Catherine Duncan

  General Notes:

Excerpt from John Duncan's "We Are All Margaret Haldane's Bairns" :

4] Catherine Duncan #25 - the Compiler's Sister.
My sister, Catherine Duncan, and I lived with our parents at Claythorn Street, Glasgow, close to Glasgow Cross, until the family moved to a Corporation flat at 125 Quarryknowe St., Parkhead.

I was not yet old enough for school, but Cathie had to change schools, and now attended Quarry Brae primary school, and later Riverside Senior Secondary school in Springfield Road.

Shortly after leaving Riverside, Cathie went to stay with our Aunt Annie Sutherland [nee Linnhe] and her husband Jock at their little garret flat at Corbett Street, Tollcross. She took up employment at the biscuit factory of McFarlane & Lang in Tollcross, as a biscuit packer.

When war broke out in 1939, she joined the Auxiliary Fire Service [A.F.S.] and was stationed in the Miner's Institute, club in Corbett St., Tollcross, just a short walk from her home. She also volunteered for civilian duty as a "fire-watcher", which sent my Aunt into a bit of a panic, over concern for her safety.

Her fire-watching duties required her to stay overnight at some commercial premises, and to extinguish any incendiary bomb that may land on the roof or elsewhere. She was equipped with the standard fire-fighting equipment. A long-handled shovel to pick up the bomb, and a bucket of sand, by means of which, the bomb may be carried to a safe location. A second bucket contained water, which, with the aid of a stirrup-pump was to be used to extinguish any fires.

Her duties with the A.F.S. included manning a telephone switchboard on her shift, and it is here that she met her husband to be, Fireman Jimmy Hence., and they were married c1943.

After the war, Cathie obtained a position as a telephonist with the Glasgow Telephone Exchange. Subsequently she became a Supervisor and trained new telephonists. In those days the exchanges were manually operated, and the reader might wish to visualise a large room with a long telephone switchboard, manned by twenty or more female operators seated on wooden stools, and with one or more supervisors standing behind them, ready to assist.

Her life was not an easy one; husband Jimmy had no full-time job but preferred to potter around with a little motor-bike accessories business, which made little if any money, so Cathie was the bread-winner, and after a long tiring shift and tram trip home, she had to care also for Jimmy's sick mother, and later Jimmy himself until he died of some chest complaint.

She was given a Corporation flat at Easterhouse, Glasgow, but later transferred to a comfortable unit at Erskine, just West of Glasgow.

When she retired about 1984, she had a holiday with Mattie and I at Templestowe, Vistoria, but she could not keep up with us on trips, and had to rest often. She never complained, or advised us, that she had a problem with her heart!.

Upon her return to Scotland, she was attending a staff reunion lunch, on 19 Mar 1986, when she collapsed and died from heart -failure. Her remains were cremated at Calderpark Crematorium, Glasgow.

My late sister, Catherine (Duncan) Hence, visited Margaret Stafford in the late 1980's and enjoyed her hospitality, as did my Aunt Isa Boyd on an earlier trip to the U.K., but unfortunately I do not have her address.

Catherine married James "Jimmy" Hence circa 1943.