Grandpa Carmichael’s voyage to new Zealand

A curious tale was passed on for posterity in the Carmichael family. It was the tale of grandpa Carmichael making a voyage to New Zealand. Any mention of this adventure was always thin on detail. It was simply related that he went there with a view to sending for the family if the conditions out there proved suitable.

Why did Peter Carmichael do this? The answer is as obvious as the question. There could be no other reason than the pursuit of a better life. It must have played on his mind that there was a better alternative than the harsh reality of working at redding colliery, even if it only involved similar work in another location.

In 1909 relationships were strained between Scottish colliery owners and the miners. Enforced Pay reductions were central to that conflict. there is no hard evidence that this draconian measure was imposed at redding colliery but it is difficult to escape the conclusion that peter Carmichael was unsettled. Unsettled? He was born and bred in the area and had numerous relatives in the vicinity. Rather than speculate on what was troubling him let us consider the facts of what happened next.

On 18^th march, 1909, he was on a steamship called the rimutaka when it departed London for wellington via cape town and Auckland. The date of disembarkation would need to be the subject of further research but an estimate might be made of a voyage lasting about 106-108 days. His twenty-ninth birthday (13^th May 1909) was fifty-six days into the journey.

Left at home were granny Carmichael and the three children. The oldest was archie who was aged three. Baby Eleanor was born the month before he set out (1^st February 1909) and the other child was the infant Susie. During his absence the four of them had their photograph taken in a studio. It would have been a nice memento for him to come home to.

On the passenger list it was shown that he had ticket 510. There was no ticket 511 but number 512 was allocated to a Mr W. Easton and 513 to a mr w. Burns. Easton and Burns were listed as miners from Scotland and the closeness of the ticket numbers could imply that the three of them purchased their tickets together. It is definitely known that he travelled in the company of a friend. They travelled third class and it is a telling social commentary that the passenger list required to record the occupations of all except the first class passengers.

So what do we know about the steamship rimutaka? Well it was built in 1900 by William denny of Dumbarton. The purchaser was the new Zealand steamship company. It had accommodation for forty first class passengers, fifty second class passengers and 250 in third class. With the exception of the war years the ship covered the London – Cape Town – Auckland – Wellington route from 1901 until 1920. From December 1920 until November 1929 she was used on the Southampton – panama – Auckland – wellington route. The ship was scrapped in 1930.

It is known that grandpa Carmichael was back home well before the end of the year. His stay in new zealand was brief at best. the vagaries of the climate supposedly prompted a hasty return trip. The weather pattern in the wellington area bears interesting scrutiny. Very windy all year round with high rainfall, the wettest months being June and July! From that we know that his arrival would have coincided with the wettest time of the year. So much for the better life. He crossed the world to find out that the weather was roughly the same. Yet there were more telling reasons to prompt his return. He considered the working conditions to be dangerous. Moreover his friend had already resolved to head back home after receiving a letter from his wife stating that she was pregnant.

The failed new zealand venture did not deter him from suggesting an attempt at america. An emphatic no was the response from granny carmichael.

Mary Eleanor Forrest – The longest lifespan

Of all the people in the family tree no one has surpassed Aunty Eleanor in terms of lifespan. She was born in the family home at Burnside Cottages, Redding, on Monday, 1^st February, 1909. Her parents were Peter Carmichael and Mary Eleanor Carmichael. With two Mary Eleanor Carmichaels in the home, she was referred to as Eleanor until her dying day. Remarkably that dying day was more than 102 years later, on Sunday, 27^th March 2011, at Drummohr Care Home, Wallyford. On Tuesday, 5^th April, she was laid to rest at the cemetery of St. Michael’s Parish Church, Inveresk.

She married Robert Purvis in 1928 and they had two children, Eleanor and Betty. Robert died in January 1953. In June 1959 she married Pringle Forrest. Pringle passed away in January 1983.

During her long life Eleanor was very creative. In particular she was a gifted seamstress and dressmaker. That dexterity with her fingers was a suitable attribute for her early working life in the explosives factory at Redding. The factory had been set up by Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Eleanor’s Aunty Agnes also worked there.

Her sporting interest was bowling after being introduced to it by Pringle. She was so proficient that she became a champion bowler.

Those of us who knew her would undoubtedly agree that she always had a wonderful manner, at all times being patient and ladylike. It is difficult to imagine that anyone could live so long and never express an angry word. If she did, I swear I never heard it.

Oldest ancestor: Alexander Bartholomew

Our generation - Peter/Douglas/Duncan Carmichael.

Our father - Peter Carmichael.

His father - Peter Carmichael.

His mother - Susan Carmichael (born Baird).

Her father - James Baird.

His father - Gabriel Baird.

His mother - Elizabeth Baird (born Rae).

Her mother - Margaret Rae (born Bartholomew).

Her father - Andrew Bartholomew.

His father - James Bartholomew.

His father - John Bartholomew.

His father - Alexander Bartholomew = great great great great great great great great great grandfather - born 1595 at Ancrum.

Burns Connection with the Duncans

When on his northern tour with Willie Nicol, Burns had his Jacobite feeling roused by the ruinous state of the Parliament Hall at Stirling Castle and was angry enough to scratch some lines on the window of an inn called the Golden Lion where he slept. The lines were:

Here Stewarts once in glory reigned,

And laws for Scotland’s weal ordain’d:

But now unroofed their palace stands,

Their sceptre fallen to other hands,

Fallen indeed, and to the earth,

Whence grovelling reptiles take their birth:

The injured Stewart line is gone,

A race outlandish fills their throne:

An idiot race, to honour lost ----

Who know them best despise them most.

The Rev. George Hamilton, minister of Gladsmuir from 1790 to 1832, saw the verses shortly afterwards and composed in verse a stinging reply, most notable for the unfulfilled prophecy with which it closes.

Thus wretches rail whom sordid gain

Drags in faction’s gilded chain:

But can a mind which P’amc inspires,

Where genius lights her brightest fires ---

Can Burns, disdaining truth and law,

Faction’s venomed dagger draw;

And, skulking with a villain’s aim,

Basely stab his monarch’s fame?

Yes, Burns, ‘tis o’er, thy race is run,

And shades receive thy setting sun:

With pain thy wayward fate I see,

And mourn the lot that’s doomed for thee:

These few rash lines will damn thy name.

And blast thy hopes of future fame.

Alas for the gift of prophecy! The Rev. George Hamilton, and one might even say the monarch himself, are numbered with the almost forgotten dead; Burns knows no obscurity.

Robert Burns in the Glenriddel manuscripts, under the title of “A Poet’s reply to the threat of a censorious critic”, comments: “My imprudent lines were answered very petulantly by someone I believe to be a Rev. Mr. Hamilton.”

The Rev. George Hamilton was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1805. As an aside here it is a point of interest to know that George Hamilton who gave his name to Hamilton, Ontario, was a nephew of this Gladsmuir minister.

Note: The Rev. George Hamilton who upset Burns was the minister who married Great Great Great Grandpa Duncan to Jean Wilson on 15^th December, 1827.

Peter Carmichael’s Fatal Accident

Throughout the Carmichael ancestry the neighbouring Stirlingshire locations of Redding and Polmont are dominant. Grandpa Carmichael was Polmont-born on 13^th May, 1880. Similarly his father Archie was Polmont-born on 31^st March, 1858, and his grandfather Peter was born on 10^th March, 1817, at Larbert, about six and a half miles from Polmont. Siblings of successive generations raised their families in and around the Polmont/Redding area to the extent that the Carmichaels had very deep roots there. So what possessed Grandpa Carmichael to uproot his family from that locality when he was aged forty-three?

About 5 o’clock on the morning of 25^th September, 1923, Redding Colliery was flooded by water from old workings. Sixty-six men were left trapped in the pit. A huge rescue operation was mounted and, after five hours, twenty-one men had been rescued via an old shaft. On 4^th October, five more men were rescued. Over a period of weeks the bodies of the other men were recovered. The fortieth body was recovered on the fortieth day of the rescue operation. Grandpa Carmichael was one of the rescue team and his photograph, along with other members, appeared in the Daily Record. It is a reasonable guess that the disaster was the catalyst for his decision to flit to Pencaitland to work as a miner there. There is documentary evidence that he was involved in the recovery of bodies. That the family moved east at this time is known because of a clue in a copy of the Haddingtonshire Courier dated 16^th December, 1927. In a brief report of Granny and Grandpa Carmichael’s silver wedding anniversary, it is mentioned that: “They came from Polmont about four years ago.” Moreover Grandpa Carmichael went to Glasgow in February, 1924, to give evidence at the inquiry into the pit disaster. His evidence was reported in the Glasgow Herald dated 9th February, 1924, and that report referred to him staying in Pencaitland at that time.

The flitting must have been a big undertaking with nine children. They were Archie (born 1905 and therefore the eldest ), Susie, Mary (known as Eleanor), Janet (known as Jenny), Jean, Agnes, Ann, Peter (born 1919 therefore still in infancy) and Bill (born 1922 and still at the baby stage). Dorah, born in 1903, had long since died in infancy. Even into old age Aunty Jenny could recall the move. Her recollection was of being on the back of a lorry and a feeling of being awestruck by the lights in Edinburgh’s Princes Street.

The family settled at Islay House, Pencaitland, and Grandpa Carmichael became a well known and popular sportsman. His recreational activities included shooting, fishing, bowling, curling and quoiting.

On Saturday, 14^th September, 1935, he visited the flower show at Haddington. While there, he met John Smith of Pencaitland and they agreed to return home together. Before setting off for Pencaitland they had what John Smith later described as “one or two glasses of beer” but they were “quite sober” when they started walking home from Haddington having just missed the 10 o’clock bus and not wishing to wait for the one at 11.45 p.m.

On reaching the house at Jerusalem Quarry they had a rest for a few minutes then set off again at about 11 p.m. They were walking on their left side with John Smith nearest to the grass verge and Grandpa Carmichael on his right hand side. A car approached towards them from the direction of Pencaitland and Grandpa Carmichael moved behind his companion and closer to the verge. The car passed safely just as another car was approaching from the direction of Haddington. The other car knocked the two of them down from behind. John Smith survived to give evidence at the fatal accident inquiry. He suffered facial injuries and shock.

Grandpa Carmichael was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary with a fracture to the base of his skull. He died on Tuesday, 17^th September, 1935, without having regained consciousness.

The Last Battle Of David Porteous

The family tree contains the names of two men who were killed in action in World War One. One of them was Gabriel Baird Carmichael of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He died at the age of 25 at Premont on 25^th October, 1918. His death resulted from wounds suffered on 23rd October. Gabriel was a young brother of Grandpa Carmichael. The other was David Porteous of the Highland Light Infantry. He died at the age of 28 on 18^th November, 1916. David was a young brother of Granny Duncan. His death took place at the battle of Beaumont-Hamel, an account of which is given below.

The attack which commenced at ten minutes past six on the morning on November 18^th – a day of ice-covered slushiness- was held up owing to the insufficiency of the artillery barrage and the heavy enemy machine gun fire. At 7.42 a.m. the message came in to the Battalion from the right hand Company and the Company Commander was wounded and that a Sergeant and about ten men were holding the right flank. The jumping off trench known as New Munich Trench, was manned by the Battalion machine gunners with a view to concentrating some of the Companies in it back across “no man’s land” to form a rallying point. At 8.30 a.m. the following message was received from 2^nd Lieut. Macbeth of the right Company, “Am holding old front line with remainder of Battalion, and have established a bombing post on the right. There are only Lieut. Martin and myself in the trench.” The left Company was also being hard pressed. It was reported by one of the Battalion officers that when the barrage opened a great number of shells fell just in front of New Munich Trench where the attacking companies were lying out, killing and wounding a large number of the Battalion. When the barrage lifted onto Munich Trench for the last four minutes, it was still short, and when the leading waves came up to about fifty or sixty yards from Munich Trench followed by the barrage, the Germans could be seen lying in the trench in force. When the barrage was on the Munich Trench, the enemy machine guns played on the attackers from both flanks all the time. The failure of the attack was due to the inefficiency of the British supporting barrage, together with the conditions of the ground – thaw having set in and rain falling on the snow, making it exceedingly slippery – the targets the men formed against the snowy background, and the intense cold.

Describing the attack one of the members of the Battalion writes:- “The preliminary bombardment opened with its awful message of destruction, and the rapid reply of the enemy’s artillery indicated ominously that our intentions were not unknown to him. When our barrage lifted, and the first wave of our men attempted to go forward, their dark forms showed up against the snow. They were met by machine gun fire, by rapid fire from the enemy trenches, and by snipers in skilfully chosen holes. Our bombardment had failed. It was impossible to get to close quarters with the enemy – hopeless to advance – dangerous to retire. Many of our men were killed in the attack, others in the attempt to carry in the wounded. Many remained all day in exposed positions, beside their wounded comrades, in the hope of rescuing them when darkness fell. Beaumont-Hamel will not be remembered by us as bearing any resemblance to the official description. We look back upon it now, from the personal point of view, as a touchstone of the individual soul, as a prominent landmark in the vast monotony of death and horror – a chapter of inspiring deeds. It represents to us the heroism of forlorn hope, the glory of unselfish sacrifice, the success of failure. ‘Tis too easy to despond “while the tired waves” visibly gain no “painful inch”, hard to believe that “far back through creeks and inlets making, comes silent, flooding in, the main.”

On the 19^th the Battalion was relieved and returned to Mailly-Maillet where billets were taken over, and when the 17^th rested and licked its wounds – well over 300 of “Glasgow’s Own” had either been killed or wounded in that day’s fighting.

Note that despite this mention of “Glasgow’s Own”, the home address of David Porteous at this time was Nurse’s Cottage, Lundin Links, Fife. His wife was called Jane. Parents John and Rebecca Porteous (whom Granny Duncan was named after) still lived in Haddington at this time. I can recall Granny Duncan mentioning that her brother had been killed by a sniper. Note that snipers are mentioned in the battle report.

1840 report on conditions in the Tranent area (Including Penston where the Duncan family lived then)

The houses inhabited by colliers, day-labourers, and other operatives, are in general very inferior in accommodation to the cottages of the hinds. A few of the colliers' houses are good, but the great mass of them are very bad. The roof is frequently insufficient, admitting wind and rain in wet and windy weather; is sometimes composed of thatch, seldom or never renewed, and resting on rafters. In some houses there is nothing between this roof of thatch and the apartment, and the thatch and rafters are covered with the accumulated dust and cobwebs of many years. In some the rafters and thatch are quite rotten and decayed. I was in one house, shortly before I left Tranent, where the rafters were infested with bugs, which occasionally dropped down. In the worst kind of these houses the apartment is ill supplied with light, the windows being only partially supplied with glass, and its place supplied with paper, bundles of rags, and old hats. In some of these houses the windows cannot be opened; and, were the air excluded from admission by the roof and the ill-hung door, there would be little or no ventilation.

In the better houses of the colliers the furniture is ample, and in some is kept with great neatness and cleanliness ; but in others, even where the furniture is good, there prevails a shocking amount of uncleanliness.

In many of the houses of the colliers there is great want of necessary furniture, and in a good many I have noticed that the chief articles were one or two chairs, a stool, and a wretched bed and bedstead, and that these were in the most filthy condition. I have seen in some of their houses straw strewed in the corner of the apartment, serving as a bed for the family. But it is not the mere want of furniture that renders these abodes so wretched as they are: there is a fearful amount of filth, dust, &c., accumulated on the walls, floors, and furniture, which, with dirty persons, unwashed rags of clothes, the hot putrid atmosphere usually present, go far to add to the wretchedness of the scene, and to complete the measure of squalid and disgusting misery.

In some of these houses the females are so lazy, and so filthy in their habits, that they carry their ashes and cinders no farther than to a corner of the apartment, where they accumulate and have their bulk swollen by the addition of various impurities. This wretchedness does not arise from the want of money. These colliers are in the receipt of 20s. and 30s. per week, and I have been informed by their employers that they might earn much more, would they turn out to work on Monday, instead of drinking, as they commonly do on that day, and even on others.

In times of sickness or helplessness the condition of this class of houses is most deplorably filthy. In the houses of the dissipated colliers the wooden floors are so filthy as to convince the spectator that they are never washed. The floors of cottages inhabited by colliers are composed, I believe, generally of common earth. These floors are very dirty, and so uneven as to make a stranger almost fall. It is not uncommon to see holes or depressions in these floors that would contain a peck or two of sand. These holes have been formed in the course of time by various causes, by the wear and tear produced by heavy shoes, the breaking up of coals by the poker, and by the presence of water spilt upon the floor. No attempt in many cases is made to fill up these cavities, although this might be done at very little expense and trouble. The bedstead is generally covered with dust, and with innumerable fly-marks. In summer, bugs in multitudes may be seen, more especially at night, when the light of a candle is suddenly thrown upon the bedstead. The odour in these apartments is most offensive and sickening, from the long-continued presence of human impurities. Persons not familiar with such situations will be unable to form the most remote idea of the disgusting nature of this atmosphere ; but delicacy forbids a more detailed account.

The most worthless class of colliers and day-labourers are uncleanly in their habits. The persons of the colliers themselves are usually well cleaned with soap and warm water, once in the day, after returning from the pit; they would otherwise be most uncomfortable : but the persons of the children, who do not work in the collieries, standing in less urgent occasion of ablution, are allowed in many instances to remain in a state of great filthiness, their faces, hands, and feet appearing seldom or never to be washed, and their hair being allowed to remain in the greatest disorder, and greatly infested with vermin.

The collier, compelled by the uncleanliness of his employment to perform daily ablution, is comparatively seldom troubled with chronic diseases of the skin, while his children, on the other hand, urged by no such necessity, and neglected by the mother who is perhaps employed at the pit, are subject to a very great number of diseases of the skin, and, with comparatively few exceptions, to some of the varied forms of the disease called scall-head.

I do not think pigs are kept in the interior of the houses in or around Tranent. Pig-sties in many instances are erected near the doors and windows of the poor; but these are scarcely a nuisance, the odours being comparatively sweet and pleasant to those emanating from the heaps of manure and ashes formerly referred to, and even from the people and houses themselves.

In many houses in and around Tranent fowls roost on the rafters and on the tops of the bedsteads. The effluvia in these houses are offensive, and must prove very unwholesome. It is scarcely necessary to say that these houses are very filthy. They swarm likewise with fleas. Dogs live in the interior of the lowest houses, and must, of course, be opposed to cleanliness.

I have seen horses in two houses in Tranent inhabiting the same apartment with numerous families. One was in Dow's Bounds. Several of the family were ill of typhus fever, and I remember the horse stood at the back of the bed. In this case the stench was dreadful. In addition to the horse there were fowls, and I think the family was not under ten souls. The father died of typhus on this occasion.

I visited a house in Tranent in the beginning of this year, in which the only furniture I observed was an old bedstead with some bedding. I think straw was spread in a corner for a bed, and on one side of the fire-place : on the other side of the fire-place there stood a large horse, sharing the apartment, with its back at no great distance from the roof.

With most poor people there existed an unwillingness to go to hospital; but this was overcome in most instances where there appeared urgent occasion for removal. I seldom failed in effecting removal when I was convinced of its necessity. This disinclination arises from the distance, the nearest hospital being ten miles distant, the expense and fatigue of travelling, and a feeling of distrust in respect to good usage from the nurses, who bear a very bad character among the poor classes. I have no doubt whatever that proper persuasion, and the assurance of good treatment, would effect the removal of 18 in 20 of the fever cases, were a hospital on the spot, with a medical man attached, possessing moderate skill, having kindly manners, and bearing a character for integrity.

The Professional Football Career of Peter Carmichael

On Friday, 20^th February, 1903, Peter Carmichael of Redding Athletic signed for Falkirk. On Saturday, 21^st February, he made his debut at centre-forward in a Second Division fixture against Raith Rovers at Brockville Park.

Team versus Raith Rovers: Allan, Hill, Miller, Russell, Pringle, Goudie, Smith (Falkirk Amateurs), C. Clegg (Morton), Carmichael (Redding Athletic), McLaughlan and Malley. (Note the old custom of bracketing the former club of players making a debut).

Peter Carmichael scored for Falkirk ten minutes after the start with a shot from 25 yards out. Grierson scored for Raith Rovers after fifty minutes. Clegg and McLaughlan scored in quick succession for Falkirk. Eckford scored for Raith Rovers to pull it back to 3-2. Falkirk pressed towards the close and Peter Carmichael added a fourth goal.

On Saturday, 28^th February, 1903, Falkirk drew 2-2 in a Second Division fixture against local rivals East Stirling at Brockville Park. Peter Carmichael scored the game’s opening goal.

On Saturday, 7^th March, 1903, Falkirk lost 2-0 to Ayr FC in a Second Division fixture at Somerset Park.

Falkirk team at Ayr: Allan, Hill, Miller, Russell, Pringle, Scott, Clegg, Leishman, Carmichael, McLaughlan and McKillop.

In the first half Ayr goalkeeper Jimmy Mathie was cheered for a save from an excellent shot from Peter Carmichael. The Ayr goals were scored in the second half by Archie White and William McDonald. Four of the Ayr players who faced Falkirk were close to big moves. They were Jimmy Hay (to Celtic in March 1903), Sam Aitken (to Middlesbrough in May 1903), John McDonald (to Blackburn Rovers in May 1903) and Tom Wills (to Newcastle United in November 1903).