The Cheeky Forty

The Cheeky Forty

Now call these lads what you will, a Gang, a Jury, a Mob, call them what you will, BUT !! they handed out justice where police were unable to do so, because of lack of evidence or some other excuse

Bus loads of girls came from Glasgow, Paisley, all over the area of Greenock, with one thing in mind, TROOPS, who were anchored at the "Tail of the Bank ", now they weren't always American..there were Canada, Poles, French, allied troops, with money to spare before being shipped out, they wanted a good time, and rightly so

The Troops always aimed for the same places, Burton's, The Co-oP ( Where we held the Gibby Re--Union ), The Bay Hotel and their favourite pub in Greenock was the Imperial Bar, they got to other places but that was their main hold outs, the Moorings in Largs was quite popular as well

Some girls as you expect, no fault of their own, were Molested, Raped, Abused & Assaulted, by troops waiting to be shipped to god know where, some never to come back, so they got drunk and wanted a woman and there were plenty about, the troops had their own police, " White Hats " who patrolled 4/5 handed, carrying batons, and weren't shy in using them where needed, but there weren't enough White Hats, and our Police were on foot in Two's

When a local girl was Raped, Assaulted, or abused, the " Cheeky Forty " would find out the nationality of the offender, and go into town and dish out punishment, the Gibby folk were always tight lipped in all ways, we knew 5 of the Cheeky Forty, 2 from Irwin St. 2 from Keir Hardie, St and 1 from Landsbury St, there were probably more up the Gibby, but 5 from our end that I knew of, we never spoke of them, it was an unwritten rule dished out by our parents

I'm not saying they were right, and I'm not saying they were wrong, but the were feared by troops in Greenock, they were known to everybody BUT, not their names

I'm sure the police welcomed the punishment dished out by the Forty, where their hands were tied