My paternal grandfather, Archibald (Archie) Smith Rae, was born on 4 September 1903 in Craigneuk, Lanarkshire, Scotland.  He was the fourth child of Robert Armstrong Rae, a coal miner and Margaret McGarrity. Robert and Margaret had 13 children between 1899 and 1925.

• Thomas (1898-1898)
• Sarah (1899-1966)
• John (1901-?)
• Archibald Smith (1903-1952)
• Grace (1906-1907)
• Robert Armstrong (1907-1962)
• James (1910-?)
• Mary (1912-2006)
• William (1914-?)
• Francis (1916-1968)
• Annie (1919-1998)
• Margaret (1921-2004)
• Andrew (1925-1992)

Archie was named after Archibald Smith, the husband of his great aunt, Sarah Rae. Click here to read their story.

After leaving school, Archie followed in his father’s footsteps and became a coal miner.  In the 1921 census his occupation is recorded as pony driver. Of course I wanted to know more about that.

He met Margaret (Maggie) Dalziel Dickson, a confectionery worker and the couple were married on 25 June 1926 at Wishaw Manse.  Maggie would have been noticeably pregnant at the time as their son, Robert Armstrong Rae, was born in September 1926.  Robert was my father.

For a short period of time, presumably for work reasons, the family moved to Partick in Glasgow and lived in a flat in Sandy Road.  It was in Partick that daughter, Mary Calderhead Rae was born in 1931.  She was always known as ‘May’.

The 1930s were tough in Scotland particularly in the industrial areas like Lanarkshire. Work was hard to come by and the rising unemployment figures forced the Raes to make difficult choices.

In the 1930s many people leaving the United Kingdom’s depressed areas in search of work were drawn to Coventry. Companies involved in the manufacture of motor cars, electrical goods, artificial silk and machine tools were typical of those located in the city. Most incomers found work and unlike elsewhere in Britain unemployment remained at a low level. It was an opportunity Archie felt he had to take. I know he was not the only one of the siblings to go. I believe that the ones missing a year of death went to, and stayed in, Coventry.

I don’t know exactly when Archie went but I do know (from my father’s army records) that in 1944 Archie, Maggie and May were living at 92 The Coppice, Stoke Aldermoor.

I checked the British Newspaper Archive to see if the family had made the papers at all during their time down south and found the above ad from February 1947 in The Coventry Evening Telegraph. I thought the Mrs Rae in question was Maggie but it was in fact Franks wife. Frank had been in Coventry for some time. He got married there in 1938 and 92 The Coppice was his home address.

These photos were taken during my grandparents’ time in Coventry. The first picture is with Frank. The second with Frank’s wife Rose and their children Marian, Margaret and Robert. I’ve found a some information about Marian and why Rose had placed an advert for dancing shoes. More on that another time.

By 1950 Archie and Maggie were back in Scotland and living at 55 Meadowburn Road in Wishaw. In February 1951 there was reason to celebrate when May married John Millar. This may have been the last big family event Archie attended.

My granda Rae was just 48 when he died. On January 26 1952 he collapsed and died at his workplace, Lanarkshire Steelworks in Motherwell. The cause of death was coronary thrombosis.  He was just 48 years old.

Archie, like so many of my ancestors, is buried in Cambusnethan Cemetery.

That is really all I know of my grandfather. He died long before I was born and I don’t recall my father ever talking about him. If he did, it was at a time when I wasn’t interested in family history. Isn’t that often the case. Now there’s no one left to ask and I have so many questions.

It is important for anyone making a start on their family tree to ask grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles about their family memories. Find out what documents and photographs still exist within the family. Knowing the relevant facts and dates is important but it would be nice to know the stories in order to really know the person.