Annie Grant nee Hardy (1859-1948) ran the hotel by herself after her husband George (1859-1907) died at age 49. George, like his wife, was from Cumberland and took over the hotel from Adam Watt in 1895.
George had previously run the Globe Hotel in Longtown, Cumberland, 11 miles south of Langholm, and before that had been an auctioneer and bookseller in Carlisle.
Both their sons, Hardy (Annie’s maiden name) and John, joined 1st/5th KOSB and fought in the Dardanelles. Hardy (1893-1915), or sometimes ‘Hardie’, was shot by a sniper in 1915 (see 24th August in the Diary) and is buried in Redoubt Cemetery, Helles, Turkey. He was a property painter who undertook his apprenticeship under town councillor John Goodfellow, and had been living just over the Scotland-England border in Arthuret.
John (1894-?) was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for ‘remarkable initiative and gallantry’ at the Battle of Soissons, France, on 28 July 1918. He was also awarded the Langholm Burgh Medal in 1919 and is shown below after the ceremony (third person to the right of the uniformed Earl of Dalkeith).
After the war, John was a chemist in Glasgow and emigrated to New South Wales, Australia. in 1948, a few weeks before his mother died.