William Andrew MacFarlane

William Andrew MacFarlane passed away on Sat Aug 24 2024, at the age of 93. William Andrew's memory will forever live on in the hearts of family and friends. The following are excerpts from a notebook that Dad wrote about his life, particularly his early life. These are available to read for anyone who is interested. Just let me know. My earliest memory is of Walpole St school where I commenced my schooling at the age of three - apparently at my request! The headmistress was a forbidding woman called Miss Maddocks. Her sister was also a teacher and Miss May used to have two rosy cheeks (with the aid of rouge as I learned in later life). My teacher was a lovely young woman called Miss McWalters. I thought the world of her and I remember going to tea with her at her mother's house. The house was set up as we would today think of as a kindy. At five, I transferred to Victoria Rd school with a stern but kindly headmaster called Mr. Steen. He wore glasses and sported a moustache and always rode his bicycle to school. My first teacher was Miss Hare. I must have been as clumsy then as I am now because I remember Miss Hare calling me an elephant (These days there would probably be a court case!) The cane was always used by teachers then but I can't recall having earned it from any of mine. Other teachers were a funny little woman called "Fanny" Barton, Mr. Scott who was sweet on Fanny and an acid-tongued woman called Mrs. Perdue. My last teacher was Miss Blythe who I adored. We all had to take the 11+ exams but some of us also took the entrance exam to the Kings School. Three of us passed and commence our high school years at Kings. I was younger than my contemporaries and at the end of the school certificate I elected to do maths in the certificate year as I was good at algebra and geometry. One term I brought home my results which showed me as level bottom. My mother, little as she was, thrashed me with my fathers razor strop. My results were better at the end of next term! With dad being a minister, I took scripture exams each year and did well, usually at the top of the class. In 6th form I took physics, chemistry and biology as my main subjects. Biology was a doddle and because there were only 3 of us taking the subject we teamed up with the Queen's school girls. As you can imagine we had a lot of fun. One day, when I was putting on my coat I found a little frog sewn into my pocket! The second year of Biology at the Queens school, we found the old teacher had retired and been replace with a gorgeous 22-year old film star look-alike! We had a very enjoyable year. At the leaving school dance I was able to have a dance with her. I was not terribly good at sport although I enjoyed playing soccer and cricket. PT was agony for me and field sports were not funny. Peter, my friend, and I ran the cross-country race and when we emerged someone said "here's the first of the seniors"- but we were actually the very last of the juniors! As house Captain, I felt obliged to run the mile race because we hadn't got an entrant. At the finish the Housemaster said "Well done! You're not really built for running!" One sport I did take to however, was rowing. We rowed on the Dee river in fours but also in single 'skiffs' which I loved. On one occasion I rowed up the river and then the weather changed. The water became very choppy and I had to get out and walk back to the boat house in my singlet and shorts. I got quite a few wolf whistles! During the last year at school I was Captain of Boats and was very proud, even though we never won a race. Playing the piano has always been an important part of my life. Sadly I was not prepared to practice as much as I should have and was not able to play difficult classical music. I went to music lessons at 6 years old. I did very well at theory but didn't get far in the practical exams. However, at 9 I began playing hymns for the Children's morning service at the Mission. Goodness knows how they managed to sing with me playing. As I became more proficient I began to play for the Children's Evening service. Eventually I played for a lot of services. In Summer, I played for 5 Sunday services then on to an outdoor service on the Market Square in Chester. I began to play with a band called 'Cyril Price's Percussion Band. We played on the BBC Children's hour but I got a dressing down afterwards as I decided to add a little syncopation. Then, one school holiday, I went to the island of Islay with Aunty Annie. I became friendly with another boy my age, 14, and one evening he invited me with him to a dance. I was enthralled listening to the RAF band playing all the tunes I knew. I asked if I could play with them and we played "The Darktown stutter's Ball" I was enjoying it so much. Then I saw my Aunty Annie who took me home and cried all night as she thought I had gone through the gates of hell! When I was first married, playing with a band kept the wolf from the door. I used to play with a small group at weddings and dances. It was hard work as I had to cycle many miles to a gig, play almost non-stop for 5 hours or so then cycle home. All for the princely sum of 25 shillings. The money was a godsend though. I somehow got a job at the Ellesmere Port Working Men's Club. I played for 3-4 hours on Saturday and Sunday night. I had to accompany many a patron who, once drunk, thought they could sing. I would be handed a crumpled piece of paper with a few notes on it and be expected to play the tune. Dancers too would expect me to follow all their changes in tempo. All for 2 pounds a weekend. When I went into the Dental Corps I played at the canteen and main building. I made a lot of friends, one called Bill who became my best friend. He introduced me to the voices of opera singers like Galli-Curci and John McCormack. Little did I know that nearly 50 years later I would be listening to another great singer - my own grandson Robbie. As a teenager I accompanied my father on preaching trips and he would sing in his lovely tenor voice to my accompaniment. On one of these trips we were in a church in Wrexham. There was an old pipe organ which I played for the service. After that I was hooked on organs. Later, I took some lessons at the Methodist church in Ellesmere Port. I had a lot of wonderful times playing the pipe organ. I played at the Maugham Church for the 75th Anniversary of Rotary then later spent several years playing at the Uniting church on Goodwood Rd. I had a few crushes on girls growing up. One was a girl called Rhianne Cook. We never had a date but I used to see her with her friend and talk to them. Stupidly, I wrote her a love letter which somehow got into my fathers hands. I had to beg him not to show it to my mother! When I was 16 I would work unpaid in the dispensary at the City Hospital. I wanted to be a doctor and loved being with doctors and nurses. On Christmas eve I was invited to the hospital dance and I thought it would be good to go and listen to the band. A lovely young lady, Joyce, persuaded me to get up and dance with her and we spent most of the evening going 1,2,3 1,2,3. Then on NYE I went to another dance and spent the evening with Joyce. I was so much on 'cloud nine' that, although the evening had ended with a tentative kiss, I had not made arrangements to see her again! So on my next visit to the hospital I sought her out to ask her for a date. She had found out I was a 16 year old schoolboy and wasn't keen but I managed to persuade her. Our courtship was difficult. I had no money and Joyce had only one and a half days off a week. We spent a lot of our time walking and talking on the walls of Chester. If I stayed out too late my Dad would come looking for me. That year my mum was taken ill with cancer. She spent nearly 6 months suffering before she passed away. Without Joyce's support and kindness during this time, I don't know what would have become of me. My Aunty Mary came to stay with us. She was a great lady and a bit of a psychologist as well. On the night mum died she had Jessie and I scrubbing floors to divert our attention from what was happening. In those days you needed your parents permission to marry before the age of 21. I had to plead with my dad to give his permission - I was 2 months off 21! Although we had sex only once Joyce was pregnant. What should have been a glorious experience was a horror because of the mores of the day. We married on the 29th March 1952 in the Chester City Mission. The Mission was packed and there was a reception at Clemences restaurant afterward - all paid for by my wonderful mother-in-law. We then had one night at a hotel in Llandudno. I had not long started work at the Shell Research Centre and when I got back to work they had had a whip round and given me a present of 2 pounds. Having got married we had nowhere to live but we did get 1 room with shared bathroom and kitchen. This cost half my weekly pay. My mother had left me 500 pounds so with that we bought a caravan and placed it at Dunham Hill. There were several other vans and a shared water tap and toilet. The owner was a Mr. Pratt and Joyce and I have always used the name Pratt to describe useless, nasty types ever since! Our van had a solid fuel enclosed fire a water tank and was very pleasant. I was 5 miles from Chester though and the buses would often pass Joyce, heavily pregnant, because they were full. We filled the water tank with a bucket and empty the chemical toilet into the flushing one. But it was bliss because we were so in love. Joyce went into hospital on a Wednesday night and didn't deliver until Friday morning. Her mother was allowed to see her but I wasn't. Then I wasn't allowed to see the baby until she was let out of hospital 10 days later. Although the rules relaxed over the years I was not allowed to witness the birth of any of my children. After a couple of years at Dunham Hill we moved to a site at Frodsham where we stayed until Janice was 6 months old. We looked for and found a house that was being built in Whitby, Ellesmere Port. It cost 2,150 pounds and we got a 100% loan from Shell. We sold the caravan and moved in with the Fletchers for what we thought would be 3 weeks and turned out to be 4 months. Janice, who had been a perfect baby but who now had to spend most of the time in the upstairs bedroom became very unsettled - a lasting regret. After starting at Shell Research Centre at Thornton I started studying at the Carlett Park College of Further Education. This required a full work day and 3 evenings a week. With that and playing piano on the weekend Joyce was very much alone with the children. She also worked a couple of nights a week . I am very, very lucky to have found such a wonderful woman to be my wife. "Why am I writing this?" I ask myself. The answer is that in the process of trying to trace my family forbears I know very little of my parents history and nothing at all of 3 of my grandparents. I feel sad about this and so want to put down in writing as much detail as I can. The result seems to be a rambling narrative and what set out to be quite short is getting longer and longer. WORKING LIFE: I had vague aspirations to be a doctor so when I was called up for National Service I opted for the Royal Army Medical Corps. However I was drafted into the Dental Corps and posted to Colchester. A few weeks before I was due to finish they increased my time to 2 years. Fortunately Joyce came to work nearby in a little cottage hospital. I then applied and got a job with Shell Research as a laboratory assistant. We tested all sorts of oils and blends and during my time there I went from Analyst to Assistant Technician. When I passed the Graduate exam of the Royal Institute of Chemistry I was immediately promoted to Chemist and went to work in an inorganic Lab. We worked on measuring the amount of metal in oils and worked on a way to measure the absorption of light at particular wavelengths and relate it to concentration. I was promoted to Research Chemist. In 1961 I was made an Associate of the Royal Institute of Chemistry but Shell were reducing staff. I was a bit concerned and applied for a position in Australia. I was offered a job and in my acceptance asked for 3 months to come over as I had a house to sell. The Department of Supply did not reply for 7 weeks and these weeks ate into my preparation time. So on March 7th 1963 we boarded a flight to Australia. We arrived in the early hours of 11th March and were taken to our accommodation in North Adelaide. A Commonwealth car was sent at 8.45am to take me to work the next morning! The hostel was awful but we met Tom and Jean Henderson who became good friends. When I arrived at WRE (Weapons Research) no-one knew who I was or where I was going to work! I began and worked for many months on testing an auroral spectrograph. It was about measuring the temperature of the atmosphere. I worked on this for 3 years before moving to the laser group. In 1968 we were invited to use our lasers to help track US satellites. With our work the Smithsonian Institute in the US were able to track the satellites in the southern hemisphere. We ended up with a first class facility which included x-ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy, and chemical lab and atomic absorption spectroscopy. I managed the XRF and chemical side until retiring at 55 in August 1986. Since I retired I have had a lot of pleasure playing a keyboard and trying to improvise on well-known tunes. As well as playing the piano and organ in the late 70's I was invited to join Rotary. I quite enjoyed this and eventually became President of the Burnside Club. I eventually left Rotary with a feeling of disappointment in the whole system of Rotary. The world President who was an Australian, Clem Renouf, asked club members to raise $1m towards eradicating TB. A year later they had not raised even half that amount which would have been the equivalent of only $15/member. William also spent about 5 years working as a volunteer then a paid position of Director for Amnesty International until 1992. He has not written anything about this time or much about his time after retirement. He did, however, look into the family tree quite extensively and if anyone is interested in looking I have many documents about the Macfarlane family.