The Other Munros

Anne Seth Mitchell-Munro

Description

This is a true story.
Following the Scottish Highland Clearances, Teenage brothers John and Murdoch Munro headed south across the desolte mountainous regions. Thier plan was to go Lowlands and seek their fortune.
Witht he help of mysterious invidual, both suceeded beyond their wildest dream. However, their voyage through life was not an easy one. The opposing experiences of Joy and Sorrow were not strangers to them.

Sujets

• Biography
• Brotherhood
• Family
• Autobiography
• Challenges

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse UK
• Date de parution: 16 février 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798823080583
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Other Munros





Anne Seth Mitchell-Munro










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© 2023 Jim Currie. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/16/2023

ISBN: 979-8-8230-8059-0 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-8230-8058-3 (e)






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Contents
Dedication
Foreword

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34

Acknowledgement



Dedication
In loving memory of my dear mother Joan Mitchell-Munro



Foreword
A round the time of the Scottish Highland Clearances, Murdoch and Janet Munro, along with their small children, were evicted from their croft in Sutherland, to be resettled on the bleak North East Coast of Scotland. Life was extremely difficult for the family.
When two of their sons – John and Murdoch junior – reached their middle teenage years, they decided to travel south to the richer farming areas of Lanarkshire, hoping to find work and make a future for themselves. Their lives followed parallel courses of love, sadness, joy, fortunes...good and bad... as well as the tragedies they suffered.
This is their story: as passed-on down the generations - from Munro to Munro.
Anseth Mitchell Munro is the pen name of Anne Seth Currie nee Mitchell. Her mother, Joan Mitchell nee Munro, was a direct descendant of the characters in this book.
The name “Anseth” comes from an incident in Primary One at Haghill Primary School in Glasgow, Scotland in 1937.
Anne’ s older sister May (Mary) Wilkie Dunn nee Mitchell Munro was asked the name of her new-born little sister. To this, May answered “Anseth.” So there you have it.



Chapter 1
I t was a miserable, bitterly cold day at the beginning of February. John stepped out of the little fishing boat into the shallow icy water of the North Sea. He dragged the boat up the pebble shore and made it fast - barely able to tie the rope - his hands, red raw, painful and stiff with the cold. He was frozen to the inner core of his being - his feet like dead appendages at the end of his legs. It always seemed to be cold; even in summer, there was usually a thin keen wind blowing off the North Sea. Oh how he hated this barren, desolate God forsaken place!
He was a strong, well built handsome seventeen years old lad with a pleasant disposition. Every day either himself or his brother would take their little open fishing boat out to sea, to supplement the food supply for the entire family which, beside themselves, consisted of father, mother, two other younger brothers and a wee sister.
On this particular day, young John was very despondent– more so than usual. Looking at the meagre catch of fish lying on the bottom boards of the boat he thought: this will not be much of a meal for them . He vowed to talk to his brother again that very night about going south to find work. They had discussed it endlessly during the long winter nights, but had not come to any decision.
For generations his family, part of the great Munro Clan...had been crofters in Sutherland. When he was a very small boy they had lived inland on a croft with a milk cow, hens and good arable land for growing potatoes, vegetables and other crops...some of which were sold in the little market town nearby. This paid for the rent due to the landlord. Life was hard but pleasant and familiar.
All was well until the start of the despicable Highland Clearances when families were systematically thrown off their land to make way for sheep, which were much more profitable than people. No-one gave a damn what happened to these folk For all the landowners cared, they could sink, swim or starve to death...which some of them did. It wasn’t the landlord’s problem!
Lady Stafford, wife of Lord Stafford, landowner of Sutherlandshire, was quoted as saying she would like to visit her estates but was uneasy about a sort of mutiny that had broken out in consequence of their new plans to transplant some inhabitants to the sea coast.
Heavens! Did these people really think that human beings were like some unwanted plant to be plucked out of the ground and transplanted in some dark corner to struggle for survival, or wither and die?
John’s father, Murdoch Munro, and his wife Janet, had been among these unfortunates.
Many Munro families went south: some to the Glasgow and Clyde area... others to Inveraray in Argyll. Those with a bit more courage, or no choice, went further afield to start a new life- to America, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. However, Murdoch was reluctant to go south as he had two very small children and a six-month-old baby. Additionally; Janet was again pregnant with their fourth child, so the trip would be too long for her and the children. He therefore reluctantly accepted tenancy of a small cottage and a piece of ground near Dornoch on the East Coast of Scotland which was at least a place to lay their heads in the meantime.

Young John trudged home, wet from his hours out on the cold water. He was thankful to enter the cosy warm kitchen, where his mother was working. She looked up expectantly.
“So, how did it go today then, John?” she asked.
“As you can see, mother, not very well. The fish did not want to jump into the boat today,” he answered, - trying to put a little humour into the situation.
“Och well, I am sure I can do something with this lot for the dinner.” she said, trying to hide her disappointment. “You look frozen, son, away and get a heat at the fire.”
It always amazed the family how their mother could produce a meal, which satisfied them all, from next to nothing. It was truly a miracle... like the feeding of the five thousand! After they had eaten, and everything was cleared up, they would sit round the fire and discuss the day’s events. Everyone had a chance to tell their own stories. Then it was off to bed; there was no option but to do so. After all, when you were as poor as church mice; candles were used sparingly.
That night, as they lay in bed, John discussed the possibility of going south with his brother, who was a year younger than himself.
“Murdoch, are you still awake?” Asked John in a whisper; not wanting to waken his two other younger brothers who slept in the same room.
At his question, he could hear his brother suck in a gasp of exasperation. Undaunted, he continued.
“Do you remember we talked a while back about going south for work? Well……” - Not waiting for an answer -
“I think the time has come now to consider this seriously, what do you think?”
There was no reply. Then came a single question from his younger brother which gave answer to both his big brother’s questions: “Who is going to tell Mother and Father then?”
John could feel the excitement of anticipated adventure rising in his breast... “We both will in the morning.”
The following morning at breakfast Janet looked at the two of them and thought they were unusually quiet. “So, what is up with you two today, you look as if the world had fallen on top of you?”
“Nothing”, they chorused.
“That is rubbish and you know it, so out with it.”
Like most mothers, Janet instinctively sensed when something was amiss with her offspring.
John blurted out in one long sentence;
“Murdoch and I want to go south to find work. There is nothing here for us and what if we met a lass and wanted to wed; how could we?”
Janet had known for some time that one day this would happen. She knew perfectly well that what John said was true; there was no future for them here.
“Well, if that is what you want to do, I will not stop you, but you had better go and talk to your father first.”
As soon as they had eaten, the brothers went outside to look for their father. They found him stacking fresh-cut peats for the fire. John was again the spokesman and told his father more or less what he had said to their mother.
Murdoch senior listened carefully to what his son had to say then was silent for almost a full minute before reacting to this momentous news. His reply was characteristic of the man – practical and to the point.
“What am I supposed to do without you two here to help with the work and do the fishing?” the head of their family grumbled; bushy black eyebrows raised in an arch to emphasise the question.
For the first time his son, Murdoch Junior, found his voice;
“Och father; our brother Angus is fourteen