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Betty ReidJohn Moncrieff Ltd, Dispatch Clerk 1944 – c. 1980by Ian TurnerMiss Betty Reid was brought up in Scone at her parents’ home next door to where Paul Ysart and his family were living. In 1944, straight from school, she joined John Moncrieff Ltd at the North British Glassworks in St Catherine’s Road in Perth. She worked there as a clerk in the dispatch office until she was made redundant in the early 1980s, as Moncrieff experienced yet another of be many financial crises before the company finally collapsed in 1996. One of Betty’s tasks was to process all the orders received for Monart Glass. She was photographed with the first post-war Monart production in 1947 when a suite of Monart Glass was presented to Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh on the occasion of their wedding by the City of Perth. That photograph is shown below. The suite of glass is now at Balmoral Castle. One of Betty?s tasks was to stick Monart labels on to the pontil mark of every piece of Monart Glass that left the factory. She also handled all the correpondence between Moncrieff and the American paperweight collector and dealer Paul Jokelson, who had exclusive rights to sell Paul Ysart’s paperweights in North America. Betty knew all the people who had been involved with post-war Monart production, and many more who could recall the period before the Second World War when all five members of the Ysart family made Monart Glass at Moncreiff. She was therefore of invaluable assistance to Ian Turner when he was researching the history of Monart production, and indeed she was the first person to reply to his advertisement in the Perthshire Advertiser in 1984 when he appealed for help. Betty Reid lived at 33 Florence Place in Perth. She was a religious person and was very active in the Girl Guide movement. She never married. She died at her brother’s house in Livingston during the New Year holiday period 1992/3. Her exact dates of birth and death are not known. ©2006 Ian Turner |
Betty Reid at John Moncrieff Ltd with Monart Glass in 1947
(Click on image for full photograph) Footnote: Miss Reid was a very active Guider and held several offices at the time of her sudden death. It may be possible to get further biographical information from obituaries in the local Perth press. All of my information is undocumented and is based upon conversations with her and her brother Tom. Any obituaries would be in January 1993. |
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