COMMUNITY Murdered in Inv I


T WAS July 1942. A warm, sunny day in In-


veraray. A pretty, young Irish girl casually strolled along the back path of Loch Fyne to the centre of the Royal Burgh. Dressed smartly in her uniform, Gertrude Canning made her way into the hustle and bustle of Inveraray to post a letter to her family back in Ireland. But two days later when that letter finally arrived in her home county of Donegal, Gertrude Canning, aged just 20, was the subject of a missing per- sons investigation. Five days after Gertrude posted her let- ter, she was found dead; she had been shot four times. Now, 68-years later, Ger- trude’s family have travelled to Inveraray from Ireland to pay their respects to ‘Gerty’, as they fondly refer to her. Brothers Liam, Tommy and Joe Canning, along with Li- am’s wife Helen, visited In- veraray in September. ‘We’re not here to avenge her murder,’ explained Liam.’We just feel that we owed it to our dad, who was Gerty’s brother, to lay her soul to rest.’ The family say Gertrude’s death was something that was not discussed in the family. But when Liam’s son was handed a newspaper clipping referring


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The mystery of the World War Two Wren shot dead in the Royal Burgh By Jenny Sutherland


World War One Wren, Gertrude Canning was murdered in 1942 in Inveraray. a43wren02NO


to Gertrude’s death, the fami- ly’s interest was sparked. ‘One of the reasons we’re here,’ said Tommy, ‘is that it was something that was never discussed – a mystery. When we started to look into it, we all just became more and more interested.’ The last confirmed sighting of Gertrude came from two road- men who saw her walk along the wooded track beside a bank of wild flowers. They watched her go and minutes later they saw a soldier walk- ing down the track in the same direction.


Gertrude’s body was found just metres away from The Mar- riage Tree; a tree which was believed to possess a sense of magic. The grim discovery was made by two young boys and their mother. Joe explained: ‘We believe the boys were called William and Donald and they were aged 10 and 12 respectively. Their mother was called Agnes Smith. ‘The boys would now be in their late 70s, early 80s, but we don’t know whether they ever spoke about what they saw – maybe they passed the story onto future generations.’ The detective investigating her death, Detective Chief Super- intendent Robert Colquhoun MBE, found that the bullets fired, which are believed to have killed Gertrude, were from a standard British Army .38 gun; and that several thou- sand men within a ten mile area would have been armed with that type of revolver. In his book, Life begins at Midnight, Detective Chief Su- perintendent Colquhoun, said another shock in the murder of Gertrude Canning, came


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