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Christine (Rennie) with Robert John Mackay of Embo

Christine (Rennie) with Robert John Mackay of Embo

Date Added: 21 November 2012 Year: 1933 Institution Name: dnhhl Cat No: | 2012_056_02 | Picture No: 11427

Monochrome photo of Christine (Rennie) with Robert John Mackay of Embo. Christine was the daughter of Herbert Button and Margaret (nee) Mackay, daughter of Thomas and Lexy Mackay of Embo. See family tree at picture #11261. Robert John Mackay son of Mr & Mrs R. Mackay of Hope Cottage, Embo (see picture #3305). Robert John Mackay owned the Embo shop advertised regularly as 'the bargain shop' at the top right of the Northern Times front page.

Dimensions: jpeg file

1 Comment

This is a very different Robert John Mackay (RJ) that I remember from the 1940s and 1950s. The RJ that I knew as a child was not this handsome debonair fellow but a rather grumpy and parsimonious man who tended his store with great care and frugality. How often did we as children run to his store with an empty Cruikshank lemonade bottle rescued from the shore or some midden hoping for the penny refund and then only ending up with a halfpenny sweet instead? RJ was also a great gossip who ferreted out all the village news and scandal with great determination and anything worthy of any note was reported by him in the next issue of the Northern Times, 'The Rag'. Perhaps that is why he was also often referred to as the "Village Author". I think that I have told elsewhere that when I was once seeking employment in the Rhodesian BSA Police I approached RJ for a character reference and he gave me a glowing one but it was made unusable by the rather quaint claim that I was "from fine stock". Well of course he would have to say that as he was related to me through his mother Kate Mackay (Katy Curley).

Comment left on 03 June 2013 at 18:44 by Kenneth Mackay Many thanks for this recollection Administrator
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