Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 7, 1899

THE CELTIC MONTHLY:
A MAGAZINE FOB HIGHLANDERS.
Edited by JOHN MACKAY, Glasgow.
No. 3 Vol. VII.]
DECEMBER. \t
[Price Threepence,
COLIN ALEXANDER M'VEAN.
<av:^lOLIN ALEXANDER M'VEAN, eldest
^'l'«"'ii ^°'^ °f ^^^ '"'''' Rev. Donald M'Veaii,
'^viky minister of lona and Ross, and his
wife, ne'e Susan M'Lean, of the family of the
M'Leans of Ross, passed his childhood at his
father's manse in lona.
Mr. M'Vean was educated in Edinburgh, and
choosing the profession of a Civil Engineer,
completed his studies as a pupil of Messrs.
M'Callum & Dundas, one of the leading firms of
engineers in that city.
In 1861 Mr. M'Veaii received an appoint-
ment under the Hydrograpliic Office, and served
some years on the Admiralty Survey of the
Hebrides under the orders of the late Admiral
Otter, C.B., latterly having charge of a detached
portion of the Survey.
On the completion of this work he proceeded
to Turkey, having received an appointment on
the engineering staff of the Varna and Rust-
chuck Railway in Bulgaria, and served in this
work from the commencement of the pi'eliminary
surveys until the completion of the railway.
Bulgaria, at that time a Turkish province,
was in a very backward and disturbed condition,
infested by bands of armed brigands, con-
sequently the British engineering staff had to
be armed, and to carry out their work under
the protection of armed escorts furnished by the
Turkish Government ; skirmishes with the
brigands occurred on several occasions, besides
isolated attacks.
Mr. M'Vean was also engaged for a short time
on Government railway surveys in Wallachia,
and was present in Bucharest during the revolu-
tion in ISfiG, when the Hospodar, Prince Couza,
was removed from the throne, and the present
ruler — now King Charles I. — invited to occupy
it. Serious disturbances occurred in the capital
at this time.
The I/lustrated London Neivs of the day pub-
lished an account of the disturbance, and sketch
of the scene in the streets furnished bv Mr
M'Vean.
On his return from Turkey Mr. M'Vean was
appointed in 1868 by the Board of Trade, acting
on liehalf of the Government of Japan, one of
three engineers (Messrs. Brunton, M'Vean, and
Blundell) to go out to that interesting country
LIEUTENANT DdX.M.D .M'VEAN.
to superintend the erection of lighthouses, and
generally to instruct the Japanese in engineering
and surveying operations. In 1870 he was
appointed Surveyor-in-Ohief of Japan, and
was engaged during the rest of his stay in the
country in organising the Government Survey
Department, and carrying out detail surveys of