These photos are from a photograph album of my fathers (Hugh MacCuish Ferrier) that I came across whilst clearing out my parent’s home before it being sold. There is a huge poignancy about these old pictures.
My grandfather (Hugh MacCuish who took the name Hugh MacCuish Ferrier) with probably his daughter Margaret. She died when she was five. He died when I was two but I have no memory of him. He is a really good looking fellow in his sailor’s uniform.
My Auntie Mary (Mary Ann), my dad, my granny (Chirsty MacKinnon), my grandfather and my Auntie Chrissie (Christina McKinnon Ferrier)
My grandfather
My grandfather in Greenock
My grandfather was born in Strond, Harris. He moved to Greenock for work where he spent most of his working life on tugboats on the River Clyde. I know that for a while during the war he worked in a torpedo factory. I presume the following pictures are of boats the he worked on.
My grandfather
Auntie Mary and my grandfather
Auntie Mary I never knew her. She had died before I was born.
My granny in her younger days. She came from Cluer, Harris. Both my grandparents were born in black-houses.
Auntie Mary and granny.
This is how I remember granny in her home on Pennyfern Road in Greenock. That was her chair beside the radio. When we were there there was not much to do. We were not allowed to do this and that. We were not allowed to whistle on Sundays! She would listen to a service on the radio and as the organ music would play at the end she would say “now lets dance”. That was the good Free Presbyterian in her.
Granny
Auntie Mary
Auntie Mary
Auntie Mary
Auntie Chrissie with a friend
This must be Auntie Chrissie, granny and Auntie Mary
My dad
My dad
My dad with Auntie Mary or Chrissie
My dad
My dad
My dad with some pals
My dad is on the left
My dad at the back, granny in front and probably Auntie Chrissie in front of her. My mum says that Auntie Mary is on the right and Auntie Chrissie in the middle but they look too old compared to my dad. It certainly looks like Auntie Chrissie. She was just lovely. She always called me her favourite nephew and I was really proud of this until I heard her call Billy and Roddy the same.
My dad
My dad
John Mackenzie on the left and my dad on the right. They were great friends since youths in Greenock.
Again my dad on the right
My dad – a really nice looking youth. He has a good face.
My dad
My dad is on the left. Vira Maclean is on the bottom right. They used to go to a big house in Tighnabruich with the Christian Endeavour. A lot of folk of daddy’s age were converted in Greenock around the same time (Liz, thanks for that info – if we don’t get things like that noted it will vanish).
During World War II my dad was conscripted into the Royal Navy as a radio operator. He trained at HMS Royal Arthur before moving onto destroyers and then motor torpedo boats. There was a choice of volunteering for submarines or motor torpedo boats. He thought he should volunteer and went for motor torpedo boats thinking they were safer. Statistically they were more dangerous. The captain of the boat he was on wanted every dangerous mission he could get. They would race across the English Channel release their torpedos onto the designated target and then race back for port. My dad told me he would get very sick in the radio room on these missions. He kept a bucket beside him and ate dry bread. He took the message saying that Germany had surrendered.
Daddy is on the back row fourth from the right in the following photo.
My dad
My dad in the middle
My dad is on the middle row on the extreme right
Hector Sutherland, Uncle Hector (Hector Cameron) and my dad
Fred Leahy (at one time engaged to Auntie Chrissie) , Uncle Hector (Hector Cameron) and my dad
Auntie Mary, granny and Auntie Chrissie
Professor G.N.M. Collins, unknown and my dad
Granny, my dad and Auntie Mary
Annie and John Mackenzie (he was a great friend of daddy and became minister in Kiltearn)
Auntie Mary with Katy Cameron
My mum (Georgina Margaret Cameron) outside the house at Newhall.
Mummy with Dolly Maclennan.
Mummy, Auntie Anna (Anna Lois Mackay – she married Uncle Hector) and Margaret MacIntyre, Mull, who was also a student. Her father was minister in Mull and she had a brother Willie who also became a minister
My mum
Daddy’s induction to Golspie. Uncle Hugh (Hugh Gunn) to is on the right and John O, Sotherland’s father is facing us on the left.
My mum, Auntie Mary, granny and Auntie Chrissie
Rev. Macleod, Dornoch, and his wife. He baptised both my dad and Elizabeth.
Again this is the Golspie induction. Rev. John Macleod the evangelist is beside daddy. The ‘High Priest’ is behind them.
Here’s me!
My dad and mum before Uncle Hector and Auntie Anna’s wedding
My dad and Uncle Hector
Mummy at the back, Liz, me Roddy and Billy at the front.
Daddy with myself
Me, granny and Liz outside the house at Pennyfern road.
Me, daddy and Liz
Me, granny and Liz outside the house at Pennyfern road.
My other granny (Elizabeth Ann MacIntosh). Probably the baby is Liz
My mum is third from the right at the front in this Dingwall Academy photo.
Mummy
Mummy was always a bit reckless.
This is the farmhouse at Newhall, latterly Burnside. My great, grandfather Roderick MacIntosh farmed here with his brother Alexander (Uncle Sandy). My granduncle Alexander (Alick) MacIntosh inherited and took over the farm. We always came here on holiday. I felt that Heaven could not be any better. Alick never married and the farm was sold back to the Shaws of Tordaroch. The house was sold separately. Uncle Hector and Auntie Anna had it for a short while. Happy days.
My dad, Dolly Maclennan and Uncle hector.
Some cheery lady with my dad.
Granny with my cousin Marty (William Henry Martin Cameron) and myself. I look a bit transgender! Oh dear.
We would all go on holiday in the Mini Traveller – us four in the back. It was red. Daddy, Roddy, Liz, Billy and myself.
Mummy and Autie Liz (Elizabeth Mackay) as bridesmaids at Autie Anna and Uncle Hector’s wedding.
Mummy and daddy outside the Golspie manse where I was born.
Outside Golspie manse on Fountain Road. The couple on the left were the Rev. Andrew Sutherland and his wife Annie. She was 15 years older than him. He was from Birichen behind Dornoch. He was stone deaf after being kicked by a horse when he was young. He still preached and would know when the singing was finished when his wife would hold up her Bible and shut it. Mummy says they were a lovely couple. Mummy, Liz, me and daddy.
It is a pity the following photos are so damaged. They are taken in the sitting room at the manse in Golspie either in 1959 or 1960. Billy was born ’59 and we moved to Knockbain in ’60. The elaborate clock at the back is with my son Hugh in Stornoway. The sitting room suite was still in my mum’s sitting room in Inverness in 2022. I had to dispose of it when she moved into care. Even the same antimacassars were there till recently! Mummy and daddy at the back, Billy, Liz and myself at the front. Roddy was born in Knockbain.
Mummy, I don’t know which one of us and daddy
My dad at I think Mccaig’s Tower (or Folly), Oban
This is at Lybster manse. Uncle Hector was minister there. Uncle Hector, Marty, Auntie Anna, Janey (Janet Elizabeth Cameron) mummy, Liz, myself and daddy.
This is outside the Knockbain manse. Liz, myself, mummy, Billy, Roddy, daddy and I don’t know who.
We moved to Partick in Glasgow in 1963. I hated Glasgow then. I was a fish out of water. This is outside the manse on Woodend Drive – Daddy, Billy, Liz, Roddy, myself and mummy.
I think these two photos are of my dad outside the Wick manse. Uncle Hector was minister there for a short while.
My mum with Cissy Urquhart
This must be at the Keswick Convention as Billy was taken there on his own.
Murdo Macleod (the Jews) and my dad
Whoever it is, Its Ardgour Hotel, the other side of the Corran ferry
My mum
My mum and dad
Daddy is on the left.
All I know her is John Macleod of Gairloch (Long John as he was known) is in the middle with my dad on the right.
Outside the Partick Church at the foot of Crow Road, Glasgow
My dad with the matron of Maxwell House nursing home. Murdo Martin, Paisley and Principal Cameron
Myself, Billy and Liz
Mr MacDonald (Greyfriars), my dad, John Munro and W.R. Mackay. It could be at the Free North induction.
Me
Liz and myself
Mary Helen Gunn (my cousin) with Liz and myself
Liz, myself, Roddy and Billy with my mum behind outside the Knockbain manse
Liz and Billy
probably Billy
Aw! It’s Billy
Liz and myself
Again in the Golspie sitting room. Daddy, myself on Dobbie Horse, mummy and Liz
Liz and myself
Dobbie Horse and myself. Dobbie survived until Glasgow where his head fell off. The head was around for a few years. I was terribly hard on my toys. My son, David, now has the bureau desk behind me.
On the left is cousin Mary and then myself. This is at the Fireman’s party in Golspie. My memory of it is of being terrified of Santa Claus. A huge box was dragged in. The top opened and from it came this huge and terrifying man dressed in red with a white beard. I could not go out to get my present. An older boy got it for me. I’ve always been a woose.
Billy in the cot with Liz in her ‘balicas’.
Myself while at Broomhill School, Glasgow.
Liz and myself while at Drumsmittal School on the Black Isle.
Liz at Broomhill
Liz at Jordanhill. She was the clever one and got into Jordanhill.