Monty Mackenzie died at Eastbourne1
David practically living at Bowhill.2 The boy George3 seriously ill with pneumonia: cardiac trouble + Otitis.4 The Duchess also ill.5 Dav. has never once suggested that I should go. This I feel very much but say nothing. Today it was showery + very wet up Yarrow. Motored in town (14), Faldonside (Maycock6 + Mrs Dees7) and then to Broadmeadows (Inches8 servant9), Mount Benger Cottages + Henderland where I found James Mitchell rather better + able to be out.10 Shook hands with Alex Scott (Ladhope) whom I haven’t seen for years.11 He was down at the funeral of Mrs Scott of Deloraine’s son.12 Had to go down, after getting home, to Green Square in pouring rain.13
1 Montague Allan Ord ‘Monty’ Mackenzie (1854-1923), merchant, husband of Frances Gordon Ord ‘Fanny’ Mackenzie née Rennie (1864-1948), the daughter of the Reverend James Rennie and Catherine Stewart ‘Kate’ Rennie née Muir (1829-1915), Dr Muir’s sister.
2 David Charteris ‘Dav.’ Graham (1889-1963), M.B., Ch.B., medical practitioner and Dr Muir’s business partner.
3 David was attending Lord George Francis John Montagu Douglas Scott (1911-1999), youngest child of the 7th Duke of Buccleuch (see also diary entry for 28 January 2023).
4 Otitis Media is inflammation or infection located in the middle ear.
5 Lady Margaret Alice ‘Molly’ Montagu Douglas Scott née Bridgeman (1872-1954), Duchess of Buccleuch, Lord George’s mother.
6 Assume George James Maycock (1877-1957), butler, later poultry farmer, at this time living at Lower Faldonside, Galashiels with his wife Catherine Maycock née Gow (1874-1959). Born 1877, Ryton on Dunsmore, Warwickshire, sometime a domestic butler at Yair before flitting to Faldonside and later a poultry farmer, he died at Crieff Cottage Hospital, Perthshire.
7 Edith Mary Boileau Dees née Henderson (1872-1948), daughter of the Reverend Canon Dr. James Henderson and Jane Lowrey, born 7 April 1872, the Vicarage, Ancroft, Northumberland, died 8 March 1948, She had married, 1898, Robert Irwin Dees, also originally from Northumberland, and they later moved to Faldonside, Galashiels.
8 John William Gibson Inch (1866-1939), farmer, was at Broadmeadows Farm in the 1921 Census at which time his servant was Barbara Brown aged 17 (see footnote 9). He was born at Dunbar, East Lothian and died at Pathhead, Midlothian.
9 Barbara Inglis Brown (1904-1993), born Stobo, Peeblesshire and died at Dalkeith, Midlothian.
10 Henderland, Megget, north of St Mary’s Loch, grid reference NGR NT232,233, where Dr Muir had been attending the Mitchell family since late 1921.
11 There is an Alexander Scott (about 1845-), grocer, at High Buckholmside, Galashiels in the 1921 Valuation Roll and at Ladhope in the 1921 Census but the connection with the Scotts of Deloraine, if there is one, is not obvious.
12 The funeral was presumably that of John Scott (1872-1923), retired farmer, who died at ‘Lorraine’, Scott’s Place, Selkirk. Born 1 May 1872 at West Deloraine, Kirkhope, he was the son of John Scott, farmer, and Jane Scott née Thomson, married 29 June 1871 at Yarrow. Jane Scott had taken on the farm when her husband died in 1900 and is recorded as “farmer” at Deloraine Farm in the 1901 Census.
13 Dr Muir may have been visiting in connection with a baby that had been born unexpectedly at 8 Green Square, Selkirk on 22 January 1923.
[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/26, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1923]
Rumbling Clint's Scottish Notes 