Edith Garrow, who taught in the same Angus school over four decades, has died aged 94.
She took up a post at Carmyllie in 1950 and devoted her entire career to the school before retiring in 1989.
Edith was also a regular and valued contributor to The Courier and an entertaining public speaker.
She was born on January 4 1929 at Kinfauns, a second daughter to Edith and David Garrow. Her father was a gamekeeper. She had an older sister, Betty, who died in 2018.
The family moved to Logiealmond where she began school and when Edith was six they moved to Lintrathen at the foot of Glen Isla where her father had been brought up.
Schooling
Her primary education was at Braes o’ Coull, a one-teacher, one-room school. At 11 she moved on to Webster’s Seminary (now Webster’s High School) in Kirriemuir for her secondary education.
Between those two institutions Edith’s command of punctuation and grammar was established. She was still correcting others’ misplaced apostrophes into her 90s.
Her higher education took place at Dundee Training College from 1947. She lived at the Mayfield Hostel off Arbroath Road and qualified as a teacher in 1950.
Career begins
She had hoped to get a teaching post near her childhood home at Lintrathen but when a temporary opening arose at Carmyllie East Primary School she began work as an infant teacher.
The temporary posting was to last for 39 years. Apart from family bereavements, she had just one day’s absence in those years. She attended the weddings of more than 20 of her former pupils, which gave her enormous pleasure. Several of her pupils went out of their way to keep in touch long after she had retired.
In 1970, the three schools in the district, Carmyllie West, Carmyllie East and Kirkden merged to form Carmyllie Primary School. Edith stayed on and worked until 1989 when she turned 60.
She recorded memories and anecdotes from her career in the book, The Humorous Side of Teaching, which sold 4,000 copies and raised a considerable sum which she donated to Imperial Cancer Research where she worked two days a week until the Arbroath shop closed.
In retirement Edith, who never married, was a regular speaker at SWRI meetings, clubs and church groups.
She had been a member of Carmyllie SWRI (later merged with Friockheim) since 1951, later becoming an honorary member.
From 1994 until a major illness in 2016, she was the secretary of the Senior Citizens Friendship Club in Arbroath, writing the weekly report for the Arbroath Herald.
q
Edith came to football relatively late in life but became an ardent supporter of Forfar Athletic. With her sister, Betty, she attended every home game for over 25 years from the mid 1980s. Her admonishment of supporters for the use of foul language occasionally brought her into lively dialogue with visiting fans in the row in front in the stand. Forfar regulars knew to take care within her earshot.
She taught the children of Peter Fraser, Conservative MP for the area for a period from 1979. Lord Fraser’s widow, Fiona, recalled that her late husband would only straighten his tie for two people; Margaret Thatcher and Miss Garrow.
“It was a wonderful, happy childhood environment and that early grounding served all Edith’s pupils very well. She will always be very fondly remembered by the Fraser family,” Lady Fraser wrote in a tribute.
She said her children credited Edith with their success in early education.
Correspondent
Edith was also a devoted reader of The Courier, like her father before her.
In one contribution to the Craigie Column in 2019, she told us her father would always turn to the Billy and Bunny cartoon first, while she read the sport first followed by births, deaths and marriages.
Edith lived independently including through the Covid lockdown but became a resident of Seaton Grove Care Home, Arbroath, in November 2021 where she tuned into every quiz programme going to keep her mind active.
In 2019, her nephews, John and David Forsyth, organised a surprise 90th birthday party for Edith attended by many of her former pupils.
You can read the family’s announcement here.
Conversation