James Pirie 1838-1921

From time to time, as a child, I was told "Grannie's uncle was Mayor of Scarborough". It must have seemed a little incongruous how, at the end of the 19th century, an Aberdeenshire farmer's son became a leading light of the fashionable Yorkshire spa town - but I never thought to ask "which uncle?" or "how?" It was only recently that I decided to research the life of my great-great-uncle James Pirie.

On 25th July 1838, in the parish of Keithall and Kinkell, Aberdeenshire, John and Catherine Pirie had a son baptised James. The family lived at Hillhead of Leggat Farm with elder children Jane (17) John (15) and Alexander (10). Other sons William and Keith had died in infancy, and further tragedy struck in 1841 when their mother died. By 1851, the family had moved within the parish to Tweeddale Farm where John (49), helped by his elder sons farmed 74 acres. James was at school and on Sundays the siblings sang in the choir at the Auld Kirk, where their father was Precentor. The family and the farmhouse were looked after by housekeeper Christina Beattie (30) and 'out-servant' Barbara Angus. In 1852, John snr and Christina were married.

At the age of 19 James, in reply to an advertisement, travelled to Driffield in Yorkshire to work as a draper with a Scot by the name of Ross. After a year there, he left to work for a Robert Ritchie based in Hull, and for the next three years travelled the district from Driffield to Whitby, often finding himself in Scarborough. In 1860, aged 22, he took over the drapery business from Mr Ritchie and worked from home at 6, Atlas Place, Scarborough. A year later, he had moved to number 80 and was recorded there as being head of the household and employing a 43-year-old housekeeper who lived-in with her 12-year-old daughter. In that same year, James made his first investment in the Cliff Bridge Company. He also founded a Sunday School at Burniston.

In 1862, at the Baptist Chapel in Scarborough, James married Hannah Collingwood Smailes, a cabinet-maker's daughter. Never having particularly liked the drapery business, James sold it in 1870 but in the next two years suffered heavy losses, being, in his own words 'cleared-out' by stockbrokers. Undaunted, and with his pronounced ability to overcome obstacles, he began in business as a house agent and was appointed district rate-collector for the northern half of the town.

In 1881, he and his wife were living at 80 Castle Road, and James was in business as an auctioneer and commission agent. This grew so rapidly that he had to give up his office of rate-collector and devote all his time to his business until his health gave way when he was 45. Rather than take on a partner, James chose to sell up and take a complete rest over the next year. Having no reason to return to a business career, he went on to devote time to more than a dozen public companies of which he had become a director. He was chairman of the Public Market Company, the Central Tramway Company and the Board of Guardians, vice-chairman of the Filey Water and Gas Company, a director of the Building Society and the Coffee House Company, and Secretary of the Public Baths Company.

By 1891 the couple had moved to 105 Castle Road. James became a Town Councillor and in 1894 was returned unopposed as the Liberal candidate for the North Ward. Three years later, when opposed, he obtained the highest majority ever by a candidate in that ward.

In 1897, James Pirie became Mayor of Scarborough. In 1899, he was made a Justice of the Peace and was noted for being one of the most hard-working magistrates on the bench. In 1901 James (62) and Hannah (60) were still living at 105 Castle Road, where they employed a maid aged 24.

In 1906 James was elected an alderman. In 1907, he retired from the Board of Guardians, after 17 years' valuable service. He attended meetings of the Town Council up to December 1920 when his resignation, due to failing health, was regretfully accepted, as was his resignation from the Aldermanic Bench.

He died at his home, 105 Castle Road, in December 1921 in his 84th year. The Scarborough Mercury reported that "his passing removes a very familiar figure from the town".

Two collared doves

It came as a bit of a shock when a telegraph pole 'appeared' dead centre of the landscape view from our lounge window. I felt a resentment, left over from childhood, that I had not been asked or even told of its arrival. It didn't look quite such a 'sore thumb' when the slack wires were attached, - but I nonetheless willed our hawthorn tree to grow with some remarkable speed.
Very soon after the technicians had gone, I glanced out to see atop the pole a pair of collared doves cuddled-up to one another in affection and due to their tiny perching space. To them it was simply another tree which afforded them a superb view of their surroundings. Within minutes they were joined by others of their avian community balancing on the wires, their tails used like a tightrope-walker's pole to keep them aloft on what, to them, must have seemed like very slender but sturdy branches.
If all of them could think of it as a tree then so could I!
I now feel no resentment as I look out at what is no longer a pole but a lone Scots Pine, its iron climbing aids are now the 'broken-off' lower limbs so often seen up the straight trunk familiar to that species.
What a lesson to learn in life, turning a disadvantage into an advantage, it gives one such a different outlook - literally and metaphorically.
Life's problems are all telegraph poles thrust upon one. I am going to do my best to transform them all into lone Scots Pines.

BERNHARDI - some illustrious namesakes

George Christian Bernhardi (1722-1789) was the author of " Oden, Lieder, Erzahlungen und
Briefe" published in 1851.
August Ferdinand Bernhardi (1769-1820) was the son of the Law High Commissioner in
Berlin Johann Christian Bernhardi (1738-1815).
August Ferdinand of the Margraviate of Brandenburg was a pedagogue, linguist and writer
who achieved renown and recognition through his linguistic research. In 1808 he was Headmaster of the Friedrichwerderschen Gymnasium in Berlin.
In 1799 he married the writer Sophie Tiech (1775-1833). They had two sons:
Wilhelm (1800-1878) who was a writer and Theodore von Bernhardi (1803-1887) who was a diplomat and moved to St Petersburg in 1834. His son Friederick became
General Friederick von Bernhardi (1849-1930) Born in St Petersburg, he was the outstanding military writer of his day. His publications were "On War of Today" 1913, "How Germany Makes War" 1914 and "The War of the Future in the light of the lessons of the World War 1921.

Johannes Jakob Bernhardi (1774-1850) was a botanist, mineralogist and Professor of Botany at Erfurt University in 1805. He was Director of the University Botanic Gardens in Erfurt from 1799 to 1850 and was made Vice President of the University on 1842. As a plant collector, his collection included specimens brought back by Banks from Captain Cook's voyages and from Darwin. In 1857 this collection was purchased on behalf of Henry Shaw (born Sheffield, England) and founded the Missouri Botanic Garden.

Karl Christian Sigismund Bernhardi (Dr) (1799-1874) Historian, Librarian at Kassel, N Hesse
1834 formed the Assoc for Hessian History & Regional Studies with the Brothers Grimm
1844 created a language map of Germany
1848 became Member of first German National Assembly in Frankfurt Paulskirche
1859-1874 Chairman Assoc Hessian History & Regional Studies
1867-1868 Member Preuss Lower House
1867-1869 Member Realm North Germans of Federation

Carl Bernhardi (Dr) born 1843 in Koenigsberg, Prussia. Previous to graduation he served as
volunteer surgeon in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866.
1869 he went to the USA, stayed with friends in St Louis, learned that
there was an opening for a German physician at Rock Island which he
took-up and remained one of the city's successful physicians and
respected citizens.
Carl Oscar Bernhardi (Dr) born 1880 in Rock Island, son of Dr Carl Bernhardi, was well-known
as a successful, learned and skillful young physician.

"The Giftie Gie Us"

Robert Burns wrote that "It wad frae many a blunder free us" if we were "to see oursels as others see us".

I'm sure that he was right, - however 'others' have so many different views of the same subject. Years ago, when a salesman entered the office I thought 'there's a jolly chap, bit overweight maybe'; but, on his leaving, another person said aloud "Who does he thing he is? Coming in here as if he owned the place!" Same man, same situation, two opposing views.

Could it be that the view is from where the observers are positioned in life? A mountain seen from right and left looks different. Should the viewer become horizontal the mountain appears to grow in height but viewed from above that same mountain can change from a Munro to a hillock!

Recently, someone was pointed-out to me as being 'the most intelligent person'. 'No they're not!' I wanted to reply, - blinding people with Science and technical jargon is surely not a sign of intelligence. Someone who has learnt a foreign language doesn't usually go around speaking it to those with no understanding of it, - that's intelligence!

Neither is it very bright that this proclaimed intellectual was unable to hold a straightforward conversation, - it was either jokey, facetious or in the realms of fantasy, - so what was all that smokescreen hiding? Maybe the fear that one day they would be 'found out', - or simply an invisible defence to prevent close contact, another form of the visible solid high wall around their property.

Back to the one who proclaimed 'the most intelligent person' - 'compared to whom?' I wondered. If they were using themselves as a yardstick, the field was wide open! But then, that's only my view!

The Lady in the Locket

"That's Aunt Lizzie!" my father announced as he gave me the engraved silver locket. I opened it and there she was sitting in a Victorian pose, stoically still for the film's long exposure. The family remarked on the likeness my elder sister bore to the subject of the monochrome miniature, - which didn't seem to please my sister at the time! Not one of us thought to ask for more about Aunt Lizzie - and that was over fifty years ago.

Recently, researching my Family History, I felt that I owed it to Aunt Lizzie to discover exactly who she was.

The locket must surely have belonged to my paternal English grandmother, who had died shortly before my birth. Emma Sophia (pronounced So-fire) was the daughter of William Spencer of the Royal Artillery and, for that reason, had been born at The Citadel in Plymouth, Devon. I then applied-for and received a copy of the 1894 certificate of her marriage in London to William Marr Stephen (born in Banffshire). I admired the beautiful signatures and then noted the witnesses, - one Daniel Gammack and...........Eliza Kate Spencer, my grandmother's sister, - my father's Aunt Lizzie!

Eliza Kate was born in 1866 in Woolwich where her father was stationed at The Arsenal. When his regiment was posted to India his family went with him, his wife Emma and their two small daughters. They would have most certainly been there in 1871 when they do not appear in the English census of that year. I can only surmise what befell the family in India as, by 1881 William Spencer was not only an RA pensioner but a widower at the age of forty-two. He and Eliza Kate, aged fifteen, were living at 247 Grays Inn Road, Pancras, London.

Ten years later William Spencer is at Ansty Barracks in Tisbury, South Wiltshire but I have been unable to find Eliza Kate in 1891. On the 25th July that year her father married for the second time. The bride's name was Angelina Theresa Ball and she and William produced his second family, - William, Rose Ann, Walter and the youngest Louisa born in 1898. Half-siblings to Eliza Kate and my grandmother - of their existance I had previously known nothing.

In 1899 Eliza Kate was in Leicestershire where, on the 4th December she married Frederick Bushnell, the 27-year-old son of a miller, born in Oxfordshire. Frederick was butler at Launde Abbey and Eliza Kate's address was given as 123 Lavender Sweep, Clapham, London. Their daughter Nora Emma was born in Chelsea in 1900. A year later the Bushnells were living in Friend Lane in the village of Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire. Eliza Kate and Frederick's son Frederick Bertram Busnell was born there in 1902 and their third child Elsie Mabel was born in Norfolk in the district of Downham two years later.

The last written record I have of Eliza Kate is dated 20th Spetember 1928 where her name appears on a list of beneficiaries of her aunt Martha Spencer. ' Eliza Kate Spencer (now Mrs Bushnell) address 38 Block L, Sutton Estate, Cole Street, Chelsea SW3. Her sister, my grandmother was recorded as living at Foggieloan, 33 Sheringham Ave, Annerley, London SE20, the house where I would be born seven years later.

Busy, busy.......busy?

Of late there would seem to be a compulsion to be 'busy'.
"Sorry I haven't been in touch, - I've been so busy"
"I feel guilty, I haven't got back to you sooner but I've been so busy"

Until now my retort has gone along the lines "Oh I didn't notice, - but then I've been busy too!" I fancy that I can see the wind taken from their sails, the voice has certainly been reduced to more subdued tones!
However I am now contemplating a different response "Oh! You've been busy, how exciting, do tell me what you've been doing!" Already I am anticipating my disappointment as they struggle to think of a part of their recent activities which merits repeating!

Busy? Doing what? Not a lot I suspect. Perhaps 'busy' is a euphemism for 'disorganized' or is it another way of saying 'Look at me, I am so in demand' like the person with their mobile 'phone permanently adhered to their left ear? Who, in their right mind, can really want to be 'in demand'?
To be appreciated should not entail being used as a 'dogs body' or indeed, being used at all.

I don't think that we are born 'busy', some of us create 'busy' whilst others allow 'busy' to be trust upon them!

"The Servant" - Mach II

George and Henry have known each other since nursery-school days. Always together, always the best of friends, - or so it had appeared. From those first early days, however, George has had but one obsession, - his total domination of Henry. To the onlooker it had seemed harmless enough, arm around his friend's shoulders George would explain his plans and how Henry should carry-out his part in their ventures.

Henry was perfectly happy to go along with everything, - the arm around his shoulder made him feel wanted and protected rather than the used that he most certainly was. So it was inevitable that, in time, Henry became dependant upon George's continual instructions but not nearly as dependant as George became upon him; contantly bending another human being to your will can give one a sense of power and superiority over such submissiveness.

Then came the day when someone else asked Henry to undertake a task, George immediately 'snapped' (how dare anyone else give orders to Henry, - that was what he did!) "No, no, I'll do it" George asserted, this option being preferable to him than anybody encroaching on his territory, threatening his 'grip'. "No, I'm asking Henry to do it" persisted the intruder and when Henry boldly attempted to respond he was prevented by his panic-stricken friend who repeatedly lashed-out at him until restrained and dragged away, arms still flailing as he shouted-out his objections.

Fifteen minutes later as George continued his barrage whilst apprehended in an adjoinging room, Henry was sitting at a table looking a little lost.
"What are you doing Henry?"
"I'm going to make a birthday card" and he glanced at the paper in front of him.
"What are you waiting for, Henry?"
"I'm waiting for George to come and tell me which colour to use".
"But you can choose the colour yourself".
Henry's 'lost' expression turned to one of total bewilderment.
"Henry, - you can choose the colour yourself, you don't need George to tell you which colour to use".
Another pause until, hesitantly, Henry reached-out and picked up a red crayon.

The chilling fact of this true story is that George and Henry are both only 4 years old. How could one small child become almost unable to function when released from the manipulation of another of equally tender years?

In the innocent surroundings of a pre-school, I felt that I had been witness to something bordering on the sinister.