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Thank you for visiting the David
W. Torrance web site. I am David J. Byrne and David Watt Torance
was my grandfather. My family now lives in Connecticut. How
we got here is a fascinating story in itself, but this is the short version.
My grandmother, Elizabeth Welch Curtiss was an American studying abroad at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon. On a tour to Petra, she met Dr. Torrance who was twice a widower. They courted, fell in love, got married and she moved into the Hospital compound in Tiberias. There (except for a brief period during W.W. I when they returned to Scotland) they had six children, one of which (a son named David) died in infancy. One of those children is my mother. Elizabeth worked with and supported my grandfather until his death in 1923. The work at the mission then fell to Dr. Torrance's oldest son from a previous marriage, Herbert Torrance M.D. After her husband's death, Elizabeth moved the family back to the old Curtiss homestead here in Connecticut. My mother returned to Tiberias in 1936 to assist her half brother Herbert, whose own wife had died tragically, leaving him with two young children. There my mother met my father, an Englishman, who was a member of the Palestine Police Mounted Section stationed in Galilee. They married and lived in Palestine under the British Mandate until 1948. After Israel was given statehood by the U.N. the family moved to Connecticut and we have been here ever since. You can see by this story that our family has had close ties to the Holy land for over one hundred years. The mission that my Grandfather built is still there, as solid and beautiful as ever. It is currently owned and operated as a hostel by the Church of Scotland. If you are ever in Tiberias you should visit the "Scottish Centre", or better yet stay there. If you do, please remember the remarkable man who built it and say a prayer at his grave. David J. Byrne If you have questions, comments, or
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