Author Louise Dando-Collins, 72, grew up in Dundee and although she emigrated to Tasmania in Australia when she was just 14, she considers Scotland to be her homeland. She is brimming with colourful memories from those formative years.
“I was born in Dundee, in 1944, when it was a garrison city, and I lived at 10 William Street, in Duncraig Guest House,” says Louise.
“It was owned by my grandmother, Mary McGhee, who raised me, as my mother was often away performing with all-girl bands – she was part of Gloria Gay’s glamorous All Girls’ Big Band, and also lead trumpet in Ivy Bensen’s Big Band, and toured with them throughout Britain and Portugal during the war.
“My father was an American major in the USAAF, whom I did not know.
“The jute mills played a big part in Dundee’s economy, and Duncraig was full of Indian and Pakistani students who had been sent to learn how to run the factories,” she explains.
Louise was a pupil at primary school in Ann Street and then Stobswell Girls’ School – where she was no stranger to the belt as her duties at the guest house meant she rarely managed to do her homework – until, with her granny and uncle, she emigrated to Hobart, Tasmania, in November 1958 as £10 Scottish immigrants.
She went on to marry young and had four children in four years, one of whom dived for Australia in the Olympics. She married a second time over 30 years ago, to historical author and novelist Stephen Dando-Collins.
Louise has also published two books – Kato, about a chimpanzee raised in captivity, and a children’s book A Castle for Sale, which draws inspiration from her Scottish roots, telling the story of Duncan Campbell who leaves Australia to buy the ancient spooky Castle Airde in the Scottish Highlands.
Louise has been back to Dundee twice, and met her mother for the first time in 22 years.
“When I first saw the house again, a little girl was climbing through a bottom window, just the way I had done, and it stopped me in my tracks. Life goes on.”
Both books are available in paperback from Amazon (£4.91 and £9.56 respectively).
Louise’s memories of 1940s’ Dundee
Ann Street School “dinneries” with hot, thick soup, figs, tapioca, sago or custard.
The dance troupe, and the Christmas pantos at the Bonnet Hill Church in the Hilltown.
Sledging down William Street’s slippery slope in the winter of 1947 (considered the worst on record).
The tempting smells coming from Keiller’s marmalade and jam factory.
Thousands of jute mill workers escaping into the street with a snow of flax in their hair when the “bummer” sounded..
The old cinemas: the Odeon, the Rex, the Gaumont – where cowboy films cost only 6d – with Indian movies on Sundays for the many Indian students in Dundee.
Orange juice and cod liver oil for children supplied by the government while Dundee was still on war rations.
The Dandy and The Beano, together with a bar of Keiller’s Toffee, kept many a child quietly entertained on a Saturday morning for 6d.
Mary Sinclair whose family owned a tiny cake shop at the top end of William Street.
