Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

Auntie Violet on Eigg

During the Second World War my aunts (Flora and Violet), and my Uncle Donald, visited Eigg on one or more occasions. This is evident from the Eigg Photo Archive, but also evident from the wartime letters written between my mother and father. During this period, Violet was in her early teens, and Donald was in his late teens. So it is very probable that Donald acted as a ‘chaperone’ for Violet during these visits. 

There is one photo of Uncle Donald (my mother’s brother) as a young man together with Dugald MacKinnon it seems. I not sure who the young girl is who he is standing next to; it might even be my Auntie Flora. The fact that Donald is pictured with a horse, suggests that he helped doing the summer croft work. In other words, I can’t imagine that my grandmother Morag, and her children, were ‘freeloaders’ when they visited the island in the summer. However, I seemed to remember Katie MacKinnon telling me that the younger children were more bother than help, so were probably allowed to spend most of the time playing.

The photo with my Uncle Donald as a young man belongs to the K & D MacKinnon collection (perhaps the K & D stand for Katie and Dugald). The copy of the photo is not very good, as I had to improvise not having an adequate camera and equipment at the time. But the photo clearly shows the Campbell’s ‘trademark’, a wild shock of curly black hair! He looks to be about eighteen years old, so it is probably during the Second World War.

The photos showing Auntie Violet are also most probably taken during the Second World War, because she looks to be in her teens. As mentioned, it is probable that she travelled to Eigg with her brother Donald. Her photos are from the M & C Campbell collection. So it is also probable that they visited their Campbell and MacKinnon relations on the island.            

Flora’s Wedding photos

I do not know the exact dates of the Eigg Archive photos, except for two of them. Two pictures of Auntie Flora’s (my mother’s sister) wedding (also from the K & D MacKinnon collection). Flora was married on March 16, 1951. This was one day after the ‘Ides of March’, March 15, when I was born, and one day before St. Patrick’s Day, which was the day my mother Rhoda died, and also the day her mother, Morag died, that is, March 17.

One of the photos shows Auntie Violet as bridesmaid. Katie MacKinnon was not only related to Auntie Flora (cousins), but Flora was Katie’s best friend and bridesmaid at her wedding.  So it is not surprising that the K & D MacKinnon collection includes photos of Flora’s wedding in Glasgow. I think I even attended the wedding, but I don’t remember it because I was only two years’ old at the time.

In other words, my auntie might have sent the photos to Katie by post.  My mother also received a wedding photo which is included here, and which is of much better quality. From the left it shows my mother, Rhoda; her brother Alick; her sister Violet; Robert Ralston (the groom); Flora (the bride); the people to the right of Flora in the photo must be Robert Ralston’s family.