Gillian Mawdsley is a Commonwealth War Grave volunteer. In this special feature to commemorate Armistice Day, Gillian focuses on three memorials, illustrating the impact of World Wars One and Two on Glasgow’s West End.
By Gillian Mawdsley
Remembering the Fallen of Glasgow’s West End
Each year, approaching the 11th November, the colours of the fallen leaves are touched by those of red poppies, instantly recognizable as part of our remembrance culture. We pause momentarily, gazing at a Scottish war memorial, before returning to our busy lives. These names on the memorial convey little to most of us, as personal remembrance of those who fell in two World Wars has inevitably faded.
These memorials demonstrate the enormous scale of the losses affecting everyone. Glasgow city alone records eighteen thousand deaths of men in World War One, not including those that the conflict rendered severely injured. Three hundred and seventy three British nurses died.
After World War One, memorials were erected everywhere, funded by families, schools, sports clubs, churches and workplaces; the communities remembering those who died.
Oran Mor
Oran Mor’s (formerly Kelvinside Parish Church) memorial records close association with Glasgow Academy, Kelvinside Academy and their congregation members who fell. They installed commemorative bells too that rang first on Christmas Day 1917 and are still rung each 11th November.
The bells are inscribed to Captain Kenneth Ashby Brown of Belhaven Terrace. Captain Brown1 was a graduate from Jesus College Cambridge, he worked in the family business of John Brown and Sons Limited. His resting place is situated at a Commonwealth War Grave cemetery at Heninel-Croisilles Road near Arras, France. As families could chose a motto to inscribe on the uniform gravestone, his records “post tenebras lux” (Light after Darkness).
The Oran Mor memorial reflects the personal scale of losses to the Galbraith family. There were three deaths recorded from World War One and one from World War Two. Lieutenant W. Brodie Galbraith, second Lieutenant David Boyd Galbraith and Lieutenant Norman Dunlop Galbraith all died from a family of eight, living at Crown Gardens. Two died at Gallipoli and one from wounds inflicted at the Western Front. Lieutenant William Brodie Galloway Galbraith2 of the Royal Navy, died while his vessel was carrying out mine sweeps. He is commemorated at Portsmouth Naval Memorial.
Victoria Park
While most memorials record names, Victoria Park records the “grateful and everlasting remembrance” to the men of Partick and Whiteinch who fell. Erected in 1922, the 1914-1918 conflict was widely known as ‘The war to end all wars.’ Tragically, the dates of World War Two would soon be added.
Flying Officer Richard Macfarlane was living in Broomhill Drive, attending Hyndland School and the High School of Glasgow. His law studies were interrupted when he went to train as a navigator in the Royal Air Force. He flew on the famous Dambuster raid on the 16th of May 1943, with the infamous 617 Squadron. He was killed on the 20th of December 1943, aged 22 years. His Lancaster shot down by the Luftwaffe when delivering supplies to the Resistance . His grave is at Gosselies Communal Cemetery, near Hainaut, Belgium.
Jordanhill Church
Jordanhill Church too records the deaths of local men on its World War One Memorial. A resident of Southbrae Drive, Private Harold McGregor3 served in the First Battalion Cameron Highlanders. Like so many others, his remains were never found. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial (Memorial to the Missing of the Somme) where 72 thousand officers’ names are recorded. Corporal Duncan Downie4 of the Royal Scots Fusiliers lived at in Woodend Drive. Like Private McGregor, with no known grave, his death is recorded on Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing.
Novar Drive
These three memorials all tell a story: the impact of the war on Glasgow’s West End can be shown clearly in one street, illustrating the sheer scale of the loss. In total, twenty three men were killed from this one street.5 They, like all of these young men, served their country and are commemorated both on our local West End memorials and where they fell.
Women must be remembered too for their sacrifice. Elizabeth (Daisy) Warnock who lived in Westminster Terrace, died of pneumonia at 31 on the 5th of May 1918. Formerly trained as a teacher at Jordanhill, she became a volunteer nurse. She is commemorated with her brother, Lieutenant George Muir Warnock, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. George was a stockbroker’s clerk, who died on the 29th of March 1918 aged 25. Both lie at St Sever Cemetery, Rouen with their inscription respectively reading ‘I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do’ and ‘greater love had no man.’ The Red Cross Chair reflected the contemporary mood: ‘Your daughter passed away whilst nobly and heroically serving the country and her magnificent work will remain an inspiration to the personnel of the British Red Cross of which she was a distinguished member.’
By recalling these stories, we appreciate the personal scale of the losses that affected Glasgow’s West End remembering them and others –
‘At each slow dusk [with] the drawing down of blinds’
Our Fallen
- Captain Kenneth Ashby Brown of the fifth Battalion Camerons fell on the 14th of April 1917, aged 29.
- Lieutenant William Brodie Galloway Galbraith, HMS Chasseur died on the 12th of October 1940, aged 22 years.
- Private Harold McGregor, First Battalion Cameron Highlanders, died on the 27th December 1916, aged 22 years.
- Corporal Duncan Downie of the Royal Scots Fusiliers lived at in Woodend Drive. He died on 14th of December 1917 aged 31 years.
- 2nd Lieutenant Robert Maxton Rogers of the Kings Own Scottish Borders was killed on the 25th of September 1916 aged 25 years. Lieutenant Charles Bruce Grant, aged 34, died on the 8th December 1917. Private John Elliot Yuill of the Royal Fusiliers died on the 22nd of September 1917 aged 31 years.
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