26 August 1920 diary of Dr John Stewart Muir (1845-1938) of Selkirk

Few berries on Rowan tree which is already showing autumnal colour

A delightful calm warm day + most pleasant out of doors. Went down to Faldonside in forenoon + met Scott Skirving¹. He was pleased with Miss Dees² on the whole but would not operate. Called at the Hospital + found that Miss Dickson³ knows Dees⁴ + all about him. She declares he is very wealthy. Had a call from Pollok⁵ about the preaching woman Turnbull. Messages to Mrs Wright⁶, Clifton Road: Rob. Colledge⁷ (staying with his sister at Springbank): Mary Scott⁸, Goslaw Green (who died at 6): + at night to Mrs Dobson⁹, Tower Road. Cycled to Faldonside in evening. Temp. 102^o.

¹ Archibald Adam Scott Skirving (1869-1930), M.B., C.M., lecturer in Clinical Surgery, Royal Edinburgh Infirmary

² Phyllis Mary ‘Fiff’ Dees (1899-1920) had suffered a head injury in a car accident 24 August 1920; she was the daughter of Robert Irwin Dees (1872-1923) and Edith Mary Boileau Dees née Henderson, the new (1920) tenants at Faldonside

³ Not identified

⁴ Robert Irwin Dees (1872-1923), he had inheritance approximately £90,000 on the death of his uncle Robert Richardson Dees, solicitor, of Wallsend, in 1908

⁵ John Pollok (1858-1938), Town Clerk and Procurator Fiscal, Selkirk

⁶ Isabella Wright née Johnstone (c.1874-1923), wife of Andrew Johnstone, tailor’s cutter (1871-1955); at 6a Clifton Road, Selkirk, 1920 Valuation Roll

⁷ Robert Darling or Robert Naismyth ‘Rob’ Colledge (1868-1945) would probably have been staying with his sister Jessie Isabella aka Jessie Darling Bryson née Colledge (1876-1970) and her husband William Henry Bryson at Springbank, Tait’s Hill, Selkirk; they were the children of Thomas Colledge and Elizabeth Darling, married 1857 at Lauder, and Jessie Darling had married at Selkirk in 1903

⁸ Mary Scott (c.1865-1920), powerloom weaver, daughter of Archibald Scott, handloom weaver, and Margaret Scott née White, died 26 August 1920, aged 55, at 15 Goslaw Green, of “laryngeo [sic] pulmonary tuberculosis 2 years” certified by John S Muir M.B. &c and notified by James Brownlee, brother-in-law

⁹ Helen Dobson née Hope (c.1859-1920), widow of George Dobson, woollen designer, living at Kirkwood, Forest Road, Selkirk, 1920

[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/23, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1920]