James Matthew Barrie, playwright and novelist, was one of the most successful and prominent literary figures in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain.
Born in Kirriemuir, Angus on 09 May 1860, he was the ninth child and youngest son of David Barrie, a weaver, and his wife Margaret Ogilvy, the daughter of a stone mason. In his early youth, the large family occupied the two upper rooms of a small house in Brechin Road while the rooms below housed David Barrie's hand loom and materials.
A highly imaginative and sensitive boy, Barrie was deeply attached to his mother. The great tragedy of his boyhood occurred at the age of six when his thirteen-year-old brother David, his mother's favourite child, was killed in a skating accident. Margaret Barrie withdrew into herself and would never fully recover from the shock of David's sudden death. Years later, Barrie's poignant tribute to his mother Margaret Ogilvy (1896) would recall this terrible time and his youthful efforts to console his grieving mother by desperately trying to take his dead brother's place in her heart, imitating his whistle and dressing in his clothes. This would be the first role that Barrie was conscious of playing. Storytelling and literature were bonds between mother and son: Margaret loved to tell stories of her childhood in old Kirriemuir and they would read the works of Walter Scott together.