Willie Shearer 1881 - 1960

Grandad with me in front and my pal Elizabeth Ross behind

My grandad William Corbett Shearer was born to David Shearer and Nicholas Hyslop Corbett in Maxwellton, Dumfries. In 1901 census he was a cab driver at the Kenmure Arms in New Galloway near Castle Douglas.


He was working as a chauffeur at Kincaid House in Milton of Campsie when he married Charline Clark in 1909. My mother Lena was born in Kincaid Lodge on 1st September 1910.

During the Great War he was with the Army Service Corps, Military Transport and served in France. I have some cards he sent from France to Lena between 1915 -1919 at Millburn Lodge, near Dalserf in the Clyde Valley where he was chauffeur.







Later they moved to Glasgow where he was chauffeur to Sir Daniel MacAulay Stevenson, who had been Lord Provost of Glasgow between 1911-1914.

In 1922 they were living at the prestigious 5 Parkgrove Terrace in Glasgow where my uncle Colin was born. This sounds like the home of an employer.

He was also employed by James Morton of 7 Hughenden Terrace.  I have a postcard sent to him c/o this address from actress Doreen Morton in Jamaica in 1936 commenting on the roads there.

I don't think he ever owned a car himself but he was still going his bike in his seventies!

In Westbourne Terrace Glasgow

David Shearer, a man of many parts

The village of Hightae and the War Memorial. Picture is the copyright of Lynne Kirton, Creative Commons Licence and originally posted on the wonderful geograph site

My great grandfather, David Shearer was born in 1854 in Maxwellton, Dumfries to John Shearer and Janet Ewart. His father was a shoemaker and the family lived in Glasgow Street in the 1851 and 1861 censuses. I pick them up in Dumfries in 1881 and 1891 but no sign of them in 1881. A search on ancestry suggested a family of Sheerer in Toxteth Park, Lancashire and I was very doubtful but, lo and behold, granny Ewart was with them. Bingo!

Back to David. On his marriage certificate he is described as a carter, but on various other censuses and birth and marriage certificates of his children he is a wood forester, farmer, van driver, fishmonger, market gardener and finishes up as a master grocer In the village of Hightae near Lockerbie.

He married Nicholas Hyslop Corbett, the daughter of a stocking maker in 1877. Nicholas at that time was often a girl's name. I have also come across a female Stewart and a Gordon and a female Garden!

David and Nicholas had 10 children. The youngest Richard Ewart Shearer was in the Royal Flying Corps based in Ayr and died there in 1917. He is remembered on the war memorial in Ayr Cemetery, in Hightae (pictured) and in Lockerbie.

Nicholas died about the time of Richard's birth in 1897 and in 1901 David has a new much younger wife Harriet born in England. This is typical of the situation when a partner is widowed with a squad of children to look after. It took a long time before I found the marriage in West Derby to Harriet Brown in 1898. It's a mystery how they got together. Unusually they don't appear to have had any children. Harriet died in 1953 in Brydekirk and her stepson Robert was the informant.

Link to David Shearer on my tree