WW1 War bride to Canada

 Jeanie Kelso Cochrane, the step-daughter of George Bradford, married James Penney, a Canadian soldier from Newfoundland, on 14th January 1916 in Glasgow. There's a record of her sailing to Canada on the California in 1922 but she is with her daughter who was born in Canada. They must have been home visiting her family. Her husband James Penney was living at 209 Parker St in Newark, New Jersey and that was their intended permanent home.

James Penney born 26th Dec 1894 in Ochre Pit Cove, Newfoundland was a Private with the 1st Newfoundland Battalion attached to the British army. The were camped at Ayr (old) Racecourse for training. In March 1916 he was on active service in France but by 1917 he was invalided out. 

Jeanie married William Spurgeon Kennedy a carpenter in 1928 in Jersey City. It looks like Jeanie and James Penney divorced as he married Viola E Friedrichs in 1927.

William returned from Glasgow to New York in 1930 on the Transylvania after visiting mother in law Jeanie Bradford in Cumnock. His wife wasn't with him, on the return trip anyway.

Mother Jeanie Bradford age 77 flew KLM from Prestwick  to visit them  in 1947 at 80 Melrose Avenue Arlington.

In 1930 William's brother Bertram married another lass from Cumnock Mary Stewart Cameron and they lived next door to William in the 1940 and 1950 censuses in Arlington.  Mary travelled alone to New York on the Cameronia in 1929. She was 29 a shorthand typist going to her brother Robert Cameron in Kearney, New Jersey. 

William Kennedy and Jeanie ended up in Pasco, Florida, where they both died in 1975

Mary Stewart Cameron died at the age of 102 in Missouri.

Alexander Gemmell Prospers in England

Alexander Gemmell, Benefactor who never forgot his Cumnock roots.

Link to him on Cumnock Connections tree

By Joanne Ferguson, Kay McMeekin and the late Bobby Grierson

Alexander Gemmell

Alexander Gemmell was born in 1850 when his parents were living at The Green in Cumnock. This is now the area of the staff car park behind the Tanyard Medical Practice and directly behind the Box Church at the Dub.

His father, John, was a Stonecutter Quarryman who married Elizabeth Andrew in Cumnock in 1834. They had 8 children – 3 girls and 5 boys with Alexander being the youngest son. His mother, father and some siblings are buried in Cumnock old cemetery on Barrhill Road.

Alexander married Margaret Murdoch in 1873 at Crossriggs Cottage in Cumnock which is now Crossriggs Veterinary practice. They had six children – 3 boys and 3 girls.

Alexander started his working life as a bank accountant with the Royal Bank of Scotland, Glaisnock Street in Cumnock. Around 1877 he moved to Keighley, Yorkshire, where he was appointed branch manager of Bradford Old Bank. After a succession of mergers and further appointments the bank became United Counties which was then acquired by Barclay and Co Ltd in 1916 when Alexander was appointed branch manager of the Bradford group.

in 1903 Alexander chaired the annual Glasgow-Cumnock Reunion at the Trades Hall in Glasgow. This caricature accompanied the report in the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald - Friday 27 February 1903.

In 1916 Cumnock celebrated the 50th anniversary of Cumnock becoming a Police Burgh in 1886. To mark this Alexander came back to Cumnock and presented the gold chain and badge of office to the Provost James Richmond in his term of office. The chain is 42 inches long and made of enamel and 15 ct gold.

 

The provost’s badge and chain are on display in the Baird Institute Museum in Cumnock.

Post WW1 he provided the Cumnock Parish Medal made of silver and enamel. They were individually inscribed with the soldier’s name and with “In grateful remembrance or for services” and presented to the soldiers or their families at the welcome Home Dance in Cumnock .

Alexander Gemmell died on 13 January 1923 in Bradford, Yorkshire, at the age of 73 and his will reveals he had effects of £20,552.

In 1925 Cumnock Town Council completed a scheme of houses to the south of the town hall and one of the streets, Gemmell Avenue was named in Alexander’s honour.

John Kay, WW1 cartographer

By Kay McMeekin with cooperation of his descendants.

John Kay was born in Cumnock in 1856 to  John Kay and Jean Thomson (More of the Thomson family elsewhere)

He became a tailor in Liverpool and married a widow Ellen Charlotte Jackson widow of Charles Thomas Laidman. She had two little girls Helen and Alice. John and Ellen had a daughter Frances Mary and they emigrated on the Australia to New York arriving in September 1884. They were heading for Cincinnati, Ohio where Ellen's sister Frances and their mother were living in 1880 census. They fetched up in Americus, Georgia by the 1900 census. John Kay was not with his wife and family. He was a tailor's merchant, a boarder,  in Pueblo, Pueblo, Colorado. 

John went missing in January of 1910 for a few days as seen in newspaper reports in the Austin American Statesman. No reporting of how or where he turned up again has been found yet.

The WW1 story as related by his grandson-in-law James Beard:

During the First World War, there was no mass media.  The British government paid people in the US to give lectures on what was happening on the Western Front.  Probably with a decidedly British slant.

Papa Kay was born in 1856 in Cumnock, Scotland and had been in the British army as a young man in the 1870s and attached to a cartographic unit.  The Kay family moved from Britain in the 1880s to Americus, Georgia.  The Kays moved to Austin, Texas in the mid 1890s.  Mr. Kay operated a tailoring shop in downtown Austin.

The British Government in 1915 paid £1 British pound a month to the men giving lectures about the War.  A pound was worth about $5 in those days, and Papa Kay, being a good Scotsman, was not going to let that money slip away!  To put this amount in perspective, the best paying industrial job at the time was $5 for an 8-hour shift at the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. Or about 63 cents an hour.  So, $5 for a few hours a month was pretty good!

When Mr. Kay gave a lecture, he would draw a map so people could visualize the troop movements better.  After the war was over, he gathered as much information as he could and created a 20-foot by 40-foot map.  One inch equals one mile.  

Two Aerodromes are delineated, Orly, just north of Paris, and one near Amiens.  The red lines are railroads (I know after a visit here by an officer of the French Consulate in Houston, Texas.  He could not believe how accurate the map was.)

Please note that all the hospitals are outside the city of Paris.  Well, it turns out the so called "Spanish Flu" that supposedly broke out in 1918, was actually killing French soldiers in the trenches in 1916!  The French government was afraid of the flu spreading to the civilian population, so they placed the hospitals outside the city.  Well, that actually helped the guys, because the Spanish flu attacked the respiratory system and Paris was heated with coal at the time and the air in the city was full of smoke.  With the hospitals outside the city, the guys got fresh air and sunshine! 

Remarkable War Map. Copied from The London Times March 31, 1925 from a hand written copy of the newspaper article....the only name on the letter is "Sara"...Perhaps some friend or relative in Great Britain?

(from a correspondent)

In the shop of an Austin merchant tailor, hangs one of the most remarkable maps in existence.  It tells the whole story of the Great War, so accurate is it in detail, so perfect in workmanship and so valuable (illegible word) a historical document, that it is destined to become a treasured national possession.

The creator of the map is John Kay, a graduate of Glasgow University*.  John for many years carried on the profession of a mining engineer.   From day to day, he received every item of War news circulated by the Associated Press of America.  He obtained all the official documents that were available.  He followed every detail of the War Dispatches in "The Times".

The result is a map measuring 40 feet by 20 feet.  There are more than 72,000 names inscribed upon it.  There is not a road in France that is not indicated.  Every line of trenches is marked.  Wherever the American forces were fighting, there is a flag.  The fortunes of the American forces can be followed from the moment they landed in England or in France, to the positions they occupied at the Armistice.   There is a white cross where the first American soldier fell. There is a careful chart of the Battle of Jutland.  The sinking of the (HMS) Hampshire is marked as is the place where the Lusitania was torpedoed, accompanied by the statement, "This brought us into the war."

* not found him in the archives of Glasgow University

Obituary on newspapers.com

Obit found by Joanne Ferguson

From Northern Ireland to Old Cumnock

From Northern Ireland to Old Cumnock

By Roberta McGee

Over the years a great many Cumnockians emigrated world-wide in search of a better life. However, on the other hand, some families saw Cumnock as a thriving, bustling town, the perfect place to work and raise a family. By the early 1900s Cumnock had grown in population and attracted many Irish immigrants who found work in the coal mining industry. 

Elizabeth Clawson was my husband's grandmother. Known as Betty, she was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Northern Ireland in 1872. Betty was the sixth child of James Clawson and Margaret Dempsey who were married in 1858 in Rocavan, Co. Antrim. James, a labourer, and Margaret lived in Glenarm, Tickmacrevan, Co. Antrim.

Glenarm is a picturesque village and dates back to before the 17th century. It lies on the North Channel coast about twelve miles north of the town of Larne which is just a short distance from Stranraer in Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland. 

After their marriage James and Margaret moved to Carrickfergus where their eight children were born. James worked as a dock labourer. Carrickfergus, which sits on the north shore of Belfast Lough, is one of the oldest fortified settlements in Ulster and is steeped in history. 

When and why Betty moved to Scotland is uncertain but in 1893 we find her in Stevenston, Ayrshire, where she married Thomas McGee, a foundry worker aged 22 years. They married in the Free Church Manse in Stevenston on 27th October 1893. Betty's occupation is given as 'field worker'. Her mother, Margaret Dempsey, is recorded as deceased.  

Tom McGee was born in Dimity Street, Johnstone, Renfrewshire. His father was James Campbell McGee and his mother was Elizabeth Menzies, both of Irish extraction. Tom and his seven siblings led an unsettled life. His father was a pedlar and they travelled around from area to area. 

The 1901 census shows Tom, now a bricklayer's labourer, and Betty living in 18 Windmill Street, Saltcoats, with their two children James Campbell McGee who was born in 1894 in Stevenston and Thomas McGee who was born in 1896 at 15 McDowall Street, Johnstone. Betty's sister Maggie and her husband were also living in Windmill Street. 

Tommy, Jimmy, Sam & Alex McGee

In 1901/1902 Tom found employment as an insurance agent and they moved firstly to Tower Street, Cumnock where they had four children, Sam, Alex, Maggie and Neil, then to 98 Townhead Street, Cumnock where they had their youngest child William. 

Tom McGee with sons Sam & Neil at Michie Street

Although Tom's job as an insurance agent brought the family to Cumnock, he soon realised that a mining town would always need a chimney sweep. His main work throughout his life in Cumnock was sweeping chimneys and he supplemented his income at times through the years by being a greenkeeper, lamplighter, town crier, bill poster and J.P. Court Officer. 

Cumnock Chronicle 1914

Tom and Betty's religion was very important to them. They were attracted to Gospel work and Tom would go out into the community to preach the Gospel with his sons Tom and Jimmy who were his Gospel singers. Later they were staunch members of Cumnock Baptist Church, then the Apostolic Church, before moving back to the Baptist Church. Tom was a strong Orangeman and held the rank of Grand Master. He was also a Knight, in the Red Cross Degree, of the Grand Royal Black Chapter of Ireland and his services as a speaker in that connection were much in demand. Betty was also very much involved in the Ladies Orange Lodge in Cumnock. 

Anne Griffiths recalls Irish soldiers visiting her house in Michie Street:

We were neighbours of the McGees and gave hospitality to the many soldiers stationed locally. Whilst visiting us they spotted Mrs McGee's orange lillies growing in her garden and, as the 12th of July celebrations were approaching, they asked her if they might pick some. They arrived back at Pennylands Camp to be stopped and told 'Only one bloom each - we don't want another war here'.

Tom came through the South African Campaign with the King's Own Scottish Borderers in 1900. He enlisted with the Royal Scots Fusiliers when he was nearly 42 years old in 1914 and spent some time in the trenches in France. 

Children of Betty Clawson & Tom McGee

James Campbell McGee (Jimmy) was born in 1894 at Stevenston, Ayrshire and died in 1978 at Ballochmyle Hospital his usual address being 23 Herdston Place, Cumnock. He married Annie (Nan) Harper Armstrong in 1917 at the Baptist Church, Barrhill Road, Cumnock. Jimmy was 22 years old when he got married and had been a coalminer at Whitehill Pit but, at the time of his marriage, he was a Sergeant in the Royal Scots Fusiliers and was based at Randalstown in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.  During WW1 Randalstown was an army training camp housing more than 5,000 British and Irish soldiers in preparation for the trenches of France where Jimmy was sent after his training. After WW1 ended Jimmy became a Sergeant Major in the Territorials and later, during WW2, he was in the Home Guard. 

Jimmy & Nan McGee - family photograph

Jimmy's faith was an important part of his life. He was 13 years old when he joined the Baptist Church which he attended and took an active part in for 21 years before becoming a lay preacher with the Apostolic Church in Cumnock. He also accompanied his father Tom preaching the Gospel in the community and, with his brother Tom, was one of his Gospel singers. He later rejoined the Baptist Church where he served as a Deacon for many years. Jimmy and Nan had no children but they fostered three girls who were sisters. Nan died in 1970 at Cumnock. They had been married for 53 years. Jimmy married a second time in 1971 to widow Mirren McMurray Kerr but sadly she died that same year of acute leukaemia. He married a third time to Mary Brown Jarvis in 1973. 

Thomas McGee (Tom) was born in 1897 in Johnstone, Renfrewshire and died in 1968 in Stirling.He married Kate Scott Ritchie in 1918 at Stirling. Tom was a coalminer but at the time of his marriage he was a Corporal in the 5th Battalion RSF. They had a son Robert Ritchie McGee who died, aged 4 years old, in 1925. At the time of his son's death Tom was an asphalt worker. Kate died in July 1941 at Stirling and he married for a second time to widow Jessie Kennedy Smith. The marriage took place at 2 Urbana Terrace, Cumnock. 

Samuel Menzies McGee (Sam) was born in 1903 in Tower Street, Cumnock and died in 1989 at 13 Michie Street, Cumnock. Sam served with RSF 15th Platoon. He married Marie Matilda Drummond Biggham in 1934 at Bridgeton, Glasgow. He and Marie met on a visit "Doon the Watter" to Girvan. Marie lived in Glasgow where her family had moved to from Perth. She was born in 1905 in Glasgow and  lost her mother in 1913. She died in 1991 in Ayr County Hospital. Sam and Marie had four children two of whom are still living. 

RSF 15 Platoon - Sam McGee top row 2nd from right

Sam & Marie McGee’s Golden Wedding

Alexander McGee (Alex) was born in 1905 in Tower Street and died in 1989 in Cumnock. He married Annie Murdoch Stewart in 1926 at Skares. Annie died in 1988.

'On leaving school Alex began an apprenticeship as a slater with Messrs. Baird at Lugar. After his marriage he became a miner at Whitehill Pit. In 1946 he went into partnership as McGee & Murdoch and their premises were in Barrhill Road, Cumnock. In retirement he became a Lollipop Man at the Tanyard. They were staunch members of the Baptist Church and had five children, Tommy, Betty, Ferries, John and Margaret." 

Extracted from Golden Wedding Notice Cumnock Chronicle 2/4/1976

Annie & Alex McGee - family photograph

Two of Alex and Annie's daughter emigrated. Betty who was born in 1931 in Cumnock met her future husband Tom Houston when he was 14 years old and she was 13 years old. They began seeing each other 3 years later. Betty had been baptised into the Baptist Church. Tom was baptised in 1951 and left for America to study the ministry in 1952. Betty followed 10 months later and they were married in Calvary Baptist Church, Niagara Falls where they stayed for 11 years. Tom became a Pastor and they eventually settled in Texas where Tom had his own church.  Sadly Betty died there on 13th April 2024.

Their youngest daughter Margaret was born in 1941 in Cumnock. She married and emigrated to Zimbabwe but was forced to flee with no possessions and no money when the white landowners were evicted from their properties. She died in Ashford-in-Kemt, England in April 2019. Her sister Ferries died a month later at Ayr University Hospital. 

Margaret Dempsey McGee (Maggie) was born in 1908 at Tower Street, Cumnock. She married Robert Watson ('Dishy'). After father Tom McGee died her mother Betty went to live with them in Townhead Street. Read more about Maggie in our 'Many a Lang Scots Mile' blog here. 

Maggie McGee with brother Alex - family photograph

Neil Martin McGee was born at Tower Street, Cumnock in 1910 and married Maggie McCartney Stewart Dunn in 1937 at the Wilson Hall, Catrine. Neil and Maggie lived in Catrine all of their married lives.  Neil died there in 1983.

Neil and Maggie - family photograph

William McGee (Willie) was born in 1913 at 98 Townhead Street, Cumnock. He was a Corporal with the 13th King's Regiment (Liverpool) and volunteered to become a Chindit. The Chindits were special operations units of the British and Indian armies during WW2. Their primary mission was to operate behind enemy lines in Burma and disrupt Japanese communications. Willie took part in the first Chindit expedition, known as 'Operation Longcloth' which began in February 1943.                                                                              

Willie was taken prisoner by the Japanese on 7th May 1943 and taken to Rangoon Jail. He was fortunate to survive and return home at the end of the war. Of the Longcloth Chindits who became prisoners of war and were held in Rangoon Jail, 62% did not return home. Willie was awarded the Military Medal for acts of gallantry and devotion to duty under fire. When he returned from Burma he settled in England and married widow Gladys Nuttal in 1946. He died in Lancashire in 2003. 

William McGee MM - family photograph

Tom and Betty led happy, successful lives in their adopted town of Old Cumnock. They were the first occupants of the newly built house at 15 Michie Street in the early 1930s. Tom sadly died in 1937 at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow. Some years after his death Betty moved in with her daughter Maggie Watson at 89 Townhead Street, which was across the road from where Tom and Betty lived when they first came to Cumnock. Betty died in 1965, the oldest lady in the Burgh, in her 93rd year.

4 Generations - Betty Clawson, son Alex McGee, granddaughter Ferries and great grandson

Betty Clawson McGee, son Sam & grand-daughters Rona & Christine 

Love and War

By Alexandra Watson

 The latter days of the 18th Century

Great events even far away can often impact our surroundings and lives. How many of us who pass through Ayr and see the ruins from Eglinton Street, know that this was the Citadel Fort, commissioned in 1652 and one of a group of five impressive fortresses established following Scotland’s defeat and the establishment of a Commonwealth between England and Scotland. English occupation forces were housed there, with the intention, to repress a still hostile Scots populace. A later addition to the town was The Barracks, built on the south side of Ayr Harbour as part of the British response to the threat of the French in 1795 and it was to there came an English soldier.

The turmoil of the second half of the 18th century saw events that not only changed the world but the individual lives of ordinary people living in Ayrshire. The last Jacobite rising of 1745; the War of American Independence of 1775 -1783; the French Revolutionary Wars of 1792 -1802 and the Napoleonic Wars of 1799 - 1815 and the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Against this background the British government had a real anxiety that there may be alliances amongst disillusioned Scots and Irish and the French. 

In 1794, some one hundred and seventy-five miles away in County Durham, a weaver, John Watson was recruited into the Durham Fencible Cavalry, which changed its name the next year to the Princess of Wales's Fencible Cavalry. It was led by William Vane, who was also Colonel of the Militia.  After spending three years in Scotland, they proceeded to Ireland and were disbanded in 1802. 

“During the French Revolutionary Wars from end 1792 until May 1802 the regiment was tasked with maintaining order as well as anti-invasion duties and for this purpose they were employed outside of their area of recruitment and kept on the move “so as to avoid fraternisation with the local population” 

Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militia_and_Volunteers_of_County_Durham

Well, as Robert Burns said just about that time in 1785:

“The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men gang aft agley” 

How and where John Watson met the local girl, Catherine Henrie we will never know. She was born on 11 March 1779, in Kirkmichael, Ayrshire, Scotland. They married in St Quivox on 23 August 1797 and it is known that the army moved supplies such as cattle and horses inland to there, away from the Ayr coast, in case of French raids.

The beginning of the 19th Century

When John left the army they settled in her home village of Kirkmichael and John worked as a weaver. They had at least 5 children who in turn had families. Each of the boys had at least 6 children and so this particular branch of the Watsons was established in Ayrshire.

Our interest is with John's son William and then the line from William's daughter Janet. William was born on 21 June 1802. In the church records he and three siblings are belatedly recorded as Irregular Baptisms, maybe harking back to John’s English background and not originally being a member of the Church of Scotland. William married Euphemia Duncan in Sorn, her home village on 6 June 1826. Euphemia was 27 and William was 23. William moved to Sorn and raised his children there but by 1851 he is back in Kirkmichael. William sadly died relatively young at 54 years old in 1856. However, Euphemia moved to Cumnock with her youngest son James, and lived to the age of 77. Sadly Janet Watson, William and Euphemia’s daughter died at the age of 25 in 1857 having given birth to a son out of marriage. He was called George Henrie Watson and it seemed that his paternity would remain a mystery. However, with the advent of DNA testing, we have noticed multiple links to a Howe Family, also resident in Kirkmichael. We also noted the death of a young man John Howe, ages with Janet who also sadly died the same year as the birth of George. 

The mid 19th Century

So we follow George’s line, he remained in his brother James’s household in Cumnock till he married his next-door neighbour Jeanie Crichton in 1873. Both Jeanie's parents' families had originated in Lanarkshire making their way to Ayrshire for work in the coal industry after their marriage in 1843. Coincidently George and Jeanie’s next-door neighbour in the Barrhill in Cumnock was none other than a certain journalist James Keir Hardie, a founding member of the Labour Party.

The early 20th Century

George Henrie Watson and Jeanie had 7 children. These were very hard times ...The Depression; World War 1 1914 -1918; the National Strike 1926. The girls all followed their husbands for work and left Cumnock. The Yuills and Ronalds headed for Glasgow. George was the first to emigrate and he went to New Zealand. Mary and her husband Alexander Vallance of Burnside farm, Cumnock, headed for Canada and then James too decided to emigrate.  James a recently remarried widower took his new wife and family off to Canada. Only Robert (born 1885) remained in Cumnock but sadly he too died at the young age of 37, leaving behind a young widow and three of a family. Only one son to carry on the Watson name in Cumnock - Hugh Watson.

George Watson (born 1892) had a successful life in New Zealand. He was widowed after 40 years of marriage and then decided to visit Cumnock again. He stayed with his nephew Hugh (mentioned above) and coming home by sea he succumbed “to a shipboard romance” marrying again on his return to New Zealand. The Cumnock Chronicle ran quite a story on George and his visit. 

Happily, James (born 1890) who was also widowed young had married his employer’s (The Craigs from the Guelt Farm, Glenmuir) daughter and set off with his family and new bride to Canada and received a land grant. James fathered five children and his two boys' children established quite "a Watson Clan", in Fredericton, New Brunswick. These Watsons are regular visitors to Scotland as are their children and the connection is as strong as ever. We also hear from the Vallances in Ontario who recently made "an eighteen-strong party expedition" to Scotland.

World Wars

Young Hugh, the son of Robert, was born in 1917 and only 5 when his father died. He was brought up by his mother Elizabeth Crawford Blackwood (1885 - 1963), a well-known and respected figure. Hugh had a very happy life with his mother two older sisters Martha and Jean and his young cousin Jean that is until war intervened. 

Hugh was a grocer and at the outbreak of the war, he went with two friends to enlist. The three of them were attracted to the glamour of the Air Force, the queue was long and being processed alphabetically so the W’s were last to be signed. His two friends successfully were enrolled into the Air Force before him but Hugh had to take the army. Sadly as the attrition rate was high in the Air Force it might come as no surprise that Hugh’s friends never made it home.

Hugh was in the Black Watch and was taken prisoner on 11 June 1940.

source:  https://51hd.co.uk/history/valery_1940

This is not the place to record the horrors of the situation, the enforced marches, the near starvation, the deaths and the misery of war. Hugh was the most optimistic and positive man you could meet. At home, his widowed mother and sisters feared for his life.  

Calum MacIver bottom right and Hugh Watson top left in Stalag XX1D (Poland)

Hugh did make it home but fate brought that twist of love and war exactly like in the John Watson & Catherine Henrie marriage, meeting his wife only because of the war. 

The first John Watson’s home in Durham had been one hundred and seventy-five miles away from Cumnock. At an even longer distance of three hundred and twenty-eight miles in a tiny village on the Hebridean island of Lewis, a baby was born to Murdo MacIver and Isabel MacLean. She was Eiric Mhuruchaidh Iain Aonghais and spoke no English till the age of six. Effie, as she was known, was a really clever girl and wanted to be a nurse. In those days you had to pay for your training, so she went to the capital city of Edinburgh and worked as a servant till she raised sufficient money. She had two brothers and a sister named Barbara. The latter came to Edinburgh with her and their brothers enlisted; John into the navy and Calum into the army. In 1940 the family was advised that Calum too had been taken prisoner by the Germans. Effie worked hard and eventually became a Ward Sister in the prestigious Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. In those days women who held those positions did not marry and had rooms on site. The war was hard for her too as not only did they treat civilian patients from the city but British soldiers and German soldiers too – an irony when her brother was imprisoned there.

Effie far right

Calum and Hugh were in the same prisoner-of-war camp and became very close friends. The end of the war came and Calum came home and married his sweetheart Cathy and in those days a Lewis wedding lasted for days. Effie, Barbara, and one of Barbara's friends, Mary Dougan, went up north for the wedding. Not long after the wedding Effie decided to visit Barbara's friend who was now married and living back in her native Ayrshire. The friend knew Hugh Watson and the connection between Calum and Hugh and arranged for Effie to meet Hugh...and the rest is history. 

There are no Watsons from Jeanie Crichton and George Henrie Watson's line living in Cumnock but all have a piece of Cumnock in their hearts.