Look After the Bairns: An East Lothian Childhood (Flashbacks)

Patrick McVeigh was the youngest child in a family of five when his father died of wounds sustained in the First World War. His mother was left to bring up her four daughters and her son with only a widow's pension of twenty-seven shillings a week to provide for their needs. All of the family had to find work of some sort as soon as they were able, and further education was an unattainable luxury. After the First World War, Longniddry, in East Lothian, was a largely self-contained village community. Although poverty was aplenty, there are vivid memories of the nearby sea, of the rocks with their pools, of the woods and fields all around, and of safe roads and lanes where the horse-drawn farm cart was a more familiar sight than the motor car. Often humorous, sometimes tragic, this is one person's account of a life that has gone forever.