The
Russell Family
An
historical and photographic perspective
Index of Official Parish Registries and
Statutory Registries for Births, Marriages and Deaths
Robert Russell & Agnes Adam
|
Robert Russell &
Chesterfield Sime Aimer
Robert Russell & Jessie
Smith | Captain Robert
Russell & Agnes Hunter
Winifred Russell & Jock Waugh
| Joy Russell & Jock Waugh
|
The Waugh Family Library |
| Dundee Delineated, by A. Colville and Alex Sandeman, 1822 (12 MB pdf) |
| Book of Mormon, by Joseph Smith, Jr., 1830 (51 MB pdf) |
| A Voice of Warning, by Parley P. Pratt, 1837 (26 MB pdf) |
| Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley, Frederick Piercy, 1853 (30 MB pdf) |
| Jute Spinning, William Leggatt, Dundee, May, 1893 (9 MB pdf) |
| A Voyage to the Arctic in the Whaler Aurora, by David Moore Lindsay, 1911 (12 MB pdf) |
| History of Indian Depredations in Utah, by Peter Gottfredson, 1919 (21 MB pdf) |
Map showing the Parish of Old Monkland to
the East of Glasgow and West of Airdrie, 1816
| Agnes Adam | |
| Born: Dec 9, 1787 | Born: Feb 11, 1787 ? |
| Place: Coats, Old Monkland, Lanarkshire | Place: Old Monkland, Lanarkshire |
| Married: | April 14, 1811 |
| Place: | Old Monkland, Lanarkshire |
| Died: June 1, 1828 | Died: April 2, 1874 |
| Place: New Monkland, Lanarkshire | Place: Chapelhall, Bothwell, Lanarkshire |
| Buried: | Buried: |
Janet, Elizabeth and Margaret Russell, from Scotland to Salt Lake City, Utah, the Mormon Migration
Agnes Adam's father may have been John Adams. Agnes may have been born on Feb 11, 1787, in Old Monkland. Agnes Adam's parents could also be Charles Adam and Janet Thom. The information is still "uncertain".
Charles Adam and Janet Thom had at least four children: James (born April 12, 1789, in New Monkland); William (born May 26, 1793, in Old Monkland); Mary (born Nov 24, 1795, in Old Monkland); and Margaret (born Sept 15, 1802, in Old Monkland). - from Scotland's People
Robert Russell (coalminer) may have been born Dec 9, 1787, and his father may have been Robert Russell, Collier in Coats, Old Monkland. Robert's mother may have been Janet Thom and she may have been christened Sept 9, 1764, in New Monkland.
Robert Russell and Agnes Adam were married April 14, 1811, in Old Monkland, Lanarkshire. They had at least four children: Janet Russell (b. March 8, 1812); Elisabeth Russell (b. Oct 27, 1814); Margaret Russell (b. June 15, 1817); and Robert Russell (b. Sept 4, 1819).
| Children | Born | Place | Died | Place |
| Janet Russell | March 8, 1812 | Old Monkland, Lanarkshire | Nov 14, 1889* | Salt Lake City, Utah* |
| Elisabeth Russell | Oct 27, 1814 | Barony, Lanarkshire | Oct 4, 1904** | Genesee, Latah, Idaho** |
| Margaret Russell | June 15, 1817 | Old Monkland, Lanarkshire | ||
| ROBERT RUSSELL | Sept 4, 1819 | Barony, Lanarkshire | Feb 3, 1870 | Larbert, Stirlingshire |
* from
A Sketch in the Life of the
Thomas Widdison Family of Scotland and England
** from
familysearch.org Ancestral File
Robert Gray was one of the Glasgow coal masters who formed a cartel between 1813 and 1817 to keep up the price of coal. The cartel acquired the Govan Colliery in Glasgow and the Faskine Colliery between Coatbridge and Airdrie. - from Gray of Carntyne and Anstruther Gray of Kilmany
Robert Russell may have been a coal agent who worked at both. According to the OPR's, in 1812, Robert worked at the Faskine Coal Works, in 1814 at Port Dundas, in 1817 at Faskine and in 1819 at Port Dundas. Robert Russell was a Labourer in Port Dundas, Glasgow, at the time of his son's baptism in 1819. On the map, there are three distilleries, a soda works and a cotton mill.
Map showing Port Dundas and
Woodlands, Barony Parish, in relation to Glasgow, 1832
In the Glasgow Post Office Annual Directory for 1829-30, Robert Russell is a coal agent living at 17 Stockwell Street, Glasgow. A listing for him does not appear on any of the other directories before or after this one.
Russell, Robert, coal agent, 17 Stockwell,
Glasgow
From The Post-Office Annual Directory for 1829-30, Glasgow
| 1828 | .......... |
Robert Russell probably died on June 1, 1828, in New Monkland.
| 1829 | .......... |
Janet Russell married Thomas Widdison (born May 6, 1806, in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England) on Sept 1, 1829, in Old Monkland. Apparently, "Thomas left his home in Sheffield and went to Scotland to work for Robert Russell Jr. who was a file cutter. Thomas went to learn the trade. It was there where he met Janet whom he married later." Janet Russell and Thomas Widdison had seven children: Agnes (born Dec 28, 1830, in Shotts); Hannah (born Jan 15, 1838, in Sheffield, England); Henry Thomas (born June 6, 1841, in Chapelhall, Bothwell); Robert Russell (born March 21, 1844); William Livingston (born Sept 21, 1846); John (born 1848); and James Gourley (born Jan 12, 1853). Henry Thomas and John died as children. - from A Sketch in the Life of the Thomas Widdison Family of Scotland and England
Editor's Note: Thomas Widdison may have learned to be a file cutter from Mark Mounsey (Janet's stepfather).
| 1830 | .......... |
Agnes Adam married Mark Mounsey on Dec 12, 1830, in Old Monkland (or Coatbridge) Parish. They had at least two children: Agnes Adam (born 1831) and Charles (born Oct 22, 1837).
| 1835 | .......... |
Elizabeth Russell married Andrew Mark Wardrop (Wardrobe) on Aug 30, 1835, in Bothwell parish and registered the marriage in Glasgow parish on Sept 18. Andrew may have been born (2nd child) in Glasgow on May 3, 1812, and his parents may have been Daniel Wardrope and Isabel Aitcheson (Scotlands People). Elizabeth and Andrew had two children: Agnes (born Aug 21, 1836, in Glasgow) and Andrew (born Aug 3, 1837, in Glasgow- from familysearch.org Ancestral File). Agnes may have died at an early age.
| 1837 | .......... |
Charles Mounsey (son of Agnes Adam and Mark Mounsey) was born on Oct 22, 1837, in Chapelhall, Bothwell Parish.
| 1838 | .......... |
Andrew Wardrop, Sr. (25 year old "silver chaser") died on May 27, 1838, in Glasgow and is buried in the Old Churchyard.
| 1841 | .......... |
1841 Scotland Census
- Chapelhall, Bothwell, Lanarkshire
Janet Russell & Thomas
Widdison and family
Source Citation: Parish: Annan; ED: 3A; Page: 6; Line: 810; Roll: CSSCT1841_141-0165; Year: 1841. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1841 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: 1841 Scotland Census. Edinburgh, Scotland: General Register Office for Scotland. Reels 1-151. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1841 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 6 June 1841. |
Thomas's occupation is listed as "file smith".
1841 Scotland Census
- Airdrie, Lanarkshire
Elizabeth Russell
Wardrop, Andrew Wardrop and Margaret Russell
Source Citation: Parish: Airdrie; ED: 7A; Page: 1; Line: 480; Roll: ; Year: 1841. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1841 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: 1841 Scotland Census. Edinburgh, Scotland: General Register Office for Scotland. Reels 1-151. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1841 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 6 June 1841. The following information was requested: name, age, gender, profession, and birthplace. |
1841 Scotland Census
- Chapelhall, Bothwell, Lanarkshire
Robert Russell, Jr. working as
a File Cutter in Chapelhall
Source Citation: Parish: Annan; ED: 3A; Page: 6; Line: 810; Roll: CSSCT1841_141-0165; Year: 1841. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1841 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: 1841 Scotland Census. Edinburgh, Scotland: General Register Office for Scotland. Reels 1-151. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1841 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 6 June 1841. |
Agnes Mounsey is Agnes Adam. Mark Mounsey's occupation is also file cutter.
Nature and Symptoms of the File
Cutter's Disease
From
The British Medical Journal, Volume for 1857
When Robert Russell, Jr. died in 1870, the cause of death was given as "spinal disease".
File Cutters
The filecutters' disease is poisoning by lead. Files are not cut by the machine in Sheffield, as machine-cut files are considered very inferior to those cut by hand. A file with 1000 cuts on each side is made with a hammer and chisel, and a man working ten hours can do about twenty such files in a day. The cutter uses a leather stirrup, which is for the purpose of holding the file upon an anvil inclosed in a stone stock. The file, while being cut, rests upon a bed of lead, and where many are cutting in the same shop, fine particles of lead dust abound. In cutting files it is the custom of the men to wet the thumb and finger of the left hand by putting them to the mouth and so moistening them with their saliva. At every shifting, and when the file has to be turned, the lead is handled, and thus in a variety of ways it is absorbed into the system. The men eat their meals without washing their hands, and often take dinner in the workshop where the files are cut; as though fine lead-dust, handling the lead at each shifting, and licking the fingers were not sufficiently poisonous! I saw in one of the filecutter's shops during the last few weeks a man whose wife had just brought him his dinner, eating it with unwashed hands, and dipping his fingers, blacked and covered with fine lead-dust, into a paper which contained the salt for seasoning his beef. - from the Illustrated London News, January/March, 1866
Chapelhall is only 2 miles South of Airdrie and 2miles Northeast of Holytown and near the Faskine Coalworks.
1832 Map showing Chapel (Chapelhall) 2
miles Northeast of Holytown
Chapelhall, a village, in the late quoad sacra parish of Holytown, parish of Bothwell, Middle ward of county Lanark ; containing 1431 inhabitants. This village is chiefly inhabited by persons employed in the collieries and mines in the immediate vicinity, and in the extensive iron and steel works of the Monkland Company, which have been long established in the neighbourhood. There is a place of worship for members of the United Associate Synod ; and schools for the instruction of children are supported by the proprietors of the several works. - from A topographical dictionary of Scotland, Samuel Lewis, 1846
| 1843 | .......... |
Robert Russell, Jr. married Chesterfield Aimer in Dundee on Nov 6, 1843 in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormon Church).
| 1844 | .......... |
Margaret Russell and Elizabeth Russell Wardrobe and her six year old son Andrew, boarded the Norfolk in Liverpool, England on Sept 19, 1844, and arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Nov 11, 1844, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We have no further information on Margaret.
"EMIGRATION. -- The fine ship Norfolk, Captain Elliot, sailed
from this port on the 19th September, under very favorable
circumstances, at a quarter past three p.m., having on board
about 143 souls put on by us. We rejoice to see so practical an
illustration of the faith of the Saints being unshaken by the
late tragical events in the West, and that the Saints are not
living according to the precepts of men, but the word of the
Lord. Any anxious to emigrate about the 12th instant, can have
an opportunity of doing so, by making early application. Early
in January next we expect to charter a ship, and should be glad
to receive notice as soon as possible of all who intend to go at
that time."
| 1850 | .......... |
Elizabeth Russell Wardrobe married John Gray sometime before 1850. The 1850 Census for Utah Territory, Great Salt Lake County, USA, lists a John Gray (carpenter, 32 years old, born in Scotland) with his wife Elizabeth (40 years old, born in Scotland) and their children: Andrew (12 years old, born in Scotland), Isabel (4 years old, born in "Mo") and Robert A. (3 months old, born in "Des").
| 1851 | .......... |
1851 Scotland Census
- Chapelhall, Bothwell, Lanarkshire
Agnes Adam & Mark Mounsey and
their family
Source Citation: Parish: Bothwell; ED: 21; Page: 18; Line: 6; Roll: 1162; Year: 1851. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1851 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Scotland. 1851 Scotland Census. Reels 1-217. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1851 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 30/31 March 1851. The following information was requested: place, name, relationship to head of family, marital status, age, gender, profession, birthplace, and whether blind, deaf, and dumb. |
Margaret Adam is Agnes' sister. Margaret died on Aug 13, 1875, in Chapelhall, in the District of Holytown. Her parents were given as Charles Adam and Janet Thom. William Brotherton is Agnes' nephew.
1851 Scotland Census
- Chapelhall, Bothwell, Lanarkshire
Janet Russell & Thomas
Widdison and family
Source Citation: Parish: Bothwell; ED: 21; Page: 18; Line: 6; Roll: 1162; Year: 1851. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1851 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Scotland. 1851 Scotland Census. Reels 1-217. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1851 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 30/31 March 1851. The following information was requested: place, name, relationship to head of family, marital status, age, gender, profession, birthplace, and whether blind, deaf, and dumb. |
| 1853 | .......... |
Janet Russell and Thomas Widdison and their family sailed from Liverpool, England, to New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 28, 1853, aboard the Falcon. They arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Oct 16, 1853. - from A Sketch in the Life of the Thomas Widdison Family of Scotland and England
Ed. Note: The Falcon, built by Gibbs & Co. in 1852, was a ship registered in Liverpool of 1640 tons used on the Liverpool to Port Philip & Adelaide route and in 1853 on the Liverpool to New Orleans route.
. . . On Saturday 12th of March I got notification to be in Liverpool to sail with the Falcon on the 28th of March. Sailing vessels were very scarce that year as the "gold fever" had broken out in Australia and all were going there. On Saturday 19th, I left Glasgow with about 100 Saints to sail on the same vessel. I was a little sick on the way to Liverpool. I watched the luggage at night on the steamer. On the 20th we arrived in Liverpool where I found lodgings at Mrs. Gellian's. On March 21st we removed our luggage to sheds on the Bramly [Bramley] Moor Dock. I watched the luggage part of the night. That same day I went to the office and paid the other four pounds for my passage. We watched our luggage by turns until Monday the 28th of March when we sailed out of Liverpool. It was a fine day but cold. - from the Autobiography of James Ririe in Liverpool to New Orleans aboard the Falcon March 28, 1853 to May 18, 1853
Tuesday 29th.
This morning I got up about 6 o'clock for prayers but after
getting my clothes almost on I felt very sick and had to return
to my bed again. I vomited considerable and being at the fore
end of the ship [p. 47] I was brought down to about the center
to sleep with Brother [James] Livingston for convenience of him
waiting on me, and where the ship did not heave so much. I
continued sick all that day and dept vomiting now & then. I
understood that there was two marriages this day but I was
unable to attend them.
Wednesday 30th. I continued sick all this day and could eat
nothing but drank water & vomited it up again. Weather was still
very tame.
Thursday 31st. I was still sick. I could take no meat. This day
a child died aged 11 months. In the evening the wind began to
rise & about 7 o'clock all in a sudden the ship commenced [p.
48] to rock & dart at such a rate and the tins tumbling back &
forward, and also the boxes, for there was few of them tied for
we was not looking for a storm, & when the chests began to
tumble, them that was not in bed nor prepared for had to rush
into bed clothes & all. Brother Livingston came running into the
bed beside me while I lay sick. Shoes & all on, & Sister
Widdison had went to her bed in the same way, the hoses was put
on and left us all in the dark while the chests continued to
dash from one side of the ship to the other in great fury. In
the waves was dashing over the ship & was running in at the
seams of the boat at a [p. 49] considerable rate which terrified
some of the women & children. It continued in this way till
about morning when it got a little tamer. -
From the Diary of James Leatham in
Liverpool to New
Orleans aboard the Falcon March 28, 1853 to May 18, 1853
May 30th. Keokuk Camp by the great "Father of Rivers." I took a look upon this goodly land and remember the poor and oppressed scattered in the barren wilderness. I feel truly thankful to the Lord, I enjoy a tolerable good measure of health, and pray that God will gather his people from the four corners of the Earth unto Zion. - From the Autubiography of Peter McIntyre in Liverpool to New Orleans aboard the Falcon March 28, 1853 to May 18, 1853
Janet, Elizabeth and Margaret Russell, from Scotland to Salt Lake City, Utah, the Mormon Migration
| 1874 | .......... |
Agnes Adam died of "bronchitis" on April 2, 1874 in Chapelhall, Bothwell at the age of 84.
| 1875 | .......... |
Charles Mounsey (son of Agnes Adam and Mark Mounsey) died of "heart disease" on July 15, 1875, in Chapelhall, Bothwell, at the age of 37. His occupation was "file manufacturer". His son, Walter Kerr Mounsey (born in 1863) was also a file manufacturer. He died in 1937 at the age of 74. - Scotland's People
Margaret Adam (sister of Agnes Adam) died of "pneumonia" on Aug 15, 1875, in Chaplehall, Bothwell at the age of 77.
| 1889 | .......... |
Janet Russell Widdison died on Nov 14, 1889, in Hooper, Weber County, Utah, U.S.A., at the age of 77, and is buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. - from A Sketch in the Life of the Thomas Widdison Family of Scotland and England See also Find A Grave for Janet Russell Widdison
| 1901 | .......... |
1901 Scotland Census - Chapelhall,
Bothwell
Margaret Mounsey (wife of Charles Mounsey)
and her family
Source Citation: Parish: Bothwell; ED: 17; Page: 18; Line: 12; Roll: CSSCT1901_249; Year: 1901. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1901 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Scotland. 1901 Scotland Census. Reels 1-446. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1901 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 31 March/1 April 1901. The following information was requested: place, name, relationship to head of family, marital status, age, gender, profession, birthplace, and whether blind, deaf, and dumb. |
Walter is a "file manufacturer", Agnes is a "certified public school elementary teacher", and Margaret (28) is a "milliner".
| 1904 | .......... |
Elizabeth Russell Gray died on Oct 4, 1904, in Genesee, Latah County, Idaho, at the age of 90.
| Chesterfield Sime Aimer | |
| Born: Aug 28, 1819 | Born: Aug 12, 1821* |
| Place: Glasgow (Barony), Lanarkshire, Scotland | Place: Dundee, Angusshire, Scotland |
| Married: | Nov 6, 1843 |
| Place: | Dundee, Scotland |
| Died: Feb 3, 1870 | Died: Died: Feb 11, 1869 |
| Place: Larbert, Stirlingshire | Place: Dundee, Angusshire |
| Buried: | Buried: |
Chesterfield Aimer's parents were George Aimer and Margaret Scott. Robert Russell (born Aug 28, 1819) married Chesterfield Aimer (born Aug 12, 1821) in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Dundee on Nov 6, 1843.
Robert Russell and Chesterfield Aimer had three children who survived infancy (and at least six who did not): Robert Russell (born Feb 7, 1846 in Dundee), Elizabeth Russell (born Aug 28, 1847 in Dundee) and John Scott Russell (born Dec 13, 1859 in Dundee).
| Children that survived infancy | Born | Place | Died | Place |
| ROBERT RUSSELL | Feb 7, 1846* | Dundee | July 13, 1921 | Mains and Strathmartine, Forfar |
| Elizabeth Russell | Aug 28, 1847* | Dundee | May 9, 1898 | Liff & Benvie, Forfar |
| John Scott Russell | Dec 13, 1859 | Burgh of Dundee | April 23, 1933 | Dundee |
* Glenda Waugh
There had been a devastating cholera outbreak in Dundee in the year 1832 in which it is believed that from 500-800 people died from the disease. There were other outbreaks of cholera in Dundee in 1849, 1853 & 1866. The Russells lost five infant children between 1849-1853.
Dundee Board of Health and Cholera, 1832
This assessment is for the expenses incurred by the Dundee Board of Health in the Prevention and Cure of Cholera, and includes receipts, expenditure, bills of mortality and Conspectus of Cholera. Provost William Lindsay is Chairman. It states in the report that the epidemic prevailed in Dundee for a period of thirty weeks, during which time it attacked over eight hundred people, although it is also probable that many cases were not reported. The total number of deaths is reported at five hundred and twelve. - From the Lamb Collection http://sites.scran.ac.uk/lamb/cholera-pages/L308(31).htm
The 1832 European Cholera Epidemic in Dundee
"The first deaths from cholera in Britain appeared in east coast ports in England in 1831. Once it appeared it spread with terrifying speed through the town. In Dundee panic set in. The Town Council tried to take measures to stop the disease from spreading. A quarantine was placed on the city, with a warship positioned at the mouth of the Tay to control ships from entering the harbour. Road blocks were placed on routes leading to Dundee. In the High Street barrels of burning tar were positioned. This was because people believed that disease was conveyed by breathing in bad smells, or ‘miasmas ‘ as they were known; if you had a strong smell like tar, then it would keep the bad smells away. It didn’t work...
The Tay was salt water and could not be
used for drinking. Streams were polluted by textile mills. Water was
brought in on the Ferry from Newport-On-Tay and sold by tradesmen at a
penny per 10 gallons. People would queue for hours to get it or take
water from wells. There were several wells in Dundee. The busiest and
most popular was the Ladywell at the bottom of the Hilltown. The
reservoir of the Ladywell was divided from a slaughter house by a
leaking wall. The Royal Commission on Water Supply reported that: ’the
water is bright, sparkling and piquant to the palate, but our analysis
shows that this is nothing but a very purified sewage – to the
properties of decomposition of which it owes its pleasant flavour’. They
further noted that ‘it was horribly polluted by sewage and by animal
matters of the most disgusting origin.' But people thought it to be the
purest and cleanest water in existence because of its sparkling
appearance.
It was not
until 1901 that water was pumped into houses themselves."
From
http://www.dundeehigh.dundeecity.sch.uk/history/Form3/brit/CHOLERA%20IN%20DUNDEE%20IN%201832.doc
These pages of the HOWFF Burial Register details burials in October 1832, the majority of causes of death being marked as 'Cholera'. Many of the deceased have no listed 'Designation' other than 'from Hospital'. Many of the victims were buried in a special area of ground reserved for cholera victims.
Plan of the Town of Dundee with the improvements
now in progress, 1846
| 1845 | .......... |
In The Dundee Post Office Directory for 1845, there is a Robert Russell listed as a file and rasp cutter, Thom's Close, High Street.
Russell, Robert, file and
rasp cutter, Thoms's Close, High Street
File and Rasp Cutter, Robert
Russell, Thoms' Close, High Street
| 1851 | .......... |
1851 Scotland Census
- Dundee, Angus
Robert Russell and Chesterfield
Aimer and family
Source Citation: Parish: Dundee; ED: 35; Page: 1; Line: 28; Roll: 354; Year: 1851. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1851 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Scotland. 1851 Scotland Census. Reels 1-217. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1851 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 30/31 March 1851. The following information was requested: place, name, relationship to head of family, marital status, age, gender, profession, birthplace, and whether blind, deaf, and dumb. |
Map of Dundee showing location of Mid Road
(unnamed street just below Smithfield), 1846
Caldrum St. (see 1861 Census) is just a couple of blocks south
of St. David's Street
Charles Russell (age 8 months in the 1851 census) died Aug 16, 1851, of "teething". An unnamed child (son) was born on Aug 31, 1852, at Broughty Ferry and died that day of "disease of heart" and buried in the Old Howff Cemetery. An unnamed child (daughter) was prematurely born on May 31, 1853, and died that day. A stillborn child (daughter) was born on July 6, 1854. Robert Russell, filecutter, address was listed as Mid Street, Chapelshade. - Friends of Dundee City Archives, Howff Graveyard of Dundee, Ainitial Rob-Ryorie, 2008
| 1858 | .......... |
In the Dundee Post Office Directory for 1858, Robert Russell is listed as a File Smith and Re-Cutter.
File Smith and Re-Cutter -
Robt. Russell, Mill's Lane
Advertisement from the Dundee
Post Office Directory, 1858
| 1861 | .......... |
1861 Scotland Census
- Dundee, Angus
Chesterfield Aimer Russell and
children
Source Citation:
Parish: Dundee; ED: 21; Page: 42; Line: 11; Roll:
CSSCT1861_39; Year: 1861. |
| 1869 | .......... |
Chesterfield Aimer Russell died of "consumption" (tuberculosis) on Feb 11, 1869, at the age of 47.
| 1870 | .......... |
Robert Russell died of "spinal disease" (possibly related to lead poisoning and his trade as a file cutter) on Feb 3, 1870, in Larbert, Stirlingshire, at the age of 50.
| 1871 | .......... |
In the 1871 Scotland Census, John Scott Russell is living with his older brother Robert and his wife Jessie Smith in Dundee (see below).
| 1874 | .......... |
Agnes Adam died of "bronchitis" on April 2, 1874 in Chapelhall, Bothwell at the age of 84.
| 1881 | .......... |
1881 Scotland Census
- St. Andrew, Dundee, Angus
Elizabeth and John
Russell
Source Citation: Parish: Dundee; ED: 30; Page: 34; Line: 21; Roll: cssct1881_88; Year: 1881. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1881 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Scotland. 1881 Scotland Census. Reels 1-338. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1881 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 3/4 April 1881. The following information was requested: place, name, relationship to head of family, marital status, age, gender, profession, birthplace, and whether blind, deaf, and dumb. |
John Russell's occupation was "Joiner in Factory".
| 1882 | .......... |
John Scott Russell married Jane McBain Gray (born in 1859 in Blairgowrie, Perthshire) on June 9, 1882, in Dundee. - Glenda Waugh
| 1891 | .......... |
1891 Scotland Census
- St. Andrew, Dundee, Angus
John Russell & Jane
Gray and family
Source Citation: Parish: Dundee; ED: 45; Page: 23; Line: 7; Roll: CSSCT1891_96; Year: 1891. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1891 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Scotland. 1891 Scotland Census. Reels 1-409. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1891 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 5/6 April 1891. The following information was requested: place, name, relationship to head of family, marital status, age, gender, profession, birthplace, and whether blind, deaf, and dumb. |
| 1897 | .......... |
John Scott Russell's wife Jane McBain Gray died on May 16, 1897, in Dundee. - Glenda Waugh
| 1898 | .......... |
Elizabeth Russell died of "phthisis pulmonary" (tuberculosis) in the Dundee Royal Lunatic Asylum in Liff and Benvie, Forfar, on May 9, 1898, at the age of 51.
| 1900 | .......... |
John Scott Russell married Margaret Marr on May 11, 1900, in Dundee. - Glenda Waugh
| 1901 | .......... |
1901 Scotland Census
- St. Andrew, Dundee, Angus
John Russell &
Margaret Marr and families
Source Citation: Parish: Dundee; ED: 42; Page: 3; Line: 5; Roll: CSSCT1901_102; Year: 1901. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1901 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Scotland. 1901 Scotland Census. Reels 1-446. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1901 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 31 March/1 April 1901. The following information was requested: place, name, relationship to head of family, marital status, age, gender, profession, birthplace, and whether blind, deaf, and dumb. |
| 1902 | .......... |
Sydney Marr Russell was born on Dec 21, 1902, in Dundee. - Glenda Waugh
| 1911 | .......... |
1911 Scotland Census - St. Matthew, Dundee
John Scott Russell
& Margaret Marr and family
231 Graham Place
John Russell
(joiner in a jute factory), Margaret, Agnes,
Chesterfield, Eliza, William, Colin, Sydney,
John Black & Flora Black
John and Flora are Margaret's children from a
previous marriage
| 1933 | .......... |
John Scott Russell died of "myocardial degeneration and enlarged prostate" on April 23, 1933, in the Royal Infirmary, Dundee, at the age of 73. The death certificate was signed by Sydney Russell, son.
| Jessie Smith | |
| Born: Feb 7, 1846* | Born: Born: July 5, 1843 |
| Place: Dundee, Angusshire, Scotland | Place: Place: Caldhame Mill, Marykirk, Scotland |
| Married: | Dec 7, 1869 |
| Place: | Dundee, Angusshire |
| Died: July 13, 1921 | Died: Died: March 5, 1901 |
| Place: Mains and Strathmartine, Forfar | Place: 4 South George, Dundee |
| Buried: | Buried: |
* Glenda Waugh
Robert Russell & Agnes "Ethel" Hunter
Jessie Smith's grandparents were David Smith & Ann Mill. Jessie Smith married Robert Russell on Dec 7, 1869, in Dundee. They had ten children: Robert (born Feb 27, 1870); David Smith Russell (born April 12, 1871, in Dundee), George Aimer Russell (born June 25, 1872, in Dundee), Frank Russell (born July 9, 1874, in Dundee), Jessie Russell (born July 13, 1876, in St. Andrews, Dundee), Chesterfield Aimer Russell (born July 18, 1878, in Dundee), Marjorie Smith Russell (born Dec 9, 1881, in Dundee and died in July 1883, in St. Andrews, Dundee), Robert Russell (born Dec 9, 1882, in Dundee), Eliza Aimer Russell (born Jan 23, 1884, in St. Andrews, Dundee), and John Russell (born Sept 19, 1885, in Dundee).
| Children | Born | Place | Died | C.O.D. | Place |
| Robert Russell | Feb 27, 1870 | St. Andrew, Dundee | May 1, 1870 | Bronchitis | Dundee |
| David Smith Russell | April 12, 1871 | St. Andrew, Dundee | Feb 15, 1904 | Tuberculosis | Dundee |
| George Aimer Russell | June 25, 1872 | St. Andrew, Dundee | Dec 17, 1953 | Dundee | |
| Frank Russell | July 9, 1874 | St. Andrew, Dundee | May 23, 1959 | Cancer | Dundee |
| Jessie Russell | July 13, 1876 | St. Andrew, Dundee | 1961 | Inveresk and Musselburgh | |
| Chesterfield Aimer Russell | July 18, 1878 | St. Andrew, Dundee | May 12, 1935 | Stroke | Dundee |
| Marjorie Smith Russell | Dec 20, 1881 | St. Andrew, Dundee | July 28, 1883 | Congestion of brain | Dundee |
| ROBERT RUSSELL | Dec 9, 1882 | St. Andrew, Dundee | March 1, 1944
(Obit) |
Cancer | Powell River, B.C. |
| Eliza Aimer Russell | Jan 23, 1884 | St. Andrew, Dundee | June 18, 1956 | Anemia | Dundee |
| John Russell | Sept 19, 1885 | St. Andrew, Dundee | Jan 25, 1958 | Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh |
Jessie and Robert's firstborn was called Robert and he died age 2 months of bronchitis. I found his birth and death on Scotland's People - 27 February 1870, 1 May 1870. That would make sense as Scottish naming traditions were still strong then, the first son being called after the paternal grandfather (hence the long line of Robert Russells), and often subsequent children in a family were called after a deceased one. - Lindsay Russell (granddaughter of John Russell)
| 1870 | .......... |
Robert Russell, Sr. died of "spinal disease" (possibly related to lead poisoning and his trade as a file cutter) on Feb 3, 1870, at the age of 50. Robert Russell, Jr.'s baby boy Robert was born on Feb 27 and died on May 1, 1870.
| 1871 | .......... |
Jessie Smith Russell c
1871
Courtesy of Lindsay Russell
Robert Russell and Jessie Smith and Robert's little brother John Scott Russell (b. Dec 13, 1859)
Source Citation: Parish: St Andrew; ED: 29A; Page: 12; Line: 20; Roll CSSCT1871_53; Year: 1871. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1871 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Scotland. 1871 Scotland Census. Reels 1-191. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1871 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 2/3 April 1871. The following information was requested: place, name, relationship to head of family, marital status, age, gender, profession, birthplace, and whether blind, deaf, and dumb. |
David Smith Russell was born on April 12, 1871.
Russell, Robert, mechanic, 17
Catherine Street - from the Dundee Post Office Directory
for 1871
Workers at a Linen Power Loom
Factory in Dundee
| 1874 | .......... |
Agnes Adam (Robert's mother) died of "bronchitis" on April 2, 1874 in Chapelhall, Bothwell at the age of 84. Marjorie Smith (Jessie's mother) died on April 10, 1874, in Dundee, at the age of 62.
| 1878 | .......... |
The Dundee Directory for 1878-1879 lists a "Russell, Robert, mechanic, 13 North Wellington Street".
| 1881 | .......... |
1881 Scotland Census
- Dundee, Angus
Robert Russell and Jessie
Smith and family
Source Citation: Parish: Dundee; ED: 24; Page: 46; Line: 14; Roll: cssct1881_87; Year: 1881. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1881 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. Original data: Scotland. 1881 Scotland Census. Reels 1-338. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1881 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 3/4 April 1881. The following information was requested: place, name, relationship to head of family, marital status, age, gender, profession, birthplace, and whether blind, deaf, and dumb. |
Marjory S Russell was born in 1881 and died in 1883.
Jess carried a burden of guilt all her life about the death of Marjory. She had been looking after the baby on a hot day - unusual in Dundee! - and that Marjory kept pulling her sunhat off, and Jess couldn't get her to keep it on. Marjory's cause of death was "congestion of the brain" and Jess believed it was sunstroke, and her fault. How terribly sad! - from Lindsay Russell
Robert was born in 1882, Eliza was born in 1883, and John was born in 1885.
| 1886 | .......... |
In the Dundee Directory for 1886, Robert Russell is listed as a mechanic, 8 Roslin Terrace, Clepington.
Russell, John, joiner, 53 Main
Street and Robert, mechanic, 8 Roslin
terrace, Clepington
John Scott Russell (Robert's brother) was a joiner
| 1891 | .......... |
1891 Scotland Census
- Dundee, Angus
Robert Russell and Jessie
Smith and family
Source Citation: Parish: Dundee; ED: 28; Page: 8; Line: 16; Roll: CSSCT1891_95; Year: 1891. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1891 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. Original data: Scotland. 1891 Scotland Census. Reels 1-409. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1891 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 5/6 April 1891. The following information was requested: place, name, relationship to head of family, marital status, age, gender, profession, birthplace, and whether blind, deaf, and dumb. |
Back row from left standing:
Jess, George, Frank, and Chesterfiled
Front row seated from left: Robert (with beard),
Eliza, John, David, Robert and Jessie Smith
Photo courtesy Lindsay Russell
Map of Dundee showing Court St. (middle) c
1901
Note the "Angus Jute Works" in the upper left and other
"works"(jute spinners and manufacturers) in the area
From the Plan of
Dundee, Bartholomew Survey Atlas of Scotland, 1912
From the Preface of
Jute Spinning by William Leggatt, Dundee, May, 1893
|
Jute Spinning by William Leggatt, Dundee, May, 1893 (9 MB pdf) |
Tay Rope Works, Thomson Street,
Dundee c. 1910
The British East India Company was the British Empire Authority delegated in India from the 17th century to the middle of 20th century. The company was the first Jute trader. The company traded mainly in raw jute during the 19th century. During the start of the 20th century, the company started trading raw jute with Dundee’s Jute Industry. This company had monopolistic access to this trade during that time. Margaret Donnelly was a jute mill landowner in Dundee in the 1800s. She set up the first jute mills in India. The Entrepreneurs of the Dundee Jute Industry in Scotland were called The Jute Barons.
In 1793, the East India Company exported the first consignment of jute. This first shipment, 100 tons, was followed by additional shipments at irregular intervals. Eventually, a consignment found its way to Dundee, Scotland where the flax spinners were anxious to learn whether jute could be processed mechanically.
Starting in the 1830's, the Dundee spinners learned how to spin jute yarn by modifying their power-driven flax machinery. The rise of the jute industry in Dundee saw a corresponding increase in the production and export of raw jute from the Indian sub-continent which was the sole supplier of this primary commodity...
The earliest goods woven of jute in Dundee were coarse bagging materials. With longer experience, however, finer fabrics called burlap, or hessian as it is known in India, were produced. This superior cloth met a ready sale and, eventually, the Indian Jute Mills began to turn out these fabrics. The natural advantage these mills enjoyed soon gave Calcutta world leadership in burlap and bagging materials and the mills in Dundee and other countries turned to specialties, a great variety of which were developed.
Rope from the jute mill
Read more about the History of Jute
Between 1841 and 1901 the population of Dundee tripled, from 45,000 to 161,000. In 1883 over 1 million bales of raw jute were unloaded in Dundee. By the turn of the century the industry employed more than 50,000 people in over 100 mills. The city was truly the jute capital of the world...
In 1820 the first twenty bales of jute were unloaded at Dundee docks. It was to change the city’s destiny forever. So how did the fortunes of a Scottish city and a faraway region of the Indian sub-continent become so intertwined? The answer, in part, lies in Dundee’s industrial traditions. Weaving, whaling and shipbuilding were the three vital ingredients that made Dundee the jute capital of the then modern world. Weaving was an important occupation in Dundee as far back as the 16th century so the skills were already in place to adapt to jute processing. The local whaling fleet provided the whale oil needed to soften the jute and make it workable. And Dundee’s ship building industry (another offshoot of the whaling heritage) was put to work to construct the big, fast ships that brought the jute from India. On top of which new, worldwide markets were opening up for jute products, a fact the enterprising merchant community was quick to recognise...
Work in the Dundee jute mills of the 19th century offered little but drudgery, exhaustion, low wages and constant danger. Most of the workers were women and children (they cost less to employ) and employment law was virtually non-existent. Everybody would be covered in dust or ‘stour’, clogging eyes, mouths and noses. The noise of the machinery created an ever-present, ear-splitting din, with the result that many workers went deaf. Women outnumbered men three to one in the mills, an imbalance in the labour market that gained Dundee the nickname of ‘she town’. It created a unique and tough breed of women, born out of being the main providers for the family. The mill girls were noted for their stubborn independence. “Overdressed, loud, bold-eyed girls” according to one observer and often ‘roarin’ fou’ with drink – characteristics that caused consternation among the ‘gentlefolk’ of Dundee. Working alongside the women would be thousands of children. Again they commanded only low wages, and being so small meant they could pack the machines closer together. Children under nine would work as ‘pickers’, cleaning dust from beneath the machines. Health hazards were unavoidable. The heat, dust, grease and oil fumes caused a condition known as ‘Mill fever’, which would lead to respiratory diseases like bronchitis. And there was always the risk of accidents with the machines, graphic descriptions of which were common reading in the local newspaper.
- from Dundee Heritage Trust, Verdant Works at http://www.rrsdiscovery.com/index.php?pageID=114
| 1895 | .......... |
David Smith Russell (clothiers assistant) married Isabella Stewart Duff (tailoress) on July 17, 1895, in Dundee.
| 1900 | .......... |
Robert Russell, Jr. began his merchant marine sailing career aboard the M.S. Renee Rickmers (a German sailing vessel) around 1900. He probably boarded the ship in Dundee. The ship may have sailed from Dundee to Bremerhaven and on to Buenos Aires, Valparaiso, San Francisco and Portland. It left San Francisco for Oregon on Aug 7, 1901 (The Call, San Francisco, Aug 13, 1901). He left the ship in Portland, Oregon, at the end of September or beginning of October, 1901.
|
Renee Rickmers
A four-masted iron barque built in 1887 by Russell & Co., Port Glasgow. Dimensions: 86,25x2,31x,46 meters [283'0x40'5x4'6], tonnage: 2135 GRT and 2064 NRT. 1887 August Launched at the shipyard of Russell & Co., Port Glasgow, for Rickmers, Reismuhlen, Rhederei- und Schiffbau AG, Bremerhaven. 1913 Sold to Gustav Erikson, Mariehamn, Aland and was renamed Aland. 1914 August 20 Stranded on a reef at New Caledonia.
See Wreck Site - Renee Rickmers |
| 1901 | .......... |
Jessie Smith died of "nephritis and pulmonary congestion" on March 5, 1901, in Dundee, at the age of 57.
The 1901 Census was conducted on March 31-April 1.
1901 Scotland Census
- St. Andrew, Dundee, Angus
Robert Russell and children
Source Citation:
Parish: Dundee; ED: 27; Page: 25; Line: 17; Roll:
CSSCT1901_101; Year: 1901. |
David (29), George (28), and Robert (18) were living elsewhere.
Eliza Russell c 1901
Courtesy of Lindsay Russell
Map showing S George St
(upper left) 2 blocks north of King St.
Agnes Russell (Robert's future wife) was living on King
Street at the time of the 1901 census
From the Plan of Dundee, Bartholomew Survey Atlas of
Scotland, 1912
1901 Scotland
Census - St. Andrew, Dundee, Angus
David Smith Russell &
Isabella Stewart Duff and their family
Source Citation: Parish: Dundee; ED: 36; Page: 25; Line: 12; Roll: CSSCT1901_101; Year: 1901. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1901 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Scotland. 1901 Scotland Census. Reels 1-446. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1901 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 31 March/1 April 1901. The following information was requested: place, name, relationship to head of family, marital status, age, gender, profession, birthplace, and whether blind, deaf, and dumb. |
1901 Scotland
Census - Bathgate, West Lothian
George Aimer Russell
Source Citation: Parish: Bathgate; ED: 7; Page: 45; Line: 13; Roll: CSSCT1901_354; Year: 1901. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1901 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Scotland. 1901 Scotland Census. Reels 1-446. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Description: The 1901 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 31 March/1 April 1901. The following information was requested: place, name, relationship to head of family, marital status, age, gender, profession, birthplace, and whether blind, deaf, and dumb. |
The Dundee Directory for 1902 lists Robert Russell, mechanic, 4 South George Street.
Horse drawn carts near the East Railway
Station, Dundee, c 1900
Carts like these were used to haul cargo (such as jute) from the
docks to the factories
Photo by Alexander Wilson, Manager of a Jute
Factory
The two ships are two masted and quite
small, so they are most likely whalers, perhaps harbouring prior
to a voyage to the frozen expanses of Greenland and the Davis
Straits, where seals and walrus were also caught for bone, oil
and skins.
See more
about A Voyage to the Arctic
in the Whaler Aurora & The Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing
Company
Renee Rickmers
Robert Russell (along with another ten sailors from the Renee Rickmers) boarded the Falls of Halladale (a 275 foot, four-masted barque) on October 4, 1901, sailing from Portland, Oregon via San Francisco and Valparaiso, Chile and around Cape Horn, to Grimsby, England (arriving April 9, 1902). This was the last leg of a two year around-the-world journey for the Falls of Halladale with William Fordyce as Captain. After this voyage, Captain Fordyce retired and was replaced by Captain John Carlyle. Captain Thomson was the captain of the Falls of Halladale when it ran aground on the coast of Australia in 1908.
Read
about the two year around-the-world journey made by the
Falls of Halladale 1901-1902 in
Sea
Breezes, Dec, 1998.
|
The Falls of Halladale
The Falls of Halladale was a four-masted iron-hulled barque that was built in 1886 for the long-distance bulk carrier trade. Her dimensions were 83,87m x 12,64m x 7,23m and she displaced 2085 GRT and 2026 NRT. Built for the Falls Line (Wright, Breakenridge & Co., Glasgow, Scotland) at the shipyard of Russell & Co., Greenock on the River Clyde, she was named after a rather small waterfall on the Halladale River in the Caithness district of Scotland. The ship's design was advanced for her time, incorporating features that improved crew safety and efficiency such as elevated bridges to allow the crew to move between forward and aft in relative safety during heavy seas. The Falls of Halladale was the seventh vessel in a series of eight similar iron-hulled sailing ships, all built by Russell & Co and all named after waterfalls in Scotland. The Falls of Halladale was preceded by the Falls of Clyde (1878), the Falls of Bruar (1879), the Falls of Dee (1882), the Falls of Afton (1882), the Falls of Foyers (1883) and the Falls of Earn (1884). The Falls of Halladale was followed by a sister ship, the Falls of Garry (1886). The Falls of Clyde is afloat today and is a major attraction at the Hawaii Maritime Center in Honolulu. - from Wikipedia The Falls of Halladale was one of the last of the "windjammers". It belonged to the celebrated Glasgow Falls Line: a fleet, which was built for carrying cargo and for speed under sail.
The Falls of Halladale had a reputation for
running overdue and was frequently reported
"missing" at sea. The longest journey and
most arduous of the ships journeys was from
Liverpool to San Francisco in 1903. The
Captain intended to take the vessel around
Cape Horn but fierce winds and mountainous
seas forced a change of course around the
much longer "great circle route". By he time
the ship reached New Zealand, the exhausted
crew mutinied and forced the ship to anchor
in Foveaux Strait for several days. Finally
with the mutineers in irons, the Falls of
Halladale limped into San Francisco just
273day after it left Liverpool.
The coastal waters of Victoria are home to a collection of international cargo vessels that were lost in the treacherous conditions of Bass Strait. The ‘Eye of the Needle’ was the final leg of a long voyage that commenced on the other side of the globe. Threading this needle – the task of sailing a ship through the narrow passage between the Bass Strait islands, then into the 3km wide entrance to Port Phillip, was one of the most dangerous and dreaded segments of the voyage, and ultimately the trap for many ships.
The Scottish-built four-masted barque Falls of Halladale was one of the great vessels to fail the final challenge of its journey. The international trader was 102 days out from New York with Ł50,000 of industrial and domestic cargo including slate, sewing machines and railway iron when it ran ashore at Peterborough on 14 November 1908. A mist over the land had created an optical illusion of a distant horizon, and the crew thought the ship was 10 miles off the coast when it was less than one mile away, heading for the rocks. When the danger was discovered, it was too late. The anchors could not be let go in time, and the ship had no headway to change tack. The Falls of Halladale struck heavily amidships, about 200 yards from shore. The crew of 29 abandoned ship safely and all made it ashore by boat, leaving the ship foundering with her sails unfurled. For weeks after the wreck large crowds gathered to view the ship as she gradually broke up and then sank in the shallow water. Soon after the accident the ship's master, Capt. Thomson, was brought before a Court of Marine Inquiry in Melbourne and found guilty of a gross act of misconduct, having carelessly navigated the ship, having neglected to take proper soundings, and having failed to place the ship on a port tack before it became too late to avoid the shipwreck. Capt. Thomson's punishment included a small fine and he had his Certificate of Competency as a Master suspended for six months. A contemporary photograph of the wreck shows picnickers on the nearby cliffs viewing the spectacular sight of the 2000 ton iron ship stuck fast with its sails set. 2008 marks the 100-year anniversary of the wrecking of the Falls of Halladale. Local residents organised a commemorative event on the weekend following the 14th of November to remember and celebrate the occasion. - From the
Government of Australia, Famous Australian
Shipwrecks See Wreck Site - Falls of Halladale |
Lloyd's Register 1887-88,
Falls of Halladale
British Registered Sailing
Vessels, 1899, Falls of
Halladale
City of Portland and Mt. Hood,
c 1905
In spite of all the hyperbole about entering a new and purified century, Portland entered the 20th Century carrying with it all of the ruthless and degraded baggage belonging to the last one. The rich had become fabulously wealthy and the poor, especially the poor waterfront worker or sailor, was no better off than ever before. The waterfront and the business of ships carried with it the stigma of lowlife, of the very lowest kind. When interviewed about the conditions of the sailors and Portland's reputation as the “Shanghai capital of the world,” the average citizen would say something like, “Why should I care what happens to them? They are no better than beasts.” In December of 1901 the French Consul General in San Francisco began formal complaints to the U.S. Government about French sailors being continually crimped in Portland. And just two years before, in June of 1899, the British parliament had debated a report by James Laidlaw, the British Consul in Portland concerning the crimping practices in the port. At that time the New York Times reported that the British and the French governments were joining forces to bring about change in Portland. Bunko Kelly, for one, was proud of his accomplishments in helping to bring worldwide notoriety (or infamy) to the city. The final chapter of his prison diary is subtitled “How Bunko Kelly brought about a treaty between England and the United States.” Mr. Kelly spun this yarn in an interesting manner, as blatant as the rest of his tall tales. He says in the second paragraph of the chapter, “James Laidlaw, the British consul at Portland, Or., wrote to his home government that there was a bad man in Portland tying up most of the English ships and securing wages for English sailors, and that it had to be stopped in some way.” - from Portland Waterfront 1900 through 1939, A Bright New Century
Crimpers operated in several ways in 1890s Portland and Astoria. Most ran boardinghouses at which rent was on “credit,” and when a captain needed 10 or 20 able-bodied sailors (“A.B.s,” they called them) the crimper would simply clear the house out, collecting a fee of $30 to $100 a head from the captain and usually delivering the men unconscious, wrapped in a canvas tarp. If there weren’t enough out-of-work cowboys, loggers and farm hands living in the boardinghouse, the crimper might try prowling the downtown watering holes, chatting customers up and slipping knockout drops into their drinks. And if all else failed, some of them would take a tarp and a blackjack and go find someone to clobber. Crimpers drummed up extra business by coaxing sailors to desert while they were in port. Sometimes, when the cargo was unloaded and it was time to set sail, captains found themselves “buying” their old crew back. - from Portland was the "shanghai" Capital of the world in the 1890's
Agreement and Account of Crew, Foreign-Going Ship, Falls of Halladale, 1900
Crew List from the Falls of
Halladale showing crew who came aboard from the
Renee Rickmers
See
original document
Robert Russell's
Certificate of Discharge, 1901-1904, showing Falls of
Halladale, Portland to Grimsby
The abbreviation AB indicates "Able Seaman".
See
original document
James Laidlaw, British
Consulate, Portland, Oregon, 9 Oct 1901
Tillamook Rock and Lighthouse,
Astoria, Oregon
Falls of Halladale
Crew of the Falls of Halladale, San Francisco,
California, c 1901
Captain William Fordyce
Robert Russell, front row, middle (?)
Photo courtesy Bill Cockburn, Grandson of Captain William
Fordyce
Photographer T.H. Wilton, 838 Market St., San
Francisco
San Francisco, California c.
1900
Teatro Victoria, Valparaiso,
Chile c 1900
Falls of Halladale by Jack
Spurling
The Falls of Halladale, A.J.
Jansen, c 1910
Read a letter from Captain Thomson to friends in New Zealand regarding the trip to San Francisco in 1904.
| 1902 | .......... |
Jess married Peter MacKenzie, a mechanic with Singer Sewing Machine Co, on 24 December 1902, and eventually settled in Musselburgh, just east of Edinburgh. Their children were Peter, Jessie, Violet (Violet Troup's mother) and Russell. Jess also worked for Singer prior to her marriage. - Lindsay Russell
Robert Russell served aboard
the Aurora (#75184) from May 10, 1902 until March 22, 1905.
The
Aurora traveled from South Shields, England to
Spain, Tenerife, Algeria, Greece and France.
Note: There were two different Auroras: the first one (ship # 75184) was a 244 foot, 823 ton, iron-hulled vessel built (by the Gourlay Brothers) in Dundee in 1876 and owned in 1880 by James Murdie, Dundee; and the second (ship # 75196) was a 165 foot, 386 ton wood-hulled vessel built in Dundee in 1877 and owned in 1880 by William Stephen, Marine Parade, Dundee. - from The Mercantile Navy List and Maritime Directory for 1880 The Aurora (that was built in 1877) was one of the ships of the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company fleet out of Dundee, Scotland. From 1877 to 1910, the Aurora made annual crossings of the Atlantic from Dundee to St. John's, Newfoundland to take part in the whale and seal hunt in the Arctic waters between Baffin Island and Greenland. Sixteen ships sailed from Dundee every January for the early seal-fishery in Newfoundland. After a refit at St John's they went on to Davis Strait (between Baffin Island and Greenland) and the sealing and whaling grounds, returning home in the autumn with oil and whalebone. The peak catch season for whaling off the coast of Newfoundland was in 1904. This was a dangerous endeavour as the hunt took place amongst the ice floes. Many sealing and whaling vessels were caught in the floes and crushed by the ice.
See more about A Voyage to the Arctic in the Whaler Aurora & The Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company
|
SS Aurora
R A Mudie and Sons were at Maritime Buildings , East Dock St, Dundee. The company owned three steamers in 1910- Aurora 748/76, Gloamin 2248/95 and Matin 2433/93. A separate company RA and JH Mudie was also listed at Virginia Buildings, Seagate, Dundee in 1910.( Village SS Co Ltd ). They owned the steamer Drumgeith 2472/05 |
British Registered Steam Vessels, 1904, S.S. Aurora
|
|
|
| May 10-13, 1902 | South Shields, England |
| May 24-June 2 | Undecipherable |
| June 1-5 | Oran, Algeria |
| July 4-12 | Undecipherable |
| July 15-16 | Oran, Algeria |
| July 24-31 | London, England |
| Aug 18-21 | Carthagena, Spain |
| Aug 27-Sept 8 | Patras, Greece |
| Sept 30 | Newport, England |
| Oct 9-15 | Aguilas, Spain |
| Oct 16-20 | Undecipherable |
| Nov 12 | Newcastle, England |
| Nov 24-26 | Barcelona, Spain |
| Dec 1-3 | Burriana, Spain |
| Dec 7-11 | Valencia, Spain |
| Dec 12-13 | Gandia, Spain |
| Dec 15-17 | Gandia, Spain |
| Dec 29-Feb 17 | London, England |
| 1903......................................... | |
| Feb 25 | Newcastle, England |
| March 10-15 | Almeria, Spain |
| March 23 | Valencia, Spain |
| March 27-28 | Burriana, Spain |
| April 8 | Bristol, England |
| April 11 | Swansea, Wales |
| April 26-30 | Santa Cruz, Tenerife |
| June 1-5 | Fecamp, France |
| June 10 | Newcastle, England |
| June 20-July 2 | Seville, France |
| July 14-15 | Burntisland, Scotland |
| July 20 | Newcastle, England |
| July 30-Aug 7 | Carthagena, Spain |
| Aug 25 | Burntisland, Scotland |
| Aug 29 | Newcastle, England |
| Sept 9-15 | Carthagena, Spain |
| Sept 21-24 | Patras, Greece |
| Sept 27-Oct 1 | Patras, Greece |
| Oct 17 | Liverpool, England |
| Oct 27 | Newport, England |
| Nov 13-14 | Oran, Algeria |
| Dec 9 | Newcastle, England |
| Dec 20-Jan 2 | Seville, Spain |
| 1904......................................... | |
| Jan 6-11 | Huelva, Spain |
| Jan 20 | Burntisland, Scotland |
| Jan 25-Feb 7 | Newcastle, England |
| Feb 15 | Carthagena, Spain |
| Feb 17 | Valencia, Spain |
| Feb 23 | Valencia, Spain |
| March 22 | Newcastle-on-Tyne, England |
Agreement and Account of Crew, Foreign-Going
Ship, Aurora, 1902
Agreement and Account of Crew, Foreign-Going
Ship, Aurora, 1903
Agreement and Account of Crew, Foreign-Going
Ship, Aurora, 1904
The Aurora was in Oran,
French Algeria in July, 1902
Oran, Algeria c. 1902
| 1903 | .......... |
Jack Russell,
1903
John "Jack"
Russell, pupil teacher aged 18, with his class,
Rosebank Primary School, Dundee, 1903
Photos courtesy Lindsay Russell
Rosebank School,
Dundee, by Alexander Wilson
In April of 1903, the Aurora was in Santa Cruz, Tenerife in the Canary Islands after stopping at various ports in Spain.
British Consulate, Santa
Cruz, Tenerife, Vessell Arrived 26th April, 1903
Map of the Canary Islands
c 1900
Agreement and Account of Crew, Foreign-Going
Ship, Aurora, 1903
Agreement and Account of Crew, Foreign-Going
Ship, Aurora, 1904
George Aimer Russell married Susan Melville (born about 1869) on July 7, 1903, in Edinburgh. George's usual place of residence was given as Kilmarnock.
| 1904 | .......... |
On Jan 8, 1904, George Aimer Russell, M.A., B.Sc., 29 Glebe Road, Kilmarnock, was "balloted for and duly elected Fellow of the Society" (the Royal Astronomical Society). - from Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 64, January 8, 1904, No. 3
David Smith Russell died of "tuberculosis" on Feb 15, 1904, in Dundee.
| 1905 | .......... |
On June 22, 1905, Robert Russell, Jr. boarded the Baron Dalmeny in Ardrossan, Scotland, for a voyage to Calcutta, India. He would spend the next five years on the Tregantle (to Egypt), Glenisla (to Spain), Gloamin (to India), S.S. Milmore (to France), S.S. Lynx (to France) and the Ibex (to France) out of various British ports and as 2nd Mate on all of these ships.
The second mate is the third in command and a watchkeeping officer, customarily the ships navigator. The navigator's role focuses on creating the ship's passage plans. A passage plan is a comprehensive, step by step description of how the voyage is to proceed from berth to berth. The plan includes undocking, departure, the en route portion of a voyage, approach, and mooring at the destination. - from Wikipedia
Robert Russell's Mercantile Marine Continuous Certificate of Discharge
Sextant belonging to Robert
Russell
H. G. Blair & Co. Cardiff
& Barry
Detail from sextant belonging to
Robert Russell
Reynolds & Son, Ltd.
Compass Adjustors
From the inside of the wooden
sextant box for Robert Russell's sextant
|
S.S. Baron Dalmeny
Built in 1900 by A Rodger & Company Port Glasgow, Yard No 354, Engines by Dunsmuir & Jackson, Glasgow. Owner: Hogarth Shipping Company, Ltd., Glasgow. Registered in Ardrossan. Launched Nov 10, 1900. In 1919, she was renamed the Nanna Stub, in 1922, the Elvenes, and in 1922 the Elven. On Oct 26, 1925, the ship was abandoned and presumed sunk in the North Atlantic on a voyage from Rotterdam to Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada.
|
British Registered Steam Vessels, 1904, S.S. Baron Dalmeny
Agreement and Account of Crew, Foreign-Going Ship, Baron Dalmeny, 1906
Certificates from the
Agreement of Crew with stamps from Calcutta
and Karachi
See
original document
Shipping in Calcutta
Old Courthouse Street, Calcutta,
India, c 1910
Docks of Karachi c.
1910
|
SS Tregantle
Tregantle SS was a 3,091grt, British Merchant steamer. On the 22nd April 1916 when 1.5 miles ESE from Corton Light Vessel, Suffolk, she was torpedoed by German submarine U-16. Vessel was beached but declared a total loss. Owned by E. Hain & Son, St. Ives. See Wreck Site - S.S. Tregantle, 1916 |
British Registered Steam Vessels, 1904, S.S. Tregantle
Robert Russell traveled aboard the SS Tregantle from Barry (Wales) to Alexandria and Port Said, Egypt, to Constantinople and Taganrog, Russia between June and November of 1906.
Agreement and Account of Crew, Foreign-Going Ship, Tregantle, 1906
Barry Docks c 1906
Alexandria, Egypt c 1905
Port Said, Egypt - Suez Canal
Office c 1905
British Vice
Consulate, Taganrog, Russia, July 19, 1906
| 1906 | .......... |
Robert Russell became a member of the Shipping Association Benefit Fund on Jan 25, 1906.
The Shipping Federation was founded in 1890, in order to promote the interests of shipowners. Its primary purpose was as "a fighting machine" to counter the increasing power of the seamens unions, and in particular J. Havelock Wilson's recently formed National Amalgamated Sailors' and Firemen's Union. As a strong advocate of free labour, the Federation was ruthless in its breaking of strikes, and these activities resulted in the liquidation of the NASFU in 1894. However, in the wake of the 1911 sailors and dock-workers' strike, the Federation began to recognise the place of the unions, and to work more closely with them. This was a process accelerated by the outbreak of war, during which period the Federation also over-saw the founding of the National Maritime Board. The Federation also became more involved in the training of seamen, and in 1918 the Gravesend Sea School was founded, shortly followed by others in Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Southampton. - from Archives Hub, University of Manchester, Reference: L.H. Powell The Shipping Federation: A History of the First Sixty Years, 1890-1950 London 1950
See Letter of recommendation from Captain of Tregantle, Port of Barry Dock, November 23, 1906
| 1907 | .......... |
Robert Russell was aboard the Glenisla from April, 1907, until March of 1908. The ship made trips to Barcelona and Malaga, Spain and Oran and Arzeu, Algiers.
British Registered Steam
Vessels, 1904,
S.S.
Glenisla (Dundee, 1878)
|
SS Glenisla
The Glenisla was an iron vessel
built by W.B. Thompson, Dundee as
yard number 22 and launched on 3rd
January 1878. She was 1423 tons,
76.22 metres long by 9.93 metres
wide with a draught of 6.17 metres,
powered by a 150hp, 2 cylinder
compound engine with 3 boilers.
At
her time of loss she was owned by J.
Mitchell & Sons, Dundee and on 24th
November 1917 whilst voyaging from
Newcastle to Slemmestad with a cargo
of 2000 tons of coal, she collided
with SS Glenelg which was being
towed into Lerwick and sank. All 23
crew including Captain J. Mitchell
were rescued. A subsequent inquiry
found the Glenisla to be at fault. |
|
|
|
| April 5-9, 1907 | Newcastle-on-Tyne, England |
| April 11 | Southshields, England |
| April 22-28 | Barcelona, Spain |
| April 28-May 2 | Oran, Algeria |
| May 18 | Dundee, Scotland |
| May 31-June 3 | Malaga, Spain |
| June 6-9 | Dundee, Scotland |
| June 25-July 13 | South Shields, England |
| July 24-30 | Barcelona, Spain |
| July 31-Aug 1 | Arzeu, Algeria |
| Aug 23 | South Shields, England |
| Sept 2-5 | Carthegena, Spain |
| Sept 6-11 | Arzeu, Algeria |
| Sept 25 | Dundee, Scotland |
| Sept 30 | Blyth, England |
| Oct 10-14 | Malaga, Spain |
| Oct 16-20 | Oran, Algeria |
| Nov 2 | Dundee, Scotland |
| Nov 9 | South Shields, England |
| Nov 12 | Newcastle, England |
| Nov 22-26 | Carthegena, Spain |
| Nov 27-Dec 2 | Arzeu, Algeria |
| Dec 19 | Dundee, Scotland |
| Dec 24 | South Shields, England |
| 1908......................................... | |
| Jan 7-10 | Carthegena, Spain |
| Jan 10-16 | Arzeu, Algeria |
| Jan 25-29 | Dundee, Scotland |
| Feb 4 | South Shields, England |
| Feb 15-20 | Carthegena, Spain |
| Feb 21-25 | Arzeu, Algeria |
| March 10, 1908 | Dundee, Scotland |
Agreement and
Account of Crew, Foreign-Going Ship, Glenisla, 1907
Agreement and
Account of Crew, Foreign-Going Ship, Glenisla, 1908
Port d'Arzeu,
Algers c. 1908
Letter of recommendation from Captain of S.S. Glenisla, Port of Tayport, March 10, 1908
| 1908 | .......... |
Robert Russell boarded the Gloamin on March 31, 1908, and served aboard the ship until January of 1910, including four different trips to India with ports-of-call in the Sudan, Somalia, Ukraine, Russia and Mozambique.
|
SS Gloamin R A Mudie and Sons were at Maritime Buildings , East Dock St, Dundee. The company owned three steamers in 1910- Aurora 748/76, Gloamin 2248/95 and Matin 2433/93. A separate company RA and JH Mudie was also listed at Virginia Buildings, Seagate, Dundee in 1910.( Village SS Co Ltd ). They owned the steamer Drumgeith 2472/05 |
British Registered Steam
Vessels, 1904,
S.S. Gloamin
|
|
|
| March 31, 1908 | Sunderland, England |
| April 9 | Middlesbrough, England |
| May 1-25 | Suakin, Sudan |
| June 4-16 | Bombay, India |
| July 22-29 | Middlesbrough, England |
| Oct 12-29 | Calcutta, India |
| Nov 8-19 | Mormugao, India |
| Dec 23-29 | Antwerp, Belgium |
| Jan 11, 1909 | Cardiff, Wales |
| Feb 14 | Djibouti, Somalia |
| Feb 22 | Bombay, India |
| April 9 | Cardiff, Wales |
| April 10 | Barrow-in-Furness, England |
| April 28 | Cardiff, Wales |
| May 13-24 | Alexandria, Egypt |
| June 18-26 | Cocanada, India |
| July 27-30 | Marseilles, France |
| Aug 11-30 | Mariupol, Ukraine |
| Sept 2-17 | Novorossiysk, Russia |
| Oct 18-Nov 13 | Maputo, Mozambique |
| Dec 3-14 | Mormugao, India |
| Jan 16-22, 1910 | Antwerp, Belgium |
| Jan 28 | South Shields, England |
Agreement and Account of Crew, Foreign-Going Ship, Gloamin, 1908-1909
Port Office Suakin,
Vessell arrived May 1, and departed May 25,
1908
From Agreement
and Account of Crew for the Gloamin,
October, 1908
See
original document
Old Courthouse Street,
Calcutta, India, c 1910
Coast of Somalia, Customs Agents
Photo by Chusseau Flaviens, c 1910
Agreement and Account
of Crew, Foreign-Going Ship, Gloamin, 1908
Agreement and Account
of Crew, Foreign-Going Ship, Gloamin, 1908-1909
Robert Russell's
Mercantile Marine Continuous
Certificate of Discharge
See other historical
documents of
Captain
Robert Russell.
| 1909 | .......... |
Robert (Bob) Russell married Agnes (Ethel) Effie Fortune Hunter on April 12, 1909, at the St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Dundee, Scotland.
Robert Russell & Agnes "Ethel" Hunter
Chesterfield Aimer Russell married James Grant Ingram (born about 1880) on June 30, 1909, in Dundee. They had one child: James Russell Ingram (born May 21, 1910, in Dundee). - Glenda Waugh
The Dundee Directory for 1910-1911 and the one for 1911-1912 lists Robert Russell, mechanic, 327 Clepington Road. Frank Russell's address is also given as the same. The address on the marriage certificates for both Robert and Chesterfield was also 327 Clepington Road.
Map showing location of 327
Clepington St. just across the street from the Church on the
corner of Neishfield St
From the Plan of Dundee, Bartholomew Survey Atlas of
Scotland, 1912
327 Clepington Road - 2010 Photo
| 1910 | .......... |
Robert Russell and Agnes Hunter were living in London, England. Their son Ronald Robert was born on Nov 27, 1910. - Glenda Waugh
| 1911 | .......... |
1911 Scotland Census - Fairmuir, Dundee
Robert, Frank &
John Russell and Robert's grandsons
327 Clepington Road
Robert is a "mechanic in a jute
mill", Frank is a "bookbinder" and John is a "teacher".
See
original document
1911 Scotland Census -
St. John, Dundee
Ella Duff Russell with
her grandmother
28 South Tay Street
1911 Scotland Census - Paisley, Renfrewshire
George Aimer
Russell & Susan Melville and their daughter Christina
Aimer Russell
George Aimer Russell's occupation
is listed as "schoolmaster".
Chrissie's place of birth is listed as Peterhead,
Aberdeenshire.
See
original document
George Aimer Russell was the rector of Paisley Grammar School in Renfrewshire, Scotland. "There have been many Rectors of this prestigious school over its history including George Aimer Russell at the turn of the 20th century..." - from Wikipedia
1911 Scotland Census - Portobell, South Leith, Edinburgh
Jessie Russell &
Peter McKenzie and their family
including Eliza Aimer Russell, sister-in-law
Peter McKenzie's occupation is
listed as "Sewing Machine Mechanic".
See
original document
1911 Scotland Census - Fairmuir, Dundee
Chesterfield Aimer
Russell & James Ingram and their son James
244 Clepington Road
James Ingram, Sr. was born in
Woodside, Aberdeenshire and his occupation was listed as
"Grocery Manager".
See
original document
William Ross Smith (Jessie Smith's brother) died of "senile heart changes" in Dundee on Oct 8, 1911, at the age of 71.
| 1912 | .......... |
John (Jack) Russell married Catherine (Kitty) Smith on Jan 2, 1912, at her family home in Kelty, Fife, and Frank Russell was his witness. Their eldest son Ernest was born in Nov, 1912. - Lindsay Russell, personal communication
| 1914 | .......... |
The Great War, 1914 - 1918
Austrian Heir and His Wife
Murdered
From New York Times, page 8, June 29,
1914
The assassination on 28 June 1914 of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was the proximate trigger of the Great War. Long-term causes, such as imperialistic foreign policies of the great powers of Europe, such as the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, the British Empire, France, and Italy, played a major role. Ferdinand's assassination by a Yugoslav nationalist resulted in a Habsburg ultimatum against the Kingdom of Serbia. Several alliances formed over the past decades were invoked, so within weeks the major powers were at war; via their colonies, the conflict soon spread around the world. - From Wikipedia
Robert Russell
- Served Royal Navy -
(excerpt
from the Powell River News, March, 1944)
Captain Russell was born in Dundee, Scotland, December 9, 1881. He assumed his first command in 1910 as master of a ship of the Cory Steamship Line out of London. During the First Great War he was in command of the Merchant Marine auxiliary to the Royal Navy. He was aboard the S.S. Deptford when it was sunk by a torpedo in the North Sea on February 24, 1915. The ship went down in three minutes and Captain Russell spent several hours in a lifeboat before being rescued. He also served on ships carrying supplies to British warships in the Dardenelles.
Robert Russell's certificates of discharge indicate that he was aboard the SS Deptford for Home Trade from July 3, 1913 to at least January 1, 1914 and the SS Sir Arthur for Home Trade and the Admiralty Service from March 13, 1915 to Dec 9, 1918.
The last moments of British battleship HMS
Majestic,
torpedoed by the U-21 off Cape Helles, Dardanelles, on May 27, 1915
|
|
|
Robert Russell
received the
British
War Medal and the Mercantile Marine Medal on June 13, 1921,
for his service during World War I.
Robert Russell & Agnes "Ethel" Hunter
World War I
soldier (a Russell?) c 1914
C.H. Knight & Co., 69 Wellington St., Woolwich,
S.E., England
Robert
Russell on the right
Alhambra Studios, P.J.
Blackbeard, Proprietor, 338 New Cross Road,
London
Captain John Russell
(seated on right)
Photo
courtesy Lindsay Russell
Postcard from John
"Jack" Russell to Kitty, New Year, 1917
Courtesy of Lindsay Russell
Postcard from John
"Jack" Russell to Kitty, New Year, 1917
Courtesy of Lindsay Russell
Postcard from John
"Jack" Russell to Kitty, New Year, 1917
Courtesy of Lindsay Russell
Jack spent 2, possibly 3 years of WW1 in France. They lived at 144 Strathmartin Road, Dundee, and when Kitty was due to give birth to my father in August 1915, she went to stay with her parents, Catherine and Thomas Hellon Smith who lived in a house called Chipperkyle in Kelty, a small mining village in Fife. The message is written in pencil, rather smudged and faded, but I think it says - "How do you like our Divisional P.C.? Sorry at not writing last night but was over at a fire at one of our Ammunition Dumps. It was a great sight. Tonight I have been at our Cinema which starts tomorrow night. Moi is in charge of it and we are getting things in order and testing the engine & machine. We start with the "Somme" films. Will write sure tomorrow. J."
"John Russell was a Captain in the Army during World War I and continued to use the title afterwards. He was a schoolmaster, firstly in Wormit, a village in Fife, then Dalmally in Argyll in the early 1920s, and then for the remainder of his career in Aviemore, Invernessshire. When he retired he and Granny moved to Edinburgh. He died on 25 Jan 1958, Granny following him on April 13, 1959." - Lindsay Russell
| 1919 | .......... |
Frank Russell married Jean Watterston (librarian) on December 3, 1919, at the Mathers Hotel, Dundee. They had three sons, George, Arnott and Watterston, known as Wattie, who was lost at sea off Hong Kong. - Lindsay Russell
Frank Watterston
(Wattie) Russell was born in Dundee in 1920.
- Scotland's People (no image)
William Arnot Watterston Russell was born Dec 26,
1922, in Monifieth. - from
Scotsman.com Obituary
George Aimer Russell was born in Monifieth, Angus, in
1930. - Scotland's People (no image)
| 1921 | .......... |
Robert Russell, Sr., of 327 Clepington Road, Dundee, (Parish of Mains and Strathmartine) died on July 13, 1921, at the age of 75. Eliza Russell would continue to live at 327 Clepington Road until her death in 1956.
| 1930 | .......... |
Robert Aimer Russell, watchmaker (son of David Smith Russell and Isabella Stewart Duff) married Violet Welch, jute weaver, on June 7, 1930, in Dundee. Robert's place of residence was given as 327 Clepington.
| 1936 | .......... |
Christina Aimer Russell married James Kay Horsburgh in Paisley in 1936. - Scotland's People (no image)
| 1938 | .......... |
SPORTS CHAMPIONS' WINNING SMILE
Flora Simpson and Frank Russell, who won the Sports Championships of Grove Academy, Broughty Ferry, in June.
| 1939 | .......... |
"At 09:00 hrs on Sunday 3rd September 1939, the British government under Neville Chamberlain, issued an ultimatum to Germany demanding the immediate withdrawal of German troops from Poland. This ultimatum expired at 11:00 hrs the same day at which point war was declared by Great Britain. France declared later the same day at about 17:00 hrs. The 3rd September was a Sunday, and Mr. Chamberlain broadcast to the nation via the radio. At approximately 11:05 am air-raid warning sirens were sounded in the coastal towns of Folkestone and Dover. It turned out to be a false alarm due to an unidentified aircraft seem approaching the coast, and reported by the Royal Observer Corps."
"I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street. This morning, the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note, stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany. The situation in which no word given by Germany's ruler could be trusted and no people or country could feel itself safe, has become intolerable. And now we have resolved to finish it, I know that you will all play your part. May God bless you all. And may He defend the right, for it is evil things that we shall be fighting against brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution; and against them I am certain that right will prevail." - Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, speaking on the wireless, 3 Sept. 1939
| 1941 | .......... |
Frank Watterston "Wattie" Russell
1939 - 1945
THE OFFICERS AND MEN WHOSE MEMORY
IS HONOURED HERE
DIED IN THE DEFENCE OF HONG KONG
IN DECEMBER 1941
AND IN THE ENSUING YEARS OF CAPTIVITY
AND HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVE
Source Information: Ancestry.com. UK, Army Roll of Honour, 1939-1945 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009. Original data: England. The National Archives. “War Office: Roll of Honour, Second World War.” Database. Army Roll of Honour 1939-45. Soldiers Died in World War Two. (WO304). CD Rom. Naval & Military Press. Description: This database contains the Roll of Honour – a listing of British Army casualties from World War II (WWII). |
City of Dundee
Roll of Honour
| Name: | Frank Watterston Russell |
| Age: | 21 |
| Address: | unknown |
| Next of Kin: | Son of Frank and Jean Watterston Russell of Monifieth, Angus. |
| Rank: | Corporal |
| Number: | 2091087 |
| Served With: | 40 Fortress Company, Royal Engineers |
| Force: | Army |
| Date of Death: | 19/12/1941 |
| Place of Death: | in the Far East |
| Historical Information: | unknown |
| Cemetery/Memorial: | Sai Wan Memorial, Hong Kong |
| Memorial Ref: | Column 7 |
| Location Details: |
This memorial honours 2000 men of the land forces of the British Commonwealth and Empire, who died in the defense of Hong Kong during the Second World War. The memorial, which is in the form of a shelter building 24 metres long and 5.5 metres wide, stands at the entrance to Sai Wan Bay War Cemetery, outside Victoria, the capital of Hong Kong. |
| Information Source: | - See original |
Frank Watterston Russell was killed in action on Dec 19, 1941, and the British surrendered Hong Kong on Dec 25, 1941
The Garrison of Hong Kong in December 1941 comprised: Headquarters China Command; Royal Artillery and Royal Engineer units; Hong Kong and Singapore Royal Artillery; 2nd Battalion Royal Scots; 1st Battalion Middlesex (Machine Gun Battalion); Hong Kong Chinese Regiment; representatives of support Corps (Signals, Ordnance etc); the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps (HKVDC) made up of a number of Companies including Number 2 (Scottish) Company; two recently arrived Canadian Regiments, The Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada ; two Indian regiments 5th/7th Rajput Regiment and 2/14 Punjab Regiment; a number of Royal Navy ships, Auxiliary Patrol Vessels and Merchant Navy Vessels; two Supermarine Walrus aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm; three Vickers Vildebeeste aircraft of the Royal Air Force and Police, Fire Brigade, Air Raid Precautions, Auxiliary Service, St John’s Ambulance and NAAFI Units. - From Scots at War - The Battle of Hong Kong 8th to 26th December 1941
The Invasion of Hong
Kong...
Well before midnight on December 18th the 5/7th Rajputs
ceased to exist as a fighting unit. Killed, wounded,
captured, or simply isolated, they had been torn apart
as the Japanese assault troops charged through them and
made for higher ground. By dawn their assault has paused
in the west thanks to the refusal of the HKVDC
Hugheseliers to let them pass, but their penetration to
the south has reached Wong Nai Chung Gap. The whole of
December 19th is dominated by the fighting for the Gap.
Initially defended simply by Lawson’s West Brigade HQ, 3
Coy HKVDC, elements of 5AA regiment, elements of the
HKSRA, and the HQ of D Company Winnipeg Grenadiers, the
battle sucks in A Coy Winnipeg Grenadiers, the entire
2nd battalion Royal Scots, Royal Engineers, and many
odds and sods. The Japanese are soon effectively in
control, but the day results in 451 fatalities amongst
the defenders, the majority in this little valley. To
avoid being cut off, Wallis ordered all elements of East
Brigade to re-form in the hills north of Stanley. This
well-chosen position would leave him in touch with West
Brigade, with the insurance of the Stanley Peninsular to
his south should he need to fall back. Unfortunately he
did not know that Lawson had been killed at 07:00 that
morning and thus West Brigade was not under effective
control.
- from Hong Kong War Diary
The Forcing of Wong Nai Chung Gap
The Japanese strategy was simple: take Wong Nai Chung Gap and continue south along Repulse Bay Road to split the island in two. This necessitated keeping East Brigade busy so they could not organise any useful counter-attack, while other Japanese forces concentrated on knocking out defenses on Jardine’s Lookout and Mount Nicholson (overlooking the Gap from the east and west respectively), and in the bottom of the Gap itself. Once this was done, and the strategically important Police Station at the south of the Gap was captured, the fighting moved south along Repulse Bay Road. In 1941 it was relatively sparsely populated, thus the skirmishes on this and later days were generally named after the isolated houses at or around which they occurred; from north to south: Postbridge, Altamira & The Ridge, Twin Brooks, Overbays, Repulse Bay Hotel, Eucliffe. This was by far the hardest day’s fighting, with the defenders losing in twenty-four hours approximately one third of their total fatalities. Losses to the attackers were probably in a similar ratio. By midnight, although there were still pockets of resistance, the Gap and the majority of the road were in all practical terms in Japanese hands. How far south Japanese forward patrols advanced along the road that day is uncertain, but there is a distinct possibility that a few small groups or individuals reached the south coast itself. - from the Hong Kong Veteran's Association - Battle of Hong Kong
| 1944 | .......... |
Robert Russell, Jr, died on March 1, 1944 (from obituary), in Powell River, British Columbia, Canada, at the age of 61. See The Russell Family During World War II.
The MacKenzie Family, Hillside,
Monktonhall, Musselburgh, Edinburgh 1944
Standing Back: Stuart "Stoorie" Chrystal;
Standing left to right: Russell, Violet, Jenny, Jessie (Nette)
and Jack Russell
Seated front row chairs, left to right: Kitty Russell,
Peter?, unidentified, Vi and unidentified
Boys on the ground: Ian? and Alexander (Sandy)?
I saw on your website the "little black book" entry for Jessie MacKenzie at Hillside, Monktonhall, Musselburgh. This photo was taken there in 1944. My father wrote the names on the back, but not those of the the children(!), and did not identify relationships. Violet was able to clarify that for me, including herself aged 4. She had not seen this picture before and was thrilled and hopes to share it with her cousins, the small boys. Standing, left to right, Russell, Violet (known as Vi), Jenny and Jessie. Jessie hated her name and changed it to Jeanette, shortened to Nette. Russell and Jenny's 3 sons, Peter, Ian and Alexander (Sandy). Vi's husband was Stuart (known as Stoorie) Chrystal, the tall man at the back, and their daughter Violet is leaning against her Gran. Kitty Russell my grandmother is seated on the left, and Jack Russell is standing on the right. The person conspicuously missing from the photo is Uncle Peter, whom we both remember, maybe he took it? Hope all that makes sense. - Lindsay Russell
Jessie Russell Mackenzie, Hillside,
Monkton Hall, Mussellborough, Edinburgh
From Jock Waugh's "little
black book"
1560254 Lac Peter Mackenzie, "A"
Flight, 76 Squadron,
RAF Station, Holme on Spalding Moor (East) near York,
Yorkshire
From Jock Waugh's "little
black book"
RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor (RAF Holme): Operational command of the station was given to 1 Group of RAF Bomber Command. The first squadron allocated to Holme was 458 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) equipped with Vickers Wellington aircraft. Arriving in August 1941, the squadron conducted its first operation in October 1941 and remained until January 1942. No squadrons were allocated until the extension of the runways was completed and it was August 1942 before one flight of the Handley Page Halifax equipped 460 Squadron RAAF arrived. This stay only lasted a few weeks before the 460 Squadron aircraft left and 101 Squadron RAF arrived on transfer from 3 Group. 101 Squadron was in the process of re-equipping with Avro Lancaster aircraft and did not fly any operations until November 1942. In June 1943, a reorganisation of group boundaries within Bomber Command saw the station transferred from 1 Group to 4 Group. This change in command resulted in a change of squadrons with 101 Squadron being replaced by the Halifax equipped 76 Squadron RAF. 76 Squadron remained at Holme until after the end of the war in Europe. 4 Group transferred from Bomber Command to Transport Command in May 1945 and during its final weeks at Holme 76 Squadron was re-equipped with the Douglas C-47 Skytrain (or Dakota as it was known in the RAF). The Dakotas of 76 Squadron were replaced by the same of 512 Squadron in July 1945 before 512 Squadron left in October 1945. From February 1944 to May 1945 also based at Holme was 1689 Bomber (Defence) Training Flight who flew Hawker Hurricane aircraft on fighter affiliation duties. Also based at Holme during 1943-1944 was 1520 Beam Approach Training (BAT) Flight of 23 (Training) Group, Flying Training Command flying Airspeed Oxford aircraft. - from Wikipedia
| 1945 | .......... |
| 1948 | .......... |
William A. "Arnot" W. Russell was President of the St. Andrews University Mountaineering Club from 1948-1950.
| 1951 | .......... |
Supplement to the London Gazette, 29 May 1951
|
|
Glenalmond (Trinity College) Congratulations
Lt. William Arnot Watterston Russell (360038)
(Black Watch, Emergency Commission) to be Lt., 23rd
March, 1951
See original document
| 1953 | .......... |
George Aimer Russell died on Dec 17, 1953, in Dundee, at the age of 81.
Former Rector Dies in Dundee, Mr.
George Aimer Russell
See
The Paisley Grammar School
Royal Astronomical Society, Annual General Meeting, 1953
George Aimer Russell (son of Frank and Jean) married Jeanine Suzanne Gahlinger (daughter of Charles Gahlinger, Director of Keillers, Dundee) in Dundee in June, 1953. They had two children: Derek Watterston Russell (born 1959) and Fiona Gahlinger Russell (born 1962) - Derek Russell
| 1956 | .......... |
Eliza Aimer Russell died in Dundee on June 18, 1956, at the age of 72. She was still living in the family home at 327 Clepington, Dundee. See the Abstract of Account of Charge and Discharge of the Intromissions of the Executor of the late Miss Eliza Aimer Russell with the funds of the Estate.
327 Clepington Road Modern Photo
| 1958 | .......... |
John Russell died on 25 Jan 1958, Granny following him on April 13, 1959." - Lindsay Russell, personal communication
William Arnot Watterston Russell married Virginia Kemp in 1958. They had three children: Gillian (born 1960); Lindsay (born 1961?); and Keith (born 1964?). - Derek Russell
| 1959 | .......... |
Frank Russell died on May 23, 1959, in Dundee. He was 84. Read the article in the Dundee newspaper May 25, 1959: "Mr. Russell had been confined to bed for a month. He lived at 47 Princes Street, Monifieth, and is survived by his wife and two sons. The sons are Messrs George A. Russell, a clerk at the Lochee branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and Mr. William A. W. Russell, who teaches science at Trinity College, Glenalmond."
"I also just about remember Uncle Frank. The bookshop kept his name for a long time after he retired. He was very well known and well thought of in Dundee, and the obituary on your site bears that out. I've never seen it before. A popular Scottish novelist called Kate Atkinson mentions the shop in her book "Emotionally Weird". Frank's widow Jean died on 14 March 1982 age 94, I have no memory of her. My father, also called John, but always known as Iain, never talked much about his family and didn't keep in contact with anyone. I don't think there was any animosity, he just didn't seem to be interested, a pity." - Lindsay Russell, personal communication
Russell - At Perth Royal Infirmary, on Sunday, March 14, 1982, Jean Watterston, aged 94 years, of 47 Princes Street, Monifieth, beloved wife of the late Frank Russell (bookseller), and dear mother of Arnott and George and the late Wattie. Service at Dundee Crematorium on Thursday, March 18, at 1:30 pm. to which all friends are invited.
| 1975 | .......... |
Supplement to the London Gazette, 27th May 1975
|
|
The following officers are awarded the Cadet Forces
Medal:
Trinity College, Lt (Hon Maj) W. A. W. Russell (360038)
retired
See original document
| 2005 | .......... |
William Arnot Watterston Russell died on April 11, 2005, in Crieff, Scotland, at the age of 82.
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