GOLLAN, DONALD (1811-87) was born at Culloden, Inverness, and educated at Inverness and the Edinburgh Academy, being trained as an engineer and surveyor. In 1841 he came to the Colony under the New Zealand Company and in 1854 settled down in Hawkes Bay, where he experienced most of the vicissitudes of the pioneer. He took up the Maungatarata run and was a successful sheep farmer. Gollan represented Wairarapa and Hawkes Bay in the Wellington Provincial Council (1853) and Ahuriri (1857-59). He took part in the separation movement; was appointed a justice of the peace (1856); was on the first provincial roll (1857) and a founder of the A. and P. association (1858). In the Hawkes Bay Provincial Council he was member for Waimarama for a short period (1861). In 1864 he was a captain in the Napier militia. He married in 1859 the widow of Charles de Pelichet. She died shortly after the birth of their son. Gollan died on 14 Oct 1887.

His son, SPENCER HERBERT GOLLAN (1860-1934) was educated in Switzerland and at Cambridge University. An adept at all sports, he won the Diamond sculls at Henley and with George Towns and Tom Sullivan rowed from Oxford to Putney in a triple sculling boat in 13 hours 56 minutes. In New Zealand he had a stud and racing stable, his most successful horses being Tirailleur, Bonnie Scotland, Tirant d'Eau, Norton, Australian Star and Moifaa (which afterwards won the Grand National in England). Gollan married a daughter of James Farmer (q.v.).

Cycl. NZ, vi.

Reference: Volume 1, page 170

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