The Stewart Family at West Haugh around 1910: –
Rummaging through the box of old photographs, I come across it: a Stewart family photograph with my grandparents, the central characters.
I have only seen two photographs of my grandmother before, both taken when she was in her early 70s and one of my grandfather holding a horse, possibly at West Haugh.
I look at them closely and reflect that they look so much older than I would have anticipated for parents of a relatively young family. The photograph is dated 1910 so my grandmother would have been 36 and my grandfather 5 years older. Perhaps it’s the clothing worn or my grandmother’s hairstyle or the faces, which reflect the seriousness of the occasion.
Certainly, having a photograph of this nature with their 8 children around them would have been a very special event. The photograph was taken outside the family home of West Haugh in the Cornton area of
Stirling where my grandfather, Archie Stewart, was the farm grieve. His wife Levie had been a dairymaid from the age of 12 and had spent several years in service at various houses before she met Archie. Once married, she seemed destined to give birth every second year.
The first Elizabeth or Lizzie as she was known was born in 1897 when Levie would have been
23 years. The last, Lillah, nearly 20 years later in 1916. The family had moved around the area and from evidence gained from birth certificates, I think they would have moved to West Haugh in 1909 and left there in 1918, the year my grandfather died.
The composition of the family is interesting. Three girls were followed by three boys and thereafter the final five were all girls. Apart from my mother, Jessie who was the second youngest these were my aunts and uncles, some of whom, because of the age gap between them and my mother, I hardly knew. Lizzie, the eldest and barely thirteen, stands at the back of the photograph. Her long dark hair flows over her shoulders, a wide smile beams towards the camera. She looks a confident and assured young woman. Next to her stands Margaret or Meg, as she was affectionately known. Her long hair parted in the middle and tied back with two ribbons, a serious expression on her face; although it is possible she was a little blinded by the sun. Like Lizzie and her younger sister Mary she wears an intricate lace collar on her shoulders. No doubt these were kept for Sunday best. In 1918 during the Spanish flu epidemic my grandfather died. This meant the family had to move from their tied house into the village of Bridge of Allan. If it had been hard for my grandmother to make ends meet bringing up 11 children, it was even more difficult once she was on her own, especially when the 5 younger girls were under 12 years. The older girls continued to live at home and may have delayed marrying for several years in order to contribute to the household income.
Mary sits in front of Meg between their parents looking quite prim and keeping a serious expression on her face. She remained living in Bridge of Allan all her life. Book ending the middle row on either side of their parents are the two oldest boys: Archie on the right and Tommy on the left. I never knew Archie, who lived some distance from his home village, but I did know Tommy, who was a baker with the Co-op and lived in a flat above the shop in Dunblane. James had a small holding near Glasgow and visited my
mother occasionally. I remember him best because on one of these visits he brought me two bantam hens and on another 2 cast iron saucepans, which I kept for many years. On my grandfather’s knee sits Agnes and on her mother’s knee sits Levia. Levia was closer in age to my mother and the other younger sisters, Helen, Jessie and Lillah, who are not in the photograph. As a group they seemed to do everything together. Perhaps in having this family photo taken my grandparents hoped their family to be complete. However there were still three girls to come; Helen, Jessie (my mother) and Lillah. It is their stories I know best. It is interesting to note that from 11 children there were only 13 offspring.
Ann Gammack (nee Oswald)
January, 2022 (Updated September, 2026)
