Florence Margaret Somerville Laing

The author was born in 1884. Florence Margaret Somerville Laing was the second youngest of her five siblings. Aunt Flo (our great great aunt) was the frailest of all her siblings. At an early age her parents were advised that she would be frail due to having had scarlet fever, diphtheria, and rheumatic fever. They were told that she should enjoy a quiet life. Flo wanted to be a nurse but too frail to train so she started looking after children instead.

Flo left England for India in 1920 having telegrammed her family to let them know what she was doing. She never married and spent last two years of her life living in Edinburgh with a younger sister. Flo died in 1984 just two months short of her 100th birthday.