125303: Julia Martin

Julia Martin (1872-1947)

Julia Martin born in 1872 was the daughter of Mr & Mrs Roderick Martin who was tacksman at Crobeg Farm. During the school day the girls were not allowed out at school intervals, they were to remain indoors and learn to sew. One day Julia led the girls out of the classroom and over the causeway to Eilean Colm Cille, where they were marooned until the ebb. Her father colluded with Julia, by finding her a secluded spot on the shore where she was given time to do her homework.  

At a young age Julia went to Canada and later became a probationer nurse at The John Hopkins in Baltimore, USA. During this time, she was visited by a family friend who brought news of her father. They told her that she had to return home to see her father alive. She returned to Lewis and the first person she met on the quay was her father, hale and hearty. She later said that if she could have, she would have, gone straight back on the boat. It is not known whether Julia returned to nursing,  but she did help at the Ladies Seminary in Stornoway.

Julia married William Gordon Fraser, who was school master at Sandwickhill. In later years, it was mandatory for their family of ten, to maintain good attendance and complete their education at the Nicolson Institute. Two of them became doctors, three of them became nurses and two became teachers.

Julia was a supporter of Lord Leverhulme and visited him in London in the 1920s, just before her husband William’s retirement.  As their family home was the School House in Sandwickhill, Julia was house hunting and Lord Leverhulme agreed to her getting one of his Stornoway houses.

The family moved to 4 Lewis Street and needing to supplement William’s pension she ran it as a small hotel. Becoming involved in local politics, Julia became one of the first female JPs (Justice of the Peace) in Scotland. A granddaughter heard of a letter from America addressed with only, Mrs Julia Martin Fraser JP Scotland, being safely delivered to her home in Stornoway.

Julia was elected to Stornoway Town Council then the ‘County’ (Ross & Cromarty District County), travelling to their meetings in Dingwall. She was the only woman councillor for some years.

At Stornoway Town Council there were many stormy meetings at which she got scant courtesy while expressing her views. At one such she couldn’t stand it any longer and walked out calling the gentlemen ‘a lot of dirty dogs’. Another granddaughter remembers Julia arriving off the late boat from County meetings in Dingwall in 1936 and her favourite food being potatoes and salt herring.

Julia Martin railed against authority and injustice and was way ahead of her time. Maybe her career in America cut short, coloured her life. Life was hard for all women then.    

Interview with a granddaughter of Julia Martin by Magaidh Smith 2017