Alice Emma Davies
9th April 1887 - 30th March 1981
ALICE EMMA DAVIES first memory of a birthday was her fifth (in 1892) when she travelled to Dunkeld by train to stay with her grandfather, John Cameron, jnr. John met the train on horseback and Alice rode to the house on the neck of his horse. Some years earlier Alice had told a slightly different story of this birhtday. Her previous story told how she rode from the stastion in some sort of horse drawn open-top vehicle with some men, possibly soldiers, wearing kilts. Although I am not sure, I think John Cameron was along on his horse. Her son, Ronald Edmondson feels that both stories might be true, but were two different occasions.
Alice says that during the train journey she placed a row of boiled sweets along the ledge between the door window and the door, and jammed the window.
Alice told the story that when was 18 months old her "Spanish" grandmother ran away with her but Alice always said she never knew the reason or destination. When pressed on the matter she used to say that it was an incident of great embarrassment in the family and was never discussed. (Ronald Edmondson says he has never heard this story before and is not sure if it is true). Alice's two grandmothers were Jane Taylor and Emma Margaret Luscombe, neither who fit the description of "Spanish", although one could have had a dark complexion.
Alice told me that she remembered talking to a female ancestor who recalled Lord and Lady Stuart. (Note added later and never discussed with Alice: I am sure Alice would have said if it was her mother who told her this, so it must have been her aunt Emma Alice Luscombe Cameron ( - IF it was not her who died from the fall from the ship's gangplank,) or at least the previous generation - her grandmother Emma Margaret Luscome or grand aunts Elizabeth Cameron, Janet Fruin Cameron or Clementina Cameron.
Alice attended St Mary's, Everton Valley School and left three weeks before she was 14.
Alice's first job was as a sales assistant at Owen Owen's. Her wedding ring came from Owen Owen and cost £3/15/-.
Her father, Gangy, was secretary of the Peoples Hall, Liverpool and helped himself to the subscriptions. He was discovered two weeks before Alice Davies was to marry Willi Kuyper, and the wedding was called off. Later, Willi Kuyper was killed on the Somme. Alice was also courted by Walter Owen, a nehpew of the store owner, but she was frightened off by his money. There may have been some family relationship between Kuyper and the Owens. Walter may have later become a policeman.
At one time Alice owned a drapers shop at 17 Sleepers Hill. Gangy was always pinching from the till. The shop was sold in the Depression for £75 even though it had over £600 stock.
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