My Family Tree

Tragedy befell this family when Alexander's son William (Billy) drowned. The family put up a memorial plaque to Billy beneath the headstone in the Dunbar church cemetry. On a visit to Scotland in 2004 (on the occasion of Alison Walker Fleming's funeral in Edinburgh), Harvey Nimmo and his son Samuel visited Dunbar to see the house in Church Street where Harvey's great uncle Bill had lived and see his grave. In a house on the opposite side of the street a neighbour, Mr. Jeffries, remembered William and his family. Mr. Jeffries had lived there, moved away, and now returned. Mr. Jeffries then told the story of Billy's accident. On a farm belonging to the Rennie family near Dunbar Billy (aged 5) was playing with a young friend and fell into a pond. Mr Jeffries was the farm hand who had to recover Billy from the pond. Memory of the event obviously moved him deeply. Harvey vaguely remembers the family Rennie and the farm where Alec Williamson and wife Jean spent holidays, maintaining the friendship over many years.