Janet MacIntosh was recorded in August 2005 talking to Maggie Campbell of Kilmoluaig about her schooldays in Balemartine in the 1940s. She remembers how ‘wonderful’ hot school dinners were compared to packed lunches.
When she was a child, the diet on Tiree was plain and simple. White and brown flour and oatmeal came in hundredweight bags and were stored in the ‘girnel’, a wooden chest with a lid and internal partitions, that kept the mice out. Housewives baked every day.
More fish was eaten than meat; there were few vegetables other than potatoes and no fruit. Food from the shore was also eaten: soup made with whelks (winkles) and oatmeal, or with dulse, and milk puddings made with carrageen.
Photocopied extract from the log of the coaster `Cragman` for 27/3/1943.
Extract from the log of the coaster `Cragman` for 27/3/1943, one of the crew of which, Ian MacKinnon, came from Scarinish, plus extract from a website about Ardrossan giving more details. On 27/3/1943, an explosion occurred on board the aircraft carrier HMS Dasher in the Firth of Clyde which caused the ship to sink within 5 minutes. Apparently two naval vessels were nearby and were proceeding to rescue survivors when the oil on the surface caught fire. They were ordered to retire, presumably because of the risk. The captain of the `Cragsman`, James Templeton, steamed in to rescue 14 survivors, three of which died after being taken aboard. The coasterr remained on the scene for two and a half hours making sure all survivors had been picked up. (
Two Home Guard documents belonging to Murdoch MacLean.
Home Guard certificate of proficiency and standard letter of appreciation from the King for Murdoch MacLean who was in the Home Guard from September 1942 to December 1944.
Mini-disk recording of Mary Cameron of Balevullin talking to Maggie Campbell in June 2005.
Mary Cameron of Balevullin talks to Maggie Campbell in June 2005 about her primary schooling at Balemartine and secondary schooling at Cornaig, the games they played, and the clothes they wore walking to and from school.
In this recording made in June 2005, Mrs Ethel MacCallum talks to Maggie Campbell about what it was like to move as a child to a Gaelic-speaking community. During World War II, Ethel was evacuated to Tiree where she was fostered by Hugh and Kate Lamont of Ruaig Post Office.
After leaving school at fifteen, Ethel helped her foster-parents in the Post Office and on the family’s croft. A couple of years later she moved to Inverary Castle where she worked as a housemaid for the Duke and Duchess of Argyll.
By the end of her schooling Ethel had ‘nothing in her head but music’. She competed many times in national and provincial Mods, winning cups for her Gaelic singing. She was also a gold medallist in the provincial Mod at Lochgilphead in 1967.
Mini-disk recording of Hector and Archie MacKinnon of Cornaigmore talking to Maggie Campbell in June 2005.
Brothers Hector and Archie MacKinnon of Cornaigmore talk to Maggie Campbell in June 2005 about their primary school at Cornaig, how different Glasgow and Tiree were, and reminisce about the old school building and when it was renovated in 1934.
