Scotland
The story
begins in the Land of the Brave; it begins with my great grandfathers, William
Benson and Charles Ramage Blake. Both were born in Scotland within 10 years of
each other.
William Benson
William was born in Aberdeen on 18 March 1875, the middle son of William Henry Benson and Isabella Speid. William Henry had made his career in the Caledonian Railway, working his way up from a railway clerk in the goods’ department to the position of superintendent.
William’s elder brother, James Speid, began his career as a solicitor’s general clerk, eventually qualifying as a solicitor. James is listed on the Roll of Honour of Aberdeen University, which shows that he served as a Private from November 1914 in the 1st Volunteer Battalion Gordon Highlanders (previously the City of Aberdeen Volunteer Regiment). He received his commission in October 1916, working in the Home Service until 1919, by which time he had reached the rank of Lieutenant.
William began his working life at the age of 16, as a clerk for the railway; he would also have received an education, due to the passing of The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 [1], which made schooling compulsory for all children in Scotland between the ages of 5 and 13; parents could be prosecuted if they failed to comply.
Manton writes,
The class structure was, of course, different in Scotland, where educational opportunity was not a restricted privilege and where merit was a more important determinant than family background,
Their education will
have been adequate, and in the case of the Scots more than that, but they
typically left school at sixteen or seventeen. They were usually from
middle-middle or lower-middle class families and would not have had the
upper-middle class options of a Church of England living or the purchase of an
Army commission readily available to them.[2]
William’s younger brother, John Speid, entered Robert Gordon College at the age of 13. He is not listed in the Scotland Census of 1901, but it is unclear exactly where he was until the details of his death. John Speid died of malaria on 23 June 1916, while serving as a Sergeant in the 26th Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps in South Africa, and was buried in Tanzania. He died unmarried.
William is
listed on the passenger manifest of the S.S. Borneo sailing from London to
Calcutta on 15 August 1895. Unfortunately the manifest simply lists the names
of the passengers and records their occupations as “ladies and gentlemen”.
There is also no breakdown of which passengers travelled second class and which
were in steerage. It is interesting that William is listed as English, rather
than Scottish! I was lucky enough to interview my Grandmother about her family
for my Masters and she gave me some notes of her own which I treasure even if
the records do not always agree with what she told me! My Grandmother’s notes
say that William gained employment with Aenakhall, a Scottish firm.
The next records we have for William are those of the Freemasons’ Lodge Light on the Surma, Silchar Bengal, into which he was first initiated on 30 December 1899 and which he rejoined on 27 March 1916. His occupation in both entries is listed as tea planter which is slightly different to my Grandmother’s notes, which have him as a Visiting Agent for Aenakhall.
Following further research I discovered that, (T)he link between the agency firm and the estate manager was the visiting agent (V.A). The visiting agent was an experienced practising planter holding a fairly senior position. He used to visit the estate and give report to the managing agents.[3]
The fact that William left and re-joined the Freemasons’ Lodge in Silchar is not unusual. He may have returned to the UK, or gone elsewhere (e.g. Australia) or he may have been elsewhere in India.
Charles Ramage Blake
Charles Ramage Blake was born in Alloa, Clackmannshire, on 02 October 1885, to Charles Ramage Blake senior and Annie Webster Bell. There is a family myth that Charles Ramage Blake senior was born in Ireland, had stolen a horse and killed a man, and fled to Scotland. This is not true. His father Charles Ramage senior had experienced a difficult start in life, with his father Adam, dying in 1853 and his mother re-marrying the following year. The young Charles senior therefore ended up living with his mother and her new husband, and one of his older brothers, James (though he soon moved out). His two additional, older siblings were already making their way in the world. Charles senior undertook various occupations in his life and is listed at times as a dairyman, farmer and coachman, the latter being what he is remembered for by the family. His older brothers worked variously as gardeners, agricultural labourers and domestic servants.
Their father’s estate was valued in probate at £1,548, 18s, 8d, which, according to The National Archives Currency Converter would be the equivalent, in 2017, of £123,897.73
In 1900 this would have bought:
- Horses: 57
- Cows: 163
- Wool: 2935 stones
- Wheat: 1238 quarters
- Wages: 4802 days (skilled tradesman)[4]
In 1912 Adam took all his family and moved to Australia, and the records seem to indicate that David Bell had already gone there following the birth of his daughter Mina in 1908, as he does not appear in the 1901 Scotland Census. Her notes said that Charles Ramage had sailed to India in 1912, having undertaken engineering exams and obtained employment with Gillanders, Arbuthnot & Co., however my own later notes from conversations with her suggest that Charles Ramage was in India earlier than 1912, and that he had also spent some years doing other things which I will go later.
William and Charles
William was from a rather different background to Charles Ramage, and it may seem unusual that the latter would go on to take engineering exams and eventually travel to India to work in tea. If you go further back to William’s grandfather (another William), he was a woolsorter, who had also died two years after his son was born. Interestingly after his father’s death, William Henry is listed as a scholar in 1841 at Shaw’s Hospital, Aberdeen, a school for orphans and the destitute; his brother remained with his mother, but both sisters were sent to live with his father’s brothers (Samuel and Joseph). Both men were woolsorters and grocers. Joseph lived in Bradford, while Samuel was still in Aberdeen, though he later moved to join his brother. The girls never returned to live with their mother and brothers. In addition to William Henry’s career with the railway, his brother, Thomas Christie, found work as a lithographic printer; it was he who gave William Henry his first experience in the workplace.
On initial inspection the backgrounds of William and Charles Ramage seemed different, yet both had benefited from opportunities which were not available to their near ancestors. It may seem strange that two educated young men, and their siblings, would decide to leave their homeland, however the families’ emigration during this period, coincides with a decline in industry in Scotland, as well as lower wages and increased poverty. This resulted in many seeking work, and often new lives in other parts of the world, in particular Australia, South Africa, Canada and India. William and Charles Ramage therefore joined thousands of others who had made the brave decision to seek opportunities elsewhere. Like many before them in history, they may also have been seeking some adventure.
Manton writes,
they all needed jobs at a time when a reduction in child mortality had increased the supply of literate or numerate young men faster than jobs for them were being created at home, either in the family firm or elsewhere.[5]
George M
Barker, who returned from tea planting in Assam in 1885, writes that India
already had an excess of competent men in the country, and that those from the
UK should not go out believing the country to be a land of golden opportunity,
or that the salaries would enable luxurious living in India. It is clear in the
case of both my great grandfathers that they had not gone out to India on a
whim, and they had gained employment with firms in Scotland before leaving.[6]
[1]
[2] Manton, M.G. (2008). The rise of the British managing agencies in north eastern India 1836-1918. [MPhil thesis, SOAS University of London]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00028816 (Accessed 8 December 2025), p14
[3] George, A.J. (2002). Human resource management practices in the tea industry: a Gandhian critique. [DPhil thesis, Mahatma Gandhi University]. Available at: http://www.mgutheses.in/page/about_book.php?q=T%201544&search=&page=&rad= (Accessed 8D December 2025); p195
[4] https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/
[5] Manton, ibid
[6] Barker, G.M. (1884). A tea planter’s life in Assam. Thacker, Spink & Co. Available at: https://archive.org/details/teaplanterslifei00bark (Accessed: 8 December 2025).
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