Miss Reid

In 1933, when my Grandpa was awarded custody of my mum, in the Divorce hearing between him and my wayward selfish grandmother, part of the terms was that he had to employ a housekeeper to look after my mum, as my grandpa worked shifts on the railway and of course, he wouldn't have been able to do both.  Mum lived with my grandpa's brother Tom and his family in Errol, from the age of four to 7, and went to school in Glendoick, out the Dundee road.  Grandpa searched for a while, then managed to secure Miss Reid to come and live with them.  Firstly in Braco, then when he got promotion to work in the signal box at Blackford Station (yes, the days when little villages on main lines actually had trains stopping before Butcher Beeching waded in!) and they all moved to Blackford.  

I never knew Miss Reid, but Mum had a great relationship with her.  She could be strict and she said that when Miss Reid would reprimand mum for something, her Dad would stick up for her.  In 1939, when the war broke out, a young girl, same age as mum (10) came to live with the three of them in Braco.  There were quite a few evacuees came to live in that small village from Glasgow staying with various families during the war and went to school there.  Mum said that the local kids would be taught in the morning and the evacuees in the afternoon.  She remembers the mum and dad coming every weekend to see their daughter.  It must have been hard leaving her there, but probably good to see that she was staying with a nice family and not beaten up and made to do lots of chores like you see in some films.

I suppose my mum had an unusual upbringing in her early years, but she had a great Dad who also had great support from his own parents and many siblings.  The Cowper's were a big happy family and Mum was well loved by them all.  Family was everything.  That's why my grandpa was determined to get custody of mum and not have her brought up haphazardly with her flighty mother......  I mean that revelation in October last year where my grandpa married her when she was six month pregnant with another man's child really threw me.  I was shaking when I found out.  Absolutely crazy.  I can't wait for the 1921 census to come out to see exactly who was where and who John Mularkey was......