Person:Peter Hercus (1)

Married: Mary Garrioch

Children: Peter, William, David, James, John, Marion and Elizabeth (Lily)

Lived at Scrabster and was fisherman and Fish Curer.

When George VI went to Scrabster to meet Churchill returning from signing the Atlantic Charter he asked for the "man with the red beard" whom he had remembered when he had been to Scrabster as a midshipman.

Known and admired as a daring and skilful seaman, he had for many years worked as a lobster fisher. In handling a small sail boat he had few peers and, on one occasion at least, he made the journey in his own little craft from Scrabster to Orkney, sailing through a storm that kept larger vessels sheltering in port, and returning as if it was all in the day's work. He was also one of the most skilled model yachtsman in the north.

During the Great War he was in the service of the Admiralty at Scrabster, where at the same time he worked for the North of Scotland Steam Navigation Company. He was not only a fisher himself but for a time carried on a business as a fish merchant while he also was engaged in baiting steam liners. His was a kindly, courteous and cheerful personality, hospitable to a degree, and deserving of respect in which he was held by all seamen and everyone connected with the fishing industry visiting Scrabster. (Thurso Paper)