English: Girvan, in Carrick, South Ayrshire, was originally a fishing port and in 1668, it became a municipal burgh incorporated by charter. The opening of the railways, initially with the Maybole and Girvan Railway at the end of the 1850s, encouraged the development of Girvan as a seaside resort. Beneath rolling hills to the East of the town Girvan’s long beach provides great views towards the islands of Ailsa Craig and Arran as well as, on a clear day, The Mull of Kintyre and Northern Ireland. Bynehill Cemetery lies to the South of Girvan, just off of the A714 leading to Pinwherry (Colmonell), Barhill and Newton Stewart.
Helen Millar Nelson (known as "Ella" to her friends and who rose to the position of Cabinet Minister’s secretary in the Westminster Government before marrying Andrzej ST Grodyński, fighter pilot during World War II, author of ‘The Grodyński Brigade’, and grandson of dr Andrzej Kusionowicz Grodyński) was born in Girvan on 21 January 1922 and was the only daughter of Joanna "Mary" Henry (1879-1946) and Alexander Millar Nelson (born in Girvan on 2 January 1885 and passed away in Irvine on 20 January 1972) who married on 21 July 1915. Ella had two older brothers, Alexander “Henry” (1916-1983) and Hugh Arthur (1919-2002) who married Mary Jane Green (1922-1989) and two sons with Andrzej, Stanisław Andrzej Aleksander and Ryszard Wacław Henryk. [Alex Nelson was a stonemason, like his father (Alexander Marland Nelson 1858-1932, married in 1883 to Helen Millar 1858-1927), who worked on the distinctive Old Street Churchyard Cemetery archway as well as nearby buildings and cemetery memorials.]
The Scotch Mist Gallery contains photographs of historic buildings, monuments, memorials and people.