8 June 1922 diary of Dr John Stewart Muir (1845-1938) of Selkirk

A very hot day becoming hazier + sultry towards night and the wind went round to E. Frank¹ with Nancy² + Dora³ went to Loch Skene⁴ where F. got 1½ doz. nice trout: Nancy climbed White Coomb⁵ + lunched beside a snow drift + Dora studied the Tail⁶ + lunched!⁷ I cycled to Tinnis, Cutcarwood, Deuchar Mill + Newarkburn⁸. Helen⁹ had Alice Muir’s kids¹⁰ + the Passy children¹¹ for tea in the garden. I was called out about 11.10 to see Georgina Kemp¹² who had cycled into Tweed Bridge + got concussion. Frank got about Nancy brought a very pretty little flower from White Coomb which I didn’t know.

¹ Francis ‘Frank’ Muir (1877-1972), electrical engineer and managing director, and Dr Muir’s nephew, for more detail see Dr Muir’s diary entry for 5 June 1922

² Agnes Amelia ‘Nancy’ Roberts née Muir (1878-1948), Dr Muir’s second daughter

³ Andrina Dorothy ‘Dora’ Muir (1882-1978), nurse and Dr Muir’s youngest daughter

⁴ Loch Skene, ENE of Birkhill on the Selkirkshire – Dumfriesshire boundary; it debouches into the Tail Burn above the Gray Mare’s Tail, grid reference NGR NT171,164

⁵ White Coomb in the Moffat Hills, NT16321,15090

⁶ Grey Mare’s Tail on the Tail Burn, ESE of Birkhill, NT184,148

⁷ Dr Muir has commented on his youngest daughter’s weight before

⁸ All points on the Selkirk to Mountbenger road

⁹ Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s third daughter and sometime housekeeper

¹⁰ Alice Muir and her children have not (yet) been identified

¹¹ The Passy children were Margaret Helen Katherine Passy (1915–1982) and Ian Harry Deare Passy (1921–1941), later Serjeant RAFVR 921874 who died around 04.00 hours on Monday 13 October 1941 when his Avro Manchester I serial L731 code EM:L of 207 Squadron flying out of RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire was shot down while returning from an attempt to bomb a synthetic rubber factory at Hüls (Krefeld, Nordrhein-Westfalen) by Dornier 215 B-5 flying from Gilze-Rijen, crew Oberfeldwebel Paul Gildner, Feldwebel Müller and Unteroffizier Pollelmeyer, crashing with one survivor at Horendonk about 2 km east of Essen, Antwerp, Belgium; the crew are buried in a collective grave at Essen (Horendonk) Communal Cemetery, Belgium and Ian’s personal inscription reads “Crusaders They, As Any Knights Who Wore The Cross” which a Dutch source expands to “Crusaders they, as any knights who wore the cross, They climb into their bombers, careless of death and loss, For evil must be stamped by sacrifice and toil, His body lies in Belgium’s soil.”, noting that “De moeder van Ian koos voor een regel uit een gedicht dat ze in 1943 ter nagedachtenis van haar overleden zoon had geschreven. Vandaag siert deze regel nog steeds het graf van haar zoon.” [“Ian’s mother chose a line from a poem she wrote in 1943 in memory of her late son. Today, this line still adorns her son’s grave.”] [sources: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2806971/ian-harry-deare-passy/ and http://aircrewremembered.com/bowes-cavanagh-brian.html and a source at docplayer.nl in which the Editor has limited confidence (no sources are given) though the source is very specific noting that on 8 December 1949 Ian Passy’s mother was asked what text should be engraved on the headstone of her son’s grave]

¹² Perhaps Georgina Kemp (1900-1986), daughter of George Kemp, woollen pattern weaver, and Elizabeth Linton Kemp née Hope, married 1884, Selkirk

[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/25, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1922]