Walter Edgar was born on 28th June 1879 at 92 Sandyfaulds Street, Hutchesontown. This was on the west side of the street, just south of the junction with Cumberland Street (assuming the house numbering was the same in 1879 as in 1949).
Map from 1892 shows where Walter was born (red circle), where he was married (orange circle) and where he lived with his family in 1911 (blue circle). The River Clyde runs through to the east, with Glasgow Green on the right-hand side.
His father, Walter, married his mother, Margaret Musgrave Innes in 1871. Walter was the fifth child of eight born to his parents.
His father’s occupation at his birth was hatter (journeyman), but later he was described as a “silk hat shaper” and “hatter (foreman)”
In the 1901 Census the Edgar family lived in a flat at 262 Cumberland St, Hutchesontown, Walter (aged 21) was a tobacconist’s salesman:
This photo is from 1955 and suggests a lively street where traffic was pretty rare!
In 1905 Walter married Violet Coutts at 272 Crown Street on 15th September, just off of Cumberland Street (see map above). This address was the home of Walter’s parents (so presumably his home as well) – the witnesses were John and Elizabeth Edgar, Walter’s brother and sister. Walter’s occupation was phonograph salesman (later known as a gramophone or, by my day, a record player).
Violet, who was seven years younger, was from Mount Florida, and her occupation was music seller’s assistant.
They moved to 71 Coventry Drive in Dennistoun, where their first child, Margaret Isabella Edgar, was born in 1906. A second child, Walter Innes Edgar died on 28th December 1907, aged three months, after ten days with pneumonia (according to the record of his death).
Walter’s father died in 1908 and his mother in 1911.
In the 1911 Census Walter and Violet and their children, Margaret and Alfred (born 1910), were still at 71 Coventry Drive, which had two rooms with one or more windows, but also staying were James and Margaret Coutts, aged 26 and 14, who were Violet’s brother and sister:
The Census says their relation to the head of household (Walter) is “relative”. This suggests they lived there – if they were visiting on Census Day they would be described as “visitor”.
Here is Coventry Drive (photo undated, courtesy of The Glasgow Chronicles Facebook page, link):
We’re looking along Coventry Drive, facing north-east. On the right hand side you can see a postbox with a block of tenements behind, then as you run your eye left there is a low wall – this is the bridge over the railway line. To the left of this is a red shop with the word “Toys” above; the doorway to number 71 is immediately after that.
Today, the block on the right is the site of Alexandra Park Street and Google Street View only allows a comparison shot from near where the Pepsi sign is displayed on the left:
Only the railway remains.
Two years later, the family had moved to 22 Aberfeldy Street, not far away:
Walter and Violet had a fourth child, Violet, born in 1913. Just possibly they knew Robert and Winifred McKinlay, just round the corner in Kennyhill Gardens – their boy, Francis (born 1915), is also listed on the Bearsden War Memorial (link).
The next glimpse we have of Walter is after the outbreak of World War One, in 1916:
This is from the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald of 4th August and it is in a report of the meeting of Military Appeal Tribunal and the Eastern District of Dumbartonshire. Some guesswork is needed. It seems Walter was ‘called up’, required to join the armed forces. There was a right of appeal so farmers and workers who were essential for a business such as a bakers might be able to gain temporary or permanent exemption. Walter seems to have appealed, presumably on the grounds he was the sole source of income for his wife and three children, but before the hearing he joined the army anyway.
The other surprise is that the family has moved from Coventry Drive (maybe not a surprise, given it was a two-room flat) but that they went to Balvie Bank. Eagle-eyed readers may remember I have covered this cottage already in the profile of Neil Livingstone, who died in the Second World War and is also named on the war memorial (link). To recap briefly, you would find this cottage by heading north from the Baljaffray Roundabout (“the M&S garage”), then straight through the next roundabout and it is a hundred yards or so on the right – once an entrance to the Mains Estate when that was a stately home. In 1916 it would probably have been a cottage for rent but how Walter and his family chose this when their married lives had been in Dennistoun is not known.
This is the Google Earth view looking south, modern Mains Estate in bottom left, Bearsden top left, the A809 Stockiemuir Road runs from the centre (Crossburn Roundabout) to bottom right. Balviebank Cottage is on the curving road in the foreground.
We then lose track of Walter for eight months. During that time he joined the army, was trained and posted to the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, was made a Lance-Corporal (one rank up from private) and was sent to France.
We do not know exactly when or how Walter was injured. We do know he was described as “died of wounds” so we can rule out an accident or an illness. We can be reasonably certain that he was injured on the 9th April 1917 because a history of the battalion he belonged to (2nd Battalion, KOSB, link) suggests this was the only major action they were in during that month.
The 9th April marked the beginning of a major British offensive as part of a combined plan of attack with the French. The battalion was to be used in an attack on Vimy Ridge, a north-south feature of about 600 feet, given added significance by the very flat surrounding countryside.
This painting is called The Taking of Vimy Ridge by Richard Jack
The taking of Vimy Ridge is widely thought of (and quite rightly) as an achievement of the Canadian army, but 13 Infantry Brigade (including 2nd KOSB) of the British Army was attached to 2nd Canadian Division and was in a central role alongside the Canadian troops. They had been preparing for the attack for several weeks, including rehearsing in areas that resembled the ground over which they were to attack, marked with tapes for trenches, objectives, etc. At the start of April they were billeted at Auchel, the following day they marched to Verdrel where they were put into bell tents in the woods (Foret de Olhain) but the weather was bad and the tents had no duckboards so they lived in mud, rehearsing time and again. There was snow and the weather was generally described as bad, but the decision was to attack anyway, possibly on the basis the Germans would not expect it.
The battalion was in a second phase of the attacks at the southern end of the ridge that morning. This is a Google Earth view from above Arras, looking north to Lens, with the ridge starting in the foreground and stretching away from us (the modern suburbs of Lens are starting to spread across the area):
We know the 2nd KOSB had moved up from their muddy tents the previous day and were now assembled in trenches in the north of Neuville-Saint-Vaast (bottom left) and the general line of advance would have been from left to right. They ended the day in the area of Thelus (bottom right). This is a map from the war diary of 13 Infantry Brigade showing a similar area to the photo (imagine your chin was the bottom of the map in the middle, looking to the top!):
The coloured areas to the left of centre show the starting off point for the attack of the four battalions in British 13th Infantry Brigade; 2nd KOSB are marked by pink shading in the top right, with the others in green, blue and yellow areas.
Here is a view of the streets in the north of Neuville-St-Vaast today, looking north-east in the general direction of Vimy Ridge:
The battalion set off at 07.20 by companies, in alphabetical order (A, B, C, D – Walter was in D Company) and quite possibly up the road on the right in the street view photo. The weather was drizzling, and visibility was poor enough that a compass was needed to maintain direction.
After a brief halt, probably to allow the companies to close up, the enemy began to shell the area and a considerable number of casualties happened here.
We don’t know for certain where this happened but it was to the west of the road from Arras to Lens, so this view gives a general idea of the countryside.
There are other possibilities for the place where Walter was wounded, of course – being under shellfire he could have been injured at almost any point, but there is no other single incident where D Company men were injured. The battalion then had a successful day, achieving their objectives but with a total loss in killed and wounded of about 150 men; this was much lower than expectations.
Walter would have been evacuated to the regimental aid post, then was sent back to one and possibly a second hospital further behind the lines. The intention may have been to evacuate him back to the UK, but he died of wounds on 26th April 1917 and is buried in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery.
Google Earth view of Boulogne Eastern Cemetery – resting place of three men named on the Bearsden War Memorial: Walter Edgar, William Watson (link), and Duncan MacNaughtan (link).
Unusually, headstones are placed in a horizontal position:
The words on Walter’s headstone were chosen by Violet. Here is the CWGC form recording her request:
Note that the figures 15-2 on the right-hand side denote the amount Violet had to pay, 15 shillings and two pence.
The words are from the hymn “There is a Calm” (full lyrics here).
There is one final twist. There is a record of a British Red Cross enquiry made about Walter on 20th July 1917. This was a service for families to ask about a wounded or missing man who they had not heard from (this is a transcript from the FindMyPast website), thank you to Charlie962 from The Great War Forum for alerting me to this:
But we know news had already been passed on of Walter’s death because it appeared in the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald of 11th May 1917:
Again, I have to speculate. Violet received notification soon after Walter’s death, as would be usual practice. However, she must have then either been sent a letter or possibly another soldier had written to his family, doubting that Walter was really dead, and so (hoping against hope, no doubt) she made the enquiry, only to receive confirmation.
After 1917: what happened to Walter’s family?
I wanted to know how Walter’s widow, Violet, managed with three children after his death. Did they move back to Glasgow, did they survive, did they live full lives? I have tried to find some more.
As can be seen in the CWGC form above, Violet’s address was Mains East Lodge, Milngavie:
I’ve highlighted Balviebank on the left in red (and the West Lodge), Mains House in orange in the centre, and East Lodge, where Violet lived with her children, in blue at the top of what would now be Hunter Road.
Just as we don’t know what made the Edgars move from Dennistoun to Balviebank, so we do not know how Violet moved to East Lodge. I suspect it was not from Walter’s savings or her widow’s pension. Possibly the owners of the Mains Estate knew her story and took pity on her and her orphaned family to offer the lodge at a rent below the market value?
Violet would have received a pension as a widow. This card shows some of the details:
Note the calculation of when each child would reach the age of 16 as the pension reduced at that point.
We know the children attended Craigton School, as Margaret (the eldest) won a bursary (M&BH 30 August 1918):
But in the 1921 Census we get a clue as to how the Edgar family was organised:
Violet is working as a typist at Glasgow Corporation Gas Department, while Margaret aged 15 has as her occupation “H.D.” or home duties. Poor Margaret, clever enough to win a bursary but running the home for her mother and younger brother and sister.
Alfred and Violet, the younger children, seem to have thrived: the local newspaper of the 1920s has many mentions of them showing musical prowess and acting, reflecting their parents’ employment in selling music. Here is one example, reporting a Juvenile Operetta performed at Milngavie Burgh Hall (M&BH 4 March 1921):
Their mother was not letting the grass grow under her feet – despite raising the family single-handed she had managed to find the time and money to train as a corsetiere for Spirella (see second column below on the front page of the M&BH of 26th December 1924):
Please excuse the ignorance of your male author, but this was an entirely new one to me! But there is an amazing website dedicated to the history and work of Spirella corsetieres, please click here. In brief, Spirella corsets were made to measure and were not available in the shops so sales were through an accredited, trained local representative who would come to the customer’s home to advise and measure her. She then hoped for word-of-mouth recommendations to friends and family. Violet did well to spot the potential in the Milngavie and Bearsden area – the UK’s first corsetiere had only been appointed six years earlier and training was in Letchworth in Hertfordshire.
Adverts suggest she retained this work for at least two to three years but by the 1930s another woman’s name appears in newspaper adverts.
Her daughter, Violet, was emerging as the highest achiever at Bearsden Academy with repeated class prizes and school prizes reported in the newspaper. This is the speech given at the end of the year by the rector of the school (M&BH 3 July 1931):
And this at a similar speech on 3rd July 1937:
I’m indebted to Rod Macduff for allowing me to use this photo from his family tree, showing graduation day at Glasgow University – Violet is on the left:
It’s possible to deduce where the photo was taken because Violet and her friends are sitting on grass but the camera position is looking up, so on a slope – this is very likely to be at the south face of the main building. This is then confirmed by the decorative circle on the building just over Violet’s shoulder, which we can match to a modern view as follows:
Note the decorative circle above the ‘first floor’ windows. My best estimate of where they were sitting is shown on this Google Earth view, see the red star in the middle of the photo at the bottom:
Meanwhile in 1931 Alfred, by then working as a bank clerk, married Alice Elsie Simpson at 120 Union Street in Glasgow. In 1938 Margaret, then 32, married Mungo McKie from Milngavie – he was a bank clerk and she was a cashier so they may have met through work. Margaret gave her address as Mains, Milngavie, as did her witness and sister, Violet.
Finally in 1941 Violet married, at Cairns Church, to Alistair MacDuff, witnessed by her friend from her days at Craigton School, Winifred King:
Violet was a school teacher. Alistair was five years younger and had a job but I find the handwriting very difficult – “Inspector”? But of what?
I believe they had three children, two of who survived into adulthood. Again, Rod Macduff has allowed use of this photo of Violet in Helensburgh:
The marriage lasted 26 years but ended in divorce. Violet (daughter) died in 2006:
And finally, back to Violet (mother). In 1932 she is briefly mentioned as clerk to the Christian Science Mission (M&BH 16 December 1932):
And again in 1946 (M&BH 28 December 1946):
Violet died on 13th June 1959 in the Western Infirmary, Glasgow. She had had a heart attack 19 days earlier and may have died of a second one. Her home address was East Lodge, as it had been for the previous 40 years. The death certificate was completed by her eldest daughter, Margaret McKie of 5 Russell Drive, Dalry.
The Mains Estate was changing. In 1960 the map looked like this
East Lodge is ringed in red and just below it Clober Farm is ringed in orange. Note the newly formed Hunter Road cutting across the existing road to the Mains House.
Here is approximately the same view today:
While Clober Farmhouse appears to still exist in refurbished form, the East Lodge has gone.