Words by Charlie. In December of 1857, in Greenock, on the south bank of the River Clyde, a boy was born who would etch his name into the history of Hoylake and who would play a pivotal role in the transporting of the Royal and Ancient game to Asia. His name has understandably been overshadowed by the greats that line the oak-panelled walls at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, but he was a golfing pioneer, nonetheless. That bonnie lad was Gershom Stewart. The young Gershom’s stay in Scotland was to be a mere sojourn for he was moved to Merseyside, on the Wirral Peninsula early in his boyhood. It was during this period that he first picked up a set of brass-heads and wandered the linksland around the racecourse at Hoylake. From a young age, he was characterised as a ‘stranger in a foreign land’, a facet, perhaps, of [...]