The identity of Tayport’s ‘unknown bairn’ is a mystery that has endured for over half a century and looks set never to be resolved. Found on a beach on the banks of the River Tay close to the north Fife town by a local postman in 1971, a police investigation and nationwide appeal was unable to identify the little boy or trace any of his relatives.
It was left to the community to bury the abandoned tot in a grave paid for by generous public donations and, over 50 years on, his final resting place is still tended by local folk who often leave flowers by the granite headstone. They are, however, no closer to knowing who this lost child is.
On May 23, 1971, postie John Robertson and his five-year-old son Neil were walking their dog along the beach at Tayport when they came across the body of a young child, aged between two and four years old, bobbing in the water just off the shoreline. Hauling ashore what they at first thought was a doll, they found the corpse of a young boy, dressed in a pyjama top over a blue shirt. Mr Robertson quickly checked for signs of life but could find none.
The police were called and investigations confirmed the child appeared to have died of natural causes – drowning – and officers deemed there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death. It is believed the body had been in the water for between two and six weeks and a pathologist reported that the child had been, prior to death, well cared for and well nourished.
Their only clue to go on was a label in his top, which was traced to a Leeds clothing manufacturer, although manufacture of the garment had been discontinued five years earlier. In a bid to identify the child, and hopefully trace parents or a relative, they issued a nationwide appeal. It, however, drew a complete blank despite widespread publicity, and therein the mystery of the ‘unknown bairn’ began.
While no name was forthcoming, donations flooded in from all over the country, paying for a decent burial. The child was laid to rest in Tayport Cemetery on May 27 and, on July 5, a headstone was placed on the grave. It reads: ‘Erected in memory of The Unknown Bairn’, a wee boy aged between two and four years, found on the beach at Tayport, May 23rd, 1971. Suffer little children, to come unto me.’
Flowers and toys were laid, a tradition that continues to this day, and Mr Robertson tended the grave until his death in 2007, adopting the abandoned child into his own family. At his own request, he was buried in Tayport Cemetery, just a few feet away from the grave of the ‘unknown bairn’.
In the years that followed the discovery, investigations continued. One theory was that the child may have fallen from a ship docking in Dundee, across the River Tay, or have come from a boat that had sunk. However, there were no reports of lost of abandoned vessels at the time and no reports of missing children matching the young boy’s description.
Another, preferred by police, was that the boy may have been a member of the travelling community. At the time, gypsies were frequent visitors to the Tayport area, camping around the town, and police officers interviewed several travellers, but it was to no avail.
One traveller and his wife had been overheard talking about a child they had lost. They were questioned and, while the woman was reportedly visibly upset, she was told by her husband not to say anything and no information was forthcoming. With no reason to hold them, they were released and subsequently disappeared. It may have been that, unable to afford a proper burial, they consigned their dead child to the sea, a very private tragedy suffered by wary people living on the margins of society.
The officer in charge of the case, Detective-Superintendent James Morgan, reportedly said that he felt the boy was reasonably local and the child of poor parents who were perhaps too short of money to give him decent burial after he accidentally drowned, and too embarrassed to come forward amid the glare of publicity. Morgan believed the child belonged to travelling folk, who he said were ‘a little lax about the bureaucracy that the rest of us have grudgingly learned to live with.’
These days DNA would undoubtedly aid police in a case like this but, back in the 1970s, such an investigation relied on good old fashioned policing, public information and a little bit of luck, which in this case was not forthcoming. It is unlikely now that the 50-year-old mystery will ever be solved…
As time passes, the people of Tayport continue to tend the grave. In 2021 – the 50th anniversary of the burial – the headstone was lifted and refurbished, the work paid for by an anonymous local benefactor.
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