Bearsden War Memorial

  Samuel Shearman was born on 6th June 1879 at Cloverhill Locks in the parish of New Kilpatrick.  His father, also Samuel, was an agricultural labourer.  His mother was called Mary (nee Melburn) and they had been married in Liverpool four years previously.  As his father was from Gatehouse of Fleet and his mother was from Dumfries, it is not clear what they were doing there. Cloverhill Locks are located between Westerton and Drumchapel - you can see Switchback Road on the far right, with Canniesburn Toll top right; Great Western Road cuts across the bottom left.  At the time this area was undeveloped so farming would have been an important local employer. From the map below, this is the approximate site of the houses at the lock as it looks today. Cloberhill Lock is just to the right of centre at the bottom of the map.  Note Drumchapel Row in the top right. Sam senior's jobs included pit labourer (1891 Census), 'roadman' (1901) and "surfaceman on roads" (19...

John Robert Thorburn Chalmers was born over 50 miles from Bearsden, on the other side of Edinburgh at Dalkeith, on 13th March 1887.  The house he was born in was called Woodbrae on Park Road - in 2024 number 23 Park Road is called West Woodbrae so it is a candidate for being the Chalmers home. This is Park Road today, looking towards Kings Park at the end of the street. John's parents, Peter and Jessie were slightly unusual for the time in that when they were married in 1880 he was 23 and she was 39, so she had John (her third child) when she was 46 (which I assume to have been quite old to be a mother in those days). The handwriting is not easy to read but I think John's father was a Master Clothier (although the line below this defeats me: xxx and Thirleston Road?) By the time of the 1891 Census the family was living at 34 Woodburn Terrace, Newington in Edinburgh.  Accounts suggest most of John's childhood was in Peebles and by the 1901 Census the family was at a house ca...

The River Tweed runs through Coldstream in Berwickshire, with traffic crossing by The Border Bridge.  Immediately at the north end of the bridge stands Bridge House.  Originally built to exact tolls on traffic crossing the bridge, it enjoyed a second life after tolls were abolished in 1826, with 'runaway weddings' from England taking place at Bridge House until the practice was abolished in 1856.  It was in some respects the eastern equivalent of Gretna Green. Just over 60 years later and in far more respectable circumstances, William Benzie Goodall was born here on 3rd April 1913 to Thomas Mackenzie Goodall, a golf greenkeeper, and Mary (nee Benzie).  They had been married in Edinburgh six years previously. William was one of (I think) seven children, five boys and two girls (although one brother died as a young child). The next glimpse of William we have is the 1921 Census.   William is aged eight and has three brothers; the youngest was born in Strathbla...