Great Great Aunt Flo's Travels

From Broughty Ferry in Dundee, Scotland to Melbourne, Australia. After working as a governess in London, this adventurous woman travels to India. Full of tales from a woman who wanted to see the world, this book vividly depicts her life journey in the late 1800s to early 1900s.

Born into a successful Scottish family who earned their wealth manufacturing jute in the Dundee mills, she was afforded opportunities to explore. Her stories detail her travels: voyaging between Australia and India by ship and caring for children in the families she worked for along the way.

This memoir provides wonderful insights into how drastically life and travel have changed over the last century. Aunt Flo always kept her passport tucked into her undergarments, sure that if trouble struck, she would be safe. Tales like this give a glimpse into her mindset and spirit.

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.