Born at Lingness on the 3rd of May 1917, George Gear was one of Shetland's greatest story-tellers; he also had an encyclopaedic knowledge of local history.
No one in living memory could equal George W.C.R. Gear for his knowledge of local history and genealogy. He could recall, to an amazing degree, the events of his life and all that he had heard; often repeating verbatim what people had told him decades before, even remembering what like the weather was on a particular day decades earlier. Geordie's attention to detail was shown in the way he would provide day, month and year if he could. It was never the Battle of Waterloo 1815; to Geordie it was always the Battle of Waterloo 18th June 1815. As youngster Geordie had sat at the feet of John Anderson 1868-1947 who was born at the Quoys (a grandson of Dempster Laurenson 1802-92) moving later to Eswick, and listened with rapture to John's accurate account of former sons and daughters of South Nesting. John, in turn, had sat at the feet of three old men when he was a boy, which effortlessly took him, and subsequently Geordie, right back to the very late 1700s.
He was by far the best person to ask about your family history — able to tell you about most people that had lived in the Nesting area going back 200 years — not just their names, but stories associated with them, even quoting what they had said. Geordie was always honest; if he didn't know something he said so — you could always rely on the veracity of what you were told. People came from far and wide to question him about South Nesting history, and/or their forebears, often recording what he said, either on cassette tape, or just by taking notes. Geordie was also a gifted mimic and could readily copy the manner of speech of those he was talking about — although this was not a talent that he permitted to be recorded — in case it was to cause friends or relatives of who he mimicked any offence. It's as well that so much was recorded, as this forms an invaluable record that we would not otherwise have.
He grew up on the croft of Lingness, an idyllic but isolated peninsula just north of Eswick. In his youth he travelled amongst the crofts of Nesting helping these friends and relatives with their work — learning history, genealogy and folklore all the while. He served in World War Two as a leading seaman gunner in the Royal Navy Patrol Service. He was stationed in the Mediterranean through most of the war, fighting in the North African and Italian campaigns. He returned to Lingness after the war and took over the monitoring and maintenance of the Moul of Eswick minor lighthouse, a duty he performed for 46 years before retiring from it in 1992. He augmented his income through many diverse activities, including lobster fishing and curing sheepskins; all the while improving the croft through constructing new buildings, dykes and a breakwater to safeguard the house from the sea. Through most of this post war period he shared the house at Lingness with his mother and younger brother. With his mother passing away and his brother marrying and moving to Eswick, George was alone for a while at Lingness during the 1970s; his health was failing though, and he decided that it was best to move to Eswick to be with his brother and near other neighbours — he left Lingness in 1979. Being at Eswick made him all the more accessible to those wishing to question him — he had many visitors there, usually staying into the early morning. He died on New Year's Day 1996, leaving all who knew him wishing they had recorded more of what he knew; to this day we often find ourselves wondering about some person long dead, or some event from the past, and we wish Geordie was still with us to answer our questions.
If anyone reading this has recordings that they made of George Gear, be they audio or just notes — please contact us — as we are very keen to collect such material.
