Stanley Graham GILMOUR [29411]

  General Notes:

Stanley was an early aviator in the Royal Flying Corps.

Lieutenant S G Gilmour, RFC
Granted Royal Aero Club Aviators Certificate No.997 15 December 1914 Flew with 5 Squadron
Captain S G Gilmour, 97 Sqn, Independant Force, RAF
Temp C.O. of Squadron January 1918 - 31 March 1918
Taken Prisoner 22 August 1918 with 2nd Lieut. G E Rochester & Sergt J W
Chalmers when Handley Page 0/400 D8304 on a Night Bombing Operation on
Volpersweiler Aerodrome and Railway at Herzing, was forced to land East of
Lines at Pechelbronn, Alsace
He was repatriated to England December 13, 1918
http://www.earlyaviators.com/egilmou1.htm

Descendant Outline 16 Jan 2008
Stanley G Gilmour - notes dictated to his wife Marion (Held by Liz Page).
Text From Source:
JEAN - unmarried until last few years - lived in California - Mrs Colin Campbell - a very meagre parcel of Gilmour silver reached us - but not Grandmother's Gilmour diamond ring which she assured us she had packed.
VIOLET - married Bertram Giles. Consulate Nanking. Rebels attacked consulate - officials took refuge in Strong Room. Eventually relieved and put on Cruiser for Hong Kong. Violet in nightdress - Bertram wrapped in Union Jack. (Reported killed -later contradicted. One cripple son (infantile paralysis) last heard of by us escaping from German Advance in South of France in wheelchair pushed by his nurse (they eventually married) on to the Hospital Ship. (Name Sydney Giles).
MARGARET - married Louis Dartnell - Surgeon Commander in the British Navy - 3 daughters - Betty Nairn - Molly Redfern and 1 died young I think.
DORA POLLOK (Cousin Tom her husband) Gordon can report on the family! Alison Pollok (unmarried) last heard from by Graham & Marian working as nurse in Buganda (?) - King Freddie. Tom died early. Billy wild youth - ended very respectably running viallage church council etc.
LILIAN - married St John Young - Stock Exchange. Children - Graham and Douglas. Graham killed in action in France during war - Douglas last heard of many years ago as an Airforce Wing Commander (regular).
KIT - KATHLEEN is married to a Navy Type Wauchope - I met Kit in London after she had spent several years in and around Australia. He went Native and lived on an island with another couple who said their name was also Wauchope.
MARJORIE - married Peter Hubbard - the youngest girl - Jock - Roger & one other son, I think.
This is probably very inaccurate & would be hotly argued with by Betty Nairn. Jock's wife Gwen can fill in much more as she met Jock when they were children - Jock's father Peter spent the last few years on the farm with Jock and Gwen in Macheke.
Elspeth Pollok married a groom from her Riding School - Divorced later and married another horsey type and lived in Anglesey and had a family of boys - by the first I think she had a couple of girls.
All this should be filled in by Jock or Gwen - I've probably mixed up a lot - Betty Nairn is equally knowledgeable!"

STANLEY G GILMORE
I WAS BORN IN Blackheath on 27th September 1888. I don't remember much about the house but it must have been a large one to house my parents, seven sisters and two sons plus two nurses and other staff.
There was a billiard room with seats on raised platforms all round, and this opened out onto a croquet lawn where the elder members of the family and their friends actually did play. I can remember a large bearded man, Field, who was the gardener.
When I was three years old, my parents, the three eldest sisters, the youngest girl Marjorie, myself and our nurse sailed for Shanghai in the old P & 0 ship the Ganges .
It was very hot in the Red Sea so my father took me along to the crew's barber as there were no hairdresser shops in those days, and my beautiful red curls down to my shoulders were lopped off much to my relief and my mother's distress.
I should mention that my father had been in business as an East India Merchant for about thirty years, and had our large three-storied house some twenty years before this, so it was not the first time my elder sister had lived in Shanghai
The ground floor was offices. The first story was the day nursery with four windows, Mother's room and hall, drawing room and dining room which were connected by folding doors. These rooms each had three double French doors opening onto a wide verandah overlooking the garden.
Upstairs there was the night nursery and four other bedrooms. The kitchen quarters were separated from the house by a paved passage. On the ground floor, the usual offices were connected by a bridge on which was a pantry with a door into the dining room. This building had no third floor. On the roof was the lookout a square glassed-in box where we went up to watch when there was a really good fire. Fires in the Chinese wooden houses were frequent.
Opposite were the municipal offices, the fire alarm tower and two fire stations the Mihiloon (German) and the Deluge (British). These brigades were entirely voluntary, manned by young office wallahs but they were find 10 dollars (I pound) if they did not turn out to a call.
Diagonally opposite our house was the Anglican Cathedral complete with steeple. Both the Municipal offices and the Cathedral stood in acres of lawns.
The road was one back from the Bund, with lawns running down to the river. Shanghai is not on the mighty Yang-tse-Kiang as stated in so many geography books but is 12 miles up the Whampoo which is a tributary joining the Yangtse at Woosung. The Liners anchor at Woosung and the passengers and goods go up the Whampoo to Shanghai .
The Bund. The road is some way back from the river and the intervening space is laid out rather like lawns at Hove . On the otherside are fine buildings housing large firms Messrs Jardine and Matheson and Butterfield and Squires to mention two that I remember. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, the Customs House etc. Along the Bund to the Public Gardens, where the Phillipino band played daily was our invariable walk with Marjory and our nurse.
At about five years I went to a Kindergarten School (Dames) which later became Shangai Collegiate School . Marjory and I were taken to school and brought back by our own rick-shaw. Once we had a dress circle seat from our nursery windows of a wheelbarrow riot. All goods and sometimes Chinese passengers in Shanghai were carried on wheelbarrows. These consisted of a large wheel about 3ft in diameter with a seat on the axle each side and handles. These conveyances could carry as much as 4 cwt. When it was decided to licence and tax these vehicles there was a riot. Probably five or six hundred wheelbarrow coolies congregated on the lawns opposite our house. All the clerks and other staff manned the main gates in case of trouble. The police with truncheons and the fire brigade with hoses dispersed the crowd but Marjory and I thoroughly enjoyed the show.
Shanghai , a treaty port had four settlements strung out along the Bund. First nearest Woosung is the Portuguese actually they had no Bund. Next the British, French and German settlements. In the British the police consisted of Sikhs, (Indian) bearded giants, officered by British N.C.O.'s and also a Chinese force. These latter did all traffic control though I saw a Sikh take charge once when a coolie tried to pass in front of a carriage causing it to swerve dangerously. This Sikh strode up seized the culprit by the end of his pig-tail which he wrapped around his knee and gave three or four good tugs. This system of summary justice worked very well.
It had become the custom for the Bank to have their party at Christmas and my people had theirs at Hogmanay when my sisters usually put on a play.
For Queen Victoria 's Diamond Jubilee Shanghai went 'enfete'. All the big business houses along the Bund were decorated with thousands of Chinese Lanterns with attendants to replace any that went out. The front of the Bank was illuminated with ornamental gas set pieces something like neon signs today. There was a torchlight procession featuring the Navy, the Volunteers and Fire Brigade and we were invited to the bank to watch this.
The streets were packed tight with crowds of Chinese so that no wheeled traffic was possible. We had two sides of a block to go. Father produced a rope which we all hung onto so as not to get separated. Father went first wielding his stick rather like a drum major does his staff. Then two or three of the girls, then a hefty clerk from the office brought up the rear. And so we arrived. It is amazing that the Chinese did not seem to resent this treatment.
The procession was wonderful. What I remember best is the Dragon. It was 200ft to 300ft long and about 8ft in diameter, made of white translucent paper gorgeously painted and illuminated inside with hundreds of lights. Before and after the procession we played games. Snap Dragon is the one I remember.
Every summer we went up to Chefoo for a couple of months or so. The trip took 2-3 days in the Fung Chow. This steamer which had six or eight cabins opening into the dining saloon, sometimes rigged a huge foresail to help save coal.
Chefoo consisted of one hotel and a few Chinese shops and a wonderful beach. Each family was provided with a shelter on the beach where we spent the day. There usually one of two ships of the R.N. anchored in the bay. One afternoon the lamp room at the back of the hotel caught fire. One of the waiters went round and round the building beating a gong. The Navy saw the smoke and each ship sent in a boat with a fire party. Naturally they raced each other in getting away, covering a mile or so of sea and two or three hundred yards up to the hotel. With their prompt help the fire was soon put out.
In 1899 Marjory and I were sent home to school and Mrs Walker our nurse came too. We were put in the charge of Mr Cubitt the Captain of SS Formosa of the P & O Line. There was another boy of my age Christopher Ferguson also going home. He had a catapult '97 the first I had ever seen. Our first port of call was Hong Kong . There we went up the "Peak" by funicular railway and I spent hours in the garden of the house we were visiting looking for a Y stick for a 'catty'. Nurse produced some half inch elastic and a piece of leather which made a most efficient weapon. Our ammunition on the ship were bits of rust about the size of a 2/- bit which we collected off the inside of the casing over the steam pipes to the winches and the steering engine. Then I got my first beating from my friend the Captain. He was bending over speaking to someone on the well deck below him, the large blue expanse was irresistible and I scored a bull's eye. In spite of what happened afterward it was worth it.
The next port of call was Singapore . Here we took on a cargo of copra, packed in matting and carried on board by almost naked Malays a lovely target for two small boys with catapults. One Malay produced a knife and started to climb the side of the ship after us. We did not stop to see what he intended to do.
Next stop Columbo in Ceylon . This was where I first saw a 'Luxury Hotel' with a lovely tropical garden. Columbo, like Singapore , is almost on the equator. We also went up the hills to 'K' for a day and saw large quantities of Singalese jewellery and silks etc.
Then Aden . It was very hot and we did not go ashore. We were delayed for a day and left about midnight.The captain's cabin opened onto the deck on both sides. He had beem up most of the night and was lying on his bunk with feet out of the window. I borrowed a rope from one of the crew, made a slip knot which I slipped over his feet and tied down to a ring bolt on the deck outside. Then I went round to the door on the other side to ask him what could be the matter to make him holler so. Nothing was said. Later I accidentally turned on one of the hose couplings which wet a considerable part of the deck. The Captain was after me, but I could run faster than he till the first time round I came to the wet patch and skidded. He knelt on me while he took off his very stout leather belt. Enough said.

Produced by Family Historian S Potter

Stanley married Ida [29418] [MRIN: 10391].

Stanley next married Marion WINTHROP [29412] [MRIN: 10388].