Charles Williamson who was born in 1853 had a completely different disposition. He was warm and sensitive, intelligent and caring. As heir to the estate he was educated at Brighton and Eton, and turned down an offer to join the Coldstream Guards. Instead he embarked on the career of an academic at attended Oxford University. He was drawn to the Roman Catholic faith and this caused a rift with his father. They never came to an accommodation about it and the Colonel developed a burning resentment to it.
Charles was ordained as a priest in 1880 and worked in a very poor, working class area of London. He worked in the Brompton Oratory; a place where a man’s soul could be stretched. Later he lived a quiet life in Venice eventually returning to Comrie as a working priest at the start of the First World War. After his father’s death the Lawers estate was sold off and he and his mother, Selina, lived out their lives in Tomperran. She died in 1922. He was instrumental in having the very simple RC church built nearby at the Laggan.
The stone work came from houses called the “Transvaal” These old houses were part of the estate and he had arranged to look after three widows with their children in them. Two of the children became Princes in the Roman Catholic Church, Bishop Foylan of Aberdeen, and Bishop McGee of Dumfries and Galloway. He had a very natural loving way with him, and all who came in contact with him spoke in loving terms about him. He passed on in 1943 during World War Two and the whole community mourned. He was buried with his parents at Ochtertyre.
from the memories of Watty and Meg Drummond