Dr Alexander Blair Spence

19 November 1813, London ─ 13 March 1895, Dundee

Dr Alexander Blair Spence
Dundee Art Galleries and Museums/Bridgeman Images
Artist: George Ogilvy Reid (1851─1928) 

Born in London to John Spence, a surgeon, and Sarah Grant Dickson. He was baptised in St Anne's Parish, Westminster.

British Chess Magazine 1895, p 179: We have to record with much regret the death of a well-known and greatly respected Scotch chess player, Dr Spence, of Dundee. Though a fully qualified physician, he devoted himself entirely to dentistry, and was the leading practitioner in that science North of the Tay. In the year 1847 he was one of eight gentlemen, only two of whom survive, who founded the Dundee Chess Club, and he became one of its most enthusiastic members, and was for many years its honorary president. Among his gifts to the club were the large "Wallboard", invented by himself, and a silver Queen, as a trophy to be competed for between members of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th classes, which he presented in commemoration of Her Majesty's jubilee. The club now benefits to the extent of £300 by a legacy under his will, and it is also a residuary legatee to the extent of one half. Dr Spence was too busy a man to study chess systematically, but he had so much natural talent for it that he was always a dangerous opponent. The last match game that he played for his club was a year ago, against the Glasgow Central, and he won it. He also played last year at Edinburgh, in the East and West of Scotland match, and drew his game.

From The Story of Dundee Chess Club, by Peter W. Walsh, 1984, p 14 (in reference to the bequest to the club):

The total amount left to the Club turned out to be no less that £2,760! After receiving this sum the Club moved to better premises at 7, Whitehall Crescent, and the rooms were named the 'Blair Spence Chess Rooms', as indeed they are known today [1984].

Other source:
Glasgow Herald, 15 March 1895, p 1, notice of death.

Notes
Ancestry records show his birth as 10 November 1813, but that is because of a misreading of the handwriting on the official document.

Scotland's national records index show him to have been born in Edinburgh, but that is because it was not until 1840 that John Spence, Alexander's father, decided to record in Scotland the births of several of his children. The document of registration does give London as Alexander's place of birth.

The Dundee Evening Telegraph of 14 March 1895 also mistakenly records his birthplace as Edinburgh.

Alan McGowan
Historian, Chess Scotland  

updated 24/2/2023