In the space of around six hours on the night of 13th to 14th March 1941, five explosions in Dalmuir killed at least 112 people.
Here is a map of the area in 1938. Key streets to pick out are Burns Street and Patterson Street on the north side of Dumbarton Road. Opposite Patterson Street is Castle Street (which still exists but on a different alignment) and off of that Beatty Street to the west and Jellicoe Street to the east, by the canal.
I’ve used a map giving as much detail as I could find to show you the street layout, but this does not convey an idea of why this area might have been a target for bombing. We can see the area by magnifying aerial photos from 1934:
Jellicoe Street is in the red circle, Beatty in Orange and Pattison Street in yellow; the oil storage tanks are visible only a few fields away. Here’s a different perspective:
Jellicoe, Beatty and Pattison Streets are in the top right of this view, which is wider to show the proximity to Beardmore’s shipyard and the Royal Ordnance Factory to the left on the bank of the river.
We also have surviving aerial photos taken by the Germans and highlighting the oil tanks to the west of Dalmuir and the shipyard to the south, dated 2nd October 1939:
If you can see ‘Clydebank’ to the right of this photo, look just to the left of the ‘C’ and you can see the four streets off of Dumbarton Road (Scott, Burns, Pattison, Dunn Streets).
Here is the map assembled by the local authorities in the wake of the Blitz, showing where each bomb exploded. Note that this an attempt to show locations, it does not show times or dates:
The rest of the article covers the five explosions in the order in which I believe they happened.
Bomb 187: Jellicoe Street
There is no exact timing of when the explosion in Jellicoe Street took place. The evidence suggests the raid was well developed but there is evidence that I will present later that this incident happened before the ones in Pattison Street, which are tentatively timed at midnight, so I would guess around 11pm on the 13th.
It’s agreed that two parachute mines exploded, one on the canal bank (bomb 188 on the map) and one on 78 Jellicoe Street. I believe this was the most westerly of the row of houses on this street. We can see it in a (grainy) pre-war aerial photo, ringed in red:
By amazing good fortune Mathew Kelly of the Memories of Clydebank FB page posted a photo recently that appears to show numbers 74, 76 and (on the left) number 78:
The main account we have of this incident is from Ann Holmes who lived in Kitchener Street, parallel to Jellicoe Street, and related through her mother, Annie, to a family living at number 78, the Rocks. She spoke to various newspapers about her memories but the fullest account is in the book “Untold Stories”, pages 184-186.
The Rocks lived in two flats there, one for Annie (senior) and her husband, Patrick (senior) and one for Patrick (son) and his family. Ann says that Pat had swapped shifts with his father (they worked alongside each other at Beardmore’s) because he wanted to be at home to help with the shildren when the siren sounded.
Ann says Mary Boyle, the mother of Annie (senior), refused to go to the shelter. Because her mother would not go, Annie would not go either, so everyone stayed. (The exception was a family friend, Jean Gibson, who went home and told Ann this afterwards.)
Ann says John, her uncle, called in to see them, having been in Glasgow for the dancing but having had to walk from Yoker because the trams had stopped. She thought afterwards he must have only been back in number 78 a few moments when the explosion happened.
I have just tried to pick the key facts from Ann’s detailed and very moving account – I would encourage anyone interested to get a copy of Untold Stories to read it for themselves.
I am using an analysis of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records to identify who died here. These suggest that 32 people who died here. They were:
Residents of 78 Jellicoe Street
Mary Boyle (84), mother of Annie Rocks.
Annie Rocks (54); her children James (32), Patrick (28, referred to as Pat in Ann’s account), Theresa (25), Francis (21), John (19), Joseph (17), Thomas (13); Patrick’s wife Elizabeth (28, referred to as Bessie in Ann’s account) and her children Patrick (9), James (4), Margaret (2), Ann (1) and Thomas (aged 5 months).
George Watson (72) and his wife Isabella (66) and their children George (38), James (36), Lilian (19). Their daughter Maud (29) had gone to the cinema and could not get home and so survived (thank you to her grandson, Stuart McElney, for this information).
John McLean (56), his wife Edith (47) and their children David (17) and James (13). John was a foreman stevedore.
Samuel Dennis (65) and his wife Jean (59)
Janet Kernachan (41) and her daughter Annie (8) Her husband, Richard, survived and went to find shelter in nearby Castle Street (see below).
Resident of number 72
Malcolm McDougall (70)
Resident of number 54
James McCormack (19) – someone who lived in the street at the time says James McCormack was going from shelter to shelter chatting. He seems to have reached number 78 at just the wrong time.
These people are said to have died at Jellicoe Street but did not lived there:
Mary Loughlin (19) from Old Kilpatrick. She was the fiancee of Francis Rocks.
Margaret Cameron (16)
Here is a photo of the Rocks family:
Bomb 180 and Bomb 193: Pattison Street and Burns Street
We are lucky that Stuart McBay has put online some postcard views of streets of the area that would otherwise be difficult to imagine. He has allowed to me to use them with the logo included. This is Pattison Street looking towards Dumbarton Road:
This is the reverse view from another postcard:
In the following account, the first bomb fell towards the park end of the street on the right (second postcard) and the second bomb fell behind the tenements on the left, closer to the camera.
Jeffrey in his book “This Time of Crisis” says the first explosion was just after midnight and the second one was a few minutes later.
The fullest account is in MacPhail’s book “The Clydebank Blitz”, pages 25-6:
“The closes in the street were strutted and there were also brick or reinforced shelters in the back courts but as these were damp people preferred to stay in their own houses. As the raid developed, John Watson, tenant in No. 12, who had come back from Beardmore’s Diesel Engine Works where he had been on the back-shift (2-10 p.m.), tried unsuccessfully to persuade his family to go into the shelter; and at last, when the raid was developing in intensity, all the nine families in the upper flats of No. 12 went into the three bottom flat houses.
At first, Watson’s two daughters found themselves separated from their parents but soon joined them in the centre ground floor flat, a room and kitchen, and huddled there in the small hall to be away from flying glass while bombs were dropping all round.
At last came the horrifying impact of a high-explosive bomb on No. 12 Pattison Street, and the building collapsed on top of the tenants sheltering there. Fourteen neighbours in the adjoining ground floor flat were killed but all in the right-hand flat and all but one in the centre flat were saved. There the eight survivors, however, were trapped until the [roof and floor] beams lying on top of them were pushed apart and they managed to crawl through to safety.
They immediately ‘dived’ across the road through no. 11 Pattison Street to the shelter at the back but had hardly got inside when a bomb fell nearby and the ground heaved. The bomb had scored a direct hit on the shelter behind the pend at No. 5 and almost all in it were killed.”
Another eyewitness account was provided by Mary Haggerty in the book “Blitz Diary: Life Under Fire”; Mary was a child (probably aged 9) at the time. When number 12 Pattison Street was hit in the first explosion, she says, “We realised we could not stay in the close [at number 11 where she lived with her family], but where could we go? Round the back courts were stone shelters, but we always said we would never use them as they were only death traps, but it was all we had.
We went into one nearest our close, it was dark in the shelter, and we could hear the bombs falling. And I knew by the sound they were very near, and again one landed very close, there was a terrible bang and I swear our shelter went up in thei air and down again – we never thought it could have done this and still stay in one piece.
It so happened that the shelter next to ours had been hit, and all the men had to go and try to get out the survivors from under the rubble, people had sheltered in the wash house and it was a mass of rubble, they were all killed …
We went up our stairs, the staircase windows were out and the doors had been blown off all the houses … I remember we just stood at our window, I mean the wide open space that used to be our windows, and watched No 12 burn.”
The book “Untold Stories” includes four contributors who mention Pattison Street. Helen McNeill gives a vivid and moving account of a trip to the cinema on the evening of the 13th that ended hours later returning to find her mother’s uncles building had been flattened (they were Samuel and George Porter, pages 54-56). Sam Black is another relation who mentions them in his account (pages 69-70)
These records I am using suggest 16 people died in the first explosion. They were:
William Boyle (40), his wife Margaret (36) and daughter Isabella (10). William was a fitter.
Ralph Drummond (40), his wife Gladys (38) and sons Ralph (10) and James (7). Ralph (father)’s job was as a builder.
Margaret Fraser (42). Her husband, Alexander, was not among the dead.
Michael McKechnie (34), his wife Agnes (34) and their daughter Emma (9).
Patrick McMorrow (65) and his wife Sarah (56). Patrick was a platelayer.
Samuel Porter (63) and his brother George (56).
All of the above lived at number 12 Pattison Street. The other person who died was Delia Gallagher (15) from 10 Pattison Street.
The records I am working from suggest 33 people died when the shelter was hit in the second explosion. While the shelter is described above as being at the back of number 5 Pattison Street, most of the dead lived at numbers 7 and 9. They were:
Residents of number 7
Violet McKay (36) injured and put in an ambulance but found to be dead at Blawarthill Hospital.
Edward MacMillan (15). His parents, David and Elizabeth survived.
Mary Donnelly (42), a widow, and her children Roseleen (15), Hugh (11), Maureen (8), Margaret (6) and Theresa (4)
Christina MacDonald (36) and her children Jessie (16), Donald (10) and Brenda (5). Christina’s husband James, a boilermaker, survived.
Residents of number 9
James Brimer (72), an engineer
Jane Cryan (74). Her husband, Patrick, survived
Mary Kelly (31) and her son James (2). Mary’s husband, Edward, survived.
Agnes McGregor (55), a widow
Norman McLennan (7). His mother, Jessie, survived.
Archibald Miller (61), Mary (53), Sheila (10) and Eileen (7), family relationships not specified.
Elizabeth Scott (43) and her children Morag (12) and Walter (7)
Elizabeth Stewart (10). Her father and mother survived.
Jane Strachan (73), a widow
In addition Archibald Canning (3) and his brother James (aged 2 months) died. Their parents, Archibald and Edith survived but their home was at number 10 Pattison Street. It’s possible they had a narrow escape when number 12 was bombed, crossed the street to be in a shelter, in time for the second bomb.
Other ‘visitors’ were Hugh Kennedy (23) and his wife Ellen (20). Their usual address was 24 Jellicoe Street, but as we will see below, that had been the site of two parachute mine explosions, so they may also have had one narrow escape, only to choose Pattison Street as a safer alternative.
A fifth ‘visitor’ as Janet Richardson (38), known as Cissie. She lived in Bowling but had been visiting 9 Pattison Street with a gift for her sister, Jessie, who had had a baby three days previously. Cissie died here, as did Jessie’s son, Norman (see above). It’s especially sad that when her husband found her body, Cissie’s rings had gone. These details were provided by a contributor to “Untold Stories”, initials V.M., pages 118-120.
The final ‘visitor’ was Margaret Thom (71) from Prestwick – she must have been visiting family or friends.
Burns Street
The CWGC record includes one person who died at Burns Street and two who died at “Burn Street shelter, Dalmuir”. I do not believe there was a Burn Street in Dalmuir; I have also checked the contemporary record of the death of one of these people and it clearly states “Burns Street Shelter, Dalmuir”. Therefore I have assumed all three were in a shelter at an address in Burns Street. Furthermore, I note number 10 Burns Street backed onto Numbers 7-9 Pattison Street so I have assumed they were also victims of the second bomb on Pattison Street.
They were:
Margaret McLaugh (18) who lived at 10 Burns Street
Katheleen Semple (11) and her sister Sheila (7). Their home address was 104 Canberra Avenue. Kathleen was found alive but died at the Base Hospital, Larbert on 17th March 1941, three days later.
This brings the total number killed or fatally injured in this incident to 36.
Bomb 189: Beatty Street
In contrast to the previous accounts we have no eyewitness accounts and d not even know the time of the incident for certain. The people who died here were:
Residents of 12 Beatty Street
Thomas Currie (65), a widower, and his son Samuel (37)
Andrew Kilpatrick (31) and his wife Agnes (31)
Peter Marshall (78) and his wife Johanna (72), their daughter Margaret Russell (43) who was a widow and her son Ian (9)
Residents of 14 Beatty Street
Samuel Pillar (52) an air-raid warden
Minnie Cooper (65), a widow, died here but lived in Cambuslang.
Frederick Massey (69) was injured and died in the emergency hospital at Lennox Castle later that day (14th March) No location is given for the address at which he was injured but as he lived at 8 Beatty Street I have assumed it was as a part of this incident.
This gives a total of 11 deaths from the incident here.
Bomb 184: Castle Street and Dumbarton Road
There is one account in “Untold Stories” (pages 83 to 86) by May Fraser. In her account she describes making her way home to castle Square from Clydebank. When they got home to her family, they listened to the bombs falling. As the siren sounded “raid over” at around 6am, her fiancee said he thought one bomb in the last ‘stick’ had not exploded. Then it did and May remembered, “The house actually lifted then settled. I remember the lino ripping right across the floor. Then blessed quiet and still.” She found “the last bomb had brought down the building in Castle Street and the dead bodies were laid out on the pavement covered in sheets … The shelter between our house and the main road was flattened and everybody in it died.”
Residents of 2 Castle Street
Alfred Westbury (54), his wife Elizabeth (56) and their children Samuel (27), Alfred (22) and Walter (13)
Annie Johnston (54), a widow. May Fraser she was President of the Paris Church Women’s Guild.
Jane Dinning (41) and her children Janet (15) and Duncan (3). Her husband, David, survived.
Wallace Cochrane (17 months). His mother survived; his father was in the armed forces.
In addition, two people died who did not live here:
Nathaniel Scott (29) a Home Guard soldier from Stevenston Street, Calton in Glasgow
Richard Kernachan (45) of 78 Jellicoe Street
Dumbarton Road
775 and 781 Dumbarton Road were the two tenements on the east corner of Castle Street. It is not certain that they died in the same bomb explosion that killed the people at 2 Castle Street. Five people died here:
At 775
Christina Fotheringham (72) and Annie Reid (46)
At 781
John McGeechan (13), Elizabeth Quigg (18) and Robert Wark (27). May Fraser remembered that Elizabeth Quigg (who she calls Betty) had gone to the shelter while her parents stayed in their top-floor flat.
If I am right in assuming this was all in the same incident then 17 people died here.
Here is the 1951 map of the area, showing the buildings that survived:
