[email protected]
My father, also Robert, seldom spoke of his childhood, and he never spoke of his brothers. I also do not recall seeing any photographs from that period of his life. The same is true of the years that lead up to him enlisting to serve in the Second World War. His two brothers also enlisted, but unfortunately did not return. When the war ended, he married my mother, Myriam Vivienne Paterson. I was born in 1947. My paternal grand father passed away just before I was born.
It is only recently that I have come to appreciate the loss that my father must have experienced with the loss of his two brothers and then his farther in a relatively short time. As a result of this, I think I can now also understand my father's reluctance to speak about his own youth.
As I have already mentioned, this lack of information regarding my father's youth, never really bothered me as I grew up. Not even, when during my teens, an hitherto unknown uncle of his turned up one day and spent a night with us. This uncle was Alex (Alexander), and he was one of three sons of my great grand father that had immigrated from Scotland to South Africa at the turn of the previous century.
As it turned out, "uncle Alec" left a few things behind, and one of them was a delightful photograph of my great grand farther and his family posing in what, if my memory serves me correctly, seemed to be a framework of vegetables. Sadly this "Cabbages" photograph, as I christened it, has disappeared. He also left several photographs of that must have been taken prior to my Dad and his brothers leaving to play their part in the Second World War. Besides the photographs, "uncle Alec" also left a press cutting of a tribute to my great grand farther, written in "The Evening Times".
The press cutting seemed to be from a column entitled, "MORE LOWE LIFE --- Special to The Evening Times". The tribute was titled "THE QUARRYMAN PROPOGANDIST Robert Dempster Was Years Ahead Of His Time HIS VIEWS ON A WAGE-SLAVE SOCIETY". While it was now obvious to me that my paternal roots were neither noble, wealthy or illustrious, they were not necessarily without substance. A scan of the press cutting can be seen here. A more easily read reproduction can be read here.
After completing my university studies, and a further year working to amass funding, my wife Edith (nee Davey) and I spent six weeks in the UK during December 1971 / January 1972, taking a break from teaching. As the UK is not particularly sunny at that time of the year, we spent a fair amount of our time in museums. We even visited some libraries were we tried to find out more about Robert Dempster. No luck.
Twenty one years later, whilst on sabbatical at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, I tried again, this time using the microfiche facilities of the local Mormon Church. All I managed to find was the names and birth dates of some of Robert's children.
Ten years later, Edith and I found ourselves in the UK again. This time I actually visited Alyth, and stood in pouring rain in Morn street outside number 10. By now my mother, who had not said much up until now, mentioned that she had a great grand father who, whilst he was not noble, was apparently wealthy and to a slight degree, famous.
He was Dr Alexander Paterson, who spent many years practicing in Bridge of Allan. A clock was erected outside of the "Western Arms" in the High Street in his honour and can be seen here. Apparently the doctor was also a distinguished botanist and horticulturist with an international reputation for growing tropical plants, tree ferns and orchids in his garden.
As I ended up teaching data communications to computer science students, I was involved in using the Internet from when it first reached reached South Africa's shores. As the Internet became a tool for researching any manner of topic, I would regularly over the years, try an use it to find out more about Robert. Always without any luck, until about two years ago, when a "Google" returned not one, but two hits. Someone had written to the "Alyth Voice" enquiring about Robert Dempster, The Quarryman Propogandist. She turned out to be Mary Hewitt, and a second cousin of mine.
Mary has been a blessing, and I cannot repay the debt I owe her for the work she has already done researching Robert's background. It was not a simple or short process, and she has done admirably. In addition, she has also been a source of photographs and information. One of the photographs is particularly precious to me, as it is one taken of my grand parents and the three boys. It is the only photograph I have ever seen of my Dad as a juvenile. I have named it "The Missing Photograph" and you can read more about it here.
The photograph came to Mary as a result of a relative of hers having passed away in the USA, and whoever was sorting through the estate, having been kind enough to send some pictures they though might be of interest to Mary, to her. In turn she then did the same for me. I now know that Mary also once had a "Cabbages" photograph, and am left wondering whether there still is one out there somewhere.
Mary, as part of her investigations, also managed to acquire scanned copies of Robert's leaflets and the little book that he wrote. These are truely fascinating for several reasons. The first would be that they make clear the reason or reasons for the publication of the tribute to Robert that appeared in "The Evening Times". The second would be that what Robert wrote then, could easily be written now about the plight of many poor South Africans. It would not look out of place if it appeared in a South African news paper tomorrow.
Reading these leaflets has also made me aware of how a century ago in the United Kingdom, the poor were removed from the land to make place for progress made with regard to farming. They were more or less forced into the factories (Satanic Mills) to process the now increased agricultural production. Then to cap it all, they were then subsequently evicted from the factories, replaced by machines, as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Many left the country to try their luck elsewhere. Some where fortunate and prospered, possibly at the expense of others. Ultimately that is probably how I come to find myself where I am. Now a century later, it seems as if nothing has changed. We even have our own Satanic Mills, only now they are known as "Call Centers".
[email protected]