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St.Oswald's Churchyard Revd. Arthur Neville Cooper. 1850 - 1943. 
A simple gravestone in the churchyard records the death of the longest serving vicar of St Oswald's.
 Arthur Neville Cooper was born at Windsor in 1850 and began his working life as a clerk at Somerset House in London. In order to save his fare from his lodgings he walked to and from work, a distance of four miles each way. His first appointment in the Church was as a curate at Chester-le-Street in 1875; he was there for three and a half years before becoming vicar of St. Oswald's in 1880. He married a local girl, Maud Nicholson, in 1891 and a public subscription for a wedding gift raised the fine sum of 105 guineas. In 1915 he was appointed a canon of York and continued in that post until his retirement in 1935 at the age of 85 years. Because of his love of walking, he became known as "The Walking Parson". He walked across the length and breadth of Yorkshire, and his marathon walks to the continent include Filey to Rome (741 miles in 6 weeks), and Filey to Venice (653 miles). He was a popular speaker throughout Yorkshire, and wrote several books describing his walks. His titles include: "Round the Home of a Yorkshire Parson", "Stories of Yorkshire Life", "Across the Broad Acres", "With Knapsack and Notebook", and "The Tramps of the Walking Parson". He foresaw the decline in Filey's dependence on the fishing industry and acknowledged its growing dependence on the tourist industry when he pointedly remarked, " What the reindeer is to the Laplander, the tourist is to us". Although born a southerner, he described himself as "something like the typical Yorkshireman of literature - big of body, red faced and hearty". He retired in 1935 after 55 years service as the vicar of St Oswald's (1980 - 1935) and died in 1943 aged 93 years.  Andie Caine (1867 - 1941) Born Ernest Taylor, he was raised in an orphanage and came to Filey as a busker, playing the banjo and singing. He adopted the stage name Andie Caine. From the 1890's many troupes of Pierrot entertainers were being seen around the east coast in their distinctive costumes. Andie formed his own troupe at Filey and it is believed that he first performed on Filey Beach in the summer of 1894. They were a common sight entertaining the visitors on the beach or on the Foreshore up to the Second World War. Andie married and had two children, and lived in Station Road. 
He developed many business interests during his time in Filey. He opened the first cinema in Filey at the Grand Hall in Union Street; he acquired the Southdene Pavilion, which he enlarged and converted into a theatre; he owned two boarding houses; and served as a town councillor, and also produced pantomimes in London.The advert from August 1910, shown on the left, illustrates his involvements in the theatre business. Andie died in 1941, bringing to an end a 46 year association with Filey, and was buried towards the east end of St Oswald's Churchyard. His memorial sign incorporates at its base the distinctive conical shape of the Pierrot hat complete with pom poms, as can be seen from the photograph above right. The inscription reads:- "Respected in Life. Lamented in death" The Pierrots re-appeared in Filey once again after the war but their attraction had gone and they only lasted for a short time, bringing to an end an era lasting 50 years. Unico 
On Saturday the 14th January 1871 the "Unico" a 364 ton vessel ex Genoa with a cargo of coal anchored in Filey Bay to ride out a storm. On board were Captain Angel Dodero and a crew of 12, together with a Newcastle pilot named Corbett.On the Monday a SSE gale sprung up and the "Unico" struck the end of Filey Brigg. One man survived. Some days later eight bodies were washed ashore and were buried in Filey churchyard, where the single gravestone can still be seen, and shown here on the left. The inscription reads:- "This stone is erected to commemorate a fearless shipwreck which took place on Filey Brigg on 16th January 1871 of the Italien Barque from Genoa whereby 12 out of the crew of 13 including an English Pilot perished". The sole survivor had a story to tell. He claimed that the captain was to blame for the disaster, because he was drunk, and fearful that the mate would tell of his drunken state, shot him through the head. Among the bodies washed ashore was that of the mate, and a bullet hole in his forehead supports the survivor's story.
Enemy submarines operated close to the Yorkshire coast during World War 1, making it a dangerous place for the fishing vessels. The gravestone shown on the right records the death of Mark Scotter, skipper of the yawl "Susie", killed by enemy submarine on 17th August 1917. The skipper and his crew of four were fishing ten miles off Scarborough, with three of the crew in the yawl's small coble working the fishing lines, when a German submarine surfaced and fired on the yawl. The skipper was killed. Before the yawl sank the crew lifted his body into the small boat, rowed for home, were later picked up by the steam drifter "Lord Kitchener" (SH175), and arrived at Scarborough around seven o'clock the next morning.
The photograph on the right, from a collection of David Scotter, shows Mark Scotter (skipper) and his son Reuben, and the rest of the crew, Matthew Wright, William Cammish. George Cammish, and John William Jenkinson on a Filey Yawl in Scarborough Harbour in the early 1900s. I am indebted to Kath Wilkie for supplying details, from information compiled by the late Captain Sydney T. Smith M.B.E., of the yawl shown in the photograph. The yawl is believed to be the "Susie" (SH197) mentioned above. She was built at Yarmouth in 1898 by Fellows & Co., registered as YH 308, and registered by the new owners, Mark and Reuben Scotter, at Scarborough as SH197 on 24th October 1913. She was the last sailing vessel to fish out of Scarborough. She was 61feet 5inches in length, 7feet 6inches in depth, with a beam of 17feet 6inches.
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