Herbert George Silander and Marion Howie McWalter are my paternal grandparents. This short history relates what I have found out about them and their children. I did not know either of them and what follows is information gathered from oral history (some of it supplied by Renée Houston's sons Alan Aherne and Tony Aherne aka John Lyall), personal recollection, old photographs and official records.

Herbert was born in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1876, the eldest son of Carl Johan Andersson and Christina Johansdotter, who were both descended from crofters, small farmers and agricultural labourers in the country areas around Gothenburg in south-west Sweden. Herbert was christened Herbert Georg Andersson, though his surname could just as easily have been Carlsson if they had followed the outgoing patronymic system. The law had changed to allow the populace to have surnames, and then changed again to ensure that they all had surnames. It seems that it was quite common in Sweden at this time to choose your own surname, and he chose the Silander name recently adopted by his aunt, and possibly based on his uncle's choice of Selander 20 years earlier.

Herbert's mother Christina died in 1891 when he was 15 and his youngest sibling, Agnes Kristina, was only 5. After Christina's death, it appears that her younger, unmarried sister Lovisa looked after the family. Lovisa eventually formally adopted Agnes Kristina, and the widowed Carl re-married and returned to his rural origins in Kungsbacka south of Gothenburg. According to my Swedish cousin Harald, Agnes Kristina became a school-teacher, and one of her brothers became a tram driver.

Herbert worked in Gothenburg as a book-keeper for a Scottish lace-making firm which was based in Newmilns (Johnstone Shields) and at the age of 18 he left Sweden for Newmilns. As far as I know, he never returned. Possibly, this was partly due to the recent death of his mother and his father's subsequent re-marriage as much as a desire for foreign travel.

Incidentally, the Scottish lace workers that he left behind in Gothenburg are credited with introducing football to Sweden. (From a reference book in the Dick Institute, possibly Historical Aspects of Newmilns, published in 1990.)

Herbert's wife Marion, also known later as May, was born in the Ayrshire mining village of Muirkirk, also in 1876. She was the third of 9 children born to Thomas McWalter, a coal miner, and Elizabeth Hutchison.

Marion's father Thomas was born in Dundee and descended from an Irish weaver and a Scottish mother from Edinburgh. The family moved from Dundee to Wigtownshire and then finally to Galston in Ayrshire, just a few miles up the River Irvine from Kilmarnock and just a couple of miles from Newmilns.

Her mother Elizabeth was born in Galston and all her ancestors seem to have been Ayrshire folk; Hutchison from Galston; Howie from Drumcloich farm, Fenwick; Shinnan from Craigie and possibly of Irish descent. Fenwick and Craigie are villages just outside Kilmarnock. The Howies of Lochgoin were Covenanters, and as Lochgoin is only a few miles from Drumcloich, it is possible that the two families were related and that my Howie ancestors were Covenanters.

After their marriage, Thomas and Elizabeth moved around the coalfield, presumably following the availability of work, first Galston, Muirkirk and Newmilns in Ayrshire and then Hamilton and Blantyre in Lanarkshire.

I know nothing of Marion's childhood until the 1891 Census lists her working as a domestic servant in Hamilton at the age of 15. At the time of her marriage in 1898 she was working as a spool winder in a lace mill in Newmilns and living in Brown Street.

The following pictures illustrate the expansion and industrialisation of Newmilns resulting from the building of 11 textiles-related factories in the 1880s and 1890s. These were built on the south bank of the River Irvine in Greenholm. The south bank is in Galston Parish, while the original Newmilns on the north bank is in Loudoun Parish. The village of just under 3,000 inhabitants grew by over 60% in 30 years.

There are 7 factories in this photograph of Greenholm, though only the chimneys of some are visible. Front left is the bleachworks where Herbert was works manager when he died. Just visible, fourth from the left is the roof of the factory where he worked when he arrived from Sweden.

These photographs of Newmilns from the north west show the west end of Newmilns and Greenholm. It was common for a blanket of smoke to cover the town as coal fires burned night and day in every home and factory and in the local gas-works.

Herbert and Marion married in 1898. They were both working in Newmilns and they spent all of their married life there. Herbert progressed well in his work, from warehouseman to works manager, and as their standard of living improved they moved house several times, finally living in Brookfield, Loudoun Road. They had five children; Bert 1904, Claire 1907, Thomas 1909, John 1911 and Hal 1913; Thomas and John died in infancy.

Herbert was an Alien until he took the Oath of Allegiance under The Naturalization Act, 1870. According to the London Gazette, November 1, 1907, he took the oath on 11th October 1907 and it was registered in the Home Office.

Their first-born was Bert, christened Herbert George after his father, and known both as Bert and Herbert. Probably Herbert in his youth and mostly Bert later.

Herbert and Marion's second child was Claire, who was christened Elizabeth McWalter and was known as Bessie. It was her husband Jim who decided that she should be Claire and her married name was Elizabeth Claire Rennie. She was a member of the Girl Guides and retained a long connection with the movement; I know that in the 1960s she was a Guide Commissioner.

Their youngest was Harold who was born in 1913 and was later known as Hal. He had a varied working life, including business manager for the Houston Sisters, a food inspector during the war, a cinema manager in Reading and the landlord of the Royal Deer pub in Farnham, Surrey.

During World War I (1914-1918), conscription was introduced in 1916 and even more of the young men were sent to the battlefields. The response from those left behind, either too old or in reserved occupations, was to join the local military unit. This picture shows the Newmilns Volunteers. Herbert senior should be here as he was a Temporary Second Lieutenant in the 2nd Voluntary Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. But again I have not been able to identify him.

The other lady in the picture is Marion, and I think that the man is a McWalter nephew.

In 1931 Herbert senior died aged only 54, from blood poisoning caused by infected gums after having some, maybe all, of his teeth extracted.

The oral history is that Herbert died intestate and so Bert, the oldest son, inherited his estate, which turned out to be only the house. I do not know whether it was expected that there would be cash or shares or bonds but I think that there were none. Marion would have been destitute, so Bert gave up his right to the house in favour of his mother.

It is also rather odd that there is no family stone at Herbert's grave; it is marked only by a small stone, in the form of an open book, from his work colleagues. The plot was bought in 1909 and the babies Thomas and John were buried there. I would have expected a stone with all three named on it. Presumably money was short and the small stone had to do. In 1958, Marion's ashes and in 1989, Hal's and Shirley's ashes were interred in the same grave.

I think that Bert and Annie had some problems early in their marriage. They split up for a time, Bert returning to his mother in Newmilns. I do not know whether this was before or after his father's death. However, the major problem was that Marion and Annie had a very bad relationship and that resulted in Marion having very little contact with them in the future.

I have been told that Bert and Annie visited Marion once, but I do not know whether this was pre- or post-war. Bert visited his mother fairly regularly after the war when he was on the Glasgow-London bus service and Marion was living in Reading with Hal & Shirley. Marion never returned to Scotland.

At the time of her father's death, Claire was engaged to Jim Houston, brother of, and business manager for, the Houston Sisters, Renée and Billie, who were enormously popular variety stars. The youngest sister Shirley Houston was also part of the act in later years, and I believe Claire may have appeared with them a few times. Claire had become friends with Renée in 1923, a year or two before The Houston Sisters first topped the bill. I have been told that the close friendship of the Silander and Houston families originated with Claire and Renée and that they met at a swimming pool.

Claire and Jim married 3 months later in London and settled in a house called "Carntyne" in Kenton in London. Marion sold "Brookfield" in Newmilns and she and Hal moved in with Claire and Jim, or maybe it was the other way round. The name "Carntyne" came from the village, eventually engulfed by Glasgow, where the Houstons had lived.

These photographs show Marion, Claire, Jim and Hal at "Carntyne". The photograph at Harrow swimming pool of Shirley and Claire is probably in 1931 as well.

While at "Carntyne", Jim bred dogs, great danes and chow-chows, and quite successfully I believe. Later, when Jim was a best-selling author in the late 1930s, they moved to a bungalow in Benenden in Kent. Claire & Jim had a daughter, Elizabeth Pamela, but she died in infancy.

These pictures of the 3 Houston sisters are from the 1930s. Shirley at "Carntyne" with Panther, Pilot and Painter. Billie, who played the boy in the stage act, and Renée.

Bert & Annie were living and working in Kilmarnock and started a family. Their first wee boy was still-born and in 1936 Herbert George was born. Sadly, he had spina bifida and died just before his 3rd birthday.

Around 1935, Jim Houston became James Alan Rennie and became a successful author and also a broadcaster eventually. He read his children's stories on BBC Radio in the 1950s. I think he coined Rennie from his sister's stage name Renée, and Alan from her son's name. Claire corrected and typed his manuscripts.

James Alan Rennie wrote several best-selling action novels. He also wrote under various pseudonyms; Boone Denver (Westerns), Morton Cleland (Hood, Morton, Cleland & Co was a lace mill in Newmilns) and Maxwell MacFee. I believe that in all he wrote 14 books; westerns, romantic adventure and historical non-fiction. His last book was the autobiographical "Past Horizons" in 1962. Jim was very talented and this book provides many insights into his adventurous life; well worth the read.

All too soon the world was at war again and Bert was drafted very early, in September 1939, having been a member of the Army Reserve since 1930. He was a driver in the Royal Army Service Corps and suffered at Dunkirk and returned to Europe in the Normandy landings.

We think that he was driving ammunition trucks in France in 1940 when they were ordered to retreat to Dunkirk. They were ordered to scuttle their vehicles to block the roads and impede the German advance. Bert had to walk a long way to Dunkirk, suffering extremely damaged feet. He eventually got aboard the Brighton Belle, a paddle steamer, to cross the Channel. Bert returned to Europe in 1944 as part of the Normandy Landings and possibly spent some time in Holland. Apart from occasional leave, Bert was away from home for the whole of the war 1939-1945. During this period Annie went back to work at the Ayrshire Electricity Board. In this picture of his RASC unit, Bert is in the back row, 4th from left.

At some stage, Hal became the manager of the Houston Sisters. Then Renée and Billie split up when Renée got a film contract. Billie and Shirley continued the Houston Sisters act but it did not go well and eventually Shirley, managed by Hal, continued successfully as a singer. Billie's health was not good and she retired in the mid-1930s, and wrote a successful crime novel.

In 1940 they moved out of the London area due to the threat of the bombs and settled in the village of Alveston near Stratford-upon-Avon. Marion and Hal were with Renée, Shirley and company, whose lives revolved around the theatre. Renée's household also comprised her current and future husbands, her 4 children, her parents and her grandmother. However, they found that the Midlands were not any safer and returned south within 2 years to Bourne End near Maidenhead in Bucks.

Renée's children Tony and Alan knew Marion as Auntie May in the late 1930s and early 1940s. They recall how she was saddened by her impoverished circumstances compared to her position as the wife of an important man in Newmilns. She did not seem to appreciate the celebrity of her Houston in-laws and their connections with the theatre and Hollywood. Although she had a large extended family in Ayrshire, deriving from her 8 siblings and 13 aunts & uncles, as well as a son and eventually 3 grand-children, she never returned to Scotland. Amongst other factors, the falling-out between Marion and her daughter-in-law Annie must have been extremely serious.

Claire & Jim moved to Strathspey in 1943/4 and lived in a small-holding named Mid Port and then one named Milltown. They finally settled in Ballintian, just outside Cromdale, near Grantown-on-Spey. Their living conditions were very primitive compared to those that they left behind in London as these farms had no electricity and no mains water. Although they earned a little from the farms, their main income was from Jim's books, newspaper articles and broadcasts.

By the late 1940s, Marion was living with Hal and Shirley and family in Reading. She eventually moved to an old folks home in Wokingham where she died in 1958 at the age of 81. Meanwhile, Bert and Annie had a happier life following the war and brought up 3 children, though none of them ever met Marion.

To round off this short history, here are photographs of Marion and her children with their spouses.

Many thanks to Tony Aherne for his comments and help.