Alexander Strathern (1844-90), Deaf Missioner

Alexander Strathern was one of the founders of the Glasgow Mission to the Deaf.  He was born in Glasgow, son of Sheriff Strathern.  We are told in his obituary (Deaf and Dumb Times, Vol.2 (9), 1891 p.110-111), that he lost his hearing at an early age.  He first attended an ordinary school then was for a time a day pupil at the Glasgow Institution under the tuition of Duncan Anderson.  He became apprenticed as a wood engraver but did not take to the trade.  After his father’s death he apprenticed himself to the London printers Messrs. Dalziel Brothers, and there became involved with the Royal Association for the Deaf and Dumb, attending meetings and giving lectures.  Returning to Glasgow in 1872, he helped combine the two existing missions, becoming first secretary then later treasurer after James Howard became the missioner. 

After the Rev. Samuel Smith gave up as editor of The Deaf and Dumb Magazine, Alexander took over that task.  He was also involved, with Mr. Paul of Kilmarnock,  in founding the short-lived National Deaf and Dumb Society in 1877.

He married Mary Bellars in 1873, and they had two surviving children.