On October 12th, The Strathearn Herald highlighted a concerning surge of influenza cases in the village of Comrie. Andrew McDonald appears to be the only fatality. He rests in Comrie’s South Crieff Road Cemetery on the village’s eastern edge. A plain headstone marks his grave. Though still legible, it has partially subsided into the ground. Andrew died on October 11th at The Limes, Ancaster Lane, aged forty-three, after a five-day battle with influenza.
Andrew was born in Glasgow on May 6th, 1875. He was the second child and eldest son of John, an engine fitter, and Helen (nee Connor). According to the 1881 Census, the McDonald family lived at 60 Elba Street, Ayr, when Andrew was five years old and had three younger sisters. Ten years later, the family had returned to their native Glasgow and lived at 156 McLean Street. At this time, Andrew had left school and was working as a clerk. Sadly, John passed away that year, leaving Helen as the head of the household. By 1901, the family had moved to Kelvin, across the River Clyde, and resided at 144 West Graham Street. Andrew, then twenty-five years old, still lived at home and worked as an ironmonger, a trade he would pursue for the rest of his life.
On August 6th 1907, Andrew, aged thirty-two, married domestic servant Bessie (Betsy) McNaughton in Comrie. The Reverend Andrew Campbell of Crieff performed their marriage (he would officiate at the funeral of fellow influenza victim Jessie McRobbie eleven years later). In 1911, Andrew and Bessie lived in Melrose Gardens, Kelvin, with their two-year-old daughter Jessie, who was born in Crieff the year before. Their second daughter, Helen, was born in 1912 in Crieff, indicating that the family had returned to Bessie’s native Strathearn, where Andrew would spend the rest of his life.
Andrew had already retired by the time he passed away. It is likely that ill health forced his retirement, as his death registration mentioned a chronic neurological disorder along with influenza. His brother-in-law, John McNaughton, was with him when he passed. His obituary was published in the Strathearn Herald on October 19th, and according to the obituary, his passing was “deeply regretted.”
Bessie outlived him by almost fourteen years. She passed away on August 14, 1932, at the age of fifty-nine and was laid to rest beside him. In 1992, Jessie was buried with her parents after she passed away at the age of eighty-two.
Sources: Ancestry, Britsh Newspaper Archive, Scotland’sPeople
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