Alexander Geddes Senior - My elusive Grandfather

My memories of my grandfather, my father’s father, are of a thin, crotchety, bald man who spent much of his time in his garden, which was laid out with military precision. As a retired draper and small businessman, his home was still stacked with suitcases of linen sheeting, damask and other fabrics. Each case was labelled ‘Property of Alexander Geddes Esquire’.

            Alexander drove an immaculate car called a Graham Paige, which had a back seat like a Chesterfield couch. Sometimes, as a child, I sat in that car as it drove a slow and stately journey to the local shops or to church. It was the sort of vehicle that caused people to stop and look. It was already a vintage car in the 1950s.

Grandpa's Graham Paige

Grandfather was very old when I was very young. There was not much he had in common with a small girl, his adopted granddaughter. On one memorable occasion, a family argument resulted from him accusing me of breaking the seat in the outside toilet; something my mother admitted to doing while trying to admire his garden through the doorway. I regret that her admiration for the foliage did not wait until she had removed herself from the confines of the ‘smallest room’.

Alexander, Linda and Myrtle with Catherine and Alexander Snr, and Cousin Graeme

This petty incident, and the alleged matter of some money owed by my grandfather to my father, resulted in my parents not speaking to my Grandpa for many years.

When I next saw Alexander I was a teenager, ushered to his deathbed. He looked frail, in the large bed and darkened room. He barely acknowledged my father or I, although some truce had been called to accommodate this momentous occasion.

As years have passed I have wondered what was my grandfather’s background.

On my mother’s side of the family I was arrayed with intricate detail of the family history, especially the generations who came as settlers to the virgin Antipodes to farm tracts of land and produce large communicative families where everyone knew everyone else and saw each other regularly. Even on my paternal grandmother’s side the detail was available about settlers and farmers. But Alexander never offered information about his background, and I never asked.

Alexander and Catherine Geddes with their children: Alexander, Myrtle, Linda and Anne

By the time I became curious, it was too late. My parents’ generation had died. My two cousins on my father’s side seemed to have vanished. My only records of his existence were faded photographs and a photocopy of his marriage certificate.

From these meagre mementos I deduced that his mother’s name was Jane Paterson and his father was Thomas Geddes. His father was a miner in one of the hundreds of pits (coal mines) in Lanarkshire but he had already died by the time Alexander married. I do not know if Thomas and Jane were married.

Geddes drapery store in Melton

My grandfather was born in 1874 in Airdrie, within an area called Monklands which is part of the larger county of Lanarkshire. Alexander was born, raised and emigrated to Australia during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901). He was a product of a time of stifling etiquette and class structure. As a miner’s son, he had no business having dreams beyond his station. Airdrie was then a village between Edinburgh and Glasgow in the Scottish Lowlands. 

It was recorded that Alexander was born on the thirteenth of August, but his superstitions caused him to always claim the fourteenth as his birthdate.  Apart from the record of Alexander’s birth, little else exists apart from his presence, recorded on the passenger list of the SS Australia, which left Brindisi, Italy in 1996 on route to Adelaide and Melbourne. He also voted in the 1899 Australian Federation Referendum where he was listed as a draper in Melton. The mystery remains.

Lisbeth Wilks