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Minnie Benzies 188? - 1968 & John Thomson 1888 - 1939
John McKay Thomson Currently we know little about John Thomson, except that he was married to Minnie Thompson in 1914 & from about this time until 1920 with his wife and children lived in Glasgow. He died of a heart attack whilst playing golf. At the time of his death he was a director of the carpet company Thomas Bondworth of Kidderminster.
Isabel McKay...John Thomson's mother
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Minnie Benzies Where Minnie's parents lived>>>
It seems that the family of John and Minnie appeared to be relatively affluent, but they lived(?) in rented accommodation. In about 1920 they moved to England and we know lived for some time at East Grinstead & Battersea. When John died in 1939 died the company paid for his funeral, but he had little or no life insurance. So his wife Minnie was left in a position of having to work again at a point in her life when she was properly expecting an easier time. Although the Benzies & Kirkwood family supported her in many ways. We can only assume that Minnie's early married life was probably dominated by looking after her disabled eldest daughter Lily . After the death of her husband in 1939 she took up many positions, we think one of them was managing a NAAFI club during the war. After the war she had many occupations from nanny to being the companion of elderly women. At the age of 71 she joined her daughter (Minette) & her family in buying a house 33 Holly Road in Retford, where she had her own lounge/ kitchen & bedroom. When Neil & Minette moved to Plymouth 5 years later she had a similar arrangement in their house at Hartley Park Gardens Plymouth, she died in 1968, of a heart attack. Minnie Benzies - A
very short family history The story of Minnie's family & its history is very well covered in the 2 books by Frank Benzies and a follow up volume by Stewart White. So below is a very short version Minnie Benzies was born in 1888, we think in Glasgow. Her father was James Benzies a man who started his life as a carpenter & eventually owned a business with a partner called Dick & Benzies , which did many things including building & renovating tenement flats in Glasgow. The company carried on through his sons & grandsons. Sometime after the 1960's the company was sold to a subsidiary of the Bovis Group, now known as HBG Construction (was Gilbert Ash)
James Benzies married Elisa Ada White( 1858 - 1931)
in 1885, they had 10 children of which Minnie was the eldest
girl. Little is known of Minnie's early life, though we think it
involved helping to look after her junior brothers and sisters. We only know two of Minnie's siblings Frank Benzies, who owned Cullross the printers in Coupar Angus. Frank had an unusual WWl carer in that he was in The Royal Naval Air Service Armoured Car Division at Gallipoli. You have to wonder at the Navy for that bit of remarkable empire building. Frank was fortunate enough to survive that ill fated expedition. Most of his unit in Gallipoli died of dysentery. Frank Benzies >>>
The other was Ella Benzies(1892-1970 )& her husband John Kirkwood (1890-1968), who lived in the South of England at the same time as John & Minnie Thomson. We think Minnie spent a lot of time with John, Ella & their children and was supported by them after the death of her husband Below is a family picture of James Benzies & his children we think taken about 1920. Apart from being a cracking picture, it shows an affluent Scottish family. Minnie Benzies is on the far left.
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One
little mystery is the photograph to the left (dated on 6th April 1918)
is of Minnie and was addressed to herself ...Mrs. J.M. Thomson at
44 Keir Street in Pollockshields Glasgow,
which was the home of her father... we
don't know if she was living there at the time. Was it that her husband
was away a lot, she had a disabled (& probably frustrated) 3 year old,
Lily and a 6 month old ,Minnete and was staying with her
parents for support... we can only guess .
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