Brief Profile

Catherine Hoey was born in Glasgow on 26th January 1901. Katie was the eldest child of Owen Hoey and Catherine McInnes. The family settled in Oban where her father went into business as a fish buyer and her mother ran a guesthouse and laundry.

Katie trained as a Queen’s Nurse and worked in the community in and around Mallaig.

She returned to Oban to take charge of the family guesthouse and during WW2 provided lodgings for service personnel and maternity services for their wives.

After the war, she married John Edward Begbie, a widower with 9 children, 4 still at school and together they ran the business until the early sixties.

Eddie died on19th May 1965 aged 70 years. Katie was in her 101st year when she died in 2001.

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Obituary

Catherine Begbie nee’ Hoey.

Katie was born in Glasgow on 26th January 1901. The 1901 census records her as being 2 minutes old on her last birthday. She grew up in 14 Airds Crescent, Oban, the eldest of the Hoey family. Her father, Owen, was from Armagh and her mother, Catherine from Arisaig. Owen was variously described as a peddler,a draper, a fish worker and a fish buyer. This latter involved sending fish by overnight train from Oban to London to be sold at the Billingsgate market. Catherine let out a room in Airds Crescent to travelling workers. The 1911 census shows a telephone linesman and a Russian peddler lodging there. The 1921 census shows several Barra girls, probably there for the herring season.

Katie trained as a Queen’s Nurse. A Queen’s Nurse specialised in working in the community – the forerunner of the district nurse. The Dewar scheme was being set up to bring modern medicine and health provisions to the Highlands and she was part of this. She worked as a nurse in the Mallaig area. She visited her patients by boat and by bicycle and had a fund of stories based on her experiences.

By the 1930s the family were renting a large sea front apartment in Caledonian Mansions. This was run as a guest house (Board, Residence, Dinner, Bed and Breakfast) but the little flat in Airds Crescent was still used by the family in the summer to give maximum space for paying guests.

With her parents’ health failing, Katie came home to run the guest house but with the outbreak of war the boarders were now servicemen from the nearby seaplane base, RAF Oban, which carried out anti-submarine patrols and convoy protection. Later Katie was asked to provide midwife services for RAF wives.

After the war, Katie married Eddie Begbie. Eddie was a widower with 9 children. Four were still at school and they were taken under Katie’s wing. There was just enough space to absorb them and still have paying guests.

Unfortunately, the owners of Caledonian Mansions did not keep the building in good repair. It became riddled with dry rot and had to be demolished.

Katie and Eddie moved to a little house in Dunollie and after Eddie’s death Katie moved to sheltered housing. She ended her long life in the Church of Scotland Eventide home at 100 years old.

Katie worked hard all her life and was very well respected in the community. She always dressed well, liked good quality things around her. She was very generous to the rest of the family and to others in need. She was a long-term benefactor of the Carmelite sisters in the local convent.

She was tiny in stature but big in heart. And she would give you a good telling off if she thought you needed it.