So, the Mr Gerrard behind 'Mr Gerrard's Villas' (now Peacehaven Care Home) was John George Gerrard, a furrier in Edinburgh. John Gerrard was born in 1856 in Banff but in adulthood he moved to Edinburgh and became part of the drapery business. Eventually, he decides to specialise in fur and creates 'Gerrard Brothers' around 1883. The company had bases in both Aberdeen and Edinburgh before focussing its business in the capital where it moved between various addresses in the city centre. Below is an advert for a Hanover Street shop and a photograph of a later store at the corner of Frederick and Princes Street.
The 1901 census finds John Gerrard and his wife in Woodielea Road Lundin Links (while still conducting the furrier business in Edinburgh). Perhaps at this time he was formulating his plans to invest in the village. We can presume that he was a regular summer visitor and he is recorded in newspaper archives as having been present at the official opening of the Lundin Links Hotel on 24 May 1900. In 1905, Mr Gerrard was noted as residing at 'Eastfield' on Leven Road - another Tudor revival style building (shown with its twin 'Mayfield' in the photograph on the left below). I don't think that it's too much of a stretch to suppose that John Gerrard was such an admirer of the style of both the hotel and Eastfield that he decided in 1907 to create the villas that would become Peacehaven in a very similar style. So, although they do not share the same architect, perhaps the three buildings shown below do have a common link, in the shape of John George Gerrard.
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