Daniel Dugan, Corporal Black Watch, aged 19.
Daniel’s Irish-born grandparents had settled in Blanefield in the 1880s. In 1891 the family, including nine children, plus three boarders, are all described as living in a three-roomed dwelling with no running water in New City Row!
Today it is hard to imagine such overcrowding. It must have been a rather squalid existence but at the time many local families were earning a little extra money by accommodating Irish labourers during the construction of the Second Aqueduct. At the time Daniel Snr, aged 39, eldest son William, aged 17, and four of his other children, including a 12-year old, were all working at Blanefield Printworks. Four more little Dugans are registered on the Baptismal Roll at Strathblane Parish Church over the next few years and so it must have been something of a relief for William when he married Margaret Wallace, a domestic servant from Dollar in Clackmannanshire, in 1898 and moved with his new wife to Bonhill. The Blanefield Printworks had recently closed and William took work as a colour maker at the calico works in the Vale of Leven.
Unusually for the time, their first child, Daniel Wallace Dugan, had been born not at home but at the Royal Maternity Hospital, St Giles in Edinburgh, on the June 21 1898, just 11 days after his parents’ marriage in Stirling. Despite this, his birth was also registered in Strathblane. A second son, William, was born four years later.
Daniel went on to study at the Vale of Leven Academy. Like his father and grandfather, he worked in the calico printing industry. After leaving school he found employment at Ferryfield Calico Printworks, Alexandria and before leaving for the front, he worked in the laboratory at the Calico Printworks in Thornliebank where his parents were now living at Eastwood Crescent.
As Daniel was only 15 when war broke out, it would be some time later that he enlisted in Paisley and joined the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, later transferring to the 6th Black Watch. His battalion became part of the 153rd Brigade in the 51st Highland Division. They had suffered huge losses while strongly defending a salient around Flesquieres and eventually had to retreat after being drenched with poison gas and losing nearly 5,000 men.
The event is reported on the website The Long, long trail: “Unfortunately, the enemy opened a second phase of his offensive on 9 April 1918, and the Highland Division moved into defensive positions behind Richebourg Saint Vaast, where it played a key part in beating off incessant attacks, again at a great cost: another 2,500 men” The division was involved in the phases of the Battle of the Lys which included the Battle of Estaires between April 9 and 11.
It seems likely that this is where Daniel met his death on April 10. He was not yet 20. A brief report appeared in the Evening Times on May 1, along with a blurred photograph showing a boyish face under the Glengarry hat of the Black Watch regiment. His death was reported in the newspapers as holding the rank of corporal but he remains a private on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.
He is commemorated at the Loos Memorial among more than 20,000 men who have no known grave and who fell between the River Lys and the area around Grenay. He is also remembered on the Vale of Leven Academy Roll of Honour.
Having moved to Thornliebank it is not surprising that his name appears on the Memorial there. Daniel is also remembered on a plaque from Woodlands Church which has now amalgamated with Thornliebank Parish Church where his name appears with three others in a section headed “AND FORMER MEMBERS OF 39TH GLASGOW (THORNLIEBANK) COMPANY OF BOY SCOUTS” with the inscription, “ALL THAT THEY HAD THEY GAVE”.
Although he had never lived in Strathblane, he was reported in the Stirling Observer under the heading ‘Strathblane soldier killed’. However, his birth was registered in the parish and through his father and grandparents, he had strong links to the area. With this brief life story we now remember him here again.