Anderson, Euphemia Cargill, 1848-1916
Dates
- Existence: 1848 - 1916
Biography
Euphemia Cargill Anderson was the younger daughter of Charles William Anderson and his second wife, Anne Urquhart, and was born in 16 Gayfield Square, Edinburgh. After early schooling in Edinburgh, Euphemia and her sister Jane went to a boarding school at Kinnoul, near Perth, run by a Miss Scott, who was an old friend of their mother's.
In 1870, Euphemia travelled to the Continent with her brother Charles. They spent six months in Italy, greatly enjoying Florence and sightseeing avidly. They learned Italian; Charles studied piano and composed a sonata; and Euphemia took singing lessons. While in Florence, they called at the Villa Trollope, the home of Mr Thomas Adolphus Trollope, who was a brother of Anthony Trollope, the novelist. Charles and Euphemia also met Signor Ferretti, founder of the Orphanage in Florence and of a Protestant Girls' School there, and he showed them over both of these establishments. Euphemia's father had supported the work of this man for many years.
This period abroad together strengthened the bond between Euphemia and her brother, and when Charles died of typhoid two years later in Stuttgart, Euphemia was so deeply affected that her very handwriting changed in form from that time on.
Back in Edinburgh once more, Euphemia attended conversaziones at the Royal Scottish Museum in connection with the British Association for the Advancement of Science. When the centenary of Sir Walter Scott's birth was commemorated in August 1871, she entered enthusiastically into the celebrations.
Her elder sister Jane was married two years later, and Euphemia continued at home, patiently caring for her mother over the next ten years till she died in 1881. Two years after her mother's death, Euphemia married William Graham, a banker. She was nearly thirty-five years old, the same age her mother, Anne Urquhart, had been when she married Charles Anderson.
Euphemia and her father were members of Bristo Baptist Church and after her marriage she continued to devote her time to religious meetings and quiet acts of Christian charity. As her family grew, the household expanded to ten or eleven, including four children, her old father (and then her parents-in-law after his death), and three maids.
On the 12th April 1916, Euphemia Cargill Graham died after a short bronchial illness and she was laid to rest in the Graham family grave in Morningside Cemetery, Edinburgh.