This WEB Site details the ancestral Torrible and Slater families from the perspective of one descendent family group. It is configured for this family with hyper-links to other related families. However the information within this site will be useful for relatives or members of the Torrible or Slater families including their descendents.Access requires a User ID and Password.
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The Torrible family has a long history with the sea. From the early days in the southeast of England to a long service in the UK Coastguard service. Members went on to not only travel the world but also live in foreign countries.
The Slater Family were from West Yorkshire and Eastern Lancashire Milltowns.
Graham Torrible was born in 1904 and joined The China Navigation Company as a deck officer in 1925. He served on the China Coast and Yangtze River during the 1920s and 1930s and was interned at Bangkok during the Second World War. He was Acting Marine Superintendent of C.N.Co. at Shanghai from 1948 until 1950. Torrible returned to sea in 1950 to take command of C.N.Co.'s new passenger liner Chungking III, on charter to Messageries Maritimes for their Marseilles/Tahiti/Sydney service. In 1953, he was appointed Marine Superintendent of C.N.Co. at Hong Kong. On being appointed, one of his aims was to improve the relationship between the deck and engineering departments, which was not always satisfactory. He retired from the Company in 1961. Initially he returned to the UK on his retirement but is recorded as having told a friend "how unhappy and unsettled he felt when he retired back to the UK...." He said he felt that he was on a different wave-length from the British who had not ventured abroad, and found them very insular..." When the opportunity arose Torrible lept at the opportunity to return to Hong Kong and he died there in 1995 Capt. Torrible was awarded the O.B.E. in the 1961 Birthday Honours List, was a made a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners. Torrible recorded his experiences with C.N.Co. between 1925-1939 and the first edition of his "Yangtze Reminiscences" was published in 1975. The second edition was published in January 1990. Graham Torrible's father William Harry Torrible, born in County Down Ireland, was also a Master Mariner. His uncle Alfred Torrible also born in County Down, was also a Master Mariner and sailed with CNCo.