Freezing : nice calm forenoon with wind W : [text deleted] + I saw 9 cases walking including Hospital but about 2 a fine snow began to fall + it did not cease till late at night when there must have been quite six inches. Got letter from Agatha Purvis1 to say Joyce2 wanted a job as chauffeur. Advised her to advertise in B.M.J.3 + sent her a cutting. Went to Christmas tea at Viewfield4 for kids who have been patients. Dined at Wellwood.5 Had to hire [illegible text] going + coming. They have a “wireless” with which we were entertained.6 Dees, Faldonside, died after 2 days illness.7
1 Agatha Elizabeth Margaret Purvis née Sprot (1874-1962), daughter of John Sprot, army officer, and Cecilia Elizabeth Doveton. Agatha had married, 10 June 1903 at St John’s Episcopal Church, Selkirk, Captain (Brevet Major) John Henry ‘Harry’ Purvis (1866–1962).
2 This very modern young woman was Joyce Wilhelmine Purvis (1904–1993), daughter of Agatha Sprot and John Henry ‘Harry’ Purvis (1866–1962). Joyce was born at St Brelades, Jersey, Channel Islands, and died at Bournemouth, Hampshire. Joyce must have had a sense of adventure as she later travelled to Australia and South America.
3 The British Medical Journal.
4 Viewfield, the Muir and Graham medical partnership’s nursing home at the top of Viewfield Park and immediately behind the Victoria Halls.
5 Wellwood, Ettrick Terrace, Selkirk, home of Dr Muir’s daughter Agnes Amelia ‘Nancy’ Roberts née Muir (1878-1948) and her husband John ‘Jack’ Roberts junior (1876-1966), mill owner.
6 Wireless communication technology was developing very fast at this time. The Roberts family would have had access to some sort of signal since regular broadcasts for entertainment began in the UK from 1922 first by Marconi but with the British Broadcasting Company Ltd. operating from late that year.
7 Robert Irwin Dees (1872-1923), landed proprietor, formerly a marine engineer, died 25 December 1923 at Faldonside, aged 51, of Angina pectoris, death certified by D Charteris Graham M.B., Ch.B. His probate 28 February 1924 notes that he left effects valued at £30,820 18s 9d. He had purchased three lairs in Eastlands Cemetery, Galashiels in December 1920 and February 1921. The son of James William Dees and Eliza Jane Irwin, he was born at Wallsend, Newcastle upon Tyne.
[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 