Cousin Doug the Officer

I have previously blogged about various relatives who served in either the first or the second World War, but I don't think I've mentioned this gentleman, Douglas Drummond Lind, who was a second cousin to my mother Jean Cruickshank nee Morrison. Doug's grandmother Emily Young was an older sister of my mother's grandmother Jane Isabella Young. Emily was born in Aberdeenshire in 1847 and emigrated to New Zealand in 1851 with her parents Charles Young and Jane Patterson, her older sister Anne and baby brother William. Charles and Jane had another seven children born in NZ. When Emily Young got married in 1865 to John Andrews, her little sister Jane Isabella, aka Jeanie, was only 5. Emily and John Andrews had twelve children.

Doug Lind was born in 1910. He was the eldest son of Emily's daughter Emily Mary Andrews, born 1880, who married William Andrew Lind in 1909. Jane Isabella Young married Charles Forbes in 1897, and their daughter Mona, born 1897, married John Morrison, aka Jack, in 1919. My mother Jean was born in 1926, so again there was quite an age gap between her and her second cousin Doug, but clearly the family ties remained close, despite the age differences and the fact that Charles and Jane Young had 55 surviving grandchildren, all first cousins to Jean's mother Mona, 

The first photograph above is definitely a studio portrait of Doug Lind in uniform.

I believe the lower portrait is also of him at a later date, although I'm not certain of that fact as there is no identification on the reverse.

The following page of snaps from my mother's album shows Doug and a fellow airman visiting the Morrison family at their Christchurch home. In the third photograph are my mother's parents Jack and Mona Morrison nee Forbes, first cousin of Doug's mother Emily Mary, the Morrisons' elder daughter Pat and two of their sons, Derek and Peter, who I'm sure is playfully wearing cousin Doug's cap.

In April 1942 on another page of the album below we see Ken with his father Jack, older sister Pat, little brother Peter, and his friend  Geoff. Again Peter is wearing 'his' pilot's cap.

I'm not sure of the date of the first page above, but you can see from the caption that those on the following pages were sent from England in 1944. Sadly by that time Ken Morrison had been killed in action, when his plane was hit while flying on a mission over Germany on 25 June 1943.

Doug was promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in 1944. Unlike my Uncle Ken, he was one of the lucky ones who survived the war and returned home, where hopefully he was able to resume life in peaceful New Zealand.  Earlier this year I discovered a friendly and amusing letter that he had written to his cousin Jean on the eve of her wedding in 1950. I would like to have included an extract here, but unfortunately I seem to have since mislaid it. My filing system clearly leaves a lot to desired!  Doug married the following year and had a family himself. He passed away in 1986.  I'm not in contact with any of his children or grandchildren, but if any of them should come across this blog about Doug, I would love to them get in touch. In particular, perhaps they can confirm whether or not the second portrait is of Doug.

 Out of interest, since publishing my blog about Ken and his airforce friends which can be read here, I've had contact from relatives of two of the other men who were also in the nightclub photograph, telling me how they greatly enjoyed seeing the photographs and reading the blog.

For more blogs on the theme for November of War and Peace for Sepia Saturday #345, click here.