Scotland news
Two childhood sweethearts have been reunited after more than 85 years thanks to an old school photograph.
Jim Dougal and Betty Davidson (nee Dougal) used to walk to school together hand in hand in Eyemouth in the Scottish Borders in the 1930s.
They lost touch after Jim’s family moved away in about 1939, but his son Alistair’s efforts to trace all the members of a class photo from 1936 brought them back together.
The old friends met again recently in North Yorkshire and Alistair said: “To describe it as a magical moment would be a gross understatement.”
Jim is 96 years old and now lives in Rayne in Essex – but he was born in Eyemouth in 1928.
His son was researching the family ancestry when he was made aware of a class photo at Eyemouth Primary taken in 1936, when his father was probably eight years old.
In total there are 32 children in the photo – including Betty.
Jim left the town a few years later and never returned after getting conscripted and meeting his wife, Iris Gibbs, while in an army camp in Essex.
Meanwhile, Betty remained in Eyemouth until about 1950 when she met her husband Alfred “Ivor” Davidson and then moved, first, to Tweedmouth and then to North Yorkshire, where she still lives near Northallerton.
Alistair said he became fascinated by the school photograph after a visit to Eyemouth last year and set out – with the help of his father’s “astonishing long-term memory” – to find out what had happened to the other children in the image.
He found they had gone all across the globe – including Australia, Canada and New Zealand – but most of them had died.
The first living person he traced in the picture was Margaret MacCauley (nee Duggie), who still lives in the Eyemouth area.
The second was Betty, who is also 96.
“I couldn’t be quite sure although I was almost certain I had traced her to North Yorkshire up to a few years ago,” said Alistair.
“In a final slightly desperate push, I posted a copy of the photo on the Eyemouth Past Facebook group and asked if anyone could help.
“Within an hour, Betty’s niece Maureen Stevenson posted and said, ‘That’s my aunt Betty and, yes, she is alive and well, and in North Yorkshire’.”
“I wrote to Betty and, as soon as she received the letter, she rang me,” said Alistair, who lives about 70 miles from his father in Mendham in Suffolk.
“Not only that, then she sent me a photo she had, after all those years, of her and my father together, along with her sister Wilhelmina (Elma), taken in about 1936 too.
“They each have an arm around the others shoulder. My father was completely overwhelmed.”
The story ended with the reunion nearly 90 years after that photo was taken.
“Before we left her, they re-posed that photo she had retained all that time and they looked as happy and comfortable together as they did way back when,” said Alistair.
“What a thing to see.
“Ultimately, of the 32, just three remain; Margaret, my father and Betty.
“That Betty should be one of those feels – as my father has said – like destiny.”
Betty remembered growing up across the road from Jim.
“I used to knock on the door for him in the morning or he knocked on mine and we used to walk up to school together,” she said.
She also recalled getting the picture taken together in her back garden with her sister Elma.
Their reunion was prompted by the photo of their class appearing in the local paper, the Berwickshire News.
“Jim and I were both on that school photograph and I think the others had all died,” said Betty.
“I was the only one that was left and he was anxious to get in touch with me. I was quite surprised actually.”
She said it had been lovely to see him again.
“I spoke to him a couple of times on the phone and then he said they would like to come and see me, which they did – with his son,” she said.
“It was nice to get in touch after all these years with my childhood sweetheart.
“I think he was quite shy, Jim, but we were good pals.”
Jim described the reunion, thanks to his son’s research, as “fantastic” and he remembered Betty well.
“We lived on opposite sides of the road in Eyemouth,” he explained.
“Right opposite there was a baker’s shop and Betty lived behind it.
“We used to go to school together, we used to play together – everything.
“It is something that she is the last one standing and so am I.
“It is just incredible really.”
He had no regrets about travelling north to meet up with her once again.
“It was terrific, it really was,” Jim said.
“It was a tiring couple of days but it was well worth it.
“She was fantastic – she has still got that glint in her eye and a touch of the fair hair that I remember her by.”
