93220: Elizabeth Craigie Henderson

Elizabeth Henderson (1860-1897) was the daughter of Thomas Patterson and Elizabeth Henderson of Prestonpans and was first married to Sergeant James Pratice in London on 5 December 1885. The couple’s first child, Elizabeth Henderson, was born at Castlehill, Edinburgh on 15 August 1886; They then went to India with the 2nd Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders and twins, Bruce Henderson and Jane McArthur were born at Rhanikhet on 15 August 1888. Jane only lived for 7 days.

Elizabeth was widowed in 1888 but married again shortly after, on 6 March 1889, in Rawalpindi. Her second husband was Angus Murray; Angus was from 49 North Tolsta, but had been serving in the Seaforth Highlanders for about five years. The couple settled in India initially and then Gibraltar and had four children: two girls and two boys.

Her first child, Elizabeth, died in 1890, aged about 4.

In 1897, the family set out for the Isle of Lewis. Elizabeth died this same year; accounts of Elizabeth’s death vary; one account says she died while the family were on their way to Lewis from India, while another states that she died, in childbirth, while Angus was serving on garrison duty in Gibraltar. It is possible these accounts reference the same events, but with emphasis on different aspects. If she did die in childbirth then it seems the baby died as well as there is no further record of it.

After her death, Elizabeth’s widower left their children in the care of family in Tolsta. He re-enlisted with the Militia Reserves, Seaforth Highlanders in 1903. By 1905 he had married again and had the first of five children with his second wife. He eventually settled in Stornoway. All of Elizabeth’s children, with Angus, eventually emigrated to Canada. In 1915 both of her sons, with Angus, died, two weeks apart, during the Second Battle of Ypres.