J. B. McLachlan

The son of Esther Bryson and James McLachlan, James Bryson McLachlan was born in Ecclefechan, Scotland on the 9th of February 1869. Growing up in rural Dumfriesshire both his parents worked as farmer-labourers and cotton weavers.[2] Eventually his family would move up north to Newmains in Lanarkshire in which his father would be employed by the Coltness Iron Company to work in the coal mines. Whilst Mclachlan was only four years old when he left Ecclefechan, he would remember the town fondly as he would make frequent visits to see his grandmother and in doing so would take an interest in the works of Thomas Carlyle who had also came from the same village.[1] At the age of 10 Mclachlan left school to go work in the coal mines, and whilst he never received a formal education he continued to read and teach himself about the world.[3]

In 1902 McLachlan would take on a job with the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company and would go onto work at the Princess colliery in Sydney Mines.