William, Maggie & family

William, Maggie, Lindsay and Margaret

William McIlhagga and Margaret (nee McLean) had two children, Lindsay and Margaret. There are many name patterns in the history of the Clan, including in the Ballycloughan family, but the name Lindsay is unique in that there appears to be no evidence of a reason for its choice on either the male or female side. Lindsay was born at number 14 and Margaret at number 10 Smyrna Road, Liverpool. Lindsay was born on 27th July 1893 and Margaret on 12th September 1897. Lindsay's mother gave notice of his birth to Edwin Smith the Walton Registrar some six weeks after the event. Was this delay additional evidence of Maggie's 'frailty' (see blog of 9th Jan). The family was at 9 Palmerston Drive by 1894 and had moved to number 72 by 1901 where they stayed until at least 1910.

Lindsay, brought up in Litherland, found a job as a young man in a Liverpool Jute firm, Chisholm and Company, a firm that had moved south from Dundee. He remembered that his first working day was St. Patrick's Day, 17th March, appropriate to the origins of his grandparents! At work he met office worker Olive Mildred Varley who was from the nearby 'dormitory' town for Liverpool, namely Wallasey. She was the eldest daughter of a Grocer, Arthur Varley and his wife Rose Amelia (nee Pea). It is interesting that a man with a rare surname married a woman whose mother's maiden name was even rarer! Lindsay and Olive did not get married until he was 31 because of course the First World War 'intervened'. Lindsay was only 21 when the war started and he had to face enlistment with the Armed Forces, about which I will write another time.

Lindsay and Olive did eventually marry, on 1st September 1924 at New Brighton Presbyterian Church in Ennerdale Road, Wallasey, of which they became members and of which Lindsay became a Manager for a time. It is of interest that the Church they related to was in the tradition in which Lindsay had been brought up, rather than that in which Olive had been brought up, namely the Methodist Church. Doubtless they would approve of the fact that many years later 'Ennerdale Road' united with New Brighton Methodist Church to form St. Andrew's Church, New Brighton. When they married Lindsay was 31 and Olive was 27. Despite their ages they were to wait eleven years for the birth of their first child, a boy, in 1933 and then for a daughter in 1935, both born in Wallasey, their son at 93 Grove Road and their daughter at 119 St. George's Road.

Lindsay, after 'travelling' for his firm and 'working his way up', eventually became its Managing Director. This meant he had to bear the strain of responsibility through the Second World War, while one of the partners was serving in the Forces. During this time Lindsay also served in the local A.R.P. All this doubtless contributed to a series of heart attacks in the early 1950s resulting in his death on 16th of February 1954. Olive lived to the ripe old age of 91 and died on the 13th March 1989. Lindsay had a younger sister, Margaret, born in Walton, Liverpool on 12th September 1897. She became a Telephonist and died unmarried at the age of 43 on 31st December 1940 at 104 Rice Lane, Walton Park, which may be the address of a hospital. Her residence was 47 Marina Avenue, Litherland. The cause of death is given as (a) Paralyticileus and (b) an operation for intertestinal obstruction due to a tuberculous gland. Her name is with those of her parents on a gravestone in Bootle.