The first triplets born healthy in Aberdeen have celebrated their 70th birthday.
Anne, Heather and Margaret were born on October 16, 1951 to Allan and Jean Dalgarno in Aberdeen.
The sisters grew up in the city with their older brother Alan.
Throughout their lives, the triplets have remained exceptionally close despite distance keeping them apart on their 70th birthday.
They even married men with the same name – Leslie.
“We had a very happy childhood,” Anne recalled. “My mum and dad were wonderful and did wonderfully.
“It wasn’t easy for them bringing up triplets in those days. My dad was a fish market porter, so we weren’t a rich family so it was quite tricky but they did a grand job.
“If you’ve got children you can hand clothes and cots down, but they had to have everything at the same time for three, which would not have been easy.”
The triplets first went to Victoria Road Primary School, and then attended Abbotswell Primary School from the age of seven when they moved to Kincorth.
Anne and Margaret later went to Aberdeen Academy after their 11-plus, and Heather went to Kaimhill where her brother also attended.
Anne explained: “We did have a teacher at one point who didn’t understand why triplets weren’t all as clever as each other and Heather had a hard time. She was pleased to go to the same school as my brother.”
Marriage and moving away
Heather stayed around Aberdeen for most of her life and married her husband, Leslie Reith, when she was 19.
They now live in Blackburn and have two children and three grandchildren together.
Anne and Margaret are identical twins within the triplet set and have both moved away from home.
Their father was the youngest of 13 children – a number of his siblings emigrated to America and Canada. The Dalgarno triplets were enthralled by their relatives’ tales of abroad when they would visit.
When Margaret turned 18 she emigrated to Ontario in Canada, where she found work in the Motorola office.
Anne planned to complete her studies at the Dunfermline College of Physical Education and work as a PE teacher. She wanted to follow her sister to Canada after working for a few years.
But she became “extremely homesick” in Edinburgh and decided not to move to Canada. Anne met her husband Leslie Owen after she moved back to Aberdeen and the pair married when she was 30.
She and her husband first moved to Glasgow for work where they had two children. They then moved to Clevedon in North Somerset, and have two grandchildren.
Margaret came back to Aberdeen to be Anne’s bridesmaid, and a couple months after returning to Canada she met her own Leslie – Leslie Taylor.
Anne laughed: “She said she started going out with a chap and when she said his name we thought ‘Well that’s it, he has to be the one.’ and he has been.
“I’ve played golf with them in the past and it’s like ‘I’ve found your ball Les, no not you Les, that Les’.
“It’s very, very strange. I’m not sure there are many triplets who have done that.”
Birthday celebrations
The sisters last celebrated their birthday all together in Aberdeen when they turned 60.
Margaret would come back to the UK from Canada most years and either go to Aberdeen or Clevedon.
This year, the triplets spoke together on their 70th birthday before going out for meals later on.
Anne said: “I’d hoped to try and get together for this one, but because of Covid and everything I haven’t visited my sister in Canada for a couple of years.
“When we got the opportunity to go in September when the restrictions were lifted for Canada, my husband and I decided to go then because Margaret hasn’t got the best of health.”
Anne also hasn’t managed to visit Heather and their brother Alan in Aberdeen since before the pandemic.
Although she doesn’t have any plans to travel north this year she is hopeful to return home next year.
She said: “I still love Aberdeen and speak about it being home, it doesn’t matter how long you’re away from somewhere, it’s still your home if you’ve grown up there.”