Nancie meets Reverend Donald Caskie

On the 5th November 1937 the fireworks from the Paris Exhibition woke little Mimi. The following week Nancie took her to see the exhibition. Her diary includes the comment, "Grande Bretagne very disappointing. Austria, Rumania, USSR and Germany, especially the last two, very impressive." Sounds a bit like The Eurovision Song Contest!
Nancie would take Mimi, on the bus to the Scots Kirk, in Rue Bayard, near Rue Jean Goujon. They got off the bus at the Pont d'Alma. "Mr Caskie", says Nancie,"stays at Rue Puccini." Not long after their first meeting Nancie dined with Donald Caskie (later to become famous as ' The Tartan Pimpernel' ) and another Scot, Allan Gourlay.
Donald Caskie was born on Islay where his Father was a crofter. He attended Bowmore School and Dunoon Grammar School before going on to Edinburgh University to study Arts and Divinity. His first job as a minister was at Gretna and from there he went to the Scots Kirk in Paris.
When the Germans arrived in Paris during the Second World War he went down to Marseilles in the south of France, where he helped British Servicemen to escape. He worked with Pat O' Leary RN who was later awarded the George Cross. When being interrogated by the enemy Caskie spoke in Gaelic which really confused them. He then went to Grenoble where he acted as Chaplain for the British POWs. He was nearly executed for his efforts to get civilians released but was put in a POW camp instead, having narrowly escaped a firing squad.
Returning to Paris after the war he was awarded the OBE for his work and he was also honoured by the French. Nancie kept in touch with him over the years, remembering the dinners and dances put on by the Caledonian Society in Paris in the pre-war years. Donald Caskie died in Greenock in 1983, having lived in Edinburgh after he retired. Before that he was Minister at Wemyss Bay, Skelmorlie,and Monkton, Ayrshire.
When Nancie eventually met Jack she hope that they would be married by Donald Caskie at the Scots Kirk in Paris but sadly Hitler scuppered her plans! The Scots Kirk was damaged during the war and all proceeds from " The Tartan Pimpernel", the book which he wrote about his life, were to go towards its rebuilding.