REV R G S ANDERSON (1867 - 1939)

R G S Anderson was born at Ceres in Fife in 1867.  After training as a minister he worked in Canada, the Isle of Man and Glasgow.  He moved to Wigtownshire in 1919 and was minister to the United Free Churches at the Isle of Whithorn and Castle Kennedy. Anderson, like many ministers of his generation, had a keen interest in archaeology and built up a large collection of antiquities.  Some items were donated to the National Museum of Antiquities (now part of National Museums Scotland) in Edinburgh but the majority were kept at Anderson's home.  On his death in 1939 the collection was bequeathed to Wigtownshire County Council where it formed the nucleus of Stranraer Museum. The bulk of the Anderson collection comprises archaeological finds from Wigtownshire.  The stone axes, lithics and Bronze Age metalwork are particularly significant.  There is also some non-local archaeological material, including flints from the Isle of Man, Roman material from Silchester, an inscribed clay brick from Babylon and, bizarrely, fragments of stone from both the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid. Anderson also acquired items of local folk life.  Objects of this type in the collection include witch and charm stones, stone butter weights and a drover's staff.