Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Woman travels 12,000 miles to donate towards restoration of historic Aberdeen building where parents were married

Susan Innes with Adam Simpson.

Picture by KENNY ELRICK
Susan Innes with Adam Simpson. Picture by KENNY ELRICK

A woman has made a poignant 12,000-mile journey to donate money towards the repair of the historic building where her parents were married.

Susan Innes travelled from New Zealand to Aberdeen to make the touching pledge.

Her parents, Robert and Isobel Innes, tied the knot in Westburn House in July 1954.

In the decades after emigrating, the pair kept up with what was going on in the north-east via Press and Journal cuttings sent overseas.

Mr Innes died in 2012, but Mrs Innes maintained the interest.

She was recently dismayed to see that the venue which holds such a special place in her heart has fallen into ruin.

The former caterer is now unable to travel, but resolved to do her bit towards the campaign to return it to its former glory.

Her daughter instead made the trip and handed over £200 towards the restoration project, which is being carried out by the Save Westburn House Action Group.

Ms Innes also handed over a handwritten letter from her mother.

She said: “When my mum saw the recent article she was really angry that something that means so much could be left to rack and ruin.

“She was talking about all of the good times they had as kids being in the area, and how much that place meant to them.”

The family moved to New Zealand in 1966 when Ms Innes was three months old, because of a lack of work in the city.

Mr Innes had worked at Cornhill and moved into a job in mental health while Mrs Innes continued to work in catering.

Ms Innes works in airport security and has “always been proud to be Scottish”, with Aberdeen being “her second home”.

For 50 years, her father’s sister – Auntie Isobel – has been posting clippings of the P&J overseas.

After reading about the decline of the historic A-listed site, and attempts to restore it, Ms Innes and her mother went through her wedding album reminiscing about the reception there.

Ms Innes said: “Mum wrote the card and the letter so that they knew that somebody 12,000 miles away cared about their project.”

The letter described the “perfect” and “sunny” day at Westburn Park when the pair were wed.

The family hope that Westburn House will one day host more wedding receptions.

Vice chairman of the action group, Adam Simpson, said: “The donation is absolutely amazing, this is what its all about, capturing peoples memories of when they were young.

“This is why it should be saved.”

Ms Innes added: “The story of what happened, and getting to tell mum about it – it is going to be recited I don’t know how many times.”