wedding day photo

I spent the afternoon with mum yesterday.
After lunch we spent an hour or two chatting through the past and looking through old photos of her family and even writing down the names of the people while they are still remembered.Mum is holding a photo of Robert Nicoll and Edith Watson's wedding. Apologies for the quality of the photo I just snapped it with my phone camera. The wedding took place at St Fillans church Newport on Tay, Scotland.

Robert Nicoll at St Andrews University

Robert Nicoll trained in medicine at St Andrews university.
He obviously enjoyed student life!
The 1912-1913 edition of the student magazine carries a spoof obituary of him which includes a caricature/cartoon.
The mock obituary tells us little about him; except that he was in the Officer Training Corps, and had a fondness for the ladies! The rest is in jokes which are impenetrable to us nearly a 100 years later but I guess he was a popular student
Interestingly in the same magazine there is an advert for Thos Muir,Son and Patton Ltd,Family coal merchants
Bob got a blue for running at St Andrews so running is in our genes somewhere!
The top picture is of Robert Nicoll in 1926 long after he left St Andrews, but he is wearing his running blue outfit.My guess is that it is taken on the sands on a return visit to St Andrews but we will never know.
By this time Robert had served in the Great War in the RAMC ,then been demobbed and was working as a GP in Beith Ayrshire.

Robert Nicoll GP

My grandfather Robert Nicoll was a general practioner in a day when they did all their own out of hours work, and a lot of that care would be maternity care.
Apparently when he went to see a lady expecting a baby he would say "your going to have a boy "but he would write down in his notebook the word girl!
In due time when the baby was born if the lady duly had a boy she would be amazed that her GP knew in advance what the baby would be . However, when the new mum had a girl she would challenge the doctor " Dr Nicoll you said I would have a boy but I have had a baby girl ! What happened?
" Your wrong" the good doctor would reply "I said you would have a girl and you have had a girl - look I have written it in my notebook!"