Plane crashes: Peter McDonald, Colin Guttridge, Robert Smith
Peter Gordon McDonald Peter Gordon McDonald was born on 26th November 1924 at 1065 Maryhill Road. Maryhill Road runs from top left to bottom right, red circle shows 1065. His father, Peter, was a glazier and had married Margaret Murdoch Breckenridge in Kilmarnock in 1915. His link to Bearsden is not certain but Mrs Margaret M…
Read MoreSmith, Robert Forsyth
Robert Forsyth Smith was born on 25th October 1922 at 5 Doune Terrace. This is now 183 Wilton Street in Kelvinside. His parents were Robert and Jessie Mina Brook – they had been married in 1906 in the Gorbals district. Robert senior’s job was manager of a factory making “aerated water”. By 1935, Robert’s parents…
Read MorePonsford, James
James Cecil Spencer Ponsford was born on 19th October 1900 at Newlands, near Cape Town, South Africa: He was the son of Spencer Gooch Ponsford and Lilian Constance Thompson, who had married in 1898 in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. Spencer was a company secretary. The social standing of the family was such that he was baptised in…
Read MoreHastie, Campbell
Campbell Bannerman Hastie was born on 15th June 1922 at 76 Port Dundas Road: This was extremely difficult to find on a map, but eventually this 1929 fire insurance map showed it as a small property, seemingly a part of a factory. Buchanan Street Railway Station would have been immediately to the south of this,…
Read MoreMacNaughtan, Duncan
Duncan MacNaughtan was born on 4th March 1920 at Hillside, Bearsden. He had a twin, Alan, who was younger by 15 minutes. Their father, Alan George MacNaughtan, was an architect and had married Mary Henrietta Jebb in 1918. Comparing the house name ‘Hillside’ to the 1920 and 1940 Valuation Rolls confirms that this is 8…
Read MoreGrant, Kenneth ‘Keachie’
Kenneth ‘Keachie’ Grant was 28 when he died. We have four glimpses of his life. The first glimpse is on 5th August 1915 at 9 Queen Street, Inverness, where a baby boy is born to Corporal Kenneth Grant of the 1st Seaforth Highlanders (the Great War was one year old) and Helen (nee MacLennan, although her marriage…
Read MoreHercus, George
This is George Hercus in May 1944, in camp at Wethersfield in the north of Essex: He is with the other NCOs (serjeants and corporals) in the 5th battalion of the Black Watch; he is the tall man in the middle of the second row: From “The Spirit of Angus” by John McGregor George was…
Read MoreGoodall, William
The River Tweed runs through Coldstream in Berwickshire, with traffic crossing by The Border Bridge. Immediately at the north end of the bridge stands Bridge House. Originally built to exact tolls on traffic crossing the bridge, it enjoyed a second life after tolls were abolished in 1826, with ‘runaway weddings’ from England taking place at…
Read MoreAlexander, Douglas
Douglas was born at 8pm on 19th November1920 at a house then called St Omer, Bearsden (now 63 Roman Road). Douglas’s father was James, a chartered accountant. He married Mary Forsyth on 29th June 1915. War had already touched the family as Douglas’s uncle, Walter, had a distinguished career in the First World War (from Milngavie…
Read MoreBrockhill, William
This photo was taken around June 1944 in Sussex and is of officers and men of an unspecified RAOC unit. The men in this story are either in this phot or looked very like them. William Brockhill was born on 22nd August 1907, 6.10pm, at 27 Broomhill Terrace in the Thornwood area of the west end…
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