Background
Thomas was born on 22 February 1818 at 16 Charlotte Street in Leith, then an independent burgh, north of Edinburgh. He was the eldest of three sons of John Boyd, corn merchant, and Anne Jamieson, daughter of Thomas Jamieson.
merchant philanthropist publisher
Thomas was born on 22 February 1818 at 16 Charlotte Street in Leith, then an independent burgh, north of Edinburgh. He was the eldest of three sons of John Boyd, corn merchant, and Anne Jamieson, daughter of Thomas Jamieson.
He was the catalyst behind the building of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on Lauriston Place. See
Thomas became the managing partner in 1843. He was senior partner from 1869 to 1894 (his retiral).
The great profitability of this company freed Thomas, enabling him to undertake many public-minded projects.
In the 1870s he transformed the Merchant School system in Edinburgh, combining many functions with the Industrial Schools, and transferring the upper level education of merchants to Edinburgh University through creation of a new Professorship. In the same time period he undertook the raising of funds for, and planning of, a new Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, a nine-year project
In 1871 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (proposed by Robert Christison). In 1875 he was elected a city councillor (serving the Street Leonards district) and in 1877 was made Lord Provost of Edinburgh.
During this period he instructed major rebuilding of Leith Docks, including a new deep water wet dock, the Edinburgh Dock, opened in July 1881.
He was knighted on 25 August 1881, by Queen Victoria, largely as a result of these several major public works. In 1896, on Thomas’s retiral, Oliver & Boyd was bought over by James Thin, but the name continued to live on. Thomas died at home, 41 Moray Place in the west end of Edinburgh on 22 August 1902.
He is buried in Dean Cemetery.
Thomas married Mary Ann Ferguson (d1900) on 6 June 1844. Boyd was sculpted by William Brodie in 1871.
A second bust by Brodie, carved in 1880, stood in the entrance hall of the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Around the same time a portrait, by Otto Leyde Republic of South Africa was hung in the Merchant Hall in Edinburgh.
A full length portrait, also by Leyde, is in the possession of Edinburgh City Council.
Master of the Merchant Company of Edinburgh (1869-1871)
Deputy Lieutenant of Edinburgh
Chairman of the Scottish Fisheries Board
Commissioner of the Northern Lights (Scottish Lighthouse Board) (1877-1882)
Commissioner for Scottish Educational Endowments (1882-1889)
Honorary Colonel of the Queens Regiment in Scotland
Curator of Edinburgh University (1879-1885)
Director of the Union Bank of Scotland
Director of the Scottish Provident Institution
Justice of the Peace
Elder of the United Free Church.