Iain Craigie’s early life in Morayshire - 1939-1950s

My Dad, Iain Craigie was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia where his father had worked as an engineer. In 1939, aged one, the family moved back to their native Morayshire in north east Scotland. Their first home was a rented one bedroom cottage in Urquhart, near Elgin - by then there were five members of the family, my grandfather, Naylor, and grandmother, Susan (nee Junner). 

The cottage was on the flight path of German bombers flying back to base from London and Cambridge, so Iain and his brother, Grant and sister, Jean, were evacuated two miles down the road to live with Miss Jackson. She cared for them for three years, times were hard and she was typically versatile, digging up ‘tatties’ from the farmer’s fields and shooting deer to feed herself and the children.

During the war Grandad, Naylor, was posted to Palestine, when he returned, he bought a beautiful family home in Kingston on Spey. The house is Morven on Lein Road. 

In this podcast Dad talks about his memories of early life in Morayshire. His schooling in Garmouth, Fochabers and then Marischal College in Aberdeen. It’s a fascinating insight into early, post-war life in rural Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Transcript

Unknown: 0:00

Welcome to the spy who raised me podcast conversations between a daughter and her father. Yes, you've guessed it, he was a spy.

Unknown: 0:23

My name is Jane Craigie and I'm here with my dad, Ian Craigie. The purpose of this podcast really is to capture the conversation between me and my dad, and to talk about some of his experiences, some of the family's experiences, and to paint a picture of some of our upbringing and just have the man that dad is he's, he's very adventurous. He's very people orientated and he's always loved travel. And it's something that's rubbed off very much on me. And so, a couple of the places that we went on holiday as kids We're Afghanistan and Gallipoli. So that kind of gives a little bit of background and flavour to dad and his spirit of adventure. Which, even though he's now 81, he behaves like a 40 year old, he still has that spirit of adventure. And I'm sitting here with him in the northeast of Scotland on a sofa drinking coffee. And I'm going to start by asking him a little bit to introduce himself and to tell us a little bit about his early life where he was born and where he was brought up. So dad

Unknown: 1:39

Yeah, I'm as Jen says, I'm his one year old. I think he could say I'm retired but I still need a very active life. And here in the northeast of Scotland, we're sitting in this sunroom, the tariff. basking in the sunshine. Just Wonderful at this time of year. So yeah, so I was born in, in Southern Rhodesia. It was then in 1938 in September, and I think probably a lot of that is year I was a year and a half I think when we came back to Scotland. My father had gone there originally in 1933.

Unknown: 2:32

With

Unknown: 2:33

with my mother, and he decided at the beginning of the war to come to come back but he was there for a number of years and that was a that was quite a normal thing for people from the north of Scotland, and especially the rural areas to go to Rhodesia. It was then Harare. There's a lot happening and Africa at that time, setting up farms and farming in infrastructure and so on. He had he had been preceded by Hamish, his brother who had suffered from asthma. And one of the common places for doctors to send sufferers with asthma was to Mr. Rhodesia. So he went out there early in the 30s. And he got enrolled very much and setting up agricultural scene and in Rhodesia, and January and just just prior to the war in 1939. My father decided to come back to the UK with the family. Grant was the eldest gene was second and And I was a third and subsequently another another sister was born in, in Scotland. So we set off on the water castle canard liner that used to play between between a fading Empire and India and Southampton. And it used to I think that was the only route applied is backwards and forwards there. So anyway, we got the train across the Kalahari Desert. And to keep that, and we have we have a copy of the, of the passenger list, in fact, so the were the Craigie family and a number of other people some who'd come from India. So we got back to, to a country that was Riven with

Unknown: 5:00

The start of

Unknown: 5:03

a war and dam

Unknown: 5:06

a Kingston in Well,

Unknown: 5:10

first of all, a little Satch cottage in, in the northeast of Scotland. We found quite quickly and we rented that first it was it was a pokey little place with a thatched roof and no toilet, new heating and one bedroom for three kids in three kids. Oh, yes. And so we settled down there, my, my dad went to work as an engineer and then at the onset of war, he was posted to Palestine which is a quite quite an interesting place. place to be but

Unknown: 6:00

And your dad Sorry to interrupt you and your dad was called Nayla

Unknown: 6:04

Cray. Nearly Yes, he was called Neela Grady. He was brought up and Rothfuss back the Craigie Koch family had roots going back I think three generations and robbers we settled in our house very, very rural small village at the school and a traditional Scottish Scottish village. And we were affected a little by the by the war because when the German bombers had had been on raids further south and Glasgow and I guess in England to be used to come back and and jettison the bombs, and and apparently was sort of an under the flag path of these bombers and occasion They would drop a ball, and you would hear this muffled explosion during the night. So, we were evacuated from our house, about two miles up the road to do this. And the lady and Rosa named Moses animals. And she was she was typical of that era. She, she she used to. She used to make tattoos from there. And the local farmer and she used to shoot

Unknown: 7:35

deer

Unknown: 7:37

that kept you fed.

Unknown: 7:38

That's so old food you had Yes, we had. It was very difficult to get food Of course, that was prior to rationing and so on. But it was just fairly desperate because you had to live from hand to mouth, isn't it? So that was for I think we stayed with LC Rose Her name was for two years. And it was an odd experience because in that generation very hospitable and you know, nothing like these days if people are fostered and so and it's quite it's quite a big issue they just said okay yes come in and looked after us and, and so eventually at the end of the war my father came back and we stayed in, okay by which time we had a toilet. One of my early memories is is is going up to garden require a big garden in the back of the, at the back of the cottage and

Unknown: 8:47

all the other

Unknown: 8:49

inhabitants of the village did the same as we did that was dig a hole and empty the empty the bucket which was normally outside In a shed, and then you had to then remember where your last dog says you did this. We had, we had a neighbour called Mrs. Middleton, who was quite nosy and she used to she used to look over the fence and say, you kind of put it there. You did that last week. So we had to shuffle it around and then have a conference to find out who dug the last hole and here it was.

Unknown: 9:35

I should imagine dad knowing you you had a bit of fun with that. That

Unknown: 9:39

was that was good fun. Yes, it was good fun, but a that improved quite quickly over a period of five years. And I can remember the first toilet that ran turn. It's a no plumbing at first. So we were we had to we had to be careful We didn't steal it quick be in there. And the toilet with no water and then we got we got smacked until not to do that. But yeah, no it was it was a different era and it was an agricultural area. So I reckon agricultural land fishing was the mainstay of that, that in school. The school we often reminisce about those of us who are still gonna still land on the go. And school. The school was a small school in a village of probably how many children would have been in the village. I just thought 30 children, perhaps. And so we used to think there was one class sometimes two depending on whether we had one or two teachers. And we use there's no paper no pencils. So we use slate slate writing on and and slate pencils they were called a little hard sharply pointed to slit It was so we scribed and that

Unknown: 11:17

was that that because there was no supplies art

Unknown: 11:19

supplies yes no supplies no paper and a pencil so so anyway we had that was quite funny because you had to have one of the disciplines of the school was that you had to fill a little box with a with a rag a wet rag so that every Monday morning the teacher who was who was called Miss dancer. He was quite strict and she had funny glasses, you know, like little glasses and glasses and tivity children, open your boxes, to use open your boxes to make sure that you're ready Your box had water in it so you could wipe it. But there was one boy who was who was a farmer, a farmer son. And he always used to forget to fill his box to dampen his class. So he used to be in his barn. And his name is Jimmy PGM. And I think he died a long time ago. So you won't mind me saying a bit. So he used to get every other Monday he would get told off by Mr. Johnson and say, Jimmy, PT must not be in your box. You must. So it didn't make any difference. We always came in. So so that was school, in a village and the the we moved from there after I think about five years and moved to a religion close to Elgon, closest to elegant. It was on the estuary of the river spey and, and my father bought a house there. But the interesting thing about Kingston was it was, it was a dead end. No school the school is in the neighbouring village of Dharma and in the 1850s to entrepreneurs from Kingston upon how in England so huge opportunity for building ships and in the village of Kingston, Kingston and spey. Yeah so, so they came out and built, built two wonderful houses for themselves because the you know, they were crofter houses, little quarter houses very small. And that was when the house that we lived in for We moved from

Unknown: 14:03

that was when did they build those houses? That was

Unknown: 14:05

Yes. 1800. So and what they did was check it out Google, it's well worth a look. And they came and there was no supply of wood. And the road system wasn't very good. It's so they decided that they could set up a shipbuilding company and this little village on the estuary of that space so they went up stream having done some, some detective work beforehand, and they found this wonderful stand of mature Scott Scott's pounds at Ruthie Marcus, I think it was it was a prover so they went to the ordinare authority forest who is a layered kind of member. What do you called the enemy they approached him and said would you be interested in selling us part of the forest. So reached a deal and so, they procured these two two men procured this substantial area of prime mood, it was such good word. And so then they had to try and get that from, from the forest up near Aviemore down to to the st with the speed of movement speed. So they got handed a couple of hundred man cutting trees, huge trees, mature trees, rolling them down the bags, enter the space, tying them together like rafts, waiting for the right conditions because I had to had to Not only guide them downstream and keep them away from the banks but they also had to make sure that when they arrived at Kingston at the history of this bay that there wasn't a North northeasterly storm coming in, because at that way, they've lost all their load into the malefor. So that's what that's what they did. And he set up this incredible

Unknown: 16:33

shipbuilding

Unknown: 16:35

business with with the ocean going schooners and most of them sold into the T trade and, and they had some some really big, big ships. A terrible storm in 1829 I think or a bit later maybe that that was enormous storm that then got rid of But half of the half of the board said they were in the process of building and those finished up scattered along there. the shores of America managed to save some of them but then they went on the same two men from Kingston upon how and it by this time that built up the workforce Bay through local people and and local joiners and so on. And it sets up an incredible system whereby they harnessed water and wind to to cut those huge trees that were coming down and spray into the, into the village. So they had initially they had to do that by hand with bit with one man in the bottle and the pet and one They're standing above with the with a crosscut saw so having helped a guy who was in the bottom of the bed I think we've done number used to drink heavily I think you can imagine for soldiers that the nostrils and so but anyway so that went on into the early 19 hundred's by which time they had started building steamships. And a number of steamships were, were built there. But over the next 20 years or so, the shipyards closed down and and it returned to a sleepy little village with with no with no real industry except for the fact that some of the artisans who were working on their shipbuilding effort migrated to the fishing and So it was Bucky and Colin and Bamford. modaf, whether we're building boats to deficient and off season and go and wheeling trips. So that's really finished up.

Unknown: 19:15

So the industry ended in Kingston, but certainly there were a lot of young loons, boys as, so that's the direct for boys. Right, and who remained very industrious and adventurous. And you were probably one of the ringleaders being wild. And you had a lot of freedom to explore the area and, and used to create quite a lot of mayhem. I understand. So could you tell

Unknown: 19:43

us about your upbringing? Well, I mean, that that was a rural village in Scotland, and I mean, we'd know there was eventually one bus a week. I think basically you you're stuck with your school friends, you We're stuck with who lived in the village. So, and you had to amuse yourself somehow. So we were all very efficient fishers, we pushed, we push them and sometimes do and and then to to a to use a snare to catch a sermon and we work we help the salmon fishing industry which was which was very active at that time netting salmon as it came from the North Sea into into whatever space but I mean, we had we had a policeman and the nib and the neighbouring village Gomez, who was quite often chasing the boys of Kingston because we were unruly, and we did things like one. One thing we love to do was, was in the baker shop, there's a little Baker shop that was baking

Unknown: 21:00

cosy and comfy, and

Unknown: 21:03

it had a lot of an agenda and he used to. He used to bake his bread and have Pete and as beaten as ovens to give the heat. So we used to climb up. We used to climb up on the back of this, this little house with a cloud of turf. And when he was firing up in the morning, too, but for us, we used to put this turf on on the chimney, which will be just about reach from the bank back. And so and then give them about five minutes to be

Unknown: 21:39

relaxed.

Unknown: 21:42

This place was filling up with smoke and big, big fumes, and of course, it spoiled his his back for that day. So we used to get into trouble the policeman, who was it was a heavyset guy and he would come down No, no As you would say, with Linus all up and say, you've done it again, you've done it again, we're gonna have to do something serious about this, you see, they're doing something serious was having a word with appearance and saying Do not let him do that again. So it was never really taken seriously.

Unknown: 22:20

And the other thing about the village was that

Unknown: 22:24

there were so many, I mean, this thing of dementia and dementia, and Alzheimer's and so on. It was it was there then as as you would expect, but of course, it was never looked upon as as a medical condition. It was just, it was a fad. It was people being Donald, and that meant that that, you know, they would work away and because it was a village, they would look after each other. It was an old lady called Miss Jackson. He used to live quite close to us and she used to boil eggs in a teapot. Things like that so you still go round and save you have boiled your egg in your teapot today Miss Jackson. No, no, no she would say but everyone can adopt and helped you know. So so it was it was a good it was a good place to be born to be brought out and the nature of course like that was just incredible spay the Murray Firth dolphins in the money for an abundance of seals and at that time salmon used to come in and huge quantities. And

Unknown: 23:38

then there was a lot of

Unknown: 23:40

there's a lot of forest land, sandy beaches, and pebbly beaches with with this huge river that scour the uplands and just a lovely, lovely place. A variety of birds and nesting seabirds and San Martin's and woodcocks and

Unknown: 24:04

corncrakes we used to walk to school

Unknown: 24:08

about a mile to school from Kingston to gamma. And there will be this this daily refrain, corncrakes and the cornfields into

Unknown: 24:21

theirs.

Unknown: 24:23

They're not there now they're still in

Unknown: 24:26

Hebrides I think Mr. I've gotten

Unknown: 24:29

so that yes so that was the village of course you went on from there too funkoverse was was the secondary school we used to go to which was about five five miles away and then from there to Aberdeen University if that's what you wanted to do. I went to Elgon. In fact that is I did

Unknown: 24:58

four

Unknown: 25:00

Five years, Fokker bush got some of my hires and then moved to elgan Academy to to do some more hires and then eventually go to university.

Unknown: 25:16

So that was Marshall College in

Unknown: 25:19

Marshall College in Aberdeen. Some notable people that at the time, and Professor Harvey Jones was one of them, who wrote the most Secret Wars with how the Germans managed to to navigate when he came to bomb Coventry, and Glasgow and so on. So he worked out having managed to do that but and so there's the Notable people people there, and fessor Moser he was he here's the the chemistry professor is a nod specimen. He will he will choses that were too short from and you had it here yet. He has a sprouter here, come mad professor. And he used to love there's one experiment he did that he used a chante for potty. And he used to he used. It was quite, it was quite a showman. So you would go and you'd walk in for a lecture and you'd hear this muffled voice say, saying so don't everybody. I'm just preparing. So he would be behind his lectern, out of sight. And you would hear this clinking and clanking and all of a sudden, he would appear he would stand out with this potty this Chanti in his hand, brandishing it and waving it. Everyone cheered, of course. And then he had some chemical chemical process that you put a sex engineer in this party and boy Under chemical and there's this explosion and the sixth engineer used to disappear, you know, and that was, but yeah, that was a pretty, it is a wonderful place.

Unknown: 27:12

One of my observations there is something that's been enduring through your life you you noticed by particular things about people, and you retain them, and they amuse you. And they inform you. Yeah. And, and I love that about you. I love the way that whoever it is, you will always make an observation. The other thing that you will always do in a room of people, if there's somebody standing on their own, you'll go and speak to them and make a determined effort to go and

Unknown: 27:46

speak to them. That's, that's true. That's true. You're you often find that those are the most interesting people.

Unknown: 27:54

Yeah. Well, I think that I think we need to go for a cup of coffee. And and this podcast here. So thank you ever so much, Dad, I have learned so much. I thought I knew heaps about your early life. And there's stories there that I hadn't heard before. And in any family, you have fables that and stories that you're through storytelling, and you're a fantastic storyteller, but there are things that have just been so interesting to hear that children we never asked and I think it's children you don't ask.

Unknown: 28:32

You don't we don't serve. Over the years. I think you sound more like you say you suddenly think wow, I had no part of my family history. But that's what's good about about this is is going back over the years and especially with older people, is is recording and finding out what you know what changes have happened during the intervening years.

Unknown: 29:01

Yeah, good.

Unknown: 29:03

Well thank you very much Transcribed by https://otter.ai