Travels in the 1930s

When Arthur Balcarres came home from the First World War, he was not a well man. Nevertheless, he married The Hon Mary Alexandra Fraser in 1928 and they lived in Tilliicoultry, where Euphan and Liz were born. With inherited debts and no income from the land, Arthur had no choice but to break the entail, sell the farms and put Whitehill House on the market. They moved to Kitzbuhl, a village in the Austrian mountains, in 1937. In that earthly paradise, the girls wore dirndls and played in the upland meadows. Erica came to visit, and Euphan made life-long friends with a little girl called Emma von Gutmannstahl Benevenuti, whose family had a summer chalet outside the village. The photos were taken by Mary and have been preserved in two albums.

The top photo catches Arthur playing with the girls at Tillicoultry, then we see him relaxing in a summer meadow with Liz, in the lower photo. 

Would they have stayed? Friends and family came to visit: here’s a photo of Arthur’s sister Erica, enjoying the clean air.

Well, of course they had to come home when war was looming.

They said goodbye to Bonzi, and left Austria in 1939.