Frances Pawley
16-02-2006, 02:31 PM
First time on this site. Looking for details please of Smilies Orphanage in which my grandmother Charlotte Frances Devine attended with her sisters Josephine, Margaret, and others, circa 1900. The eldest daughter Agnes was named Craig-Devine and was not sent to the orphanage but was brought up by a family of Craig (my great-grandparents) who were Goldsmiths in Glasgow.
Agnes Craig Devine was privately educated and became a headmistress of a school in Lanarkshire. She was trained also as a concert pianist and played before Queen Victoria. She made many visits to America and played piano for the cost of her voyage. She travelled on the Lusitania on its outward journey - she refused to travel on it back to Scotland because "German U-Boats had followed it all the way." The Lusitania was bombed by the Germans on its return voyage bringing the Americans into the first world war.
Any information on her would be welcome!
My grandmother married Frances John McLaren who also came from the same orphanage.
Enquiries have reached stalemate as far as the Orphanage is concerned as all records no longer exist - apparently.
Any assistance appreciated.
Thanks.
Frances Pawley
UK
Agnes Craig Devine was privately educated and became a headmistress of a school in Lanarkshire. She was trained also as a concert pianist and played before Queen Victoria. She made many visits to America and played piano for the cost of her voyage. She travelled on the Lusitania on its outward journey - she refused to travel on it back to Scotland because "German U-Boats had followed it all the way." The Lusitania was bombed by the Germans on its return voyage bringing the Americans into the first world war.
Any information on her would be welcome!
My grandmother married Frances John McLaren who also came from the same orphanage.
Enquiries have reached stalemate as far as the Orphanage is concerned as all records no longer exist - apparently.
Any assistance appreciated.
Thanks.
Frances Pawley
UK