Camelia

Today I thought a lot about my grandfather. He was born on this day in 1890 and died in October 1964. One of 14, third youngest. His elder brother John fought in the Boer War and as Ive said before my grandpa fought in WW1. A story my mum told me was that he was in the trenches at Flanders and there was a delivery of mail from home. There was no post for my grandpa but his friend/comrade that he was standing with got a letter. It was quite dark in the area they were so he moved up a bit in order to read it properly . That action was the death of the poor guy, hit by enemy fire, and my grandpa was hit by shrapnel in His left arm, leaving him with nerve damage causing his pinky and finger next to it to be permanently curled in.

He enrolled as a private in 1915 and left as a Corporal, and for a while near the end was in the military police.

He was a clever man, I’ve found pages and pages of notes he wrote, as it seemed he was a scholar and lover of Rabbie Burns. He would always address the haggis at the Burns Suppers in Blackford. Also a very good bowler, many pictures of him receiving trophies and won the top prize in Perthshire for bowling.

Weirdly, his wife was also born on 6 April but in 1902. I suppose she is my grandmother but didn’t really deserve that title. She certainly was no mother to my mum and thankfully (in a way) because it worked out for the best, mum being raised by her Dad.

He was obviously good at writing and English language and I really wish he had written about his time in the army and also how he met and married Mary Findlay, especially her being the daughter of a Headmaster and being ostracised from her family for marrying my grandpa. All these lost stories where you have to read between the lines. We did find a ships manifest where her name was on it to board the Cameronia vessel in Liverpool to take her to New York to stay in Brooklyn with her Dad’s brother, probably booked by her dad to get her away from my grandpa. The date of sailing was after the wedding of her and my grandpa, and also she was already pregnant with my mum! The ship sailed without her and a note in a column saying ‘did not board.!

Anyway, this is a beautiful Camelia which I photographed at one of the lovely walks we have beside the River Tay, Rodney Gardens. It was stunning!