Robert Paterson's Weblog

Nov 11 - Remembering my Family - What about yours?

At every Remembrance day, I remember in particular my Grandfather and my Great Uncle whom I knew and who served in WWI. But this year, thanks to my sister Diana, who has been doing all the work, I would like to honour the wider family by name who served in both wars. When you see the list - you may also wonder about your wider family. How great was their sacrifice and effort. Diana and I have found this research deeply moving and meaningful. I know you will too if you look more deeply into your family.

The Patersons were part of a close knit group of intermarried Scots families who played a major role in the establishment of Canada. All the sons and many of the daughters served in WWI. Many were killed or wounded. For the women at home - it must have been unbearable. My Great Great Aunt, lost all her children. Some lost their husbands in one war and their son in the next. 

Diana and I remember them most of all.

At the centre of the "Clan" were the Allans - who while capitalists of a first order - had a deep sense of duty. The Allans lived on both sides of the Atlantic and family members saw each other often. Most of the Canadian boys were educated in England. Some served in the British Army.

But Canada weeps for them all. For to survive was not the end. Many were scarred for life both in body and soul. 

My grandfather Alec, just promoted to Major. He was in France and in every action from Feb 1915 to September 9, 1918. He was one of the few from the 1st Division who volunteered in 1914 to survive. Here is an entry from the Battery War diary that talks to this.

 First of all the fallen in WWI.

Gwendolyn Evelyn Allan, aged 17, and Anna Marjory Allan, aged 15, (her body was never recovered) drowned at the sinking of the Lusitania 7th May 1915. Their mother was rescued and stayed in England to found a hospital for Canadian soldiers. Her son Hugh was to die the following year. 

Here are the two girls and their mother, Aunt Marguerite, who survived.

Her son, Flight Sub Lieutenant Hugh Allan, son of Lt Col Sir Hugh Montague Allan - the then patriarch of the family - killed on his first mission aged 20 on July 6 1917.

Captain John James Allan Liverpool Scottish killed 27th April 1916. His mother, Edith, had taken him to sign up on 15th May 1915

Allan Routledge killed 23rd Sept 1916

Temp Major - Captain Montague Claud Gribbon died 8th December 1915 at Kut el Amara in Mesopotamia - left his widow 389 pounds

Major Charles Napier North, Montague Claud Gribbon's brother in law, shot in the head by a sniper while inspecting wire near Zonnebeke Loos Nov 1st 1914 - left his widow 224 pounds 2 shillings and 3 pence. 

Captain George R Houston Boswall of the Grenadier Guards, died Loos 27th September 1915 aged 38!

Alexander Young, son of James Allan ( all we know right now)

Those who survived WWI

Major Claud MacFie - Seaforth Highlanders - DSO Gallipoli

Major Hugh Earnest Spencer Milburne

Major Claude Edward Allan Milburne

Lieutenant Ellice Allan Mackenzie Royal Canadian Artillery

Major James MacFie - India

Lt Col Bryce Allan DSO Gallipoli

Lieutenant Duncan Charles Allan son of Margaret MacFie - daughter of Sir Hugh Allan

Major Alexander Thomas Paterson (CFA) DSO and Bar - Served in France from Feb 1915 to September 9 1918 when he was gassed - My paternal Grandfather

Lieutenant Hartland Paterson lost a leg to wounds in his first action on September 12th 1918 - Alec's brother and my Great Great Uncle

Captain James Blackwood Paterson - Paymaster for the Canadian Black Watch and lender of last resort to all Canadian Officers!

Lt Col Charles Ballantyne - personally raised 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards (Canada) - My maternal great grandfather

Charles Bridges - It's complicated!

Major Charles Hope (CFA) My wife's Grandfather

The Fallen in WWII

Bill is 4th on the left in the 2nd row

Flight Lieutenant William Hope - 1944 Killed testing a Typhoon - Charlie Hope's eldest son and my wife Robin's Uncle

Captain Hugh Ellice Mackenzie Canadian Grenadier Guards - we have not found out how he died yet

Second Lieutenant George Cleeton Houston-Boswall Royal Scots regiment in December 1941 at Hong Kong

Served in WWII

Commander Robert Alexander Allan - RNVR - DSO Crois de Guerre, OBE

Col Alexander Thomas Paterson (yes my grandfather served in both)

Midshipman James Alexander Paterson CRN (my dad) invalided out of the service

My father is on the right - in the centre his aunt Elspeth who looked after the boys while their father was away at war for the second time. My Uncle Robert is on the left. I was named after him. 

Cpl Francis Hope, my father in law

New beginnings - Her first ballet class

The Joy and Sadness of Summer

It's great to be alive isn't it and to have a great partner. But as July ends and summer peaks, I cannot help feeling the approach of winter and also the winter of our lives as we get older. When I was 20 summers were "Endless" and so was life. Now they are both so precious. Precious because I know how short they both are.

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This is why we moved.

Why I have not been blogging recently

One of the most important reasons that we moved to Quebec has been to be able to see our family. We have had 3 weeks of full on family that is still ongoing. 

I am also working at dawn on 2 books - one non fiction - and a health project. More on all of this later. But for the first time in more than 10 years I just don't have the energy or time to be a regular poster.

So enjoy the break and see you later this summer.

 

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An Iconic Memory of our Daughter - The Fairy Liquid Girl of her Time

 

In the UK - once a year a child is chosen to be the Fairy Liquid Child - now they have boys! Here is Hope our daughter who has a girl the same age as her in this ad. Nearly 30 years ago - how time flies.

Here she is with her 2 children now.

 

22 Years ago - How time flies

Here we all are in Toronto. It is 1991. I have 3 years more as a member of the job world. Robin has just graduated from U of T as an adult. James is about to leave school and go to art school and Hope is ending her high school years. Huge changes ahead for all of us.

 

My place in Eternity - What my son's birthday means to me

It is my dear son James' birthday today. He is 33. I will be 63 next month. He has a young son, Hugo, who is 1+. Recently, we have been talking a lot about time. James no longer feels like a kid in any way. He can also see that I am not even middle aged but on the edge of being old. 

We are thinking more about the long chain of all lives rather than just our own. When I buried my father, James who was the same age as Hugo is today, stood by my side with his little hand in mine. I knew at that poignant moment that one day in the future, one of us would bury the other. I can only hope that it is me in the grave and James and Hugo looking down at me.

Today, on his birthday, I think of my own father. I am now 8 years older than he was when he died. I am the same age as his father was when he died. I see the line of our people trailing back. Trailing back not just over the last 100 years but way back. Trailing back to our family coming to Canada in 1765. I wonder what were their hopes then?

I look back further. I look back to the times of the Covenanters in Scotland who upheld a new sense of God. I look back to my mother's family of Vikings who settled Orkney. What was life like for them? How could they have imagined us today?

My story and yours is a miracle isn't it? We are all descendants of a long line of people who successfully raised a child who then had a child. Think of the odds against us!

And the line goes back further - so much further. It goes back to before we were human. It goes back to when we were hominids; little mammals; bacteria and to when we were stardust.

All had to be aligned to bring each one of us to life. That is the miracle. Every element had to be right. The slightest deviance from the required norms, and we would not be here today.

This miracle, makes me wonder about how much we waste life too. Do we take this miracle for granted? With such a miracle behind us, do we live our lives accordingly?

It is a miracle that needs no proof either. The proof is me and you. I need no religion or faith to be grateful for my life.

Each of us, lowly or high, are the result of a miracle. We are stardust shaped as people.

And what of the future? James and Hugo and Hope and Alfie and Sophia are my hope of a human future. They have my own story locked in their genes. They have my humour and my hands. Their DNA has a biography of 4 billion years. And if they are the end of our family line. It is not the end.

For just as we all start with stardust and bacteria, we surely all end back there too.

There is always home ahead.

A friend offered these words from the Lord of the Rings at my father's memorial. They sum up everything for me:

The Road goes ever on and on

Out from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

Let others follow it who can!

Let them a journey new begin,

But I at last with weary feet

Will turn towards the lighted inn,

My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

Todays Young - A Generation of Peter Pans? Why and What to do

The old have always complained about the young. But today there is a new aspect of being young that worries an old man like me. Many cannot leave home and grow up. This is new. Student loans are at the top of the list. Low earnings are the other side of the equation.

The reason for this permanent state of child living is debt. The reason for this is the end of the job world but not the end of the expectations that came with the job world. Here is the data for the UK.

"Research by the Co-operative Group has identified a 'lost generation' of 18 to 30-year-olds in the UK for whom debt is normality – a so-called debt-eration – and who are finding it hard to become independent in the UK's challenging economy.

More than eight out of 10 (84%) young adults in the UK admit to having received financial support from their parents since "coming of age".

Young adults in the 18-30 age range have asked their parents for financial help for a range of things from food shopping costs (43%) to holidays (36%) to debt payments (16%) and house purchases (8%).

Even beyond financial support from the 'Bank of Mum and Dad', a high proportion of young adults (80%) still rely heavily on their parents for help with basic tasks and decision-making. The most common areas for support including transport (40%), chores such as cleaning and ironing (34%) and help with finding a job (27%). The traditional pattern of youngsters leaving home when they go to university has made way for a new generation of those staying near or at home for their higher education and then staying put.

The research highlights that money is an issue for young adults, with nearly a third (31%) not feeling financially independent. The report has identified a "debt-eration", with nearly two thirds (60%) of 18 to 30-year-olds admitting to having debt. The findings reveal that for this generation debt is normal, with 77% not alarmed or worried by it.

Yet, despite parents and guardians helping their offspring repay debt, nearly a third of young adults are hiding their debt from their parents, amounting to an average burden of £3,579 of secret debt.

The main sources of debt for this age group are: student loans (63%), credit cards (31%), personal loans (23%), overdrafts (19%) and money borrowed from parents (18%).

In addition, the group's earning expectations do not live up to reality. Over two-fifths (41%) earn less than they thought they would in relation to their age and education level and, on average, people aged 18-30 take home £7,187 less than they thought they would. Also, according to the findings, more than a tenth (16%) of 18 to 30-year-olds do not feel they have a job that matches their qualifications."

And this group will soon be parents!

For me the starting point is to stop trying to make the old system work. Thousands of pounds/dollars of student debt is not a good start. Thinking that this will lead to a well paying job or a career is mistaken. The jobs are not there for the young and cannot be anymore. The world has changed. The yoing are going to have to think about how "To Make a Living".

The why's and hows are in my first book, "You Don't Need a Job".  

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My Tribe