Another fine day but not so clear. Plenty sunshine + the chill slight E. wind. Delightfully dry for out door movement. A nice letter from Dora dated March 13th. They were nearing Port Said. She spent a nice day in Marseilles.1 Dav.2 had an appendicitis case at 10.30 (boy Neil from Fairnilee3) + Mrs McMillan4 was up with a case of piles which D. was going to operate. I cycled to Henhouse5, Moat6, Midlem (Mrs Dalgleish, a Neil7), Eastfield8 + (via Bowden Moor) Faldonside9, Gib. + Lum.10 + Wallace, Ashybank.11 Was not home till about 4.30. Dr Lamb, brother of Peter, called.12 Helen13 + Nancy14 cycled to Ettrick Shaws.15
1 Andrina Dorothy ‘Dora’ Muir (1882-1978), nurse and Dr Muir’s youngest daughter, travelled to Port Said (بورسعيد , Egypt) with Isabella Donald on S.S. Oxfordshire, official number 131454 en route Liverpool – Marseilles – Port Said – Colombo – Rangoon, departing Liverpool 2 March 1923 [source: UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960, Liverpool, 2 March 1923].
2 David Charteris ‘Dav.’ Graham (1889-1963), M.B., medical practitioner and Dr Muir’s business partner.
3 James Neil, ploughman, was at a farm cottage at Fairnilee, Caddonfoot with his wife Sybil Neil née Nicholson and children Agnes, Margaret, Alexander, Annie and Thomas Nicholson but it is impossible to know which of the boys was the patient here [1921 Census and Thomas Neil’s birth record.
4 McMillan is unidentified.
5 Henhouse is beyond the south end of Haining Loch, Selkirk, grid reference NGR NT469,271.
6 Dr Muir had visited Moat a number of times in 1923, it is at grid reference NT458,268, near Howden, S.S.W. of Selkirk.
7 Mrs Dalgleish is as yet unidentified.
8 Eastfield, Selkirk, NT540,289.
9 Faldonside, Galashiels where Dr Muir had been attending Edith Mary Boileau Dees née Henderson (1872-1948) and her housemaid. Edith was the wife of Robert Irwin Dees and they had moved from Newcastle to Faldonside after the First World War.
10 Gibson & Lumgair Ltd., woollen textile manufacturer, at St Mary’s Mill, Selkirk.
11 Wallace at Ashybank is so far unidentified.
12 Dr Lamb is unidentified as is his brother Peter Lamb who consulted Dr Muir for an “enormous Hernia” at Viewfield 2 March 1922 when Dr Muir noted that he was “a connection of the Blaikies of Comiston”.
13 Helen Frances ‘Mousey’ Muir (1880-1963), Dr Muir’s third daughter and sometime housekeeper.
14 Agnes Amelia ‘Nancy’ Roberts née Muir (1878-1948), Dr Muir’s second daughter.
15 Ettrick Shaws was until 1923 the home of Joan Scott Anderson née Shaw (about 1857-1936), widow of Thomas ‘Tom’ or ‘T’ Scott Anderson (1852-1919), medical practitioner and landed proprietor, of Ettrick Shaws, Kirkhope which he had built in 1891 on 30 acres purchased from the Duke of Buccleuch. Joan was the daughter of Thomas Shaw sometime of Wooriwyrite, Australia and Catherine Shaw née McLaughlin. [Sources include: Historic Environment Scotland LB49226]
[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 