Biographies

Former Pupil Biographies

Walter Rutherford (1857 - 1913)

Walters Mathers Rutherford was born in Newlands in the Scottish Borders in 1857. He was educated at Madras College as a boarder and took advantage of the opportunities to play golf. He went on to farm near Jedburgh.

He won the silver medal in the men's golf competition at the Summer Olympics in Paris in 1900. He missed out on the gold medal by one stroke. This was the first time that golf was an Olympic event.

The Madras College Magazine for New Year 1914 carried the following article:

The late Mr. Walter Rutherford.

Old Boys would learn with great regret of the death of Mr. Walter Rutherford, Crailing Tofts, Roxburghshire. Mr. Rutherford who had been in failing health for some time, received his early education at the Madras College, St. Andrews, and all his life took the greatest interest in his old School. He was a fine classical scholar at College. The Old Boys' Club honoured him in 1905-6 by making him their President for that term.

All his life he was a golfer of the first rank. He won the golf medal of the College, and was the leading player in the St. Andrews Thistle Club for several years. He was intended for one or other of the professions, but, like his father before him, decided to go in for farming. For many years he had been tenant of Crailing Tofts, on the estate of the Marquis of Lothian, and for a time, after the death of his brother-in-law, Mr. Scott, he also had the management of the large holding of Cessford, on the Duke of Roxburghe's estate. At Crailing Tofts he founded a flock of Border Leicester sheep.

From early manhood he had been a keen student of politics, and he took an active part on the side of the Liberal candidates in quite a number of Roxburghshire and other county and burgh elections. A fluent speaker, and a keen debater, he was in later years in great demand for public meetings, and he was a frequent contributor to the Press on political and social questions. He was a Justice of the Peace for Roxburghshire, and rendered acceptable services on various public bodies, including Jedburgh District Committee. Mr. Rutherford was a nephew of the late Professor Rutherford, Edinburgh, and a brother of the late Dr. Thos. Rutherford, Kelso. Deceased who was in his 50th year, is survived by a widow and an only son.