The Grech family at the Dardanelles, Turkey

Researched and Compiled by Graham Lee, 2010

The branch of the Grech family at the Dardanelles/Gallipoli almost certainly came from Malta but exactly when is not known. However, from the mid 19th century onwards they were settled in the area involved in shipping and consular duties.

Henriette (Hettie) Beatrice Grech (1902-1983) and her brother Richard Grech (died c. 1976) were the children of Alfred Charles Grech and Marie Westbury (died c. 1952). Neither Hettie nor Richard married. Alfred Charles Grech later abandoned his wife and family and is buried in Istanbul.

Alfred R. Grech was born at the Dardanelles on 14 August 1864. He is listed as steamship and insurance agent, owner of salvage steamers and tenders, and was appointed consular agent for the USA at the Dardanelles in November 1908. He appears to have continued in this post, or as vice-consul, through 1912 and 1914.

A title deed in Turkish dated 1930 suggests that Alfred Grech had 4 brothers and sisters: Vensan (?), William, Elizabeth, and Beatrice. Hettie Grech, the last in the line, inherited all the property of her Grech predecessors at the Dardanelles.

In 1891, the owners of the tug “Harlequin” are listed as “Richard Grech, Hastings & Dardanelles” and as “Alfred, William and Richard A. Grech, Dardanelles” in 1896. The vessel, originally the “Shannon”, was launched in 1885 and broken up at Istanbul in 1927. (www.tynetugs.co.uk)

In the town of Gallipoli, William Grech was British vice-consul from 1900 to 1914 and consular agent for Italy in 1914.

Elizabeth Grech, born in 1872 at the Dardanelles, was located in Hastings, England in 1901, according to English census records.

Hettie Grech also had an uncle, Alfred Anthony Grech, with a boat repair yard at the Dardanelles.

A grave in the French cemetery at Chanak (Canakkale) is inscribed “RIP in loving memory of our darling children... Marie ... ni Emmanuel, Marie A ... Albert Grech, also our beloved brother Emmanuel Grech.” (postcard below)


Edward Grech was acting British consul at the Dardanelles in 1887. Perhaps he is the “E. Grech” who was agent at the Dardanelles for the “Levant Times and Shipping” gazette in 1869.

The most notable Grech in the Dardanelles was Vincent (S. E.) Grech, the “most prominent salvor in the area” who owned four salvage vessels. The full story of his contribution to the Lloyd’s shipping “Form of Salvage Agreement” can be read on the Lloyd’s website (“History. Salvage: Origins of Lloyd’s Form”). The first contract using the new Lloyd’s form was concluded with Vincent Grech in 1890. References to the Vincent Grech salvage company (document below) at the Dardanelles and Gallipoli can be found between 1890 and 1912, with Richard A. Grech (picture 3) as the Director. A small salvage tug named the “Vincent Grech” was acquired by the Royal Navy in Piraeus and operational during WWI. Tugs owned by the Vincent Grech Company, including the “Harlequin”, were active near Smyrna (Izmir) in 1906.