From Solund to the Sloch
The Lambrecht family
On the 11 October 1941, M/B Fiks (SF 334 SU) departed from Solund, north of Bergen with seventeen people on board. The boat was skippered by Karl Nicolaisen Lambrechts (the part owner) and on board were a seventeen people including his sixteen year old son Leon Normann Lambrechts.
A number of other relatives were on the boat too; Karl Monrad Lambrechts (*1916) and Erling Lambrechts (*1922) sons of Lyder Lambrechts), and Fritjof Lambrechts (*1917) and Kåre Ludolf Lambrechts (*1921) sons of Karl and Ragna Lambrechts
The others on board were Oscar Carl Andersen, Bernhards Arthur Avløp, Johan Eide, Ludvig Espeland, Olav Hans Gustav Espeland, Trygve Hop, Oddvar Kvale, Paul Nesøy, Leif Johan Steinsund, Håkon Hansen and Sverre Ytreøy. |
This page has created thanks to the help of Mrs Margaret Hunter. It was Mrs Hunter's mother, Mrs Nellie Smith, who initially gave the Lambrechts family a home in Portessie (The Sloch) when they first arrived in Buckie. Mrs Hunter (second left in the photograph below) kindly shared her memories, photographs and other memorabilia at the project's Open Afternoon at Buckie and District Fishing Heritage Centre, 18 October 2018. We are also indebted to Finn Hugøy of Solund Arkivet.for kind permission to use some of their photographs of the Lambrechts family.
|
Karl Nicolaisen Lambrechts had been born at Solund on 16 February 1902 and married Petrine Trovoag. Although, eldest son, Leon Normann had escaped on MB Fik, Karl left Petrine and their other four children behind in Solund. Leon Normann (born 3 June 1925) entered the Royal Norwegian Navy at the age of sixteen and a half. He saw action throughout the war, including on board M/S Kattegat.
Leon Normann Lambrechts (1925-2012). Picture by kind permission of the Solund Arkivet.
|
Karl returns to rescue his family
Karl Lambrechts joined the Norwegian Merchant Navy, operating on Nortra Ships fleet out of Dumbarton. Later joined the Norwegian Navy's Special Services, working on the Shetland Bus and made several trips back to Norway.
In January 1943, he was back in Solund on board M/B Guldborg in order to find suitable anchorages for crafts coming from Shetland. At the same time, he went home to pick up the rest of his family, his wife Petrine, sons Arne, Paul and Jon and daughter Gudrun, and once safely across the North Sea the family were settled in Buckie.
In January 1943, he was back in Solund on board M/B Guldborg in order to find suitable anchorages for crafts coming from Shetland. At the same time, he went home to pick up the rest of his family, his wife Petrine, sons Arne, Paul and Jon and daughter Gudrun, and once safely across the North Sea the family were settled in Buckie.
The Lambrechts family in a photograph almost certainly taken by Mohammed Ali at his photographic studio in Portessie, Buckie. Standing from left: Paul, Normann, Gudrun, Arne; seated Petrine with Jon and Karl. Picture by kind permission of the Solund Arkivet.
en to tre fire fem seks sju åtte ni ti
Initially, the Lambrechts stayed with Mrs Nellie Smith, 14 Craigenroan Place, Portessie who had given a home to a number of Norwegians. Nellie's daughter, Margaret, remembered on them well, like having older siblings. Gudrun was twenty by the time they arrived in Buckie; Normann was away serving the Navy; Arne and Paul and Arne went to the Norwegian School at Drumtochty Castle. But, Margaret remembers them being teaching her to count to ten in Norwegian as well as learning Glade Jul and that the boys picked up a good bit of Doric dialect. |
Mrs Smith, recognising that this large family needed a proper home, found them a house in Merson Street through the good offices of the Norwegian Consulate and the Town Council.
Through the years
After the end of the war the family returned to Norway. Karl resumed work as a fishing skipper and died in 1967. Petrine outlived him by thirty years, dying aged 92 in 1997. Gudrun, their only daughter, married Severin Pollen and died in 1998. Normann married Esther Steinkopf and he died 2012 at the age of 86.
Margaret Hunter still maintains contacts with the Lambrechts family who came to live with her family in Buckie all those years ago. She is pictured, right, with Arne Lambrechts (*1928) on a visit to Norway. |