Remembering Jane (Jeanie) McClymont

As with all public health crises, medics on the front line put their lives at risk on a daily basis. The Spanish flu pandemic was no exception. Nurse Jessie McClymont is one of many nurses who contracted Spanish flu caring for infected patients and tragically lost her life.

She rests in a familial grave in Dunblane Cemetery. The headstone is in excellent condition and cared for the by Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). She died at the Edinburgh War Hospital in Bangour (West Lothian) on the 13th of February 1919 of influenza complicated by broncho-pneumonia aged twenty-one.

Jane Edington McClymont was born on the 7th of August 1897 in Kilmeford, Argyll, second child and eldest daughter of coachman Thomas and Jane Sr (nee Pringle).

Shortly after she was born Thomas’ employ took the family from Argyll to Monkland, Lanarkshire. In 1901 the family resided in Bredisholm Coach House. Ten years later the family had relocated east to Dunblane, residing on Leewood Road. A thirteen year old Jeanie attended school locally.

The war dealt a devastating blow on the McClymont family when their eldest Thomas Jr was killed at Festubert on the 26th of June 1915 aged twenty-one. Jeanie, like numerous young women contributed to the war effort by joining the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nursing service, where she remained for the rest of her life. Both Jeanie and Thomas are commemorated on Dunblane’s War Memorial.

The McClymont family remained in Dunblane in the aftermath of Jeanie’s death. In 1921 the family still resided on Leewood Road. Thomas Sr aged fifty was working as a chauffeur. Tragically, the family endured more sorrow with the death of the youngest son Andrew from appendicitis (an illness that was often fatal one-hundred years ago) on the second of May 1924 aged only fourteen. He would join his two eldest siblings in Dunblane Cemetery.

Thomas Sr eventually died on the 13th of April 1935 at the age of sixty-three; Jane Sr two years later on the 30th of March aged seventy-two. Both are interred with Thomas Jr, Jeanie and Andrew.

Sources: FindAGrave, Ancestry, ScotlandsPeople