Hanna, Donald & Wilson

The general engineering firm of Reid & Hanna was founded in 1816 in Paisley, Scotland. Paisley had become an important industrial town in the late 18th century. By the mid-19th century weaving would become the town's principal industry. Of course the textile industry created opportunities for local machine factories and / or repair shops. Reid & Hanna might have been a company that just catered to the needs of the local textiles industry.

Paisley was also a traditional center for shipbuilding. It is connected to the Clyde by the modest River Cart. When ships became too big for the River Cart, the local maritime industry adapted to building small vessels, specializing, or building "knock down" vessels. In July 1834 Reid & Hanna were reported to have finished a very beautiful sheet iron gig for use on the Paisley Canal, together with Walker firm. Two others were under construction for Dublin.[2] In late 1834 the company launched a 70 feet boat with an unloaded draught of 6 inches, for trade on the canals. Due to the bends in the canal it could not be launched at Reid & Hanna's. The two parts were assembled and launched at Saucel wharf, also in Paisley.[3]

James Donald became a partner in the firm in 1851, and so the firm incorporated his name and became Hanna & Donald.

William Donald was a younger brother of James Donald, and built ships in the firm of Donald & MacFarlane, later Donald & Co in Glasgow. That business failed in 1868, and Hanna & Donald acquired their Atlas works in Paisley. The same year saw the company commence its shipbuilding operations along with the Abercorn Shipbuilding Co , Paisley. In 1870 the business changed its name to Hanna, Donald & Wilson, and moved its center of operations to the Abercorn Foundry and Abbey Works in Paisley.

Operating from a landlocked site, the shipbuilding department of the company specialized in shallow draught boats for inland waters. Other vessels were delivered to customers in prefabricated sections and reassembled on site. Volharding Dock was a floating dry dock which had her hull finished in Scotland, and which went to Java as a sailing ship. Batavia Dock of 354 ft (107.9 m) was built in Scotland and re-assembled in the Dutch East Indies. The company also built high speed naval vessels, including two Fervent-class destroyers, for the Royal Navy and similar boats for the Greek Navy.

The company built many bridges and similar structures. They worked on Waverley Station in Edinburgh, St Enoch Station in Glasgow and the Cumberland & Westmorland Railway in England. Examples of bridges built by the company are Albert Bridge, Glasgow, Abbey Bridge in its hometown Paisley, the pedestrian bridge[4] at the former Strathbungo railway station (now in Glasgow), and a pedestrian bridge at Pitlochry railway station.

The company also offered its services as gas and water engineers, iron founders and boiler makers. It supplied civil and mechanical engineering services to a wide range of European countries and countries in the British Empire or Commonwealth across the world as far afield as South East Asia, Canada and Australia.

When William Donald decided to pursue a career in medicine the company came to an end. The engineering and shipbuilding companies were wound up in the 1910s. The last asset, the Abercorn ship yard, was sold off in 1920.