Friday, January 16, 2015

Olive Arthur Scott 1899 - 1982


My grandmother, Olive Arthur Scott, was born on the 19th January 1899 at Bridgefoot, Strathmartine, Angus. She moved to Berkeley California when she was two, returning to Dundee at the age of eleven following the death of her father. She worked as a clerkess with a well-known coal merchant in Dundee.

She did not move back to America with her sisters and mother after the war as she had met her sweetheart and married James Spark Stiven on the 21st October 1921 in Downfield, Dundee – her bridesmaid was her sister Etta. James was born at Downfield on the 26th March 1898. He became a banker in the British Linen Bank, and after the Second World War was the Manager of the London Threadneedle Street office.

Olive was around 5ft 4ins tall, pretty, and a trained singer with a lovely mezzo-soprano voice – I still have many of her Hawaiian music books that she learned as a small child when the girls could travel on their father’s ship. She loved to read the classics and poetry and was a fantastic baker and cook.

Olive and James lived initially at 4 East Avenue, Renfrew until 1930. They had four daughters – Mary Stephen, my mother, in 1923; Olive, born and died in 1925; Agnes Spark, in 1927; and Jean Scott, in 1929. All three are happily still with us.

In 1930 the family moved to 21 Calderwood Road, Rutherglen and in 1940 to 18 Queen Margaret Drive in Glasgow. After the war, Olive and James moved to Beckenham, Kent, and then Twickenham in London where they lived until James died on 8th August 1953.

At the age of 54, Olive made a new life for herself, originally moving to Learmonth Court in Edinburgh. I remember her doing a lot of work with Cruse Bereavement Care. She loved to travel, especially to the USA and across Europe, sometimes either with or visiting sisters. It was always esciting growing up to hear the sisters talk of their early days with their father on board ship, even if their recollections rarely agreed!

From Edinburgh, she moved to a country cottage in Stow in the Scottish Borders. Latterly, when my father became minister at Glamis, she moved in with my mum and dad.

She died after spending a happy Christmas day with my Aunt Jean and family on December 26th 1982 – having heard that her great-grandson, my son Nicholas, was a Christmas baby.

All the best

Scott

Kent notes:  Olive was born January 18, 1899 to Arthur Hardie Scott and Mary Stephen in Bridgefoot, Angus, Scotland. Her father died when she was eleven. 

She was baptized at St Lukes Church, Strathmartine by Minister Rice, Curate of St Paul's Dundee.

Olive moved with the family to Oakland, CA around 1902 and after WWI she moved back to England.

She married James Spark Stiven October 24, 1921 in Ruscot, Downfield, Dundee by HG Jeffries and Henry Dodd.

In 1948 she lived in Beckenham, England.  She also lived at 23 Clifden Road, Twickenham in 1960.

She died December 26, 1982 and was cremated on the 29th.

She has a grandson named Scott S. 


Olive and her siblings:

Back Row: Martha, Jim, Olive
    Front Row: Etta, Mary, Alma, Daisy, about 1915 based on Alma's apparent age.



















































1960 April 12














1957 Electoral rolls:







Death: Died December 26, at 83 Cremated: December 29, 1982