Standing outside an isolated croft on Tresta Voe, an inlet on the Shetland Islands, Ann Bianchi and her brother Ian Elliott feel a strong sense of connection with their grandfather. This haven was the daily vista of George Taylor Harrison, who was born at Tresta in 1894.
“George died in 1939, so we didn’t get to know him and hear about his island childhood first-hand,” Ann explains. “He was the youngest in the family from a second marriage, and was known by the Shetland diminutive of George: Dodie.”
The stories came from Ann and Ian’s mother Dorothy Harrison, who told them that George left Shetland to become a sailor and never returned to the islands.
Dorothy had been told that her mother Dorothy Brannen and her aunt Elizabeth worked in a boarding house run by their aunt in the busy Tyneside port of South Shields. Both sisters married sailors who originally came from the Shetland Isles. Ann and Ian had few other clues to start from.
“I began looking for proof that our grandmother Dorothy Brannen worked in a lodging house,” says Ann. “This took time, but eventually I found a ‘Dora’ Brannen in the 1911 census records, working as a servant in Dean Street, South Shields. Her married aunt Sarah Watson ran this and another boarding house close to the ferry landing.”
Using census returns and the wonderfully rich North Isles Family History website, Ann and Ian were able to trace George Taylor Harrison’s birth and family. He was the son of crofter and fisherman Henry Harrison and his second wife Helen Taylor.
In 1901, the family lived in Sandsting and Aithsting. George had two older half-brothers, James and Arthur, and three half-sisters, Elizabeth, Andrina and Willamina (known as Willa).
By 1911, all of the brothers had left the croft, presumably to find employment aboard ships. “Many Shetland seafarers travelled to Liverpool or South Shields for work,” Ann says. “All three Harrison brothers served in the Merchant Navy during the First World War.”
Dorothy believed that George had no contact with his family after leaving Shetland. However, information from the 1915 Crew List Project website suggested that the brothers were in fact close. “We found George, Arthur and James all living in South Shields in 1915 and working as crew on the same ships,” Ian explains.
George married Dorothy Brannen in South Shields in 1915, and Ian and Ann were pleased to see on the marriage certificate that George’s half-brother James was one of the witnesses. However, the celebration was followed by tragedy, as Ian explains: “James’ next job was aboard the SS Beeswing, a steamer carrying coal from South Shields to Dieppe. Beeswing was due to sail on the day of the wedding, and it’s my belief that George and Dorothy got married in the morning so that James could attend the wedding then join his ship.”
The family never saw him again. The SS Beeswing was reported missing the day after she sailed, and is believed to have been sunk by a mine or a torpedo from a German submarine. All of her crew were lost.
“I feel strongly that if George hadn’t got married that day, he would have sailed on the Beeswing with James. Our mother, Ann and I would never have existed,” Ian observes.
Perhaps as a result of James’ death, George Harrison joined the Royal Navy Reserve in 1915 and served as a gunner on motor launches. These were designed for harbour defence, submarine pursuit and high-speed sea rescue.
The war was to bring further tragedy in 1917 when Arthur was serving on the SS Teviotdale. This merchant vessel was on its way back from Havana with a cargo of sugar when it was torpedoed in the Atlantic. Arthur was the sole fatality on the ship.
Both James and Arthur are commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorial at Tower Hill, London, and on a plaque at their local church at Aith in Shetland. “The brothers were only 29 years old when they died,” Ann explains. “Ian and I get quite emotional thinking of their sacrifice, and the family’s loss.”
"Ian and I get quite emotional thinking of their sacrifice, and the family’s loss”
After discovering the tragedies, Ian wrote an article for the journal of the Shetland Family History Society. “Shetland family historian Graham Johnston got in touch after it was published,” Ian explains. “He kindly gave us notes about the ships that the brothers served on, and deciphered hard-to-read naval records.”
George Taylor Harrison survived the war, and returned to South Shields. Ann and Ian’s mother, also named Dorothy, was born in 1919. She had two siblings, George and Helen.
George’s wife Dorothy Brannen died at the age of 32 in 1923, leaving the three young children to be brought up by their sailor father. Ann and Ian’s mother Dorothy and her sister Helen were admitted to the Sailors’ Orphan Girls’ Home in Hampstead, North London. Their brother George followed in their father’s footsteps and went to sea.
“Mother told us many tales of her life in the orphanage,” says Ann. “She remembered a visit by Queen Mary, the wife of George V, who brought a radio for the girls’ use.” Dorothy later worked as a cook, and married Alfred Elliott in 1947. The couple settled in South Shields where they had Ann and Ian.
After a long career as an able seaman, George Taylor Harrison died in Southampton in 1939 from heart disease, aged 44.
Ann and Ian were keen to explore George’s background on Shetland, and online records revealed a rich social history. “The Harrisons can be traced back centuries on the islands, where the men worked as crofters and fishermen, and the women as knitters,” Ann says.
“Our mam told us that George’s half-sisters on Shetland were spinsters, so we didn’t expect to find any living descendants. However, as the family tree grew on Ancestry we began to see a glimmer of hope.”
George’s half-sisters Elizabeth, Andrina and Willamina weren’t spinsters after all. They married and spent their entire lives on the Shetland Islands. “There was a possibility that one of Willamina’s daughters, Mattie, was still living,” says Ann. “She would be our mother’s first cousin.”
In 2015, a friend of Ann’s husband John mentioned that he had family on Shetland and was planning a visit: “David asked if we would like to join him, and we jumped at the opportunity.”
“Ian had created a family tree, so John and I took that with us. We stayed with David’s cousin Catherine, who is very knowledgeable about the islands. We showed her the tree, and Catherine thought that she
knew some of our relatives.
“I couldn’t believe it. By teatime, we were on the phone to Irene, who was the daughter of Mattie, our mother’s first cousin.
“Two days later, we met Irene and she showed us old photographs of our great grandparents. We also met Mattie, which was wonderful. The physical resemblance between her and our mother Dorothy was striking.
“We chatted about the family, and Mattie told us that she knew about her uncles James and Arthur who had died during the First World War. George’s life was a mystery to her, until she met us.
“We also visited the Family History Society, and mentioned James and Arthur. They were listed on the roll of honour, and there was a photograph. The resemblance between them and Ian and his son was unmistakable.
“Also, I’d found the church where my great grandparents married on Google Earth. On our first day I recognised it as we drove past. We jumped out of the car, and stood on the site where our ancestors married in 1893.
“Old maps revealed the exact croft where George lived as a child. It was magical to be able to look out over the view that he would have seen.”
Ian was also keen to visit Shetland, and he fulfilled this dream in 2019 to coincide with his 70th birthday. “I made a wooden plaque with the names of our great uncles inscribed on it, and presented to the Shetland Family History Society. It was a poignant moment – there were a few wet eyes that day. We didn’t know our great uncles, but we are keeping their memory alive.
“Ann and I have always been close, but researching our Shetland ancestors has brought us closer together. Sadly, Mattie has passed away, but it is wonderful to have made contact with living family on the isles. Both Ann and I feel very at home on Shetland. We belong there.”