THE work of the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at Helensburgh and Rhu during the Second World War was top secret at the time . . . but more and more information about it is emerging as time goes on.
Former Merseyside newspaper editor Robin Bird, who is currently preparing his second book about MAEE Helensburgh, is the man responsible, and he has been a regular source for this website.
A DECORATED war hero from Garelochhead was among the many thousands who lost their lives in the World War One Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium.
Lieutenant Campbell Greenhill, who was born at his parents home in Glencairn Terrace on November 4 1885, was 31 when he died in what was also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, one of the major battles of the war.
A HELENSBURGH airman who died when his plane was shot down during the Second World War is commemorated on war memorials in Hermitage Park and in northern France.
And in November 2009 a specially prepared photographic tribute to him and his crewmates who died was presented to the Mayor of the town where the monument is.
THE minister of Shandon United Free Church and his wife paid a heavy price when they lost both their sons in World War One.
The Rev Hugh Miller MA and his wife Annie Scott married at Rhu in 1887, five years after Mr Miller became the minister of the Gothic church on Kirk Brae opposite the pier.
This article was originally published in the January— February 2008 issue of "The Highlander", an American magazine.
However having read the booklet "The Battle in Glen Fruin 1603 — A Legend Re-Assessed" by James Pearson (Elachan Publications 2006) and having spoken to him, I amended the article in April 2016.
"WHAT is history," asked Napoleon, "but a fable agreed upon?"
That a battle took place in Glen Fruin on the 7th February 1603 between the Colquhouns and the MacGregors, that the number of Colquhoun dead was very much greater than MacGregor dead, and that the MacGregors were subsequently severely punished for their actions — these are about the only three facts that most historians will agree upon regarding the Battle of Glen Fruin.
ON February 7 1603 a force of some four hundred men of Clan Gregor, Clan Cameron and other “brokin Hieland men” came down to Glen Fruin to raid and to pillage.
Glen Fruin lay in the lands of Colquhoun of Luss, and there was a long history of enmity between the MacGregors and the Colquhouns, as indeed there was between many residents on the borders of the Highlands and the notoriously lawless Clan Gregor.
IN 2003 the Clan Gregor Society held an International Gathering to commemorate the quatercentenary of the battle on 7th February 1603.
The actual ceremony took place at the cairn by the roadside above Auchengaich Farm.
AN American Boeing B29 Superfortress crashed in Succoth Glen, Argyll, in January 1949, killing all 20 people on board.
The plane came down in bad weather, and to this day a large amount of wreckage still remains. The site is marked with a memorial cairn.
A HELENSBURGH man was the top Scottish flying ace of the First World War.
Major John Ingles Gilmour had 39 ‘victories’ to his credit — in other words he shot down 39 German aircraft.
RETIRED newspaper editor Robin Bird has now nearly completed his research for a book, Secret Air Force of World War Two, about the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment based at Helensburgh between 1939-45.
MAEE was a secret wing of the Royal Air Force and tested seaplanes, radar, Leigh Lights, torpedoes and depth bombs as part of the war on U-Boats.
THE Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment based in Helensburgh during the Second World War operated the world's largest indoor water testing tank at Glen Fruin.
Like the operations based at Rhu Hangars, the facility in the glen carried out work which was cloaked in secrecy, says Robin Bird who wrote ‘Top Secret War Bird of World War Two’, which is about MAEE and his father who served there, photographer Bob Bird.
This article is reprinted from the Gareloch and Rosneath Peninsula Website by kind permission of the late Dennis RoyalROSNEATH'S prestigious royal connection of some 68 years ended in 1939 with the death of H.R.H. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll — but World War Two was to bring a very different significance to the area.
