My mother, Isabella Cooper MacKINNON, (b.1913) always talked about Helensburgh being her home town, though her birth reg. gave her as born Greenock. I know my maternal grandmother hailed from Helensburgh however and many of her family were there until the 1930’s.
On a recent trip to Helensburgh to search the Directories, I could find no reference to my grandparents, John and Annie Laurie MacKINNON.
I am therefore assuming that, after their marriage in 1912 in Helensburgh, they in fact lived in Greenock. My mother was their only child.
John MacKINNON was an Electrical Storekeeper. I presume this meant he had a shop. Annie L was a schoolteacher, so she may have been teaching in Greenock. I do know that by about 1920/21, the grandparents were in Rangoon, Burma and John returned from there in 1927 listed as ‘Merchant 1st Class’ on the return trip. I would be very interested to understand why they went there, as during their 7 year stay in Burma, my mother had been left at a boarding school in Edinburgh from the age of 7. What a dreadful experience for a child......
Has anyone access to Directories for Greenock for the period 1912 to 1920 or so, who could give me a firm location for the family. Sadly, I didn’t get to Greenock during my recent trip.
Obviously, it would be helpful to understand why they opted to go to Burma and leave my mother behind for all those years of her childhood.
Chilis
