My Uncle Jackie

Jim Finnie

I want to tell you about my Uncle Jackie. I think people should know about him. He died almost 10 years to the day before I was born and so I never got to know him. Uncle Jackie was the middle of five children, born in 1915. He had an older sister and brother, and he had two younger brothers; my Dad was Jackies youngest brother. The children all lived in a tenement flat in Gillespie Crescent in Edinburgh with my grandparents. My gran and grandpa were from the rural north-east of Scotland and they had come to Edinburgh to make a family and a life together.

My family didnt talk a lot about Uncle Jackie. He was by all accounts a typical young Edinburgh laddie, enjoying the company of his sister, brothers and friends, getting into all sorts of scrapes, loving to kick a ball about on The Meadows close to where the family lived and dreaming of his future. Jackie was clever. He did well at Boroughmuir School and he went on to qualify as a Chartered Accountant. Only he never really got started. The family was doing well in spite of the austerity of the 1930s, and then in 1939 the war came. All four brothers were called up and went their separate ways into the breach, leaving a mother, father and sister behind worried sick about how the boys would fare. My Uncle Harry was 26, Uncle Jackie was 24, Uncle Willie was 22 and my Dad was 17.

The lads came back when they could on their leave and they experienced the relief of escape from the front, and the joy of being reunited with their closest loved ones and whatever friends might happen to be back in Edinburgh. Once home, for however short a period, they no doubt wondered if it was all a horrible dream and if theyd ever get back to their normal lives. ... (continues)