Scot and Bella Symon's children

Peter Symon in 1932, aged 31 years,  as best man at the wedding of Joseph Maconochie and Elizabeth Danskin.  Photograph in a cutting from the Courier and Advertiser, 18 July 1932. Photographer unknown.  The flower girl does not look very happy.  

David Symon, aged 74 years, October 1986, Errol. 

The Scottish press could not help but compare David with his brother Scot (left), despite misspelling the elder boy's name. 

Above are pictures from cuttings (photographers not  known) found in Uncle David's personal effects.  They show David as a footballer with Dundee Violet Junior football club (est. 1883), whose ground was then, and still is, Glenesk Park, Dundee.  Violet won the Scottish Junior Cup in the 1928-29 season. 

Like his elder brother Scot, David played in half-back (midfield) position.  Scot had also started with Violet before signing for senior club Dundee.  When, in February 2014, Scot was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame, his son Kenneth gave his father's old Dundee Violet shirt to the museum on long loan, to add to their display exhibits of football memorabilia. 

David's passion for the game continued when he was away from Errol.  While working in Belfast, David is thought to have played for Linfield Football Club.  Later, when arrived in Africa, he began organising football matches in the bush.  From the start he was very impressed by the abilities of young West African footballers.  He presciently remarked to his family and friend that, if they were properly organised and trained, West African footballers could become some of the best players in the world. 

David was also a "stalwart" of Errol cricket club, founded in 1921.  The club played home matches in Errol public park, gifted to the village by Lady Ogilvie Dalgleish (somewhat confusingly, of Errol Park), who was widowed in December 1913, although the ground had been earmarked for a recreation park for some time.  Lawrence Melville writes: "Since the Recreation Park was presented by the late Lady Ogilvie Dalgleish to the public the sportsmen of the parish and the other inhabitants have not been slow to take full advantage of the facilities afforded.  Cricket and Football Clubs have been formed and some members of those have displayed distinction in the higher fields of athletics."  (Melville, Errol, 1935, p. 85).  

Like his father, David was a Freemason, enrolled on 16 Sept 1936 as a Life Member of Lodge Carse of Gowrie  No. 871.  He was an Associate of London Central Y.M.C.A., Tottenham Court Road (until November 1937).  On leaving the Armed Forces he became a Member of the Royal British Legion, Perth Branch, on 21 Aug 1944.

David returned to Africa as a "mining engineer" after the war.  This time he flew.  Arrival Ikeja Airport, Nigeria, 19 December 1945.  Embarked Lagos 3 June 1947 (by air). 

He returned for the final time to Africa in 1950, arriving in Nigeria on 22 January.  He left from Kano on 25 July 1951 and returned permanently to Scotland.  

Opposite is David's British Passport photograph, obtained October 1945.  

While in Nigeria he worked in camps in the region of Kano and Jos.  He became friendly with an anthropology student from Edinburgh University, Tanya Merry Baker, who was carrying out fieldwork, believed to be for a doctoral thesis.   They would correspond for some time.  The letters were lost after his death. 

On return to his home village of Errol, David put into practice plans to start a dried vegetable business.  He later assumed control of the business James S. Symon & Son, after the unexpected death of his elder brother, Peter, in 1952.   He managed the business as sole partner until his nephew, Scot Symon, became a partner in 1959.   By that time David's interests had moved away from food processing to market gardening.  He took over the running of the market gardens and orchards at Murie Gardens, where he also kept pigs.  Murie Gardens would become an institution, over more than two decades, during which countless numbers of local lads (and lassies) gained experience in summer and weekend jobs at the berries and the pigs. 

Uncle David and Betty Demond, at Murie Gardens, early 1990s. 

Memorial stones on graves of families of Scot Symon and Bella Bruce (middle) and Peter Symon and Margaret Bruce (right), 12 July 2007. Errol old burying ground (second row of memorials inside boundary wall at west end).

The meeting of the Heritors of Errol parish held on 7 February 1924 considered a letter they had received on the 4th inst from Willsher Goodall, Builder, Errol with sketches of proposed tombstones to be erected by James Symon, contractor, in memory of his parents, and of John Paterson, Contractor, Ohio, USA, in memory of his father Thomas Paterson. The first (the Symon's) would be grey or black granite, 5ft 6ins high, second granite 6 feet high. Clerk reported there is a large stone in second place, Robertson, Australia, erected 1853 and this stone will be required to be moved a little. "The meeting unanimously agreed to  the erection of the former on the usual conditions, & that it be at the owners risk and responsibility. After visiting the Churchyard it was agreed to leave the other till next meeting." (National Records of Scotland,  HR124/1-8 Records of heritors of Errol parish 1795-1930). [Note: Scot Symon and his son Peter Symon, trading as James S,.Symon & Son, contractors, Errol, would take over Willsher Goodall's sequestrated building firm in the earliy 1930s.] [Note: church property hitherto under control of Heritors of Errol parish was transferred to Errol Parish Council by an Act of Parliament of 1925.]