Douglas family Inverness1

[Harold Dixon Douglas]

I was brought up in the highland orphanage Inverness now closed,is there anybody out there know of this place

 

 

[Monica Cormack ( Nee Douglas )]

I know there was a childrens home in Inverness called Rosedene it was on Island Bank Road 

[Dave McGrath]

Don't know his line is still in action.  Highland Orphanage moved from its original place up in Culduthel road to Victorian House Carrol on island bank road I think around 1957-58.  It dropped the name orphanage and was simply Carrol Children's Home.  First matron of the new place was Miss Isobell Holmes.

Over the next few years many of the archaic practises normal in institutions were dropped and the home was run as best Isobell could to reflect family life.  Much of Isobel's family were link cousins and aunts in good traditional Scots extended family tradition.  Discipline was still a little harsh but reflected the norms across society of the day.  Generally we felt very happy there, well fed, well dressed with a very very high success rate as we moved into adult hood.  I noted Rosedene was mentioned.  This was a council home and we knew it and we preferred to be where we were where Carrol was run independently by a trust.  Highland Orphanage trust. 

On the whole a very positive experience, with usual teenage angst of course and quite different from the old regime 

[William Douglas]

Thank you, Dave.

[Fiona]

Hello again,

I'm wondering if anyone here on this thread who was at the orphanage has any recollections of a particular family.  The Mackenzie brothers from Assynt were there from Dec 1941 until Aug 1945.  George and Kenneth were twins, must have been around three when they arrived, and my father, Rodney, was a baby of about 10 months.  My dad used to talk about Dagmar, saying that he remembers her kindness.  He said he can't remember anything terrible happening but I don't think there was much love from those who ran it, or at least not in an affectionate way you might crave as a young child.  He was lucky though as his father remarried and the three of them were reunited with him and their two older siblings so from that point onwards their childhood became a little more 'normal' with their life in lovely Lochinver.

[William Douglas]

In the garden of the Highland Orphanage, Inverness, 1930s [Gordon Shennan Collection, Inverness Museum & Art Gallery]