Charles Raeburn 1875- 1955

1. Autie Nan Bains Ross Kirkaldy was my GREAT aunt, sister of my granny who lived for a while in S africa but never married 
and returned to live in Fife,and at the end with my granny.   2. Aunty Nan Battle was my fathers sister. Very attractive, 
good photographer, married Threlkeld whom she had met at Manchester amateur photographic society. I have access to a few of
 her albums. She never had children    The photos are muddled in that there is a photo of Auntie Nan Kirkaldy when she was
 young ,chin on her wrist but its under Aunty Nan Battles details    I will try to find more photos of her. I also have a 
hand written hard notebook with all her recipes hand written. Mostly baking which maybe is the cause of her weight!I do 
remember as a child that after all the housework was done in the morning Granny and Aunty Nan looked forward toIrelands 
bakery van coming round and used to go to the van and chose small cakes and buns from the back!

 

Milling Engineer. Born Banff, spent time in Rangoon, then in Stockport. Retired to Lower Largo, Fife in 1929 . . A severe man

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He wrote an invaluable Family History detailing the lives and characters of his Raeburn and Henderson Ancestors, and on his death, each of his grandchildren [including Maggie] were given a copy to peruse, aged 30 and then each 10 subsequent years. I have incorporated much of this into this 2017 Web history. On his death his elder son, Charles Raeburn 1909, extended the History to include his father: this History appears below, in italics

1875. Charles Raeburn born to Charles Raeburn , seedsman, & Margaret Henderson on 15/7/1875 at 28 High Street, Banff -SP

 

1881C. Charles Raeburn, 5, was living with his parents & 4 siblings in High Street, Banff . His father a successful Seedsman

Charles	Raeburn	Head	Married	Male	41	1840	Seed Merchant Employing 1 Man & 1 Boy	Banff, Banffshire, Scotland
Margaret	Raeburn	Wife	Married	Female	39	1842	-	Kinghorn, Fife, Scotland
Janet	Raeburn	Daughter	-	Female	14	1867	Scholar	London, Middlesex, England
Williamina E	Raeburn	Daughter	-	Female	11	1870	Scholar	Banff, Banffshire, Scotland
William H	Raeburn	Son	-	Male	10	1871	Scholar	Banff, Banffshire, Scotland
Charles R	Raeburn	Son	-	Male	5	1876	Scholar	Banff, Banffshire, Scotland
Helen M	Raeburn	Daughter	-	Female	2	1879	-	Banff, Banffshire, Scotland
Jane	Ross	Servant	Unmarried	Female	19	1862	General Servant

1891C. Charles Raeburn,15, was living with his father & a sister in High Street, Banff

Charles	Raeburn	Head	Married	Male	51	1840	Seed Merchant	Banff, Banffshire, Scotland
Williamina	Raeburn	Daughter	Unmarried	Female	21	1870	Shop Assistant	Banff, Banffshire, Scotland
Charles	Raeburn	Son	-	Male	15	1876	Scholar	Banff, Banffshire, Scotland
Margaret	McLaren	Servant	Unmarried	Female	17	1874	General Serv Domestic	Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire,

Charles was educated at Banff Academy and Gordon's College, Aberdeen. At the instigation of his aunt, Janet/Jessie Henderson 1838, he was apprenticed as an engineer in Kirkcaldy, where his Henderson grandparents lived, and where he spent a lot of time during his childhood. Here he met and later married his (second) cousin, Margaret Cairns Ross.

1898. C Raeburn sailed from Liverpool to Rangoon on 28/10/1898 on the Rangoon -FMP

His obituary says he went out to India in the Gay Nineties

1901C. Obviously abroad, likely in Burma

1903. Charles Raeburn, 27, mechanical engineer, Rangoon, married Margaret Ross at the Regent Hotel, Edinburgh on 15/7/1903 . They were 2nd cousins: both have John Ross and Helen Black as their ggrandparents . His address 37 Townsend Place, Kirkcaldy- this had been his Henderson grandparents' home, but they were by now both dead( deaths 1887 and 1896), but the house had obviously remained in the family . Her address Douglas Street, Kirkcaldy, her parents' home . One of the witnesses was a Maggie Raeburn - his youngest sister. It would be interesting to find who was living at 37 Townsend Place in the 1901C!

Their wedding

1903. Mr & Mrs C Raeburn sailed from Liverpool to Rangoon on 24/9/1903 on the Mandalay- FMP. Mistranscribed as Racburn

 

He worked, mainly on rice mills in many parts of the world, particularly in Burma. where he lived for many years.

1904. Daughter, Annie, born in Dawbong, Rangoon to Charles & Margaret

Annie R Raeburn married Thomas P Threlkeld Stockport Mar 1928

Charles with Annie

1906. Mr C Raeburn- no wife or child- sailed from Liverpool to Rangoon on 20/9/1906 on the Rangoon -FMP

1908. Mr & Mrs Raeburn plus child, Scotch, arrived, 1st class, in London from Rangoon on 24/4/1908- Ancestry

1909. First son, Charles Raeburn, was born on 13/7/1909 to Charles, mechanical engineer, & Margaret at 64 David Street, Kirkcaldy

1911C. His wife Margaret, 31. and children Annie R 6 and Charles 1 are all living Kirkcaldy{ not the same address as his sister Janet Braid, thus likely not at Shell Villa} - he not there - SP, census not purchased

He continued to travel abroad after setting up home in Kirkcaldy. As an 'engineer; he was "reserved" from the Army in the 1914-1918 War during which he moved to Aberdeen ( but he was actually up there by 1912) with the family and worked on war production

1912. John Ross Raeburn was born 20/11/1912 in Aberdeen to Charles & Margaret

Children of Charles Raeburn & Margaret Ross

1919. C Raeburn, 44, permanent residence Scotland, comm. engineer, country of future residence England, sailed from Tilbury to Bombay on 1/11/1919 - FMP

1919/1920?. He moved to Manchester to set up the rice milling department of Henry Simon Ltd., from which he retired in poor health in 1929

1920 C Raeburn, 44, engineer, c/o H Simon, Marine Street, Manchester returns from Burma to Liverpool on 24/5/1920 - but seems to indicate his return residence is England. No family with him -Ancestry travel

He did work in Stockport for Simon engineering Company. Stockport less then 10k SE of Manchester

1926. Living 2 Sutton Road, Heaton Norris, Stockport when his mother, Margaret Henderson/Raeburn dies in 1926

1929. From his retirement till his death in 1955 he lived in Largo, Fife, quietly but with great energy of mind and body directed in his later years to designing a mechanical device for the planting of rice. His whole outlook was constructive. He took a natural joy in making things well, or making things work. His family all have articles of furniture and the like which are a skill to his skill and ingenuity. He built the house, 'Naikban'( 'heaven' in old Burmese) there

1928. Living in Stockport, working for an engineering Company, when his daughter, Annie Bains Raeburn , marries

1941. Living at NaikBan Lower Largo Fife in 1941 when his son John Ross Raeburn 1912 married Mair Roberts

 

Charles with his wife, Margaret Ross, in retirement

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Their Golden Wedding, 1953 :

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Naikban, the home he built in Lower Largo

1955. Charles Raeburn, 79, died NaikBan Lower Largo 16/4/1955. Probate: a confirmation by Charles Raeburn, accountant, and John Ross Raeburn, reader in agricultural economics- no amount given

It was one of the sorrows that WW2 brought to him that many of the mills he worked to create in Burma were destroyed by the Japanese, and particularly that his last main job, a big rice mill in Rotherhithe, was destroyed by German bombs. That mill incorporated many of his ideas and was probably the most modern of its time, and engineers came from many parts of the world to see it.

 

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