Maggie McIver, also known as "The Barras Queen", was born Margaret Russell in Bridgeton, Glasgow, on 9 May 1879. Her father, Alexander Russell, was a policeman and her mother, Margaret Hutcheson, was a French polisher. Before opening her own fruit shop, Maggie worked as a French polisher just like her mother. She met her husband James McIver at the fruit market and they set up their own business hiring out horses and carts to local hawkers.
