Who was Maurice?

Willie Macfarlane of Wolfhill sent in the photograph below and says: “Over the years, your readers have helped me with local information concerning various matters of research. This time, however, my request is more personal and I hope that the photograph jogs someone’s memory.

“Our much-loved mother Lillias Macfarlane from Auchterarder sadly died in the late spring of this year. While sorting out her home, my brother and I have discovered a mass of old photographs and press cuttings which she seems to have collected over her life span of nearly 92 years.

“Many of the subjects are known to us but the photograph I have attached is a mystery to us all. Standing alongside Lillias at an unknown location is a gentleman to whom she appears to be quite close. The reverse of the card is endorsed: ‘Maurice – 1947’.

“Evidence that points to a closer friendship between the pair exists in the form of a pendant, gifted on my mother’s 19th birthday – July 3 – and inscribed: ‘From Maurice to Lillias’. It was clearly important enough for her to have kept for more than 70 years.

“Neither my brother nor I have ever heard the name Maurice and are keen to learn just a wee bit more about him. In 1947, my mother lived at Number 5 Holding, Dunning, in Perthshire and was employed as a seamstress with Messrs A. Caird and Sons at their High Street shop in Perth.

“My mother enjoyed working for the Caird family, and during her time there made a number of friends, most of whom she lost contact with. Could Maurice have been an employee of Cairds, or was he someone whom Lillias met on her daily train journey from Dunning to Perth?

“We are hoping that perhaps someone will recognise Maurice from the photograph and be able to give us some information about him as we seek to catalogue our late mother’s life.”