The Orkney Image Library
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A Tom Kent picture date unknown. Any idea who these chaps are.
Picture added on 11 August 2006
I think the gentleman on the right may be Sheriff Cosens. John Robert Cosens, advocate, was Sheriff-Substitute at Kirkwall from 1898 till his death aged 44 in 1903. I'll e-mail a picture I have of him so they can be compared.
Added by Paul Sutherland on 11 August 2006
The other two men in suits look quite like two of the men in picture #544, but I would need to see a higher-resolution version of the picture to be sure.
Added by Paul Sutherland on 13 August 2006
Having seen a bigger version of the picture, Paul adds:
'I'm still not sure, but I think the bloke in the loud tweeds could be the man standing 6th from left (with fur-trimmed overcoat) in picture #544 . As for the man at the back, he could be M L Howman the Procurator Fiscal, but I'm even less sure of that identification. It's tempting to think of this as a lawyers' jaunt, but it looks like a fun outing whoever they were (maybe less fun for the two blokes having to crew the boat). From comparing the photos yourself do you think these are the same people? '
Paul's picture of Sheriff Cosens has been added as picture #1659
'I'm still not sure, but I think the bloke in the loud tweeds could be the man standing 6th from left (with fur-trimmed overcoat) in picture #544 . As for the man at the back, he could be M L Howman the Procurator Fiscal, but I'm even less sure of that identification. It's tempting to think of this as a lawyers' jaunt, but it looks like a fun outing whoever they were (maybe less fun for the two blokes having to crew the boat). From comparing the photos yourself do you think these are the same people? '
Paul's picture of Sheriff Cosens has been added as picture #1659
Anonymous comment added on 14 August 2006
Sailing seems to have been a favourite pastime among Orkney's 19th century Sheriffs. Cosens' predecessor S B Armour was a keen yachtsman and so it seems was J C Mellis the Sheriff before that. The "Shetland Times" of 12th August 1882 reported that Sheriff Mellis was sending his boat "Trollhaena" and crew north on the St Magnus for the Lerwick Regatta. Of 16'3" keel Trollhaena was described as a "crack craft" which had won the Kirkwall regatta in the previous two years. In the end she came second at Lerwick out of 19 entries in the under 22 feet class.
Added by Paul Sutherland on 05 October 2006
"Crack" was an old sailer's term applied to the fastest of the old China Tea Clippers of the eighteen fifties and sixties, viz Cutty Sark, Thermopylae, Ariel, Titania and a few others
Added by Tom Scott on 06 October 2006
The man second from the right with the hat and moustache could be a man who is in family pictures. They came to light two years ago when my aunt died. She was born in 1911 and she and her mom and dad and two siblings came to Canada in 1919 or 1920. My grandparents' names' were Robert and Elizabeth (Lizzie) Mitchell (nee Miller/Sinclair). I have very few names and the pictures have nothing written on them that would provide clues. This is of little help to you but I thought any leads might be better than none.
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Added by Barb Lane on 01 April 2008
South Ronaldsay
