9781422277577

with the help of the eldest son, Hugh. The Flemings were not a poor family, but knowing that the farm could not support more than one of them, the rest of the family now had to earn their living away from home. Two of Alec’s older brothers, Tom and John, were already in London by the time he had finished at Kilmarnock. Originally intending to be a family doctor, Tom had decided to specialize in diseases of the eye, becoming an “oculist,” and John was learning to become an optician. Alec, now fourteen years old, traveled south to stay with them in 1897. He was followed to London six months later by Robert, his younger brother. For the next two years, Alec Fleming attended lectures at the Polytechnic School on Regent Street in London. At the end of this time, he found a job as a clerk in

Loudoun Hill, a few miles from the Fleming farm at Lochfield, was a popular climbing spot for active young men like Alexander. In the fourteenth century, it was the site of major battles against English forces during the Scottish War for Independence.

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