Military

ONE of the most distinguished pilots of his generation was posted to RAF Helensburgh — the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment — in February 1943.

After winning the celebrated 1927 International Schneider Trophy seaplane air race for Britain in a Supermarine floatplane, Flight Lieutenant Sydney Norman Webster’s career in the Royal Air Force really took off.

A STEWARDESS from Helensburgh is one of two women named on the Helensburgh War Memorial in Hermitage Park.

Janet Todd of the Merchant Navy lost her life on March 25 1941 in one of the more controversial sinkings of World War Two.

TODAY Rhu is home to the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club and a modern marina capable of accommodating up to 140 leisure craft . . .

But the same location during World War Two moored boats of a different type — flying boats, RAF high speed launches, pinnaces and seaplane tenders.

A FASCINATING first-hand account of life at the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment on Garelochside in World War Two was written by someone who served there.

It was obtained by retired Merseyside newspaper editor Robin Bird, who has written two books about the establishment, officially known as RAF Helensburgh although most of its activities were in Rhu.

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 — and now his name is carved in stone at the Glasgow University Memorial Chapel.

Lieutenant Campbell Greenhill MC, 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.

HELENSBURGH paid its annual tribute to the fallen of two World Wars and other conflicts on Remembrance Sunday 2018, and this was a particularly special occasion as it was the centenary of the World War One armistice.

The service took place in front of one of the most elegant war memorials in Scotland within the superb Garden of Remembrance, all refurbished as part of the Hermitage Park improvement project.

NOT everything stopped when the guns fell silent at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.

THE SUN shone on a moving ceremony in Helensburgh on Sunday November 4 2018, which marked the supreme bravery of a Helensburgh man 100 years ago in the First World War.

George de Cardonnel Elmsall Findlay was awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest military award for gallantry, in recognition of his exceptional leadership in the fields of France on November 4 1918, just a week before the end of the war.

JULY 1916 was a bad World War One month for Helensburgh, with two well-known young officers losing their lives in very different ways.

Royal Flying Corps pilot Lieutenant George Maxwell Vereker Bidie died in a flying accident at Whitstable, Kent, on July 8, and seven days later 2nd Lieutenant Alfred Anthony Douglas Raeburn (right) of the 9th Highland Light Infantry Glasgow Highlanders was killed in action at the Battle of the Somme.

A YOUNG Helensburgh flyer — whose father became the town’s Provost — lost his life in a World War One dogfight in northern France just weeks after becoming engaged.

A TALENTED rugby player whose parents lived in Helensburgh and who was selected by both Scotland and England lost his life early in World War One when his Royal Navy cruiser was torpedoed.

Surgeon James Henry Digby Watson was the son of Engineer Captain James Herbert Watson RN and his wife Eliza Viets Smith, of Westwood House, 17 Glasgow Street.

A HELENSBURGH man suffered the ordeal of being torpedoed and spending almost a fortnight in a lifeboat during World War Two.