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Ann Swan was born in Ayton where her father was the bank manager and her mother a piano teacher. Having excelled in both sport and studies at school she went on to train in nursing, orthopaedics and physiotherapy before becoming involved with ground breaking work treating war wounded amputees with prosthetics. After the war she returned to the Borders to treat children with flat feet or hen toes which must have been rather a change from treating desperately wounded men.
Ann married Willie Swan in 1947. They made a wonderful partnership and had four sons together, including Richard who is currently Joint Master of the Berwickshire Hunt. Indeed Willie hunted and eventually became Chairman of the Hunt from 1971 to 1987. Ann was a great support to her sons and although bringing up four boys was undoubtedly a big enough task in itself she was enormously committed to the community both in support of Willie, who was Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire, and on her own behalf. She had a deep enjoyment of, and interest in, people and a care for their difficulties and problems. She made everyone she met feel welcome and her care for others shone through.
Ann was a wonderful cook and her cricket teas at Manderston were legendary. She fed large numbers daily at Blackhouse and she and Willie held regular dinner parties (her social skills were supreme) for their extensive circle of friends. Music was also one of Ann’s passions. She was an accomplished pianist and after Willie died she became the regular Church organist at both Bonkyl and Edrom.
Ann was not quite perfect as (despite having a very sharp mind and a quick wit) her writing was terrible – sometimes nearly illegible - and her driving a little too “pacey” for her later years. Once when stopped for speeding she told the policeman who asked her age that she was “old enough to be his mother” and needed little encouragement from her granddaughters to drive as fast as possible over bumps so that the car would take off.
In her later years Ann suffered from Dementia/Alzheimer’s but continued to live on in the farmhouse until almost the end of her full life.
She will be remembered with much love and affection by all those who knew her.
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