The Linthouse Landmine
You’ve probably driven along this street at some point but we’re looking from an odd angle. It’s Govan Road, at the western end and we’re looking south from above the river. The road winding from top-right to bottom-left is the road to/from the southern end of the Clyde Tunnel (which would be to the left). The Queen Elizabeth, old Southern, is just off to the right out of this view. This post is about the gap in the tenements in the centre of the photo, occupied for many years by a patrol station:
In 1934, the block was bounded by Peninver Road to the south, Moss Road to the west and Burghead Place to the east, as this map shows:
At 10.42pm on 13th March 1941 a mine, descending by parachute, hit this tenement in the Linthouse area. I’m aware of three brief accounts of what happened:
George Rountree lived in Peninver Drive with his parents. (Credit for this material to the BBC website, link.) When the siren sounded George’s mother took him to shelter with relatives at 16 Skipness Drive; on the way out they passed Mr and Mrs Frew, going to stay with relatives at Govan Road. There were 20 to 30 people packed into the house on Skipness Drive, mainly women and children, and George recalls the atmosphere becoming increasingly tense and fearful as the gunfire and explosions increased. The landmine exploded about 400 yards away but George remembered everyone being deafened and dazed, with a haze of dust in the room.
George’s father had been away from home at a apolitical meeting in Govan and was hurrying home. He told the family he saw the parachute mine descending (it was a moonlit night) and tried to will it to drop harmlessly.
George said, “Next morning, walking round the corner from Holmfauldhead Drive into Govan Road, no words can describe the feeling induced by the sight which greeted the eyes; the still smoking heap of rubble of what had the previous day been peoples’ homes. Members of the Civil Defence rescue teams were swarming over the unstable mound, working frantically trying to find anyone buried there who might still be alive. The vision of ragged edges on either side of the demolished section was fraught with terror, with the rough masonry and hanging floorboards, and plaster lathing spread out like ragged fans. Sections of apartments complete, some with furnishings intact, were open to view, and there was not a trace of glass visible in any of the windows anywhere in the rest of the block. Strangely, what made the greatest impression was the sight of wallpapered walls.”
Later, George recalled seeing the two coffins being taken from the Frew’s flat to the burial, followed by a stream of grieving relatives.
The second account was publicised in the Sunday Post newspaper in 2019 (link but note the 1941 photo in this article is of Kilbowie Road in Clydebank, not Govan Road). Annie Singh, nee Duthie, lived with her parents at 1249 Govan Road. Her father was away working in the local sawmill, and she was asleep in her cot (aged one year old) when the explosion happened. She was rescued, possibly because the cot was near the window, and taken to the Southern General Hospital, where her father eventually found her.
This photo shows Annie as a baby, being held by her mother (who died):
A chance meeting in Largs with David Hendry, an elder at St Columba’s Parish Church, provided some more information. David’s father was a bus driver and was driving through Govan when the raid started. He was told to stop the bus and allow everyone to take shelter, but instead the unnamed female bus conductor walked ahead of the bus to guide it through the blackout. Returning the next day, they saw that they would have been parked outside the destroyed tenements.
The final brief comment comes from the hiddenglasgow.com forum (link) and was posted by a user called Dugald: “I was at the bombed and burning Linthouse building within hours of it having been hit and I saw the plain (wooden?) coffins lined up on the pavement… mere hours after the explosion! Things were a long way short of being organised; I went through the closes into the back yards (and looted!) and watched the ARP men digging frantically. There were police and firemen all over the place; there were also some soldiers there but not in any great numbers. I recall nothing I’d describe as “uncaring, inept and sometimes callous authority”. I left Linthouse feeling we were winning the war!”
In Andrew Jeffrey’s book, “This Time of Crisis” he says that 37 people died. He includes John Campbell, driver of a vehicle for the rescue service, who was killed by a subsequent bomb after the rescue attempt had started. The only John Campbell who died in Govan in 1941 was a victim of lung cancer, so I am not sure where this information comes from. However, he also says Ann Campbell’s home had been destroyed but she went into the rubble repeatedly to comfort a trapped neighbour. There is some support for this as a Charles Campbell was registered at 1259 Govan Road so Ann could have been his wife or daughter.
The 1940 Valuation Roll shows 12 tenants in the tenements at 1249 Govan Road and another 12 at 1259 Govan Road:
Tenancy of flats seems to have changed quitea lot at the time so we cannot assume everyone in this list (which would have been prepared around the middle of 1939) was still there around 18 months later.
However, we can put names to 40 people who died or were fatally injured here; this is higher than Jeffrey’s figure, possibly because it includes two people who died of their injuries in hospital.
At 1249 Govan Road, the 26 residents who died were:
John Egan, listed as a lorryman in the 1940 valuation roll (a lorry driver, probably motorised by this time although it could also be horse-drawn). He was 35 and died with his wife, Catherine, 31, and their four daughters – Catherine aged 4, Mary aged 3, Sarah 21 months and Rose May 5 months. They are buried in Cardonald Cemetery:
Cissie Carnegie Kendall, 34, whose husband was in the armed forces
Caroline Hamilton Langmuir, 68, a widow
Isabella Nicholson, 65, married, and her sister Sarah Ann Macaskill, 60, who was a tailoress. Sarah was a spinster who had lived in Govan all her life.
James Murray, 45, his wife Maude aged 33, and their children James (aged 10), Norman (aged 8), Sylvia (aged 4) and Gordon (aged 3 months). James’s job was a checker (I cannot define this any more precisely, can any reader help?) This was James’s second marriage, his forst wife having died. There was a child of the first marriage, Catherine – did she survive the explosion?
Ceceilia Adam Spence, aged 33
William Thomson, 66, his son William aged 24, William (son)’s wife Helen, 24 and their daughter Maureen (10 months). William senior’s occupation was as a carter.
Mary Penny Williamson, 34. Her occupation was machinist, according to the 1940 valuation Roll. I have also see a reference to her being a tailor’s assistant – I wonder if she worked with Sarah Macaskill, who was a tailoress and also died here? We have a photo of Mark as a young girl (on the right, with her father and sister):
John Edward Wilson, 30, his wife Jean McDonald Wilson, 29, and their children Marjery Bleasdale Wilson (aged 4) and Robert Bleasdale Wilson (aged 19 months). John was a salesman.
Many thanks to Lanie MT for posting this photo from Craigton Cemetery on Pinterest (link)
A further five people died who were visiting 1249 Govan Road:
Eileen Mabel Fiddimore, 26, and her son Robert Barry Fiddimore, 3. Their address was given as 7 Church Lane, Sutton, Surrey. Aubrey James Walter Fiddimore, 28, was Eillen’s husband and Robert’s father. He was a heavy engineer’s labourer and I wonder if he brought his family north to stay out of the Blitz on London, finding work at the shipyards? He seems to have returned to Surrey and married again in 1948.
James George Buchanan Frew, 32, and his wife, Martha, 25, had gone to shelter with Martha’s elder sister Cissie Kendall at 1249 Govan Road (Cissie also died).
John Burns, 25, was in the Home Guard and may have been on patrol duty. He lived with his parents at 1 Balshagray Avenue.
At 1259 Govan Road, 6 people died (all residents):
Jane Brown, 39
David Clark, 31, his wife Mary Hamilton Campbell Clark, 29, and their son David Campbell Clark, aged 9 months
Rebecca Duthie, 39
Thomas Reid, 58
At 36 Peninver Road
Patricia Harvey Smith, 4 months old, was injured here and died at Stobhill Hospital on 9th April 1941
William Mcfarlane, 72, was injured here and died at Mearnskirk Hospital, Newton Mearns on 15th March 1941
At 3 Moss Road
Henry Cameron, 64
I’m indebted to the Facebook page Acumfaegovan for this photo of the cleared site (link):
