FROM KIRKCUDBRIGHT HISTORY SOCIETY
‘Dinna Forget – Memoirs of the Kirkcudbright District and Beyond by John McKie RN (1821-1915)’
A fascinating, personal account of life in the Kirkcudbright District in the 19th century has recently been published by Kirkcudbright History Society. The author, John McKie, was born in 1821 and grew up on High Nunton Farm in Twynholm parish, not far from the Dhoon on Kirkcudbright Bay. He went to school at Borgue Academy until 1839, and then followed a career as a millwright and then as a mechanical engineer in Dundee, Liverpool, Manchester and Crewe. But his ambition was to join the Royal Navy as a marine engineer at a time when the navy’s ships were transitioning from sail to steam power.
He achieved his ambition and served for 25 years in the navy, rising to the rank of Chief Engineer, in charge of the engines and mechanics of some of the most advanced ironclad battleships in the fleet. In his time, he also served as an engineer on the royal yacht, HMY Victoria and Albert and in the West Africa Squadron, which was charged with intercepting slave ships and freeing the slaves on board.
He returned to Kirkcudbright when he retired in the early 1870s and became involved in local community initiatives, in particular the establishment of The Stewartry Museum, which was first housed in Kirkcudbright Town Hall (now Kirkcudbright Galleries), before moving to its present building in 1892. He was the first curator of the new museum and his portrait, by the Castle Douglas artist, W. S. MacGeorge, is on display there.
Written personal accounts of our area in the 1800s are relatively rare, so John McKie’s memoirs of growing up in the Twynholm / Borgue / Kirkcudbright area in the 1820s and 1830s are of particular historical value, as are his later experiences up to the year 1905, when he wrote them up for the interest of his son, Norman, a medical doctor in Newton Stewart.
Kirkcudbright History Society received a copy of the memoirs from Mrs Bud Gordon, who kindly donated them from her late husband Jimmy Gordon’s extensive local history library. The Society took the decision to publish them, because of their local history interest. The reminiscences on local life are reproduced in full, and his experiences in the navy in a more abridged form. The publication of the 112-page book would not have been possible without the financial assistance generously given by the Galloway Association of Glasgow and two private donors, and the Society is very pleased to acknowledge their support.
Copies of the booklet are available in Gallovidia Books, Kirkcudbright; Kirkcudbright Post Office; and Barry Smart Stationer and Bookseller in Castle Douglas, and can also be ordered direct from the Society by emailing sales@kirkcudbrighthistorysociety.org.uk price £6.00+ postage/packing
David Devereux
Kirkcudbright History Society
