Remembering Mary MacDonald

Today, demolition of the Crieff Hotel commenced. Formerly known as ‘The Star Hotel,’ the East High Street establishment served the residents of Crieff and Strathearn for generations, hosting weddings, christenings, significant birthdays, and funeral teas. The public bar was the ‘local’ for numerous Crieff punters. The hotel was also the home of Mary MacDonald (nee Comrie). Mary died at the Star Hotel on October 28th, 1918, of complications of influenza and bronchitis, aged fifty-four. She rests in Crieff’s Ford Road Cemetery, her grave marked by an elegant pillar headstone adorned with an urn – an identical design to Margaret Barrie, who lies nearby.

Mary (Jr) was born in Muthill on February 1864 to Peter and Mary (nee McRobbie). When she was born, Peter’s occupation was a “journeyman and miller”. He would later become keeper of the former Drummond Arms Hotel in Muthill. She was the couple’s eldest child. When the 1871 Census was taken, the couple had four children – three daughters and a baby brother. Mary, aged seven, was attending school.

Ten years later, Mary had left school and worked as a domestic servant. Her family had grown even further with the arrival of another brother and three more sisters. In December 1888, just before Christmas, Mary married hotel keeper Charles MacDonald in Crieff. By 1891, the couple resided at the Star Hotel with their infant daughter, Mary Jane and two servants. The family would grow further with the arrival of two more daughters and a son. At the 1911 Census, the MacDonald family still resided at The Star with three servants. Whilst Charles was listed as the “hotel Keeper”, I expect that Mary would have been involved in the daily running of the establishment along with her daughters, by which time they had left education. Her son, Charles (Jr), was employed as a fishmonger.

The MacDonald family were among the earliest in Crieff to suffer a war bereavement. Charles Jr, who served as a lance corporal in the 1st Batallion of the Gordon Highlanders, was killed in action in December 1914 at age twenty-one. He is commemorated on Mary’s headstone, the Crieff War Memorial and the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.

Charles (Sr) was present when Mary died. Both her obituary and acknowledgement were published in the Strathearn Herald on November 2nd.

Charles survived Mary for over seven years. He died at The Star on June 13th, 1926, at the age of sixty-seven. He was interred with Mary.