1923, 23, Gilmour Street, Kilmarnock

As census records end, for the moment, at 1911, it becomes more difficult to track Andrew’s family’s movements. With help from my mum, Jean Henderson Ballantyne (Campbell) I found a marriage record for Barbara Fulton Campbell from 1923 when she married Joe McCubbin, a bar worker. 

The Campbell family had moved back to Kilmarnock and by the 1920s were living at 21, Gilmour , Kilmarnock. Andrew is still a coal miner and by this time is 59 years old, and sadly, Sarah had passed away just over three years previously. 

Barbara’s wedding took place on the 28th September 1923 at 12, Howard Street, Kilmarnock after the banns being read at the United Free Church of Scotland. 

At the time of her marriage, Barbara, now twenty, was a wool spinner, a common trade in Kilmarnock, and her sister, Cathie Henderson Campbell aged just thirteen, signed as a witness. 

The marriage record for my grandparents, Matthew Campbell and Elizabeth Gibson shows that they were married on the 1st of August 1930 at the Manse, Crosshouse. Matthew is twenty-five years old and a wool blender, while Elizabeth, 26, is a typist. She is living at 78, Hill Street, Kilmarnock. Andrew Campbell, his father, seems to have made a move out of the coal mine and is also a wool blender.

Notice the enormously strong hands Andrew Campbell has, there is no doubting his life as a miner.