Ancestors of Robert McCutcheon

Elizabeth Graham

#10, (9 Aug 1898 - 6 Apr 1967)

Relationship

Grandmother of Robert Stewart McCutcheon.

Last Edited

25 Nov 2007

Charts

My ancestors
Adam Henderson's descendants
William Louden and the Lothian descendants

Father

John Graham (3 Jul 1855 - 8 Jul 1927)

Mother

Margaret Robina Muir Lothian (30 Oct 1856 - 27 Dec 1928)

Birth*

9 Aug 1898

Lauder, Berwickshire, Scotland^1,2

Marriage*

6 Nov 1926

John Gunn Calder; 11 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland³

Death*

6 Apr 1967

City Hospital, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1 a) left ventrical failure b) hypertension 2) chronic bronchitis⁴

Occupation*

Domestic servant³

Note*

My grandmother was born in the Berwickshire burgh of Lauder, the youngest child of John Graham and Margaret Lothian, although her christian name was Elizabeth, she was known to all as 'Bessie'. Some time early in the 1900s the Graham family moved to the hillside district of Haliburton in Galashiels. There were several relatives of the Grahams living in Haliburton Place already. While there was plenty of work for women in Gala's woolen mills, my grandmother chose to work away from home. I remember her telling me that she worked as a cook for some old dowager woman, and that the head of the kitchen was an ill-tempered French chef, who had a fondness for whisky.
My grandmother was a fine cook - I suppose I'm lucky that most of the women in my life, mother, grandmothers and wife have all been good cooks - one of her prized possesions was a black leather satchel which contained numerous recipes she had collected. When she met my grandfather she was working as a domestic servant for a family in the West End of Edinburgh. They married in a hotel in Royal Terrace, which overlooks London Road gardens. The couple moved into a tenement flat in Albert Street in Pilrig. The second floor house in 76 was where they would spend the rest of their lives. My parents would later move to the next stair 86. The tenement block was demolished in the 1980s, when some DIY enthusiast damaged a foundation wall and the whole block was condemned.
My grandmother was a warm, lovable woman, and I'm lucky in that I was blessed in having two wonderful grandmothers, and they certainly liked each other's company on the rare times that they met. She didn't have an easy life, especially caring for my grandfather when illness made him bed-ridden in the last couple of years of his life. I was her only grandchild, and perhaps she deserved a better one.⁵

Residence

1901

3 High Street, Lauder, Berwickshire, Scotland²

Residence*

bt 1930 - 1967

76 Albert Street, Edinburgh, Scotland

Family

John Gunn Calder (24 Apr 1899 - 18 Apr 1951)

Child

Sheila Margaret Muir Calder+ (1927 - 1984)

Citations

Copy birth certificate: Elizabeth Graham, 9 Aug 1898.
1901 Census for Berwickshire.
Copy marriage certificate: John Gunn Calder and Elizabeth Graham, 6 Nov 1926.
Copy death certificate: Elizabeth Graham, 6 Apr 1967.
Robert Stewart McCutcheon, Nov 2007.