Andrew Kinna born 25-6-1903 in Moscow and died on 20-2-1958 in Camberwell
Doris May Herring born 29-5-1905 d 27-9-1996 married 11-8-1928

Andrew was born in Moscow in 1903. His father, John, was born in Blackcraig in Scotland and his mother, Rachel, was Russian [see Rabinowitz]. Rachel had spent some 2 years 'at school' in Edinburgh when she was about 20. John and Rachel were married in Revel in 1902 and some 12 months later Andrew was born. Soon after his birth his mother took him to live with his maternal grand mother in Kishinev the capital of what was then Bessarabia. Andrews father may have visited once in a while but his work kept him in Moscow. I don't know much about Andrew's early life, but once he attained school age he attended the local school number 8. The family were not poor for they had servants, or at least a cook and they lived in a six-roomed house that Rachel's father had built in the suburbs of Kishinev. The house stood in its own ground and there was probably adjacent land as well. My father told me a couple of stories of his childhood, like helping the cook to make the traditional Easter Cake, from walnut flour and eggs and he also talked about sitting on the fence and watching the trains. The family were very religious and had converted to Christianity when Rachel was in her teens, although her mother was only reluctantly baptised. In 1914 Rachel's eldest brother, Vladimir died age 60, followed by her sister Rebbecca and then her mother, who was then about 80.
There was nothing to keep them in Kishinev now and so Andrew and his mother moved to Reval where her brother, Vanya, was living. Andrew now 11 went to the Tallinna Reaalkool (Tallinn Secondary Science school) with his cousin Joseph [I think Joseph and his sister Vera were Vanya's children] and we have Andrew's physics notebook: some of the writing was extremely small almost unreadable with out a glass. It was about this time he started painting, and we have a couple of oil paintings from this time. He told me that Sundays brought a trip to the theatre or opera and the drive to the theatre was down the long straight road. He was very athletic, and in a letter from Joseph some years later, he asks if he, Andrew, still keeps fit. I can remember my father doing hand stands in the garden in the early 1940's. I assume that he learnt English, French and German at school, although Russian was his native language. Rachel obtained a passport in August 1915, but it was not until the end of 1918 That Rachel made the final decision to leave Russia for England, it seems to have been in her mind for some time but with the revolution and all the shortages her hand was forced and by December 1919 they had arrived in London

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