In Search Of Beatrice Garvie (1872-1959) Part 2

 

Researched and written by guest blogger Fiona Sanderson:

Last year I wrote a first blog for the Archive: ‘In Search of Doctor Garvie’. Since then, that initial biographical research has grown into a much bigger story. 

 I’ve discovered that Beatrice Garvie has family, and made contact with them. I’ve tracked down the kind of camera she used, and found one that’s still in working condition. Together with Beatrice Thomson, an island elder, I’ve worked to catalogue and caption all of the more than 500 photographs that are in the Orkney Archive. I’ve also continued to find creative ways to return her story to North Ronaldsay. 

I feel as if I’ve obtained a much better idea of what Beatrice Garvie was like as a person, as well as establishing a great deal of her biography. 

 As I wondered what to do next, I felt that the answer to that question lay in the ethical way Dr Garvie had worked, with her photographs. That is, to return them to the people who were in them. Taking her story back to the island of North Ronaldsay felt increasingly important. Alongside this, I also wanted to spread the word about the legacy of her work; an archive that may possibly be unique.

 A special birthday May 9th 2022 found me heading for North Ronaldsay with a rucksack filled with a medical case, containing everything an early twentieth century peripatetic medic might have needed, from smelling salts to umbilical snips, to baby weighing scales. I was also carrying an old medium format camera with plenty of film, and a very large birthday cake.

 I had been in touch with Helga Scott, teacher at the school on North Ronaldsay, who had sounded interested in finding out more about Dr. Garvie, and linking it with a school project, on ‘Change’. We had discussed a special event day, a birthday party for Dr Garvie on May 9th, the 150th anniversary of her birth, and I began to think of what I might take along in order to bring her story to life.

 Of course, Dr Garvie’s photographs were a great place to start. Helga had shown the schoolchildren some of Dr Garvie’s island photos, of people at work, of babies that she had delivered, of the bicycle she used to get around the island, and of the bungalow that Dr Garvie had shared with Charlotte Tulloch.

Dr Garvie with her housekeeper Charlotte Tulloch

 Charlotte worked as her housekeeper, and I have been told that they were a couple. Certainly they lived together for the whole 16 years that Beatrice Garvie was the doctor on the island, and I gather that they both left the island, when Dr Garvie retired. 

 Although we don’t need to know the details of their private lives, when I see photographs of them together, I do read companionship there. I also admit to feeling happy that, after many years of struggle in her career, Beatrice Garvie had found a place where she felt contentment.

 Dr Garvie may also have had a sweet tooth! On a previous visit to the island, by chance, I had come across a book she had owned; a recipe book called ‘Sweets and Chocolates’.  For the birthday party, the children had made some sweets; cinder toffee and marshmallows from recipes in the book. 

The book of recipes, found at Trebb, with Dr Garvie’s bookplate alongside.

Birthday tea on May 9th, at the school

  There was a lot of interest in drawing and investigating the contents of the medical chest. The birthday party was a great means of introducing a broad range of learning about life on the island in the 1930s, and the work of the doctor at that time.  

Investigating the equipment in the medical case


 

Some older islanders had offered the little brass ornaments that Dr Garvie had given them when they were children, for us to see on the day. These were a great subject to photograph with the old camera I had taken along too.

Edie Craigie and Isabella Scott, with one of the brass ornament

 At the end of the day, Helga and I chatted over a cup of tea, with Edie Craigie. Helga said ‘wouldn’t it be great to reconstruct some of those photos with the children’. ‘How can I help?’ I replied. 

To be continued...