Robert Baillie was born the oldest son of Maggie Paton and William Baillie on 17th May 1893. He was illegitimate or, alternatively, his mother and father were not married: Maggie and William were married in 1897 when Robert was four.

The marriage certificate gives William’s profession as “journeyman tailor” and Margaret’s as “dressmaker”. The marriage certificate does not mention that Maggie and William are listed on the 1901 census in Dunfermline as both being “deaf and dumb from childhood”. Information from the census shows William being born in Dalkeith and Maggie born in Falkirk. Given the different birth places, it is possible, even probable that Maggie and William were both students at Donaldsons’ .

At the time of the 1901 census, William, Maggie, Robert and Robert’s 10 month old brother, William, were resident in Dunfermline with William continuing to be a tailor. According to the 1901 census, a John Paton is listed as a boarder in the household.  This is likely to be Margaret’s brother : perhaps unsurprisingly, John is also shown as “deaf and dumb from childhood” in the census return.

The family is next picked up in the April 1911 census living in Kiers Wynd in Musselburgh: the family now includes Robert’s siblings William (11), Agnes (8) and Alexander (6) who are shown as being at school. Later that year William senior on November 1911, Robert’s father William died of a brain haemorrhage aged 41.

Tracking the family pending the 2021 (or as it is, the 2022, census release), records are a trifle thin.

Given the ages of Robert’s siblings, it is likely to be that the family will have stayed together and may have continued to live in Musselburgh although Russell MacGillivray identifies from the Falkirk Herald (researched by Ian Scott) that prior to joining the army Robert was living with his mother, and given the ages of his siblings it is likely they too would be living with Maggie.

The notice in the Falkirk Herald that Maggie is living at Bellsdyke (see above). Robert Baillie next reappears in the military records as a casualty, killed in action on 29 July 1916.

This would seem to be the end of Robert’s story. But there is an information gap between Robert’s father’s death in 1911 and the information that Maggie Baillie lived with her son (and presumably Robert’s siblings) before he appears in the records as a casualty in having enlisted in Kildare, Ireland.

From records, it is possible that the Robert Baillie who took passage on 20 April 1912 our is Robert Whigham Baillie. We do know that the Canadian connection was strong in the area, and that there was a significant connection generally between Canada and Scotland in the pre-war years. Within Bothkennar there were specific Canadian connections within the parish, and one of the men on the Bothkennar memorial is a soldier enlisted from Canada. Whilst the Robert Baillie connection is perhaps speculative, we do know that Robert’s youngest brother, Alexander emigrated to Canada after the war with his wife (name unknown). And we can be certain that the Margaret Baillie, maiden surname Paton shown arriving at the U.S. border in Niagra Falls aged 77 is the same Margaret Baillie that gave her address as 12 Newton Avenue, Bothkennar. Which co-incidentally is the upstairs flat to my wife’s Aunt Isabel (aged 100). Funny that…..

The internet being a wonderful thing, the photograph above is of Robert Baillie and his family, sent over by Sandra Baillie, a close relative of Robert. The story continues….

Robert is the young man at the back, the eldest son of the family. The boy at the front is William, and immediately behind him is Alexander. The young lady to the right is Agnes. The paterfamilias is William, to the left, and Maggie to the right.

That the picture is presented here is testament to the value of the internet, and we are now able to fill in the picture of Robert and his family.

The photograph is by courtesy of a close relative, Sandie Baillie, who still lives in the Niagara Falls area. Which Margaret visited in 1951.