19 Why No Photos? Loudon's Ancestors' stories: A murder, a pub and Auld Reekie

Why No Photos? Loudon's Ancestors' Stories: A murder, a pub and Auld Reekie

One thing which puzzled me, and muddled me, was that Loudon's family name was Parkin, which is a Yorkshire name, but although Loudon's wife Alice is from Yorkshire, he is Scottish.

Loudon's Mother Winnie Parkin
Loudon's mother Winifred Gladys Parkin, was called Winnie.

He recalls, "At one stage she didn't like me, but had more affection for her first born, my older brother Ian Robert Parkin. He's just celebrated his 90th birthday!  I was born 10 months later, so he was always 10 months older than I was.

"My mother threw away all the negatives which showed the family."

Of course, her married name, Parkin, came from her husband, as was usual in those days.

Loudon's Father
"Our father, Robert Parkin, known as "Bertie" was in Hong Kong in WWII - he was moved to Singapore when the Japanese war started, as the Japanese were allies of the Germans.

Loudon's Maternal Grandparents
Loudon says, "My maternal grandmother and father were from Kent. They lived in Gravesend and he worked in the dockyard.

"Their neighbour murdered his own family. With a hatchet. Then committed suicide."

"They were so upset, they went to Scotland. There were plenty of jobs in the Rhosyth shipyard, a dockyard outside Edinburgh. It's over the go Firth of Forth bridge. There was only one bridge then, before the rail bridge there was a ferry.

"My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Barker.

"The name Parkin comes from my paternal grandfather who lived in Bridge of Weir, a village in the West of Scotland. It was a small place. My grandfather, Ernest Parkin, ran the village's only pub. he used to go regularly from Edinburgh to Bridge of Weir to help at the pub, every other weekend, taking me and my brother and sister.

"My father worked for the Civil Service on the accountancy side, stationed in Edinburgh. He was posted there and probably had digs in a tenement and went dancing and met up and married.

"The Edinburgh tenements were roomy - bigger than your three bedroom bungalow. They had high ceilings, and a big kitchen range, like an Aga, with an open coal fire, a cooker on top to bake bread and boil a kettle. The Kitchen range was originally coal but later converted to gas. Coal - that's when Edinburgh was called Auld Reekie - because you could see smoke above the houses. They converted to gas when I was 7 or 8. The baths were galvanised steel in metal colour, not white or coloured like today. Steel would rust, so it was dipped in zinc.

15 Loudon's Childhood Dramas and Education

Loudon's Childhood Dramas and Education (1927 - the Thirties and the Forties)

Loudon, who was born in 1927, says: "My earliest memory was being circumcised. People were standing around me, peering down at me. I was crying.

Alice, a former nurse, comments, "In those days people thought it was cleaner."

Loudon continues: "The next alarming incident was by the edge of a Loch, probably Loch Ness. I was running along a shingly beach when, suddenly, I fell into a watery hole. Everybody was screaming and shouting.

"I was shocked. My Aunty Ivy picked me up. She took all my clothes off and dried me. It was very humiliating. Then we drove home.

"My third memory is my first day at school in Edinburgh in the 1930s. The Royal High School, Junior School, Jock's Lodge. It was a big school - with a running track."

I asked, "A state school or a private school?"

"A private school. Edinburgh has lots of fine schools but this was the oldest, originally in Carlton Hill where the Greek Temples are.

"At school we did English, French, Latin, Chemistry and Physics, Lowers and Highers, the Scottish equivalent of O levels and A levels.

"Loads of boys who went there went on to become famous in Edinburgh and the world. But after I left, the Scottish government turned the school into offices, with no plaque because they are against privilege. I believe it's now a Council housing estate with houses and what have you.

"I used to travel to and from school on the tramcar. One day, when I came home from school on the tramcar, as I got off at the stop I met my father. He had come home from work early and was in a hurry to get onto the tramcar to go and play golf.

He was wearing plus fours, which was what you wore golfing in Scotland, a tweed jacket and short knee-length trousers, also called knickerbockers. I said to my father, 'You shouldn't be wearing a bowler hat!' He'd been in such a hurry he'd forgotten to remove it, so he had to rush back to the house again.

"At Edinburgh I did a degree in Technical Chemistry, like chemical engineering, but more on chemistry. You have to be able to read scientific German, after a 6 month course.

"After I graduated my degree enabled me to get a job. I went south to London to work at Kodak in Harrow and Wealdstone, where I worked all my life (and later our son Robert worked there). And through my friends at work met Alice, my wife-to-be."