Page 9 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

INTRODUCTION

T"*RANCIS ERSKINE LOCH, whose diary covering the
I—\ years 1818 to 1820 forms the basis of this book, was the
l fourth and youngest son of George Loch of Drylaw, near
Edinburgh. He belonged to a family of great antiquity, which
originated in the Forest of Dean, on the borders of Gloucestershire
an d Herefordshire. In very early times, the name of the family
was Lacu, later it became Loch. The Lochs moved to Scot­
land, and were established there at the beginning of the 13 th
century.
Francis Loch’s father died when his son was an infant, and at
the age of eleven, Francis entered the Royal Navy as a midship­
man. He served in the Mediterranean, in South America, and
off the coast of Spain. He was thirty years old, when he came
out to the Persian Gulf in command of IT.M.S. Eden. He had
relations in India; one of them was John Adam, a distinguished
member of the Bengal Government, who was a cousin on his
mother’s side, she being Mary Adam of Blair Adam, a member
of the family to which belonged the two famous architects,
Robert and James Adam.
Loch’s diary is in the possession of Mary Freda Loch, the widow
of David Henry Loch, who was a grandson of Francis Loch, and
it is owing to her kindness that l have been allowed to make
use of it.
Having lived in the Persian Gulf for thirty one years, from 1926
to 1957, in the service of the grandfather, and then the father of
the present Shaikh of Bahrain, I know the people and the locality.
I have tried in this book to describe the historical background of
the places in the Gulf which Loch visited. In some eases, I have
continued the subsequent history of the leading people with whom
he had dealings.
With the diary, there is a letter from Loch addressed to his
children. It is dated June 6th 1835, and was written at Darnhall,
a house near Eddlcstonin Pccbles-shire, where Loch lived for some
years—it was part of the property which the Loch family had
owned for 600 years.
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