In the 1920s, Silvie Taylor, who has died aged 96, modelled clothes for fashion magazines and went on to develop a love of the performing arts.
She later became an adjudicator at poetry and drama festivals across the world, as well as becoming an author in her own own right.
During the war she served as a flight mechanic with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force where she taught Free French Forces how to repair and maintain aircraft engines.
Her son, Roddy, said during the conflict she kept a poetry diary of her experiences.
“It was laced with pathos and humour and interspersed with many Doric words,” Roddy said.
Ms Taylor, whose late husband Innes was outdoor engineering manager at Caledon shipyard, Dundee, died on April 4.
She was born in Dundee in 1925, the daughter of Jasper Stewart Fraser (Jack) and Jean McIntosh.
Jack Fraser had trained as a picture framer and guilder before becoming a press photographer with DC Thomson and Co. Ltd. During the First World War he served with the Royal Flying Corps and helped develop aerial combat photographic techniques.
Her mother, Jean was the daughter of James McIntosh, beadle at St Andrew’s Church, and one of the founders of the church’s independent Boys’ Brigade company. It stood out from affiliated BB companies because the boys wore glengarries rather than pillbox hats.
Mrs Taylor was educated at primary and secondary level at Morgan Academy, Dundee.
As a child, she modelled the latest fashions in magazines published by DC Thomson.
When war broke out she was 14 and evacuated to Rescobie, attending Forfar Academy before returning to Dundee.
When she left school she got a job at DM Brown but did not take to department store life.
So she enrolled at Paton’s commercial college, Bank Street, and gained skills that secured her a job at WB Dickie and Sons solicitors, Whitehall Chambers.
She volunteered for fire-watching duties and spent nights on the roof of her work place and was later awarded the Civil Defence Medal.
War service
Mrs Taylor then joined the WAAF, serving first at RAF Halton, Buckinghamshire, before postings to Lincolnshire and then RAF Wigtown. She later qualified as a physical training instructor with the air force.
Her elder brother, Ron, editor of the Topper comic at DC Thomson, was an RAF bomber pilot. His Manchester bomber was shot down on a raid over Brest and he was held captive at Stalag 3 until 1945. During his time as a prisoner of war, it was announced that Flight Lieutenant Fraser was to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
When she was demobbed in 1947, Silvie returned to Dundee and a job at UK Time (Timex) where she became PA to the managing director, a former US army major. She also had a spell in the firm’s London office.
It was on a family holiday to Aberdeenshire that she met her husband, Innes Taylor, 28 George Square, Inverurie, who worked in marine engineering at shipbuilder Alexander and Hall, Aberdeen, later to become Hall Russell. Mr Taylor was a keen golfer and played at the Inverurie Club and Links Club, Aberdeen.
The couple were married at St Andrew’s Church, Dundee, in 1950 by John Tennant, minister of St David’s North Church, Strathmore Avenue. St Andrews had appointed TRS Campbell as minister but he was yet to take up the post. The reception was in Kidd’s Rooms, Dundee.
After a spell working as a draughtsman in Grangemouth Mr Taylor took a post at Caledon in Dundee and the couple moved to Dundee.
They set up home in the newly-built Fintry scheme where sons Roddy and Keith were born in 1952 and 1955.
In 1967, the family moved to a home in Broughty Ferry where Mrs Taylor remained until her death.
When her boys were young, Mrs Taylor began taking music, drama and elocution lessons with Kath and Ruby Sturrock in Tay Square, Dundee, eventually becoming a Fellow of Trinity College London.
Entertainer
Over many years, Mrs Taylor gave recitations to elderly people around Dundee including at the Five Ways and Douglas and Angus clubs while her friend, Margo Cruickshank sang.
In the early 1970s she began adjudicating professionally at poetry and drama festivals and continued to do so until about two-and-a-half years ago.
She made 14 trips to the Hong Kong festival, leaving in November and returning just before Christmas. Other festivals followed including Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Canada.
Mrs Taylor also gave speech and elocution lessons from her home.
She had been a member of the congregational board of St Andrew’s Church and had been involved in the church’s dramatic society since the 1950s, as well as the Girls’ Guildry, later the Girls’ Brigade.
Columnist
For 40 years until 2017 she wrote the March of Time in her church magazine, a role that has now been taken on by her son Roddy, a retired civil engineer with Dundee City Council.
Mrs Taylor was a regular contributor to The Scots Magazine and had a serial, the Flax Spinners, published by The People’s Friend.
The family’s announcement can be read here.
Silvie Harradon, whose wedding at Esk Hotel, Ferryden, is the main image, moved to Plymouth with her husband Reg. He was a merchant seaman on Fyffes banana boats. Mrs Harradon died in Plymouth in 1990 aged 92.