James Milne Munro Billing

As I write it's possible the Marks and Spencers shop facade on Sauchiehall Street will be demolished.  Instantly recognisable it opened in 1935.  Of the design, a campaigner for the Twentieth Century Society said, "It uses a modular façade system that formed the basis of over 40 Marks & Spencer stores around Britain. A distinguished presence on the streetscape for nearly 90 years, this Art Deco building now looks set be erased for identikit student flats." (source)

The architectural company involved was James Munro and Son of Glasgow, founded by James Milne Munro in 1872 with the 'son' added in 1893 (see below).  at the time the firm specialised in hotels and industrial work.  For example Callendar Hydro was rebuilt after a fire:

 

Thank you to Callander Heritage Society for the excellent photos and post (click here).

James also designed Saxonholme on Manse Road in Bearsden which was to become his home until his death in 1921:

Drawing dated March 1879

A carved sandstone thistle in the garden

One of James's children, Charles Ernest Munro, followed his father into the practice and became the "and Son" added the company's name.  He was in charge in the 1920s and 1930s when the Marks and Spencers commissions were obtained and was responsible for the Sauchiehall Street design.  The practice increasingly specialised in department stores.  From 1930 the company included Charles's nephew who bore the name of the firm's founder: James Milne Munro Billing.

This James, the man who appears on the war memorial in Bearsden, was born on 19th June 1914 son of Charles Munro's sister, Florence Mary Munro, and Roger Roberts Billing.  They had married in 1910 when both of them were 38 years of age.

This post involves a lot of Bearsden addresses.  Before he was married, Roger lived at number 4 Courthill, now 182 Drymen Road.  After Roger and Florence were married they lived at 5 Boclair Gardens.  James was born at Murraypark on Thorn Road and while it's not possible to be absolutely certain I believe this to be 26 Thorn Road:

View in 1928 looking west with the bowling club at the junction of Station Road and Pendicle Road in the foreground, Ledcameroch Crescent prominent in the centre and the rest of the Thorn area at the top of the photo.  Murraypark is ringed in the top right corner

James's father, Roger, was an iron and coal merchant based at 104 West George Street, Glasgow, with this business partner Ernest Whitson, an occupation he still held at the time of the 1921 Census.  By this time the family lived at Stamford, Grange Road, Bearsden.  James had one elder brother, Roger, and one younger sister, Gertrude.

Roger retired in 1928:

He devoted some of his time to Bearsden North Church, where he was the treasurer.

James does not seem to have had a remarkable education - newspaper clippings mention school prizes for his older brother several times but not James.  We know he was involved in the Boys' Brigade, and was a Lance-Corporal at the time of the 1931 Inspection.

This makes him a contemporary of another name on the War Memorial, Herbert Adams (click here).

In 1930, aged 16, he embarked on a career as an architect in the office of his uncle, Charles Edward Munro (source).  

"[H]e was articled [started apprenticeship] in 1930, studying at Glasgow School of Architecture from September 1933. 

During his holidays he travelled in Belgium in July 1934 and Germany in August 1936. 

He remained in the Munro office until the latter year when he moved to that of James Taylor Thomson, who took his assistant William McCrea into partnership a year later as James Taylor Thomson & Partner. 

He achieved exemption from the final exam in December 1938 and was still in the Thomson office when he was admitted ARIBA on 6 March 1939, his proposers being William James Smith, Gavin Lennox and Joseph Weekes. He was also an Associate of the Glasgow Institute of Architects."

Projects he may have been involved in include the M&S buildings in Paisley, Stirling, Ayr and Kilmarnock.

James clearly had some talent:

In 1937 James's mother, Florence, died of cardiac failure aged 64.  At this time the family lived at Stamford, Collylinn Road (which is number 18).

By 1942 James was in the RAF, based at RAF Talbenny by Milford Haven in the south-west of Wales.  

He was a pilot with 248 Squadron, flying Beaufighter aircraft.  Wellington bombers were flying along the north west coast of France to try and catch U-boats (submarines) unaware as they left port or were on the final leg home.  However, these were easy prey for German long-range fighters and so Beaufighters were sent out to patrol and sometimes to escort Wellingtons.

The Beaufighter had been adapted from a design for a torpedo-bomber, the Beaufort.  It's speed and firepower were too much for German planes operating over the sea in 1941 and early 1942 such as the ME-110, JU-88 and FW-200.  However, fast and manoeuvrable FW-190 fighters were now starting to appear and the balance was swinging against the British.

On 20th December 1942, James took off at 09.03.  He was flying with Sergeant Austin Bernard Fawcett (age 20 from Ashton, Manchester).  There were two other planes with them one flown by W/O H Sharpe and F/S J Fowler, and the other by Sgt C Goodwin and Sgt W Perry.  

Off of the Britanny coast, the Beaufighters were themselves intercepted by three German FW190 fighters.  It would have been an unequal contest - the Beaufighter's main strength was its range, whereas the German planes were fast, agile and heavily armed.  

Two of the three Beaufighters were shot down with the loss of Sharpe, Fowler, Fawcett and James Billing.

The 'news' only made the Milngavie and Bearsden herald on 31st July 1943, over seven months later.

James is commemorated on the Runnymede Air Force Memorial, which is located in Surrey and commemorates just over 20,000 air force personnel killed in the war with no known grave.

The cloisters of this building are lined with panels of names.

Footnote: villa names and house numbers

As New Kilpatrick / Bearsden was becoming established, houses just had a name such as "St Germains, Bearsden".  Street names were added but street numbering only becomes common in the older areas such as Thorn and Chapelton around 1940.  This creates difficulties in taking a birth record from 1914 and deciding which modern property it relates to.

In the case of Murraypark I compared the Valuation Roll for 1915 with the one for 1940.  The former contains the villa names used at the time James was born but no house numbers; the latter is the first time villa names and house numbers were used together.  The complicating factor is that in the intervening 25 years the house names may have changed so I cannot be certain.  But in the 1915 Roll Murraypark is next to Thorndene (which is definitely number 28) and the next house along was Whittinghame (which is definitely number 30), hence my deduction it is number 26.  (I admit the neighbouring house on the other side was called Royston and that is number 32, so there is room for doubt!)

Stamford, Grange Road, is even less certain. Based on neighbouring villa names in the 1921 Census you would expect Stamford to be number 20, but there is no number 20 on the first map with house numbers in 1949 or in the modern street numbering.  So did Grange Road stretch round into the eastern end of Manse Road?