I first found my 3x great grandaunt Margaret Smith in census records, as the oldest child of my Scottish 4x great-grandparents John Smith and Elspet Bain. I discovered that as an adult she travelled to India and later South Africa. It was at a time when it would have been considered quite adventurous.

In 1851 the Smith family was living at Farmers Hall Lane, Aberdeen and Margaret, the oldest of six children, was recorded as a 13-year-old flax spinner. Her younger siblings, including my 3x great-grandmother Isabella, were still at school or too young for school.

Ten years later the family was still living at Farmers Hall Lane, at number four, but mother Elspet was head of the household after father John’s death in 1857. The census says Margaret was then a linen weaver, the oldest of seven children. My 3x great-grandmother wasn’t one of them, as she was living and working elsewhere.

Two years later, in 1863, Margaret Smith’s life took an unexpected turn. Margaret was a working as a domestic cook when she married James McGlashan in the parish of St Nicholas. James, the son of John McGlashan and Ann Falconer, was a private in the 93rd Highlanders, a Scottish infantry regiment.

Living in India

At the time, the Highlanders were based in India, and James likely returned there soon after marrying, Margaret travelling with him. It was the era of the British Raj, and records of British births, baptisms, deaths and burials in India show twelve children born to Margaret and James McGlashan in Bengal, Madras and Bombay between 1864 and 1878.

At least seven of the children died young. James was two and Mary Ann was five. John, John James, Edwin, Alfred William, and Douglas were babies less than 12 months old.

Margaret gave birth to twin daughters Isabella and Mary Ann in January 1874. They were were probably named after two of her younger sisters. One of her sisters, Mary Ann, died four months after her nieces were born. The other sister, my 3x great-grandmother Isabella, gave birth to twin daughters herself in 1876.

Return to Scotland

Margaret and James returned to Scotland with their children via England, around 1881 or 1882. Youngest son Ronald McGlashan was born at Hampshire’s Portsea Island in April 1882. 

By 1891 they were certainly in Aberdeen and it must have been an enormous shock after almost twenty years in India’s hot and humid tropical monsoon climate. Even Margaret and James, who grew up in Scotland would have found the cold temperatures and bitter winds difficult.

According to the 1891 census, James was then working for the sewerage police. He died two years later, aged 51, after a short bout of bronchitis.

McGlashan children

The 1901 census recorded Margaret as head of the household, living with her daughter Isabella and two grandchildren. Isabella had married a merchant seaman, Thomas Russell Proctor in 1897. Thomas died in 1900, leaving Isabella a widow with two sons.

Margaret’s oldest surviving son, Richard McGlashan, served in the military, joining the 41st Brigade of the 66th Berkshire Regiment of Foot at Kurrachee [Karachi], when he was fourteen. Richard married Mary White in Ireland in 1887. They were living in England at the time of the 1891 and 1901 censuses, and Richard was officially discharged with a pension in January 1901. He died at 39 in 1905, and Mary returned to live in Ireland.

Another son, Alexander McGlashan, married Elizabeth Burnett in Aberdeen in 1901. At the time he was a soldier based in Belfast, but the census a few months later described him as a china packer porter, so he was probably discharged around the same time. Alexander died in 1929 aged 59. He and Elizabeth had a son named Ronald who joined the RAF in 1919, married twice and had three children.

Youngest son Ronald McGlashan joined the 13th Hussars of the 3rd Gordon Highlanders in 1898 when he was seventeen, and appears to have served in the Boer War and World War One. He was working as a fisherman in Aberdeen when he married Isabella Knight in 1906. They went on to have three children and emigrated to Durban in South Africa, where Ronald died in 1936.

Daughter Sarah Elizabeth McGlashan also emigrated to South Africa. She married William Petrie Cockburn in Scotland, where they had two children before emigrating about 1898. In South Africa, Sarah and William had at least another seven children. Sarah died in Durban in 1950.

Margaret emigrates

Margaret emigrated to Durban, South Africa, arriving aboard the SS Doune Castle cum SS Arundel Castle on 28 October 1901. She travelled with her daughter Isabella and two toddler grandsons. Her son-in-law William Cockburn was listed as their surety in passenger records.

Daughter Isabella went on to marry George Wilkinson in 1906, and died in Durban in 1953. Her oldest son William Proctor grew up in South Africa and married. Younger son Thomas Proctor died at fifteen, after being struck by lightening.

As for Margaret, she lived in South Africa with, or near, her children Isabella, Sarah and Ronald and their families. She died in Pinetown, near Durban in 1926 at the age of 88.

Select references

Various birth, marriage, death, and census records for the Smith and McGlashan families in Scotland, India and South Africa.

93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment of Foot, National Army Museum, https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/93rd-sutherland-highlanders-regiment-foot, accessed 5 October 2025.

The 93rd Sutherland Highlander Regiment of Foot 1800-1881 Concise History by Year and Month, 93rd Sutherland Highland Regiment of Foot Living History Unit Inc., http://www.93rdhighlanders.com/conhist.html, accessed 5 October 2025.

Passenger list entry for Margaret McGlashan, 28 October 1901, S.S. Doune Castle cum S.S. Arundel Castle, NAB Land and Immigration Board, Natal Vol 67, page 409, The eGGSA Passenger List Project, The eGGSA Branch of the Genealogical Society of South Africa, http://www.eggsa.org/arrivals/eGGSA%20Passenger%20Project.html, accessed 5 October 2025.