Between 11.30 on 13th March 1941 and midnight a parachute mine exploded on tenement flats in Dudley Drive, probably on the west side. While we can speculate today what the bomb aimer might have had as a target, my belief is that anything released by parachute from a moving plane flying several thousand feet up and at night is not aimed in any meaningful sense and is only intended to land ‘in the target area’. This is not to say the Germans did not have target photographs with factories and railways marked out; these would have been carefully studied, but a parachute mine was not a precision weapon.
It is often reported that 8, 10 and 12 Dudley Drive were demolished as well as number 9 across the road. Various sources say 6 and 7 subsequently had to be demolished. From the 1949 map, we can see that 6, 8, 10, 12 on one side and 9 on the other side are missing.
Map from National Library for Scotland website – left side included to show the railway lines in the area at that time.
The main sources we have for information are Andrew Jeffrey’s book “This Time of Crisis” (pages 64-65) and Anne Laird’s book “Hyndland”.
Many residents had taken shelter in Hyndland School.
A local resident, Mrs McPherson, recalled the window shattered and ceilings collapsed covering her in plaster and soot.
Ian Buchanan was an ARP warden on duty on Clarence Drive and reported flying slates, masonry and other debris flying a considerable distance. He found a ‘lack of life’ at the scene and ran back to the phone box on Clarence Drive to report. Returning he found the first stunned survivors as well as two soldiers who went in search of stirrup pumps, so there must have been fire as well.
Three people were trapped in number 5 Airlie Street.
The injured were first taken to Hyndland School, but there was a long wait for ambulances as they had gone to Clydebank and other incidents in Glasgow. The nearest hospital was the Western, but casualties were being diverted to Canniesburn as well as the Western was swamped.
At 06.30 on the 14th, the Salvation Army arrived with hot water and tea.
That morning Alan McSherry’s father went to work and Mrs McPherson salvaged her baby’s cot and took it to her mother’s.
An unexploded bomb in Polwarth Street went off at lunchtime on the 14th but there were no casualties because the area had been evacuated; repairs make the building indistinguishable.
The rescue effort seemed to go slowly. A boy was heard speaking in the wreckage but the rescue workers went home when the blackout started, returning the following morning. Stanley Ewing, possibly the boy referred to, was dug out of the rubble after two-and-a-half days. The Glasgow Herald newspaper reported, “By a remarkable stroke of luck a bag of sugar had been thrown into his bed from a cupboard when the house collapsed, and during his long imprisonment he sustained himself with the sugar. While the rescuers worked to free him, Stanley told them ‘I’m O.K. When you get me out I’ll tell you where my mother and sister are.’” As you can see below, they were both found dead. (Thanks to Brett Holman for posting this, link)
St Peters Girls and Infants School in Partick became a temporary shelter for the 500 people made homeless.
Here is the 1940 Valuation Roll for numbers 6, 8 and 10 Dudley Drive (from Scotland’s People website):
My understanding is that the valuation toll was drawn up towards the end of the previous year, showing people then resident at each property and the rateable value (the basis for tax paid to the local authority in April of the following year). For our purposes it is 18 months out of date for establishing who lived here in March 1941. Note there are eight names listed for each property, presumably four floors with two flats per floor. The names in capital letters are (I believe) the property owners so the flats were rented.
I can put names to 45 people who either died here or were injured and died in hospital. Finding any more than the barest details (age, family relationships) is much more difficult.
Margaret Dow was 25 and lived with her parents at 471 Dumbarton Road. Her father, Adam, was an Irishman and probably worked in the shipyards. Her mother, Violet, was born in Nevada City, California (about 150 miles north-east of San Francisco). Margaret, known as Peggy, was her ninth child out of ten.
This is quite hard to read but shows the 1921 Census, the family at 775 Dumbarton Road, with 10 people living in a two-room flat:
On Ancestry David Thompson has kindly posted some photos so we have a photo of Peggy, possibly in the summer of 1940.
Marion Grieve was married to Thomas who was a private in the 10th Battalion, the Scottish Rifles (better known as the Cameronians), in World War One. Thomas was killed shortly before the armistice (23rd September 1918) leaving Marion with two children, Marion (born 1913) and John (born 1915).
Dugald MacEachran Greenlees was an accountant in a bank. Aged 35, he was born in Campbelltown; he was buried there as well, at Kilkerran Cemetery. He lived at 86 Athelstane Road in Knightswood with his wife Maragaret Lister Greenlees so was visiting Dudley Drive that evening.
Here are the names of the people who died:
At 6 Dudley Drive
May Macintyre, 41, wife of John
At 8 Dudley Drive
Residents
The Bells. Robert, 38, his wife Wilhelmina, 35, and their son Rannock, 8.
William Campbell, 57, husband of Anne
The MacLeods. Anne, 71, and her daughters Annie (37) and Mary (28).
The MacEachens. Alexander, 51, policeman, daughter Margaret 22 and son Alexander 15. From the Oban Times of 19th April 1941:
The Macfarlanes. Three adult siblings lived together at Dudley Drive: Mary (60), Agnes (56) and Archibald (39) who was in the Home Guard. Their brother James was visiting; he was married to Sarah, home address 2136 Dumbarton Road.
The Meiklejohns. Arthur Meiklejohn, 56, his wife Helen, 44 and son Robert, 17. There were two other children, Helen, 13, and Thomas who presumably survived the incident.
This is the 1921 Census record showing the family at 15 Kitchener Street, Dalmuir (later renamed Castle Street?). Arthur worked in the shipyards.
Dora Chalmers Purdie 56. Lived at this address with Martha S Purdie, assumed to be her sister.
Visitors
Margaret Brown Dow, 25 – visitor, home address 471 Dumbarton Road
Dugald MacEachran Greenlees, 35 – visitor, husband of Margaret Greenlees of 86 Athelstane Road, Knightswood. From the Campbelltown Courier of 29th March 1941:
Marion Dunn Grieve, 47, widow of Thomas Douglas Grieve – visitor, home address 133 Minard Road, Crossmyloof.
Winifred Eleanor McGashin, 21 – visitor, home address 1735 Great Western Road.
The Youngs. William, 35, and his wife Mary 27 – visitors, home address 8 Muirhill Crescent, Knightswood.
At 10 Dudley Drive
The Campbells. Neil, 49 and his wife Agnes, 40
The Ewings. Elizabeth Ewing, 50, and her daughter, also Elizabeth, 21. The younger woman was a telephonist for the ARP. Her son, Stanley lived here. In the 1939 electoral register Lewis Ewing is listed.
James Hamilton, 61. A commercial engineer
The Morrisons. Margaret, 22, Williamina, 22 and Isabella Morrison, 20. No relationship stated.
The Robertsons. Allan, 47, a member of the Home Guard, and his wife Jane, 51
The Whytocks. Agnes, 56, and her sister Annie, 51. In the 1939 electoral register a second lady called Agnes Whytock is listed.
Visitors, evacuees or ‘posted’?
The Byatts. Charles, 42, his wife Elsie, 31, his daughter Beryl, 2, and his mother-in-law, Caroline Ward, 67. Home address 40 Charter Street, Gillingham.
This is from the 1939 Register:
Charles worked in the Royal Navy Dockyard at Chatham and it seems most likely he was transferred to work in one of the Glasgow shipyards, bringing his family and his wife’s mother. Maybe it was Catherine’s incapacity that meant they did not go to the local school for shelter that night.
In the street
Donald Macdonald, 52. Sergeant, Special Police, of 112 Novar Drive. Husband of Mary.
At 16 Dudley Drive
Annie Pairman, 60, wife of John
At 7 Airlie Gardens
Helen Gunn Sutherland, 56, widow of David Sutherland – injured, died at Western Infirmary. Lived here with David and Margaret M. Sutherland, I assume these were her children.
Elizabeth Ellen Birch, 42, injured, died at Canniesburn Auxiliary Hospital. She lived at this address with James, her father, and Mary, probably her sister.