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Kirk of Greenock – Built 1591
In 1589 a Royal Charter was signed at Holyrood by King James VI giving permission for John Schaw, a local laird to build a church – and maintain it – for the people of Greenock – then a small fishing village. Prior to this the Greenock people had to walk to Inverkip to attend church. […]
Inverclyde’s War Appendix 1 – 8
Tho following stories were the result of the research done for the 60th Anniversary of the end of war in 2005, by the McLean Museum, this also turned in to an exhibition at the McLean Museum. They were handed in by Vincent Gillen from the McLean Museum. GREENOCK FIRE DEPARTMENT FIREMASTER’S REPORT – AIR RAID 6th. MAY […]
George Logan 1866 – 1939
George Logan was born in Beith, Ayrshire in 1866 to John and Jessie Logan. After school he was an upholsterer’s apprentice in the flourishing furniture industry in Beith. He became a furniture designer for the prestigeous Glasgow company of Wylie & Lochhead having turned down an offer of work from the London firm of Waring and […]
George Blake
George Blake (1893-1961) was born to Matthew Blake and Ursula Scott McCulloch on 28 October 1893 at 60 Forsyth Street, Greenock. He studied at Greenock Academy and then at Glasgow University where he studied law. He was apprenticed to Neill Clark and Murray but this was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. He enlisted […]
(Frank) Barlowe Borland
Frank Barlowe Borland (imdb link) was born in Greenock on 6 August 1877, he was the youngest son of David Borland who was the manager of the Temperance Hotel in Cathcart Street, Greenock. His family were involved in the Temperance movement in the town. He died August 31, 1948 (age 71) in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, […]
Dr Tom Cochrane – missionary to China
Dr Tom Cochrane Thomas, was born, 12 November 1866 in 16 Wellington Street, Greenock into a working class family. His father died when he was 13 years old and Tom had to seek work in the docks in order to help support his mother and the rest of his family. He managed to cope with working in the […]
Alice May Syme Murdoch
Alice Murdoch is one of the few women who are named on a municipal war memorial from the First World War. She is named on the Gourock Municipal Memorial which was dedicated on 4th March 1922. She died in Perth War Hospital on 10th December 1916 at 28 years of age. She served as a […]
Jean Adam
Jean Adam (1704 – 1765) Scottish Poet Early years Born in Cartsdyke Greenock in 1704 into a maritime family, her most famous work (though the authorship was for some time in dispute) is “The Mariner’s Wife”, better known by its refrain “there’s nae luck aboot the hoose”, a tale of a sailor’s wife and the […]
James Gammell of Garvel House 1735-1825
James Gammell 1735-1825 James Gammell was born in Greenock on 12 December 1735 to William Gammell and Margaret Scott. William Gammell had been a shipmaster and later a merchant. He became a Baillie of the town and the landowner of the Garvel estate. James was their 4th child. James attended the Greenock Grammar School with his brother William where one […]
Greenock Medical Martyrs
James Lamont Lochhead was the last of five doctors to die in the typhus epidemic of 1864 – 1865. They were known as the Medical Martyrs, there is a memorial to them in the Wellpark Mid Kirk in Greenock. James was the eldest of a family of four; his parents Matthew Lochhead and Mary Lamont were […]