George McBain Farquharson Davie (1879-1950)

GEORGE McBAIN FARQUHARSON DAVIE (1879-1950) was born at Breda House, Alford, on 1 March 1879 and baptized at Alford on 11 April. He was named after the owner of Breda, a 54-year-old retired officer in the Indian Army, for whom his father was working as gamekeeper.

Very shortly after his birth, the family, which now numbered seven, moved to the rather cramped gamekeeper's lodge at Roseacre House in Portsoy. It was here that George attended school, and here that he learned to enjoy swimming in the sea. By far the greatest influence in his life, though, was the violinist, composer and dancing master, James Scott Skinner (1843-1927), who was a great friend of the family and used to stay with them at Roseacre. George had violin lessons from Scott Skinner at the age of four, and was playing at concerts when he was nine.

He left school early, and when he was fourteen moved to Aberdeen, where he trained as a piano tuner with J. Marr, Wood and Co. Ltd. (John Marr had turned from cabinet-making to piano building in the 1820s, and had established himself in business in Union Street. His firm had been taken over Selby, Wood and Co. around 1890. Marr, Wood supplied music and pianos to Balmoral, and described themselves as 'musical instrument makers by appointment'). He qualified at fifteen and became their head tuner. He is said to have tuned all the Royal pianos at Balmoral, and the Duke of Fife's at Mar Lodge, and all the gentry's on Donside and Deeside.

On 16 July 1901 he married Forbes Jane Valentine, who was just eight days short of her 29th birthday.

Forbes Valentine, known as Fobbie, was the daughter of James Valentine and his wife, Forbes Peter. When she married George she was working as a dressmaker. The family had come from Ellon, where they had been small crofters, although Forbes' father, James, had been working as a labourer at Garvock when he married, and the Peter family came from there. She has been described as "a kind, clever, funny woman of enormous patience, to whom everyone ran when in trouble".

Forbes' widowed mother had been living at 24 Huntly Street since 1896, and the couple set up home here. In 1905 they moved to an apartment at 108 Union Grove for about two years

, and then in 1907 to 102 Irvine Place. By 1920 he had moved to the next door house, number 100, and at some stage in the next few years he bought out the leases on both properties, letting out number 102, and retaining the "motor shed" between number 102 and 104.

In 1919 George left Marr, Wood to set up in business on his own, taking the clientele he had built up with him. He was particularly well-known in Strathdon. In 1927 he opened a musicseller's shop at 9 Rose Street (his neighbours were a milliner and a tobacconist) - after 1934 at 9 Rosemount Viaduct, but after 1937 he operated from home. He described himself in 1932 as a maker of musical instruments. As well as tuning pianos and organs, and selling music and instruments, he also taught the violin.

In addition he was leader of a septet (or after November 1937 a sextet), which broadcast a lot on Scottish programmes, and even featured in the Radio Times. For example, on 28 January 1938, listeners to the Scottish Home Service could have tuned into half an hour of Scottish dance music from "George Davie's Sextet" at 9.20 p.m. A leading member of the sextet was Mrs Annie Shand, who played the piano. Before the war, they performed regularly at Balmoral Castle, and provided music for the Scottish dances at the Ghillies' Ball. The band undertook a number of London engagements, and had frequent bookings for making gramophone records. These were used extensively by the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society for rehearsals. Some recordings of Annie Shand on the piano, and George on the violin can be heard on the Rare Tunes website, who have kindly provided a discography.

George Davie was a hard-working man until affected by diabetes in later life. He is said to have had "a wicked sense of humour", but also to have been a strict Presbyterian. He died of heart trouble at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on 21 September 1950 and is buried at Springbank Cemetery. His wife, Forbes Jane Davie, lived on at 100 Irvine Place. She died of cerebral atherosclerosis at the Royal Infirmary on 17 October 1962.

1 GEORGE FORBES DAVIE (1902-1964), known as Dodo, born at 24 Huntly Street, Aberdeen on 21 May 1902, of whom more anon.

2 ELEANOR FORBES DAVIE (1903-1985), known as Ella, born on 15 December 1903 at Huntly Street. She married Edwin Mathieson Dodds on 25 March 1927. Edwin Dodds was born at 146 Bon Accord Street, Aberdeen on 11 November 1902. He had been a chemistry student at Aberdeen with her brother George. His younger brother, John, was also at Aberdeen. He had gained his M.A. and B.Sc. in 1923, and went on to specializing in Engineering, graduating in 1928. He was working for the Anglo-American Oil Company (later Esso), doing research into the internal combustion engine. He was the inventor of the Metrovick-Dodds indicator, a device for measuring high-speed engine performance. The family moved to Watford, and later moved about England and Scotland, living at Rathen Cottage, Torphins, between 1946 and 1966. Edwin died at Minehead on 30 July 1974, and Eleanor Forbes Dodds lived at 'Carn Bo', 20 Grampian Terrace, Torphins, until her death on 26 May 1985.

2.1 EILEEN FORBES DODDS (1932-2017), born on 3 January 1932. In 1937, there is an account of her as bridesmaid at her uncle John Mathieson Dodds' wedding. At that time she was living in Watford, Hertfordshire. She studied home economics, and took a job in hospital catering in London. Here she met Frederick John Angus. They married in the Kincardine O'Neil registration district in 1954. In June of that year, after a course at Aberdeen School of Domestic Science, she qualified for the diploma in cookery, needlework, dressmaking, housewifery and science, and later lived in Aberdeen, latterly at 47 Eday Crescent, AB15 6JR. Frederick died in Aberdeen in 2015, and Eileen in 2017. Eileen and Frederick Angus had a son:

2.1.1 STEPHEN EDWARD ANGUS (1970-1994), who died in an accident at the age of 23.

2.2 SHEILA MATHESON DODDS (b.1938), born at St Albans on 13 September 1938. She remained single. She trained as a remedial teacher, and spent some time on an exchange in Canada, but returned to Scotland, where she worked as a remedial teacher, living with her mother in Torphins. She worked mainly in primary schools, but later was appointed to a post at Aboyne Academy. She retired in the early nineties, and since then has occupied herself creating and maintaining small gardens for friends and ex-colleagues.

2.3 MICHAEL EDWIN DODDS (b.1946), born at Torphins on 30 April 1946. He worked in Torphins as a rose grower and gardener. Later he lived until 2010 at 12 Craigievar Place, Aberdeen, working at a garden centre.