The Christian Watt Papers

At the age of 47, Christian Watt began to write down recollections of her life, continuing until her death at the age of 90 in 1923. Vividly told, this narrative follows the Scotland native from her birth into a Fraserburgh fishing family through her years working in domestic service—including as a table maid to Winston Churchill’s grandmother—to her life as a mental patient in the Cornhill Infirmary. These writings illustrate how the sea brought her family a precarious living and often violent death as four of her seven brothers, her husband, and her favorite son all died at sea, which led to anxiety and grief that eventually caused a mental breakdown. Offering a fascinating insight into Scottish life during the 19th and 20th centuries, this is the memoir of a woman of beauty, character, and intelligence.