Records of David & John Anderson Ltd, textile manufacturer, Bridgeton, Glasgow, Scotland
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The firm of Anderson & Lawrie was founded in 1822 by David Anderson, the son of a Stirlingshire manufacturer in Scotland. Anderson took Alexander Lawrie as his partner and they specialised in gentlemen's neckwear. In 1839 Lawrie retired and David Anderson's brother joined the firm, then known as David & John Anderson . By the 1870s , David & John Anderson's headquarters were located at 84 St Vincent Street, Glasgow, Scotland, with works at Atlantic Mills, Bridgeton, Glasgow. The firm became a private limited liability company in 1911 , with an authorised capital of £200,000 equally divided between £1 preference shares commanding a 5 percent dividend and ordinary shares of the same denomination. At this date, the managing director and new chairman of the company was David Blyth Anderson ( 1872-1944 ), grandson of the founder. After 1911 , the company absorbed the Glasgow firm of Lambie & Readman and formed links for a time with an English textile manufacturer and finishers, Wm Hollins & Co Ltd , Pleasley Mill, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

A new company, David & John Anderson (London) Ltd , wholly owned by the Glasgow parent company, was set up to act as the company's agents in London and to oversee the export market in goods such as high quality shirts, made up from Anderson fabrics. High quality and diversity of fabric and workmanship remained the hallmark of the business rather than quantity of output. However, by the time of David Blyth Anderson's retirement in 1937 , the firm was struggling, with no dividend on either its ordinary or preference shares being paid. There was a short-term return to profitability during the years immediately after the Second World War (1939-1945) but this did not last. David & John Anderson Ltd , with headquarters, at 26 Walkinshaw Street, Glasgow, was taken over by the House of Fraser Ltd in 1959 .