Charles came into the world on Saturday, September 29, 1860, the same year Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. He was the first son of John Lindsay and Christina Winning, and the second oldest of their nine children.

Charles was born and grew up on Mud Row, Clyde Ironworks — an inauspiciously-named street of miner’s houses in Old Monklands, Lanark. He was a coal miner like his father before him, and spent his entire working life in the Lanarkshire mines.

He married Elizabeth Robertson Wilson (known as Janet) on 15 July 1887 and the couple set up home in Rutherglen. The family moved at least eight times—from Rutherglen to Cambuslang and back to Rutherglen, but they never left the county of Lanark.

The dangers of working long years in the coal mines are well known and the impact on a miner’s health can be devastating. And yet Charles lived a relatively long life - he died of heart failure at home at 8 High Street, Rutherglen on 12 January 1940. He was 79 years old.