THE family of a forgotten Gourock woman who was abandoned as a child and then later brutally killed are appealing for help as they try to shed light on her tragic life.

Gladys McFayden, aged 27, was strangled to death 70 years ago and her body was found by children hidden in a heap of rubbish in Newcastle.

Now her nephew Steven Jukes and his wife Lynda want to highlight her desperate story and the terrible injustices she faced.

They hope to piece together her early years in Gourock and give her the respect denied to her in life.

Her nephew Steven, 63, who lives in Middlesbrough, said: “It is a tragic story.

“It makes me very sad that a member of my family was treated this way, both in her life and death.
“There was no one at her funeral — she was all alone.

“It is so, so sad.

“I only found out about my aunt just before my mother died.

“She told me she had a sister who was killed. She had never spoken about this before. She went with her mum Mary to the morgue to identify her, and that was it.”

Gladys McFadyen from Gourock was born at the end of the First World War and killed at the end of the Second World War.

In between she fell into a life of poverty and then prostitution, ending up in Newcastle where she met her gruesome death.

At the time she was described by police as a flower seller and ‘a fairground type’.

The man initially charged with her murder, Albert Little, was eventually convicted of manslaughter.

The Tele reported on her death at the time, describing her as the ‘tattooed girl’.

Her story recently featured in a TV documentary called Inside Out to highlight injustices against women in the justice system.

Linda, who has spent the last five years researching Gladys’ story said: “Her killer was convicted of manslaughter because he killed someone who was considered a prostitute.”

Linda and Steven, who have three grown up daughters, visited Inverclyde last week to try to find out more about Gladys. They know she was born in 1918 and abandoned aged three by her mum Mary McFadyen, so that she could marry First World War soldier Hugh Donnelly.

Lynda said: “Mary was told that she would have to give up her daughter if she wanted to marry him. It was different days then and times were very hard for people.

“But we really don’t know much else about her life in Gourock and how she ended up in Newcastle. We just want to put together missing pieces of her story.”

They do know that Gladys had a son Robert, who was three when she left him with her gran, who lived in Mathie Crescent.

Aged only eight when his mum died, it is understood he later moved to Essex where he worked as a bank clerk.

A police manhunt was launched after Gladys’ death on November 7, 1945, and she was wrongly described as in her 40s, with a record for drunken disorder and larceny.

Steven’s mum Jean — who died in 1990 — was Gladys’ younger sister, the daughter of Mary and Hugh Donnelly and brought up in Gourock.

She later moved from place to place with her husband William, a Sergeant Major in the Army.
Now Steven, who lived in Gourock for a short time, and Lynda have found Gladys’ unmarked grave where they laid wreaths and eventually hope to put a gravestone.

Lynda said: “We just want to tell her story and to finally give her the respect she was denied both in life and death.”

If anyone can help the family trace Gladys’ early life in Gourock, contact the Tele newsroom on 558908 or email slochrie@greenocktelegraph.co.uk