My mother knew the couple as ‘Uncle Davie’ and ‘Aunt Beattie’
David Rintoul Haggart’s occupation is given as ‘Textile Worker’ on the birth certificates of his children. This, and the fact that the family resided at Avenue Park (number 10) suggests that, like his brother Peter, he too was employed at Keirfield.
However, unlike Peter, there is no hint of the detailed nature of David Rintoul Haggart’s work. This a pity given the interesting descriptive names of the workers – bleachers, dyers, beetlers, lappers and croppers.
David and Beatrice had three children:
• George Alexander Beaton Haggart born 20 March 1928, Bridge of Allan.
• Duncan Haggart born 10 July 1930, Bridge of Allan.
• Beatrice Elizabeth Mair Haggart born 19 January 1936, Bridge of Allan,
By the time of the marriages of their three children, David and Beatrice were residing at 1 Lochy Road, Inverlochy, Fort William – and David’s occupation is given as ‘Fitter, Aluminium Factory’. They had moved north, like many other families, to work in the new plant of the British Aluminium Company. The village of Inverlochy was built specifically to provide housing for the workers and their families, as was Kinlochleven. My mother believes that the move to the Fort William area was in part due to the effects of late 1920s economic recession. Keirfield, in my mother’s words, ‘was on slack time. One week on and one week off’.
Of the their three children:
• George Alexander Beaton Haggart (an Engineer’s Draughtsman, later Work Study Officer, Aluminium) married Jane Charlton. They had two children who survived into adulthood – Norma Ann Haggart ( born 1951; married David John McLellan) and Ian Alexander Haggart (born 1955). A third child, June Haggart was born prematurely and did not survive.
• Duncan Haggart (an Electrical Engineer) married Frances Hadden Smeaton. They had three children. All female. Agnes Beaton Haggart (born 1957), Aileen Watson Haggart (born 1958) and Sheila Smeaton Haggart (born 1963). Sheila married Alexander Steven Bird in 1997. 9 Ross Place, Fort William given as their place of residence.
• Beatrice Elizabeth Mair Haggart (born 1936) married Peter Gibson.
David Rintoul Haggart died in 1965. Beatrice died two years later, in 1967.
NB. According to my mother (25 Jan 2008) her cousin, Duncan, keeps in touch with her brother, Duncan – and occasionally visits. He still lives in Inverlochy.