This is a short extract from my interview with former Buttercup message girl Euphemia Murray.

'Euphemia Murray started work as a Buttercup message girl, as a fourteen year old, in 1927. Her first job in the morning was to scrub the floors and tiles and clean the brass vents. “We had no hot water in the shop so we had to get it from Forrester’s bake house: it was nearly boiling!”

After she had completed these jobs, Euphemia then went out with the orders to “all the large fancy houses and hotels” and took baskets of goods - butter, margarine, eggs, tea and cartons of fresh cream - around the houses in Granton. All Buttercup orders were wrapped up in brown paper and tied up with string. Most of the deliveries were made on foot although sometimes she would get a lift from the Buttercup van drivers, Tommy Hamilton and Jimmy Fraser. Another mode of transport was the tram and if the conductress was in a good mood she might let her off with the two penny fare – it was spent on ice cream!'The Buttercup: The Remarkable Story of Andrew Ewing and the Buttercup Dairy Company