Obituaries A-H

Ann Groat

25/04/1931-25/01/2024

Annabella McRae made her entrance into the world on 25th April 1931 to Annabella Flett McRae (known as Annie) and Colin McRae. She was born in Rose Neuk House, in the fishing village of Buckie, along with 12 brothers and sisters. Tragically, only three of these 12 siblings survived beyond the age of 12, sadly dying from illnesses which are curable now: TB, Whooping Cough and Scarlet Fever.

Ann had always wanted to be a nurse, and her father encouraged her on this path. When she left school, she was too young to commence nursing training, so she went to work in a hospital run by nuns in Lanark. When Ann arrived at the hospital, her Buckie accent was broad, and the nuns taught her how to speak ‘properly’. Ann trained both as a nurse and then as a midwife at Raigmore hospital in Inverness, before moving to Edinburgh to train as a district nurse.

Ann worked for the Queen’s Institute of Nursing until her retirement, and she was an excellent nurse – caring, practical and empathetic.

Ann met her husband John when Ann’s friend Elsie James was taking a photograph of her. As Elsie was setting the picture up, another District Nurse, John Groat (an acquaintance of Elsie’s) strolled past, and Elsie invited him into the photograph. Ann liked that John was intelligent and that he played music. Ann and John married on 16th July 1960 and were devoted to one another for 58 years.

John, who passed away on 26th of December 2018, was the last male nurse from the Queen’s Institute of Nursing to die, and in 2019 both Ann and John’s names were added to the celebration wall at Castle Terrace.

Ann was peaceful and comfortable when she passed away on 25th of January 2024, with Ainan, her daughter, by her side.