16/06/2026
Gilfillan Memorial Church - a short address given earlier today at GMC to our church history group.
Gilfillan Memorial Church was officially opened for worship in May 1888. It took its name after the famous Dundee minister George Gilfillan whose portrait I pointed out to some of you when we visited the McManus Art Gallery and Museum a year or two back after we had visited St Joseph’s Catholic Church. He was minister to the United Presbyterian Church located at School Wynd, South Lindsay Street, here in Dundee, from 1836 to 1878. Interestingly, Gilfillan died on 13 August 1878 at Arnhall, Brechin, after officiating at his niece’s wedding. His wife, Margaret Valentine’s family hailed from our area.
Gilfillan was a child of the manse. His father had been a presbyterian minister at Comrie, and his brother James also became a minister and wrote a book on The Christian Sabbath which remains in print. George studied at Glasgow and Edinburgh universities and was licensed to preach in 1835. He was ordained and inducted to the School Wynd UP Church which was his one and only charge the following year. His manse was on the appropriately named Paradise Road and was simply called ‘Paradise’ by the countless couples that he married there mid-week. Like Thomas Chalmers, the leader of the Free Church of Scotland after the Disruption of 1843, who was converted while in his ministry, and whom he came to greatly admire, I think it’s fair to say that Gilfillan began in what is typically classified as the moderate camp within the church, but he became increasingly devoted to the gospel and to the sacred scriptures over the course of his ministry. He came to recognise that faith and reason are not antithetical because all truth is ultimately God’s truth.
He wrote in the early 1850s, ‘‘I have lost all faith in human philosophies or literatures. I love them just as I love the babbling of my wife’s dear little nephew, a boy of four, who is at present in my home. But where is the word of our Elder Brother, of the speaking with authority? Alas! Alas! The whole race (misled hitherto by superstition or fanaticism, or false philosophy) should proclaim a fast, call a solemn assembly as wide as the earth, and on quivering knees should repeat the cry – ‘Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.’
Gilfillan was not so much a theologian, but he was a fine preacher, a gifted orator, a prolific writer and literary figure, and a public speaker of great renown. Indeed, he attained something akin to celebrity status in his day. His literary fame was at its zenith in the mid-19th century when he was visited by the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American slave-born journalist and the diplomat Frederick Douglas and numerous other young writers and poets.
He wrote numerous articles on well-known writers and their works. He authored books such a Gallery of Literary Portraits, Bards of the Bible and The Martyrs and Heroes of the Covenant. One of his ancestors had been incarcerated in Dunnottar Castle which we visited last year for his commitment to Christ’s Crown and Covenant. He wrote biographies on Sir Walter Scott (1870), on the artist, William Anderson (1873), and on the national bard, Robert Burns (1878). He was a friend and patron of William McGonagall who wrote on Gilfillan’s funeral, ‘On the Gilfillan burial day, In the Hill o’ Balgay, It was a most solemn sight to see, Not fewer than thirty thousand people assembled in Dundee, All watching the funeral procession of Gilfillan that day, That death had suddenly taken away, And was going to be buried in the Hill o’ Balgay.’
Gilfillan was unquestioningly a man of his time. He took a keen interest in political and social developments and was an advocate of reform. He championed the cause of the Southern States in the American Civil War in the 1860s but was equally vehement in his denunciation of slavery. He supported the cause of Garibaldi and Italian Unification. He spoke up for the poor and was a chief mover in the establishment of a Free Library in Dundee to provide working people with access to books and learning. He similarly bequeathed a scholarship fund for students from poorer backgrounds and worked closely with the Watt Institute here in the City. Of particular interest to Dundonians, writing in his journal on 10 September 1863, he noted ‘yesterday was the great day of the opening of the Baxter Park. It was certainly a splendid sight. The view from the platform of the gathering throngs under the bright September day was very opposing. The speeches, as usual on such occasions were inaudible. The provost’s speech in the hall, when presenting the freedom to Earl Russell, was in excellent taste and gracefully given…’
You may well ask why I’m focussing on a man who never set foot in this building, but this place of worship and congregation were established in part to keep alive the Christian example and ethos or outlook of George Gilfillan. It came about because the School Wynd UP Church congregation called the Rev David Macrae from Gourock to be their new minister after the passing of Gilfillan. Macrae, however, was under discipline for his uncompromising opposition to the theological standards of his denomination. Therefore, presbytery refused to sustain the call. Consequently, nearly 1000 people left to form a new church, and after holding services in the Kinnaird Hall they purchased the ground here in Whitehall Crescent and built Gilfillan Memorial Church as an Independent Church under Macrae’s ministry. There’s a marble bust of Macrae in the vestibule left of the right-side door leading into the sanctuary. The church’s internal polity mirrored that of the UPC with elders and managers (deacons) overseeing the spiritual and material needs of the congregation along with their minister.
The church’s Deed of Constitution states that This church is organised as a Christian church for the promotion of goodness and truth. It shall seek to fulfil its purpose through the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the worship of God in spirit and in truth, and the promotion and practice of a life of faith and purity, of loyalty to the truth, of temperance, brotherly kindness and charity. I’ve always been struck by that word ‘temperance’ in the founding statement. I could be wrong, but I don’t think it necessarily means moderation as it does in the Bible but probably refers to total abstinence from alcohol. For the church was planted in the era of the Temperance Movement which was hugely influential here in Dundee. There was a Temperance Hotel on the corner of the Crescent, and you will recall that in the early 20th century a Temperance Movement candidate defeated Winston Churchill for the Dundee parliamentary seat for Westminster.
Gilfillan Memorial Church was specifically designed to offer facilities and provide space for social and recreational activities that were aimed at wooing men away from the pubs and drinking dens to wholesome pursuits in the church along with their families. The building was not simply to be a place of worship but a place to host concerts, recitals, lectures and things like country dancing and drama and children’s clubs. The church through its benevolent fund and good works moreover sought to care and provide for the city’s poor.
The decorative and ornate frontage of the church was originally topped with cupola that had to be later removed for safety reasons. There is a flat for a church officer. And the builders also insightfully incorporated shops on either side of it at the front and large storage premises at the back on Dock Street for rental to supplement the income of the congregation.
Macrae’s successor, Dr Walter Walsh, who came from a Baptist Church in Newcastle caused controversy that ended up in the Court of Session in Edinburgh in 1912 when he attempted to change the name of the church to ‘The Church of Today’. He was compelled to leave but sadly took some members with him. Among the longer serving and fondly remembered ministers of Gilfillan Memorial Church were the Rev Harry Andrews from Musselburgh who served as minister from 1926 to 1955, and the Welshman, Rev Ifor Howell John who served from around the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. Both these men appear to have encapsulated the spirit of Gilfillan Church. And I’m confident that others before and after did so also and continue to do so in proclaiming the gospel of our Lord and Saviour and by making people feel welcomed and valued.
As you can see the sanctuary is dominated by its massive organ which rises behind the pulpit with seating surrounding it for a large choir. There were two galleries on three sides, which looked down on the pulpit, which is raised up. The original organ was installed in 1894. The digital one in use today replaced it in 1989. The Communion Table was at floor level where it is today, and I read that in the 1950s over 1000 Gilfillanites communicated at the Lord’s Supper on Communion Sundays. Oh, for a return to such days!
I had the privilege of being here to mark the congregation’s 125th anniversary and I possess a photograph that was taken of myself and Andy with the provost at a special display that was set up to celebrate the occasion. I also have a booklet produced for the 100th anniversary which took for its title the church’s motto ‘here let no man be a stranger.’
The inside cover notes that Sunday services in 1979 were from April through October at 9.30am and 11am, while from November to April they were at 11am and 6.30pm. The Sunday School met at 11am with creche, primary, and senior Bible classes. The upper gallery had been at an earlier date transformed into rooms for this very purpose. The Boys Brigade Bible Class met at 10am and there was a Youth Fellowship at 7.30pm. Regular weekly activities included such things as a communicant’s class, a minister’s vestry hour, Guild Meetings, Boys Brigade, Brownies, and Girl Guide nights. There were a ladies’ work party and women’s circle that regularly met, and there were also country dance classes. There were also monthly meetings of the Session and Management Board. The church was also a popular place for weddings and funerals.
While some of these activities have been discontinued the church actively continues today in seeking to fulfil its original biblical mission and mandate here in the heart of Dundee under the ministry of Pastor Jack Brown. And we pray God’s richest blessings upon minister and congregation as they serve our Lord here at Gilfillan Memorial Church. Thank you for accommodating our Edzell Parish Church History Group. And it was particularly good for Margaret and I to revisit a place which holds so many fond and precious memories for us. [WP].
