Neil Dougall

Born: De­cem­ber 9, 1776, Green­ock, Ren­frew­shire, Scot­land.
Died: Oc­to­ber 1, 1862, Green­ock, Scot­land.
Buried: Green­ock, Scot­land.

Neil’s fa­ther, wheel­wright Neill Dou­gall, was draft­ed in­to the ar­my, and died in Cey­lon (now Sri Lanka) when his son was on­ly four years old. At age 15, Neil be­came an ap­pren­tice on the ship Bri­tan­nia. In 1795, while he was load­ing a gun to fire the se­cond vol­ley of a sa­lute to com­mem­o­rate Lord Howe’s vic­to­ry over the French, an ex­plo­sion blind­ed him and took his arm. Af­ter re­cov­er­ing, he be­gan his mu­sic­al ca­reer. In 1798, he at­tend­ed a sing­ing class un­der Ro­bert Dun­can, and in the fall of the next year opened his own class, which he ran un­til 1844. He gave an­nu­al con­certs in Green­ock from 1800 [sic, Frost] to 1860.

--www.hymntime.com/tch