Military

HELENSBURGH has become a focal point for people wanting to find secret information about World War Two.

RAF Helensburgh was a flying boat base with around 375 people sworn to secrecy about what they did. As a result, more than 70 years later, this can present a problem for relatives tracing loved ones to wartime Helensburgh.

A WORLD WAR ONE hero who died in Helensburgh’s Victoria Infirmary on September 28 1972 at the age of 93 was immensely popular with the local regiment, the 9th Argylls, for his courage.

Major George James Christie DSO, who spent his final years at 13 Douglas Drive East, won the medal for his gallantry at the Second Battle of Ypres in May 1915.

THE MAN who organised the reunions of Helensburgh and district service personnel who fought in the First and Second World Wars was a highly respected town resident.

Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Laird MacConnell, DSO, TD, served the community over many years and in 1950 gifted his then home, Clyde View in East Montrose Street, to the Church of Scotland for use as an eventide home.

AN IMPROMPTU visit to a charity shop on Merseyside transported retired journalist Robin Bird to the Gareloch and Helensburgh of April 26 1940.

For there was a large scale plastic model kit of an Arado 196 A floatplane, the same type of floatplane that crashed that fateful day.

THE VIEW down Charlotte Street in Helensburgh and across the Clyde must have been a very welcome change for a World War Two soldier hero when he returned from captivity.

The Helensburgh and Gareloch Times reported his return to the burgh in the early summer of 1945 with the headline ‘Repatriated’.

A YOUNG Helensburgh naval officer who was a nephew of Andrew Bonar Law was shot by a sniper in a World War One trench battle.

Sub-Lieutenant John Pitcairn Robley, whose aunt Annie was the wife of the future Prime Minister, was the younger son of dairy proprietor William Pitcairn Robley and his wife Edith.

A HELENSBURGH man who made a dramatic escape from a mini-submarine in Loch Striven serves as an example of the talent to be found in the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at RAF Helensburgh during World War Two.

Joiner’s son Duncan Gay was born in Helensburgh on March 15 1913, and educated at the then Hermitage School in East Argyle Street. He started his career in dental mechanics and prosthetics.

AN OVERNIGHT stay in Helensburgh in 1941 would have seemed a very welcome contrast to spending countless hours in Catalina seaplanes searching the grey Atlantic for U-Boats.

Alas that is not how it turned out, retired Merseyside newspaper editor Robin Bird — an expert on the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at RAF Helensburgh — has discovered.

A HIGHLY respected World War One officer from Helensburgh who was a nephew of Lord Strathclyde died in strange circumstances in Italy early in 1918.

Captain Ian Ure MC, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders died of accidental injuries when a bomb exploded on February 2 1918 at the age of 32.

THE NAME of John Muir is now synonymous with the John Muir Way, a picturesque coast to coast walk from Helensburgh to Dunbar.

The route is named in memory and honour of Dunbar-born conservationist John Muir.

HELENSBURGH will host a major centenary commemoration of the famous World War One naval Battle of Jutland on Saturday May 14 2016.

Now the search is on for stories of local involvement in the famous battle, and it is hoped to stage a one-day exhibition of First World War artefacts and hold a parade through the town and a drumhead service.

NOVEMBER 12 1944 saw the destruction of Nazi Germany’s largest weapon, the mighty battleship Tirpitz, at the end of a three year operation in which RAF Helensburgh was heavily involved.

Lancasters bombed the battleship, causing it to list and roll over, killing between 950 and 1,204 people aboard.