The photo below belonged to my father but it’s only recently that I’ve managed to identify the people in it. Back left is my grandmother Maggie Rae née Dickson and my grandfather Archie Rae. I sadly didn’t get to meet either of them but I recognised them from one other photo I’ve seen of them together.

The other lady in the photo is Rose Rae née Campbell and her children Marian, Margaret and Robert. Rose was married to Archie’s brother Frank. So the children in the picture are my dad’s first cousins. I had never heard of them. The photo was taken in Coventry where Frank and his family lived having moved from Wishaw, Lanarkshire down to Coventry, Warwickshire.

When checking the newspapers I found this wee advert from 1947. So the Rae girls were interested in dancing.

Over the years there were a couple of mentions of Marian, the younger of the two sisters, being involved in dance shows and competitions. It’s quite a common thing for wee girls to join a dance school.

It turns out that Marian took it quite a bit further than that as we see from this 1963 competition in a Liverpool newspaper.

Marian was in one of the famous Tiller Girls. Established in 1894 the Tiller Girls are, according to their website, the world’s longest running dance troupe. Most folk (of a certain age) will remember seeing the routines on the TV variety shows. In the US in think the equivalent would be The Rockettes.

Five years later and Marian is still with the group this time back in her home town and about to appear on TV. The Billy Cotton Show was before my time but I do remember Ken Dodd, Frankie Howerd and Sid James.

The showbiz life all sounds very glamorous and exciting. Marian was getting to meet all the stars of the day. There’s a Tiller Girls Facebook page where former dancers share their reminiscences. They do seem do remember their time with fondness although I’m sure it wasn’t all fun. Those routines look like a lot of hard work and it was surely a very competitive environment. Plus some of the male stars of the day might not have been the most respectful.

Marian was my dad’s first cousin but I don’t recall ever hearing about her. It was nice to be able to share a fun family story. I’d like to be able to do that more often!