Solomon Wolfson

16 Camphill Avenue, Shawlands, residence of Solomon Wolfson, Isaac Wolfson and Charles Wolfson of the Wolfson family in Glasgow in the early part of the Twentieth Century. The four storey, 12 room family home of Solomon and Nechi Wolfson, owned by the family at least between 1911 and 1940. Both Isaac and Charles who would run the Wolfson family business empire and create various charitable trusts that would fund the genocide in the Levant had both left home by 1921. Photo from Google Maps in April 2017.

Excerpt from the Valuation roll for Glasgow for the year 1920-21. Shows the physically close location of the business premises of key members of the so called Caledonian Cousinhood in Glasgow.

Solomon Wolfson(b. 1868, d. December 1941)

He married Naelia Williamovsky, in 1894.

Zionist activities

Wolfson Quarter Etz Hayim Trust :

From the Calendar for 5695, issued by the Etz Hayim institution of Jerusalem, we learn that Mr. and Mrs. Solomon Wolfson, of 16 Camphill Avenue, have invested £6,000 in the newly-formed Etz-Hayim colony. The money will be utilised for the purpose of building Trust Houses in the colony, the annual rent income of which will go towards the upkeep of the Etz-Hayim Talmud Torahs and Yeshivot. Mr. and Mrs. Wolfson enjoy the privilege that the Etz-Hayim Quarter where the houses will be built will be called ‘“ The Wolfson Quarter, Etz Hayim Trust.”’ The individual houses will each be called after the name of the donor contributing the cost thereof. The laying of the corner stone of the Wolfson Quarter was celebrated last Lag-Beomer in the presence of great Rabbonim and other notables of Jerusalem. Speeches in praise of Mr. and Mrs. Wolfson's generosity were delivered by Chief Rabbi Kook, Rabbi Meltzer, Chief of the Etz Hayim Yeshivah, Chief Rabbi J. L. Landau, of South Africa, Rabbi J. M. Tucazinsky and Rabbi J. B. Hurwitz.

Obituary

• 1941 - MR. SOLOMON WOLFSON, J.P. He Saved the Bayswater Schools The Jewish Communities of Glasgow and Ayr have sustained a grevious loss in the death last Friday al Ayr of Mr. Solomon Wolfson, J.P., at the age of 72. Wolfson was a founder of the Queen Park Synagogue, and was for many years its Warden and Life President. He was also a founder of the Chevra Kadisha and its President for many years. He was a tireless worker on behalf of Palestine institutions and Vice-President of the Mizrachi for Great Britain. He was a keen supporter of Jewish schools throughout the country. and for many years was Chairman of the Glasgow Ezrath Torah Society. In 1937, when the Bayswater Jewish Schools were threatened with closure for lack of funds and because of their indebtedness to the bank, Mr. Wolfson defrayed the whole of the overdraft, and in recognition of this the Board honoured him by naming the schools the Solomon Wolfson Schools. Mr. Wolfson was associated with nearly every Jewish organisation in Glasgow. He made many endowments to charitable organisations in Glasgo, London and Palestine, and defrayed the entire cost of the Taharah House of the Chesed-shel-Emeth in Glasgow. The deceased was a great lover of Jewish learning and a supporter of every Talmudical college in the country. In 1935 the Jewish Community of Glasgow presented him with ⁠an illuminated address bearing the signatures of representatives of every Jewish, institution in the city. In 1935, Mr. Wolfson was elected Justice of the Peace for the City ot Glasgow. In 1938 he laid the foundation-stone to the Heathfield Park Synagogue, Willesden. Prior to she interment on Friday his body was taken into the Queen's Park Synagogue, where the Rev. Harris Swift, of London, delivered a Hesped. On Sabbath morning at the Ayr Synagogue, Mr. Swift in his sermon, referred to the greatservioces Mr Wolfson had rendered the Anglo-Jewish Community, and particularly the cause of Jewish education.

Timeline

• 1937 - Chairman of Mizrachi of Great Britain and Ireland.
• 1934 - Received from Mr. S. Wolfson, of 16 Camphill Avenue, £5 5/- for the Glasgow Jewish Board of Guardians, £5 5 - for the Glasgow Talmud Torah, £5 5/- for the Gertrude Jacobson Orphanage, and £5 5/- for the Glasgow Commission of the Jewish National Fund, donated by him and Mrs. Wolfson on the occasion of the engagement of their daughter Esther Wolfson to Mr. Joe A. Levy.
• 1925 -
• 1921 - Bute
• 1921 - 16 Camphill Avenue
• 1920 - Listed incorrectly as 'Woolfson' as the proprietor of machinery at 15/19 Candleriggs in central Glasgow.
  • 5/9 Marcus E Speculand hardware merchant, 150 Queen's Drive, Glasgow, Proprietor.
  • 11/13 Alexander McLaren & sons spirit dealers, tenants of Abraham L Oppenheim 21 Candleriggs, Glasgow.
  • 15 - Warehouse S. Woolfson & Sons, Ltd
  • 15 - Warehouse S. Woolfson & Sons, Ltd
  • 15/19 - Machinery Solomon Wolfson proprietor, Alexander McLaren as above.
  • 15/19 - Workshop - Abraham L Oppenheim
  • 17 - Shop - Abraham L Oppenheim
  • 19 - Shop - Abraham L Oppenheim
  • 21/25 - Warehouse - Abraham Goldberg, 14 Albert Road, East, proprietor.
  • 27 Shop - John Hosie, Tobacconist
  • 29 Shop - John Hosie, Tobacconist, Robert Dunlop, 31 Candleriggs, Glasgow
  • 31 Shop - Robert Dunlop, music seller, proprietor.
  • 33 Warehouse - Abraham L. Oppenheim, linen merchant, rented from the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland, per James Rice 342 Cathedral Street, Glasgow
• 1920 -
• 1915 -
• 1911 - Solomon and 'Nellie' were living at 16 Camphill Avenue, listed as having 12 rooms with one or more window. Solomon was reported to be an employer and a Picture Frame Manufacturer. Isaac was listed as 13 years old and the family was looked after by an 18 year old England born servant called Nellie Dudleston.
• 1905 -
• 1901 - Census: 64 Hospital Street, a three room flat in the gorbals. Solomon is listed as a Picture Framer and the family must have arrived in Glasgow between 3 and 5 years previously (so between 1896 and 1898) since they had a five year old (Samuel Wolfson) born in Russia and a three year old (Egdar Wolfson - presumably Isaac Wolfson) born in Glasgow.

Neighbours

In the 1921 censue the following families were neighbours with the Wolfsons in Camphill Avenue:

• 22 - The Levine famly along with a servant from Gweedore in Donegal.
• 20 - head of household Sarah E Greenberg , three sons and a daughter and three 'visitors': Bessie Dover, Florence dover and Joseph Levy a salesman.
• 14 - Bernard Couts and family and a 56 year old Glaswegian servant.

See also

• Wolfson family
• Queens Park Hebrew Congregation