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Helen Mitchell: The housekeeper who became a 1920s radio star

Ruth Whittaker Helen MitchellRuth Whittaker
Helen Mitchell loved writing and won a competition with the BBC in its early years in Scotland

As the BBC celebrates 100 years in Scotland it has special significance for Leah Stalker.

Her great-grandmother, Helen Mitchell, was something of a sensation in the years shortly after that first broadcast from Glasgow on 6 March 1923.

The pioneer of the airwaves, born near Wigtown in Galloway, took an unusual route into the world of radio.

Having worked as a housekeeper, she entered a competition run by the BBC in the early 1920s and won it.

Leah Stalker Leah StalkerLeah Stalker
Leah Stalker said she would have loved to have met her great-grandmother

"They basically had this writing competition," said Leah, from Dalmarnock.

"She'd always enjoyed writing as a young person and was just encouraged - go ahead, put some of your writing in.

"She duly did and and she won the competition."

Born Helen Reid in the rural south-west of Scotland, which was the inspiration for her work, her tales quickly found an audience.

"She was writing stories that were based on her childhood but sometimes there would be fiction as well," said Leah.

"They basically broadcast this first thing and it really seemed to go down the storm, so they gave her her own series.

"It was based on this fictional character called Granny Ferguson."

Ruth Whittaker Granny FergusonRuth Whittaker
Helen Mitchell wrote and starred in the Granny Ferguson series

Although her great-grandmother spoke in standard English, Leah says the radio programme was written "more in the vernacular".

The family still has some of the fan mail that was sent to the BBC by listeners.

"They weren't even in Queen Margaret Drive at that stage, they were still in Blythswood," said Leah.

"They would write into her and she would get all these fan letters."

As well as the Granny Ferguson series, she also did some presenting which resulted in a big surprise for her son - Stanley Mitchell - many years later.

Ruth Whittaker Fan mailRuth Whittaker
The show - based on Helen Mitchell's Galloway childhood - generated fan letters for its star

"The family story was my grandpa - my mum's dad - was out during the Second World War in Egypt obviously miles and miles and miles from home," said Leah.

"Out in the desert, he walked past an officers' tent - they didn't have a radio, but the officers did - and the officers were tuned into the World Service.

"He just stops in his tracks - because he hears his mum's voice.

"He felt incredibly proud but also incredibly, incredibly homesick because you couldn't be further away from home than when you're out in Egypt in the Second World War."

Ruth Whittaker Newspaper cuttingRuth Whittaker
Newspaper reports told of how the sound of Granny Ferguson's voice was welcomed by Scottish soldiers overseas

Newspaper reports from the time told of how the "homely Glasgow housewife" was "bringing a lump to the throat of many a Scots soldier serving overseas".

"She seems to have been a bit of a kind of Scottish sweetheart," said Leah.

The family still has books full of the scripts of the show but they would love to hear of any recordings that survive from the time.

Leah never knew her great-grandmother but said the tale of the Galloway "granny" who became an early radio star was one she was very proud of.

Ruth Whittaker Promotional picturesRuth Whittaker
Helen Mitchell was a radio "trailblazer" with her popular show in the 1920s

"I don't know when she finished up with the Beeb but I am quite tickled by it as a story," she said.

"I'm not sure how many other women presenters and writers BBC Scotland had at the time but I reckon my great-granny must have been one of the first.

"I would have loved to have met her as she sounds like a trailblazer."