Douglas Cameron Wishart was born during 1888 in Ilkley, Yorkshire. He was the fourth of six children of James Wishart, a cotton manufacturer from Aberdeen, and his wife, Jessie Morphet. By 1891 the family had moved to 23 Wilton Street Prestwich in Lancashire and then 86 Fitzroy Road in Bradford ten years later. Young Douglas’s first job after leaving school was as a dyer’s warehouseman and in 1911 he lived with his parents and siblings in a stone terraced house on Curzon Road.

On 15 January 1917 Douglas became the last of three brothers to join the Army. In 1916 his younger brother Donald had been killed on the Somme at Thiepval while Keith, who was a pre-war regular, was serving overseas with the Yorkshire Hussars. Douglas joined the Durham Light Infantry and probably went overseas later that year and at some point was transferred into the Labour Corps. He was eventually discharged from service on 11 April 1919 and returned to Bradford where, by 1926, he was working as a golf steward at the Bradford Moor Golf Club.

Douglas married Ruth Hodgson in the Parish Church of St. Clement, Bradford on 16 December 1926. Ruth was a golf stewardess by profession so it seems very likely the couple met through their job. The marriage was tragically short as Douglas was found dead in the clubhouse with his throat slit on 6 August 1930. He had been living with Ruth in a newly constructed semi-detached house at 2 May Avenue in Thornton (west of Bradford) at the time of his death and was working as the golf club’s curator.

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