Some success!

[cadmium]

I think I finally found my Colin Campbell in the 1911 census..

Everything matches, none of the other hits fit.

ANd there's a surprise! He seems to have been married before. Which fits considering he was 34 when he married to the lady in our line, which seemed rather old to me.

Anyway, turns out he was married witha toddler and a newborn in the 1911 census. Unfortunately his first wife died a couple years later aged 25! She had a nerve disorder and was paraplegic for 18 months before her death. Seems so young, I wonder what caused it.
I also wonder what became of the kids. No sign of them upon second marriage and it seems they lived into old age.

Anyway, sad story but glad I finally got some info on him.

edit: found out the first marriage was also by sheriff substitute.

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings. All that it needed was a dificult birth. Caesarean sections were not common then. Alan SHARP.

[Montrose Budie]

The Sheriff didn't marry anyone !

The couple married by declaration in the presence of 2 witnesses. They then popped along to a sheriff court, any one would do, - it's quite normal to find a Glasgow couple going to Edinburgh, thus avoiding the attentions of the local press back home. They took the witnesses with them and everyone attested to the fact of the marriage by declaration. Assuming that he was satisfied, the Sheriff isssued a Warrant which the couple then took to their local registrar, who then made an entry in his Register Book of Marriages.

mb

[cadmium]

Many thanks both!