Scarvagherin - The Gamble Family

Scarvagherin’s Gamble Family – A Bridgehill Legacy

At Scarvagherin Burial Ground, just east of Castlederg, lies the family plot of the Gambles of Bridgehill. Their stone carries over a century of local memory:

Rebecca Gamble – beloved wife of William, died in 1887 aged just 30.
William Gamble – patriarch of Bridgehill, lived to the remarkable age of 94, passing in 1920.
Sarah Anne Gamble – died 1922 aged 79, and William Gamble (Jnr.) who died tragically young in 1926, aged 23.
William David Gamble of Coalisland – just 3½ years old when he died.

The plot also honours James Fulton Gamble, one of the area’s most influential figures:
M.P. for North Tyrone (1930–1943) at Stormont
Justice of the Peace & Rural District Councillor
Chairman of Castlederg Board of Guardians, overseeing local health and welfare matters
He spoke in Parliament on agriculture and rural development during WWII

James Fulton and his wife Anne Jane both died within a week of each other in July 1943 — an extraordinary and poignant detail still remembered locally. Later inscriptions include James Andrew V.E.E. (d. 1978) and Rebecca Love Gamble (d. 1999, aged 91), showing the family’s connection to Bridgehill continued well into the 20th century.

Today, the weathered stone at Scarvagherin is more than a grave — it’s a record of public service, endurance, tragedy, and continuity. The Gambles were not only farmers and neighbours, but councillors, parliamentarians, and voices for rural Tyrone.