Hello Carol,
I have just visited your web-site and signed your guest book. As I said there I found it very interesting.
When I was looking at the murals displayed in the town hall it reminded me about my late brother.
Up until his death in 1994 my brother Campbell Davies was an artist living in Greenock. I remember him once telling me he was commisioned to do a painting for , I believe, the Port Glasgow town hall.

The "Duchess"

Once in a while I get requests for help or information from people who visit the site. This can be as simple a request as sending them some links or taking some photographs of parts of the town. The site had only been on-line a matter of weeks when I got this letter on 18th May 2001

A former pupil of Greenock high School Campbell Davies (pictured above) took the prestigious Gibson Award in 1964 and 1966.
In the late sixties his love of the river and the boats was further shown as he took seasonal employment as Assistant Purser on the Waverly. By this time he was living in Glasgow where he attended Glasgow School of Art.
He returned to Greenock in 1980.
One of his better known paintings a very large oil painting that took over three months to paint and measured 62 inches x 50 inches depicted the QE2 docked at Greenocks Container Terminal. It was done from photographs that a friend had taken from the window of his flat in Finnart Street.
The painting was on display at the Greenock Central Libary in July 1991.

I had a few details to work with. The painting had been commissioned for the Town Hall and I had a copy of the artist signature from his brother. I knew that there was a few paintings in the Provost Office. In my complete ignorance I thought that the "Duchess of Hamilton" was a person! It soon occurred to me that we were talking about an old Clyde Steamer. After further contact I found out that there was another painting that had been donated to Ardgowan Hospice in 1994.

I made a few enquiries and the Hospice was having some Royal visitors so we had to wait till all that calmed down. Unfortunately the reply was not what we had hoped for.

I've had no luck so far. As far as I can gather, the painting was too large to hang in the Hospice. My predecessor, who herself has since died from cancer, tried to find it a home in a suitable venue. Staff members recall her making approaches to Fergusons, Caledonian McBrayne and Clydeport. Enquiries to these concerns have drawn a blank. I suggest a letter to the Greenock Telegraph.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Duncan N Macdonald

Reply from the Hospice.

Did you or someone you know purchase a painting to raise funds for the hospice? Do you know where there is a large painting by a local artist? Please get in touch if you can give us any more details as we have been unable to trace this painting!

Campbell's paintings are signed in this manner C~D or as the one in the provost office CDavies.

Plenty of letters were written concerning the Town Hall painting but for what ever reason I never got a single reply.

It took until this month (August 2001) for me to get the photo that was to make a man in the USA smile a little and bring back some memories of his brother.

Thank you for allowing me to share this story! If anyone would like more details please contact me.Thanks also to Mr McDonald from Argowan hospice for all his hard work in trying to trace the painting.

Most of Campbells paintings have now been traced and photographs sent to his brother but we are still looking for the big one that is mentioned above! I thought I would ask agian for your help so if you have any information please get in touch!

© R Davies 2000- 2007 all rights reserved, all trademarks hereby acknowledged.

This page last modified on Monday, March 10, 2003

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