Name:                                                Anndra (Gaelic for Andrew) Campbell Smith

Year of birth:                                    1961

Country / (nearest) City:              Perth (Scotland)

Short description:                          Youngest of the Robert & Ruby siblings

Deceased (if applicable):

Partner:                                             Lynn Blackwood

Late partner:                                    Tania Campbell Smith (deceased 2013)
Children:                                           Gabriel Campbell Smith

Ex partner:                                       Kathleen Smith
Children:                                           Ismail (Ralph) Smith

Short story:

Grew up on the Outer Hebrides where life was very hard and we were poor and as children didn’t understand that as we were happy.

Moved to Dundee in the 70s. Worked for the small family business, Smiths Alarms which did very well. Dad (Robert) had a heart attack and I used to take days off school to work for the business, it wasn’t about profit in those days, it was about survival. So, as a youngster I learnt a trade very early.

Dad sold Smith Alarms and I moved south with my then girlfriend Kathleen. I started an electronics apprentice with a fantastic company, military electronics, Mullard Electrics Ltd, part of the Philips Group.

Long story short, moved back to Dundee which was pretty depressed in the 70s. I was working as a labourer on a building site and looking to get into the trade I was experienced in. Long story short, immigrated to South Africa and was in the security industry there for any years, taking me into the sales arena. Worked for several large corporations in ‘sales’, the last being aviation IT for the SwissAir group.

I was retrenched from my last corporate gig in 2000 and the then changing BEE in South Africa motivated me to start my own recording studio. We ended up specialising in multi-lingual productions, mainly for banks and insurance companies. We also did several signature tunes and several jingles flighted on SABC. If you look at my photos you will see music has always been my passion. I get that from dad, he played (first instrument) the trumpet and (second instrument) the piano. Dad wrote several songs and one in particular I have moments of recall. It was mums favourite but it was a love/hate thing, she loved the tune but at the same time it made her greet as it was a sad melody.

Tania, Gabriel and I immigrated to New Zealand in 2005 and never really settled there. I think the unsettling part was returning to Scotland in 2008 for a holiday where we met our granddaughter Layla (to Ralph & Mary) for the first time. That was a fantastic time as Ralph & Mary came up to Scotland for 10 days and we spent lots of time together. Mary has two sons to a previous marriage.

Mum was staying in sheltered (kind of care home) complex in Dundee and the staff were fantastic. Mum was her usual smiling self and always a joke / funny story to tell.

I have some very special videos of mum chatting about family memories that are on YouTube here …

Long story short, we decided to move back to Scotland and left NZ in 2009, we were travelling up through England when we got a phone call from Donald to say that mum had passed away.

In 2010 Tania was diagnosed with cancer. In 2012 Tania wanted to go home to South Africa which I miss every day, Gabriel still refers to as ‘home’, as they say ‘Africa gets in our blood’. Tania sadly passed away in 2013 and in late 2014 Gabriel and I returned to Scotland.

Have been with my new partner Lynn for 8,5 years and Lynn lived in South Africa for many years. Lynn’s father is an engineer and immigrated to Durban in the 70s.