A number of years ago, the missionary Catherine Rew did an oral history with her daughter Kathryn Rew Van’t-Wout. This is part one of the transcript. See here for a biography of Catherine. I have added explanatory information in square brackets [like this].

Can you tell me about your Mum’s Mum and Dad who lived up in Leibster?

I don’t really know much about them because I only met Granny once when I was 2 years old. Grandpa was a crofter/fisherman and Granny looked after the family. I don’t know what she did before. But up there, there wasn’t a lot of work. Of my 2 aunts, Christine was a cook in the house of a laird and Annabel was a house keeper in the home of some other wealthy people. Donald [brother of Christine and Annabel] ran the farm with his father and they had a fishing boat so, he was a fisherman in season. Donald also took over from his father. Frank [another brother] married a French woman [Janette] after the First World War and they went to Australia. My Mum, (Robertina) looked after my Granny until the war came and she left in 1915 to go down to Glasgow to the Southern General Hospital to train as a nurse so that she could help during the war. My 2 aunts took turns staying at home to look after their Mum.

Did they all get married?

Yes. Christine (Aunty Teenie) had a daughter called Cathy the same as me. (Granny’s name was Cathy.) Annabel had only one daughter and she was called Iona. Donald had 2 daughters and a son. Janette took that illness where you lose strength – multiple sclerosis. She went to Germany where they had some new treatment for it. The treatment helped her so that she was able to walk about and it seemed as if it had been cured, but then it started up again and it wasn’t long before she died. I don’t think that Frank had any of a family.

Mum and Dad got married in 1921. My brother Gavin was born in February ’25 and I was born in July ’26. There was a baby in ’28 but he only lived for 5 days. He had something wrong with his heart. And then my sister Ruby was born in ’31. That was the family complete. My mother’s mother’s name was Catherine. My father’s mother was Jane. So I am Catherine Jane.

And what was your mother’s father’s name? Donald.

And your father’s father’s name?

I think he was John. So that my father was Gavin Struthers McFadyen. My grandmother’s name was Jane Struthers and she came from Lesmahagow. Billy [Catherine Rew’s son] went to the church to try and look up the register of marriages but there had been a fire and it was burnt. According to Grandpa’s birth certificate, his mother and father were married in September 1862. Grandpa was the last of the family and he was born in 1887.

What is the story about Marjory?

Well, in those days they always helped with the farms. There was a neighbour, an old lady and she wasn’t well.  My Granny sent Marjory, her oldest daughter to go and stay with her to help her. It was a cold winter and she couldn’t even get up to make herself a cup of tea. The room hadn’t been used for a while and the bed that she had to sleep in was damp through lack of airing. Marjory got pneumonia and it developed into TB. She was 21 when she died.

Now about your Dad’s family.

I think my Dad had 4 sisters and 2 brothers. Two sisters died and I knew nothing about them. I knew Aunty Jean. She was married and had a daughter called Margaret. And there was another sister whose name was Margaret, but she was always called Aunty Daisy. She wasn’t married and she had a drapers’ shop in Glasgow. One of the brothers died during the war and the other one died as he was being taken by ambulance to hospital. He had appendicitis or something like that. So I didn’t know them. I only knew 2 aunts of my father’s family. His parents were dead before I was born. He was the youngest you see.

Did they come from Glasgow?

My grandfather and grandmother lived in Edinburgh. I am not sure where my grandfather was born but he married my grandmother who came from Lesmahagow so he may have lived nearer Lesmahagow. In those days it was not so likely that he would live far away. I mean, now you travel around, but it is quite likely that it was somewhere near Lesmahagow that his father lived. He worked with the railway so he may just have been living near. They went to live in Edinburgh when they got married and my Dad was born in Edinburgh.

When did they move to Glasgow or did your Dad move to Glasgow to work?

He went into the army and after the army he worked in the Central Station as the Station Master. My father and mother got a flat in Renfrew when they got married. Dad worked in the Central Station and Mum continued her nursing at the Southern General until she got her certificate for her midwifery. That was 1921.

Mum was brought up in the Free Presbyterian Church and my Dad had been an elder in the Church of Scotland, so they went along to the Parish Church when they went to live in Renfrew. They went several times, but every time they went, when they sat in the seat, someone came and looked at them because they were sitting in a seat that belonged to someone else. For communion they have certain place they sit at, so they asked the minister if they could be given a seat. He said, “Oh, no. You can sit anywhere.” However, when other people looked at them because they were sitting in their seat, they just stopped going. So, they didn’t go to any church after that.

When mum finished her training, passed her tests for a midwife, they bought a semi-detached bungalow in Murray Street, Renfrew. My brother was born in February 1925. I was born in July 1926. We had a little brother, Donald, who died when he was 5 days old. He was born in 1928 and then my sister, Ruby, was born in 1931. We were all born in Murray Street, Renfrew, with a midwife and a Dr attending. We were not born in a hospital, but at the house.

We lived around the corner from Albert Hall Assembly [Brethren Church]. A girl lived there who was about 4 years older than I was. She started taking me to Sunday School. So, when I was 3 and Gavin was 4 ½, she took us to Sunday School in Albert Hall, Renfrew.  When I was 4, I was in the 2^nd class. I remember one Sunday when the teacher was talking about the Lord Jesus, it just suddenly struck me that the LORD Jesus loved ME. And I told the LORD Jesus I loved Him. But that is all. I didn’t know anything more than to love Him. Well, we went through Sunday School and when I was 13 the Second World War started.

I was still at school and I remember the first air raid there was. Mum got us to get under the bed and we had the eiderdown and pillows and I hugged my sister. I remember thinking that if a bomb drops, I’ll die and I haven’t given my heart to the LORD Jesus, so I won’t go to heaven. And then I thought, if I do give my heart to the LORD Jesus, then my wee sister will be left all alone. So I didn’t. I thought I would do it in the morning. However, I didn’t do it in the morning.

I went on at school, still going to Sunday School every Sunday. From when we were able to speak, Mum taught us to pray and every night we used to say our prayers at Mum’s knee. She saw that we went to Sunday School and were brought up to know God and to know His way. It wasn’t in the same way as we do in the Assemblies. It was a Presbyterian Church way.

Part Two will appear next Wednesday.

Katie Barclay always wondered why she was fond of Glasgow Central station. She is the grand-daughter of Catherine Rew and a historian at Queen’s University Belfast.