Looking at old maps of Lundin Links, a house named 'Murree Lodge' stood out as one with an unfamiliar and unusual name. As the name cropped up again on census returns and in newspaper articles, I decided to find out which house this was and why it came to have its exotic sounding name. The house turned out to be 23 Crescent Road (named 'Glenairlie' since c1930). Murree is a mountainous area in the Rawalpindi District of the Punjab Province of Pakistan. So, how can the name be connected to Lundin Links? A clue came in the adverts below for the sale of Murree Lodge, first advertised in October 1893, following the death of the widow of a Colonel Robertson. Further investigation showed that this was Colonel Alaric Robertson of H.M. Indian Army.
Born in Scotland in 1816, Robertson joined the Indian Army at 17 and was initially posted to the 48th Regiment of Madras Native Infantry, but his skills in mechanics and engineering led to his employment in the Department of Public Works. There his talents developed, and eventually he became superintending engineer of the Lahore and Peshawar road (a key new line of communication at that time). He also designed the tunnel under the Indus river at Attock. These details were reported in his obituary in the 'Allen's Indian Mail' of 15 September 1869 along with this further detail:
"Colonel Robertson entered the Madras army in 1833, and retired in 1864, and during that long service of thirty one years the Indian Government had not a more zealous, hard-working, or devoted servant.....his natural talent for engineering surmounted difficulties of no ordinary kind....but great as were Colonel Robertson's claims to admiration as a successful and accomplished engineer, and though the Lahore and Peshawar Road and the Indus Tunnel are his monuments in India, his intimate friends will dwell for his pure and honourable character and...his kind, unselfish, and genial disposition."
Upon his retirement from the Indian Army in 1864, Alaric Robertson returned to Scotland, where he married music teacher Mary Nicoll in June in Newport, Fife. They purchased a home in Lundin Links around that time, and it came to be named after the Murree area of India (now part of Pakistan). The site of the town of Murree was initially established as a sanatorium for British troops c1850 but it developed into the summer capital of the Punjab during British Raj and is still a hill-station summer resort. Also known as "The Queen of the Hills", Murree is a cool, green, mountainous area with magnificent views of the snow-capped mountains of Kashmir. Colonel Robertson must have remembered the area fondly and brought the name with him to Lundin Links. Although he died in 1869 at the age of 53, his widow retained Murree Lodge until her death there in 1893. The house name lived on for another few decades before being changed to something which was presumably more meaningful to the then owners.
"Colonel Robertson entered the Madras army in 1833, and retired in 1864, and during that long service of thirty one years the Indian Government had not a more zealous, hard-working, or devoted servant.....his natural talent for engineering surmounted difficulties of no ordinary kind....but great as were Colonel Robertson's claims to admiration as a successful and accomplished engineer, and though the Lahore and Peshawar Road and the Indus Tunnel are his monuments in India, his intimate friends will dwell for his pure and honourable character and...his kind, unselfish, and genial disposition."
Upon his retirement from the Indian Army in 1864, Alaric Robertson returned to Scotland, where he married music teacher Mary Nicoll in June in Newport, Fife. They purchased a home in Lundin Links around that time, and it came to be named after the Murree area of India (now part of Pakistan). The site of the town of Murree was initially established as a sanatorium for British troops c1850 but it developed into the summer capital of the Punjab during British Raj and is still a hill-station summer resort. Also known as "The Queen of the Hills", Murree is a cool, green, mountainous area with magnificent views of the snow-capped mountains of Kashmir. Colonel Robertson must have remembered the area fondly and brought the name with him to Lundin Links. Although he died in 1869 at the age of 53, his widow retained Murree Lodge until her death there in 1893. The house name lived on for another few decades before being changed to something which was presumably more meaningful to the then owners.
RSS Feed
