(This is the one who worked in Brazil, Madeira, Portugal, and who did sketches of Gallipoli in WW1.)
Childhood – see the video below
Above is a presentation I created and shared for the Society of Genealogist’s All About That Place online event, 2024. It covers my research to try and learn a little more about John McPherson’s early years.
Anyway, to follow is the rest of my blog about John.
I realise on putting this together that I barely know a whisker about John. A list of annotated facts in a timeline, but not a feeling for a life. So, what snippets can I glean? Who can I ask?
From his childhood photos he looks adorable. As the youngest of 4, with fairly older siblings I can imagine he was much doted on.
He seems to have remained close to his sister, Helen, on leaving home for Brazil, and wrote letters back to her later on from the war (First World War). She later accompanied his family on some of their voyages.
John’s wife, Janet, left home, for Brazil, following him across the ocean to marry him after WW1, despite her father putting his foot down and threatening to cut her out of his Will.
From his wartime drawings to some of the light-hearted childhood photos of Rita and Betty, he looks fun and unfettered.
John seems to have thrown himself into his career, living and working in many different countries. He was 21 when he first embarked for South America, and 60 when he retired to Stirling, Scotland. Almost 40 decades spent nearly entirely overseas, but he retired to the town of his birth nonetheless.
One last snippet, apparently he had a love of French bulldogs, and had some as pets – as seen in some of the family photos.
John McPherson – mini family fact file
Date & place of birth: 2 March 1888, 17 Bruce Street, Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland. His family were still living there in the 1891 Census.
Parents: John’s parents were William MacPherson (born 28 June 1851, Stirling, Stirlingshire[1], died 30 July 1921, Stirling, Stirlingshire[2]) and Elizabeth Williamson (born c.1852 Creiff, Perthshire[3], died 14 December 1910, Stirling, Stirlingshire[4]).
Siblings: two much older brothers (13 and 10 years older than him), James McPherson c. 1875 and Williamson McPherson c.1878, both born in Glasgow, and a sister Helen McPherson c. 1882, six years old than him, born in Stirling like John.
[Sue Rosie on Ancestry has a lovely photo of John McPherson in a sailor suit, aged approximately 5-7 years old.]
Wife: Janet Gentles Foster, born 23 October 1887 in Stirling, died 26 October 1857, Spalding, Lincolnshire.
Children: Rachel Helen Williamson McPherson (Rita) and Elizabeth Frances Foster McPherson (Betty), born 01 July 1921.
[1] OPR Baptism register entry. Stirling, Stirlingshire. 28 June 1851. MCPHERSON William. 490/00 0060 0435. https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk : accessed 09 February 2016.
[2] National Probate Calendar. 1921. MACPHERSON William. pg no 122. https://www.ancestry.co.uk : 03 February 2016.
[3] [Detail inferred from census entries].
[4] Death register entry. Stirling, Stirlingshire. 14 December 1910. MACPHERSON Elizabeth. 490/00 403. https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk : accessed 24 December 2020.
Childhood:
He spent the first few years of his life living at 17 Bruce Street, Stirling. By the 1901 Census, when he was aged 13 the family were at 21 Burgh Muir, Stirling.
Education: Stirling High School.
Working life:
1904-1907 National Bank of Scotland;
1907-1909 National Bank of India. During this time he also served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve London Division;
1909 moved to Brazil, worked as an accountant for Ball, Baker, Cornish & Co (Chartered Accountants) in Buenos Aires;
1910 His mother died.
(This makes me wonder, did he get the chance to travel back home? Or when he went to Brazil in 1909, did he stay out there until the outbreak of WW1? Need to check the passenger lists).
His war years
John MacPherson travelled to South America prior to the First World War, but he can be found returning to Scotland on the Royal Mail Steam Ship Packet Alcantara on 18 December 1914 to sign up to fight [5].
You can read more about his war years here.
[5] UK Inbound. 29 December 1914. MCPHERSON John. https://www.ancestry.co.uk : accessed 20 November 1914
Back to civilian life
After the war he resumed his civilian employment, returning to South America in 1919, and on the outbound passenger list for his sailing on the Steam Ship Highland Piper (01 July 1919) his country of ‘last permanent residence’ is again cited as Scotland [6]
[6] UK Outbound. 01 July 1919. MACPHERSON John. https://www.findmypast.co.uk : accessed 20 November 2014.
[Need to seek permission from FMP to use passenger list.]
4 August 1920 married Janet Gentles Foster in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (This has quite a story to go with it. To be told on Janet Gentles Foster’s post here).
1 July 1921 birth of identical twin daughters Rita and Betty (Rachel Helen Williamson McPherson and Elizabeth Frances Foster McPherson) in Rio de Janeiro. (The twins follow the Scottish naming pattern tradition – with the elder one being named after their maternal grandmother Rachel (Gowan) and the younger being named after their paternal grandmother Elizabeth (Williamson);
30 July 1921 his father died. (Hopefully John telegrammed or wrote so that his father learned he’d got two baby granddaughters);
[Thanks to Jami for these details below]
July 1922 resigned from job in Canadian Bank of Commerce, Rio de Janeiro, and moved to Madeira to work as Chief Accountant with Blandy Brothers (Steamship Agents, Lloyds Agents, bankers);
After 1922 continued role as Chief Accountant with Blandy Brothers, working in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands), Spain;
1926-1948 Company Secretary for Lisbon Electric Tramways Company, Lisbon Portugal. Home address Rua Junqueira 297, Belem, Lisbon;
1948 retired with his wife to live in Stirling, Scotland;
26 August 1951, died at 3 Windsor Place, Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland, age 63 years, of cerebral haemorrhage.
He would have been happy to have seen his twin WRNS daughters survive the war and marry, and would have had 4, perhaps 5 grandchildren by the time of his death.
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