Edward William Mackinnon & Gertrude Lilian Gascoigne

Edward, Christmas, 1964 at Knysna on the way down to Cape Town via the Garden Route.

Edward William Mackinnon 1902 - 1972
Edward William Mackinnon was born in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland on the 12th April, 1902, the son of Roderick Mackinnon and Margaret Reilly, and was registered in the District of St. George, Edinburgh. Up until the age of eighteen, he lived with his parents and sister Unie, at 30 Fowler Terrace, Edinburgh. Aged eighteen, having joined a Shipping Company as a clerk, records show that on the 18th March, 1920 he boarded the steam ship "Chyebassa" (official number: 124171) of the British India Steam Navigation Co, leaving from London bound for Port Sudan, Sudan. The Master of the ship a was B. F. Gulliver. The total number of passengers on the voyage was 47.

Records of travel document show he travelled back and forth extensively between the UK and North Africa  during the periods 1920 to 1936. Sometime before 1937, Edward arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa and on the 30th November 1937, Edward (36), married Gertrude Lilian Gascoigne (30) in Johannesburg. In 1938, their first son Gavin Edward was born at Germiston, Transvaal, South Africa. Around about 1941/2 the Family was in the Middle East, possibly Egypt. As records show that in 1942 Edward renewed his passport at the British Consulate in Cairo, his passport list his residence as being Asmara, Eritrea. On the 3 Jan 1944, Edward, Gertrude & Gavin (6yrs) arrived in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. In February, 1944 Kenneth Bruce was born in the Regina Elina Hospital (click photo (Gertrude/Ken) below for a photo of the hospital). Kenneth was issued with both Italian & British Birth Certificates (Kenneth was obviously hedging his bets even at a very early age).

Edward, being fluent in several languages worked as an interpreter at Jan Smuts Airport in Kempton Park South Africa up until his death on the 10th of December 1972 at the age of 70. Edward collapsed while at work and was rushed by ambulance to the General Hospital in Johannesburg, and was diagnosed as having a burst stomach ulcer, he was operated on that evening, but died the next morning. The Hospital informed the family that while sitting up in bed early in the morning, while still groggy he had pulled out the tubes that were draining his stomach fluids, with the tubes removed the fluids were able to enter his system which resulted in his death..

(The Eritrea link is with the kind permission of Hans van der Splinter, The Netherlands)

Gertrude Lilian Mackinnon 
(nee Gascoigne)
In her early 20's

Gertrude Lilian Gascoigne 1907 - 1965 (aged 58)
Gertrude Lilian Gascoigne (known to her family as Gertie), was born on the 14 October 1907 in Natal, South Africa, and was the second youngest of eight children (two boys, six girls) born to John Gascoigne and Augusta Pfeifer. She died on the 28 May, 1965 at their home in Primrose, Germiston, South Africa, aged 58. Having arrived home from work at 5:30pm that day, she told her husband Edward that she was feeling a little tired and that she was going to lay down for a while and asked to be woken for dinner at 7:30pm, when Edward tried to wake her he found she had died peacefully in her sleep. Although Kenneth still lived at home, he was away in the Army at the time. Gertrude was very gifted, not only was she a competent artist (with paintings such as the portrait of Robert Burns, Scotland's most famous poet), but also extremely creative. In order to raise money for charity, she made a complete miniature pipe band right down to their Sgian Dubh (dagger) the detail was perfect in every way. She created a Family crest in embossed leather, and many more artistic accomplishments. Her creative legacy has been passed down to her two granddaughters, both have inherited her artistic talents. Gertrude embraced her husband's Scottish heritage with both arms and although of English stock, she was however a true "Flower of Scotland"  (Tune is O' Flower of Scotland).

Gertrude with second son
Kenneth in Asmara, Eritrea
in 1944

Llandovery Castle

Bound for South Africa - 1948 - Four years after arriving in Scotland from Eritrea, North Africa, Gertrude and the two boys were finding Scotland a wee bit on the cold side, pining for warmer weather, and her family back in South Africa, Gertrude eventually convinced Edward to pack up and head south. So with a last farewell to Edward's mother, father and sister, Edward, Gertrude with their two sons Gavin and Kenneth boarded the "Flying Scotsman" the famous train in Edinburgh and headed south for London a 630km, 7 hour journey, then after a few days spent in London seeing the sights, the family travelled on to Southampton where they boarded the ss Llandovery Castle in April 1948 bound for Cape Town, South Africa.

Highlights of the trip; Kenneth (4years old) unlike his bother was small for his age, and in the four years that he lived in Scotland had acquired a very broad Scottish accent. Being a typical kid, he very quickly found the tuck shop on the upper deck, and promptly asked for lollies (without money to pay for them), the shop assistant picked him up and put him in the empty wire waste basket that hung just outside the door, he then ask Kenneth to sing (his version) of "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond" which he did to the delight of the other passengers, when finished he gave Kenneth a few lollies. This became a regular event, Kenneth never did have to pay for lollies, his mother used to wonder why he never finished his dinner on those occasions.
 
During the trip the passengers were called upon to perform an abandon ship drill, all the passengers were lined up on deck and were told that when the whistle blew they were to proceed to their cabins where there were lifejackets, put them on as fast as possible and return to the deck. Needless to say, by the time Edward & Gertrude had figured out how to put them on themselves and the two boys and started 

heading back up to the deck, half way up  the stairs they encountered all the other passengers, who having completed the drill, returning back to their cabins to take the lifejackets off. If the boat was really sinking the Mackinnon family would have gone down with it, while still trying to put on their lifejackets.

The ship arrived in the Canary Islands, unfortunately an epidemic had broken out and as a result children were not allowed to disembark, so while the adults were on shore having fun all the poor kids were stuck on board. The ship arrived at Cape Town South Africa on the 22 April 1948 where the Mackinnon family disembarked from the Llandovery Castle and from there they travelled by train to Johannesburg, Transvaal. And a new life.

Gavin was born in 1938 in Germiston, Transvaal, South Africa and as a young boy he travelled to many countries with his parents such as Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Scotland, England and then back to South Africa. While still in Scotland, Gavin who was tall for his age, and when at aged 8 he pestered his mother to be allowed to take his 2 year old brother Kenneth for a walk in his pram, his mother was always amazed that when he returned, Kenneth was always fast asleep, this went on for a while until one day a neighbour came around to tell his mother that she had seen Gavin walk up to the top of the hill, where he proceeded to climb into the pram and the two of them came whizzing down the hill, as it passed the neighbour all she heard from the pram were giggles of joy. Gavin grew up in Primrose, Germiston with his parents and younger brother Kenneth. He went on to marry Maureen Emett in 1962, and they had two children a daughter Jennifer (Jenni) and a son Ian (Mac). Gavin was very much an outdoor man, and was an above average tennis player, when in his 30s he was invited to play a game of golf by his younger brother Kenneth who had been playing from the age of sixteen. He accepted the invitation, and it was evident that after only a few holes that he was a natural and ended up posting a very respectable score. 

Gavin took to golf like a fish to water, and within six months he was already level pegging it with his brother, needless to say much to his brother's disgust, who was by this stage battling to win games against him, and pretty soon he was playing off a single digit handicap. Golf became a ritual and he and Kenneth would play every weekend, and then finish the day off with a few games of chess. His son Ian who has also taken up the game says that his dad even now aged 70 is still able to hits the cover off the ball.