sons, John White II and James White II, took over. With the family’s homes in Rutherglen now part of the chemical processing facility, in 1859 James White II purchased land near Dumbarton for a grand new mansion far from the atmosphere of the works: Overtoun House was built in 1862. By the time of James White II's death in 1884 the works employed 500 in Rutherglen and had an output similar to all other such businesses in Britain combined. The ownership thereafter passed to the son of James White II, John White III and his cousin William James Chrystal. Lord Overtoun and Keir Hardie John White III was strongly religious and involved in numerous philanthropic concerns. He also became involved in politics and in 1893 became a peer in the House of Lords as Baron Overtoun, alternatively "Lord Overtoun", taking the name from his family’s estate. However his reputation for godliness and upstanding generosity was tarnished in 1899 by the figurehead of the Labour Movement, Keir Hardie, to whom the employees had turned for help regarding their situation after appeals to management and an attempted strike had proved unsuccessful. Hardie produced a series of pamphlets entitled White Slaves: Chrome, Charity, Crystals and Cant describing in scathing terms the terrible working conditions and the demands on the workforce at Shawfield works – the pay was far lower than in comparable occupations of the time, and the owners demanded 12-hour shifts without a meal break and a seven-day working week (although in his other guise as a prominent churchman, Lord Overtoun campaigned for strict Sunday observance including the cessation of public transport for recreational purposes). However the most damning evidence was linked to the effects on the workers’ health. Safety regulations introduced in 1893 had been ignored, and ineffective protective equipment in unventilated sheds left the employees exposed to the harmful chemical dust at all times. In the short term this led to widespread perforation of the septum in their noses and ‘chrome holes’ (ulcerations burnt into the flesh), as well as lung cancer, digestive disorders and skin diseases over longer periods. The exact number of workers affected is unknown due to unreliable figures and reluctance among authorities of the time to acknowledge and document any direct link between the chrome dust and the health dangers. The exposure to the dust was such that the workers were referred to locally as ‘White’s