I do like an unusual name and they don’t come much more fanciful than Honolulu and Fairy Kyleakin Hutcheson. Their grandfather George Dalgliesh was from Auchinleck, Ayrshire.
I decided to have a closer look.
Blanche Ethel Ruth Dalgliesh was born on 19 April 1874 in Wales where her father was a mine engineer. By 1891 census age 16 she was working as a governess to the daughters of the wealthy Hutcheson family in Rothesay. By 1901 she was the wife of William Hutcheson so I went looking for a death for the first wife, Janet (Jenny) McFie Orkney. What I found instead was a divorce citing Blanche. The wife had found her husband in the girl’s bedroom both in their nightwear. Ruth had had a baby who had later died. There was mention of a yacht and a house in Strone (near Dunoon).
I found the baby Dousie Pearl Hutcheson was born on 27th February 1892 in Dun-Edin, Strone. Blanche was calling herself Banche Pearl Dalgliesh. Dousie died later that year in Cathcart where the Hutchesons had a home.
The divorce was granted in 24 Jun 1893 with the wife getting £100 a year for each of the two children. William married Blanche Pearl Dalgliesh by declaration in December 1893 by which time she was pregnant with Honolulu who was born in June 1894.
In 1901 William Blanche, his first two daughters Deta Tahiti and Juanita, Blanche and their two daughters Honolulu and Fairy are living in Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute. It seems it was William who liked fanciful names for his daughters. They had one more daughter Alexandra Gweneth and 2 sons with more mundane names William David and George Moir.
William died in 1909 in Rothesay aged 52 and Blanche remarried in 1915 in London to Frank Conway Reet, a Lieutenant on HMS Centurion. Blanche died in 1957 in Chichester.
I wondered where William’s wealth came from as he didn’t work.
William Hutcheson’s father Alexander and uncle David were steamship owners in partnership with David MacBrayne, the precursor of Calmac.
https://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSA00039
Paddle steamer the Iona, one of their fleet and its successor
Paddle steamer the Iona, one of their fleet and its successor
