Gourock started off as small fishing village and developed into a holiday resort - busy during the Summer months with day trippers and holidaymakers. This was the result of the railway arriving and the steamers using the pier. The biggest change was the arrival of 700 workers transferred to Greenock to work in the nearby Torpedo Factory in 1910. The need for housing was immense and caused great issues. Gourock took a lot of these workers and they were soon assimilated into the local society. Many indeed joined the local Territorials. The 'Woolwichers' as they were known had quite a profound effect on the local towns and villages. The evidence of their arrival is still present in the many English surnames to be found in the area.
Service men and women born in Gourock
- Charles Pandelus
- Thomas Bell
- Alexander Donald
- John K Houston
- Malcolm MacDonald/McDonald
- Robert Daniel McClumpha
- John Boyd McFarlane
- John McGowan
- Charles Rhodes
- John Pandelus
- William Inez Black
- Robert Dunn
- David Hulme
- Archibald Main
- D McDonald
- Ronald/ Roderick McIntosh
- Robert Bruce
- Glen Forsyth
- Donald Milne Hyndman
- David Marshall
- William McKinnon
- Archibald McEwen
- John Gurly Hamilton
- John C Paterson
- John Harkinson
- Roderick Forsyth
- Patrick Kelly(Cameronians)
- Robert McArtney
- Andrew Smith Neil
- John James Wilson
- Robert Burns
- James Galloway
- Robert Enwright Lauder
- George Seaton
- John Winton
- Hugh Colquhoun
- Thomas Rodger Gormley
- Archibald Barr Little
- James McCormick
- John Fisher
- Donald Milne Hyndman
- Robert Adair
- James Crombie(Black Watch)
- Alexander Hay
- Harry Loughran
- Catherine Mary Barr
- Alexander McNair McInnes
- Alexander McTurk
- Wallace Boyd
- James Watson Griffin
- John F Bagan
- James Docherty (Argylls)
- Robert Andrew Henley
- Daniel Lynch
- Robert McCulloch A & SH
- James MacLeod Hutcheson
- William Shearer (Mercantile)
- James Hamilton Bryson
- Archibald Hall
- Donald Kerr
- John Bell Mackie
- George Peter Stewart
- John Galloway Campbell
- Henry Hogg Harley
- Edward Leach
- Alexander Stirling Malcolm
- Hugh Patrick Toole
- Archibald Dennie
- John Hendry
- Alexander Logan
- Wilmar Mars
- Hugh Pollock
- Peter Robertson Wallace
- John Alexander
- Thomas Docherty
- Robert King Hendry
- Charles Macdonald Macarthur
- William Mcgillivray
- John Roberts
- Harold Warburton
- Allan Black
- Robert Williamson Evans
- John Holman
- Charles Donald Macdonald
- Alexander Mcpherson
- Richard Henry Roberts
- James Hamilton Blair
- Thomas John Finch
- William George Pearce Holman
- Robert William Macfarlane
- James Faulds Mcvicar
- John Shaw
- William Bone
- Peter Mayor Macintosh
- William Anderson Donaldson Mitchell
- William Shearer
- Alexander Bonner
- James Johnston
- John Russell Mackay
- Robert Morton
- Robert Stevenson