Early life in Aberdeen, Scotland

John Davidson, the eldest child of Jane (née Walker) and William Davidson, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on August 6, 1878. His father was a carriage maker for the Great Northern Railway. The working-class family did not have much money, so John himself started working part-time as soon as he was old enough.

In high school and later at Gordon College, the young Davidson worked as a wholesale grocery messenger boy. In 1890, he became a messenger and mechanic’s helper in a cycle and sewing-machine shop. Because the family lacked the money for university tuition, Davidson found a back door to higher education by becoming a boy attendant in the botany department at Marischal College at the University of Aberdeen.