Ramcharan-Crowley

He was born in Ayrshire, Scotland. He moved to Trinidad where he became a cocoa planter. He "married" Alice Bagmaniah and had 2 children Francis and Ethel. He eventually moved to Guyana where he was drowned at Rupunimi Falls on the Essequibo River.

I have no idea when Hugh left Scotland. But I know that my father Francis was born on 22.11.1888 and Hugh's name is on his birth certificate as his father. I also went to Liverpool which was the main port of embarkation of Scottish emigrants but I couldn't find anything there. As you know there are Registers of passengers which are kept at Kew, but I haven't had time to go there. Maybe you can do a search. Hugh and Alice were not married, and when Hugh left Trinidad and went to Guyana the missionaries married off my grandmother Alice (aka Bhagmonea) to David Sampath and she proceeded to have several children with David who as you know was a widower with several children of his own. Hugh must have made return trips to Scotland if he had his photograph taken in Glasgow in 1902. In the photograph he is extremely well dressed, as if he was quite prosperous. It has also been said that he spent some time in Alaska in the Klondike - he was a gold miner, which was his occupation in Guyana. He also made several trips back to Trinidad to visit his two children: Francis and Ethel and in fact he used to send money regularly to Alice for support of the two children who were in David's custody. My parents were married around 1916 and my mother of course knew him quite well. On one of his visits in 1926 my mother was pregnant and he told Francis that if he had a boy he should be called Hugh McCrorie, that's me. He left me a gold watch and gold chain. I still have the watch although it doesn't work now. On a subsequent visit when my mother was pregnant again he asked that if it was a girl she should be called Elizabeth after his eldest sister. He also had one of Ethel's daughters named Margaret after his sister. He returned to Guyana in 1928 and was drowned at the Rupunimi Falls on the Essiquibo river trying to save a drowning woman - so it was said. I personally have no recollections of him, but my older brothers knew him. I went to Guyana and searched the local newspapers for a report of his death, but at that time I didn't know the exact date of his drowning. My brother told me that his death was reported in the Guyana newspaper and my father had a clipping. Unfortunately I couldn't locate it. I will have to go back to Guyana now that I know it was in 1928.

Hugh was in Scotland in 1888 as he registered the death of his mother in September of that year in Ayr. Posted by Lyn

"My grandmother told me about her grandfather's death. She told me (before she died) that he gave up his life vest to a young girl on the river...I also remember her telling me that he was a religious man. She, of course, did not know him either so I'm not sure how she could know that."

"He always brought gifts for his children, Ethel and Francis, and shared gold dust with my father [Ralp Laltoo]. I have a gold chain he gave Ethel on one visit and we have a few pictures of him. The story I grew up with about his death does not involved a life vest. My grandmother, Ethel, told me that he stood up in a boat to give his seat to a woman and toppled overboard, and that the river was so swift moving that his body was never retrieved. His religious fervour was never discussed in our family. Actually, he went against the church and the British government to consort with an Indian and have two children out of wedlock!"