As you head north on Stockiemuir Road from the Baljaffray Roundabout (with the BP/M&S Garage) you soon come to another roundabout, with a right turn into the Mains Estate (left turn is Douglasmuir Quarry, owned by Tarmac). Straight on and you pass buildings on your left that are the original Crossburn after which the roundabout is named. Then on the right you see (or glimpse) this view:
The satellite view of the small road on the right looks like this:
But on the 1938 map, it looked like this:
So the main road actually went up what now looks like a track, because there was a Lodge at the entrance the driveway of the house on the Mains Estate.
But my interest for this profile is in the building by the entrance to the estate labelled Balviebank, today glimpsed through the trees:
In 1940, Balviebank was split into two cottages and they were occupied by the estate’s two foresters, Thomas Hamilton and Archibald Livingstone. Living with Archibald was his wife Alice and their children, including 22-year old Neil.
Neil joined the army and served in the 1st Battalion Glasgow Highlanders (distinct from the Highland Light Infantry). The Allied advance of the autumn had stopped at the border with Germany and the Allies were now trying to edge forward towards the Rhine. The winter was very cold and troops of the battalion were snapped by an army photographer in winter outfit:
From 18th to 24th January 1945 they were part of an operation to attack into Germany across the Dutch border, shown by the small red circle on this map:
On 20th January, the Glasgow Highlanders moved up. This was on foot:
Luckier men of the battalion rode on tanks:
They started to dig in (literally digging holes in the ground for shelter against bullets and the weather) at around 6pm but a blizzard started about 10pm and several inches of snow fell over night; it was intensely cold.
The attack started at 11.30am on the 21st, D Company (including Neil) heading for the south of Hontem and A Company for the north half. There was close support from tanks, artillery fire including a smoke screen for the first 72 minutes of the advance, mortars and machine gun fire. Nevertheless, they had to walk across about 3000 yards of fields – on the view above they were walking from the bottom left at Breberen to the top right at Hontem.
There was no return fire for the first 1800 yards (which I estimate to be just over half way across) but enemy fire started at this point and became heavy when the Glasgow Highlanders got within 500 yards of the trees at the edge of Hontem. The smoke screen had visibility down to about 20 yards but the Germans probably had a defensive fire plan, aiming at pre-set co-ordinates and casualties were mounting. The two companies moved into the village although some D Company troops became disorientated in the fog and moved to far to the right; a counter-attack drove them back.
By mid-afternoon 4 men of A Company were dead and 32 wounded, while in D Company 3 were dead and 17 wounded. Neil was probably among those counted as wounded at this point but he died of his wounds on the same day.
He is buried at Sittard War Cemetery. On his headstone, his parents chose the words, “The Lord bless thee and keep thee.”
Seven other men from 1st Glasgow Highlanders died that day and they all lie buried in Rows D and E.
From A Company: Edgar Baldwin, aged 19, from Bromley; George Bullock, aged 19, from Wolverhampton; Kenneth Burchell, aged 21, from Wiltshire; and Leonard Mayell, aged 19, from Southampton.
From D Company: Peter Monaghan, aged 27, from Stevenston; Malcolm Horner, aged 18, from Glasgow; and Neil Livingstone.
From HQ Company: James McLaughlin, aged 24, from Rutherglen.
Neil was born on 18th August 1918 at Arden Cottages, Arden, Bonhill. Note he is “Neill” on the war memorial at Bearsden Cross, but his birth record and CWGC records both say Neil.
His father Archibald had married Alice Messenger in 1914 and they had five children. Annie was originally from South Shields.
In the 1921 Census they were at Arden Cottages:
Archibald was a ploughman and his neighbours were a forester and a gamekeeper.
I am not certain which property on the estate they lived in – here is the 1914 map:
And here is approximately the same view on Google Earth:
Loch Lomond is on the right, the A82 runs up the left hand side of the photo. Arden House is bottom right and the estate buildings are above it and to the left.
The family stayed in Arden until at least 1930 but by the time of the 1935 Valuation Roll they had moved to Balviebank.
To try to establish how many siblings Neil had, I searched Scotland’s People for Livingstones born in the Bonhill area between 1914 (when Neil’s parents were married) and 1940 gives 19 hits, but I can see there were at least two other families involved and probably more. From family trees on Ancestry I am certain he had one older sister, Mary, and at least three younger siblings, Thomas, Alice and Sarah. In addition I have identified Archibald, born 1922.
In the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald on the anniversary of Neil’s death, the family posted “In Memoriam” messages, of which this is an example (25th January 1947):
