A life in letters: Dempster, Catherine Hastie (Cathie) (1920-1933)

William and Cathie Dempster

The first of two aunts whom I never knew. Cathie, my father’s sister, was born at Lilybank Cottage in Ashgill on 4th August 1920, the daughter of John Cumming and Euphemia Currie Dempster. There are very few surviving records of her life. She is proudly mentioned in an entry in the log book of Wiston Primary School written by her father and dated 30th June 1932 which would have been her last day in Primary School. ‘The morning was very stormy but the afternoon cleared up nicely.’ She and Robert Johnstone were presented with watches for 5 years’ continuous perfect attendance. She and Mabel Fairlie each received the 30-shilling Pratt Prize. The sewing had been judged at 11am by ‘Mrs Bell & Mrs Hastie’: Cathie received the Senior prize.

There are some photographs of her in the last couple of years of her life. With the family on holiday; snapped by a street photographer in July 1933, tall and slender beside her parents and my dad, on the cusp of womanhood; sitting in the Wiston schoolhouse garden beside the rabbit hutch with a doll and a soft toy on her lap; larking around with her mischievous young brother.

Academically able, she attended Hamilton Academy, staying with relations in Larkhall. In the autumn of 1933 she fell ill and her mother insisted on taking her home to Wiston to care for her. Cathie died of pneumonia at Kello Hospital, Biggar on 13th December 1933.

At the foot of the family gravestone in Wiston Churchyard are the words ‘Thy will be done.’