In the first week of September 1914, the Hamilton Advertiser Newspaper told its readers that between three and four hundred men in Blantyre had responded to the wartime call to arms. All those men had left their daytime employment and signed up in a hurried effort to get to training and onwards to the front […]
Today, we explore the life of Private James Watson, one of three WW1 soldiers buried in High Blantyre Cemetery. James was born at 50 Bardykes Rows “Newton, Cambuslang” on 11th September 1893. There is a Blantyre connection as his father Alexander Watson was from Springwell and his mother Janet Scott from Spittal. James was born […]
These two previously unseen photos are of the same person, Blantyre lad, James Ritchie. However, what is remarkable about them is that they were taken in 1895 and 1908, meaning the earliest photo is 128 years old! His father was David Ritchie, a master joiner who took the photos given his keen interest in photography. […]
Each November, I like to explore and research the bravery of Blantyre soldiers. Today, recognising another brave Blantyre man in 1915. In September 1915, official communication was been received by Mrs. Cummings, who lived at 245 Glasgow Road, Blantyre, from her son. Sergeant James Cummings, that he been recommended for the D.C.M. The official notice, […]
This is F Company of the Scottish 6th Rifles taken in Falkirk in October 1914. One of four Territorial Battalions of the Regiment, the 6th Scottish Rifles covered Lanarkshire and had its headquarters in Hamilton. The officer seated in the centre with a mousache is James Brown the School Teacher from Blantyre, killed in action […]
This is a WW1 photograph of Private G. McGill of the 7th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, a Blantyre lad who was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for gallantry and devotion to duty at Fosse 8 in battle on mainland Europe. In March 1916, when his officer, Captain Farmer, a man in his regiment, was wounded. Private […]
In early April 1916, Private. Joe McAnulty, an Irish Catholic from Blantyre wrote home from the WW1 front. His message was about setting aside petty differences of religion and humankind after seeing the horrors ravaged communities were going through in France. A message of the futility of fighting to keep some indifferent people in the […]