Joseph Stevenson Thomson Baxter

Joseph Stevenson Thomson Baxter was born at Ravel Row, a few hundred yards from Parkhead Cross, on 7th May 1919.  His contemporary birth record on the Scotland's People website says the address was 6 Ravel Row, but the 1920 Valuation Roll and 1921 Census show it must have been number 7 (there is/was no number 6, it is the site of Parkhead Congregational Church):

Number 7 Ravel Row ringed in red at the bottom-centre of the map extract; note Parkhead Cross bottom-left, Duke Street on the left and Parkhead Forge at the top.

Here is Number 7 today, viewed from Westmuir Street:

Lest we think too quickly that Number 7 has seen better days, we should consider the 1921 Census when it was occupied by eight families, each living in two rooms.  The Baxters, two adults with two children, were typical but the Chalmers on the top floor had two parents, four children aged 14, 13 10 and a baby not yet one, plus the husband's two adult brothers in their two rooms.

Joseph was known as Steven, including in the 1921 Census.  Steven's parents were Robert Orr Hamilton Baxter and Susan Campbell Thomson.  They had been married in Shettleston in 1912 and Steven had one older sibling, James (born 1913).  Robert was a clerk in a granary owned by the Clyde Navigation Trust - the only one I am aware of that matches this description was the Meadowside Granary, a familiar landmark on the Clyde until 2002 (how can it be that long ago since they were demolished!):

This great photo shows the four buildings and dates them (source).

Between 1921 and 1938 there is a gap; all we can say for certain is that by the 1925 Valuation Roll Robert and Susan had left Ravel Row but unfortunately because the Roll contains no personal details other than first and last name of the owner/tenant and Robert Baxter is a common name we cannot track where they moved.

However, in 1938 we have an address for Steven, at 5 Westerton Avenue, Westerton.  It's plausible that if Robert's job at Meadowside Granary was permanent then the family could have moved to the west of Glasgow, possibly Partick.  However, the Baxters do not appear at 5 Westerton Avenue in the 1935 or 1940 valuation Roll, so this is a mystery.

But the 1938 record is 19-year old Steven's certificate from the Royal Aviators' Club, registering him as an apprentice ground engineer:

Dated 8th February it shows he passed his exam on a D.H. Moth - Gipsy III which sounds like a plane to my layperson's ears but turns out to be an engine (source):

The reference to Renfrew is, of course, to the airfield that closed in 1966 in favour of today's airport at Abbotsinch.  This is a photo from the 1930s, so Seven may have served his apprenticeship in hangars such as those in the background:

As you drive on the M8 between the Braehead and Renfrew junctions there is a very straight section of road and this is reputed to be the runway (Wikipedia says so, so it must be true).

The certificate also gives an address of 5 Westerton Avenue, shown on the modern satellite view below:

Number 5 Westerton Avenue is bottom right, almost on Bearsden Road (the road changes name to Switchback Road closer to Canniesburn Toll, presumably when it crosses the boundary of Bearsden!)

The significance of including 101 Maxwell Avenue is that it was the home address of Anne McInnes Carrick and on 6th September 1939 she married Steven.  Anne was a shorthand typist.  They married at 132 West Regent Street, Glasgow, which may have been a solicitor's office at the time.  This was three days after the declaration of Britain's involvement in the Second World War.  The witnesses were Mary McKenzie and Lucy Melrose, both living in the Shawlands area, and I wonder if they were Anne's friends or work colleagues?  You might also note Steven's age was recorded as 22 when he was actually only 20:

Steven's occupation was aero-engineer and his address is given as 64 Chalk Road, Chalk, Kent.  On closer inspection this turns out to be within a few minutes walk of RAF Gravesend:

Modern map showing 64 Chalk Road with the red circle, the 14 minute walk indicates the walk to the site of the RAF base.  Note the River Thames is at the top of the picture.

RAF Gravesend was a satellite station for the more famous Biggin Hill sector station in the Battle of Britain which was fought out a year later.  Steven's involvement is not known but it is possible he was servicing British fighters (Spitfires and Hurricanes) during this period.  The photo at the start of this post shows fighters at Gravesend.

Very unusually (at least in my experience) the Scotland's People website contains a second record of marriage between Steven and Anne on 6th May 1941,some 18 months later:

The witnesses are now Steven's brother and Anne's sister, and Steven's age has been corrected to 21.  My interpretation is that the 1939 wedding may have been done in a hurry because Steven was either anticipating being called up for the RAF or he was already in the RAF and was anticipating being called back from leave; the ceremony may have taken place without families present.  The 1941 ceremony may have been to 'do things properly', although why that would have needed a second marriage record is unclear.

However, the venue this time was the Grand Hotel, Charing Cross, Glasgow:

 and here is the same view today:

The Grand Hotel was demolished and and a trench dug through the site to take the M8 motorway to/from the Kingston Bridge,  There are many, many photos of the outside of the hotel but almost none of the inside.

At the time of the 1941 wedding Steven was an aircraftsman in the RAF and an engineer.  By December 1942 he had probably volunteered for flight training and had been promoted to lance-corporal.  He was based at 15th Operational Training Unit in Harwell, near Oxford, training on Wellington bombers:

Steven was a gunner so would probably have been in the tail (the forward guns also manned by the bomb aimer, I suspect).

His crew was training in night flying and took off on the evening of 16th December.  Shortly after take-off and for unknown reasons it crashed at Blewbury, near Didcot.  There were no survivors.

He is commemorated in New Kilpatrick Cemetery:

The others who died with him were (source):

the pilot, Sergeant Albert Clouting

an observer (presumably instructor), Flying Officer Geoffrey William Stone

the navigator, Sergeant William Stewart (buried at New Monklands Cemetery)

the wireless operation, Sergeant Sydney Ernest Arthur Carter