Roving uncle who made good

An ongoing trawl through his late father Jock’s old photos continues to revive memories for Ian Wallace.

The Carnoustie man supplied the main picture on today’s page, which he says was taken some time in the early ’50s and which ties in with another of Jock’s images Craigie previously published capturing Ian as a boy walking in fields at Kirkton in 1956 with his uncle Edwin Elrick, near the home of the late hillwalker and author Syd Scroggie.

Ian says this latest snap was likely taken at either Tentsmuir or, again, in the vicinity of the Sidlaws. “The man on the right is Bert Mctavish, who was a draughtsman in the Veeder-root where Jock worked,” he adds.

“Bert lived in Maitland Street, Tayport, with his wife and two children. He loved hiking with Jock but he was also a keen yachtsman, so Bert built himself a concrete yacht which was berthed for years in the Tayport harbour.

“My uncle Eddie Elrick is in the middle. Jock got Eddie a job as a toolmaker in the Timex and did very well. The guy on the left is Wullie Auld, a great pal of Eddie’s.

“Eddie and another Timex toolmaker, George Angus, decided to form their own company called Dundee Tool and Gauge.

“They started in a large wooden garage in Cox Street, Downfield, Dundee. Business was booming with sub-contracted work from the Timex, NCR and Veeder-root.

“They moved to a bigger unit in Cunningham Street and with help from Tayside Region opened a purpose-built factory in Gourdie, with Eddie using some of the leftover metal, which was turned into fishing lures. The People’s Journal carried a

feature on Dundee Tool and Gauge ’60-’62, which I kept but have since lost.

“Eddie, his wife Linda and their only son Scott emigrated to Canada in 1971, where he became a director of a fish canning company in St Andrews, on the border with the USA.

“I keep in phone contact with Eddie – he is now 83 and living a quiet life in St Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada. Linda died several years ago and Scott was killed in a motorcycle accident many years ago.”

Mr Wallace says his family has a strong Canadian heritage, as his mother Dolly was born in Winnipeg in 1923 – Eddie, her brother, was born in Scotland in 1939 after the family returned to their homeland.

He reports that his overseas uncle was understandably “chuffed” when he told him about the 1956 picture showing the pair of them at Kirkton appearing in Craigie.

The late Jock Wallace’s pals Wullie Auld, Eddie Elrick and Bert Mctavish near Dundee in the early 1950s. Read more on the left.

A view of Dunkeld and Birnam from Birnam Hill, as captured by Craigie reader Eric Niven.