On 29th June 1948, a Blantyre woman from Springwells, came off second best in a skirmish with the Police.
She resented that her son had been “booked” by the Police for trespassing on the railway and proceeded in no uncertain manner to tell the police just what she thought of them. In the long run, finding herself in Hamilton Court the month later.
The woman was Margaret McCormack (nee Houston), 22 Croftpark Crescent and she pleaded guilty to having on the that day in Auchinraith Terrace conducted herself in a disorderly manner, shouted and bawled, caused a crowd to assemble and committed a breach of the peace.
The Fiscal explained that the Police caught a son of the accused in the act of trespassing on the railway and were proceeding to take down his particulars when the mother came on the scene and commenced to bawl and shout at the officers. She started shouting at her son “Come away, don’t give your name and address to those fools, who have nothing else to do.”
Continuing to show resentment to the Police , she shouted that they had no right to interfere with her son who was simply coming home from work and invited the Police to come over and threatened what she would do with them.
The Police came over alright after they had “booked” the son. The wanted her name and address too for a breach of the peace and at first she refused to comply making things worse, continuing to be very abusive. Eventually though, she calmed down a bit and obliged with the the particulars required. When she was warned and charged she replied, “I was shouting but not swearing.”
On her own behalf the accused said in Court she had only shouted to the boy to come for his dinner. The crowd had assembled before she left the house and she had invited the Police to come over so that crowd wouldn’t know what was going on. The Justice imposed a fine of 10 shillings, with the alternative of 7 days imprisonment.
Source: The Blantyre Gazette Saturday 17th July 1948