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The Brock Family Memorial

This memorial to the Brock family is located close to the main entrance of Dumbarton Cemetery (the NS4075 : Gravestone of Daniel McAusland can be seen, side-on, in the background, on the right).

The upper part of the inscription is as follows (the lower part is for later relatives):

"Henry William Brock, Engineer, Born 1869, Died 1906 /
Walter Brock, Engineer, Born 1836, Died 1907."

Walter Brock was one of the sons of the Henry Brock who was, from 1838 to 1852, the first manager of the Clydesdale Bank).

Regarding his engineering works, it is said of Walter Brock that he "took the lead in applying quadruple expansion to marine engines, and has brought this type of engine to great perfection". He was chairman of Dumbarton's Harbour Board, and also became the head of two local firms, Denny and Brothers (shipbuilders) and Denny and Company (engineers).

For a time he resided at NS3975 : Levenford House; the house had been built for James Denny, but when the latter died, Walter Brock bought the property, and enlarged and improved it. He was also the owner of neighbouring Bellfield House, which was in the tenancy of Peter Denny, junior (a former bailie of Dumbarton).

Henry William Brock, the eldest son of Walter Brock, was born on the 15th of March, 1869, in Glasgow. He became a partner in Denny and Company in 1892, and in Denny and Brothers in 1896. He died on the 10th of February, 1906, aged only 36.

The Brock family were also commemorated in the name of Dumbarton's Brock Memorial Baths - or the Brock Baths, as they were more commonly known. The baths stood where NS4075 : The Meadow Centre is now located.

The surname Brock had long been associated with Dumbarton. The burgh records, in their entry for the 15th of April, 1651, list many inhabitants of the burgh, including a Walter Brock, James Brocke, and Johne Brocke. In the mid-nineteenth century, Alexander Brock was the farmer at Kilmalid (see NS3977 : The Murroch Burn at Kilmalid). In the first half of the eighteenth century, Patrick Brock was the farmer at Stoneyflat (this cemetery was built on those lands).

[The following are not commemorated on the stone, but are mentioned here because they are also of some local interest: in addition to Walter, the above-mentioned Henry Brock (manager of the Clydesdale Bank) had another son, Henry Brock of Auchenheglish (1837-1887). This Henry, in turn, married Elizabeth Slade Price, and they had a son, who would become Colonel Henry Brock of Darleith (1864-1915), and who was later commemorated in the name of the Henry Brock Memorial Hospital. That institution is now long gone; it was in Alexandria, at c.NS38598072, next to what is now the site of NS3880 : The Vale of Leven Hospital.]