Records of births in 1914, marriages in 1939 and deaths in 1964 from the National Records of Scotland reveal details of Scots at the start of two World Wars
New online releases of births, marriages and deaths published today (1 January) by the National Records of Scotland reveal how patriotism gripped parents of babies in 1914, and how the outbreak of war in 1939 prompted couples to marry.
The final few months of 1914 witnessed a new fashion for naming boys Kitchener after Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War. Field Marshal Lord Kitchener’s face adorned the famous recruiting posters at the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. He was responsible for increasing the British Army from six regular and fourteen divisions to seventy divisions by the creation of the ‘New Armies’ named after him.
Among the 123,394 births in 1914, record-keepers in the National Records of Scotland (NRS) found 21 boys given the first or middle name of Kitchener, including John Kitchener Hay, born 13 December 1914. His mother Beatrice registered her son’s birth, because her husband John was already in uniform as a lance sergeant in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
NRS have also identified three girls who were given Kitchener as a middle name; all were born in 1916, the year that Lord Kitchener perished when HMS Hampshire was sunk off Orkney. Between 1914 and 1918 a total of 73 Scottish children were named Kitchener, and 9 boys named Horatio Herbert, the Field Marshal’s first names. 43 boys were named Jellicoe during this period, after Admiral John Jellicoe, Commander of the Fleet and from 1916 First Sea Lord.
At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, there was a surge in the number of marriages in Scotland, as young couples rushed to wed before the men were posted overseas. There were 7,541 more marriages than in 1938. The total of 46,257 marriages came very close to the peak of 46,754 that occurred in the record-breaking year of 1920. This made 1939 the year with the second-highest number of marriages recorded to date in Scotland.
One couple tying the knot were Alexander Thomson Arundel, aged 21, lance corporal in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, who was based at Bhurtpore Barracks, Tidworth, Wiltshire, and Jane Fulton from Glasgow, a 19-year old who worked in a fruit shop. He survived the war and died in 1973.
Some well-known Scots born in 1914 include Gavin Maxwell (1914-1969), naturalist and author of Ring of Bright Water, who was born on 15 July 1914 at House of Elrig, Mochrum, Wigtownshire. Norman McLaren (1914-1987), documentary film-maker, was born William Norman McLaren, on 11 April 1914 at 21 Albert Place Stirling, the son of William McLaren, a master housepainter. He went on to become an award winning film-maker who made films for the GPO film unit, the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Film Board of Canada. Not among the release of 1914 births is Tom Weir (1914-2006), the climber and broadcaster, whose birth on 29 December 1914 was not registered until January 1915.
Tim Ellis, Registrar General and Keeper of the Records of Scotland, said: “We know that the latest additions to our online resources on ScotlandsPeople will be very useful for family history and other researchers, particularly as the registers for 1914 contain information about Scots at the start of the First World War”.