Version 6.01

06 March 2021

David March © 2019

QUEEN MARY'S NEEDLEWORK GUILD
JUNIOR WORKERS

We have not been able to find any information about the Junior Workers, Concession 10 & 12, Culross as a group. From the census records for 1911 and 1921 we can draw some conclusions about the individuals.

Of the sixteen girls recorded on the quilt as Junior Worker, nine lived with their families on Concessions 10 and 11, a further five lived on Concessions 13 and 14. Of the remaining two girls, one lived in Culross and the other in the nearby community of Greenock.

All the girls known to be living on Concessions in Culross were living on land where their grandparents are listed as pioneer settlers of the Culross community; they were all of farming stock.

The girls’ ages in 1918 range from 9 years to 21 years but predominantly they are 16 to 20 year-olds.

They are mostly closely related to each other:

Cora (17), Edna (16) and Gertrude (19) Becking were sisters.

Catherine (20) and Margaret (20) Becking were twins and were cousins of the above.

Kate (16) and Mary (18) Thompson were cousins of the Becking girls.

Isobel (13) and Jennie (9) Grant were sisters.

Elsie Grant (20) was their cousin.

Gertrude Becking later married Alexander W Grant who was a cousin of Isobel, Jennie and Elsie Grant.

Remelda Parker (20), Edna Donaldson (18) and Pauline Standish (20) were also related to the Grants, though more distantly.

Katherine Collinson (16), Myrtle Day (21) and Ada Thacker (16) had no familial connections with any of the other Junior Workers.

The most recent census (1921) provides no information on the occupation of any of the girls as they were all still living on their respective family farms. When the girls married, the records do not include any occupation for the bride; at best ‘farmers’ daughter’ is given as an occupation! Several of the girls did not marry but remained on the family farm supporting either their widowed mother or an unmarried brother who worked the farm.

Gertrude Becking became a telephone operator prior to her marriage.

Ada Thacker went on to become a dressmaker and dress fitter.