George McLean represents an important strand of Scottish entrepreneurship in 19th-century Otago. He was a banker and merchant who was also heavily involved as a director with the Union Steamship Company. He was one of Dunedin’s ‘merchant princes’ if you like. His wife, Isabella, was one of the daughters of Mathew Holmes, an Ulster-born businessman who was one of the richest men in New Zealand through his extensive landholdings and also a significant political figure.
George McLean was born in Elgin, Scotland, in 1834. After attending St Andrews University he emigrated to Melbourne in 1852 and worked for the Colonial Bank. He came over to Otago in 1862 to be manager of the Bank of New Zealand in Dunedin. In 1865 he left banking and became a partner with John and Edward Cargill in their mercantile firm. He entered parliament in 1871 and served as a minister in various governments before ill health forced his retirement in 1881. He was then appointed to the Legislative Council. He was knighted in 1909 and died in Dunedin in 1917.
Isabella Holmes was born into a wealthy home in Victoria, Australia, in 1846 and spent many of her formative years in Australia and Scotland. She and her two sisters were tutored privately in art and music before being sent to a finishing school in Paris. The family moved to Dunedin in 1864 and settled at Andersons Bay where ‘Cintra’ was built, a 21-room mansion and one of the first grand houses in the area. Isabella and her siblings were a sparkling addition to the upper levels of Dunedin society.
Isabella was a fine match for George McLean when they married in Dunedin in 1867. She produced six children but was also able to play a leading role in Dunedin social and artistic circles. She was one of the founders of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and played a key role in the construction of a purpose-built gallery on this site in 1907. That original building is now part of this Museum (the room adjoining ‘Wall 1’) and it seems very appropriate that Isabella is smiling down at us just beside her great contribution to the city’s cultural life. Lady McLean died in Dunedin in 1923.
Lady Isabella McLean
Sir George McLean