There are countless tales to be found, hiding in plain sight around Greyfriars Kirkyard. Here is just one more example.
On the North Wall of the West Yard of the Kirkyard is a memorial stone for the Tailour Family. Included on the inscription are the words :
“Queely Davies, the third son of Doctor Tailour, a Lieutenant in the 92nd Regiment, was lost in the Glorieux when that ship foundered at sea in the fatal gale of September 1792”.
This short inscription opens up a story of the worst ever loss of life incurred by the British Navy & Merchant Navy in a single storm. HMS Glorieux was a French naval ship that had, together with other French ships, recently been captured by the British in the Caribbean. These ships were all in poor condition and there was a serious shortage of sailors to crew them. But the fateful decision was made to sail these ships back to Britain in a flotilla, during hurricane season. They sailed up the East coast of North America then on reaching Newfoundland they struck out across the Atlantic. On 17 September 1782, the fleet was caught in an extremely violent storm off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Most of the ships were unable to prevent the storm ripping off their masts and bursting open their weakened hulls. In total almost 3,500 British sailors drowned and a dozen ships were lost in the infamous storm, including HMS Glorieux on which Lieutenant Queely Davies Tailour was sailing.
Other members of the same family died at Calcutta in India and St Vincent in the Caribbean. The 18th century was an age in which so many Scottish people spread out across the world, seeking to advance themselves by serving in the armed forces or working in overseas ventures, where they met their end so never to return to their native land.
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