Sky 19 · Filey Bay
salmoning
‘Lady Shirley’ revisited
Seventy years ago, four Filey fishermen drowned when their boat overturned off Primrose Valley. Auxiliary coastguard Eddie BELT, on bad-weather watch on Carr Naze, saw what happened through binoculars and raised the alarm. Eddie would later say that one of the fishermen had made it to the beach, had shaken himself and walked back into the waves. (This information from Ben Jenkinson senior in an audio clip posted to Looking at Filey but not available on the Wayback Machine.) I assume this was Richard Ferguson CAMMISH returning to the upturned boat to rescue his brother. (At the inquest a couple of weeks later, the Coroner would pay tribute to a Leeds man, Sidney Leonard Moon, who stripped and went into the sea “in a vain attempt to rescue the fishermen”.) Richard’s body was never found. His brother was buried in St Oswald’s churchyard, with Francis CAMMISH and William Robinson JENKINSON, on 3rd July.
The four men were fourth cousins; the brothers two of three sons born to Robert “Codge” CAMMISH and Mary Emily Simpson WATKINSON. In the photo below they are standing together beside their elder sister, Mary Margaret. The little girl is Annie Elizabeth. Her father named his boat after her. Girl Annie is one of the Filey fishing boats memorialized on the Promenade.
There is only one boat that goes salmoning regularly now. I photographed it this morning and have added an arrow pointing to Primrose Valley. Lady Shirley capsized about fifty yards from the beach.
There are two posts about the tragedy on Looking at Filey, Lady Shirley, and A Cammish Family.
The four fishermen are on Filey Genealogy & Connections.
Francis ‘Frankie Tosh’ Cammish
Richard Ferguson ‘Tosh’ Cammish
William Watkinson ‘Codge’ Cammish
William Robinson ‘Billy Wemp’ Jenkinson
I have created records for the brothers on FamilySearch Tree.
Duckling News
The 2016 brood on the boating lake lived for about five days; the unfortunates in 2017 less than that. This year, six ducklings soon became five but the surviving quintet is now 11 days old and looking well. The mother appears under-protective. Maybe previous experience has lowered her expectations. The father paid his family a brief visit a couple of days ago. He looked rough on the prow of his canoe.
