Email from grandson: ‘I have reason to believe from family stories that my grandmother originally born in Orkney but worked in Dumfries at the start of WW1, may have worked in the Gretna factory. Her name was Jane/Janet Corse Brown (nee Scollay).

 

So my grandmother was Janet/Jane Corse Scollay (spelt Schollie, Scholley and other) Born in Kirkwall Oct 13 1897, orphaned in 1907 when both parents died of TB. She and her siblings were separated brought up by aunts and uncles in the family. All her living siblings eventually emigrated to Canada or USA. Janet as she was known, married my grandfather in 1919 in Dumfries and her occupation then was reported as a Domestic Servant in the Globe Hotel. My late aunt, her daughter, told me that the reason she came from Kirkwall to Dumfries was to work in an ammunition’s factory. She would make comment of the conditions and chemicals she had to work with, and I wished I had asked more questions then. I’ve looked into this but can find no actual record of work and employment, however I have come across other girls around the same time being brought from Orkney and other areas of North Scotland to work for the war effort. 

 

Her story and that of her siblings is a real sad tale. Two of her brothers joined the WW1 forces and served in France, one buried in Flairbaux, the other suffering horrific injury’s from shell fire, being buried alive and eventually brought back to Canada after being found to be only 15 years of age. Her sisters emigrating to Canada and USA, most likely never so their living siblings again. Their family story could be a feature length Movie.