Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

The ‘greetings telegram’ says, “Winning score Hearts 2 United 1 from Girl Ethel.” It doesn’t mention the wedding, although it is obviously for that. My father was an RNVR officer working on the ship,⁸ “Girl Ethel”, before he first met my mother.  

One of the other telegrams in the scrapbook also makes the jest of “Hearts 2 United 1”. My father’s family in Edinburgh lived at various addresses near the Hearts football club; he was a massive supported. Consequently, this witticism may have been particularly amusing to him.

In fact, he was born at 134 Gorgie Road; it was literally a stone’s throw away from the Heart of Midlothian Football Club. If he had opened the window of his house on a Saturday afternoon at 3 pm, he would have heard the roar of the crowd at the stadium. 

⁸ “Girl Ethel” was actually more like a ‘boat’. According to my younger brother Gavin, my father insisted on calling it a ship.