Daviot Churchyard sits next to the northbound A9, six miles south of Inverness. Set on a small hill, the churchyard has attractive views over the surrounding countryside and is adorned by the beautiful church.
The grave of Evelyn Mary Mackintosh is one of two Commonwealth War Graves in Daviot Churchyard. Evelyn Mackintosh, Assistant Principal in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS), died on December 18 at 82 Campden Hill Court, Kensington, of heart failure after a five-day battle with pneumonia caused by influenza. She was twenty-three years old. Marked with a standard CWGC headstone, she rests beside her family in a small walled-off area next to the eastern wall of the church.
Everlyn Mary was born on October 20, 1895, in Tientsin, China, the eldest surviving child of Duncan, a banker with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, and Louisa (nee Kekevich). The couple had married that January in London; Duncan was a native of Inverness-shire.
When the Census was taken in 1901, the Mackintosh family had returned to the United Kingdom and resided at Craigroystone, Fodderty, in the Ross and Cromarty district. The family had grown since 1895, with the arrival of sons Lachlan and Malcolm. Evelyn, aged five, was attending school. The family would return to Asia shortly after because her younger brother and sister, Duncan (Jr) and Louisa, were born in China.
A decade later, the Mackintosh family had again returned from Asia to the United Kingdom. At the 1911 Census they lived at Edenmore, Mount Hermom Road, Woking, Surrey. Evelyn, aged fifteen, was still attending school. She left school at the age of sixteen.
Evelyn was eighteen when Britain entered the First World War. There is no way to say for sure, though I believe the family had returned to Inverness-shire before or during the war. Evelyn’s eldest brother, Lachlan, would have a distinguished naval career. During the war, he served as Commander of the Destroyer HMS Medea. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Duncan (Jr) also served in the Royal Navy. It goes without saying that Evelyn would have a naval career too. On February 28, 1918, she enrolled in the WRNS and was stationed locally. On May 2, she was appointed Assistant Principal of Non-Administrative Duties in the Naval Transport at Inverness.
Evelyn died during a furlough during which she was paying a visit to her maternal grandmother, Lady Kevevich, with her family. Her father was present at her death. Her remains were repatriated to Inverness-shire. The funeral took place on Christmas Eve. She was afforded military honours. After a service in St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Inverness, a gun carriage bore her flag-draped coffin through Inverness to Daviot Churchyard, where she was laid to rest.
She is commemorated on the Scottish National War Memorial in Edinburgh Castle.
Duncan and Louisa outlived their eldest daughter by twenty-five and thirty-five years respectively. They were buried beside her in Daviot Churchyard.
Sources: Ancestry, British Newspaper Archive, Commonwealth War Grave Commission, Find a Grave, National Register Office, Scotland’s People, Scottish National War Memorial
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