ABSTRACT
Charles Neill was born in Edinburgh (n.d.), and was apprenticed at age 12 to a compositor, during which period he began to write poetry. Within a year of becoming a journeyman, Neill lost his right hand in a gun accident. No longer capable of manual labour, he decided to become a teacher, entering normal school in Edinburgh. Subsequently, he held several teaching posts before joining the staff of Milne’s Institute in Fochabers as a teacher in the junior English department at a salary of £65. While here he published Ellen of Ayr in October 1856. Although published by subscription, the novel was widely reviewed and well received; and sold out the print run. The next year, on 26 February 1857, Neill was able to marry Mary Ann Milne. He went on to hold a number of teaching positions at other institutions and to rise to the position of headmaster, all the while continuing to write poetry and prose, much of which appeared in Scottish newspapers. Ellen of Ayr was praised by contemporary reviewers for being genuine and truthful, and it was thought likely that it would enlist the interest of philanthropists and military authorities in the condition of army wives. In point of fact, the book is a lightly novelised version of the life of a woman named Ellen O’Neil. As indicated by Milne in the preface, “the substance of the following pages was taken down in notes from the lips of her whose name they bear” (iii). Although Milne admits to creating one fictitious character, and to taking some liberty with the facts to make the story more interesting, he denies “perverting the truth” in order to amuse or create sympathy, and says all of the other characters have “genuine prototypes” (iii). Ellen’s husband was Private James O’Neil of the 36th Regiment of Foot, Regimental Number 190. He had enlisted with the regiment on 8 May 1816, and died of cholera at Charles Fort in Kinsale, Ireland on 9 July 1832. 3 Where internal evidence permits testing of Ellen’s memory, her factual recall and Milne’s fashioning of it are reliable: for example, the various postings of the 36th Foot that Ellen recalls, tally with official lists of the regiment’s deployments. She also accurately remembers to the minute the timing of an earthquake which occurred at 4 a.m., 29 December 1821 during the regiment’s time in Cephalonia (102). After James’s death and her return to Scotland, Ellen became a midwife. She subsequently remarried; her second husband, James Hutchinson, had served in the Black Watch. While Ellen’s tale is filtered through Milne’s somewhat patronising middle-class lens, the text offers a rare account of the life of a soldier’s wife, and when used with due care, affords historians valuable insights.
