Bearsden War Memorial

Peter Gordon McDonald Peter Gordon McDonald was born on 26 th  November 1924 at 1065 Maryhill Road.   Maryhill Road runs from top left to bottom right, red circle shows 1065. His father, Peter, was a glazier and had married Margaret Murdoch Breckenridge in Kilmarnock in 1915. His link to Bearsden is not certain but Mrs Margaret M MacDonald is recorded as the proprietrix of 27 Borland Drive, Kessington, in the 1940 Valuation Roll. Peter (on the War Memorial he is named as Gordon) joined the RAFVR and was in flight training based at Rufforth, Yorkshire, with 1663 Heavy Conversion Unit. On 7 th  February 1944 he was an air gunner in a Halifax V, an older bomber aircraft mainly used for training on a daytime cross-country exercise.    In low cloud, the plane hit high ground at Garrowby Hill, 6 miles east of Stamford Bridge.    The plane’s momentum carried it on across a road where it hit a milk lorry, killing the driver.    It then caught fire an...

  Photo from Gallipoli 1915 Facebook page ( link ) William John Kirkwood was born on 8 th August 1884 at 13 Sutherland Terrace, Partick (the family lived there from 1883 to 1886).   This was renumbered as 24 Sutherland Street, then demolished for room for the Western Infirmary, now in its turn demolished for Glasgow University.   William's birthplace ringed in red - note that with the exception of the properties fronting Byres Road the entire triangle Sutherland Street bisects were demolished after the Second World War and University Avenue diverted through the site.  The modern approximation to the site of Number 24 is below: Looking north-east, University Avenue is just beyond the bollards and Ashton Road is beyond the tree. In adult life there is some evidence he was known as Willie but I have stuck to William.   His father, David Allison Kirkwood, was a mercantile clerk who had married Jeannie McPherson in Greenock (in April 1882?). The family had mov...

George Edward Dunlop George was born in 1920 in Betws garmon, Caernarvon.  His father William, was a representative for a shoe manufacturer (on George's Baptism record: “boot salesman”)  His mother was Harriet Hewitt Croucher. By 1935 the family moved to Scotland, living at a house called Westbury, 1 Afton Crescent, Killermont, Bearsden.   From 1939 to 1941 George attended Glasgow University in the Arts Faculty. George enlisted and was a Signalman in the Royal Signal Corps, stationed in India.  On 3rd March 1945 he died in hospital in New Delhi. He is buried in Delhi War Cemetery.  On his headstone, his parents chose the words: "THE ETERNAL GOD IS THY REFUGE AND UNDERNEATH ARE THE EVERLASTING ARMS"   David Purdon McGavin We know very little about David Purdon McGavin.  He was b orn on 19 th August 1907 at 97 Stratford Street, Maryhill - in today's terms it is by the car park behind the Tesco store. I've covered this street already in my post on G...

  Photo credit William Fowler was born on 25th November 1886, very probably in what was then one of the busiest dockland areas in the world, the east end of London.  His father was also William, a labourer, and his mother was called Mary Ann. He was baptised on 17th January 1887 at St Barnabas Church, West Silvertown.  His parents' home address was just a few streets away at 3 Cranbrook Road.  Regular readers will know how much I love an old map but in this case I think only an aerial photo really gives an idea of how Silvertown looked when William was a boy: In modern terms the photo is from above Canary Wharf looking east and London City Airport is located on the strip of land between two docks in the upper half of the photo.  The River Thames appears in the bottom right and the top right of the photo, with factories and industry lining its banks.  I have added two red circles to the centre-right of the photo.  The one nearer the man road (North Wool...