Some frost this morning. Roads dry + hard. Little Willie Smith1 died at the Hospital. Dav.2 has been pretty busy + has got new patients, the Rougheads3 at Oakendean. + he is pretty often at Benrig4 too. I intended going to Cullen’s funeral5 but got a hurried message at the Hospital at 12 to go to Mrs McDonald6 at Philiphaugh Stables which prevented me. There were several new town messages. Pollok7 called to say he intended calling me as a witness at Shankland’s trial8 on Dec. 13th.
1 William John Gibson Cleland ‘Willie’ Smith (1917-1921), died Infectious Diseases Hospital, usual residence 49 Back Row, Selkirk, of “Diphtheria 27 days” as certified by “John S Muir M.B. +c”; son of William Herbert Smith, general labourer, and Roberta ‘Jane’ Sinclair Smith nee Cleland, married June 1919 at Edinburgh (the father is not named on Willie’s birth registration)
2 David Charteris ‘Dav.’ Graham (1889-1963), M.B., medical practitioner and Dr Muir’s business partner
3 Francis A Roughhead was Tenant of a house at Newstead, Melrose (close to Oakendean) [1921 Valuation Roll, VR011600033-xxx]
4 Benrig, St Boswells, Roxburghshire; it is not obvious who Dr Graham was visiting but Mrs Jean G Pringle was the Proprietor Occupier of the mansion house, offices, stables and grounds in the 1921 Valuation Roll
5 William Laing Cullen (1861-1921), M.D., medical practitioner, of Fairholme, St Boswells, had died on 22 November 1921
6 Presumably the wife of George M’Donald, estate labourer, who was recorded as Inhabitant Occupier not rated at Philiphaugh Stables [1921 Valuation Roll, VR011700009-/325, Selkirk County, page 325 of 611]
7 John Pollok (1858-1938), Town Clerk and Procurator Fiscal, Selkirk
8 Dugald Cowan Shankland (1870-1941), ship owner, and sometime of Whinfield, Kilmalcolm, Renfrewshire had hit and injured a young man Wilfred Lees whilst driving at Fairnilea on 11 August 1921; Lees’ identity was finally revealed at the trial of Dugald Cowan Shankland for a motoring offence which was reported in the Southern Reporter of 15 December 1921, he was Wilfred Lees junior (1900-1942), a plumber, born Preston, Lancashire the son of Wilfred Lees and Alice Lees née Wilding who had married March Quarter 1890, and was on a motorbike holiday when a collision took place at Fairnilee with Shankland’s car, Lees died April Quarter 1942 but whether his injuries contributed to his relatively early death is not known [birth, Dec 1900, Preston 8e 521; parents’ marriage, Mar 1890, Preston 8e 716]
[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/24, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1921]
Rumbling Clint's Scottish Notes 