Andrew Usher II (5 January 1826 – 1 November 1898) was a successful Scottish whisky distiller and blender.
Background
His father, whose named he shared; Andrew Usher (1782 – 1855) was a prominent Scottish brewer who had experimented with the blending of whisky in the 1840s. He had two sons; Andrew II and John. Andrew Usher II was made a partner of Andrew Usher & Co of Edinburgh in the late 1840s. Andrew Usher II perfected the eventual blending of whisky and as such is sometimes stated by some sources to be the 'father of Scottish Whisky'. The subsequent blending and mass distillation enabled whisky to grow from a drink rarely consumed outside the United Kingdom, to be one of mass export.
Andrew Usher II was one of the three founders of the North British Distillery with the other two founders being John Crabbie of Crabbie's Green Ginger and William Sanderson, whisky blender of Vat 69, who both served as Directors of the NB distillery. Andrew Usher II was the first Chairman of the NB Distillery from the start in 1885 until very shortly before his death on 1 November 1898. Andrew Usher II and his brother John Usher, as Partners in Andrew Usher & Co, were also the proprietors of the Edinburgh Distillery.
Philanthropy
Among his many bequests to Edinburgh and Scotland was Usher Hall, which became Scotland's premier concert hall. It is recorded that he donated £100,000 to the city specifically to fund the new concert hall on 23 June 1896. A bust of Andrew Usher is located in the hall at the entrance to the Grand Circle. He died before the hall was completed and the hall was subsequently opened by his widows.
He also played a major role in improving the fishing village and harbour of St Abbs in Berwickshire. Usher purchase the Northfield estate on the edge of the village, enlarging and finishing the building of a countryside manorby the coastal shore in 1892. He considered the local public hall inadequate and subsquantly funded a new village hall and school, which was constructed in 1887 and is now occupied by the St Abbs visitor centre. Usher also gave funds for the building of the local church in 1892 and the extension of the outer harbour wall in 1890.
Death
He is buried in the Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh with his first wife, Elizabeth Langmuir Miller (1826-1876), second wife, Marion Blackwood Murray (1847-1925) and several of their children. The large monument lies in the south-west corner of the original cemetery, adjacent to the opening to the western extension.
His city centre family house is now a converted pub, located near the University of Edinburgh.