Helen (Gordon) Baxter

Ancestors

Descendants

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Biography

Helen was born on the 20th of February 1912^[1] at 48 Park Avenue in Cowdenbeath, a predominantly mining town in Fife. A short length of Park Avenue still exists where it joins the main road of Broad Street, but most of it has been removed and newer homes built on Raith Avenue and Park Street; it is likely that number 48 was a typical miner's cottage, since her father was a miner. She was named after her maternal grandmother Helen Thayne, as was traditional at the time (she and her five siblings are neatly named after their four grandparents and parents.) Helen was the second child of Grace and John Gordon. John registered Helen's birth and he gave his occupation as coal miner; hewer.

At the time of the 1921 census Helen was 9 years old and living at 34 Park Avenue in Cowdenbeath with her parents and 4 siblings^[2]

As a young woman, Helen was courted by David Baxter of nearby Lumphinnans and though she briefly became engaged to a Davie Spowart, he persisted and she eventually married David on the 3rd of June, 1938^[3]. The location of their marriage is given as The Manse, Natal Street. There is no longer a church here, but until 1968 it was the location of the Church of Scotland West Parish Church^[4]. The witnesses to their marriage were Helen's brother John and sister Clementine. From the addresses given, it appears that the Gordon family were by now living at 4 Wallace Street, Cowdenbeath, a modern (for the time) 4-in-a-block villa which is still there today. After their marriage, Helen and David went to live in 12 Wardlaw Street, the house she would occupy for almost her whole life^[5] until she had to move to a nursing home when very elderly.

In 1939, Helen gave birth to a son, named Gordon David after her maiden name and her husband. Sadly, Gordon died aged only 7 months old^[6] while his father was abroad fighting in the Second World War. His cause of death is given only as 'infantile convulsions, 1 day' which tells us nothing about the underlying cause of death. (Anything which causes a fever can cause a baby to have seizures, but in those days this was not well understood, and even if it had been, antibiotics were not yet widely available to treat infections.) As was common in this time and place, Gordon was never spoken of by Helen after his death, so there is very little family lore about him, and no photos exist.

Luckily David had some leave from the war, and Helen conceived again and gave birth to another son on the 21st March 1943^[7] who was named David. She had no further children, and she seems to have been happy with that.

Sources

1. ↑ Statutory Register of Births in 1912 for the district of Cowdenbeath in the County of Fife, page number 34, entry number 101. Document ID number 410/01 0101. Accessed via scotlandspeople.gov.uk
2. ↑ 1921 Census Return for the Parish of cowdenbeath, page number 20, schedule number 146. Document ID: 1921 GORDON, JOHN (Census 410/1 9/20) Page 20 of 32. Accessed via scotlandspeople.gov.uk .,/ref>. John is again recorded as a coal miner; hewer, and his employer given as the Fife Coal Company Ltd. After leaving school, Helen worked as a shop assistant in a shoe shop in Cowdenbeath, rising to become a manageress<ref>Statutory register of Marriages in 1938 in the District of Cowdenbeath in the County of Fife, page number 30, entry number 59 Document ID number 410/01 0059. Accessed via scotlandspeople.gov.uk</li> <li id="_note-marriage_certificate">[[#_ref-marriage_certificate_0|↑]] </li> <li id="_note-2">[[#_ref-2|↑]] http://www.scottishchurches.org.uk/sites/site/id/4582/name/West+Parish+Church+Beath+Fife Accessed 19/01/2016.</li> <li id="_note-conversations">[[#_ref-conversations_0|↑]] Conversations between [[Gordon-6034 | Helen]] and her granddaughter [[Baxter-3261 | Louise]]</li> <li id="_note-3">[[#_ref-3|↑]] Statutory Register of Deaths in 1940 in the District of Cowdenbeath in the County of Fife, page number 14, entry number 42. Document ID: BAXTER, GORDON 1940 [Statutory Registers Death 410/00 042].</li> <li id="_note-4">[[#_ref-4|↑]] Original Birth Certificate in possession of [[Baxter-3261]]</li></ol></ref>

• Death certificate in the possession of Louise Baxter.