William Davie (1835-1916)

WILLIAM DAVIE (1835-1916), son of James Davie and his wife Margaret Smith, was born on 9 October 1835 in Hill of Fetternear. He was baptized on the 22nd 'in the presence of Patrick Downie of Overtown and Peter Davie of Hill of Fetternear' (this latter was presumably his uncle).

At some time after 1851 he left Fetternear and went to be in charge of the Fitzclarence hounds at Etal Manor in Northumberland. He later returned home, and in 1861 he was gamekeeper at Logie Elphinstone. Soon after this he entered the service of Lord Forbes as head gamekeeper at Craigievar.

The Forbes family owned estates in Fintray, and it was a widow of 22 from Fintray, Helen Ewing, born Helen Prosser, whom he married on 11 December 1863 at Chapel of Garioch. Helen already had a two-year-old son, James Ewing, from her first marriage, and he was brought up as one of the family. (Jamie Ewing and his wife emigrated to the United States in 1890, settling in Illinois.) It is said that the Prosser family felt that Helen was marrying beneath her. At the time of her marriage, Helen was some three months pregnant.

Helen Prosser was the only daughter among the six children of John Prosser, who farmed at Backwaird and Loch-Head Shene in Fintray, and owned houses at Dyce-in-Fintray and Monymusk. Her mother was Isabella, born Reirie (or Ririe). Her grandfather, Robert Prosser, is said to have come to Aberdeenshire from Wales to be coachman to Lord Forbes, Lady Forbes being also from Wales. Helen had married James Ewing at Monymusk on 24 December 1859, but he had died. She entered service as a nurserymaid, and gave her address as 24 St Andrew's Street, Aberdeen, at the time of her marriage with William.

She is said to have been a restless person, and in later life "rather shrewish". It is said that before their marriage, William's parents asked him what he was marrying her for - "It is certainly not for her looks."

William became a family friend of Lord and Lady Forbes. In his youth he was very musical, and was in demand both as a violinist and as a dancer. William and Helen lived in Leochel-Cushnie, at Craigievar Castle from 1863 to 1875, and the gamekeeper's house there was built specially for them. (Another version of this story in that the house at Mains of Corse was built for them while William was working at Corse.)

By 1879, though, William was at Breda House, Alford, where he was working for George McBain Farquharson, a retired MajorGeneral of the Indian Army, who had been born in Tasmania. He appears on the Church of Scotland Communion Roll for Alford for 5 May 1878 (and 3 November, and 4 May 1879), and it was noted that he had moved from Leochel (where he was recorded in July 1873).

William did not spend long at Breda, for in 1881 the family was living in the Gamekeeper's House at Roseacre. This was presumably the same as the two-roomed lodge in Durn Road, Portsoy, where they were in 1891, although the 1895 valuation roll shows him at Upper Aird, at the eastern end of the estate

. This spell as gamekeeper at Roseacre House saw most of the children grow up and marry, and only William and Helen's two youngest sons, John and George, were still living at home on Census night 1891, along with a granddaughter, young Nellie Clark. Young George learnt to swim and fish in the sea at Portsoy.

A regular visitor to the family at this time was the violinist and composer, James Scott Skinner (1843-1927). He taught the children to play.

Helen died on 10 January 1911 at Breda, Alford, while staying in the house of her daughter, Helen Littlejohn. She was buried, as she had wished, in her beloved Fintray. William survived her. On Census Day 1911, he was staying with his successor at the gamekeeper's cottage, Craigievar, Alexander Matheson. He is remembered as a kindly, bearded old man. He died on 12 March 1916 at the gardener's cottage beside Grant Lodge, Monymusk, the home of George Hall. It is said that old Lord Forbes had wanted William to be buried close to the Forbes family vault, but his grave lies at Fintray with his wife.

1 WILLIAM DAVIE (1864-?1919) was born in Leochel-Cushnie at Craigievar on 15 June 1864. On Census night 1881, he was a farm servant staying with his employer, Ann Anderson and her two daughters at Baley in Fordyce. He married Naomi Wilson on 28 May 1886 at Portsoy.

Naomi was the 19-year-old daughter of a local coppersmith, Thomas Wilson, of North High Street, Portsoy and his wife Isabella. (Thomas died on 8 October 1883, and Isabella nineteen days later. Naomi's grandfather, another Thomas, had died on 17 May 1867, aged 68, only a few months after she was born.)

The couple lived on the Fordyce Road, to the west of Portsoy, and William is said to have farmed in the neighbourhood. He was a gamekeeper here in 1901. He was gamekeeper at Millington Hall, Churchstoke, Montgomeryshire in 1911. He is said to have died in 1919 (if so, this was not in Scotland). One story has it that it was in Cricklewood in the 1920's he committed suicide - he was found dead by his nephew George Gordon Davie. Naomi died in Glasgow on 2 February 1946, aged 79.

1.1 THOMAS WILSON DAVIE (1895-?), born at Portsoy in 1895.

1.2 NAOMI WILSON DAVIE (1897-1978), born at Aird Street, Portsoy on 3 September 1897. She was good friends with her cousin Edith Clark. She was living at Glenboyne, Portsoy, when she married James Gordon at 17 Union Terrace, Aberdeen, on 27 March 1937. He was a 43-year-old marine engineer of Burns Square, Buckie, the son of a deceased baker. He is also said to have been a tea-planter, and owner of Gordon's Stores. James died suddenly at 96 Auchmill Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, on 7 February 1954, aged 60. Naomi lived on, and died on 8 July 1978, aged 80. She is buried next to her mother in Portsoy Old Graveyard.

2 MARY DAVIE (1866-1950), also known as MARY JANE DAVIE, was born on 14 February 1866 at Craigievar Castle. She became a teacher, and six days after her twentieth birthday, on 20 February 1886, she married a Portsoy joiner and undertaker, George Clark, of Glassaugh in Fordyce. They lived at 48 Chapel Street. Mary Jane died in 1950.

2.1 WILLIAM DAVIE CLARK (1884-?), born in 1884. In 1901 he was an apprentice druggist. He studied medicine in Glasgow whilst working as a druggist and qualified as a doctor. He was known in Glasgow as Doctor Bill Davie.

2.2 MARY HELEN CLARK (1886-1977), known as NELLIE. She was born on 10 August 1886 at Roseacre Villa, Portsoy. She married a neighbour in Hill St, William Alexander Donald on 22 March 1907 at the Station Hotel in Portsoy. He was a 28-year-old master mason, she was 20. Nell died in 1977, aged 91.

The couple had two sons and two daughters:

2.2.1 WILLIAM DONALD (1907-1974). He was a carpenter. He married a local girl, Mary Ann Sutherland, and they had three daughters.

2.2.2 GEORGE DONALD (1908-1986), born in Portsoy in 1908. He worked for his father until the Second World War. He was an officer in the Gordon Highlanders, and served in France (taking part in the Dunkirk evacuation), North Africa, Sicily and Italy. After the War, he became a civil servant, surveying government buildings. He married Kathleen Baldwin, from Grantham, Lincs, and had two sons.

2.2.3 MARY HELEN DONALD (1910-2001), known as HELEN, who married John Barron Dickie Stuart (known as Jack) in Portsoy in 1931. They lived in Seafield Street, Portsoy from 1931 to 1944, moving then to Durn Road only a few yards from the lodge of Roseacre where Helen's great-grandfather had lived, and later to Lhanbryde, Elgin, Grantown-on-Spey and Edinburgh, before returning to Portsoy in 1976 to live at Westerwards. Mary and Jack Stuart had five children:

2.2.3.1 LILLIAN MARY STUART (b.1932). She married W. James M. Hair in 1954, and has one son and two daughters.

2.2.3.2 JULIA MARGARET STUART (1935-1997)

2.2.3.3 ALISON DONALD STUART (b.1940)

2.2.3.4 JOHN HARDIE STUART (b.1942)

2.2.3.5 NEIL STUART (b.1946)

2.2.4 CHRISTIANNA AMY DONALD (1913-2011), known as Chris, who was a singer in a BBC Chorus. She married John Wilfred Sharpe, in Portsoy in 1948. For many years he was leader of the BBC Concert, Opera and Symphony Orchestras. The couple were living in Portsoy in 1984, but later moved to the Borders. After John died, she moved to the south west of England. Chris and John had one daughter:

2.2.4.1 FIONA D SHARPE (b.1953), born in London.

2.3 CHRISTIANNA AMY CLARK (1890-1973), known as Amy, born on 14 April 1890. She attended Fordyce Academy, and entered Aberdeen University in 1908. (Aberdeen had admitted its first female students in 1894.) She also attended the Teacher Training College and the School of Domestic Science, so that when she graduated in 1911 she could follow in her mother's footsteps and become a teacher. She went straight in to a teaching post at New Aberdour.

She had to give up this career when she married David Robert Crabb, a veterinary surgeon of New Aberdour, on 17 March 1915 at 48 Chapel Street, Portsoy. David was the son of a veterinary surgeon. He had been in the Territorial Army before the World War had begun, and had immediately been mobilized in the Army Veterinary Corps (later the RAVC). He was sent to France in January 1917, and spent the next two years on active service, and becoming part of the army of occupation in Germany. He was Mentioned in Dispatches in January 1919. After the war, he became the vet in Strichen.

David died in a drowning mishap on 10 April 1930, aged 43. He had gone out walking around Portsoy where they were visiting family, and failed to return. He was eventually found the following day in a marshy area, having apparently fallen and drowned in a few inches of water. (A family member mentions there was talk of him suffering from diabetes, a possible cause of a sudden collapse.)

After David's death, Amy was left with a fourteen year old daughter and a two year old son. She took up teaching again, taking a post at a small country school in Ardallie, near Ellon at a salary of £210. After a year she moved to Memsie school near Fraserburgh, then finally to Fetterangus. Here she became headmistress, and is recalled in Elizabeth Stewart's book, Up yon Wide and Lonely Glen as "a richt stern woman an we used tae caa her the aul crab." She "wisna a bad singer, a bit scrachie, but wi quite a good voice really, an she wis often asked tae sing at concert parties." She was a short woman, with an imposing presence. During the war, she led the Home Guard in the village.

When she retired as headmistress in 1952, she went to Northern Rhodesia where she lived with her son, George, for about 10 years. She died at Sandhaven, Aberdeenshire on 7 May 1973.

The Crabbs had two children:

2.3.1 CATHERINE AMY CRABB (1915-2014), born in Aberdour on 28 December 1915. She studied French and Latin, receiving an MA (Hons) from Aberdeen University in 1938 like her mother, and eventually became a teacher. She married Cuthbert William Fraser at Strichen in 1945. They divorced in 1959.

Catherine remarried, to John Strachan of Fraserburgh (1901-1983). They married in 1963 at Guthrie, Angus. Catherine died at Guthrie on 2 September 2014, aged 98.

Catherine and Cuthbert Fraser had two daughters.

2.3.1.1 JO FRASER (b.1946), born at Banff on 20 January 1946. She graduated as a vet in 1969. She worked for some years in South Africa during the seventies, and was in contact with her uncle George's family. In 1978 she married Chris Clarkson. After retirement, Jo moved to Bristol. She and Chris had a son:

2.3.1.1.1 ANGUS FRASER (b.1981), born on 3 September 1981.

2.3.1.2 CHRISTINE MARY FRASER (b.1947), known as Kirsty, born in Fraserburgh on 10 April 1947. She graduated from Aberdeen University with a degree in Philosophy, and worked as a teacher. She married Iain Dodds of Forfar in 1968. They divorced in 1978. They had two children:

2.3.1.2.1 JOHN FRASER LAIRD DODDS (b.1968), (now known as Devaney), born on 5 November 1968.

2.3.1.2.2 JOSEPHINE AMY DODDS (b.1970), (known as Devaney until her marriage), born on 28 Jan 1970, who married ? DeLuca in 2003.

Christine remarried in 1979, to Thomas Devaney of Dundee. They had one daughter:

2.3.1.2.3 CATHERINE ELIZABETH DEVANEY (b.1981), born on 15 January 1981.

Kirsty retrained in the 1980s and received a Mathematics Degree from the Open University, teaching at Dundee College until she retired. She and Tom live in Dundee.

2.3.2 GEORGE DAVID CRABB (1927-1977), born at Strichen on 2 October 1927. He is also mentioned in Up yon Wide and Lonely Glen. He was called up for National Service and opted for the Palestine Police, which allowed him to indulge his love of horses. He was in Jerusalem during the war of independence. He married Elizabeth Bruce of Grantown on Spey.

In July 1949, he sailed on the Athlone Castle to join the Northern Rhodesian Mounted Police. He was stationed in Chingola, on the Copper Belt. He later ran a general store, and later worked at the copper mine, though not underground.

After Zambian Independence, with a growing family, he moved to South Africa where he found work in the gold mining industry in the Orange Free State. George died in the Orange Free State, South Africa on 6 February 1977, aged 48.

George and Elizabeth had four children:

2.3.2.1 DAVID CRABB. He works at the gold mine in Virginia, Orange Free State.

2.3.2.2 PENNY CRABB. She died in her early forties.

2.3.2.3 PETER CRABB. He lives near Johannesburg.

2.3.2.4 ROBIN CRABB. He lives in Orange Free State.

2.4 GEORGE ALEXANDER CLARK (1892-1912), born in Portsoy. He died, aged 19, of pneumonia.

2.5 EDITH LOTTIE CLARK (1899-1980), known as Lottie. She married Robert Ingham Mitchell at Portsoy on 25 April 1924. They lived at 46 Chapel Street, Portsoy, next door to Edith's parents. Edith died in 1980. They had three children:

2.5.1 ALISTAIR MITCHELL (b.19??). He was a carpenter with his grandfather. During the Second World War he was shot through the knee in Belgium. He was evacuated, and subsequently worked in a factory, which closed after the War. He joined Cable and Wireless, and worked at Electra House in London until his retirement. He married a girl from Fraserburgh, and has two daughters, one of whom lives in Hampshire and the other in Morecambe.

2.5.2 MURIEL MITCHELL (b.19??). She married a Londoner during the War, but divorced and returned to Portsoy. She later remarried. She had no children, and was widowed before 2004.

2.5.3 DAVID MITCHELL (b.1924). He is one of the contributors to the present notes. He joined up in 1939, but was sent home because he was not yet fifteen. He later joined the RAF, and served in the Middle East and Italy. After the war he studied radio engineering, and joined G.C.H.Q. He worked for twelve years at a radio station in Fife, and then moved to Cheltenham for 26 years prior to retirement in 1985. He married a Portsoy girl in 1951, and after retirement returned to Portsoy to live. They have a daughter and a son.

2.5.3.1 LYNNE MITCHELL (b.19??). She married Tom Russell. They have two daughters.

2.5.3.2 DAVID MITCHELL (b.19??). He worked for Eagle Star in Cheltenham, but tired of it, and he and his wife were running a holiday complex near Keswick in 2004. They had a son, aged five in 2004.

3 ELIZABETH DAVIE (1868-1868), born on 12 February 1868. She died of bronchitis when only ten days old.

4 ROBERT PROSSER DAVIE (1869-1956) was born at Craigievar on 29 July 1869. He was a journeyman baker. At the turn of the century he moved to London. In 1901 he was at 2 Euston Square, St Pancras. His first wife, Jessie White Davie, was an actress. In 1911 he was at 9 Westbury Road, Westgate-on-Sea, Kent. He was living at 16 Upton Avenue, Forest Gate, Essex, when his wife died on 14 November 1918 (leaving personal estate of £181/14/11). He moved later to Cricklewood.

He remarried in the second quarter of 1920. His second wife's name was Margaret L Markey, born on 26 September 1875. At the time of National Registration in September 1939, he and Margaret were at 41 Kingsgate Road, Hampstead. Margaret was working as a relief barmaid. David Mitchell recalls Robert being present at his wedding in 1951, and visiting him in West Hampstead in 1949. Margaret died in the Wandsworth area in 1950. Robert died without issue at Newington Lodge, Camberwell Gate, London SE5 on 26 April 1956, aged 86. His address was 41 Kingsgate Road, Kilburn. Probate was granted to Mrs Muriel Alwyn Clark, a butcher. His estate was valued at £83/1/8.

5 HELEN DAVIE (1871-1945?) was born on 1 September 1871 at Craigievar. She married Alexander McWilliam at the Roman Catholic Church of St Mary of the Angels, Paddington, on 29 October 1891.

Alex had been born into a Catholic family at Todholes, Banff on New Year's Day 1863.

Helen became a nurse, and Alex was an architect. The couple had six children, but then Alex left Helen, and went to South Africa. Helen was living at Corse, in the parish of Coull, in 1901 with her parents. She married again at Coull in 1909, to Alexander Littlejohn, who was gardener at Breda House, Alford. They remained together for 24 years, until Alex died. She is said to have married three more times. After her second husband died, she moved to London, "staying with some priests." She moved to Schoolhendry Street, Portsoy about 1942 (where she married her fifth husband, a retired farmer).

5.1 MARY JANE McWILLIAM (1893-?), born on 27 October 1893 at Broomhill, a farm a couple of miles south of Portsoy on the Huntly Road. She was baptized into the Catholic church on 22 November - the sponsor was Margaret Macdonald.

5.2 WILLIAM JOHN McWILLIAM (1895-?), born on 27 July 1895 and baptized on 1 October.

5.3 JAMES McWILLIAM (1897-?), born on 18 January 1897 and baptized on 24 February. He probably died in infancy (as did other of their children), for underneath the sponsor's name (Mary Keating) is noted 'R.I.P.'

5.4 GEORGE DAVIE McWILLIAM (1898-?), born on 16 May 1898 in Seafield Street, Portsoy, and baptized five days later.

5.5 ALEXANDER McWILLIAM (19??-?).

5.6 HELENA McWILLIAM (19??-?).

6 JOHN DAVIE (1875-1945), born at Craigievar Castle in Leochel-Cushnie on 7 October 1875 (or according to his National Registration entry, 1876). In 1891 he was a law clerk at Portsoy, but on 26 August 1892 he enlisted for seven years in the Royal Artillery (Highland Regiment?), giving his age as 18. In November 1896 while stationed at Dover Castle, he married a young blonde, Rosa Green, the daughter of a local marine engine fitter.

Rosa had been born in Dover in the first quarter of 1874, the daughter of George Green, a carpenter, and Anne Maria Green, his wife. At the time of the 1991 census she was a photographer's assistant, living at home at 2 Caroline Place, Dover. At some time she is said to have held the Railway Hotel in Dover.

He is said to have lived for a while on the verge of penury, 'drinking himself out of a number of jobs'. In 1901, he was at 31 Balfour Road, Dover, and gave his profession as draper's traveller. In 1911 he was living at 282 Hardgate in Aberdeen, where his sister-in-law, Forbes Davie, occasionally had to help out. "A will-of-the-wisp, and very good-looking", he served in the First World War, and later moved to Glasgow, and then to Cricklewood in London, where he was a tailor. Rosa Davie died in 1924. At the end of 1932, John married Violet May Lake, who had been born on 17 April 1902. The couple were at 16 St David's Drive, Harrow, in September 1939. John died in October 1945, and Violet went on to marry Christopher Quinn in 1956 in Ilford.

6.1 GEORGE GORDON DAVIE (1897-1936), born at Dover on 7 February 1897. He was a metallurgist and was educated at Aberdeen. In November 1919 he married Lilian Frances Wallace (known as Billie) in Willesden. He died in November 1936. His widow survived him, and died in Gravesend on 28 March 1983.

George and Billie Davie had two children:

6.1.1 JOHN DAVIE (1920-1920), who died in infancy in 1920.

6.1.2 MARGARET EVELYN DAVIE (b.1921), born on 3 September 1921. She became company secretary to a firm of printers in Dartford. In April 1943 while in the WAAF, she married Eric Porter at Gravesend. He was a chief design engineer for GEC. Peggy Porter is one of the researchers of the present notes.

Peggy and Eric Porter have a daughter:

6.1.2.1 CAROLE DIANE PORTER (b.1944), born in July 1944. She became a librarian and Fellow of the Librarians' Association. She married John Beattie, a chartered accountant in 1972. They live in Kettering, and have two children:

6.1.2.1.1 DAVID BEATTIE (b.1973).

6.1.2.1.2 HELEN BEATTIE (b.1975).

6.2 JOHN ALEXANDER DAVIE (1901-), known as ALEC, was born in Dover on 4 November 1901. He worked for Rolls Razor in London, and was also a part-time professional footballer. He married Elsie W Yaxley in the second quarter of 1932 in Willesden. She was some ten years younger than him, having been born on 8 October 1911. At the time of National Registration in September 1939, the couple were at 49 Oaklands Road, Willesden. John described himself as a store keeper in aero and motor work. They had a son:

6.2.1 BRIAN DAVIE (b.1933), born in Hendon in the third quarter of 1933. He lived in Cricklewood. His wife's name is Yvonne, and they have a son and a daughter.

6.3 DORIS HELEN DAVIE (1904-1966) was born in Dover on 19 July 1904. She married Lionel Toop in Hampstead in the spring of 1927. He was an aircraft foreman sheet metal worker. The couple lived in Wembley, and Doris was registered in 1939 while staying with her sister Hilda. Lionel died in 1940, and Doris subsequently married Stanley Hawkins in the third quarter of 1940 in the Hendon registration district. She died without issue in 1966.

6.4 WILLIAM FORBES DAVIE (1909-1978) was born on 29 January 1909 in Aberdeen. He became a chartered surveyor and was also a talented musician. He married Edith Margaret Barber, known as Marge, daughter of Robert Newcome Barber and Nellie, née Holliday, at the Union Church, Mill Hill on 15 April 1933. She had been born on 2 March 1907.

At the time of his marriage he was described as a house decorator, but later became a Quantity Surveyor. In the pre-war years he also played saxophone, clarinet and violin in various dance bands including the resident band at the Silver Slipper Club in London’s West End. At the time of National Registration in 1939, the couple were living with two other families at 27 Sylvan Avenue, Hendon.

As a quantity surveyor, he was not conscripted into the Armed Forces during the War, and worked on the construction of air fields in Norfolk and dockyards in Belfast. His first marriage ended in divorce, and he subsequently married Joan Anne Walker in the UK. Edith Margaret Davie continued to live in Mill Hill after Bill Davie left. She died of leukaemia on 4 December 1968. (Bill's death certificate mentions 27 Silvan Avenue, Mill Hill, London, England as his last address.)

In 1947 Bill was sent to Palestine as a quantity surveyor for a British company working for the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC). He was "up and down the pipeline", from Mosul to Haifa, on building sites on the H-Line, in Baghdad and in Basra. He got out of Palestine on 15 May 1948, on probably the last plane out of Haifa airport. Being linked to IPC, he lived in the outskirts of Tripoli (Araman compound), to the north of Beirut. He continued to play the violin and the clarinet; he even recorded a 78 rpm in Lebanon, with a group that used to play at the IPC Club.

Joan came to Lebanon in 1948, by DC3 to Lydda airport, then by Auster to Tripoli.

Bill then joined the Contracting and Trading Company (CAT), a very large engineering company belonging to two Lebanese, Emile Bustani and Shukri Shammas, and which had links with Motherwell Bridge Contracting and Trading Company ("Mothercat"). In 1954, he resided in Beirut, off Hamra Street, then, in 1956, on Madame Curie Street. William was on building sites in Jordan (Amman airfield), Iraq (Royal palaces in Baghdad, sites in Mosul, Erbil, Basra and especially Kirkuk), the Gulf states (Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain), Massira island (airfield and port), Khartoum, Quetta (in Pakistan), Seychelles (the airport), Roseires (Sudan) and Libya.

He retired in 1972, owing to ill health (emphysema) and resided in an apartment on a hill overlooking the city. He died on 28 August 1978, at the American University Hospital in Beirut. He was cremated there and his ashes were dispersed in Scotland a few months later by Joan. Joan survived him, living alone in Beirut before leaving for Cyprus because of the civil war in Lebanon. She lived in Limassol for a couple of years, and then left for France, where she resided for many years in Montbazon. She died at the main hospital in Tours on 13 February 2011.

By his first wife Bill had a son:

6.4.1 WILLIAM ALAN DAVIE (b.1940), born on 25 January 1940 in St. Marylebone, London. He married Jacqueline Bell (daughter of Andrew and Sarina Bell) on 13 October 1964 at Edgware Registry Office. They lived in Mill Hill. They were divorced in 1974, and Alan remarried, to Christine Lesley Reichardt (daughter of Frederick Walter and Pauline Meek, née Mitchell) on 14 February 1976 at Harrow Registry Office. (Christine’s first marriage to Peter Herbert Campbell Reichardt was dissolved in 1975.) Alan and Christine lived in Barnet, Hertfordshire, Finchampstead, Berkshire and moved to Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire in 1988.

Alan was a Civil Engineer and designed and supervised the construction of major roads in England, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. He retired in 2007.

Alan and Jacqueline had two daughters:

6.4.1.1 VIRGINIA HELEN DAVIE (b.1965) born on 16 February 1965 in Edgware.

6.4.1.2 JUSTINE LOUISE DAVIE (b.1967), born on 18 March 1967 in Mill Hill, who has two daughters, Jessica (1987) and Eve (1993). Jessica has a daughter, Bella, born in 2007.

Alan and Christine had a daughter and a son:

6.4.1.3 AMY MARGARET DAVIE (b.1978), born on 10 May 1978 in Barnet.

6.4.1.4 ROBERT FREDERICK FORBES DAVIE (b.1980), born on 26 August 1980 in Reading.

By his second wife, William Forbes Davie had a son:

6.4.2 MICHAEL FORBES DAVIE (b.1950), born in Tripoli, Lebanon, on 20 November 1950 at the Kennedy Memorial Hospital, belonging to the Quakers.

He first went to an Italian school in Beirut, and then to the Christian Brothers school (École des Frères Chrétiennes) in Beirut. He prepared his French Baccalaureate at the French Mission Culturelle. He then prepared for his "Licence" (BSc), and then a Maîtrise (MSc) in Geography at the branch of the University of Lyons in Beirut. He prepared a PhD thesis in Strasbourg (France) on part of Lebanon (1975).

He married May Fatteh, a Lebanese girl, on 23 August 1975, in Broummana (just above the city of Beirut).

May is a historian. She was born on 2 September 1950 in Beirut. She prepared a PhD thesis on the Greek-Orthodox community of Beirut in the 19th and 20th century. She is Greek-Orthodox. She has two sisters and one brother.

Michael then went to Algeria, to teach at the University of Constantine (1975-1977), then returned to Beirut to teach at the Jesuit University (Université Saint Joseph), where he was head of the department of History, Geography and Archaeology. He stayed in Beirut all through the war (with some occasional trips to Cyprus when it became too noisy...), and finally left for France in 1990. He was a Professor at the University of Tours, in the Geography department, and a researcher in a research centre specializing in the study of Arab cities. He retired in 2018 and is currently living near Beirut.

Michael and May Davie have two children :

6.4.2.1 DANIELLE FORBES DAVIE (b.1980), born on 7 November 1980 in Beirut. She received a BSc in Sociology at Tours University, and in December 2010 received a PhD in Anthropology and Cinema from the University of Nanterre, specializing in the Bedouin of the Syrian Desert. In 2011 she was teaching documentary film-making in several universities in Beirut.

6.4.2.2 LAWRENCE FORBES DAVIE (b.1982), born on 31 October 1982 in Beirut. After a period working part-time in the catering business in Tours, he prepared for an MA in Hotel Management and worked part-time in a chartered accountant's office in Beirut. He later studied horticulture in Angers, and worked in Edinburgh. In 2018 he was a bee-keeper near Avignon in the south of France. He lives with Laurence Mariette Gabrielle Le Briquier (born 11 March 1987), and has two daughters:

6.4.2.2.1 ROXANE LOUISE FORBES DAVIE (b.2018), born on 12 January 2018 in Avignon.

6.4.2.2.2 CAMILLE EMILIE FORBES DAVIE (b.2022), born on 8 July 2022 in Avignon.

6.5 ROSA ANNIE GREE DAVIE (1911-1980) was born on 27 July 1911. Her birth was registered both at St Nicholas and St Machar in Aberdeen. She was living with her father at home in 1926. She married an artist, Frank Ernest Chester in the second quarter of 1935 in the Hendon registration district. At the time of National Registration, they were living in Princes Avenue, Wembley. She was an assembler of telephone components, and he was "department manager for distribution of eggs butter etc". Rosa died in 1980, and Frank died in 1984. They had a daughter:

6.5.1 JANET CHESTER (b.19??), who married John Marks, a stockbroker. They live in Dawlish, Devon.

6.6 HILDA LILLIAN DAVIE (1915-2006) was born on 8 October 1915 in the Springburn district of Glasgow. She married Alfred E Dobson, in the Hendon registration district in the second quarter of 1936. He died in 1938. In September 1939, Hilda was living at 7 Berkeley House, Wembley.

Hilda subsequently married Alfred Percival Mann in Stevenage in the first quarter of 1952. He was a local councillor and worked for British Aerospace. They were living in Stevenage in 1987. By her first husband she had a daughter:

6.6.1 JEAN SHEILA DOBSON (1936-2002), born on 12 August 1936. She married Raymond Sidney Gould at Dover in the third quarter of 1954. Raymond died at the end of 1974. They had two sons, Garry (b.1959) and Kevin (b.1963), who were living in Stevenage in 1987.

By her second husband she had a son:

6.6.2 NIGEL A A MANN (b.1942), born on 30 October 1942 in the Wetherby registration district. He married Frances McEvan Cochlan (born on 9 November 1944) at the end of 1961. They lived in South Africa, but later returned to Stevenage. They had three children:

6.6.2.1 SONIA F MANN (b.1962) born in October 1962.

6.6.2.2 TERESA A MANN (b.1965) born in April 1965.

6.6.2.3 DENISE ANGELA MANN (b.1969), known as Denny, born in South Africa.

7 GEORGE McBAIN FARQUHARSON DAVIE (1879-1950), born at Breda House, Alford on 1 March 1879, of whom more anon.