22 June 1923 diary of Dr John Stewart Muir (1845-1938) of Selkirk

Strong N.W. gale : fair. Saw a dozen cases cycling to Rockville, Muthag Street, Dunsdale, Sund. Hall, Bridgelands + Hospital. Was nearly ready to start for Edinburgh when message came to Campbell¹, Riddell West Lodge.² Knowing there was a Campbell at East Lodge³ I motored there intending to come back via Lindean⁴ but I found there was a Campbell at West Lodge to whom the message was so I had to go there + come back to Selkirk so it was 4.45 before we got away but the old Swift⁵ took me in about 6.50 + I looked in on Jean⁶ too. The dinner of the Residents’ Club⁷ was in the N. Brit. Hotel⁸ + there must have been 100 there. I sat between Bramwell⁹ + a man Howatson¹⁰ from Reigate. Hodsdon¹¹ was in the Chair. Left at 11.30 + got home [illegible] after 1.30. Nothing wanted.

¹ Campbell is so far unidentified.

² Riddell West Lodge, grid reference NGR NT514,243 is visible on Ordnance Survey Six Inch Roxburghshire Sheet XIII.SE, published 1899.

³ Riddell East Lodge, grid reference NT534,257 is visible on Ordnance Survey Six Inch Roxburghshire Sheet XIII.SE, published 1899..

⁴ Travelling from Riddell East Lodge Dr Muir would have driven up to Midlem then Clarilawmuir where he would have done a quick right-and-left down through Lindean thus avoiding Selkirk.

⁵ The Swift Motor Company made Swift Cars in Coventry. Dr Muir (or the medical practice) had run one as a ‘workhorse’ car since he had acquired it some time before August 1914.

⁶ Jane Henderson Logan ‘Jean’ Pike née Muir (1877-1941), Dr Muir’s eldest daughter, widowed in 1921 and living in Newington.

⁷ The Edinburgh Royal Infirmary Residents’, sometimes Old Residents’, Club.

⁸ The North British (Station) Hotel above Waverley Railway Station, Edinburgh, now named The Balmoral.

⁹ Edwin ‘Ed’ Bramwell (1873-1952), Professor, M.B., Ch.B., F.R.C.P.E., Scottish neurologist, specialist in brain injuries and shell-shock and President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1933 to 1935.

¹⁰ Almost certainly Dr James Hewetson (1859-), M.B., medical practitioner, born Cockermouth, medical registration 9 November 1881 in Scotland and living at Holmfield, Reigate, Surrey, 1923.

¹¹ Sir James William Beeman Hodsdon (1858-1928), KBE, FRCSEd, Scottish surgeon, served as president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 1914-1917.

[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/26, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1923]