U. and B.H.S - can you help?

[Maggi Young]

Derek has tried the RHS..... waited for a long time but still no reply. Stan is checking the Caley, I think (hope!)

[Lesley Cox]

The Utterly and Butterly Hort. Soc?

[annew]

 

[Maggi Young]

The Utterly and Butterly Hort. Soc?

Had to discount that straight away, Lesley, as Ranunculus spends all the spare cash on ranunculus seed and so has no money left for gold medals..... not even ones made from the gold foil off sweetie wrappers 
Plus, I think he's just a smidgeon too young for the  dates.... as far as I know (well, Black Pudding Girl told me)  I think he only became  UBHS treasurer in 1927.

[ranunculus]

The Utterly and Butterly Hort. Soc?

Had to discount that straight away, Lesley, as Ranunculus spends all the spare cash on ranunculus seed and so has no money left for gold medals..... not even ones made from the gold foil off sweetie wrappers 
Plus, I think he's just a smidgeon too young for the  dates.... as far as I know (well, Black Pudding Girl told me)  I think he only became  UBHS treasurer in 1927.

After eleven years as Trip Organiser!!!   We relieved Mafeking.   (And please don't mention 'spare cash' - walls have ears)!

[Lesley Cox]

Oh well, it was a good try.

[Maggi Young]

Excellent try, Lesley...you weren't to know of his proclivities 

[ranunculus]

Excellent try, Lesley...you weren't to know of his proclivities 

O.K. Who's been talking?

[Maggi Young]

Excellent try, Lesley...you weren't to know of his proclivities  

O.K. Who's been talking?

well, I know Sue's book hasn't been published in New Zealand yet,  but the rest of us have read it.....





(You do realise that Derek, our questioner, will be reading all this and thinking he's fallen in with a bunch of lunatics?  Ah well, I suppose the truthe will out....   )

[Lesley Cox]

Excellent try, Lesley...you weren't to know of his proclivities 

That bad is it? I don't think I WANT to know.

[Brian Ellis]

I assume that Derek knows where this gentleman was in the 1891 and 1901 Census?  The latter perhaps providing a clue unless he had moved on by then as it was only four years later?

[Maggi Young]

This from Derek:
Some additional background to the various comments - D.Muir = David (Hamilton) Muir born 1879 at Largs, Ayrshire.  He is listed in the 1881 census at Largs and in the 1891 census at Skelmorlie (between Largs and Wemyss Bay).  Earlier family roots indicate origins variously around Renfrewshire (Greenock and Kilmacolm) and Argyll (including Bute, Islay, possibly Campbelltown). His father Colin has been described as a gardener, carter, ploughman and forrester in different sources and the family is listed back in Largs in the 1901 census (but not David). 
 
David would be a young man of 16-18 when the medals were awarded.  His whereabouts after 1891 are presently unestablished until his marraige appears on record at Doncaster in 1903.  All occupational references to him are as a gardener.  At some point thereafter he has returned north and is believed to have worked on several Irvine Valley estates in East Ayrshire such as Cessnock at Galston, Gowanbank at Newmilns, Lanfine and Kirkland Park in Darvel. The remainder of his life was spent in Darvel until his death.
 
There is therefore a factual gap from 1891 after which time he has left home on a journey which took him to a marraige at Doncaster in 1903.
 
All that aside there's some excellent brainstorming arising from the query.  Uddingston and Bothwell is interesting as indeed is the Ulster (and Belfast??) suggestion since the family roots at some point could well have been in sight of the Antrim coast on a clear day.
 
Thanks to all this far.
 
Regards,
Derek

[Brian Ellis]

Well in 1901 he appears to be a boarder at 17 Madenia St, Greenock, Renfrewshire aged 21 and a Domestic Gardener.  So that would point to it being probably Scottish.

[Mick McLoughlin]

Just a thought. Could the H.S. stand for highland society rather than horticultural society?

[Maggi Young]

Just a thought. Could the H.S. stand for highland society rather than horticultural society?

Oh!  It might well do.... thanks, Mick.