David Cargill and Ann Pyper Buick are my maternal grandparents. They lived in Arbroath, Glasgow and Kilmarnock at various times. The following is what I have managed to find out about them.

Davy was born in St Andrews in 1874 to an Auchmithie family. They did not stay very long in St Andrews, maybe 4 or 5 years, and then returned to Angus, to Arbroath, not Auchmithie. The family story is that they flitted by fishing boat. I refer to him as Davy because my mother, his daughter, spoke of him as Divvy Roach ('ch' hard as in loch), which was his bye-name to distinguish him from other Cargills, such as the Das, and a host of other bye-names.

Ann, usually known as Annie, was born in Arbroath in 1877 and lived there until her marriage. She was probably always known as Annie, but her birth record says Ann. She was a reeler in one of the many flax mills which existed in Arbroath at that time.

Her parents are James Buick, born in St Cyrus, and Chirsty MacDonald, born in Kyleakin in Skye, and her younger sister is Bella.

Davy's parents are Robert Cargill from Auchmithie and Ann Anderson from Ferryden, by Montrose. They were married in 1861 in St Vigeans, the parish church for Auchmithie, and had 8 children, of whom 5 survived to adulthood.

Davy lived in Glasgow immediately before the marriage in 1899 and presumably he was working there. Whereas all the rest of his family were fishermen and women, he was a Boot Finisher. Davy had no aptitude for the sea, suffering from sea sickness, so he became a shoemaker. We have thought about my mother's description of him and the best we can muster is "Davy was aye seek, he just lay in the bottom o' the boat, so they put him to the shoemaking."

Davy and Annie were married in the Victoria Hall, James Street, Arbroath by the Minister of Inverbrothock, David Graham. They started married life in Arbroath and their first child David was born in Arbroath in August 1900 at 20 Hill Place. The remains of that building are opposite the Library, previously the High School, and on the corner of Kirk Square, just opposite the Parish Church which had been re-built in 1896.

The young family moved, probably to find work, in the next few months. They were in Govan in Glasgow in the Census in March 1901. Their other 5 children were born in Govan. Tom was born in 1902, Bella (Isabella) in 1903, Jeanie (Jane) in 1905, Annie in 1907 and Flora in 1911. Both David and Jeanie died young in Glasgow.

They lived in Govan at 20 Hutton Drive and then 24 Greenhead Drive.

Work, or the lack of it, again intervened and Davy went to Canada to seek his fortune. He sailed on the Saturnia to Quebec or Montreal on 24th May 1913.

So he returned from Canada with no money and presumably no job, and on his insistence the family returned to Arbroath. They lived in 27 or 37 John Street, in the heart of the fisher community. They seemed to have been very happy there, as the children were broken-hearted to leave Arbroath a few years later.

We know very little of this stay in Arbroath, but we think that all the girls went to school in Arbroath. The school was the Hilly (officially, Hill) School in Hill Terrace. Based on the girls ages, they attended the Hilly School until 1917 or 1918. By this time, Tom was about 15, Bella 14, Annie 9, Flora 5.

Anyway, before the end of World War I, they moved to Kilmarnock. This was presumably again for work reasons and Davy worked in the Saxone shoe factory, which was a major employer in Kilmarnock. We think that the work was making army boots.

They lived at first at 21 McKinlay Place and I think that these photographs of Annie and her daughters Annie & Flora were taken there, around 1918.

Annie opened a grocer's shop in the nearby village of Kilmaurs. This, it seems to me, was the important event that assured the prosperity of the family. The success of this venture lead to their next shop, and to Davy's early retirement. How they managed to afford the initial investment is unknown; they certainly turned things around between 1918 and 1927.

We think that Tom first settled in Cleveland and possibly married in Atlantic City. He married a Scots girl Millie McCulloch from Glasgow in 1928 and their daughter Jean was born in Baltimore in 1932. They visited the families back home in Kilmarnock and Glasgow in 1937 and there is a picture from this visit below.

Back again to the Cargill family in Kilmarnock, who were doing very well. Either the shop in Kilmaurs was very successful or Davy did very well at Saxone, because they were eventually able to buy their own house. They bought it in Knockinlaw Road in 1927 - for £520. It was number 32 and they named it Auchmithie.

As said before, the shops must have been very profitable, because at some stage Davy was able to buy another house. This new house was in Arbroath. Annie had not been consulted and she was not interested in a return to Arbroath, so her spinster sister Bella lived in it. It was in Warslap Avenue and Bella lived in it until Davy died, when it had to be sold. A few years later, Bella (Flowerdew, née Cargill) bought the house at 18 Church Street so that Bella (Buick) had a place of her own.

The Kilmarnock Cargills kept in touch with their Arbroath relatives and visited Arbroath frequently. They also entertained their Arbroath relatives in Kilmarnock. The photo below includes Davy's sister Jeanie and her husband Tam Cargill.

Moving on into the 1930s, the 3 girls, Bella, Annie and Flora were all working, and soon they were all married. There were a few years when the extended family of Davy & Annie, Bella & Stanley, Annie & Bert, Flora & Dick probably met up regularly at the Knockinlaw Road house.

The extended Cargill family had grown significantly by 1937, especially when Tom and family visited from the USA. The first photo below shows Davy & Annie's three daughters with their children and Bert. The next is Tom with sisters Annie & Bella and the three grandchildren. Unfortunately, I have not found any photos of Millie and Jean during this visit; when this photo was taken I think they were visiting Millie's family in Glasgow.

Stanley returned to the Black Watch, Bert joined the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) as a driver and Dick, being in a reserved occupation, was exempt. Bert survived, but Stanley died at St Valery on 11th June 1940.

And then Annie died in 1942, Davy in 1946 and Tom in America in 1947. Such a devastating period - 5 deaths in 8 years.

When Annie died, Davy wanted her to be buried in Arbroath, but that could not be done immediately because of war-time restrictions.

Six years later ...