Pentland Road - 2

Continuing the transcription of the Report from the Napier Commission, 1883, I came across two contrasting pieces of evidence. The first, by factor Roderick Maclean of Ardross (aged 54), had his own observations on the causes for the state of the average Highlander at the time: 41578. [...] I attribute to intermittent labour, and to a certain extent climatic lassitude, the cause of the laziness of which the west coast Highlanders are accused. I have observed that away from home and among working people they become excellent workers, but on their return to their homes they become infected by the indolent surroundings, and especially during the winter months, inactivity is a matter of course with them. If however, taken in hand when young, and kept in regular employment even at their homes, better workmen, circumstances considered, could not be desired. Uneducated Highlanders have a strong attachment to localities, and hence their antipathy to emigration; in many instances they would r...

I had the pleasure to speak to a relative of one of the victims of the Great War today. The victim was John Macaulay, 7 Islivig . What shone through was the impact that the death had on the man's wife - devastating in a word. She would never speak of him or their marriage after his death. They were to have wed in Canada, where he was working with the RCMP, but instead he joined the RNR during the war. They got married in Stornoway; only months later his ship was torpedoed in the Irish Sea. The majority of the crew were lost, partly as a result of poor weather at the time. John Macaulay was washed up on a beach just north of Dublin, and was buried at Balrothery, Co Dublin.

John Macdonald Smith, 3 Keith Street, Stornoway, fell in action on the Western Front on 12 May 1916. The news of his death was conveyed to his father, Kenneth, at Kilmeny in Islay. Rev Kenneth Smith was active in Argyll in the early years of the 20th century, and "Fasti ecclesiæ scoticanæ" led me on the path of his career in the Free Church of Scotland. In 1906, he was appointed to the Presbytery of Sandbank, Strachur and Strathlachlan. Kenneth was demitted in 1911, to become a Free Church Minister in Greenock; afterwards he became minister of Oa (Islay). Initially, I thought I was on the wrong track, and was prepared to abandon this bit of research. But Fasti Ecclesiæ scoticanæ helped me out once more. KENNETH SMITH, born Lochs, Lewis, 24th Aug. 1862, son of Alexander S. and Christina Montgomery. Educated at Free Church Academy, Stornoway; Appointed lay missionary at Kenmore, May 1900, and at Dalavich in 1903; Licensed as lay evangelist in 1905 ; admitted to Gaelic Cha...

Fellow researcher Direcleit has compiled an extensive listing of occupations and persons at Stornoway, as revealed by the census returns of 1841 through 1901. Innkeepers did not feature, but one crossed my look-ups today, as I tried to find more information about WW1 casualties. In 1851 , we find Daniel Murray, aged 35, and married to Grace (28). He is an innkeeper on South Beach, as well as a tidewaiter. A tidewaiter is an obsolete term for a customs officer who boarded and inspected incoming ships. Whether this was actually compatible with his other occupation is something that I cannot really comment upon. Sharing his household is Hector Lees, aged 76, uncle, and pilot. Robert D Walker is a shipmaster, aged 27, from England. Marion Macleod, 21, was a house servant. Alexanderina Tweedie, aged 49, is an innkeeper at South Beach Lane. She is living with her daughters Christina and Margaret. In 1861 we find four references to innkeepers. Robert Colthart, 36, from Crawfordjohn, L...

Tasglann nan Eilean contacted me earlier this week regarding a wargrave of a German U-boat engineer on the Monach Isles. This appears to be a recurring query with them. The bronze plaque commemorates Otto W Schatt, who was 31 when his U-boat 110 was sunk by Royal Navy vessels off Malin Head in 1918. Three crewmen drifted north on the currents of the North Atlantic and washed up on Heisker. Only Otto Schatt still had his ID badge on his person; the others could no longer be identified. In 1901, the census shows enumeration district 8 as being Heisker (sic), with a population of 106. Eight of these were lighthouse keepers and their families and attendants. Nearly a hundred others, spread over 14 households, were the resident population. These are the population numbers in the second half of the 19th century. 1861: 127 1871: 125 1881: 100 1891: 140 1901: 106 The islands were abandoned in 1942. I copy the census breakdown of enumeration district 8, registration district 113 ...

One of the Stornoway casualties of the First World War was Lieutenant Benjamin Greenfield, who served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force until the end of hostilities. The Stornoway Gazette of Friday 6 December 1918 takes up the story. Lewismen throughout the world will regret the death of Lieut. Benjamin Greenfield, son of the late Rev James Greenfield, Stornoway. The sad event took place in the house of his brother-in-law, Mr J. W. Galloway, Thurso, on the evening of 28 November 1918. On the previous Thursday, he arrive on short leave from France. The cause of death was pneumonia following influenza and this Monday he was buried with military honours at Thurso. There have been countless tragic instances in this war and that of young Greenfield, who went through the battlefields of Africa and France, that he should after all cross the bourne when on a flying visit to his sister in the Far North, after the conflict on the battlefield ceased, would almost occur a...

Yesterday, it was 59 years ago since the Clan Macquarrie ran aground at Borve. All its crew were saved from the vessel thanks to the breeches buoy. The hurricane force winds that drove the Clan Macquarrie on the rocks at Borve also blew out the window and frame of a house in Barvas, and is rumoured to have demolished the water tank for that village. The storm brought catastrophic flooding to southern parts of England and southwestern Holland, claiming 300 lives in England and 2000 in Holland. A further 133 lives were lost in the North Channel, when the MV Princess Victoria was sunk, en route from Stranraer to Larne. The total death toll stands at 2554.