John Anna Grieve (Laidlaw) Hudson (1897 - 1982)

Born 10 Feb 1897 in Sundhope, Yarrow, Selkirkshire, Scotland, U.K.

Ancestors

Died 9 Apr 1982 at age 85 in Almonte, Lanark, Ontario, Canada

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Biography

BIRTH: Jock, as she was called by her birth family, was born 10-Feb-1897, at Sundhope, Yarrow, Selkirkshire, Scotland. When she visited Scotland in 1965, and went to the registry office to get a copy of her birth certificate, they were not able to find it. However, they did find a later registration. However, it was found under the "Corrected Registration of Births". Here she was shown as John Anna Grieve Laidlaw, which was the name she had always used. When she came to Canada, she called herself Anna, but she always signed her name "J. Anna G. Laidlaw. She told me her mother had promised a close relative that she would name the child after him. When a girl was born, she was registered as Maggie. However, soon after the relative died, and her registration was changed to read John Anna Grieve Laidlaw.

EMIGRATION: Anna told me the following story. A recruiter came to the woolen mill in Galashiels, hoping to sign up mill workers to come and work in the Rosamond Woolen Mill in Almonte, Ontario, Canada. The woolen industry in Scotland had suffered badly following the Great War, and employment was hard come by. Workers were promised, free passage to Almonte, and housing for a year. Anna and two of her younger sisters, Christina and Lucy signed contracts. At the time of departure, on the docks at Glasgow, Lucy and Christina began crying and begging their father to let them stay. Their father said, "Jock, get on that boat, you will not disgrace the Laidlaw name." So, onto the boat she went, alone. The Sicilian sailed on16-Jul-1920, arriving in Quebec, Canada on 28-Jul-1920.

EARLY YEARS IN ALMONTE: Anna was a weaver by trade, and was immediately employed in the Rosamond mill as a weaker. It was always her intention to return to Scotland as soon as her year-long contract was up, and she had saved enough money for passage. This was not to be. In 1923, her younger brother Alexander, emigrated to Canada to work on the harvest in Saskatchewan. Soon after, Anna was notified that he was suffering from Tuberculosis. She went to Regina and nursed him for 3 months until his death 18-Jun-1924, and buried him there. She used all the money she had saved. She began saving her money again, to return home. Again this was not to be, for she was admitted to the Ottawa Hospital with a ruptured ovary, and this hospitalization and recovery used up all her savings. For the third time, she began to save her money, but by now she had met her husband to be, Gordon Hudson, another mill worker. They eloped to Carleton Place, after work on Thursday, 16-Aug-1928, telling no one of their plans, returning to work the next day. Gordon's mother was not too pleased that her only son had married this woman from Scotland, and threw all his clothes out of the house onto the lawn!

MARRIED LIFE IN ALMONTE: By the time Anna and Gordon had married, many of her siblings had left for New Zealand, and by the Fall of 1928 her elderly parents, and the 5 youngest children had sailed to meet with the older children who had bought a house in Taradale for the family. Anna kept up a lively correspondence with her siblings until she died, pictures and letters were mailed back and forth across the oceans and skies. She was never able to visit New Zealand, or Australia, where one bachelor brother, Robert lived. However, in 1965, she did fly to Scotland to visit her oldest sister, Janet and her family, and her oldest brother, William, in Liverpool.

Sources

• personal knowledge