Family reunited with photos lost at airport after online appeal

A Dundee woman was shocked to see her family pictures go viral on social media after a photo album was found outside Glasgow Airport.

William Courtney, a welder, spotted an object in the middle of the road while he was fixing a entrance way to the airport earlier this week.

“You can imagine how busy the airport is, it was just car after car driving over the top of this thing,” he told BBC Scotland.

“I saw a break in the traffic and I picked this up and it was just full of old photos of weddings, holidays and loads of baby photos.”

The album was completely soaked through, so he took it home to separate the images in an effort to save them.

“I got them cleaned the best I could and salvaged pretty much of all them,” he said.

“The album itself was destroyed but I think I saved about a hundred photos.

“They were all those smaller kind of photos that you got in the olden days, and they had a couple of dates on them, like 1950 and 1952.”

William posted the photos on social media which people shared hundreds of times across local Facebook groups to find who they belonged to.

“If my mum had lost something like that, she would be distraught,” he added. “So I had that in my head.”

People pointed out things they noticed, like a backcourt that looked familiar or red sandstone that could be in Arbroath.

“I thought it was terrific how many folk got involved,” he said. “So many folk must’ve really cared and wanted to see the outcome of the story.”

Catrina Gourlay, aged 54 and from Dundee, spotted the post in her local Facebook group and was shocked to see her sister-in-law’s parents in one of the pictures.

“Gail has been my sister-in-law since I was five so I’ve known her family almost my whole life,” she said.

“When I saw her mum and dad’s wedding photo from 1958 in there, I had no doubt.

“The photos are in Dundee where we’re all from and we don’t have a connection to Glasgow, so I’m not sure how the album ended up there.”

Gail Gourlay, 66, said she was shocked when Catrina showed her the pictures which had been shared over 1,200 times.

“I was amazed to see that some kind man had found the pictures and even took them home and salvaged them,” she said.

“That’s even more amazing than the album being found, the somebody had the big heart to do that.

“The pictures are mostly of my gran and grandad as well as my aunties, my uncle and my dad.”

She said the photos showed younger versions of people who had since died, including her father, Walter Allardyce.

“I showed my mum the picture of her and my dad on their wedding day and she just went silent for a while,” said Gail.

“She was so shocked that it somehow ended up at Glasgow Airport.

“There were so many pictures I’d never seen before from when I was younger.

“I’m so grateful and thankful to William for doing that and taking the time.

“How many people would do that?”

Catrina and her partner are planning to meet up with William in January to pick up the photos before a holiday.

“We might not get it back to the real owner but it’s going to a family member,” she said.

William told BBC Scotland News he was glad social media helped him find the people in the pictures.

“It was a nice outcome,” he said.

“I would’ve hated to see them go to waste or go in the bin if they went to lost and found, just because they’re damaged.

“When you find stuff at the airport, it could belong to anyone in the world.

“I’m just glad it’s just someone who’s in Scotland and it’s easy to give it back to them.”