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Monument Inscription
IN MEMORIAM
JAMES BLUE
WHO DIED 8TH MAY, 1926
AGED 62 YEARS
JEAN WILSON
HIS WIFE
WHO DIED 29TH MARCH, 1954
AGED 85 YEARS
DUGALD
THEIR SON
WHO DIED 14TH JANUARY, 1929
AGED 38 YEARS
JEANIE WILSON BLUE
HIS GRAND-DAUGHTER
WHO DIED 27TH MARCH, 1923
AGED 7 MONTHS
WORTHY
OF
REMEMBRANCE
Family History
The surname Blue appears on several gravestones within the precincts of Mearns Kirkyard. Undoubtedly related, most of the family members were involved in industrial rather than agricultural work.
This monument commemorates one such grouping that were all involved in the bleaching industry, a very large employer of persons from the district and further afield.
Such was the case when James Blue, a native of the parish, met and married his spouse Jean or Jeannie Wilson. The marriage took place at James Blue’s home at Wellmeadow on 15th July, 1889. James’s new bride had no connections with the district other than that she had come from Thurso in Caithness to find employment in the bleach works at Netherplace. She would have lived in the building at the works known as “The Woman’s House” a three storey building utilised to accommodate single women from outwith the area.
James was born in Mearns on 31st October, 1863 to Dugald Blue, a foreman at the bleachfields at Wellmeadow, and his wife Janet Tweeddale. No doubt through his father’s connections James became a bleachfield worker.
Jeannie Wilson was the child of Robert Wilson, a stonecutter to trade, and his wife Susannah Sutherland. She was born in their hometown of Thurso on 9th February, 1869.
Through time this couple raised a family, amongst whom was the son Dugald remembered on this memorial. Dugald had, like his father, worked in the bleaching trade as a finisher. He had married a person named Rachel McMeechan and the couple set up home in Barrhead Road, Newton Mearns.
Dugald contracted influenza which progressed into double pneumonia, and was admitted to Darnley Hospital for treatment. However he failed to survive this illness and succumbed to it on 14th January, 1929.
Dugald and his wife Rachel had already experienced the trauma of losing a child when their seven month old daughter, named after her paternal grandmother, died on 27th March, 1923.
Whilst there were regular outbreaks of influenza over the years, certain years appear to have produced especially virulent strains. Whether this was one such or not, Dugald Blue was unable to win this fight and joined his parents and daughter beneath this stone.