NEWSLETTER OFSIB THE FAMILY FOLK HISTORY SOCIETY NEWSISSUE No 57 MARCH 2011

graphics John Sinclair 2 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No 57 March 2011

ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY NEWSLETTER Issue No 57 March 2011 CONTENTS FRONT COVER Spring From has Sprung the chair PAGE 2 From the Chair As the economic recession starts to impact on people’s lives, PAGE 3 there are likely to be many changes over this next year. In Tumbledown Orkney, the Council has been consulting with the Orkney 'UPPERTOWN' community under the banner of “Tough Times – Tough Choices”. When researching one’s family history you do not PAGES 4,5 & 6 have to go back that many years when the same could have Capt. John Robert Arthurson equally described the lives of our forbearers. In reality their predicament was probably 20 times worse than what we have to face. Our committee is now back to full strength and we welcome Morag Sinclair on to our PAGE 7 Orkney Picnic. committee. Membership continues to grow with the Society now with over 2,500 members Tumbledown since its inception. Correction The 2011 programme began in February with a talk by David Eaton on “Momento Mori” – (How we commemorate the Dead). His slide show highlighted various styles of gravestones and tombs; their inscriptions, symbolism and other aspects of how past PAGE 8 The 1911 Census generations have commemorated their ancestor’s lives and deaths. Our March programme again explores the web with an emphasis of “Emigration Records” PAGE 9 and other new sites. There continues to be expansion in the range of Website resources 'Life un the targeted at the family history market. Orkneys' and its Highlighting our programme in April, we will break from our normal programme cycle, responses when we head west to to host a “Family History Roadshow” concentrating on the neighbouring West Mainland parishes. This afternoon event will enable the public to PAGES 10 & 11 access and benefit from the growing resources held by the Society. One extra resource In search of Leoch will be the 1911 census, which will be launched in on 5th April 2011. This will where my be available from Scotlandspeople website immediately and later, will be available from Granny wed the Society once transcription of the data is complete. PAGES 12, 13 & May is our month for the AGM and the speaker after the AGM will be Steven Heddle 14 from the “Orkney Communities” website. For overseas members this site is well worth My Pioneer a look as it features many old Orkney photographs. Visitors to the site can contribute Mother names and comments about the people and/or events, well worthwhile for that added bit PAGE 15 of history. Old school photos are always popular. Mystery In June, our summer excursion, the “Annual Outing”, will be to the Island of . photographs Members are asked to sign-up by telephoning the OFHS Office. Details of all our programmed events can be found on our website and will be advertised in the local press PAGES 16 & 17 The wreck of the nearer the event date. Marion bound for Whilst members have previously responded to our SFN editor’s request for new articles South Australia you are reminded that this is an on-going process – a half-page article is all that is PAGE 18 needed. Other members can be enthused by reading about your family stories. If you are Emails & still looking for ancestors why not address your queries through the newsletter. Diary Dates I hope that 2011 will be a good year for your research.

PAGE 19 Alan Clouston Place Names

PAGE 20 & 21 Chairman Life on an Orkney Island

PAGES 22 & 23 P.S. Our editor has asked me to mention that contributions for our Crossing the June newsletter are required by the end of April— earlier would be even Pentland better. You can email them to him at:- [email protected] and you'll PAGE 24 make him a very happy man. Membership Issue No. 57 March 2011 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 3

This Tumbledown features the families occupying - UPPERTOWN, a small croft, which, along with over twenty small crofts, formed part of the Hobbister estate and lies in the eastern section of parish. It has not been occupied since the mid-20th century.

RESIDENTSThe OF final PARKHOUSE ‘Tumbledown’ / PARK tale COTTAGEfrom our Chairman, Alan Clouston, member 339 Residents of ‘Uppertown’ 1821 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901

Name age age age age age age age age

Robert Wilson (Head) farmer (b. Orphir) 40 65 75 - - - - - 16 Blk Cattle 3 sheep 20 Geese 2 Swine 1 Plough (wid) - - - - - Jane (wife) (nee Robertson) 40 60 - - - - Andrew (son) (b. Orphir) 15 ------Jane (dau.) (b Orphir) 10 ------Isabella (dau.) (b. Orphir) 19 ------Catherine (dau.) (b. Orphir) 5 25 ------Helen (dau.) um. (b. Orphir) 5 25 35 - - - - Robert (son) (b. Orphir) 5 20 ------Robert Flett - 8 ------David Flett - 4 ------James (son) um. (born Orphir) - - 30 - - - - - Mary Mowat (House Servant) (b. Orphir) - - 15 - - - - -

William Grant (Head) Crofter (B. Banffshire, - - - 40 - - - - Glass) (Uppertown is shown in Overtown census) Janet (Wife) (b. Aberdeenshire, Huntly) - - - 42 - - - - Janet (dau.) b. Aberdeenshire), (Aberdeen) - - - 15 - - - - Barbara (dau.) (b. Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen) - - - 13 - - - - Mary (dau.) (b. Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen) - - - 11 - - - - Jean (dau.) (b. Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen) - - - 7 - - - - William (son) ( b. Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen) - - - 4 - - - - Margaret Ann (dau.) (b. Orphir) - - - 1 - - - -

George Smith (Head) Farmer (b. Aberdeenshire, Meldrum) - - - - 57 70 81 - Margaret (Wife) (b. Aberdeenshire, Peterculter) - - - - 51 62 72 - Margaret (dau.) Formerly labourer (Aberdeenshire, Meldrum) - - - - 19 - - - William (son) Scholar (Aberdeenshire, Belhelvie) - - - - 12 - - - Agnes S (dau.) um. serv (Aberdeenshire, Foveran) - - - - - 26 36 - Margaret S Chrystal (Adopted dau. b. Orphir) - - - - - 4 14 - George I (grandson) (b. Orphir) ------5 -

Samuel Ross (Head) Shepherd (Walls, Orkney) ------38 Isabella (Wife) (b. , Orkney) ------36 Hugh (son) Scholar (walls Orkney) ------11 Andrew (son) Scholar (Walls, Orkney) ------10 Catherine Ann (dau.) Scholar (Walls, Orkney) ------9 Christina M (dau.) (Orphir, Ortkney) ------3

Many of the tenants appear to have come into the parish most likely to work at the main farm of Hobbister, traditionally being a sheep farm with a mix of reclaimed grassland and hill land. I started the Tumbledown series in the west and have finished it in the east featuring a range of properties in the parish. As this is my last Tumbledown, I hope you have enjoyed them and maybe you have discovered Orphir ancestors. I hope that in the not too distant future other members will continue with another Orkney parish. 4 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.57 March 2011

By Elizabeth Murray (nee Davidson) Member No 1395 If points for air or sea miles had been available during ing to . his lifetime, then Captain John (Jock) Robert Arthurson John decided he needed further qualifications so - en would have accumulated enough points during his sea- tered Marine School at South Shields and passed as faring days to circumnavigate the globe many times over! Second Mate (Foreign Going) in January 1939; he joined His logbook recording his voyages would have included the Antigone (Langdon Rees) as 3rd Mate the following several ports in many countries, taking in all four corners month. The Antigone first went across the Atlantic to of the globe. Baltimore for scrap iron destined for Japan; from there John Rob- it went to and from Ocean Island for phosphate for both ert ARTHUR- New Zealand and Australia. After 15 months away from SON was born home, John was able to pop home to see his parents for a 20 September flying visit at the end of August 1939 before WWII broke 1918 in Sydney, out and he was off to sea once more. Australia. He 1939 – 45. Service during WWII - 2nd Mate to Master was the son of John was just 21 years-old when war broke out. An- Robert Magnus chored off Freemantle, the crew were cleaning the holds ARTHURSON before taking on board a wheat cargo for Karachi when b 1876 in Shet- sadly, the 2nd Mate fell down a hatch and was killed; land and his John was moved up to that position in October 1939. Af- wife Jean DAV- ter discharge at Karachi, a cargo of cereal was loaded for IDSON b abt Liverpool; the ship called at Port Said, Malta and then 1885 on Papa Gibraltar where they joined their first convoy departing . Jean’s on 24th December. But the Antigone was unable to keep parents were up to speed at just 8 knots so they were left to make their John James own way to Liverpool arriving on 2 January 1940. Fur- DAVIDSON b ther Atlantic convoy trips were made until John was paid Vestness, Pa- off in Tilbury at the end of February 1941. pay in 1847 and After a further spell at Marine School where John ob- Janet Stevenson tained his First Mate Certificate, it was back to sea on SPENCE b 1844 the SNA10, an ex-French collier, for a short time before John Arthurson’s parents in Holm. joining another company ship, the Antar, on 9 August John’s father, Robert Magnus ARTHURSON, was in 1941. The next 18 months must have been terrifying for the Merchant Navy. Shortly after he married Jean DAV- the crew plying back and forth across the Atlantic at the IDSON the family emigrated to Australia, settling first in height of convoy attacks from enemy U-boats. In Haifa, South Australia and then in Sydney. John went to school John writes that two tankers were blown up and it was there and passed his Qualifying Certificate Examination quite frightening. While on Arctic Convoy duties their for Leichhardt Junior Technical College. ship was also involved in a collision with a Russian ice- 1938 – 1939. From Deck Boy to 2nd Mate breaker on Christmas Day. They put in to Bombay for re- Between 1933 and 1938 John served on various ships. pairs and loaded up with tea for the return voyage. His first vessel was the Aeon which he joined as a deck At Haifa on a later trip, the Master, Captain B M boy on 13 March 1933. He progressed to Ordinary Sea- Stephens, suffered a heart attack when returning from man and served on the Kowarra, the Lady Isobel and shore and was drowned. John was then promoted to First Abel Tasman. After that he continued on the Canberra, Mate in October 1942. The ship loaded potash for Middles- the Malaita and finally the Jervis Bay as AB before tak- borough and set off via Port Said and then to Cape Town ing his discharge in London on 18 June 1938. John then for stores and water before heading for Punta Arenas and took time out to visit Orkney and , his parents’ the Straits of Magellan and up the coast of South America birthplaces, before joining the Beacon Grange (Houlder to await the convoy. No convoy arrived so they went on to Bros, London) as AB from 8 August to 27 September 1938 New York on their own, anchoring in East River amongst voyaging to five ports in South America and then return- the swirling river ice which cleaned off their growth.A Issue No.57 March 2011 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 5

Fgrowth. After a week, they joined another convoy of 31 Leaving Sydney on 19 March for Honaira (Solomon Is- ships: one broke down early and they arrived in Man- lands), the Ruena got a taste of things to come, experi- chester having lost a further 14-16 ships. A terrible time, encing a following sea and a heavy swell. Although un- writes John. We saw Canada Star torpedoed abeam of us comfortable the crew were in no danger so Captain John with the wolf pack attacking for more than 4 days and continued north, passing Double Island Point at 4.00am nights. and still encountering heavy seas occasionally sweeping Paid off in 1943, John returned to South Shields and the decks. The crew was kept on the boat deck for safety obtained his Master’s Certificate (Foreign Going) and reasons; seas were smashing onto then joined the Appledore of Bideford as 1st Mate. Load- the main making it very danger- ed with coal, army stores and munitions, they sailed for ous. Syracuse in Sicily via Gibraltar, witnessing Italian ves- On 23 March a radio report sels on their way to surrender at Malta. stated that the cyclone was sev- eral hundred miles away so the Captain was confident they would still make port in time; however, the weather worsened and phenomenal seas, as Jock described them, hit the star- board aft. A damage survey re- vealed that cargo was lost, the bulkheads had been stove in and there was 2 feet of water in the engine room. Temporary re- The Empire Swordsman –See note at end of article pairs were made and a decision By May 1944 John had joined the Empire Swordsman, taken to put about and head a new ship built at Hamilton’s Shipyard in Glasgow. south. The weather deterio- Anchored off Southend, they were then called upon to rated further; heavy rain and make several trips to and from the Normandy Beaches big seas called for seamanship to back-load tanks for repair. Once Antwerp was cleared, of the highest order. The crew the Empire Swordsman went between Tilbury and Ant- by this time were all cold, wet werp until March 1945 when the ship was then outfitted and hungry, the galley having in Glasgow for normal operations. been smashed by the storm. World War II As day turned to evening and ended while John the Ruena steered towards was en-passage to Double Island Point, the Canada; during this storm increased in violence trip he encountered and anchors dragged. After Sydney Morning Herald 23 March 1948 3 German U-boats some hours during which a lifeboat and raft flying large black were lost and further damage to the ship occurred, the of surrender. Captain decided his only option was to beach his vessel. After further voy- Having been in contact with Brisbane Radio through- ages with stores for out this ordeal, the Double Is- Tromso in U Boat flying black surrender land lighthouse-keepers had during which John went to the spot where the Tirpitz been alerted, and in the early had sunk, he returned to Leith only to hear of the sad hours of 24 March in visibility news of his father’s death. John’s application for repa- reduced to a mere 100 yards triation was granted and he sailed from Glasgow on the in heavy rain and squalls, the Empire Grace (Shaw Savill) on 4 August 1945. Amongst ship came aground but far the passengers were 92 war brides and 6 RANVR Lieu- enough out that the crew had tenants. Thus John arrived back in Australia on 18 Sep- to swim for the shore. In keep- tember 1945 after 6 long years at sea. ing with the best of maritime 1945 - 1948 Battered by a Cyclone traditions, Captain Arthurson On his return to Australia, John took on various posts was the last to leave the ship but his most memorable voyage – and probably most and he joined his crew who had frightening – must have been that on the Ruena. This all made it safely to the beach. 105-ton ship was owned by the Fairymead Sugar Com- Double Island Lighthouse Everyone was then royally treated pany based in Bundaberg, Queensland and had a crew and cared for by the lighthouse-keepers and their wives; of 3 Australian officers and 9 Solomon Islanders and food, drink and warm clothing restored their faith in hu- hands; John was the Master. The vessel was used mainly manity. for general cargo and collecting copra at various islands Captain Arthurson reported that the vessel was even- and returning each time to Sydney. tually refloated and he took it to Brisbane for repairs,A 6 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.57 March 2011

Fcompletely exonerated from any blame. In fact, Cap- 1978 from the position of Assistant Harbour Master, tain Arthurson displayed the finest seamanship in un- Sydney and Botany Bay. believably difficult conditions; he paid a glowing tribute to his officers and crew who carried out their duties with PS: The Empire Swordsman was bought by the courage and resourcefulness. Ben Line in 1951 and was renamed the Ben Loyal. NB: A longer and more detailed account of the epic It is also believed that there was a second Ben Loy- journey in March 1948 was written for a Queensland al in 1959. My father, John Davidson (1913-1961), newspaper. a cousin of Jock Arthurson, was a ship’s carpenter 1948 – 1978. Calmer seas towards Retirement with the Ben Line and sailed on many of their boats. Back in Sydney after experiencing the most If memory serves me correctly, he did a period on the frightening ordeal at sea, Captain Arthurson joined Ben Loyal – but which one? That will be research for the Maritime Services Board as relief pilot PS Cap- another day but it was an interesting coincidence. tain Cook. But perhaps a more important ‘joining’ was that in marriage to his wife, Bonnie ELVY in Author’s Note: Captain Jock Arthurson became November 1948. For the next 30 years, Captain a Member of the League of Ancient Mariners in Arthurson worked on various Pilot Boats around 1955 and much of this account is taken from verbal Sydney, an increasingly busy maritime area. He memories Jock told to the League for publication in was also appointed Traffic Officer and later Ship- their journal. Extracts are apparently also available ping Inspector during this period and he retired in on the Australian Merchant Navy website. Addi- tional information was supplied by his wife, Bonnie, who still lives in Sydney. Jock died on 25 August 2006 after a short spell in a residential care home. Elizabeth Murray, Vestlaybanks, , Orkney. KW17 2SX email: The Arthurson sons and daughters with thier mother. L to R they are Jim, their liz.vestlaybanks@ mother Jane Davidson from , John, Janet who called herself Pat, btinternet.com Laurie and Ann. The Photo was taken in 1948, probably at John’s wedding. Logo of the Maritime Services Board of NSW Everything you ever wanted to know about School Tankerness School 1876 - 1969 Thousands of A collection of interesting data for a school reunion in 2008 was the foundation for this hours of research new book by Kathleen Keldie which follows a rural school, its pupils and teachers. To packed into 240 fasci- make something worthwhile the author carried on her research, amassed some 200 nating pages photographs and 240 pages later she thought that she had enough to be of interest to a wide selection of readers. The feedback to date has been enthusiastic, not only from former pupils, but also from people researching family history, and readers, quite unconnected to the school, who just enjoy a funny story. The school photographs and register themselves provide a social history with surnames and place names that have now disappeared, and even the change in dress over the years is well documented. “A good read” is how it has been described. A book to pick up and set down time and time again and always another snippet of interest to be found. It is on sale at the Orcadian Bookshop, William Shearers and the Stores at £20. Or you can obtain it direct from the author Kathleen Keldie, Northak, Tankerness, Orkney KW17 2QS for £23.50 which includes post and packing. All proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to the Teenage Cancer Trust. Maybe budding writers in other parishes will pick up on the merit of this book and document more of the small rural schools, now closed, before the fade from memory. Issue No.57 March 2011 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 7

An Orkney Picnic 1933 Not in Orkney, however, but in Canada. Shirley Finn sent this one. She has identified Margaret Halcro (Grroundwater) Hunt who was the daughter of James Wishart Groundwater and Mary Gunn. Margaret was

born in Orphir in 1881 and came to Canada in 1905 The family story goes that she took the train from Mon- treal to Winnipeg where she was to meet her brother who had emigrated to Canada the year before. When he failed to arrive she went to the church where the minister and his wife found her a place to stay and a job. During this time she met Frederick Garnet Hunt and they married in 1907. Two children were born in Winnipeg, Mary and Garnet. They moved to Calgary The Scapa Belles from our some time before 1916 where my mother Ethel was last issue rang a bell with born. Margaret died Oct 7th 1979. Marion Cursiter Margaret had a younger brother, William Groundwater, From the left: Hannah Johnston (Mrs ), Jean who moved from Orphir to Shetland and in 1904 he Scollay (Mrs Campbell in Stromness), Elma Thomson married Laurina Steven. William died in 1933 and is (Mrs Gourlay), Ada Gunn, Meta Anderson, sister of Lot- buried in Orphir. tie Anderson who married Harry Carr Perhaps some of our members are familiar with this photograph and can add a little more information.

Correction to ‘Tumbledown’ - Kirbister Mill Some members noticed a discrepancy in the data regarding David Balfour Frisken arising from a transcription error mixing up the detail for the sons - David B and William. The following section is the corrected entry Residents of Kirbister ‘Millhouse’ 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 Cott of David B (son) (b. Orphir) - 8 18 Roadside - -

34 Mill 44 Mill William (son) (b. Orphir) - 4 15 24 Cottage Cottage

In a recently published ‘The New Orkney Antiquarian Journal’, Sheila Garson from , in an article about ‘The Squaring of Shapinsay’, describes David Balfour’s inheritance of the Balfour Estate in 1846. David has been given control of the home farm of ‘Sound’ prior to his father’s death and by 1843 had implemented the first improvements, draining the land under the supervision of an experienced manager, George Frisken, from mainland Scotland. It is this George who came from Kirbister. You will also note who David Balfour Frisken was named after. Apologies for the error - Alan G Clouston. 8 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.57 March 2011

Family history aficionados will be agog on April 5th for on that day the millions of personal records Attention all Members gathered from Scots in 1911 will Yes! All 2500+ of you—we really be published. need all of you to support your newsletter In that year the details of 4.7 with articles, photographs enquiries, com- million Scots were gathered and as 100 years have now passed, ments etc. the Registrar General for Scotland March was a struggle because of the is now able to authorise their scarcity of material so I am hoping that, release. with your support, future editions will be This information will include the easier. name, address, occupation, birthplace and marital status Help keep your magazine up there with of everyone counted in the 1911 census, as well as details the best of them. about their children. And, moving with the times, for the first You can email your material straight to time ever all this data will be presented in glorious colour. me at [email protected] On a more poignant note; 1911 was the last census carried out before the first world war and it contains the names of the many Scots who died in the service of their country in It applies to everyone in the 1914-1918 conflict. the House broken down by The release of this material will take place just nine days Age and sex! after the Scots take part in the 2011 census on March 27. Duncan Macniven, Registrar General for Scotland, said: ‘This Spring sees the release of the 1911 census data and the taking of the 2011 census. Interest in genealogy is fast- growing and ancestral tourism is important to the Scottish economy. So it is wonderful to know that our carefully preserved records, kept confidential for over 100 years, will make it easier for people to trace their family history and get an insight into how their ancestors lived in 1911.’

Invasive. Intrusive. Unsuitable. That describe your national identity? English, was how the Conservatives described Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, British or the 2011 census plans when they were ‘other’. The section on ethnic groups will in opposition. now include categories for ‘Gypsy or Irish So how has this changed since the Traveller’ and ‘Arab’. Coalition took over from Labour? The government also want to know how According to the director of the well you speak English or not. and Wales census , Glen Watson, ‘They Are these questions necessary? When remain unchanged.’ asked, Ms Smith said: ‘The questions The forthcoming census has already have been devised to produce reliable been labeled a ‘kiss and tell’ record or and accurate data.’ She added; ‘The ‘snoopers charter’. Certainly if your love Office for National Statistics has carried life is not ‘kosher’ make sure that you are out extensive consultations and testing not sleeping with the wrong person in the over a number of years to ensure that the wrong place on 27th March 2011 or you questions are justified, both in terms of will be causing great merriment in Sib the need for the information and public News one hundred years from now. acceptability.’ What is all the fuss about? How much will all this cost? The figure of £460 million has Well it started when Labour Cabinet Office minister Angela not been disputed but is it worth it? Smith revealed ‘major changes’ in the questions people will be Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude believes the process required to answer in the 2011 census. is inefficient and its results quickly become out of date. He On the 27th March everyone resident in the UK on that day will is on record as saying that he believes that there are ways be obliged to answer these questions or risk a £1000 fine. of doing the same job which will provide better, quicker Questions, running to some 32 pages, will include the number information, more frequently and cheaper. of bedrooms and type of heating you have in your home; It is thought that, in future, data could be gathered from cars or vans in the household; how the various members records held by the Post Office, local government and credit of the household are related to each other. Everyone will checking agencies. be asked about their religious denomination and their legal How this would affect the many thousands of genealogists marital or same sex partnership. A question will ask you to in the country remains to be seen. Ed. Issue No.57 March 2011 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 9

From time to time I have been asked about the famous, or in- famous, ‘Life in the Orkneys’ , better known as ‘Bloody Orkney’. It was written by Captain Hamish Blair, R.N. It first appeared in 1942 in the ‘Orkney Blast’ a combined services newspaper. It was quickly followed by an anonymous response known as the ‘Kirkwallian’s Lament’. I have often wondered if this was, in fact, written by Major Eric Linklater, the famous Orcadian writer, who was at that time editor of the ‘Orkney Blast’. For everyone who has asked me about ‘Bloody Orkney’ in- cluding our Minnesota Orkneyphile member, Patricia Mack, here is ‘Bloody Orkney’ and the responses it provoked. Hell’s Kirkwallian’s Bells anon Life in the Orkneys By Captain Hamish Blair Lament anon The bloody sassenachs have come, With bugle call and tuck o’ drum,

This bloody war’s a bloody cuss With smell of beer and Army rum, This bloody town’s a bloody cuss, For what its brought to bloody us, The cheeky sods! No bloody trains, no bloody bus, Such bloody trouble, bloody fuss, What right have they to criticise, And no one cares for bloody us, Oh bloody, bloody! Who blow their trumpets to the Oh bloody Orkney! skies, The Navy takes the bloody bun, But all our folk and homes despise The bloody roads are bloody bad, With gold braid by the bloody ton, The bloody clods! The bloody folk are bloody mad, This bloody town they try to run They’d make the brightest body Oh bloody, bloody! We love the winds, we like the

sad, rains, Oh bloody Orkney! They comandeer each bloody hall, We DO have kerbs, we do have And at their bloody beck and call, drains, All bloody clouds, all bloody rain, The want us, one and bloody all, We have no trams or railway No bloody kerbs, no bloody Oh bloody, bloody! trains, drains— But ships and luggers, The Council’s got no bloody Strutting around like bloody hens Oh could we hear the farewell brains, Supercilious bloody Wrens knell,

Oh bloody Orkney! Can scarcely push their bloody pens, Of old St Magnus Church’s bell,

Oh bloody, bloody! To send them all to bloody hell, Everything’s so bloody dear, The cocky buggars! A bloody bob for bloody beer, Our soldiers, so called bloody gay, And is it good?—no bloody fear! With two and bloody six a day, Oh bloody Orkney! Their bloody looks keep Huns away Oh bloody, bloody! The bloody flics are bloody old, The bloody seats are always sold, Brass hats by the bloody score, You can’t get in for bloody gold, Drink their pay and shout for more, Oh bloody Orkney! No wonder poor Tommy’s sore Oh bloody, bloody! The bloody dances make you smile, Immaculate bloody Glamour Boys The bloody band is bloody vile, In Smoky Blue, like bloody toys, It only cramps your bloody style, Parade with studied bloody poise, The following is the reply of an Orcadian Oh bloody Orkney! Oh bloody, bloody! typist to a serviceman who asked her to

No bloody sport, no bloody games, type ‘Life in the Orkneys” for him Despite all benefits bestowed, No bloody fun with bloody dames, Those bloody forces write an ode, Returned herewith your bloody Won’t even give their proper To ridicule our beloved abode, rot, names, Oh bloody, bloody! Oh bloody Orkney! And what a bloody nerve you’ve got. Wish this bloody war was o’er, Get a bloody Southerener to type Best bloody place is bloody bed, We’ll hound them from our bloody Your bloody, bloody awful tripe, With bloody ice on bloody head, shore, Remember I’m Orcadian, buddy, You might as well be bloody dead, And live in peace for evermore, And proud of it too. Oh bloody Orkney! Oh bloody, bloody Oh bloody, bloody! 10 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.57 March 2011

By Alan G Clouston, Member 339

My granny, “Granny Clouston o’ Smoogro” lived at there. In 1881 Jane was living in Shapinsay aged 17 as a “Lower Valley” in Orphir. Christened Jane WORK, she servant to Thomas Swannie at West Lairo No.1. was born on 24 May 1863 on the island of Shapinsay. She I was aware that her marriage to Thomas CLOUSTON lived to the great age of 93 dying on 17 May 1956. Her on 21 Jun 1888 had taken place at Auchterhouse, Dundee. parents were William WORK (b.25 Aug 1836) and Mary But where was Auchterhouse? In 2004, whilst driving on MORWICK (b.5 Jun 1834). William was the fifth child of the new dual carriageway from Aberdeen to Dundee here ten children of James WORK (b.20 Oct 1805) from Shap- was a signpost for a right turn to “Auchterhouse”. A visit insay and Helen IRVINE (b. abt 1805) from Fair Isle. had to be made; narrow winding roads led us past the Jane was married to Thomas Clouston, my dad’s father. small church before arriving at the main mansion house Like many researches, finding siblings and generations and farm of Auchterhouse. Was this where they were can be relatively straight-forward but does not provide married? Time constraint limited our research, however real information on their lives and what they did in their we now knew where Auchterhouse was. younger years. Finding memorabilia gives you material It was only when I obtained a copy of her actual mar- that helps to build the story of your family’s history. riage certificate did I discover where the marriage took In the 1871 Shapinsay census, I found that Jane, place. This explained in greater detail that Thomas had aged 7 years was living with her grandparents James married Jane in 1888 at the farm of Leoch, near Auchter- and Helen. Her brother Wil- house near Dundee. Jane was working there as a Cook liam, aged 6 years and an aunt, (domestic servant). Thomas was a farm servant at North Margaret, aged 27 were also Lorston in Nigg. Her marriage certificate gave her age as 24 and Thomas 31. The minister was Rev. William Mason Inglis, the minister of Auchterhouse. Both her parents were shown as deceased. Her father William had been a fisherman. Maggie Work and William Clouston were the witnesses. Was the “Maggie” Work, William’s aunt from the 1871 census record? Thomas had an older brother called William. The next step was to go “In search of Leoch”. Last October, we went in search of Jane’s place of marriage. We needed answers. How did she come to be in Auchterhouse? Was Auchterhouse in the area formerly known as Forfarshire, now Angus? On a planned shopping day in Dundee I opted out and went to visit Dundee Archives to check the valuation rolls for 1888 for the Auchterhouse area. Would there be any clues as to why she was in Forfarshire? Here was a William Work engaged as a cattleman at the farm of Leoch, near Auchterhouse employed by James Gibson, the tenant farmer, on the estate owned by a William Whitson. Was this Jane’s brother William? It was here that Jane was married in the farmhouse of Leoch where she was engaged as a cook and domestic servant. On her marriage certificate her parents were both recorded as deceased. Was this why she and her brother had been living in 1871 with their grandparents? After a quick call past the Tay Valley Family History Society to purchase two of their small booklets on the history of Auchterhouse, Granny and Grandad Clouston we were on our way in search of Leoch. Thanks to A Issue No.57 March 2011 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 11

F satellite navigation Leoch was only a short journey would have used. I had not away. expected this. He then took us to the opposite end of the building to a small workshop purported to be the place where the first “horse pushed binder reaper” was invented. It was a great story of a local inventor producing a great invention aimed at helping local farmers speed up their autumn harvest. He chose not to patent the machine, allowing other farmers to build their own machines however several had been exported to America where it was picked up by major The original mangle producers to be later patented by McCormick, Hussey Leoch Farmhouse and other manufacturers to produce the “mechanical binder” that became the standard harvesting machinery It was expected that Leoch would be a large farm and in Orkney before the combine harvester arrived. George as we approached the farmhouse it was indeed a large Thomson in his booklet “A History of Auchterhouse” mansion house, as we would later find out, built in 1820 published by the Tay Valley FH Society wrote – “ A side and for the past 12 years delivery reaping machine that was pushed by two horses had been renamed and in had been invented by the Rev Patrick Bell of Carmyllie private ownership and not whilst he was still a student at St Andrews at his father’s linked to the farm. Seeking farm, the Leoch of Auchterhouse in 1827”. “ The reaper permission to take a photo appeared in Scotland in the 1860s to be followed by the of the house led us to meet reaper-binder in the 80s.” By coincidence, it was my with Rod Goodman and his brother, Morris, who was the operator of the first combine wife, the owners. They were harvester in Orkney when he worked at the farm of fascinated that my granny Quanterness, just outside . had been married there. Having found Jane’s wedding venue, my guess is that she Interest aroused not only would not have stayed on at Leoch, as there was no sign of did I get some photos outside William Work as cattleman being shown in the valuation but Rod gave us an external rolls for 1887 nor 1889. Her new husband, my grandad, tour before inviting us in to had been working at a large farm, called North Lorston in see the kitchen where Jane the Nigg area, just south of Aberdeen. A few days later, would have worked and I visited its location to find the main farmhouse having Maid’s room on left of kitchen the “maid’s room” off the been turned into the local community centre plus local government offices. Did Jane come north and continue to kitchen, where she would work in the Aberdeen area for some time? Their wedding have slept, now a kids play photo was taken in Aberdeen. room. By 1891, they had returned to Orkney and were living at But there was more to Little House, listed between Yarpha and Outer Dykend come - in an outhouse, the in Orphir, he aged 35 with wife Jane aged 26. They had “washhouse” we witnessed eight children over the years from 1893 and 1906 - five the original built-in laundry sons and three daughters. Thomas died on 27 May 1943 boiler, still intact, which in Orphir, Orkney at the age of 87 years. My dad Robert would have been used for Clouston was the youngest of their sons. heating the water for doing Not only did we find Leoch – we discovered things that the laundry. It was heated had been part of Granny’s life. by a log-fire underneath, When you solve one question - another arises but that is complete with a vented for another day. It raises the question of what happened chimney and flue-box. Here to William, Jane’s brother? Further research suggests she would have “done the that the William, the cattleman at Leoch may not have washing”. When taking been a brother but another William Work from Shapinsay. a photo he suggested if I Maybe some member can come up with his story. I would turned round I could see be very interested .L the original mangle that she The old built-in laundry boiler Alan G Clouston (member 339) [email protected] 12 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.57 March 2011 Issue No.57 March 2011 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 13

Mother – the quiet pioneer – by her daughter Margaret Rouse, née Block A happy home, familiar friends and treasured discovered to be true but somehow they were on chains”. Muddy and exhausting to drape and lay rotting in heaps on the ground). possessions seem to mean so much more to a not quite as she had imagined. hook round the wheels, they were even dirtier to But my Mother wanted to know about the woman than they do to a man. How much to be We packed. We bought a rifle. A friend gave us take off. We hated them! present, not the future.- My name is George Rouse, We moved around in the boat to be near to admired and wondered at, therefore, are those two Sealyhams, strangely un-alike considering Within a few minutes we had run ·out on to hard The “house” turned out to he two three-roomed: pioneer women who gave up all these comforts that they were of the same breed. We went on son of Margaret Rouse my father’s postings and it remained our home for the next eight years. dry ground and the wet-weather equipment had mud huts, one thatched and one with a tin roof to follow their husbands to an unknown land board and my Mother lost no time in hiring a the author of this article In the late 50s father was posted to Orkney to be laboriously taken off. which my father had built all by himself. As where harsh conditions and strange terrors often girl from the third class to act as nurse to her about my grandparents, and it may be helpful if and by that time I think that mother had On and up we went. At every bump the children yet it had no floor but we helped him lay the made their lives so hard. children. She herself went on with her embroidery in the back seat would fly up into the air, cracking boards the next day. There was no furniture My Mother, Ruth Block, did not have ‘to travel I give some background had enough of the MTB so it was sold and and hoped that her china was receiving gentle into how our family came West Shore became our new home. their heads on the wooden baIl supporting the except six iron bed-steads. When our baggage hundreds of miles on foot, nor did she help to treatment in the hold. hood. We soon learnt, to brace ourselves against came we made cupboards and shelves out of the fight off hordes of murderous savages bent on to be associated with In the early 60s father was sent to At Durban we were met by my Father and my Indonesia as military attache, but the it with one outstretched hand. Oblivious of the packing cases and, amongst these, my Mother’s protecting their lands from strangers, but in her George Rouse the parish of Burray in Mother relaxed in the comfortable Grand Hotel, Orkney. house in Orkney was kept and more land magnificent scenery, my Mother began to long walnut desk and the Regency chairs seemed a quiet way, she too was a pioneer. best remembered by the family for the head My mother was born on 25/11/1913 in added with the purchase of Littlequoy and for her comfortable farmhouse. There would be little incongruous. For fifteen years her china lay My Father, Adam Block, retired from the Army waiter, a stout man with extraordinarily sloping Cheshire, England and you will see from her . ham hanging from the rafters, plenty of butter packed in crates in the barn. It saved the labour with the rank of major in the 1920s. Family shoulders. In his black morning coat and white article that she spent a wonderful childhood When father retired from the army he and eggs and a hot bath. How she longed for of dusting it. tradition has it that, annoyed at losing his shirt, he looked just hke a penguin and became on a farm in South started full time farming. I came back to clean clothes and a hot bath! Instead of the well-trained servants she beautiful gun-teams of chestnut horses when the more so as the years went by. He became a Africa. the farm in 1977 having worked abroad We were to stay the night with neighbours had expected, there were two Zulus with Army was mechanised, he went off in a huff to valued friend of the family, taking a great My father, George for ten years including 3 years on Tristan and very kind they were too! Immensely stout unpronounceable names. One was busy all South Africa. Anyway my Mother and her four interest in all our comings as, one by one, we Rouse, was born on da Cunha. and immensely good-natured, they soothed day carrying water from the distant spring and children were established in a small house an a passed through Durban on the way to England 14/11/1913 in New Delhi We all loved Burray and mother and father my Mother, fed us with mealie-meal porridge, the other spent his whole life chopping wood most respectable country town. By the standards to finish our education and then appeared again, and he and mother met were soon very much involved in local sugar and sour milk, and .sent us all to bed. My for the greedy little black stove which stood of those days we were badly off and my Mother presumably transformed into reasonable human while he was on leave activities. Mum was very active in the Burray Mother was a litttle taken aback at our bedroom, on the mud floor of the kitchen. Here she was WRI and of course had her other two loves could only afford a cook- beings. from the Indian Army. (a round, thatched mud-hut), and frankly to produce meals for her hungry family and to During WW2 he fought – her pigs and her garden. Brother Richard general (who seemed to feed us entirely on My Father had bought a car. A Ford! A new Margaret Rouse, my shocked at the bath. This was an oval tin tub into bake loaves of bread. (Did I mention that my rhubarb and custard), a gardener who came model! Standing high .on its spoked wheels, the Japanese in Burma mother and author of was teaching in Orkney and working with local care groups. Father’s love of horses which a native girl poured a petrol can of warm, Mother had never cooked in her life?) Bread twice a week and a nurse to look after us it had a folding hood which we came to know and mother stayed in the article soon had him starting a Pony Club which brownish water. However, no doubt we would means rows of crusty loaves with a wonderful children and to escort us on those interminable only too well. My Mother was delighted with Quetta, Pakistan, where I was born. My brother Richard was he ran for years. move into our own house tomorrow. She was steamy smell. But how does it get like .that? dull walks along the gravelly roads. For an hour, the countryside: rolling green hills, a good too tired to worry much. . You must do something about “feeding the every morning and afternoon, we would dawdle born in New Delhi. Father died on the 21/1/95 and mother road, comfortable~looking homesteads and After the war my father followed just three years later on the Next day, after driving five miles along a small yeast” and “setting the dough to rise”. She along, my two brothers in the pram, my sister picturesque Zulu villages. road of raked red earth, We reached our farm. did all this, she tried desparately hard to and I, one on each side, holding on with a sticky remained in the army 22//2/98. We spent the night at Pietermaritzburg, later For nearly 40 years they had both been How proud my Father was! Here he would plant produce bread, but the fire WOULD go out hand and dragging reluctantly every step of the and we all returned to become our longed for metropolis. Now my to the UK. Father well kent faces in Orkney. trees. (He did – a hundred and twenty thousand and the dough did NOT rise and the resut way. My Mother embroidered a good deal and Mother thought it desperately provincial. had difficulty finding Like most families, we have gathered lots of them was a collection of small grey bricks smelling spent a long time each day dusting her lovely The next day the country became wilder. The housing for the family of photographs over the years, not so and his family helped to plant and water the abominably sour. collection of old china. hills were steep and never-ending. The road but solved the problem many of my mother’s childhood in Africa, seedlings). Here we would build our real house. And the butter? Well, the cow was due to calve Suddenly all was changed. A cable came from My father was dreadful. The radiator boiled. We ran into George Rouse by purchasing an ex but plenty of our happy family times in (We never did - money was always too scarce.) in a week or two and then we should have some my Father. We were to take the first ship to a stonn and were initiated into the the mysteries MTB (Motor Torpedo Orkney. I’m sure Sib Folk News readers Here we would build a dam for a swimming pool milk. And the eggs? Well, we would visit a Durban. We were to bring two Sealyham puppies of putting up the hood which. showed a devilish Boat) which he converted into a houseboat. will recognise many a familiar face here. and a water supply. (The ducks loved its muddy neighbour tomorrow .and buy a few hens. And and a rifle. skill in pinching our fingers. Screens of yellow bottom and it bred a species of weird flabby the ham? Well, Old Man Brown had killed a pig A letter followed saying that he had bought a celluloid fastened with infuriating clips around into the yellowish gloom of the car. But alas, dreadful, though necessary invention and much frogs.) Here we would have our orchard. (And it yesterday, maybe he would let us have a chop farm. It had a house, gocd water and a boundary the sides. It all took a long time and we were the wheels spun uselessly in the rich red mud. of our conversation on future car journeys produced the best apples I have ever eaten and or two. fence. These facts my Mother afterwards soaked to the skin by the time we crept back We needed the chains. These chains were a turned on whether or not we should need “to put such quantities of peaches and plums that they My Mother inspected her store-room. There

Joining in the ‘Grand March’ in the Ayre Hotel in 1981 at the Mother meets Queen Elizabeth ...... President of the Burray WRI ...... Brother Richard ...... A favourite photograph . Charlie Kirkness, Mike Clark, Jim Lees, Dad, Bob Munro, Sidney Robertson . . . Davie Swannie gives Sydney Manson a clip wedding reception of Linda Walls and Raymond Hay ...... 14 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.57 March 2011

Fof groceries. “Stores for six months,” ihe farm for our Christmas dinner. It never much later, when my mother used to visit her said my Father beaming all over his face worked out like that. The sheep would be in a home for Distressed Gentlewomen and at his thougtfulness. “Supposing you have inspected; various lambs would be caught. At got to know her quite well, she never said forgotten something,” asked my Mother the last moment my Father’s heart would fail much about her past. timidly. “We can always borrow,” my Father him; the lambs were returned one by one to One by one we children outgrew Miss assured her. the flock and the oldest and most decrepit ewe O’Connor and were sent away, first to school And, of course, we could. Flocks of would be slaughtered to join the Fortnum and in Pietermaritzburg and then to England - our neighbours descended upon us. In cars, in Mason delicacies on the Christmas table. last glimpse of familiar South Africa being horse-drawn buggies, on horseback, they The farm was a paradise for children. As the penguin-shaped head waiter at the Royal came to visit from as much as thirty miles soon as we were six, we were considered old Hotel. away. One particularly stout lady arrived in enough to ride the four miles to school. My Later, during the War, the farm was sold and an ox wagon pulled by eight oxen. Another Mother never took kindly to riding. Clad in a my Mother went to live in Capetown. There, elderly stalwart had walked seven miles, tall felt hat (decorated inside with the imposing in her comfortable flat, she must surely often carrying her skirt in a basket and striding label “The Landsdown Beaver”), wearing a long for the farm, our friendly neighbours and over the veldt in her long fawn-coloured long fitting coat and a voluminousdivided the breath-taking view of the snowclad Berg. stockinette bloomers. skirt, she would occasionally venture forth She must, think again, of the familiar sounds They brought yeast and taught the new- on my pony which had, of all our horses, the – the native workers singing in the evening comer to make bread. most comfortable paces. Unfortunately he round the black cooking pot hanging over the They brought pork and taught her to pickle was very short-sighted. He liked to go along wood fire, the rainbird, in the scented wattles, it. They showed her how to make cakes, with his nose on the ground and if he saw calling “Piet-myn-vrou, Piet-myn-vrou” and to put eggs in waterglass and to salt butter. anything alarming near his feet he would best of all the rumble of the wagon wheels They brought and bottled and jammed bound sideways into the air. In this way he and the cry of the driver encouraging his pounds and pounds and pounds of fruit. No neatly deposited my Mother beside a cobra team. Eighteen of them, perfectly matched beginner could have had kinder helpers and which had startled him, and after this she in colour and size, with horns six foot from my Mother never forgot it. gave up riding altogether. tip to tip the red oxen stepped proudly and Of course we were not really isolated. We The school was not really a school. We shared delicately. A good driver could flick a fly had neighbours less than five miles away, and an elderly governess with the.family on the from the shoulder of his leading ox with the garden boy only had to go thirteen miles next farm. Miss O’Connor was Irish and his twenty foot lash and think it a crime to for the post, a journey he did on horseback was decorated with a large thin aristocratic mark its gleaming dark red coat. He would every Saturday, bringing back those exciting nose, always a little red at the tip. She was run beside them, circling his tall whip with English papers and the familiar “Field”, very strict and, if we were lazy with our a volley of cracks and shouting their names “Country Life” and “Illustrated London spelling. she would stamp on our bare toes. in a rising crescendo “Blesbok, Diamond, News”. Another link with the past was the We thought she was eccentric because she Moieman, Vitvoet, Vorman, Blauboie” – up yearly Christmas box from my grandfather. insisted on the native house-girl scrubbing and up his voice would rise, ending in a Jars of Fortnum and Mason Pate de Foie out the bath before she would use it. She triumphant yell. Gras, flat Wooden boxes of chrystallised thought we were savages, and it was her duty In these mechanical days do the tractor- fruit, a magnificent pink York ham and an to make us less so. Once she got very ill and drivers call like that to their tractors? Are almost too-ripe Stilton. Unfortunately, as he a coffin was ordered from Pietermaritzburg. teams of perfectly-matched oxen only seen imagined that we lived on starvation diet, By the time it had arrived she had recovered as curiosities at the Agricultural Show? Has a good part of the box was taken up with but, with an insertion of wire gauze, it made a tape-recording been made of the champion nourishing but dull soup cubes. These my a very handsome meatsafe. Miss O’Connor driver’s call to his span? Mother used to throw into a pot of boiling was something of a mystery. Rarely, but very I am glad I can remember that wild, exciting water and dish out to the farm workers rarely, she would talk of meets on the lawn shout. I am glad that my Mother was one of on snowy days. I must mention our other in front of her father’s house, of hunt balls those brave women who had the courage to Christmas treat – mutton! My Father always and of gay parties, but no one knew how or start a new life with her family in an unknown said that he would kill the best fat lamb on when she had come to South Africa, and even far-away land. Margaret Rouse

A Lieutenancy Dinner held in the early1990s. George Rouse is first left in the front row; Margaret Rouse is third from left in the centre row . . . . .George and Margaret in their Burray garden Issue No.57 March 2011 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 15

Here’s a cracker—It’s the Orkney Egg Packers But who are they? All that is on the photograph is ‘Oily Hoose’. Can you help name them?

L 1069/3

L 5443/3 L 5389/2

Does anyone recognise this happy family? Party dresses? But what was the occasion? 16 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.57 March 2011

By Geoff Norris, Member No. 2145

n 24 March 1851, the 3 mast ship “Marion”, un- der the command of Captain G. Kissock, departed Ofrom Plymouth with over two hundred immigrants aboard. They were bound for Adelaide, South Australia. One group who boarded the Marion was the Heddle family from Shapinsay. They were led by John Heddle who was a farm servant born on 22 December 1813. He was the son of Peter Heddle and Janet Anderson. His wife, Margaret, was born on 20 August 1814. She was the daughter of John Irvine and Christy Shearer. They were accompanied by their children Jane aged 14 who gave her occupation as Servant, John aged 12, James aged 9 and Margaret aged 6. The family had all been born in Shapinsay.Alexander Williamson and his family, also from Shapinsay, were on board the “Marion”. Alexander, a Labourer, was born on 11 September 1818. His parents were Magnus Williamson and Christian Russell. He was accompanied by his wife, Margaret remaining passenger who stated that he came from the Balfour Williamson nee Reid. Margaret was born on Orkneys. 26 July 1825. Her parents were James Reid and Janet By 29 July 1851, the ship had rounded the foot of Yorke Liddle. Their first child, James Williamson, who was Peninsula, South Australia and started to sail in a north- born on 31 January 1849, travelled with his parents. easterly direction up and across the Gulf St. Vincent to John Scarth Reid and his wife Anne also joined the reach the mouth of the Port Adelaide River. At about “Marion”. John was born on 15 June 1823 on Shapinsay. 10 o’clock that night the “Marion” went ashore on a His parents were James Reid and Janet Liddle. He sandbank south of Troubridge Shoal, about 58 miles (93 was a brother of Margaret Balfour Williamson. He km) from Port Adelaide. The weather was hazy and the had married Anne Bell Stevenson on 24 December current in the Gulf was said to be rapid. 1850. She was born on Shapinsay on 9 April 1829. As the grounded ship was taking in water, the Captain Her parents were John Stevenson and Marion Liddle. decided to abandon ship. By the time he left the ship, Anne was a cousin of her husband John and his sister the water had reached within six inches of the main deck Margaret. and there was little doubt that the stranded ship would Margaret Work was a single person who was born in become a total wreck. Shapinsay on 26 September 1829. She was travelling to All but two of the ship’s boats reached shore on a sandy South Australia by herself. Her parents were Magnus beach near the foot of the Peninsula. The area where Work and Elizabeth (Betsy) Irvine. they landed is now called Marion Bay. One of the boats John Dinnison, a farm Servant born in Shapinsay on 12 capsized in the surf while approaching the beach, but January 1825 was accompanied by his wife Mary Irvine, there were no serious injuries. born 31 May 1826. They were recorded in the Shipping One lifeboat proceeded in the wrong direction and List as John and Mary Dennison. came ashore on the other side of Gulf St. Vincent at Cape Thomas Irvine, an Agricultural Labourer, born 17 Jervis, about forty four miles from the wreck. August 1881, and his wife Mary were with their son A second boat also headed across the Gulf and came Thomas, born about 1848, and daughter Mary, born on 23 ashore near Rapid Bay, about forty miles from the November 1848. Thomas senior, was the son of Magnus wreck. This boat carried nine women, ten children, Irvine and Jane Dennison. Mary was the daughter of three sailors and two male emigrants. On the evening John Irvine and Christy Shearer. of 30 July, three sailors reached a station and explained John Robertson, a Labourer born about 1813, was the that they were from a longboat which had left the wreck Issue No.57 March 2011 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 17

F“Marion” the previous night. The occupant of the died on 8 January 1914. They had seven children. station, Mr. Briggs, immediately made a search for the When the survivors left the wreck of the “Marion”, survivors, but because of the darkness and the rocky Margaret Work was in the longboat that reached Rapid and inaccessible nature of the coast he did not find them Bay the next day. After they were found and attended to, that night. Early the next morning he discovered them. the group was transported to Adelaide by horse and cart. He arranged for provisions to be available for the party. On 25 December 1863 Margaret married Samuel Carver He then started to ride to Adelaide and completed the at Portland Estate (now part of Port Adelaide), South journey of about 63 miles in seven and a half hours. On Australia. The couple lived at North Adelaide. his way he learnt that another boat had landed at Cape John Dinnison and Mary had nine children in South Jervis. Australia. The family lived in the Mount Crawford Four boats from Port Adelaide put to sea at daylight area east of Adelaide and later in the Far West of South the following morning. One boat was to proceed to Cape Australia. Jervis to pick up the survivors who had landed there Mary Irvine, aged one year old, died on board the “Marion” and the remaining three boats went to the wreck and during the voyage to Australia. Thomas and Mary Irvine to the nearby beach to pick up the remaining survivors had five more children in South Australia. The family and if possible salvage their luggage. settled at Truro, north-east of the Barossa Valley. No passengers or crew lost their life during the The activities of John Robertson have not been traced. L transfer of the passengers to the shore. However one lady was killed when a dray bringing her to Adelaide overturned. A baby died, as a result of dehydration when its traumatized mother could not adequately feed it. The South Australian Register, a newspaper published The Troubridge in Adelaide, held a number of donations from the public to help the survivors obtain money, food, clothing Lighthouses and accommodation. When the South Australian The “Marion” was just one of the many vessels to government decided to allow the emigrants to stay founder on the Troubridge Shoal. at the newly constructed Mounted Police Barracks, Officially it has been the to supply them with rations and offered assistance in cause of 33 wrecks, however, money or clothing, the newspaper returned the money locals say that the true figure to the donors. runs into the hundreds. In The Heddle family settled at North Adelaide. They 1850, the year prior to the were distressed when Margaret, aged 6 years, died wreck of the Marion, seven on 31 August 1851. Her father, John Heddle, had vessels ran aground and this obtained work as a quarryman. Unfortunately he died led to the construction of a in hospital at Adelaide on 28 September 1851. John’s lighthouse with the lamp wife, Margaret, gave birth to a son, William, at North being permanently lit in Adelaide on 1 May 1852. She was 84 years old when 1856. The Troubridge Shoal she died on 6 July 1897 at Salisbury, South Australia. with its distinctive red and Alexander Williamson settled on a farm at New white banding, is one of the Hamburg, less than two miles from Strathalbyn and postage stamps featured in thirty one miles south-east of Adelaide. In 1918 the the Australian Lighthouse name of the township was changed to Willyaroo, an stamps series. aboriginal name meaning “to invoke a good harvest”. For over 124 years the Troubridge Alexander died on 22 February 1894 and his widow Light flashed its warning to ships died on 8 January 1914. On 26 May 1858, Jessie Jane plying these dangerous waters. Williamson was born at Stonehill near Strathalbyn. Eventually, however, earthquakes, She married Thomas Collett on 2 March 1887 and died a fire and erosion eating toward at Strathalbyn on 22 January 1926. On 1 August 1861 the lighthouse’s foundations were a second daughter Margaret Christina Williamson was instrumerntal in the decision to born at New Hamburg. Margaret died at Strathalbyn replace the old light with a new on 18 May 1929. She was unmarried. James structure on Troubridge Hill. In Williamson, the only son of Alexander and Margaret 1980 a new lighthouse flashed its married Josephine Tilbrook on 19 December 1878 and warning across the waters. This lived in North Adelaide. They had six children. James award winning design, built to died on 7 April 1921 in North Adelaide. withstand earthquakes and high In South Australia, John Scarth Reid became a winds, is one of the few built from Postmaster and Storekeeper. He and his family lived interlocking bricks that have never at the South Australian towns of Strathalbyn, Morphett been painted or rendered. Vale and Encounter Bay, all south of Adelaide. John died at Encounter Bay on 28 January 1881 and Anne 18 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.57 March 2011

My father, Fred Taylor, came from Comloquoy, Marwick, , and attended the St Magnus Church at the Palace. I was sat in the pew they used when I took my Aunt Peggy Bews to a funeral there on one of my visits to Orkney. I have also spent quite some time in the St Magnus Churchyard in Birsay looking for the headstones of my ancestors. Long time member Janette Thomson (Foulis), No 121 In May I am bringing my sister on her first visit to Orkney f r o m Australia was interested in the article and am really looking forward to it. on Skookum Tom which appeared in I do enjoy the magazine. Sib News No55. The names were fa- miliar to Janette and she writes: Jocelyn Rendall’s article certainly I was interested in the article “Skookum rang bells with Anne Cormack, Mem- Tom” which was compiled using ber No 73, who is only too aware of Bill Irvine’s cuttings from Canadian the ‘power of the Kirk Session’ from sources. We were fortunate in meeting her own family research. Anne writes: Bill in 1994 on our first trip to Orkney. I very much enjoyed Jocelyn Rendall’s He was a wonderful help ,a wealth of article ‘The Past is Another Country’ information,and was able to put us in Sib Folk News 56. The power of in touch with Foulis relatives, (Garry the Kirk Session in past centuries Foulis and Margaret Isbister) as well as Billy was indeeed formidable. The narrow Cardno. Also fascinating stories about Wm Foulis,(Capt.) moralistic views of the elders also brother of my great grandfather James C. Foulis,(Capt.) seemed to have quite an influence I wish I could find out what happened to him and to his on those kirk members who didn’t indulge in sexual son William !!!! misdemeanours. My Orkney granny Greig (nee Ledingham) I took particular interest in the paragraph above the photo is a case in point. As a child in Glasgow I loved to hear in column 1, that mentioned the double row of teeth. stories of how we supposedly shared a common ancestry The John Muir, Miller of Papdale who is mentioned as with the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. And of how “opened his mouth to show complete rows of double the first Grieg who came to Orkney was a Jacobite fleeing teeth” and a bracketed sentence (“I did find a Papdale after Culloden. She never spoke, however, of her own Miller called Muir who died in 1847 while clearing ice from parents. As far as I am aware, my father and his siblings a water wheel. Ed.”) “ thought that their maternal grandparents had died long I can lay claim to that John Muir, Papdale Miller. (My 3x grt before they were born. Imagine my utter amazement when grandfather) . I started my family history research, to discover that my In the St Magnus Burial list he is listed as having grandmother’s parents had still been alive until just before been buried in Feb. 1847 but on his headstone in St my father married. I am sure he had never met them. The Magnus Churchyard the inscription reads d. 8 . 2. 1846. reason for the secrecy wasn’t hard to work out. They ‘had This stone was erected by his grandson,John Muir, to get married’ and I presume to my grandmother, a very watchmaker of , (son of James Muir...Miller straight-laced staunch kirk woman, this was the ultimate, of Isbister Mills). I assume it was erected many years unforgiveable sin. She didn’t seem to realise that if it had not after the event so the grandson no doubt had incorrect been for their ‘fornication’, she (and I) wouldn’t have existed. information. In 1998 on a visit we found it face upwards lying on the ground. As it was undamaged in any other way,I had it re-erected. John Muir (Snr) married Barbara Muir. Her parents were John Muir and Jean Barney, (Sanday). I would be DIARY DATES interested in finding out the names of his parents. Congratulations on a great magazine and website. Thursday MARCH 10 Thursday MAY 12 Janette Thomson,(Foulis), no 121. St Magnus Centre 7.30 St Magnus Centre 7.30 Committee Presention AGM And another letter from EMIGRATION RECORDS followed by presentation the antipodes; Heather Craw, from Steven Heddle on Member No 482 in New Zealand. Useful sites Helen writes: ORKNEY COMMUNITIES What a surprise it was to see Bertie Saturday APRIL 9th WEBSITE Harvey’s article about the St Magnus at Dounby Church in Duntroon, New Zealand in FAMILY HISTORY Sunday JUNE 12 the December Sib News. ROADSHOW Annual outing, provisionally I know it quite well as my older watch website for venue to ROUSAY. Watch website brother and sister were both married there. Sunday August 14 We lived on a farm about 5 miles from Duntroon. OFS Stand at the ANNUAL VINTAGE RALLY, KIRKWALL Issue No.57 March 2011 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 19

Pidgeon Creek Leads from Porteous’s Close to Leslie’s Close and is a These Stromness place names will right of way. Pigeon Crack is a fissure at the Black Craig still ring a few bells with our older White Horse Inn West Mainland members. They were This was located at 20 North End and was known lo- found in an old file in our office and cally as ‘Maggie Marwicks’. while I do not know who compiled The Oakleigh them I would be delighted to give A Temperance Hotel in Victoria Street. At one time run him, or her, credit in our next issue. by Mrs (Ma) Scott under its original name of the Mason’s Sad to say some of the shops are long Arms. gone but will still be familiar to many Long Close of our readers. Ed. The original name for the Khyber Pass. Narrows Hutchison’s Brae This term has been applied to a couple of spots in the This is the one leading from the foot of Hellihole to South End, where drivers and pedestrians still have to Porteous’s Brae. take special care – Peter Drever’s at the top of Porteous’s Ballanden’s Lane Brae and John Wright’s at its foot. Most commonly it re- A sho rt steep passage from Leslie’s Close in Graham ferred to the bottleneck at Flett the butchers where at one Place, leading to Khyber Pass and the Gray’s Biggin’. It was time local bus drivers would speed through to the conster- resurfaced in 1939 but an outcrop of granite, where a wash- nation of their terrified tourist passengers. house had been built, was left and is still there today. Whitehouse Rocks Pinney’s Close On the Garson side of the harbour near what had been This was the name for the close leading to Clouston’s Copland’s Dock. Gow the Pirate’s father built a house in Pier. William Clouston, a shoemaker who lived there, was the area. the first man in Stromness to use wooden pins onthe The Quarries soles of boots —hence the nickname – ‘pinney’. The long shallow point between the Point of Ness and The OO (Old Orkney) Distillery the old beacon in . It stood on the site of Mayburn Court and for many The Subscription School years its pot stills were a familiar sight as one walked Built by public subscription in 1789, it was at Hellihole south towards the museum. opposite the Library. It was demolished in 1937 and a sub- The Attery stantial retaining wall was built. Fourteen temporary houses converted from army huts Fireman’s Close for ATS girls at the end of WW2. This was on the site of This was off Alfred Street on the right going south. It Grieveship Terrace. gives on to the warden’s accommodation at Rae’s Close. Garrison Theatre As a fireman lived there at one time the name stuck. With seating for 800-900, it opened in 1942 and was Brown’s Close demolished in 1948 and the site subsequently used for This was the former name of Fireman’s Close. the Stromness Swimming Pool.

25th ANNIVERSARY, KIRKWALL LADIES BRIDGE CLUB 1971 When I used this as a mystery picture in our December newsletter, little did I know that Howard Hazell had included it, complete with names, in vol 2 of his book The Orcadian Book of the 20th Century, published at the end of the year. I think half of Orkney must have received it as a Christmas present for the e-mails poured in. First off the mark was Tom King No 138, closely followed by Katherine Kemp. Alastair Stewart remembered it from Living Orkney June 2006 and For those of you who did not get Howard Hazell’s book here are the names: Jean Marwick contacted Alan Clouston to tell him Back row L to R : Meg Gordon, Elma Gourlay, Olwen Fraser, Thora about it. McGinn,Laura Muir, Mags Leslie, Muriel Gray, Mabel Bain, Jean Marwick, Kathleen Taylor, No1738 spotted her her aunt, Marion Boyd, Olive Garden, Ella Glue. Jean Marwick, her great aunt Peggy Hourston and Middle row: Annie Nicholson, Nance Duncan, Iris Swanney, Agnes Swan- her grandmother Kathleen Hourston. And so it ney, Anna Davey, Netta Corsie, Lilla Shearer, Dolly Eunson, Evelyn Lloyd, Ann went on; a great response and I am so pleased that Craigie, Dorothy McDonald, May MacLeod, Peggy Marwick, Nellie Slater, so many of you are reading our newsletter. Well Annie Donaldson. done! Front row: Rita Robertson, Anna Johnston (kneeling), Kathie Hourston, Sarah Now if I could just persuade as many to write an Costie, Ina Jolly, Betty Miller, Ruby Lewis, Agnes Scott, Ina Hercus, Peggy Hourston and Ann Park. article..... 20 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No.57 March 2011

Written by the late Henrietta Robson of Fara, wife of Gavin S Mackay. Let me try and explain to you what life on an island is like. It were cooked on a brander, and it was really beautiful. We had no can be a very lonely one, but when you know it is your home you oven at that time, so we baked oven scones in a flat bottom pot put have got to make the best of it. My father and mother lived at Mel- on top of a tin and coals put on the tin and after 10 to 15 minutes setter, employed by Moodie Heddle. Wages in those days were the scones turned out marvellous. There were no subsidies and very very small. They decided they would like to live on the island of little pension – then my father had 5/- a week and he thought more Fara. My father got a piece of ground near the shore, surrounded of that than they do of £5 at the present time. The men folk all went by nothing but peat banks and heather. Father and Grandad went to fishing lobsters then sold them at 6d each. It did not matter how across and started to build a house. All the stones were carried big they were, but they had to be 9” long or they were not bought at from the beach, not a stone being quarried. When they got two all. Eggs were 6d a dozen – many a basket I have carried across the rooms completed my mother was taken to her new home. She had island of Fara with 20 dozen eggs and would get 10/- (50p) but at the never been on the island before. When the door was opened for same time we could get a lot for 10/- at that time. her to go in with a 4 months old baby in her arms the water from Fara was well provided with peats – we bought no coal but the hill came out of the door. She could not keep back the tears quite a lot of hard work was required before we got the peats and said ‘take me from here as soon as you can’, but needless to ready to burn. We also cut a lot of peats and sold them to people say they went in and settled down and made a very happy home in Longhope and . We had to cut, spread and raise the spending the rest of their life on the island. They had 9 of a family peats before carrying them to the shore ready for the boats to – 3 boys and 6 girls. take away. For 15 cart loads we got 12/- and if any person only Dad started to dig with a spade to make a croft, then he got a wanted one load they paid 1/-. For several years we got hundreds pair of oxen to plough the land and eventually he had 20 acres. of empty bags sent down by Mr. Terrace of Stromness who was They had 6 milk cows and some young animals. They got fed in the agent for the Langland Shipping Company. We filled all those the morning then out on the hill to graze, and what lovely milk bags with small black peats, it was really like coal, and a sloup and butter they produced. The heather made quite a different fla- boat came from Stromness and collected the bags of peats which vour instead of being fed on grass all the time. We have tested the were then sent to a whisky distillery in London. They say peats cream in a basin and it held up a half crown. We made all our own give a better flavour to the whisky. After all that work we got 3d a butter and cheese. When we sold it we got 6d a pound for butter bag for the peats. Bairns nowadays would not thank you for 3d to and 4d a pound for cheese. However, it was very hard to make a buy sweeties. When I was young I never got a penny for sweeties living, every thing being so cheap to sell. As there was no shop on unless I looked for a jam jar to sell for a penny.Nowadays you the island it was decided to open one. There were a lot of people can’t sell jam jars – it does seem such a waste to see so many on the island at that time but everyone had so little money, there glass jars going in the dust cart. could be very little profit made. I went in a butcher’s shop recently in Stromness and asked if They had no profit on groceries and all the profit they had was he had roast mutton, 1/2p on a dozen eggs so the shop was soon forced to close. Then a ‘Oh yes, but it is 10/- a lb’ said the assistant. ‘Oh boy’, I said, floating shop started to come around the islands. It was named the ‘what a price – we have sold many a lamb in Fara running on Gleanor. It was sent out from R. Garden, Kirkwall. It came across their four legs and only got 10/-’. the Flow every Monday, called at Fara first. They anchored the big ‘Ah but’, he says, ‘it is different days now’ - ‘You’re telling boat and came ashore with a small boat and took the people off to me,’ I said ‘and a lot of it no for the better either’. get their goods. They had three different compartments, one for On the island we had happy days as well as sad ones. We all groceries, one for dairy and the other one bought eggs and sold worked together and we were never happier than when we would flour and feeding stuff. Because it only came once a week we had go to help our neighbours, but we never looked for pay, nor did to plan ahead what we needed for the next seven days. It was all we get it, all what we got was ‘thanks and come again’. plain cheer and no nonsense. A new loaf was carefully rolled in a In winter we did a lot of knitting our own wool, spinning and cloth in case any visitors might come along on a Sunday – no such knitting all for 9d a pair of socks. thing as chocolate biscuits, fancies etc in those days. We had por- At one time we had a teacher who belonged to Aberdeen and ridge every morning and plenty of good milk, then off to school at his wife to Perth. He was teacher, minister and also kept a medi- 9 a.m., not home for dinner but got home at 4 p.m. Oh boy, were cal supply — the teaching and the preaching was OK but when it we no hungry and did we not enjoy a good tea of roasted si1locks, came to the medicine it was a different story; folk thought twice and fattie cutties. It was a peat fire on the hearth and the sillocks before they took the dose. A Issue No.57 March 2011 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 21

FI can well remember him preaching. We went to the Kirk at 12, I remember when we got the first gramaphone with a huge horn he started his sermon with firstly, secondly and on to the seventh- and everybody making for the house at night to hear Harry Lauder ly. When we got out it was nearly 3 p.m. One old man remarked singing. Then we got a wireless, it was a great attraction – we al- at the door, ‘boys, it’s getting dark, after this we’ll need to take a ways got a full house at night to hear Big Ben striking in London. bit of bread in our pocket to keep us going’. One old man would be coming to the door speaking to himself We had no organ in the Kirk. A Presenter started the singing and the saying ‘What a sound, what a sound, what’s the man in the box minister had a tuning fork and sometimes it was above high doh. saying the night?’ Everybody that was able went to the Kirk, old and young, Sun- It is a great pity to see the island with nobody after all the hard day was Sunday in those days and very strictly kept to. work our forefathers had on it, brought up their families and lived There were quite a lot of people on the island, six out of happy, healthy and contented. the ten crofts brought up families from seven to nine, and It is really sad to see all the houses going to wrack and ruin as soon as they left school they had to go elsewhere to get and the fields going back to heather. We felt sorry to leave the work as there was nothing on the island for the young, so island but I must say I have enjoyed my retired life in Stromness they left one by one and never returned unless for a holiday. very much. People have been so kind and I have met so many Then it came there was nothing left but the old, eventually the hous- friends who have made my life a pleasure – my most grateful es became empty one by one, till at last the whole island died out. thanks to all of them. L

The last two verses in scene 4 are in memory of his Exile’s Reminiscences eldest son Robert, a submariner, lost in 1942. From his By Robert Johnston Chalmers of 1898-1980 granddaughter Carolyn Watson-Crisp. Member No 1941 Then south across the Firth we went Again the young men took up arms Without a backward glance, On land and air and sea, To join the regiment of our choice They fought and bled and died out there And do our bit in France. That we might still be free. SCENE 1 The weary years of war dragged on, From Humber to the Dunkirk beach, I stood on the shores of , The German hords were smashed; From Iceland to Freetown And gazed across the Firth “The war is won,” – so we were told, Without complaint on every sea To the mist-enshrouded Orkney Isles, “The Kaiser’s hopes are dashed”. He did not let us down. The islands of my birth. SCENE 3 Like thousands more he gave his life, Cradled so near the water’s edge Then back to Orkney once again With murmering waves below, When at last his ship went down. Wi’ a Sooth lass for a wife, Like thousands more – all heroes too, The seagull’s cry was my lullaby, To settle down and make a home But then – he was our own. Oh it seems so long ago. So far removed from strife. SCENE 5 “Breathes there a man“ - how true I thought, The children came along in time Fain would I sail to Stromness pier As in fancy I roamed again To bless that happy home, Barefooted on the sandy beach, There’d never be another war, On a calm and moonlit night Or looked out o’er the main. They’ll never have to roam. With distant music; was ever Venice Such an enchanting sight? As if expecting there to see They grew and played among the rocks A Viking rover heave in sight As their father did before, Or Kirkwall Bay on a summer eve With shields along her side arrayed “Come oot o’ that thou’ll wet thee feet” To watch the sun go down; All glistening in the failing light. It’s their Granny at the door. Soft colours round the skyline And the spire above the town. SCENE 2 The first-born sailed his model yacht, But lo! the scene has changed Or plied his line and fly Or the house the bairns were born in, And we’ve enemies from afar, At the helm of the motor boat, Perhaps there’s laughter in it still, Our peaceful isles are threatened, “Please Dad –give me a try”. While the Wheel of Destiny keeps turning, The Hun has gone to war. According to His will. SCENE 4 The “Terrier” boys had shouldered arms Then came September ‘39, To the graveyard where the old folks lie And taken up their posts, We hear the PM’s voice; Near the sheltered sandy bay. The “Contemptibles” had gone across “It’s war again – it’s evil things” I’ll come again to stand and meditate To meet the mighty hosts. Alas we have no choice. Someday - perhaps, some day. 22 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No. 57 March 2011

By James A Troup from his book “Orkney through Strangers’ Eyes” and published with his permission The has gained the reputation of being Ashore, the clergyman explored much of Orkney. For a an extremely wild stretch of water. Not only do many time he stayed at the Ship Inn in Stromness kept by Mrs. visitors from the south approach the ferry crossing with Logan who, late in August, obtained one of the smallest of trepidation, but also many Orcadians face it with anxiety. fair weather pilot boats to start him on his return journey. No longer, however, to the extent of seventeenth century He suggested that they should take him all the way to travellers who were apt to make their wills and to lay , but they said they would take him to the Head on a farewell party for their friends - but then, they also of Long Hope Bay, and by walking across the isthmus faced the hazards of the unknown in journeying amid the he should get a proper boat for the purpose. Old Brock, strange people of Scotland or England. who kept the ferry, would land him at Thurso if any man Among the issues that today divide the supporters of the could, but they thought it was impossible. That was longer ferry crossing from Stromness to from Brock’s view too, but he reckoned that the wind might those who back the short sea crossing from S. Ronaldsay fall toward evening. Then he would try, but probably to to John 0’ Groats or Gills Bay are those of comfort and make not Thurso but Brough in the lee of Dunnet Head. security. It was now only mid-day, and the Reverend looked around The Rev. Lessingham Smith, author of Excursions the apartment in which the passengers assembled, its through the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in 1835 reeking peatfire, its broken windows, its little bed in a and 1836 and a Fellow and late mathematical lecturer box, and its lumbering seachests, and he reflected that it of Christ’s College, Cambridge, twice crossed the Firth must serve as parlour, bed-chamber and all . He concluded by the short route and twice felt that he was something that it would be advisable to cross, even at seven in the of a hero, for each time the weather alarmed him. He evening, rather than pass a whole day and night in so was doubtless heartily relieved to be landed safely yet, on very humble a dwelling. his return south, he had only his own snobbery to blame They fed him well however; two grilled chickens for for his fright; snobbery about the poor accommodation dinner, eggs for tea, but neither bread nor potatoes - often afforded by the ferry house at Brims. a problem in the period before harvest in times past. At Huna, on his way north, however, he had no inkling of That evening the wind did indeed fall. For a start they weather trouble when he unceremoniously boarded the rowed to the westward, stopping periodically to bale out open boat, being carried “a-pick-a-back through the shoal the boat. Then they turned into a short jabbling sea. water by one of the men in jack-boots. The man pitched With the sails set, the little boat bounced along merrily me into the boat like a sack.” The run along the coast and Lessingham Smith really began to think they would to Duncansby was pleasant, but then they turned across weather Dunnet Head and get to Thurso well. the Firth, and were soon involved in its agitated currents. But it was not to be. After a prolonged and searching And here the Rev. Smith confesses that, “I felt for the first examination of the weather sky old Brock the ferryman time in my life at sea, considerable apprehension. The observed that “‘We canna get to Thurso the nicht for you breeze freshened, and we took in a reef. It freshened still, see, sir —keep the halyards clear— you see, these shoors and we took in another.” grieves the wind, and —keep the halyards clear, Sandy— “Oh t’will be a smooth passage yet”, said one of the we canna be sure—doon the mainsail!’ shouted the old youngest sailors. man in a voice of thunder. “Foresail too!” “Ye’ll no want wind, anyhow”, retorted the old man at the Well was it for everyone that Old Brock’s experienced helm, as he looked towards the western quarter; “take in eye had anticipated the coming foe, for had that squall another reef! I think the tide’s mad”. overtaken them with a single sail up, they must have Lessingham Smith evidently thought so too. He had been capsized. never seen such monstrous billows; their huge dark Dunnet Head light encouraged them in their long toil. masses crested with snowy foam, and seeming about to It was after 11 p.m. when they landed and climbed to a devour the little bark but then the practised helmsman, hut above the cliff where the ferryman’s niece provided by a slight turn of the rudder, avoided the fury of the “lowly, but welcome shelter”. blow, and “brought us through with a mere sprinkle. Next morning, his clothing and knapsack dried out by “When I saw the admirable skill of the men, their coolness, “a capital peat fire” the Rev Smith strode over Dunnet and vigilance my confidence was perfectly restored.” Sands to Thurso. A Issue No. 57 March 2011 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 23

Lessingham Smith had no other choice of approach to a jumbled sea, and commenced a series of evolutions that Orkney. Steam was as yet a stranger to these coasts. A quickly stilled the tongues, although not the stomachs quarter century later, in 1859, C.R. Weld sampled a wild of the passengers, who were soon in such agony as to be crossing under steam power. By that time , “every lawful unable to remain on deck. Floundering below as best they day, weather permitting, during the summer months a could, their cries for a steward were answered by a rough steamer leaves Scrabster at two o’clock for Stromness.” sailor, who brought them a kind of trough for common It was a slow crossing, which the captain blamed “in great use, over which they mingled their moans and miseries. measure by her bottom being coated by seaweed which Fortunately, although the wind was westerly, and had been growing all the summer months, and was now mountain-like waves were around them, it did not blow four or five feet long.” As she would soon cease running sufficiently strongly to prevent them passing outside Hoy. for the season, it was not considered worth while to clean Indeed, they steamed so close that the precipices, which her bottom; so at that time if you wanted to make a quick attain at one place the stupendous height of 1300 feet, passage to Stromness from Thurso you had to go early in appeared like a wall within a few yards of the boat. the summer. “But I had faith in the steamer and her weather-worn Nowhere round the storm beaten coast of Orkney have the skipper” said C.R.Weld. “My enjoyment was complete. words ‘weather permitting’ greater significance than in How could it be otherwise? Above, grand masses of cloud the Pentland Firth. True, when the weather prevents the swept across the deep blue sky, casting shadows like dark steamer running, a ferry-boat carried the mails between isles on sea and cliff, below huge waves rolled onward S. Ronaldsay and Scotland, but you could not place entire in ever-increasing majesty, until in the fullness of their reliance on this boat to convey you out of the Orcadian pride and might they broke in thunder tones against the archipelago, for there were many days in the autumn cliffs, belting the rocks with creamy foam contrasting when even the stoutest boat could not live in the Firth. exquisitely with the deep blue of the sea, while the tawny The build of the Royal Mail steamer was to impress you sandstone precipices glowed under the rays of the sun, very forcibly that the voyage would not be over smooth now sinking in the rich heart of the west.” summer seas. She was nearly as broad as she was long For all that beauty there was perhaps more than a hint of and so bluff at the bows and strongly built that you see at relief and surprise when at journey’s end the ‘Royal Mail’ a glance she was made to receive hard knocks . “glided into the tranquil and almost landlocked Bay of Although the day was on the whole favourable, it Stromness where fleets of small brigs and schooners lay was not without misgivings that Charles Richard Weld at anchor in the bay”. © stepped on board the tub-like craft; and these were rather strengthened than otherwise by the skipper, who, cased in Readers who would like to explore the above in more an oilskin suit, declared in answer to questions respecting detail will find the full accounts in the following books:- the passage, that it would be “very rough, and that there Excursions through the Highlands and Islands of were heavy rollers in the Firth.” Scotland by Rev. C.Lessingham Smith. In Thurso Bay all went smoothly, but no sooner were they Two Months in the Highlands, Orcadia and Skye by outside Holbourn Head than the little steamer puffed into Charles Richard Weld.

Sharon Delp No 2523 will be visiting Orkney in Sep- tember this year but will only have 24—48 hours on the islands. She is hoping to find out more about her great grand- mother’s family. Her great grandmother was Amelia Harvey, born in Orkney in 1865. Her parents were Rob- ert Harvey and Amelia Harvey and they were married on 17th February 1852 in Sandwick, Orkney. They had 6 children—William b. 1854, Robina b. 1855, Betsy b.1857, Helen Trustum, No 2518, emailed us to say that she Amelia b. 1865, Mary Ann b. 1868 and Elizabeth b. 1874. and her sister intend to visit Orkney from 12th to 15 Sept “My great grandmother Amelia arrived in Pennsylvan- 2011 and they would love to meet up with any relatives nia, USA in 1885. She always said that her family lived who are still living there. Her grandmother was Margaret on a farm and she always referred to herself as being ‘Or- Clouston Flett and she was born on 10th Aug 1875 in Kirk- cadian’ and was very adamant about that. den, Forfar. Her parents were Thomas Flett, ploughman, I have been informed by the Orkney Family History So- and Elizabeth Beren who were married on 7th Dec 1870 in ciety that the family were living at Newhouse, Sandwick Kinnel, Forfar. Thomas Flett was born in 1846 in Orphir, in 1871 and 1881 and I would be delighted if anyone from Orkney, to Thomas Flett and Margaret Clouston who were that family would contact me and we could perhaps meet living at ‘Between Towns’ in Orphir in 1851. when I am on the islands.” You can email Helen at: [email protected] You can email Sharon at: [email protected] or reach her at 835 Manifold Rd, Bentley, Via Lismore, or reach her at 4621 Northridge Court, Murrysville, 2480, NSW, Australia. Pennsylvannia 15668, USA Or alternatively you can contact George Gray at OFHS office in Kirkwall. Tel 01856 879207 THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY

rkney Family History Society was formed in NEW MEMBERS 1997 and is run by a committee of volunteers. Membership of the Society is through subscription O It is similar to societies operating worldwide and runs for a period of twelve months from date of where members share a mutual interest in family application. history and help each other with research and, from Members will receive our magazine ‘Sib Folk News’ time to time, assist in special projects concerning the which is published every 3 months and the ‘Members’ countless records and subjects available to us all in Directory’ which is renewed annually in September. finding our roots. This Directory lists members’ contact details and their The main objectives are: research interests. 1 To establish a local organisation for the study, Members will receive a password to access the collection, analysis and sharing of information about members’ pages on the website, details of which are individuals and families in Orkney. shown on the Home Page. 2 To establish and maintain links with other family A great deal of research can be achieved through these history groups and genealogical societies throughout resources the UK and overseas THE PRESENT MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES AND RATES ARE 3. To establish and maintain a library and other 1. UK only ORDINARY reference facilities as an information resource for Family membership members and approved subscribers. £10.00 4.To promote study projects and special interest 2. UK only FAMILY MEMBERSHIP groups to pursue approved assignments. Spouse, Partner and Children under 18 £15.00 We are located on the upper floor of the Kirkwall 3. UK only SENIOR CITIZENS Library next to the archives department and are open Single or couple £7.00 Mon–Fri 2pm–4.30pm and Sat 11am–4.30pm. Our own library, though small at the moment, holds a 4. OVERSEAS - Surface Mail £12.50 variety of information including: 5. OVERSEAS - Air Mail £15.00 The IGI for Orkney on microfiche. The Old Parish Records on microfilm. DOWNLOAD THESE and SEND The Census Returns on microfilm transcribed WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION on to a computer database. Visit www.orkneyfhs.co.uk/docs/mempack.pdf where Family Trees. you will find a New Membership Application form and Emigration and Debtors lists. a blank Family Tree. Please complete these, print and Letters, Articles and stories concerning Orkney send with the appropriate subscription to The Treasurer and its people. at the address below. Hudson’s Bay Company information. EXISTING MEMBERS Graveyard Surveys (long term project). Existing members wanting to renew their subscription This material is available to members for ‘in house’ can now do so online. Just Log In and use the link from research by arrangement. My Details on the Member’s Page. You can, of course, Locally we have a Members’ Evening, most months, still send your subscription to the Treasurer at OFHS. with a guest speaker. CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATE We produce a booklet of members and interests to Overseas members, paying in their own currency, allow members with similar interests to correspond should check the exchange rate to ensure the correct with each other if they wish. amount is forwarded. Our bank will accept overseas We also produce a newsletter 4 times a year and are cheques without charging commission. We regret that always looking for articles and photographs of interest. foreign Postal Orders are not acceptable in the UK. A stamped addressed envelope should be included if Members residing in the UK may pay their subscriptions these are to be returned. Back copies of the magazine by Bankers Order and if they wish can have their can be purchased at £1 per copy. subscriptions treated as Gift Aid donations. Forms are We can usually undertake research for members available on request. who live outwith Orkney but this is dependent on the Cheques should be made payable to:- willingness of our island members giving up their ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY spare time to help. Any costs incurred, such as fees for and forwarded to The Treasurer certificates, will reqire to be reimbursed by the member. ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Orkney Library & Archive 44 Junction Rd. Kirkwall, Orkney, KW15 1AG Scotland. Telephone 01856 879207 General enquires should be addressed to the office in writing or to Treasurer George Gray (e-mail: [email protected]) General Secretary. Elaine Sinclair (e-mail: [email protected]) Research Secy. Adrianne Leask (e-mail: [email protected]) Editor. John Sinclair (e-mail: [email protected]) Orkney Family History Society website— www.orkneyfhs.co.uk Articles in the newsletter are copyright of the Society and its authors and may not be reproduced without permiss- ion of the editor. The Society is a registered charity in Scotland and a member of the Scottish Association of Family History Societies. The Society’s newsletter, Sib Folk News is registered with the British Library under the serial number ISSN 1368-3950. The Orkney Family History Society

subscriptions etc is a Registered Charity in Scotland SCO26205 MEMBERSHIP