After the War

I don't have any family photographs that remotely ressemble a group of performers like the Merrymakers featured in this week's Sepia Saturday prompt image above. All I can offer this week is a group photograph that I believe must have been taken on some Scottish hillside in the vicinity of the town of Turriff in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1919. 

My grandfather Oliver Desmond Cruickshank 1893-1985 served as a sapper in the NZ Expeditionary Force from mid 1916 until the end of World War 1. Although considered to have been only slightly wounded, he carried shrapnel in his forehead for the rest of his life. According to my aunt Nella, Oliver didn't go back to New Zealand right after the war but stayed on in the UK until mid 1919. While there he commenced a course of training to become an architect in London and was also able to visit his grandfather's family in Turriff, Aberdeenshire. Grandparents Adam and Charlotte Cruickshank nee Joss had emigrated from there to New Zealand in 1863, together with Adam's brother William and his wife Jane nee Imlah and family, and Adam and William's mother Janet Mackie. Janet died in 1880, Jane in 1905, Charlotte in 1908, William in 1911 and Adam died 1914, but no doubt they had passed on the details of their Scottish families to their children and grandchildren, and had they been still alive they would have been pleased to know that young Oliver had taken the opportunity to go up to Turriff from London and meet some of his Scottish relatives.

Either Nella or Oliver has written names on the back of the photograph, as shown below, but unfortunately they are not very enlightening. In fact I would not have recognised Oliver, sitting cross-legged second from left, if he hadn't been identified. The young boy sitting in front of him is named as Duncan, Janet's brother.  Duncan James Cruickshank, 1915-1978, was a third cousin to Oliver.  Duncan could only have been 5 or 6 at most in this photograph, although he looks older. He followed in his father's footsteps as the town pharmacist, as did his son Alan after him.

 Duncan and Janet's father was George Morrison Cruickshank, Turriff pharmacist and son of Alexander, who was a first cousin to Oliver's grandfather Adam Cruickshank.  George Morrison Cruickshank 1874-1960 was married to Jessie Ann Cruickshank 1885-1954, whose parents were Alexander Cruickshank and Jessie. The surname Cruickshank is a common name in Aberdeenshire and it appears that George and Jessie Ann weren't related, other than by marriage.  I think the lady identified as Jessie, one of the two older women sitting together behind Duncan, must have been his grandmother Jessie, who would have been about 60 in 1920, rather than his mother Jessie Ann who would have been 35. The gentleman standing at the back seems to have been identified as G Uncle Jim. The only possibility I can see for him on the family tree as far as I currently have it is bachelor James Cruickshank, 1873-1951, brother of George and uncle of Duncan.  At present I think that only Duncan and Jim were related to Oliver's Cruickshank line. I have no idea who Frank and Gladys might have been but they were not siblings of George or Jessie Ann, and I also don't know what the letters MG refer to. More research is clearly required!

Oliver found that architecture was too much for him. and upon his return to New Zealand he went back to his trade of plumbing and then on to working for the government as a Health Inspector.  He married Myrtle May Byles in Wellington NZ on 7 April 1921. He visited our family in Australia a few times but never traveled further field again.   The family connection continues however, because my parents and my aunt Nella became friendly with Duncan's sister Janet and in turn I am in touch with her son Andrew and his family. Andrew (my 4th cousin once removed) and his wife Ann attended our daughter's wedding in England in 2012.

Oliver and Myrtle on their wedding day

Duncan's father George Morrison Cruickshank doesn't feature in the hillside photograph with Oliver and Duncan, but perhaps he was the photographer. In any event, here he is with my parents and myself when we visited Turriff in 1954. 

In memory of Janet, Charlotte and Adam, William and Jane, hardy emigrants who never returned to those Scottish hillsides of their homeland, and of Oliver their great grandson, grandson and great nephew and soldier, who did so on their behalf, here is Andy Stewart singing his classic hit song of the 1960s , Scottish Soldier. I still have the original LP, much loved by my parents.

To read other Sepian blogs that are probably more related to the Merrymakers prompt this week, click here.

Two quartets plus a flashback

I wasn't planning to contribute this week, as I'm heading for England tonight, but I seem to be more or less packed, so I have a few minutes to post something after all. As usual, my mother's scrapbooks and albums are a virtual goldmine of old photos and postcards. In her book on our trip to the UK in 1953 I came across a little drop down folder of photos from Turriff Aberdeenshire, from which I've clipped these four shots. The folder has the name of the local chemist George Cruickshank on it. Either he took the photos and had them made up into a folder, or perhaps individual businesses could order folders to be printed with their particular name at the top.  We stayed a night or two in Turriff with George, who was a second cousin of my great grandfather Charles Murray Cruickshank. I've previously written a little about Turriff then and now, and posted a couple of photos of George outside his shop. The district around Turriff was the home of our mutual ancestor Adam Cruickshank, who was buried in Turriff Kirkyard in 1781.

 It's probably only the people and cars that have really changed in Turriff, the old buildings and wide streets still look much the same. George's chemist shop in the main street is run by one of his grandsons, and the photographic studio across the street is operated by another grandson.

I also found this postcard of the sights of Liverpool purchased on the same trip, with four photos plus a fifth one inserted in the centre  of the group. I think the central shot rather detracts from the others by hiding parts of them.

 Then there's a separate postcard of the fountain that's shown in the top right hand corner, described as the entrance to the Mersey Tunnel, which is also the description given for the shot in the bottom left, seen from a different aspect

 Part of the reason for our visiting Liverpool in 1954 was to meet the mother of Sergeant W. (Bill) Bailey, one of the crew of seven airmen killed along with my uncle Ken, when their plane was shot down over Wuppertal Germany in WW2. In this crew photograph, Bill is second from left, with Ken in the centre of the group. Mrs Bailey kindly gave me a sweet little doll called Kaye, with moving arms and legs and blinking eyes. I still have her, currently hidden away in at the top of a wardrobe.

Flashback:  I really should have found those two Liverpool postcards back in December, as they match the photo of central Liverpool that served as the theme for #Sepia Saturday 207.

Unfortunately I won't get to see those sights and sounds of Liverpool on this trip, but who can forget this classic from Gerry and the Pacemakers?  I haven't checked whether anyone posted it for #SS 207, but never mind, you can always see it again. 

That's it, gotta fly, but  for more photographic quartets, just click here

Doorsteps: family gatherings and stories of love and loss, and of then and now

I didn't really think I had many photos of people framed in doorways or porches, but on closer examination my mother's albums come to my rescue again.  I could single out just one, but I'm not good at choosing, so will include a few of them here.

Here are my grandparents Mona and Jack Morrison on the porch of their weatherboard home at 2 Aylmer St Somerfield, with their two oldest children Patricia and Kenneth, in about 1925. My mother Jean was the next child to arrive, being born the following year.

Kenneth Forbes Morrison, the baby in the photograph above, enlisted and became a pilot in the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Aged only 19, he was a Flight Sergeant in the 78th Squadron RAF, but tragically Ken and all his crew were killed when the Halifax he was flying was shot down over Wuppertal Germany on 25 June 1943. Sister Jean was sixteen, and has told me she remembers the day they received news of his death as if it were yesterday.  The crew members' names appear in one of a large number of books of remembrance maintained for all those RAF members who have died in conflicts worldwide. These books line the walls of the RAF Church of St Clement Danes, London, and are well worth a visit.

 The second photo was taken just in front of the Aylmer St porch, and shows Jack with his father Daniel and brother Arnold, who must both have come down to Christchurch for some occasion. Daniel and his wife Mary Bridget Morrissey emigrated from Cork in 1875 with their first baby daughter,changed their surname to Morrison,  and had another fourteen children in the district of Canvastown, Marlborough NZ. Daniel began his working life as a messenger boy in Cork, and retired as a much respected company secretary of a local cheese factory. A large brood indeed, but in those days babies just happened, and four of the Morrison children died in infancy. Of the remaining sons, Bill, the eldest, was a farmer, and three of his brothers became lawyers, including the two above, but missing from any future family gatherings would be their brother Austin Lindsay, who was killed in the Battle of the Somme. On Sept 9th 1916 he wrote his last letter home: 'If anything should happen to me try and bear it Mother, as cheerfully as possible, just for my sake.  I can't write any more, there is a great deal I would like to say but don't know how to; I send my fondest love to all and hope to meet you all again.  Farewell now Mother mine, with fondest love from your son Austin.xxxxxxxx. '

Lest We Forget

Next are three photos taken when Mona and daughter Jean visited Mona's sister Ruby and her husband Will in about 1935. Will Berry and his son Jack posed in the doorway of their Invercargill home.

The Invercargill home to which the arched doorway is attached

A couple of charmers: Jack, right, with his older brother Doug, still in the doorway

 Sadly Jack [John Waldwyn Berry], born in 1920, was to be killed in 1943 in Italy. The report from the Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database records that "[At] 8:00 am on 21 November 1943, Corporal Berry and two others crossed the Sangro River. Arriving on the further bank, Berry left his men behind and went on alone to the foot of a cliff. He left his gun and then, apparently, climbed the cliff unarmed. He did not return, and nothing more was heard of him until months later when his grave was discovered near Chieti, Italy". So there was to be equal heartbreak for sisters Mona and Ruby,  mothers of cousins Ken and Jack.

On a happier note, here are my paternal grandparents Oliver and Myrtle Cruickshank, standing in the alcove of their home in Rangiora NZ, in 1949, and then no doubt one of them has taken a shot of their son Ian and his fiancee Jean in the same setting.  Jean has captioned the photos accordingly.

Mr and Mrs Cruickshank

'A future Mr and Mrs'

The Cruickshank family home in Park St Rangiora. Granddad Oliver was a keen gardener.

Back in the Aylmer St porch a few months later, we see Mona and Jack again, all dressed and ready for the wedding of their daughter Jean to Ian Cruickshank on 22 April 1950.

Here too are  Aunties Bess and Flo, two more sisters of Mona, also set to go to their niece Jean's wedding.

 Finally, here's a doorway photograph taken in far off Turriff Aberdeenshire, ancestral home of my Cruickshank ancestors. During the year spent in the UK in 1953/4, my parents visited the mothers of all the crew members who had perished with Ken. We also called in on some relatives like my great great Aunty Kitty in Margate, as discussed in  a previous post, and also my great grandfather's cousin, George Morrison Cruickshank, who ran the chemist shop in Turriff, where we stayed in a flat above the shop for a few nights.  Pictured in the doorway with a small yours truly are George, born 1874, and his daughter Janet, born 1919.

 Amazingly just a couple of weeks ago another Cruickshank descendant in Invercargill NZ showed me this 'matching' postcard that George had sent to her family back in the 1920s. On the back George wrote that it showed him standing in his shop doorway, with his little daughter Janet standing on the kerbside.

High St, Turriff, 2003. 

 The Cruickshank pharmacy in Turriff is still run by Alan, one of George's grandsons. We met him there but didn't think to pose in the doorway.

For more doorstop gatherings and reflections, go to Sepia Saturday 203.