Overview
The Bearsden War Memorial (BWM) contains 148 names, very equally split between World War 1 (WW1) and World War 2 (WW2) with 75 and 73 respectively.
There is one woman
listed, and two civilians.
There are four pairs
of siblings.
In just over 90% of cases
(135 of 148) I can link the name to an address, date of death etc. (The other 13 are typically quite common
names such as “William Cook” listed in the WW1 names – further work could
reveal which of the multiple possibilities has a Bearsden link.) The numbers of names who are traceable are virtually identical
for WW1 and WW2 (68 and 67).
The average age is 28
years. The figure for WW1 names is 26
but for WW2 names it is 30.
Just over 20% were
married overall, 10% from WW1 and 31% from WW2.
In WW1, 88% of those
killed were serving in the army (60, including one each in the forces of
Australia, Canada and Rhodesia). Six
were in the Royal Flying Corps or RAF and two were in the Royal Navy.
Over three-quarters of
the WW1 men are commemorated in France or Belgium (52), three in Turkey (Gallipoli)
and 5 in what we would now call the middle east.
In WW2, equal numbers
were in the army and RAF (26 each). Apart
from the two civilians, the others were in the navy with two-thirds of these in
the merchant navy (9 versus 4 in the Royal Navy).
In WW2 France was
still the main country for the location of graves or memorials with 9, followed
by 8 in Germany (mainly RAF bomber crew), 6 in Italy or Sicily, 5 in the
Netherlands, and 5 in Egypt/Libya. 25
are commemorated in the UK but in 14 cases these people have no known grave so
are recorded in a list of names of others in the same situation.
On this theme, 36% of
those on the Bearsden memorial have no known grave. In WW1
this figure was 41% (mainly lost on the battlefield) and in WW2 31% (mainly ships
and planes lost at sea).
The worst month for
Bearsden was July 1916 with 10 deaths (the start of the Somme offensive). Two other months stand out, April 1917
(Arras/Vimy Ridge) and March 1918 (the major German offensive known as
Kaiserslacht) with seven each. By contrast
in WW2 the worst month was May 1940 (German invasion of France and Dunkirk
evacuation) with four deaths.
I have concentrated on
the names on the War Memorial, but this is only a part of the story: a simple
search on the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission identified 17
WW1 names and 38 WW2 names with strong connections to Bearsden. In addition, the memorial to WW1 in New
Kilpatrick Church suggests an extra 16 names.
The war memorial at the Cross names around two-thirds of those from the area who
were killed.
Working my way through these at the moment, absolutely fascinating to recognise houses etc that i walk past daily have such unknown sacrifices and history! I have an interest in casualties of WW1 having lost ancestors there myself (Arras) but really am impressed with the thorough work you’re doing. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Liam, you've said very neatly what fascinates me about these people as well. I've seen books on the names on other war memorials but they are arranged alphabetically by surname and I'm convinced if we can still relate to these people it is because they shared the streets we walk in and (in some ways) the community we live in. While I'm now arranging the posts to start with the military history, I am trying hard to have as much about the person's character and interests, their working and asocial life, and Bearsden and other areas of Glasgow as they looked at the time. While it only has a few posts you might also enjoy this blog: https://bearsdenmisc.blogspot.com/
DeleteThanks for your encouragement, Andrew
Look forward to seeing future posts. I was doing a bit of digging last week and a google search turned up my Great Uncles medals and presentation box. I’ve looked him up many a time so these must have been newly put up for sale. Still can’t believe i found them
Deletehttps://a2zmilitarycollectables.co.uk/shop.php?code=29995