A YOUNG Helensburgh flyer — whose father became the town’s Provost — lost his life in a World War One dogfight in northern France just weeks after becoming engaged.
Military
Rugby star died when ship torpedoed
A TALENTED rugby player whose parents lived in Helensburgh and who was selected by both Scotland and England lost his life early in World War One when his Royal Navy cruiser was torpedoed.
Surgeon James Henry Digby Watson was the son of Engineer Captain James Herbert Watson RN and his wife Eliza Viets Smith, of Westwood House, 17 Glasgow Street.
Endurance after ship torpedoed
A HELENSBURGH man suffered the ordeal of being torpedoed and spending almost a fortnight in a lifeboat during World War Two.
Villager torpedoed twice and lived
A GARELOCHHEAD villager was torpedoed twice in World War Two — and lived to tell both tales.
That was exactly what James Reeves did when Helensburgh Heritage Trust prepared a DVD in which local people recalled interesting memories of the war.
MAEE tested Dambusters bombs
THURSDAY MAY 17 2018 was the 75th anniversary of a major event in World War Two which had very significant Helensburgh connections.
Cinemas throughout the UK showed the epic and moving 1955 film “The Dam Busters”, starring Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd, which recreated the true story of Operation Chastise when in 1943 the RAF’s 617 Squadron attacked the Möhne, Eder, and Sorpe dams in Nazi Germany with Barnes Wallis’s bouncing bomb
Volunteers became Garrison Artillery
SOME of the best-known figures in Helensburgh history shared something else apart from living locally.
The Rev. John Baird, father of John Logie Baird, John Honeyman, the architect, Dr Fordyce Messer of ‘disappearing coachman’ fame, and the Anderson family of Helensburgh benefactors all belonged to the same organisation.
Second village VC winner remembered
CARDROSS has the unusual — and possibly unique for a village — distinction of having been home to two winners of the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for gallantry.
The better known of the two was Lieutenant John Reginald Noble Graham, who lived with his parents at Darleith in the village before and after World War One.
Cardross soldier honoured by village
A CARDROSS soldier who later moved to Helensburgh had an astonishing military career before, during and after the First World War.
Angus McPherson, who was born in the village on December 10 1890, went on to win the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the Military Cross, and the Distinguished Service Order before leaving the Army on January 27 1921.
Remembering the MAEE fallen
A POPPY Cross was not placed at the war memorial on Rhu village green on Remembrance Sunday 2017 — but it was not far away.
The cross, in memory of those who were killed serving with RAF Helensburgh during World War Two, was placed at the nmemorial in Kidston Park, erected in the summer, overlooking its former Rhu Hangers base.
Seaplane used for vital research
JUST over 80 years ago, what is probably Britain’s best known flying boat, the Shorts Sunderland, made its maiden flight — and the seaplane was to play an important part in the Helensburgh and Dumbarton areas.
The prototype aircraft K 4774 gave the name Sunderland to the new specification R22/36 aircraft.
Memories of Cardross bombing
MEMORIES of the night Cardross was bombed when she was ten years-old are still fresh for a villager who now lives in America.
Patricia Lockhart, now Mrs McInnis, left Scotland for Canada in 1956, and has lived in San Diego, California, since 1960.
Why was Cardross blitzed?
IT HAS always been something of a puzzle why Cardross, a small harmless village, should so incur the wrath of the mighty Luftwaffe over the night of May 5 1941.
Could the World War Two bombing of the village have happened because of mistaken identity?
Cardross Captain killed by shell
A CARDROSS army officer with a shipbuilding background died instantly when he was hit by a shell on the Belgian Western Front in during World War One.
Captain William Beardmore Stewart, of Auchenfroe in the village, was killed in action on May 24 1917 at the age of 33, and is buried at Reninghelst New Military Cemetery near Ypres.