Contractor, eldest son of James Simpson Scotland Symon and Isabella Bruce, b.  24 Sep 1900, High Street, Errol, m. Mary Ann Campbell Smart, 19 Jul 1935, Errol, one son & one daur. Died 20 Apr 1952, aged 51 years, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, usual res. Inverlea, High Street, Errol. Both Peter and his wife Mary are buried in Murie Cemetery, Errol, in a grave a few yards to the north of the entrance gates, just over the wall from a high Sessile oak, one of the highest trees in the wood that lines the drive leading to the cemetery.

Peter was born in a house on Errol's High Street: probably Bower View, the house in which his father Scot Symon had been brought up and where his grandparents Peter and Margaret Symon still were living.  He was educated at Errol primary school and at Sharp's Institute, Perth.  In 1915, he left school and initially served for two years with the firm of architects P.H. Thoms & W. Fleming Wilkie, 46 Reform Street, Dundee.  The initial arrangement was his traineeship "should only be for two years, in order to gain experience in measuring, building, and office work, so that he should be better qualified for assisting his father in business" (reference letter from Thoms & Wilkie, 5 Apr 1917).  Peter's duties included preparing plans and detail drawings of buildings, surveying, measuring and plotting land and buildings and taking levels of ground.  He also pursued studies at the local Technical College (Bell Street).  "Considering the short time he has been with us, he is a remarkably neat, accurate and artistic draughtsman, and a very expert tracer", stated his employers in the above letter of reference, who noted that Peter was "a high-principled lad" and hoped "to persuade him to complete an apprecticeship with us, as his natural gifts and disposition are specially suited for our profession".  Peter did in fact continue with Thoms & Wilkie, for a further one-and-a-half years, until leaving on reaching "Military age" in September 1918.  The letter of reference, dated 7 Sep 1918, again stated he was "a particularly neat, accurate and expeditious draughtsman", whose work "invariably shows care and thought". he had gained "considerable experience in general building and surveying work, largely on estates, and including Farm Buildings, Field Drainage, Crop Surveying &c.  He is qualified to prepare Working and Detail Drawings and Specifications, and has also assisted in the preparation of Schedules of Quantities". 

From September 1918, Peter served in the Glasgow Highlanders (Highland Light Infantry).  He probably did not take part in any active service in the first World War, the armistice being 11 Nov 1918.  He was stationed part of the time in Köln, as part of the army of occupation.  Somehow he contracted pleurisy during his service.  At some point in later years, possibly not during or immediately after his service, he had to spend a period of time recuparating in a sanatorium or convalescent home at Haddington, East Lothian (possibly the Alderston Convalescent Home of the Scottish Rural Worker's Friendly Society, at Haddington, which was in operation from before 1930).  His heart and his general health were permanently weakened.  In later years, although he could drive, he prefered to cycle all over the Carse of Gowrie to see jobs. 

Peter (whose maternal grandfather was from the Butterstone area) and Mary (who had worked in service in Highland Perthshire) had plans to move to the glens near Aberfeldy and buy a small upland farm.  He had looked into it with a farmer there.  But after Mary's death, Peter abandoned the idea.  He apparently went to Errol church services twice on a Sunday, and always wore a bowler hat to the church. 

After Marys' death, Peter did the cooking for his two children, Scot and Mary, at Inverlea.   He also cooked for the men when he went with a group of them up to Caithness to do a fencing job for the owner of Kinmonth estate, Rhynd, near Perth, who also had an estate in Caithness.  Peter was cooking porridge for breakfast on an old-fashioned range under the chimney, when a big lump of soot fell down the chimney and into the porridge.  Peter just stirred it in and served the porridge up to the men.

His death resulted  from a cut to the hand.  He was helping some of the men with a building job at a house at Glencarse, and hit his hand with a hammer.  The house was one of a terrace, still there in 2019, in Glencarse village, running along the north side of the (then, now bypassed) main Dundee to Perth road, immediately to east of the junction with the road going off to old Glencarse and Kinfauns. The occupier of the house was called Black. Although he went straight to the doctor's (Dr Edington, the notoriously incompetent Errol village GP: see Brown, 1999: 19), the cut became infected and within a short space of time he had contracted tenatus (lockjaw).  He was transferred to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, but died.  My father saw him in the Perth hospital and said his father was in great pain.  He did not see him after he was transferred to Edinburgh. A Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) was held at the Perth sheriff court, as per all accidental deaths.  Family legend has it that the doctor was let off the hook by the fact that Peter had been transferred to Edinburgh before his death.  Unfortunately all the FAI papers from that time, including his case, have been lost, so we shall never know exactly what happened, other than was reported about the Inquiry in the local paper.

"Carse Contractor Dies Suddenly", The Courier and Advertiser, Dundee, Tuesday, 22 April 1952, 3F.  Short Obituary. 

"Died After Hitting Finger With Hammer", The Courier and Advertiser, Dundee, Saturday, 3 May 1952, 3DE.  Report of Fatal Accident Inquiry.  The legal process was a bit quicker then than it is today. 

Brown, Margaret Gillies, 1999, Around the Rowan Tree (Glendaruel, Argyll Publishing), p. 19.  (Chapter 3: "Brilliant at Babies" is about Dr Edington.)

Only daur of Andrew Smart and Cecelia Wanliss, b. 3 Aug 1906 Rawes farm, Longforgan, m. Peter Symon, 19 Jul 1935 Errol, one son & one daur. Died 12 Jul 1950, aged 43 years, Perth Royal Infirmary, usual res. Inverlea, High Street, Errol. Buried Murie Cemetery, Errol.

Attended Harris Academy, Dundee.  After left school, had at least two places working as domestic servant in landed households in Highland Perthshire, including Dunalastair estate. Another place seems to have been at Taymount House, Taymount estate, overlooking the River Tay, a mile north of Stanley and about nine miles north of Perth. 

An autograph book gifted to her by Alex Thomson, as a Christmas present in 1923, full of verse dedications and decorated with drawings, is in the possession of her son.  There are autographs of friends right up to the year of her marriage in 1935.

After leaving paid domestic service, and married when approaching her 29th birthday, going on to raise a son and daughter in Errol, during which time she helped husband Peter with his builders contracting business.  After the 1939-1945 war, plans to buy small upland farm near Aberfeldy were abandoned by onset of lung cancer, from which, despite being a lifelong non-smoker, she died after a short illness.  Mary had naturally curly hair. 

Although she had only one sibling -  brother Andrew, who sadly lost all contact with his sister shortly after her marriage -  my grandmother had a large number of aunts and uncles and, consequently, a very large number of cousins.  The Wanless side was particularly numerous and included several who had emigrated, to Canada, South Africa, U.S.A.   The Smart side was less numerous but closer to hand. 

Mary Symon (right) grading plums, probably at Seggieden orchard, one of several orchards rented by Peter Symon during the 1930s and 1940s.  Plums fetched higher prices than apples or pears and were carefully graded for sale to local fruit merchants.  Press photograph, source and photographer unknown. 

School teacher, youngest son of William Swanney and Catherine McDougall, b.  12 Jun 1906, Croy schoolhouse, Inverness-shire, m. 15 Jul 1935 Margaret Smith, two daurs & two sons.  Educated at Inverness Royal Academy and Glasgow University (B.Sc. Hons, 1928).  Taught at schools in Skye, Inverness, Boat of Garten (all Inverness-shire) and St Madoes, Perthshire.  Died 30 Aug 1990, aged 84 years, Perth Royal Infirmary, usual residence Deshar, Lovers Lane, Scone, Perth.  Cremated Perth Crematorium.  Ashes scattered in grounds of Perth Crematorium.  Inscription on memorial stone, with his father, mother, brothers and sisters, in Croy graveyard, Invernesshire.

An article in The People's Journal of 8 June 1968 (p.17) noted that, while at Glasgow University, from where he graduated with an honours chemistry degree from Glasgow University, he gained a blue in shinty, football, and badminton.  He was captain of the university badminton team.  Willie's two brothers, Calum (Malcolm) and Jack (John) both also graduated in science from Glasgow University, while his elder sister Bessie gradated in music from another place.  His sister Ella went into nursing but left to become housekeeper for his mother when his sister Maimie (Mary) died, aged 20, of tuberculosis.  (Ella also apparently had weak eyesight which hindered her nursing career.) 

Willie's first teaching post was one term as science teacher at George Watson's College, Edinburgh.  After that he moved to Broadford Junior Secondary School, on Skye, where he taught maths and science.  There he met Meg Smith, also in her first teaching post, and they became engaged.  At some point, between leaving university and 1935, he also worked in a bank in Inverness for several months, due to no suitable teaching post being available.  After Skye, Willie taught for two years at Farraline Park junior secondary school in Inverness, which was where he was working at the time of their marriage in 1935.  He was then appointed as headmaster of Boat of Garten public school, known as "Deshar" school, in 1935 or 1936.  There he stayed for some 14 or 15 years, his period at Deshar spanning the war years, during which time the Swanneys provided a home for two Edinburgh evacuee children, Olive Ramage (b. 25 Sep 1930, d. 19 Sep 2011 Calgary, Alberta, Canada) and her brother Alan Ramage (who later returned to live in Edinburgh).  After demobilisation Olive returned to spend summer holidays at Deshar for several years.  Almost until her death she kept in touch with my mother, some five and a half years her younger.  We visited her and her husband in Calgary, Alberta in 1979.  Olive, Alan and his wife, paid a surprise visit to Granny, by  then widowed and living in sheltered housing at Servite House, Viewlands Place, Errol, in August 1992.  It had been some 50 years since my mother had seen Alan. 

At Boat of Garten school, my grandfather had two assistant teachers.  His duties included lighting the fire in classroom before class.  There was no electricity in the building until it was installed after the war (by electrician Mr Robertson, in whose household near Inverness my mother boarded during her two years at Inverness Royal Academy in the post-war years).  For some ten years the family used tilly lamps to light the schoolhouse.  The Strathspey and Badenoch Herald some years ago published a old photograph of the members of the school in 1936 with their teacher William Swanney. 

School teacher, youngest daur of Hugh Smith, shepherd, and Margaret Reid, his wife, b.7 July 1907, Battan Cottage (shepherd's house), Kincraig farm, Alvie parish, Inverness-shire.  Baptised "Maggie", she was named after her mother, also Maggie, following the wishes of her father, who died three months to the day after her birth. There are different spellings of her birthplace: Battan cottage, Baden cottage, etc., which is to be expected from the anglication of the Gaelic word "badan", meaning "small spot" or "thicket", according to Gaelic-English dictionaries.  Her mother moved out of the shepherd's house on Kincraig farm soon after she was widowed, when Maggie, her last-born child, was a few months old. Maggie spent the remainder of her childhood in a house next to the main A9 road from Perth to Inverness, on Dunachton estate. We always called that cottage "Meadowside". It was owned by the large landowner Alfred Mackintosh (referred to in some circles as 'The Mackintosh' because he was hereditary 'clan chief'), who seems to have kept Mrs Smith employed in knitting socks and doing laundry.  Educated Kingussie High School and Edinburgh University (M.A. 1928); with period in Tours, France.  m. 15 Jul 1935 William Swanney, Lynwilg Hotel, Alvie, two daurs & two sons.  Died 28 Jul 1998, aged 91 years, Perth, usual res. Servite House, Errol.  Cremated Perth Crematorium.  Ashes scattered in grounds of Perth  Crematorium.  No memorial.

She went to Edinburgh University to study French and Latin.  On returning from her spell as an assistante in France, at Tours, she would only tell her enquiring neighbours around Kingussie that she'd "been to Inverness" for a while! 

Granny moved into "Servite" sheltered housing, Viewlands Place, Errol (in which village her two daughters also lived) after Grandpa died.  She had a self-contained flat and went occasionally to the lounge, shared with the other residents.  A good friend was Ella Brown, in Errol, whom she would call up in the morning to compare progress on The Scotsman crossword, which she usually managed to finish quickly.  She was also good at mental arithmetic, the school children being set an exercise first thing every morning in class.  She greatly enjoyed teaching. Before she retired, her last teaching post was at Errol Junior Secondary School. After that school closed, when Perth High School opened in the early 1970s, she continued to teach, for some time, at Northern District primary school in Perth and also at other schools, as required. 

Granny had a strong constitution and generally she enjoyed robust good health right into her older age.  She had however a spell of several months off work when she was teaching, recuperating from an ailment.  In her later years she suffered from a problem with a little finger that became bent over and unable to be manipulated and surgery in 1989, when she was 82, was not totally successful.  She would close a letter saying her wee finger told her to stop writing, joking that "it pampers me".  In 1992, in her 85th year, she had surgery successfully to remove cancerous cells in a facial wart.  The operation did not prevent her from enjoying a ride on the world's steepest cog-wheel railway, at Pilatus, near Lake Lucerne, on a holiday in Switzerland with son David and daughter-in-law Sheila during June of the same year: followed by trips to Jersey and Cyprus within the following nine months, with daughter Freda and son-in-law Derek, and daughter Eleanor and son-in-law Scot respectively.