May Moar or Marjory Moar born May Hectorson (1825 – 2 June 1894) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

crofter A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable, and usually, but not always, with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer, especially in rural are ...

in the

Shetland Isles Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

who was awarded an RNLI silver medal for rescuing fishermen off the island of Yell.

Life

Moar was born in

Unst Unst (; sco, Unst; nrn, Ønst) is one of the North Isles of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles and is the third-largest island in Shetland after Mainland and Yell. It has an area of . Unst ...

in 1825. She was one of six children born to Williamina Anderson and Laurence Hectorson. Her father was drowned the following year. She was fostered by another family and she went to live on the nearby island of

Yell A yell is a loud vocalization; see screaming. Yell may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Yell, Shetland, one of the North Isles of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland * Yell Sound, Shetland, Scotland United States * Yell, Tennessee, an unin ...

. She married a fisherman named David Moar in 1847. She came to notice when she, her husband and a group of others saw a four oared boat that had overturned. She was lowered over the edge of a precipice on a rope so that she could make a rescue. She balanced on a ledge and she was able to throw a lifebuoy to the crew. Once caught they were able to be pulled to the shore. Her husband saved others. She was awarded a medal by the

Royal Humane Society The Royal Humane Society is a British charity which promotes lifesaving intervention. It was founded in England in 1774 as the ''Society for the Recovery of Persons Apparently Drowned'', for the purpose of rendering first aid in cases of near dro ...

and a silver medal by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Her heroism did not prevent her and her family from being evicted from their home of Yell during the clearances. Disaster struck her again when her husband drowned with 57 others in the Gloup Fishing Disaster. The disaster involved fisherman who were lost on the 20 July 1867 at

Gloup ''Note: ''Gloup'' is common in Scottish placenames referring to a sea jet.'' Gloup is a village in the far north of the island of Yell in the Shetland Islands. It lends its name to nearby island of Gloup Holm. Gloup Holm derives its name from ...

on the northern part of Yell. He was fishing in an open boat known as a

sixareen The sixareen or sixern ( non, sexæringr; no, seksring meaning "six-oared") is a traditional fishing boat used around the Shetland Islands. It is a clinker-built boat, evolved as a larger version of the yoal, when the need arose for crews to fi ...

when an unexpected storm from Iceland sank four of the boats. She returned as a widow to Unst. Moar died in

Baltasound Baltasound (or Baltasund) is the largest settlement on the island of Unst in Shetland, Scotland. It comes from the Old Norse man's name Balti (Baltisund). Unst is the most northerly inhabited island in the United Kingdom. The village lies halfw ...

in 1894. After her death her silver medal was found discarded in a dyke. It was retrieved and is now in Shetland Museum. Jessie Saxby who was a writer and suffragette from Unst wrote a short story about Moar called "Daughter of Sea Kings".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moar, May 1825 births 1894 deaths People from Unst Smallholders Royal National Lifeboat Institution people