Do You Know George Gunn?

[Susan49]

Hello! I am looking for anyone who know of a George Gunn from Caithness Wick, he was born 1877 and died 1918, he was a policeman working from the police station in Wick and he had spent 7 years in the army, he was married to Williamina Mowet and they had 4 daughters, Jessie, Willimina(Min), Christina & Georgina(my grandmother), he was removed from the police force due to being medically unfit in 1917 and was sent to The Royal Mental Asylum Aberdeen where is died, it has come down in the family that he had what we would call today a tumour on the brain, he was my great grandfather, I know very little about him, his wife Willimina moved down to Great Yarmouth Norfolk, which is where I live, she married again and had 2 further children, she was only married to George 10 years, she didnt bring any photos with her for her daughters to see and apparentley didnt speak of him much, my grandmother Georgina was only 18months old when he died so she never knew him, I would love to find somebody who know of him I feel very sad that he isnt known to any of us in Great Yarmouth and would one day hope to find a photo of him to go in my album just to say he belongs to us! Thank you for taking the time to read my mail and I hope somebody can relate to my great grandfather.

[trinkie]

Susan, I regret I cant help with George Gunn, but the Sunnyside Assylum has been discussed here before, if you look back you will find the thread.

Williamina would have been heartbroken when her husband became ill and had to be taken south to Sunnyside. That was the nearest place to go to, for folk sufferering from any kind of nervous disorder - regardless of the severity. In those days it was thought best to take the patient away from the family environment, in order to hasten recovery. Nowadays they have different ideas, but then they were doing their best.

I wonder if Williamina had been a Fisher Lassie who had travelled to Yarmouth or Lowestoft before. Every year hundreds and hundreds of Fisher folk went south chasing the Herring, gutting and packing and coming home with a decent wage packet.
Again you will find a thread here all about the Fisher Lassies, and on the Wick Photos thread you will find some wonderful old pictures to give you an idea of what it was like in Wick at that time.

Finally, it's possible that the Police have kept a record of the men who worked there, so perhaps a note to them might bring forth some information, worth a try.

Good Luck with your search,
Trinkie

[Susan49]

Hello Trinkie, thank you for your reply, yes i feel sad for williamina only married 10 years with four children it must of been terrible, her father John Mowat was a fisherman, so i should imagine she at some time, she mended nets etc., but dont know for sure, as i said she came down to great yarmouth soon after georges death, and later re-married. My grandmother georgina married and had 13 children, my mother mina (named after williamina) is the eldest, its funny how fate unfold because my grandmother married a fisherman in yarmouth who later owned a fish wharf their house was joined to the whalf just a three up three down size with 13 children, bit cramped but a happy family they were, it was full of scotch women in the main fishing season, I remember them when I was a child they was a very happy bunch of workers and always treated my brothers and I on pay days to a penny, I spent a lot of my childhood with the scotch women watching them work and running errants for them, lovely memories, my grandparents have long gone now but the wharf is now the Time & Tide Maritime Museum, Im very proud it and go there often it make me feel closer to my grandparents, so you could say fishing is in our blood!
I have been in touch with Wick police station and they have been very helpful about George Gunn and have rang me twice with telephone numbers to get more information about him because they sent all their photos etc., to the Wick Libary and Scottish Archival Centre, I have yet to get in touch, so fingers crossed I will find something, thanks again trinkie for your mail, I will look up the other threads you mentioned, bye for now.

Sue

[biscuit]

Hello Susan,

George Gunn was my great great grandad, Jessie his daughter moved to Kent and later Southampton, she had two children.
I have a copy of george's army record and some other documents, photographs (one of george) and information which I would be happy to share with you.

Andrew

[sophie]

Hullo, Andrew.

I am trying to find a George Gunn who was born around 1879/80. I don't think this is the same person you are all taking about, but I am wondering if you might be able to direct me to a photograph or two. I did find your George Gunn in the 1911 Census records on Scotland People. There are four possible George Gunns in Wick who might fit the bill for the one I am looking for. Their possible wives were Sarah G Henderson, Georgina Nicol, Janet Sutherland, and Annie Farmer. I think Janet went to Canada with her husband. Can you tell me which woman fits the bill for the wife of your George? I am doing a family tree for a client, and have come to a standstill on this one. My George Gunn was born in Sutherland, and was the son of George Gunn and Barbara McLeod.

Thanks, Sonya.

[biscuit]

Hello Sonya,

My George Gunn was born approx 1878, he married Williamina Mowat on the 05/06/1908 in Thurso. Im afraid i dont know a lot about the Gunn side of the family or George apart from his army service record.

http://www.duartmore.org.uk/index.html this website Jims family tree maybe of use, the man running it has many photos of the Gunn family and the sutherland side of the family is mentioned on the website.

Apologies for the late reply and hope you find the information your looking for.

Andrew

[Susan49]

Hello Andrew

Very sorry for this late reply, I did send you a reply about week ago but looking on my account I cant seem to find it so thought I would do another just in case! I am so excited that I have found someone who is related to George & Williamina Gunn, I have been researching for a long while and was over whelmed with the amount of Gunn's, my grandmother Georgina Gunn (jessie, christima & williamina (min)) sisters where very young when george died, my grannie was only 18month old, so she never knew her father being the youngest of the sisters, Williamina moved down to great yarmouth I believe when my grannie was about 12 or 13 and Willamina married again to Robert Tooley. I remember my grannie showing me a tiny photo of George her father and told me she never knew him, sadly she passed away and years later I asked around the family for this photo and its never been found, my mother Mina is the eldest of 13 children and told me she has never seen the photo of her grandfather George, my mum is 80 this year and I would love to frame a photo of George for her to hang on the wall with all her other photos, not having a photo of him feels like a piece is missing from our family, so I would be overjoyed to have a copy of your photo if that would be possible, I am more than happy to pay for it! any information you have to share would be very much appreciated.

When I was doing some research a few years ago I was also doing williamina's family tree the Mowet's and a man from Austrailia got intouch through this site saying he is related to the Mowet's and had the huge tree he had been doing to discover the Mowet's he was researching wasnt his, the name in his family tree was spelt Mowett, which was such a shame for him for all that hard work but was lucky for me because he e-mailed it to me and its very interesting, so I am more tham happy to forward that to you.
I will leave it at that for now Andrew, I already have a huge family and to think I have found more is nice, being in such a big family our motto is "the more the merrier" ha!

Bye for Now
Sue

[biscuit]

Hello Sue,
Just checked this forum today the 7th July and realised you have replied, i will respond by the email address you sent me.

Many Thanks
Andrew