I doubt that there will be anyone left who remembers Peter Brawley.  He was a young man when he died.  He had never married and their are no descendants.

Peter was my grand uncle.  He was one of my grandfather’s nine sibings and the closest to him in age.  He was born on 20 August 1901 in Main Street, Newmains the sixth child of Daniel Brawley and Ellen Keenan. His father was employed by the local ironworks.

Main Street, Newmains, Lanarkshire

He was baptised in St Brigid’s Roman Catholic Church on 24 August 1901.

From St Brigid’s Baptismal Register

In the 1911 census all but one of the siblings were still living at home and Peter was attending school.  The family were still living in Main Street.  Brothers Daniel, James and Patrick were all working in the steel foundry.

I have found no record of any military service during WW1 but I assume that Peter, unlike some of his siblings was too young to serve.

In 1923 older brother Patrick (born 1894), who was now married with two young children, decided to leave Scotland for a new life in Canada.  On 14 September he and his family left Glasgow bound for Quebec on the SS Athenia taking  the 22 year old Peter with them.  They arrived in Quebec on 22 September. Peter’s arrival record shows that it was his intention to work in iron and steel.  He had £20 in his possession.  He and Patrick had planned at least initially to stay with brother James who left Newmains for Montreal in 1920.

Poor Peter didn’t have the opportunity to make it big in Canada.  He died in November 1925 of peritonitis and was buried in Lachine, Quebec. The record of his burial is signed by both James and Patrick.  How heartbreaking for them to lose their little brother like that and how awful to have to inform the family back in Scotland.

I am grateful to Amy Johnson Crow and the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge for the chance to tell the stories of my family who would otherwise be forgotten.  The theme this week was ‘So Far Away’ and I really feel for Peter dying so young and so far from his parents and many that he loved.  I feel too for Ellen, his mother.  To have faced the heartache of having her child leave her for a new life and maybe hoping that they will one day be reunited only to have those hopes dashed.   Peter is long gone but he was a young man with hopes and dreams and he was prepared to take a chance in life.