Davie Garrity is appealing for help from the public this Christmas
Davie Garrity is appealing for help from the public this Christmas. Put into care as a baby, he never got the chance to meet his mum. He is hoping to find someone who knew her so that at last he can see a photo of her.
Davie (69), was taken into care at 14 months in the Glasgow area and is desperate to see a picture of his mother, Elizabeth Garrity/Ramsey. Davie, who had a negative experience in the care system, was told from a very early age that he was abandoned by his mum, who’d given him up to the care system to look after. But it was only after tracking down his care records a few years ago he discovered that his mum had not abandoned him at birth, but had looked after him until he was 14 months old – and that it was only following a period of very ill health for Davie, that the single mum took the heart-breaking decision to put him into care.
After leaving care in his late teens, Davie moved forward with his life, pushing his experiences to the back of his mind and it was a chance encounter on the golf course with someone he used to be in care with, that brought all the memories of the past flooding back.
Keen to find out more about his roots, Davie applied for copies of his care records and was both delighted and devastated to find out his mum had also made several attempts to visit him in care and get access to him, but these had all been denied.
Davie said: “I couldn’t believe what I was reading – after thinking for all these years that my mum had abandoned me as a baby and didn’t want me, that wasn’t true at all – she did love me after all and really tried hard to see me.”
He started to look for his mum but received the sad news that she had passed away in 1978.
Now, with help from Future Pathways, Scotland’s in-care survivor support fund, all he wants is to see what his mum looked like for the first time. Davie is appealing for help to track down a picture of her and make his wish come true.
Davie said: “I’m just so desperate to see just a photo of my mum and it must be out there somewhere. Getting to see my mum’s face for the first time would really be the best Christmas present anyone could give.”
He has managed to find the following information about his mum Elizabeth:
- She was born Elizabeth Turnbull on 17 March 1909, and passed away in 1978 aged 69 years of ages at Dykebar Hospital in Paisley.
- She lived with her parents William Turnbull, a butcher, and Isabella Turnbull in the Linwood area of Glasgow.
- She married Thomas Garrity, a motor mechanic, at St Margaret’s Chapel, Stanley Street, Glasgow on 7 October 1939.
- She then married James Ramsey, a general labourer at Maxwell Church in Glasgow on 30th December 1954. The couple lived on Paisley Road West.
- She worked as a bus conductress for Glasgow Corporation buses in the 1930s and 1940s. She then went on to work as a bond warehouse store person.
- She spent the majority of her life living in the Linwood and Paisley areas, however also spent time staying with friends at various places with in the North and West of Glasgow during the 1950s, particularly the Scotstoun area.
- She was known affectionately as ‘Aunty Betty’ by friends and family.
If anyone has any information about or photographs of Elizabeth, please call 0800 164 2005 in confidence.
