Gorrick, Scotland ?

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:01 pm

My sister just found a letter that our father wrote to his mother after D-day telling her about his trip over on the Queen Mary with thousands of other soldiers. He said that they disembarked at a town in Scotland called Gorrick and were put on trains for Twyford near Reading, England immediately. According to the letter, they were off loaded by barges. I just tried finding Gorrick and couldn't. The first letter could be a C or an S, the handwriting was a little hard to read after all these years.

Anyone have an idea where Gorrick is or was?

Carol

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:08 pm

hi Carol
Could it maybe be Greenock? Or there was a big railway station at Gourock so that may be more likely. Barges would make sense for Gourock. ...But there was also Princes Pier at Greenock, at the Docks which may be more likely. The stations were run by two different railway companies, I'm told (from across the room!)

. Gourock was more for the paddle steamers I'm told.

If you can scan that part of the letter and post it in the gallery all may become obvious! Maybe...

Also see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenock_C ... ay_station
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gourock_railway_station
Best wishes
Lesley

Post by **AnneM** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:16 pm

I would say that it is almost certainly Gourock. According to my olds there were lots of troop ships and military vessels generally in the Firth of Clyde during the War.

Anne

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:24 pm

Also see:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/categories/c55526/
and
http://ww2troopships.com/ships/q/queenmary/default.htm
and
http://andrew.dale.free.fr/wartime/queenmary.htm

It was a cold, damp, foggy day as we pulled into Greenock on the River Clyde. Little was visible as we were loaded on to tenders and taken midstream, until we stopped to face a tall, grey cliff of metal which had a door. We entered and found ourselves in an enormous ship. It was the Queen Mary of 1936 vintage.

For general backgrond info

Post by **AnneM** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:38 pm

As you say, could be Greenock.

Anne

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:43 pm

Could be either. A peep at the writing might clinch it!

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:19 pm

Thanks everybody!

My sister has the letter and as she is allergic to computers, she is going to have her husband scan it and email it to me later this evening--hopefully!

However, seeing it might not help much. My Dad said in the letter that they arrived in Scotland on Jan. 28, 1944 after a doozy of a crossing. There were so many men on board that they took turns 24 hours in a cabin and 24 hours on the deck and the weather was terrible. The stewards told them that they had never seen the Queen Mary leaning so far over and they got tossed out of their bunks many times. By the time they were on land, they were all cold, wet, and tired. The Red Cross brought them coffee and doughnuts which helped, but I doubt that my Dad was really registering things like the spelling of the town's name. Also, he wasn't able to write this letter until September of that year from some place in Belgium because of the lockdown on communications around D-day and the following months. He probably remembered hearing something like Gorrick so that's what he wrote!

I'll see what comes through. If I can't read it, my sister will mail the letter to me and I'll try it from here. Right now, I'm going to check out all those websites that you've referred me to!

Carol

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:50 am

Hi again,

I just uploaded the Gorrick, Scotland letter. Hope it comes up ok.

http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... ?pos=-1403

Carol

Gallery url added by Marilyn

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 8:32 am

Hi Carol
To me it looks like it starts Go... so Gourock perhaps. He may not have seen it written down, only been told where they were, and as you say, he was not writing the letter until sometime after the event.

Thanks for letting us see the letter - fascinating stuff.

I'm sure some digging about on the movements of the Queen Mary would probably confirm where and when the arrival took place.

Best wishes
Lesley

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:38 am

Carol,

Another account re arrival at Gorrick on Queen Mary.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20 ... /510220309

But definitely Gourock – see matching arrival date 28 Jan 1944

http://ww2troopships.com/ships/q/queenm ... gs1944.htm

Alan