Purves Alexander died at Dunkirk on 27th May 1940, just as the famous evacuation was starting. The German attack on France, Belgium and the Netherlands on 10th May was not unexpected but it was not appreciated how many troops had been committed to the front line by the French and British so that when the Germans broke through there was almost literally nothing to stop them. German air superiority and bold advances using tanks sealed the German victory and the British army, which was located on the Belgian border (just as in the First World War) was in full retreat.
Caught up in this was the 58th Light Anti-Aircraft (LAA) Regiment. Before the war, 9th Battalion the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders was a territorial army unit recruiting in the Dumbartonshire area, including Bearsden. The soldiers were re-assigned and the battalion split up into 54th and 58th LAA; Purves Alexander was the commanding officer of the latter unit.
The duties of a LAA unit
After training in the UK, they crossed to France by ship, embarking at Southampton on 23rd March and disembarking a Le Havre on the 24th. They were equipped with 24 guns of the 40mm Bofors type, 12 guns of the Vickers 2 pdr type, and a Morris CDSW LAA Tractor. These weapons were divided among three batteries, 172, 173 and 174. I think I can imagine Purves’s frustration when, on arriving in France, 174 battery was assigned to another brigade, splitting up his team.
I can find very little about what happened in May as the battalion’s war diary for that month seems to have been lost and I know of no personal accounts. By 27 may, it’s clear Purves was in Dunkirk and this was the start of the evacuation but also a day of very heavy bombing by the German air force. My guess is that as an anti-aircraft regiment, Purves would have deployed whatever guns he had left and tried to defend the town – this would have meant he was not under cover and it is possible he was killed by a bomb splinter.
He is buried in Dunkirk Town Cemetery:
He is also commemorated in a window at New Kilpatrick Church:
Where did Purves’s story begin? In 1892 the property we now know as 166 Hyndland Road was called 10 Hillend Gardens (http://www.glasgowwestaddress.co.uk/Hillend_Gardens/10_Hillend_Gardens.htm):
This is how it looks on a modern street view:
It was in a very different setting though as this map reveals:
Urban spread was just taking over the land of the Hyndland Farm and Number 10 was the last house before the farmhouse. The owner of the property was James Nixon Kirsop, then aged 36, who had married Christina Henderson in Kent on 7th January 1892 (at Eltham) and she was aged 28.
James was the son of Alexander Brown Kirsop who had set up a company (AB Kirsop and Co) trading in iron and steel as well as silicate cotton (used as insulation in very hot processes such as a furnace). They had an office at 79 St George’s Place in Glasgow (now known as Nelson Mandela Place). This is the building on the corner of West George Street, currently occupied by Yo! But of fond memory (to me, at least) as Pizza Hut).
Their first child, Conrad Robert John, was born at Hillend Gardens on 30th October 1892, and Purves Alexander Kirsop was born there as well on 1st August 1894.
The family lived there until 1897, then moved probably to Bearsden. The name of their villa was Eltham, which commemorates the town in Kent where James and Christina were married. We now know this as 19 Ledcameroch Road.
This map shows number 19 on the corner of Ledcameroch Road and Ledcameroch Crescent in the bottom right-hand corner.
In 1899 Christine Evelyn Winifred (known as Winifred) was born at Eltham, Bearsden, but the family moved again between 1901 and 1905 when the valuation roll shows them at Chesters “off Thorn Road” – in the map above this is centre-left. A fourth child, James Nixon Kirsop, was born there in 1907 (he is known as Hamish in the 1911 Census).
Prior to this Chesters was owned by Robert Henderson, Christina’s brother, and it is possible James bought the property when Robert was in failing health or had died.
Around this time, Conrad and Purves were both members of the Milngavie and Bearsden Tennis and Cricket Club. Initially he attended Glasgow Academy, but for reasons we do not know Purvis was sent away to school, to Morrisons Academy, Crieff (1909-1910). He then went to Glasgow University from 1912 and in 1914 was employed with James Findlay and Co of Renfield Street who were merchants dealing with goods to and from India.
Purves enlisted as a cadet in the 9th Battalion, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and at the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 his potential was recognised and he was made a lieutenant in charge of D Company (over 100 men, known as Milngavie Company).
There is also a letter dealing with a case where (seemingly) a soldier had, in civilian life, been the main breadwinner for his mother and now he was in the army, she was struggling:
Number 19 Devon Road is still there:
While this property only plays a small part in the story, it is within a mile of where I grew up. In addition, three years before Purves stay, my grandmother is recorded in the 1911 Census living at number 19 as a domestic servant to the family (aged 15).
The battalion left Bedford on 19th February 1915 (it took three trains) for Southampton where they embarked on a ship called the Empress Queen, bound for Le Havre. (In case this sounds familiar, this is the same journey as Purvis took almost exactly 25 years later, in March 1940, as colonel of 58th LAA Regiment).
The Empress Queen was built at Fairfield’s in Glasgow – it’s interesting to speculate whether any of the iron and steel used in her manufacture was supplied by Purves’s father’s company!
“The Empress Queen was chartered by the Admiralty on the 6th February 1915, the ship was fitted out as a troop carrier and within two weeks travelled to Southampton to begin transporting troops to Le Havre. Its first Channel crossing took 1,900 men of a Scottish regiment to Le Havre.” (source)
We can now tell this was almost certainly 9th A&SH and this was the Queen’s first voyage carrying troops. They disembarked the following day and first went into the front line alongside experienced units on 9th March.
Purves was granted some home leave in May 1915 and at midnight on the night of 21st/22nd May caught the sleeper train from London to Glasgow, expected arrival just after 8am. He was sharing a compartment with three other officers from his battalion.
Near Gretna at about 6.50am a southbound express carrying the1/7 Battalion of the Royal Scots to Liverpool, bound for Gallipoli, had run into a stationery local train from Carlisle to Glasgow. The train from London then ran into the wreckage at full speed. It remains the biggest loss of life in a UK rail accident with about 226 dead. Around 215 were soldiers of the Royal Scots, with seven dead on the London to Glasgow sleeper – but these included the three men Purves had been sharing a compartment with.
From the Daily Record of 27th May 1915:
The man named “Lieut. Bonnar” was James Crawford Bonnar, aged 27, of Cairnsmore, Helensburgh. The others who died were Robert Scott Findlay, age 28, of Boturich Castle, Balloch, and J. Jackson, age 26, of Dunmore, Dumbarton.
Purves suffered one broken wrist, dislocated knee, bad bruising across his body, ears suffered from crushing, marked on the forehead. He was asleep and woke pinned between two mattresses and laying on the rails, the floor of his carriage having given way. Part-buried in wood, he had to be cut out. He was taken to Fusehill Hospital in Carlisle and two days later he was able to travel to Bearsden in a St Andrew’s Motor Ambulance.
By October he was not only back in the trenches but he had also been promoted to Temporary Captain (on 27th October 1915). He was also awarded the Military Cross, second only to the Victoria Cross, for acts of bravery and leadership. In Purves’s case the citation read, “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When his company were holding the front positions of the battle zone, his fine courage and personal example caused them to offer resistance until the last possible moment. Several times, under his leadership, they drove back the enemy in disorder, his cheerfulness and disregard of danger contributing largely to a gallant defence.”
He was promoted to full Captain on 14th October 1916 and was then seconded to the Suffolk Regiment and promoted to Acting Major. His next secondment was to the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1918 where he was recommended for the Military Cross for a second time and was awarded a bar (literally a bar worn above the medal); less than 3000 were awarded in the First World War.
Milngavie and Bearsden Herald 26th March 1920
After the war he maintained his role as a territorial soldier and returned to business. He was living at 32 Montgomerie Drive, Kelvinside in 1926 when he married Lilias Laidlaw Dykes at South United Free Church, Bearsden on 10th June. She was 27, living at Inverey, Thorn Road, with her widowed mother.
The following photo and report is from the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald, published the following day:
In 1927 their son Ian Henderson Kirsop was born, followed by Murray (Alexander James Murray Kirsop).
This is a photo of Colonel Kirsop (sitting centre) and the pipe band of the 9th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
In 1930 he was living at Alcluid, Colquhoun Drive (which I believe to have been number 34). Between 1938 and 1940 the family moved to 12 Roman Road, retaining the name Alcluid. (Alcluid is said to be the Roman name for Dumbarton Rock and it may have been the western end of the Antonine Wall.)
Purves’s peacetime occupation was as director of the company his father ran when Purves was born AB Kirsop. By now they had offices at 166 Buchanan Street, Glasgow, a building that will be recognised by local people at the south end of Buchanan Galleries.
Purves also managed to find time to be active in the British Red Cross Society as the director for Dunbartonshire between 1934 and 1937.
After Purves died, his wife Lilias moved to 6 Carthic Avenue, Kessington.