You published a photograph in your issue of July 19 of Rodger’s tearoom with a request for information. My great-grandmother was Isabella (Bella) Rodger, the widow of Robert Rodger. She moved to Fort William from Glasgow around 1900. Bella was a housekeeper at that time in Fort William. Her family of three sons and a daughter made Fort William their home and they lived in Gordon Square. Before Isabella returned to Glasgow, she was the tenant of this restaurant in High Street. She returned to Glasgow and died in Dumbarton in 1931.
Robert was the eldest son and worked as plumber for Robert Harper in the High Street. Robert’s son, also Robert, married Joan MacLean, who came from Patna in Ayrshire. Joan went on to become the cook at the Observatory Hotel, sometimes known as the Temperance Hotel, on the summit of Ben Nevis. The recent photograph in your newspaper shows Robert and Joan standing outside the restaurant in High Street. Robert and Joan had one child, a daughter named Elizabeth Mary, who went on to marry Charlie Duncan, and was known locally as Bessie Rodger or Bessie Duncan. William was the second son, and at the time of his marriage in 1915 to Jane Walker Haddow, he was a licensed grocer in High Street. At one stage he was the tenant of premises in West End Terrace and Ben Nevis Terrace. William and his wife lived in Linnhe Road and he died in 1933.
They had three sons: Robert, James (Jim) and William (Bill), who died at sea during the second World War. They also had five daughters: Helen (Nellie), Isabella (Bella), Jessie, Jean and Annie. Of these, Jean Baylift (nee Rodger) still lives in Caol. Annie Clarkson (nee Rodger) lives in Victoria, Australia. The other daughters Helen, Jessie and Isabella are now deceased.