Introduction / Margaret Gray and Thomas Reid

Lilias Stobie Reid and John Bryden Wallace

Lilias Stobie Reid was the fifth child born to Thomas Reid and Margaret Gray of Calfsound, Eday. She was born 20th May 1839 and was baptized the following 30th of June. She was given the name of the wife of the local minister. She spent her childhood in the Calfsound homes of Little Ha and Swine House where her father was a fisherman and crofter. On 16 October 1862 Lily married John Bryden Wallace.

John Bryden Wallace was baptized in Shetland 19 April 1840, the son of Alexander Wallace and Margaret Henry. He had gone to Eday to work in the fish industry, and in 1861 both he and Lily were living and working as servants on the East Cott farm of John Heddle.

Lily and John had five children:

• Margaret Wallace, born 23 December 1863

• Robert Bruce Wallace, born 27 September 1865

• John Alexander Wallace, born 11 August 1868

• Thomas Reid Wallace (twin), born 12 April 1842

• Henry Wallace (twin), born 12 April 1872 and married a Loutit

• Lilias Wallace, born 16 January 1875

John and Lily lived for several years at Gravesend, Eday near or with Lily's parents where their first four children were born. John worked as a fish curer. In the mid-1870s however, John's health was failing and the family moved back to John's home in Shetland where his father was a medical practitioner. It was hoped that under his father's care, John's health would be restored. The youngest child was born in Walls parish, Shetland. Only four months later, John passed away of jaundice, 22 May 1875.

Lily and her children returned to Calfsound. Since this was the time before scheduled passenger service, Lily and her children were brought home across the 50 miles of open sea in a small sailing yawl by her younger brother Thomas. No details of this trip are known, but it must have been a most adventurous journey, particularly for the young ones.

By the time of the 1881 census, Lily and her four youngest children were living at Dykeside, Calfsound, with her invalid parents. Son Robert was a servant for the Marwick family, merchants and farmers at nearby South Cott. Margaret was a 17 year-old farm servant on the Orkney island of Shapinsay, living on the farm of William Robertson. By the 1891 census, Lily's parents had died, and she was still living at Dykeside with only her younger sister Maria. Daughter Lily, about 16, was living at nearby East Blett, a servant in the home of an elderly fisherman and his wife. The four Wallace sons were living further south on Eday, working as agricultural labourers on the Skaill and Stenoquoy estates.

Lily lived the rest of her life at or near Dykeside with Maria, until Maria died from influenza in 1925. Lily spent her last years in poor health, generally under the care of her daughters. She died 10 January 1934, well into her 90s, and is buried in the old Eday Kirkyard.