Tom Thorne, from Ontario, Canada, wrote on March 26 2009:
Thanks for putting this website on line. For those of us with a connection to Helensburgh but living abroad in Canada as I am, it is very useful.
My grandmother, Jane Kerr (born 1880), came from Helensburgh and was the daughter of Thomas Kerr, stonemason, and Anne Cameron who operated a laundry. Jane Kerr married Andrew Mitchell Munro (1879-1948) in Rhu Parish in 1899 and went to Clydebank to bring up nine children.
My great, great grandfather Archibald Munro (born 1825 in Bonhill) was living in Helensburgh for the 1891 census. A strong family story also connects my grandfather (Andrew Mitchell Munro) in the 1890's to Jack Buchanan's family living at Garthland, 38 Argyle Street West, and also to John Logie Baird's family living at 121 Argyle Street West.
If your members or readers can shed any light on this aspect of my Helensburgh heritage I would be glad to hear from them.
Tom Thorne
14 Applewood Drive
Belleville, Ontario, Canada
K8P 4E2 613-969-1782
Professor Malcolm Baird, president of Helensburgh Heritage Trust, responded:
Dear Tom Thorne,
May I introduce myself as the son of J.L.Baird. I was raised mainly in Helensburgh (c.1947-57) and have been back to the town many times. I now live in Dundas, Ontario.
Your message about your grandfather, Andrew Mitchell Munro (1879-1948), interests me very much. He would have been about 10 years older than my father and Jack Buchanan, so they were not contemporaries at school, but their paths may have crossed as Helensburgh was a small place in the 1890s.
If you have a family story of the Helensburgh days, I'd be interested in helping to throw light on it.
There have been several biographies of my father and a good one also of Jack Buchanan, and I can provide a list of them if it would help. I met Jack Buchanan once in 1945 after one of his shows in London — a very nice fellow.
Sincerely,
Malcolm Baird
