Document: Joan and James Mckechnie Tale
Date: 23 March 2002
Author: Original William Ritchie
Publisher: Message by EMail
Information from Family Traditional Tale.
Granny Ritchie had a daughter, Joan who was born 1897.
She married James McKechnie who was a soldier. Granny took me in the train to visit him at his barracks, somewhere south of Perth. I have a feeling it was to Hamilton or thereabouts, and I think that is/was the home of the Cameronians. I remember that I had a Cameronians cap badge when I was a boy. I'm sure I would have got it from Uncle James. Uncle James was a quartermaster. They stayed with us in Scone during one or more of Uncle James' army leaves before the war, something that I am sure did not endear them to Dad. We could ill afford to feed ourselves, never mind another family of four. I remember Uncle James cutting the hedge on Lovers Lane during one visit. He sent me down to the sweetie shop at the school to get him a packet of woodbine and a box of matches. When he lit his fag he put the match back in the box and set fire to the whole box. He must have given me something to buy a sweetie because I remember offering him one, but he said he was too old for sweeties. I later discovered that if they had been laced with something stronger he might have accepted. During the war he made it at least to Captain. They had two daughters - Joan and Jessie, both older
than Helen and I. Joan was the older one. I remember we all used to go down to the dell at the bottom of Scone - was it Pinkie Dell? Jessie vanished from sight, but Joan married, I think, a doctor, lived in the middle of Scone for a short time without ever visiting us. The last I heard, at least 50 plus years ago she and Dr were to emigrate to Australia.
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