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Canada / Re: Mitchells in Canada
« on: Sunday 08 September 13 20:26 BST (UK) »
Maria Armstrong Mitchell married my uncle, George Brown, in 1918 in Edinburgh. George Brown was born on 27 May 1891 in Edinburgh, the eldest son of Henry Brown and Jessie Clark who had nine children in total, five daughters and four sons. George was a clerk in Edinburgh and emigrated to Canada in 1913 where he found work in a bank.
He enlisted in the Canadian Army and the family story in Scotland is that he was posted to what in the British army was called the Pay Corp because he was a bank clerk but he created a fuss and was transferred to a combat unit and saw service in various actions, most famously with the Canadians at Vimy Ridge. When his regiment was passing through or based in the UK he obviously took his leave with the family in Edinburgh. It is not clear whether he already knew Maria or met her at this time. At one stage he was in the same unit as her brother and it is plausible that he met her through her brother while on leave.
The Mitchell family lived in Juniper Green, then a village outside the city, a centre of papermaking, but now a suburb of the city, while George Brown's family lived in Haymarket in the west end of the city.
In Canada he and Maria - known there as Marie - had four sons, one of whom died in infancy.
He enlisted in the Canadian Army and the family story in Scotland is that he was posted to what in the British army was called the Pay Corp because he was a bank clerk but he created a fuss and was transferred to a combat unit and saw service in various actions, most famously with the Canadians at Vimy Ridge. When his regiment was passing through or based in the UK he obviously took his leave with the family in Edinburgh. It is not clear whether he already knew Maria or met her at this time. At one stage he was in the same unit as her brother and it is plausible that he met her through her brother while on leave.
The Mitchell family lived in Juniper Green, then a village outside the city, a centre of papermaking, but now a suburb of the city, while George Brown's family lived in Haymarket in the west end of the city.
In Canada he and Maria - known there as Marie - had four sons, one of whom died in infancy.