Elizabeth “Betty” Whyteside 14/02/1922 – 19/09/2015
Born in Anderson,
Betty was the
eldest of two
sisters and, as a
child, had the
“distinction” of
surviving being run
over by a Glasgow Tram!
She worked as waitress in a
tearoom before being called up to
serve in WAAF with Coast
Command on air-sea rescue.
Her war service over, Betty’s
witnessed her sister’s marriage to
John Whyteside and it was
through this union that Betty met
up with her future husband,
John’s brother Jim.
Betty and Jim’s first child,
Margaret, arrived in November of
that year but her life was to be
tragically cut short by kidney
disease which claimed her at the
age of ten!
By then, second daughter Joan,
had arrived and, although briefly
contemplating a new life in
Canada, they remained in
Scotland and their grief at
Margaret’s loss must have been
eased at least a little with the
surprise arrival of son Jim in July
1964.
A difficult war for Jim had ended
with more than three years in a
Japanese POW camp, with all
the horrors that that entailed.
Despite these traumas, he and
Betty married in February 1947, a
marriage which brought her to the
Scottish Episcopal Church to
which she remained faithful for
the rest of her days.
With work taking Jim senior and
the family to Aberdeen, it seemed
that they were lost to the West of
Scotland but, despite Betty
enjoying her time in the North-
East, they returned to Glasgow
under unexpected and worrying
circumstances when Joan was
diagnosed with the same kidney
complaint which had taken her
sister’s life.
StOM Page 16