Allan McLean (philanthropist)
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24 May 1822
George Buckley (brother-in-law)
Allan McLean (philanthropist) | |
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| Born | Allan McLean 24 May 1822 Coll, Inner Hebrides, Scotland |
| Died | 12 November 1907 (aged 85) Christchurch, New Zealand |
| Parent(s) | Alexander & Mary McLean (mother) |
| Relatives | John McLean (brother) George Buckley (brother-in-law) |
Allan McLean (24 May 1822 – 12 November 1907) was a New Zealand runholder and philanthropist. Moving from Scotland to Australia as a child, and to New Zealand as an adult, he rose from a working class shepherd, to sheep rancher and a rich land holder. In his seventies, McLean built 'Holly Lea' in Christchurch, which was renamed McLean's Mansion. After his death, the building served as the McLean Institute through an act of parliament.
He was born on Coll, one of the islands of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, and baptised on 24 May 1822. His father, Alexander McLean, was a farmer and fisherman who lived on Lagmor, where he drowned in 1836.[1][2] Initially, the family was sustained by the large tracts of land they owned on the Isles of Tiree and Mull as well as on the mainland at Mowern and Ardnamurchan. But over the years, they needed additional resources to make a livelihood and resorted to fisheries. After his father's death, his mother, Mary, could not make a living with the lands left to her and they were in a penurious state. Mary took the five surviving of her eight children to Australia in 1840 after widespread crop failure. Allan McLean and his brothers John[3] and Robertson made a living as working class shepherds,[4] and became established enough so that they could buy two sheep runs in west Victoria, which they owned from 1848 to 1851.[1] They capitalised on the Victorian gold rush by supplying the goldfields region, becoming runholders.[4]
