Locations: Inverness, Saltburn by the Sea, Conon Bridge
Milestones
Birth: April 30 1894 - Saltburn by the Sea
Marriage:
September 26 1920 - Edinburgh to Violet Catherine McIntosh
Brief Profile
Reginald Gilbertson was born in the last years of the 19th century. In the course of a long life he experienced two world wars and technological and social changes which transformed his world. Throughout it all he remained a dedicated and professional seaman who was proud to be a Master Mariner.
Invitation
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Death Notice
[From the Ross-shire Journal of 17th June 1977.]
Gilbertson. Passed away at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness on 10th June 1977 Captain Reginald Wemyss Dyke Gilbertson retired Master Mariner beloved husband of Violet, Viewbank, Conon Bridge. Interred privately in Urquhart New Cemetery. No letters please.
Timeline
1901 March 31 Recorded in the census as living at 46, William Street, Fulwell, Sunderland, with parents and siblings, Wilfred and Josephine.
1908 – 1912 Indentured an “Ordinary Apprentice” to Rowland and Marwood Steamship Company, Whitby.
1912 September 10 apprenticeship completed. Entered Merchant Navy Service. Over the next 3-4 years, graduating to 3rd Officer, Reginald served mainly on vessels in the Prince Line taking him as far afield as North and South America.
1916 May 26 enlisted in the Royal Naval Reserve as Sub Lieutenant (Temp) from 28th May 1916 to 27th May 1918.) Served on these vessels or shore bases: -HMS Pembroke, HMS Tyne (“Flying Fish”), HMS Wallington, HMS Attentive, HMS Gipsy.
1917 September 9 Whilst second in command of HMS Gipsy, engaged and destroyed, with others, U48 submarine.
1918 May 28 promoted to rank of Lieutenant (Temp) held until 4th October 1919. Served on HMS City of Perth, HMS Pembroke, HMS Europa, HMS Kinross.
1919 June 6 aboard HMS Kinross when it was sunk by a mine whilst engaged in mine sweeping operations off Greece.
1919 October 14 demobilised. Returned to Merchant Navy Service.
1920 February 16: Granted Certificate of Competency as a Master for Foreign-Going Steamships.
1920 – 1934 returning to the Prince Line he served on 10 of their prestigious liners, mainly on transatlantic crossings, to New York rising in rank from 2nd Mate to Chief Officer.
1935 appointed as Master of the recently completed cargo vessel, Hopecrown.
1935 – 1939 carried mixed cargo in North and South America and the Far East.
1939 – 1944 As Master of the Hopecrown Reginald continued to transport cargo in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, East and West Africa, and UK waters throughout the war. Despite the ever-present risk of attack by German U Boats, Hopecrown undertook many voyages, sometimes in convoys but frequently unescorted. Master and ship continued to ply their trade and survived the war unscathed.
1944 May 10 Discharged (at Peterhead) from the Merchant Navy Service ‘on reduction of complement.’
1946 Recruited into the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
1948 February 2 Appointed as Captain of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Tug, ‘Earner.’ Reginald’s last, and longest, command.
1959 December 8 Earner was one of a number of vessels called out to aid the North Carr Light ship, along with the lifeboat ‘Mona’ from Broughty Ferry. Tragically the entire 8-man crew of the ‘Mona’ lost their lives.
1963 June RFA Earner was laid up at HM Dockyard, Rosyth.
1964 Captain and ship both retired together.
Obituary
Reginald Gilbertson was born in the last years of the 19th century. In the course of a long life he experienced two world wars and technological and social changes which transformed his world. Throughout it all he remained a dedicated and professional seaman who was proud to be a Master Mariner.
An apprentice from 1908 to 1912 his annual wage rose from £7 to £15 for the final year. Serving on the SS Ryde from September 1908 to March 1910, he was reported as “attentive to his duties, willing and strictly sober…..a very desirable apprentice in every way being at all times respectful and obedient to his officers, carrying out his various duties in a capable and efficient manner.”
The newly qualified ship’s officer started out on a life at sea which was to last for 54 years, involving him in tragic events in war and peacetime. As the storm clouds gathered over Europe and the world, Reginald signed up with the Royal Naval Reserve. In 1916 at the age of 22 he found himself a Sub Lieutenant (Temp) with His Majesty’s Royal Navy where he saw action in UK waters and in the Mediterranean.
On 24th September 1917 an elderly destroyer, HMS Gypsy, with Reginald second in command, was on patrol in the English Channel. Aided by drifters of the ‘Dover Patrol’ She engaged and pursued the German U Boat U48 on to the Goodwin Sands where it ran aground. There it was destroyed by gunfire.
On 16th June 1919 Reginald was in command of a minesweeper, HMS Kinross, engaged in mine sweeping operations off Greece when she was sunk by a mine. Holed below the waterline the ship rolled over and went down in under an hour. 12 members of the ship’s company lost their lives.
As a young naval officer during the Great War he had been befriended by the McIntosh family of the London House in Invergordon, then a Naval Base. On 26th September 1920 he married Violet Catherine Aird McIntosh, eldest daughter of Robert John McIntosh and Annie McIntosh (nee Munro) at the North British Hotel in Edinburgh. The couple had two daughters. Ann Gilbertson born in Invergordon on 10th August 1921 and Joan Gilbertson born on 24th September 1926 in Newport, Monmouthshire.
Reginald’s 1948 appointment to the RFA Earner though it was based in Rosyth, enabled him to spend some time at home in Viewbank, Conon Bridge, Ross-shire, for the first time in his career.
On 8th December 1959 RFA Earner attended the Light Ship North Carr which had broken free from her moorings off Fife Ness in very heavy weather. The Broughty Ferry Lifeboat Mona was launched in the early hours. After the North Carr managed to anchor it was taken under tow by the Earner to Leith for repair. Tragically the ‘Mona’ with her entire crew of eight was lost that day in what is remembered as the Broughty Ferry Lifeboat Disaster.
Ann and Joan married two brothers, settled in Edinburgh, each having a family of three. The ’70s for Reg were, at the school holiday times, happy days as permutations of his grandchildren came to stay in Viewbank.
His nautical career ended in 1964, For the rest of his life in retirement in Viewbank the nameplate of the Earner occupied the wall beside his bunk.
Appreciations
From MMH, Black Isle. September 2020
I have happy memories of the Captain and his stories. Most were credible but he had differing versions of how he lost his ring finger. And l am not convinced that was a confidant, on a transatlantic crossing, of the silent movie star Collette Colbert. Having been at sea for most of the time Ann and Joan were growing up he enjoyed the banter with my youngsters.
From MMM, Fort William, June 16 2021
Reg did not have the seaman’s occasionally legendary fondness for drink – which was just as well because Violet disapproved strongly. Often away at sea for months on end Reg kept in touch with home by letter.
“Violet wrote to me after Joan was born,” he told me over coffee one day, “to say that the doctor had advised her to drink some stout every day to keep up her strength! “Well,” he went on, “I thought, this is going to be interesting! So I wrote asking her how she liked the stout.”
Then he giggled. “She wrote back to say that it wasn’t too bad. She had nearly finished the bottle. She was taking a spoonful every night at bedtime!”
I always got him a wee half bottle of Drambuie at Christmas. “Don’t tell Violet!” he would say with a wink.
Postscript
The Obituary is contributed by the owner of the entries for Reginald Wemyss Dyke Gilbertson, C T , Edinburgh.
Documents vouching certain of the detail in the Timeline and Obituary are likely to be lodged in the Highland Archive Centre https://www.highlifehighland.com/highland-archive-centre/