Thursday 15 September

Another sunny autumn day, but noticeably cooler than earlier in the week. The sun still keeps it nice and warm, but in the shade, you do notice it's not much above 14C.

I transcribed more 1942 tributes today, some of which threw up some interesting queries. During 1942, HMS Curacao was sliced in two by the Queen Mary, leaving many sailors dead. Their bodies washed up all over the Hebrides. One at Kilmory, on the northern shores of the Isle of Rum.


However, when I checked my files, it appears that the casualty actually lies buried in Sandwick Cemetery, here in Lewis. Donald Maciver came from Newvalley, just outside Stornoway. I am chasing it up (hopefully) with local history people in the Small Isles, to check if there is a record of such a burial on Rum. At the time, the island was still privately owned by the Bullough family of Accrington.

Fifteen years later, Lady Monica Bullough was taken to her last resting place at Harris (sic), Isle of Rum, along that hard, hard track from Kinloch.

She was to be laid to rest at the family mausoleum. The first mausoleum was constructed, but subsequently destroyed at the orders of Sir George, as he was not pleased with it. The Greek-style mausoleum you see below now stands over the last of the Bulloughs.