The Story of John Grey and Greyfriars Bobby..
In 1852 John Grey, his wife and his son aged 15 years arrived in Edinburgh with very little money, looking for work. He was a gardener, as was his father before him.
It was one of the harshest winters on record and there was no work for farmers and gardeners as the ground was frozen.
John Grey decided to join the Police as he saw this was the only way he would be able to feed his family and stop them from going to the poor house.
He joined the Police in January 1853. He was constable number 90 and his warrant number was 1487. He was paid thirteen shillings a week, rising to fifteen shillings if he proved his worth. He became a well respected and popular member of the force.
He was given a police house in the Cowgate for which One shilling a week was deducted from his wages. This area was very rough at the time with a lot of drunkeness and fighting going on. However a condition of his service was that he lived on his beat. Another was that he obtained a watch dog. It is not known what kind of dog he had for the first three years of his service, howver sometime in 1856 he obtained a small Skye Terrier and named him Bobby as which was the name given to the police by the locals at that time.
John Grey died on 7th Feb 1857 of tuberculosis, one day short of 5 years service, one of the longest serving officers of his time, as police conditions were very harsh and strict. He was buried in Greyfriars Churchyard where the next night, Bobby took up residence on his grave. He stayed there for the next fourteen years and was given food and comfort by the local people. He became famous for this devotion to his master.
He was befriended by a Sergeant at Edinburgh Castle who was responsible for setting off the one o'clock gun, and Bobby on hearing the gun, would leave the churchyard and go for his lunch with the sergeant, watched over by an ever increasing amount of spectators.
Bobby died on January 14th 1872 and was buried in front of the Churchyard and near to his master.
There is a statue dedicated to Bobby at the top of Candlemakers row, now outside the Greyfriars Churchyard.
