Uncomfortable histories
Despite the generally excellent relations between the Norwegian and Danish communities and locals in Buckie during the war there were occasionally tensions and events which proved to be difficult. Some of these were played out publicly through, for example, the records of the Police Court for the Burgh with monthly appearances by some of the exiles for drunk and disorderly, assaults, nuisance and other relatively minor offences.
These cannot be said to be what academics refer to as "difficult heritage" that is to say events which are hard to reconcile or deal with. Occasionally, however, there were some stories that can be said to be difficult and uncomfortable. This page tells some of the details of these uncomfortable stories. Clearly, for reasons of sensitivity and because of the nature of small communities, details on particularly difficult stories have been anonymised.
These cannot be said to be what academics refer to as "difficult heritage" that is to say events which are hard to reconcile or deal with. Occasionally, however, there were some stories that can be said to be difficult and uncomfortable. This page tells some of the details of these uncomfortable stories. Clearly, for reasons of sensitivity and because of the nature of small communities, details on particularly difficult stories have been anonymised.
A child is born
|
In the autumn of 1942, a baby was born prematurely in Buckie and given the name Irene Carolina. This should have been an happy occasion but the circumstances meant that it was one full of complexity and not simply owing to the premature birth. The mother was a native to Buckie and was a thirty-five year married woman. The father of the child was not, however, her husband from whom she was separated from at the time. Instead, the father of the child was one of the Swedish fishermen who was living in the town. The infant was, therefore, given her father's Swedish surname. Sadly, the baby died three weeks later on 11 October 1942 owing to complication because of the premature delivery. The Swedish fisherman went back home after the end of the war and whatever relationship there had been came to end. The woman lived out the rest of her life in Buckie.
|
|
Children left behind
The case above was by no means unique. A number of other children were born to local women, fathered by Norwegian or Danish men from the exiled community. On Christmas Eve 1944, a local woman gave birth to a baby girl at Seafield Cottage Hospital in Buckie. The father was one of the Danes and he had something of a reputation, appearing frequently in the records of Police Court during the War, mostly for offences connected with alcohol and drunken behaviour or disturbances.
The father was named on the birth certificate although the couple were not married. Some months later, after the end of the conflict, the Dane returned home leaving the child to be raised by her mother in Buckie. He later went on to marry back in Denmark and subsequently had two children. There was no contact between the father and the daughter in Buckie and it is doubtful if his two children in Denmark knew of the existence of their half sister in Buckie who died a number of years ago. Another Buckie woman had a son, also born in 1944, to a Norwegian father. Like the story above the father returned home after the end of the war and there was no subsequent contact with the child left in Buckie. The child, however, knew the identity of his father as well as the region of Norway that he came from and subsequently made efforts to track down details, although his father had died by that point. Sometimes the details of such events were openly talked about but all too often they were not. We dinna spik aboot that. |
"They liked a dram"
As the section on Crime and Punishment reports, there were many appearances at the Burgh's Police Court during the war by Norwegians and Danes and the occasional Swede. Most of this was low-level crime such as drunk and incapable, nuisance, disturbance but there were more serious incidents too. There were also regular offenders.
The Danish residents of Gorleston Cottage in Garden appeared particularly frequently associated with drunk and incapable, public nuisance; the men, all in their twenties, were seemingly regarded as "trouble" in the community at large. They were habitually described as foreign fishermen.
One of the residents of a Gorlieston Cottage appeared in court on two successive weeks in June 1943, on different charges. Indeed, this individual appeared so frequently before the court that the Burgh's Police Judge lost his patience and suggested to the man that he do something more useful like serving in the military. The following week, the Banffshire Advertiser, carried a letter from one of the Town Councillors criticising the judge for his comments.
On occasions the drunken antics of the foreign fishermen led to violence with a number of assault cases being heard in the Police Court. Many of the assaults and brawls involved young Norwegians and Danes getting into arguments that led to fights with young local men. Sometimes these were more serious such as one, in May 1943, at the Harbour Bar in which three Norwegians were charged after assaulting three locals (James Cleland, William Lawson and William Milne). The Norwegians were found guilty and fined between £6 and £8 each.
In local parlance it was well-recorded that the foreigners "liked a dram" but then so too did many a local.
The Danish residents of Gorleston Cottage in Garden appeared particularly frequently associated with drunk and incapable, public nuisance; the men, all in their twenties, were seemingly regarded as "trouble" in the community at large. They were habitually described as foreign fishermen.
One of the residents of a Gorlieston Cottage appeared in court on two successive weeks in June 1943, on different charges. Indeed, this individual appeared so frequently before the court that the Burgh's Police Judge lost his patience and suggested to the man that he do something more useful like serving in the military. The following week, the Banffshire Advertiser, carried a letter from one of the Town Councillors criticising the judge for his comments.
On occasions the drunken antics of the foreign fishermen led to violence with a number of assault cases being heard in the Police Court. Many of the assaults and brawls involved young Norwegians and Danes getting into arguments that led to fights with young local men. Sometimes these were more serious such as one, in May 1943, at the Harbour Bar in which three Norwegians were charged after assaulting three locals (James Cleland, William Lawson and William Milne). The Norwegians were found guilty and fined between £6 and £8 each.
In local parlance it was well-recorded that the foreigners "liked a dram" but then so too did many a local.