Bearsden War Memorial

  Thanks to Margaret for providing the photo above.  I am indebted to Fettes School for providing access to photos available from their archive; thank you to Mr David McDowell for facilitating this but I understand the original source was Mr Charles Frater who arranged the photos and generously supplied them to the College.   Robert Robertson Reid was born on 9th May 1897 in Durban, Natal, South Africa.  His father was George Whyte Reid, born in Glasgow but working as a locomotive inspector at the time.  George was aged 54 when Robert was born, having been married once before to Janet Smith Fleming.  He had two daughters Elizabeth and Anna, but his wife and his younger daughter died in 1881 and are buried in Inverness.   George, who came from a family of railwaymen ( reference ), went to work in South Africa in 1893 as locomotive inspector for Natal Government Railways. Undated photo of George, Robert's father He married Margaret Jane Roberts...

Algernon Burton Cooke was born on 12th December 1895 in Riccarton, a suburb of Christchurch, the main city on the South Island of New Zealand.  (Ten years later the population was just under 50,000). In available records he is referred to as Algernon, Alfred, Albert and even Alexander and the family surname is either Cook or Cooke.   I have referred to him by the name on his birth certificate. He was the first child of Alfred Ernest Cook and Maud Beatrice Wearn.  In the 1893 and 1896 electoral roll, Alfred's address was on Carlton Mill Road so it seems reasonable to suppose this was Algernon's first home. Online photos of Carlton Mill Road for that period are hard to find - this is the best I could do.  I wonder if a reader can provide me with something better? Algernon with Alfred and Maud In the 1893 and 1896 electoral rolls, Alfred's occupation was given as clerk but around this time he was trying out as an auctioneer: (Note "stock" is a synonym for livestock...