Introduction How is Strathblane linked to Black slavery? More than we might think. First some context. Two key dates: 1807, the abolition of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people and 1833, the abolition of slavery itself throughout the British Empire. In the past...
Strathblane's P5 Class Delve into the Lives of Strathblane’s Children in the Past How much did an eight-year-old at Blanefield Printworks earn per week in the 1820s? Answer: two shillings. P5 pupils at Strathblane Primary School are all agreed: they would rather be...
Blanefield’s charming art gallery is housed in a smithy that is thought to be around 300 years old, though its exact age is unknown. It is certainly one of the very oldest surviving buildings in the parish of Strathblane. It appears on John Grassom’s map of the area...
A Brief History of Duntreath Castle and the Edmonstone FamilyBy Juliet Edmonstone Originally thought to have been of Flemish stock, the Edmonstone family are said to have come to Scotland in the train of Princess Margaret who became the Queen of Malcolm Canmore III...
Stained Glass panel from Maryhill Burgh Halls showing bleachfield workers The abundance of water meant that bleaching and water-driven industries were commonplace in the parish in the 18th century and lasted well into the 19th century. By 1870 most of them had closed...
George Wilson’s Gravestone George Douglas Wilson, Lt Royal Field Artillery, aged 45 The country edition of the Stirling Observer of September 23 1916 contains a simple stark sentence in its war news: “Lieut. Col. Douglas Wilson, Royal Field Artillery, late of...
John Douglas Walker, Gunner Royal Garrison Artillery, aged 36 It is easy to imagine the wife and children of Gunner John Douglas Walker celebrating the news of the Armistice of 1918 and joyfully anticipating his return to Blanefield from the Front. It was a Monday...
William Rankin McLintock, Private Royal Canadian Dragoons, aged 30. William McLintock’s Gravestone A brief bleak item appeared in the Milngavie & Bearsden Herald in July 1917. Under the headline “Strathblane Soldier Killed”, it noted: “The past week has been a sad...
James McLean Love, Private Seaforth Highlanders, aged 43. James spent a year fighting for his country and the next 11 fighting for his life, after being caught in the first German chlorine gas attack of the war.He died of chronic nephritis in February 1927, too late...
Gravestone at Bramshott (St Mary) Churchyard , East Hampshire. Alexander Buchanan Gilchrist, Sergeant/CSM Reserve Canadian Infantry, aged 30. On June 6 1906 Passenger Number 192 boarded the Allan Line’s SS Carthaginian in Glasgow bound for Montreal with the dream of...
George Cumming Gardner, Cpl King’s Own Scottish Borderers, aged 26 George Cumming Gardner was born at Muirhouse Farm, Strathblane, on September 6 1889. Having left the village in his youth to live in Craigton, his name finds no place on the Strathblane War Memorial,...
Andrew Fitzpatrick, Quartermaster Sergeant Scottish Rifles, aged 37. Of all the First World War casualties with local connections and who do not feature on Strathblane War Memorial, the case of Quartermaster Sergeant Andrew Fitzpatrick is the most puzzling. Though...
Robert Walker Macindoe Coubrough, Lance Cpl Highland Light Infantry, aged 23 Robert was born in September 1894 at Craigend Farm, Campsie Glen, the second son of farmer John Coubrough and Jessie Walker Macindoe, who had married at Knowehead, Campsie in June 1889. His...
John Colquhoun’s Gravestone John Colquhoun, Private Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, aged 19 On April 14 1917 the Stirling Observer reported the “death of a Strathblane man”, aged 19. In fact, John Colquhoun had never resided in Strathblane but was one of many...
STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 27 JOHN DILLON, PRIVATE ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS, AGED 24. John's CWGC gravestone in France with a poignant inscription from his family Colonel Otto Elsner with "A" Section of 129th Field Ambulance "somewhere in Flanders" As Elsner names John...
STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 25 ERIC FERNANDEZ YARROW, LIEUTENANT ARGYLL & SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS, AGED 20. In 1914 Eric could have avoided war service but it wasn't his style. Here, writing soon after war was declared, he begs his father to allow him to "jion (sic),...
STRATHBLANE FIRST WORLD WAR PROJECT: 24 FERGUSON THOMSON, PRIVATE, SCOTS GUARDS, AGED 22. Private Fergie Thomson The Thomson family assembled en masse, probably for the wedding of Annie (back row, second from left) in September 1906. Fergie, aged ten (front row,...
STRATHBLANE WORLD WAR 1: 23 MICHAEL STEWART, PRIVATE KING’S LIVERPOOL REGIMENT, AGED 29. The glasshouses at Dinneiddwg, the mansion in Mugdock where Michael worked as second gardener Michael joined Lowland Division Cycle Corps but was soon transferred to the Army...
STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 22 ARCHIBALD (ARCHIE) LAMONT SCOTT, PRIVATE MACHINE GUN CORPS, AGED 27. Machine Gun Corps Archie Scott The Machine Gun Corps Memorial at Hyde Park Corner.The boy David is flanked by real Vickers machine guns encased in bronze. “He was a fine...
STRATHBLANE FIRST WORLD WAR PROJECT: 21 JAMES ROBB, TROOPER, LIFE GUARDS (HOUSEHOLD BATTALION), AGED 21. Household Battalion “Having gone into this action 498 men strong, the Household Battalion suffered 348 casualties. 13 officers were also hit. The majority of these...
STRATHBLANE FIRST WORLD WAR PROJECT: 20 ROBERT RIGG, CORPORAL GORDON HIGHLANDERS, AGED 21. Robert Rigg's grave In the early 20th century, well-heeled families in the Strathblane area began swapping their horse drawn carriages for motor cars. Some of those, including...
STRATHBLANE FIRST WORLD WAR PROJECT: 18 WILLIAM PATERSON, PRIVATE ARGYLL & SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS, AGED 27. Above: Williams attestation papers from November 22 1915, when the family was staying in Balfron Memorial to the 51st Highland Division with Gaelic...
STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 17 ROBERT ROWLEY ORR, CAPTAIN ARGYLL & SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS/ROYAL FLYING CORPS, AGED 30. Captain Robert Baird Rowley Orr Robert's Commonwealth War Grave at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium Painting by Frederick Alsop of...
STRATHBLANE FIRST WORLD WAR PROJECT: 16 DONALD JOHNSON MCNEIL, SERGEANT 1ST BLACK WATCH (ROYAL HIGHLANDERS), AGED 24. The Stirling Observers lurid account of December 5 1914 describes the stirrup charge in its report of Donald's death. The entirely mythical "stirrup...
STRATHBLANE FIRST WORLD WAR PROJECT: 14 DONALD MCINTYRE, TROOPER LOVAT SCOUTS, AGED 23. The Blairquhosh Meikle Tree and Donald's childhood home Report of Donald's death in the Southern Reporter. Floors Castle where Donald worked as a gardener. “Both as a civilian and...
STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 13 JOHN MCCULLOCH, PRIVATE ARGYLL & SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS, AGED 34. Left: Report of John's death in the Milngavie & Bearsden Herald. Immediately beneath there is an item about soldiers' pay being increased to 1s 6d a day after six...
STRATHBLANE FIRST WORLD WAR PROJECT: 12 WILFRID BLAKE MOYES, SERGEANT 8th ROYAL WEST SURREY REGIMENT, AGED 30. Wilfrid Moyes 1881 painting by local artist Frederick Alsop with the Manse where Wilfrid grew up in the foreground. Dumgoyne looms in the distance. Wilfrid's...
STRATHBLANE WORLD WAR ONE PROJECT: 11 DANIEL MORRISON, PRIVATE KING’S OWN SCOTTISH BORDERERS, AGED 38 Daniel Morrison Tyne Cot Memorial Daniel Morrison M&B Herald October 1917 Tyne Cot, Zonnebeke, Belgium “Of a quiet and retiring disposition, he put his heart into...
STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 10 ALEXANDER MITCHELL, PRIVATE CAMERONIANS (SCOTTISH RIFLES), AGED 36. Silk postcards sent by Sandy Mitchell to his wife at Duntreath Alexander Mitchel- family grave Strichen Parish Churchyard, Aberdeenshire Sandra Mitchell, Sandy's...
STRATHBLANE WORLD WAR 1 PROJECT: 9 ALEXANDER LOWE, SAPPER ROYAL ENGINEERS, AGED 25 Alex Lowe's grave Steam train on the Somme 1918 with men ofthe Railway Operating Division Effie Lowe (MOBE) in her QMAAC uniform The lodge at Parklea (now Blanefield House) where Alex...
STRATHBLANE WW1 Project: 8 WILLIAM KER LIEUTENANT HAWKE BATTALION ROYAL NAVAL DIVISION, AGED 24. William Ker William Ker RND 1916 Christmas Card “I crossed the blood red ribbon, that once was no man’s land, I saw a misty daybreak and a creeping minute-hand; And here...
STRATHBLANE FIRST WORLD WAR PROJECT: 7 WILLIAM GEORGE EDMONSTONE, LIEUTENANT COLDSTREAM GUARDS, AGED 19. Willie, aged 15, towers over his classmates in Eton's Officer Training Corps his much-loved cousin Enid Dudley Ward The oil painting ofWillie that hangs in...
STRATHBLANE FIRST WORLD WAR PROJECT: 5 WILLIAM DEVLYN, PRIVATE HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY, AGED 22. Private William Devlyn, Highland Light Infantry, aged 22 Burnside, Station Road, Blanefield, home of William's mother, Jessie The Mons Star Diary extract from William...
STRATHBLANE FIRST WORLD WAR PROJECT: 3 JAMES COCHRANE CARTWRIGHT, PRIVATE ARMY SERVICE CORPS, AGED 35, & 4 WILLIAM JOHN CARTWRIGHT, GUNNER ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY, AGED 34. The Derby Scheme recruiting poster James Cartwrights two gravestones in...
STRATHBLANE FIRST WORLD WAR PROJECT: 2 ROBERT BLAIR, PRIVATE HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY, AGED 33. Robert Blair's grave Posters on Glasgow trams read: "Bantams for the Front -3000 wanted -Apply 46 Bath St." Around 1200 men quickly signed up, every one of them 5ft 3ins or...
STRATHBLANE WW1 PROJECT: 1 JOHN YOUNG BARR, LIEUTENANT ARGYLL & SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS, AGED 23. Lieut. Barr, Killed April 25, 1915, St Julien. Eric Yarrow's letter of condolence to Jack Barr's sister Morag, May 7 1915, in which he compares the shattered landscape...
View from Old Mugdock Road, where a lone cyclist contemplates the grandeur of the Campsies. Edenkill (now Edenkiln) occupied the heart of the community we now call Strathblane and was one of the three villages that comprised the parish, along with Netherton...
"Nothing is now left of Old Netherton save the smithy and the school-house, and its very name seems likely to perish, for the factory originally called Blane Printfield has expanded to such ample proportions, and covered its environs with so many workers' houses that...
Local Workmen with the Water BoardLeft to right : Tom McCulloch, Jimmy Baxter, Tommy Miller, David Getty , John Harkins The Glasgow Water Supply The Blane Valley is the final stage of what justifiably can be called one of the greatest civil engineering achievements of...
The Printworks (from John Guthrie Smith 1886. Photograph by John Coubrough) Block printing is the printing of patterns on fabrics using a carved block, usually made from wood. It originated in India around the 5th century BC but did not arrive in Scotland until the...
For various reasons, a number of men from the parish fell in the First World War yet are not commemorated on the War Memorial. These men are also therefore only briefly mentioned in "A Village Remembers", a book about the men commemorated on Strathblane War Memorial...
Families of some of the men on the memorial A Village Remembers (pdf)Download Contents Foreword by the Wright family Introduction by Anne Balfour (nee Johnstone) Jack Barr, inventor’s son Robert Blair, gardener James Cartwright, joiner William Cartwright, storeman...
The Strathblane Notebooks Life in a Stirlingshire Village before the First World WarBy Alex Urquhart edited by Anne Balfour Quotation from the headstone of Alex Urquhart's parents in Strathblane Cemetery Alex Urquhart (1894-1978) Strathblane Heritage Society...