Another showery day : was called out before breakfast to see the child of Maggie Snowden (nee Stewart) Chapel Street, who had got scalded.1 Cycled round the town 17 calls including Hospital + Home.2 Sent Agnes Hoggins3 to Hospital as the symptoms of Enteric are quite decided.4 David Brunton’s wife was confined at Viewfield on Saturday.5 Made preparations for the Gillans6 who arrived about 5.30. Gerty as bonne [sic] as ever. Jack7 + his father8, Nancy9 + Barb10 came to dinner + we discussed a couple of bottles of fizz + one of [illegible]11. Bella12 gave us an A1 dinner + Mrs Mack13 (whom I invited but who declined) helped too.
1 Margaret Turnbull Stewart Snowden, born 4 May 1921 at 6 Ettrick Terrace, Selkirk, daughter of Robert Snowden, woollen millworker, and Joan Bateman Stewart, married 28 January 1921, Selkirk. It looks as if Dr Muir has assigned the Maggie to the wrong person..
2 The public Hospital was at the bottom of Bleachfield Road while the Home is presumably Viewfield, the Muir and Graham medical partnership’s nursing home at the top of Viewfield Park and immediately behind the Victoria Halls.
3 Agnes is not readily identifiable.
4 See Dr Muir’s diary entry for 26 August 1923.
5 Annie Dalgleish Brunton was born 00:45 hours on 26 August 2923 at Viewfield Nursing Home, Selkirk, the daughter of David Brunton, general merchant, of the Post Office, Ettrick and Mary Laidlaw Brunton née Scott. Her parents had married 20 October 1922 at Ettrick, Selkirkshire.
6 The Gillans were Margaret Douglas ‘Gerty’ Ord Mackenzie (1891-1973), daughter of Montague Allan Ord Mackenzie and Frances Gordon ‘Fanny’ Ord Mackenzie née Rennie, and James ‘Angus’ Gillan (1885–1981), twice Olympic gold medal rower and colonial administrator. They had married on 28 August 1917 at Holy Trinity Church, Brompton.
7 John ‘Jack’ Roberts junior (1876-1966), Nancy’s husband, thus Dr Muir’s son-in-law.
8 Sir John Tonkin Roberts (1845-1934), father of John Roberts junior, Dr Muir’s son-in-law. Born Selkirk, he made his life in New Zealand but was over in Scotland in the summer of 1923 for an extended holiday the year after the death of his wife Louisa Jane Kettle.
9 Agnes Amelia ‘Nancy’ Roberts née Muir (1878-1948), Dr Muir’s second daughter.
10 Andrina Henderson ‘Barbara’ Roberts, later Thwigg (1902-1996), daughter of John ‘Jack’ Roberts junior and Agnes Amelia ‘Nancy’ Roberts née Muir. At 21, and just about to leave for what turned out to be a new life in New Zealand, she was socialising with the the adults.
11 The Editor would be pleased to have suggestions as to the identity of this wine .
12 Isabella ‘Bella’ Paulin (1873-?1952), the Muir family housekeeper, daughter of James Paulin, groom, and Grace Paulin née Cranston, born Ladykirk, Berwickshire [Sources include: ‘A Souter’s Bairn, recollections of life in Selkirk’ by Jenny Corbett with Avril Jack, published Selkirk Common Good Fund, 1993].
13 Dr Muir’s close friend Agnes Mackintosh née Watson, formerly Harper (1859-1946) of Elm Park, Selkirk. It is not clear why she turned down the invitation – it does not look as if it was a problem with Dr Muir but rather perhaps with one of his guests.
[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 