We went to Kinghorn every August/September.
Fought in France during WWI
We had a nanny who emigrated to Canada. Dolly Ross was very pretty and very clever. So we were told. She got on very well in Canada and obtained a very responsible job. Many years later my friend Frank Moss was in Canada and met Dolly. They were pleased to discover they had mutual friends in Edinburgh and she sent affectionate greetings to me.
We had a Nanny called Dolly Rosa for a few years and then she went to a job in Canada. She was very pretty and helped John with his lessons. I don't think she helped Cecil or me. When she left Mother wrote letters to her for years and told us how well she was doing as a private secretary to the head of a big company. When she got married Mama sent a silver tea service from us all.
On the departure of Dolly, my mother engaged a young girl from Fife. Lizzie was a miner's 15 year old daughter.delighted to go 'into service' in the big city.Lizzie was with us for 16 years. With no children left, I think Mother decided Lizzie had earned a change. An advertisement in the paper for an experienced Nanny to look after two little girls on a ship to America was answered by Mother without telling LIzzie. It included return ticket. Lizzie got the job but did not use the return ticket. The lady was returning to Holywood and Lizzie accompanied her and spent her future as a free-lance Nanny to children of film stars.
After Dolly left we got the 15 year old daughter of a Fife miner. Lizzie was one of a family of twelve and was delighted to come and work in Edinburgh. Mama said she was a wonderful worker and she soon became the hub of the house. Mama and she were kept very busy in the mornings. There was the open range in the kitchen on which all the cooking was done. The oatmeal for breakfast had to steep all night and was gently heated in the morning and Lizzie would cook us all bacon and egg and Father coffee instead of tea. Then when we went to school Mama and Lizzie had all the housework to do. Coal had to be carried up from the cellar below the parlour and filled into a big bunker in the kitchen, from there scuttles were filled for three rooms. In winter often twice every day. Before long Lizzie was helping with out home lessons and on Mama's at home day Lizzie became the demure maid with white apron and starched little white cap.Mother usually worked with Lizzie in the kitchen and liked to treat her like one of the family. But Lizzie preferred to remain with us but not of us. She was with us for sixteen years and, with no young children left, Mama wanted Lizzie to have a better life and answered an advertisement in a paper for a nanny to look after two little girls on a ship to America and including a return ticket. Lizzie got the job and did not use the return ticket. The lady was on the films in Hollywood and Lizzie accompanied her and later became a freelance Nanny. Mother and later Greta kept in touch with her.
Lizzy stayed w Greta for 3 months. She was living in NY. The acterss she followed was Vera
Zerina, and they went to Denver (not Holywood)

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1. Living ALEXANDER
2. Living ALEXANDER
3. Living ALEXANDER

1. Type: Vital Record
   Title: Birth Certificate for George Harold Alexander
   Place: Newington, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland
   Date: 10 Aug 1899
   Location: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/PETRIE-SCOTLAND/2000-10/0971518378
   Repository: Scottish Records Office
   Text: GEORGE HAROLD ALEXANDER
   born 10 August 1899 at 1.30 pm
   at 4 Burgess Terrace, Edinburgh
   
   Parents:
   WILLIAM ALEXANDER - Hatter
   ELLEN MORRISON ALEXANDER ms PETRIE
   (married 19 August 1890 @ Edinburgh)
   
   Birth registered by WILLIAM ALEXANDER - Father
   on 31 August 1899 @ Edinburgh
2. Type: Vital Record
   Title: Marriage Records of Hamilton County Ohio
   Location: William Howard Taft Center (Hamilton County Probate Court) 230 E. Ninth St., Cincinnati, OH 45202, Rm. 10120 (10th floor). 513-946-3551. Hrs: M-F 8-4.
   Text: John & June; Vol. 551, p. 169; George Alexander.
3. Text: "The Old Familiar Faces: Eighty years in forty odd pages; A quick look back", being the memoirs of G.H.P. Alexander, typewritten by him and dated July, 1983.
   Text: p. 1
4. Text: "Growing Up With the Nineteen Hundreds," being the memoirs of G.H.P. Alexander, typewritten by him and dated 17th April 1987.
   Text: p. 1
5. Text: Alison Margaret Carter's 1998 Memoir
   Text: p. 38.
6. Text: Alison Margaret Carter's 1998 Memoir
7. Text: Information from Helen Smith (McClure), given in conversation.
   Text: According to Helen the ashes were scattered at Lufness.
8. Type: Letter
   Title: Letter from Podge to John
   Date: Oct. 8, 1964
   Location: Papers in Jamie's possesion.
   Text: Reference to retirement on first page.
9. Text: "The Old Familiar Faces: Eighty years in forty odd pages; A quick look back", being the memoirs of G.H.P. Alexander, typewritten by him and dated July, 1983.
   Text: p. 3
10. Text: "Growing Up With the Nineteen Hundreds," being the memoirs of G.H.P. Alexander, typewritten by him and dated 17th April 1987.
    Text: p. 6
11. Type: Vital Record
    Title: Extract of an entry in a Register of Deaths for William Alexander
    Repository: SRO
    Place: District of Haymarket in the City of Edinburgh
    Date: Date of Regstration 6 Jul 1936; Date of Extraction 7 Feb 1996
    Location: Photocopy in possesion-JSA
    Text: 49 West Relugas Road.
12. Text: "The Old Familiar Faces: Eighty years in forty odd pages; A quick look back", being the memoirs of G.H.P. Alexander, typewritten by him and dated July, 1983.
13. Type: Letter
    Title: Letter from Podge to John
    Date: 11 nov. 1964
    Location: Papers in Jamie's possesion.
14. Text: "Growing Up With the Nineteen Hundreds," being the memoirs of G.H.P. Alexander, typewritten by him and dated 17th April 1987.
15. Text: Information from Helen Smith (McClure), given in conversation.