10 October 1923 diary of Dr John Stewart Muir (1845-1938) of Selkirk

The gale had subsided but it rained most of the day with a short fair interval at midday. I saw some cases + then assisted D.¹ in a case of tonsils (Anthony McGuire²) at Viewfield.³ I had intended doing Greenwells⁴ but D. got a message to Yarrow School + was going to do them both when he had to go to Peel to operate on Mrs Muirhead⁵ the youngest daughter so I did Yarrow + crossed the Swire⁶ to Ettrickbridgend to see Mrs + Dav. Mitchell.⁷ This prevented me getting to the Panel Com^ttee meeting at Galashiels to discuss the momentous question of refusing the Government’s offer of 8/6 for capitation fee.⁸

¹ David Charteris ‘Dav.’ Graham (1889-1963), M.B., Ch.B., medical practitioner and Dr Muir’s business partner.

² Assume Anthony McGuire (1910-), son of James McGuire and Margaret McGuire née Muldeen, all living at 25 Kirk Wynd, Selkirk, 1921 Census.

³ Viewfield, the Muir and Graham medical partnership’s nursing home at the top of Viewfield Park and immediately behind the Victoria Halls.

⁴ Neither Mrs Scott nor Greenwells can be readily identified (though Greenwells appears to be in the area of Yarrow Feus and Catslack Knowe) but there was a call to attend there on 9 October 1923.

⁵ Kathleen Victoria Muirhead née Ovens (1897-), daughter of William Roberts Ovens and Margaret Ovens née Beattie, married 27 December 1877 at Edinburgh. Kathleen Ovens was born 27 December 1897 at Burnhouse, Stow. She married 1919 at St Giles Church Edinburgh, James Muirhead, Captain, The Seaforth Highlanders.

⁶ The Swire which runs through grid reference NGR NT369,259, connects Kirkhope and Yarrow.

⁷ It is not at all clear who is who but David Mitchell (1897-), was recorded at Kirkhope in the 1921 Census, aged 23, a joiner, born Kirkhope, He was the son of Thomas Mitchell, joiner, and Jane Ross Mitchell née Little, married 1894 at Pettinain, South Lanarkshire.

⁸ This discussion was part of the ongoing budget negotiations between the Government and the British Medical Association.

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