Tag: local-history

Teacher

 Helen Robertson Carmichael (1869 – 1953)

A watercolour painting entitled Hagar was donated to Glasgow by Helen R. Carmichael in 1952. Helen was the sister of the artist.

   Fig. 1        Hagar  
Stewart Carmichael (1867 – 1950) Scottish (Accession Number 2946)
© CSG GIC Glasgow Museums Collection     

Helen Robertson Carmichael was born on 28 March 1869 at 13 Balfour Street, St. Peter, Dundee.  She was the seventh child of James Carmichael, a leather merchant and his wife Helen Robertson who had married on 19 June 1857 in Dundee. 1,2 Her brother, Stewart was born on 8 February 1867 at 4 Heathfield Place, Hawkhill, Dundee. 3 An eighth child, Lizzie Batchelor Carmichael was born on 8 October 1871. 4 Helen’s father was widowed on 15 January the following year when Helen’s mother died from heart disease. 5 By 1881 the family had moved to 51 Park Wynd, Dundee. 6 Helen attended Aberdeen Teacher Training College from 1890 – 91. 7 While at the college, she was lodging at 18 Balmoral Lane, Aberdeen and in the census was described as a ‘normal student’. 8 The following year she began teaching at Blackness Primary School in Dundee. 9 In the 1901 census she was aged thirty and living with her brother John at 10 Airlie Terrace, Dundee. Her occupation was ‘school board teacher’. 10 From 1915 till at least 1940, Helen was a tenant at 89 Magdalen Road, Dundee. 11 In August 1931, she was one of a group of tenants which sought an interim interdict to prevent the town council from closing Magdalen Park to hold the annual flower show with the resultant expected disturbance. 12 However, the matter was resolved when the council agreed not to hold the show there in subsequent years and to take steps to minimise noise etc. in the present year. 13
Helen retired from Blackness Primary School in 1932 after forty years as a teacher there. 14 She died on 25 February 1953 at Maryfield Hospital, Dundee. She was 83. Her usual address was 2 Windsor Street, Dundee. 15

References

  1. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
  2. Scotland’s People, Census 1871
  3. Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
  4. Ibid
  5. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
  6. Scotland’s People, Census 1881
  7. Dundee City Archives
  8. Scotland’s People, Census 1891
  9. Dundee City Archives
  10. Scotland’s People, Census 1901
  11. Scotland’s People, Valuation Rolls
  12. Dundee Courier 25 August 1931
  13. Dundee Courier 27 August 1931
  14. Dundee City Archives
  15. Scotland’s People, Death Certificate