".....An old saying has it that commercial dynasties rarely survive the third generation. The first establishes the business, the second builds it up, and the third, educated and moneyed, lets it all slip away. The Findlaters were an exception to this rule. John took over from his uncle, the founder Alexander, and saw that all his sons had a first class education, two graduating with honours in Logic and Ethics from Trinity, others gaining degrees in law, medicine and engineering.
Of John's six sons, only two-Adam and Willie-joined the business. Adam, as was the destiny of the first-born, assumed the business mantle from his father, but given a free choice might well have followed a career in politics. Of the others, we have seen that Herbert became a solicitor, and was killed at Gallipoli in 1915; Charles, who became an engineer, also joined up, and was killed on the Somme in 1916. Alex became a medical doctor, was also at Gallipoli and settled to a practice in Edgware, then a village outside London....."