Military

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

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.

TRIPLETS set out from Helensburgh to fight for their country in World War One . . . but one did not return.

RAF pilot Lieutenant William Russell Jnr., son of Luss Estates Factor William Russell, was killed in a flying accident on April 3 1918, just two days after the RAF officially came into existence.

HELENSBURGH was known for a time during World War Two as ‘Little Norway’.

That was also the name given to a Norwegian Air Force base formed in Toronto during the autumn of 1940.

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.

FOUR members of a Belgian refugee family spent part of World War One living in Garelochhead.

Now an historical society in their home town in Belgium, Zwijndrecht en Burcht, wants to find out more about them, and if possible find family members who can can supply more information about the stay in Scotland.

EACH Remembrance Sunday a Poppy Cross is placed at the Rhu War Memorial on the village green in memory of men who died while serving at RAF Helensburgh in World War Two.

RAF Helensburgh was the cover name for a secret wing of the Royal Air Force, the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment, which tested experimental flying boats.