Ragged School/Bank St Boys Home

[Maggiemck]

oh isn't that sad. It's remarkable how well people turned out despite these circumstances isn't it? My grandfather spent some period of his life there and I've been trying to find out when he went there and what the circumstances were but it's a part of Greenock's history which I fear has been lost to us. But he had a similar story to your great grandfather I guess.

I'm glad to say, like your ancestor, my grandfather turned out a decent man in spite of his difficult early years. He had a long standing naval career and served in the Royal Navy during the second world war and was rewarded with medals for his time spent in service. He married my grandmother and they had 10 children together and he was a good family man. It's heartwarming to know that something good can come out of such a horrible start in life. I think they had to be tough in those days to deal with what life threw at them.

 

[elaine447]

Mary G
is there any chance you could  post the picture on here
and the Greenock telegraph is always printing old pictures of the area
it would be nice and you never know you may get some names for the
children in the picture
Elaine

[Mary G.]

My great grandfather, Thomas Leitch White (1874-1967) spent several years as an inmate in the Ragged school on Captain Street. He was born in Ireland to Mary Leitch in 1874, and his unmarried mother brought him to Greenock when he was a year old. She married a widower named James Cassidy, who was a sugar house worker, and apparently unemployed frequently. I know from family stories, he was a drinker and abusive. During parts of his childhood, my great grandfather used the surname Cassidy. He shows up on the 1891 census living at the school, although he is then 15 and supposedly over the allowable age. He was very tiny from his poor diet as a child. For him, the Ragged School was a haven compared to his home. He got fed, he wasn't beaten or neglected or abused. They taught him to read, play the organ (!), and I truly believe saved his life. James Cassidy had four children from his first marriage and they all died young. Seems odd to look at a street view of Wellington and Captain and see an apartment complex on the site where there must have been so much young misery and heart break.

[Maggiemck]

It's good to add this comment Mary, we all tend to think of the negative side of these institutions but I feel sure they were truly a life saver for many children who faced a worse life at home. I'm glad that some people had positive memories of the institution.

My mother now lives in one of the new build houses on Wellington Street which would have been part of the site of the old poorhouse site. I think of it every time I go there to visit her.