William Timmins was a Glasgow artist of great skill and originality, but is largely unknown except to a small circle of admirers. Much of his output consists of highly atmospheric Glasgow streetscapes and riverscapes, usually in watercolour but sometimes in oil or pastel. Little is known of his life beyond the few facts detailed below.
William Timmins was born on 8th August 1872 at 119 Caledonia Road, Hutchesontown, Glasgow: his father was John Lambert Timmins, a law clerk; his mother's maiden name was Jane Graham. William Timmins died on 5th May 1959, in the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, aged 86, without surviving relatives. He was buried on 13th May in a family grave in the Glasgow Necropolis (others therein interred are his mother Jane Timmins, Martha Lambert Timmins and John L. Timmins).
The address of William Timmins at the time of his death was 57 Glenfarg Street, Glasgow, NW; earlier addresses at which he lived are given in catalogues of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, at which he exhibited between 1906 and 1945, and in the records of the Glasgow School of Art, where he attended evening classes from 1890-91 to 1899-1900. The earlier addresses are: 128 Cowcaddens Street (1890-91); 15 West End Park Street (1892-3); 12 Cromwell Street (1893-4); 23 Melrose Gardens (1895-1906); 57 Granville Street, St. George's Cross (1912-1932). The Art School records describe Timmins as an 'advertising agent' or simply 'agent' (but as a 'shoemaker' in 1893-4); in 1945 and 1946, but not earlier, Timmins is described in Royal Glasgow Institute catalogues as a member of the Institute. In 1909 he exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy.
The Timmins family were, it appears, Methodists. A framed certificate, found under a watercolour by the artist, is extant, recording that William Timmins contributed to the Wesleyan Methodist Twentieth Century Fund, an appeal for money used to build Westminster Central Hall in London in the early years of the last century. The name of William Timmins appears in the List of Members of St. John's Methodist Church, Glasgow, published in 1937 in a 'Souvenir' of the Church sub-titled 'One Hundred Years of Scottish Methodism'. The names of three other Timminses are also listed as members, namely, 'Mrs. Timmins', 'Miss Ellen Timmins', and 'Miss Elsie Timmins'. Elsewhere in the same publication, a 'Miss Timmins' is praised for her 'long years of service' as 'Class Leader and Missionary collector', and is described as 'faithful in everything she did'. Probably this 'Miss Timmins' was neither Ellen nor Elsie, since the paragraph in her praise indicates that she was no longer alive in 1937. She may be the Martha Lambert Timmins who was buried in the family grave in the Glasgow Necropolis on 8th June 1935.
These meagre facts are all that research has so far ascertained about the painter William Timmins. In addition there are suggestions, not necessarily reliable, that he may have worked on the railways as a guard or porter, that he was in some way associated with the well-known painter James Kay, and even that he ran some kind of art school of his own. Any reliable information on this neglected artist would be welcome.
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