Grand Hotel

Oban.

Manager of the Grand Hotel, Nicholas Bradley. 1896.

There was perhaps, in all Oban no finer site for a building of the kind than that of the Grand Hotel. It stood high up on a hill, with a view to kill for, overlooking the town of Oban and the seascape. The Grand hotel stood on it’s own ground which contained every luxury that the most fastidious traveller could wish for.

Manager of the hotel in 1896 was a gentleman called Nicholas Bradley a native of Oban. He was educated there, first in what was then called Skinner’s School, and latterly in the St. Columba in Columba Street. After finishing the rudiments of his education, he entered the service of His Reverence Bishop McDonald, at that time Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, then the Archbishop of the Edinburgh Diocese. He remained with his lordship for nearly five years, receiving as education which had stood him well.

He then went south to Sheffield and entered the Trade. Joining the eminent and well-known firm of Messrs Duncan Gilmour & Co., of Sheffield, no better opportunity of learning his business and gained experience in its every department could have been afforded him, and, realising the fact, he applied his mind and energies to acquiring it. Beginning at the lowest rung of the ladder, he assisted in the cellars blending and mixing whiskies, and so assiduous to his duties and attentive was he, that in a short time he was promoted to take a charge. In such a large concern the work was hard, but young, zealous and determined to fit himself for any position in the Trade, he worked with a will which gained him the confidence and approbation of his employers.

After two years he was offered, and accepted, the position of boots in the Grand Hotel in Oban, a post which he so worthily fulfilled, that in a short time he was promoted to the responsible appointment of manager, the position he held in the 1900.