William Wilkiethe first was born in a small village south of Glasgow. He became a millwright. During the 1820s he, his wife and three children moved to Calton, a small but growing town just east of Glasgow. More children were born in Calton. Calton was to become a centre of Scottish textile weaving. The daughters all worked in the weaving mills. One son, William the Second, became a Tinsmith and another Conal, a Bookseller.



William Wilkie the Second had a large family spread over many years. The last was Alexander James Gilmour Wilkie born in 1882. At age 18 he joined the Black Watch and was sent to the jewel in the British Empire crown - India. Then, as today, there was trouble in the North West Frontier region bordering Afghanistan and Alex Wilkie spent time at Peshawar, Karachi and Calcutta. In 1907 during some home leave he married Marjorie McCombie and their four children were born in India - Elizabeth, William, Alex and Mary.



The outbreak of the 1st World War meant the family was sent home to Glasgow while Alex was sent to Mesopotamia. In a futile but heroic battle to relieve a siege at the town of Kut Alex Wilkie was killed in April 1916.



Ten years later his family emigrated to Australia.