Alexander Smith Millar
5th January 1878 – December 1953
Alexander was born on 5th January 1878 at Woolmanhill, Aberdeen, the son of James Strachan Millar (1827-1895) and Esther Millar, nee Barazzoni, (1839 -1909)
James was the son of George Millar (born 1801 in Aberdeen and died before 1859), who was a cooper and later a journeyman. His mother was Rachel Strachan (born 1806 in Aberdeen). I have traced her family back two more generations to her father, John Strachan (1743-1794) and her Grandfather – also a John Strachan who married Christine Blenshell and was born about 1720. I should add in here that while I was doing our family tree I discovered that Rachel’s father (John Strachan), was killed in a quarrying accident after a piece of slate flew into his eye. Rachel was one of six children and the youngest was John Strachan. This brother went to Kings College in Aberdeen and then started to teach. He took a post in what was then York, Canada – now Toronto, as he could earn more money there to help support his mother and siblings. John became ordained in Canada and, when the English invaded he parlayed with them to prevent the town from being ransacked. He was later made the First Bishop of Toronto and, he founded the school which later became Toronto University. There is a statue to him outside the University.
John Strachan 1778 -1867
I have found that John Strachan built a house on the corner of Simcoe Street which is the next road up to the hotel that I always stayed in when I was flying – The Lord Simcoe Hotel – which has since been demolished. If only I had known about him in those days I could have visited the sites!
Esther was the daughter of Antonio Barazzoni (born 1792 in Como, died 1873 in Aberdeen) and Elizabeth Robertson (born 1809). Antonio was a glass blower and this link leads to an interesting article as to why a lot of Italians emigrated to England and Scotland and gives an insight as to why Antonio came here.
Mary and her sisters were in touch with someone who was also descended from the Barazzoni’s of Como and who had done a lot of research into the family. As a result, Elizabeth took Bunty to Como to meet up with the descendant of Antonio’s brother, Abramo. I have to say that, in the two photographs that Mary sent me, I cannot believe how similar the Barazzoni father is to Bunty.
One of the Barazzoni family is a well known concert pianist called Beatrice Barazzoni.
I found in the 1891 census that, Alexander aged 13, was a patient in the Royal Infirmary, Woolmanhill in Aberdeen and it states that he was a messenger boy. I have since been looking up about the Royal Infirmary and found that it later became known as the Woolmanhill Hospital.
Here is a link to an interesting article on the hospital
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolmanhill_Hospital
I have also looked up Woolmanhill on the web and it looks as if any houses have now been demolished as I can find no sign of houses there now.
I gather that Alexander or Sandy as he was known, helped out in his fathers pawn brokers shop. Apparently it was here that whilst repairing musical equipment, he learned to play various instruments. He worked in music for many years. At one state he played for silent movies in Ireland, and was in the orchestra of the London Palladium. My mother said he could play the xylophone and I gather he played the very large drum when in the Seaforth Highlanders as there used to be a photograph of him doing so.
Alexander seems to have been quite a ladies man. As I have said earlier in the post about Teddy, he had seven daughters with Alice Maud who thought she was married to him and only found out, in about 1933, when Teddy was 15, that he had married Maggie Chapman Clark Davidson on 24th September 1904 at St Machar, Aberdeen.
It appears from the above marriage certificate that Alexander was living at the same address as Maggie when they married. I wonder if he was lodging there and that is where she was working or if they were living together?
I have found the forms he signed when he joined the Territorial Force in Aberdeen on 1st July 1909 and in it he says that he is a piano repairer working for Marr Wood and that he was living at 56 Holborn Street. He also says that he has served in the forces before – in the Seaforth Highlanders. He is aged 32, married, and his address is 56 Holborn Street.
His medical form states that he is height 5 foot 8 inches, and his vision and physical development are good. From the forms, I believe he did annual training with the Territorial Army until he was transferred to a unit that I am unable to read, but discharged as unfit for further war service as medically unfit on 1st September 1914 in Bedford. By the time he was discharged he would have been aged 37.
The other interesting piece of information I can glean from his forms is that his wife is called Maggie Miller and is living at 1 Raglan Street, Dundee.
I have a copy of the marriage certificate of Alexander and Maggie. He married her at the age of 26 when he was living at 16 Ashvale Place, Aberdeen. Maggie was aged 18 and a housekeeper living at the same address as Alexander. Maggie came from Newhills, Aberdeen and her father was a paper mill worker. Her full name was Maggie Chapman Clark Davidson.
I have done some research online as to why he went to Bedford and discovered that in August 1914, 17,000 soldiers and 4000 horses were sent to Bedford from Scotland by train, for training in preparation for leaving for France. They were billeted in unfurnished houses and with residents who appear to have been only too willing to take them in.
According to notes that I have from Bunty and Jean, Alexander met Alice when he was in lodgings nearby and he managed to get himself moved to live with her family.
Here are links to two interesting websites about the Scottish soldiers in Bedford and Leaving Bedford and, you will see the uniform he wore in the Seaforth Highlanders.
It says in one article about the soldiers in Bedford, that there was a lot of sickness among them from August 1914 to January 1915 as, so many men had lived in isolated places in Scotland and had no immunity against such illnesses as measles, scarlet fever and diphtheria, and with many fatalities. It is possible that Alexander was one of these sick because he was invalided out of the army on 1st April 1915.
Alexander and Alice had a daughter Joan, who died shortly after birth, in the last quarter of 1915. She was born in Chapel en le Frith, Derbyshire so it appears that they were having an affair before he was discharged from the army as that took place on 1st April 1915. They went on to have twin daughters, of whom I can find no record, so I assume that they were stillborn, in 1916. My mother always used to mention the three sisters who had died and said that Joan had red hair. Having recently been sent a photograph of Alexander’s father, that is where the red hair comes from.
Joan was certainly born out of wedlock as her birth certificate has her down as Joan James but, we think that Alexander and Alice went through some form of marriage, although I have not been able to find any proof of that.
They then went to Dublin, where Jean was born in 1917 at 2 Park View, Dublin and then onto Belfast, where Teddy was born in 1918 and Bunty in 1919 at 3 Cromac Street. Alexander was playing the piano for the silent movies in both Dublin and Belfast. Notes I have say that they left Ireland because of the Troubles there and returned to England living at 20 Daniel Place Hendon. I have written about the family there when writing about Teddy.
He left Alice in about 1933 having met a dancer in the chorus line at the theater where he was working in the orchestra. He moved in with Winifred King and had a son, Terence in 1935 and married her in 1941. We believe that they lived in Wimbledon. I rather think that eventually he left Winifred too and when Alexander was ill with cancer he went to stay with Bunty in Maidstone but as she had four small children she was not able to cope and so he came to stay with us in Chaucer Road.
I have had this short tale told by Bunty to Elizabeth about that time.”
When Grandad was ill and came to stay with us in Maidstone, Alice Maud and Flo came to see him – he was dying of cancer. He was worried about two old ladies climbing those stairs from the yard so he ‘fiddled around with a rope’ – ‘he was very good with his hands as well as with his music’ – and made a banister for them to hold on to. So they saw him again.
The stairs from the yard refers to the fact we were living above a shop which Dad managed.
This shop was on Gabriel Hill, Maidstone.
He then came to stay with us at Chaucer Road where this photo was taken. I remember him sitting in this chair in the photograph below and Cheryl now has that chair!
Eventually he became too ill to stay at home so, he was moved to Hill House, Minster, which was formerly the Minster Workhouse, and died there a few weeks later. He is buried in St Peters church yard. Alice Maud and her sister Florence are buried with him.
Mary had made notes of conversations with her mother, Bunty and I am now going to attach them as they are of interest
Notes from Aunty Bunty March 7th 1992
More Notes from Bunty
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Alice Maud Millar nee James
23RD AUGUST 1880-16TH MARCH 1960
Alice Maud nee James was born to George James (1852 – 1936) a railway guard and Emma James nee Hirdle (1855 – 1941).
Alice Maud was born at 9 Battison Street, Bedford.
Mary at 8 Pattison Street, where Alice was bornAlice was the third of the five children of Emma and George.:
Charles Edward James born 1875 -1948
George William James born in 1877 both in Bedford -1877
Alice Maud
Ann Elizabeth James (known as Nan) born in 1883-1957
Nan about 1913Florence Mary (known as Flo) born in 1886-1959
Flo About 1913I do not have a photo of Alice taken at the same time as the above photos were taken and rather think that she must have already left home with Alexander at the time. I have far fewer photos of her altogether so imagine it is probably as she had to work to support herself so was not around when photos were taken on the beach etc.
Alice’s family appear to have moved around quite a lot as in 1891 census they were living at 6 Prebend Street,
In the the 1901 census they were at 4 Leigh Terrace, Ampthill Road, Bedford and then in 1911 at 8 Prebend Street next door to the above photo.
Mary and I went to Bedford and to Aspley Guise together and found most of the houses that the James family lived in and the church where George and Emma were married and as it was close to the houses that they lived in, I presume that the family also worshipped there.
Alice met Alexander when he was billeted nearby and he managed to arrange to move into her parents home. Of their life until 1933 when he left her I have written about under his name so I shall now continue from about 1933 with what I do know of her life.
From notes taken from Jean -Alice’s eldest daughter- Alice, Nan and Flo were all milliners and Nan did elaborate embroidery and dressmaking while Emma did lace making. I do remember my Grandmother trying to teach me to crochet. When I researched the Hirdles – Emma’s family- I found that they were all were straw hat makers and milliners so maybe their talents ran in the family.
Jean also said that Alice had been the manageress of the LMS restaurant. LMS was the London Midland and Scottish railway which used to go through Bedford and according to Jean they did champagne and high class dinners there. (Not like the railways of today!)
Not a great deal is known about the years after Alexander left Alice but from notes that Mary and Marion have made I understand that Teddy was already away in Broadstairs where Flo and Nan were governors of Stone Bay School and had arranged a position there for her. Alice went away taking Chick with her (we believe to Broadstairs where Alice worked for Nan at the Rothsay hotel in Pierremont Avenue ) and leaving Bunty and Jean with their father. Eventually Jean married Stanley Miller at the end of 1937 and so leaving just Bunty with her father until Flo fetched her and started her working at the ophthalmic hospital in Maidstone.
I gather from Mary’s notes that Chick had the worst of things as Teddy had already gone to Broadstairs, and Jean and Bunty had some good times to look back on such as going to theatres and seeing Alicia Markova dance but poor Chick was living with Nan who was not a nice person. The fact that she was not a nice person was proved the day that my parents married as Nan told Teddy at her wedding that Alexander and Alice were not really married. That was the first that Teddy knew about it. I do know that my mother adored her father so she must have been most upset about it all. I will write about the Alice and Alexander siblings later.
Alice and Flo whose husband had died in 1920, lived together at 29 Whitbread Avenue. I know that Alice did not have much money but rather think that Flo was left fairly well off after her husband died. In fact I have just found the will and Harold Ernest Gough left her £295 14s 2d in his will but of course she may have had more in her name. I know that when Flo died, a year before Alice, she left everything to Alice which was £1678 19s. Flo was a lovely, kindly soul and she and Alice got on well. Flo called Alice “Lally”.
They went to live at Berryfield, Upton on Severn with Bunty and Alfred for some time with Flo dying there on 16th May 1959 and Alice a year later on 16th March 1960. When Alice died she left £2075 2s 7d.
Both are buried here at St Peters churchyard with Alexander.
I have written a post about Teddy’s sisters and their families with photos