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Obituary: Petronella Cable’s remarkable journey from Oxford Street, London, to Forfar High Street

Her family made the cakes Captain Scott took on his Antarctic expedition and Petronella later sold Bridies in Angus.

Petronella Cable of Forfar has died aged 96.
Petronella Cable of Forfar has died aged 96.

Petronella Cable of Forfar, who was linked to two of Britain’s most famous bakery creations, has died aged 96.

She was born into the Buszard confectionery family of Oxford Street, London, suppliers of society wedding cakes and of the cake Captain Robert Scott feasted on during his Antarctic expedition.

In later life, Petronella, known  as Pat, worked in a Forfar bakehouse and then served in the baker’s shop of Saddler’s of Forfar Bridie fame.

Her journey from Oxford Street to East High Street in Forfar was a remarkable one.

Beginnings in London

She was born Petronella Newton Buszard in Wandsworth, London, on September 3 1926 to Violet Buszard, whose family ran W&G Buszard, bakers and confectioners.

She retained only a few memories of her early years in London and at the age of three or four she was taken on a trip to Dundee.

Pat lived with John Gove, a butcher, and his wife Flora at 104 Commercial Street who adopted her when she was six.

She received regular visits from, Violet, and it was only in her mid teens she was told Violet was her mother and she had been adopted by Mr and Mrs Gove.

In 1930, Violet had a second child in Dundee called James and gave him the surname Durlacher, her mother’s maiden name.

School years

James went to live with a family at Baldovie Toll and attended Morgan Academy. Throughout their lives, Pat and Jim remained close until his death in Bristol a few years ago.

Pat was educated at Victoria Road Primary School and when she left school, began work at Sixty Minute Cleaners in High Street, Dundee.

She met her future husband John (Jack) Cable in either Forfar or Dundee and they married in Forfar on May 27 1947.

Jack and Petronella Cable.

Jack was still serving in the Royal Engineers and the couple went on to have one child, John, in 1949.

Pat had two spells in Noranside Hospital with TB in 1952 and 1956 and when she was free of the condition, she began work in the bakehouse of Ferg Hunter in Forfar.

In 1966 she started with Saddler’s in Forfar where she was a familiar face behind the counter and retired in her mid 60s.

In her leisure time she enjoyed bingo, knitting reading and socialising.

In later years Jack was incapacitated through ill health and Pat became his carer until his death in 2006.

New home

The couple had lived at The Hae’n, South Street, Forfar, where they had moved in 1952 when it was built.

In 2010, Pat moved to Brander Ha’ sheltered housing where she remained until her move in 2022 to Benholm Care Home when dementia set in.

Pat had had no contact with her mother since the Second World War but in recent years, she was able to visit Norway where her mother had settled.

Her son, John said: “Violet spent some of the war years in Dundee, where she met a Norwegian submariner and subsequently married him in 1942.

“My mother attended the wedding. Her half brother, Olaf Mathiassen, was born in Dundee in 1944 and after the war, Violet, her husband and baby moved to Norway.

“My mother and Olaf met up about 15 years ago when he and his wife Vanja visited her in Forfar. Our daughter, Kirsty, took my mother to Norway to spend a holiday with Olaf and Vanja, where they met family and visited places where Violet, deceased by this time, had been.

“My mother, Jim and Olaf got together for possibly the first time in Bristol to celebrate Jim and his wife Margaret’s golden wedding and for the final time, in Forfar, for my mother’s 90th birthday.”

You can read the family’s announcement here.

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