A POPULAR attraction in Glen Fruin is the memorial stone commemorating the Battle of Glen Fruin.
The memorial was erected in 1968 at the west end of the glen, looking east over the area where the famous battle between the Colquhouns and the McGregors took place on February 7 1603.
BEHIND the dramatic stories about aircraft, bombs and depth charges worked on during World War Two by the Rhu-based Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment, there are also many personal stories.
Retired newspaper editor Robin Bird, who has written two books lifting the veil of secrecy over what was called, for security reasons, RAF Helensburgh, is just as interested in the people as he is the events, successful or tragic.
A PIONEER of combat flying spent the last two decades of his life living at Kilcreggan.
Group Captain Charles Findlay DFC, AFC, died at his peninsula home in 1971 at the age of 80.
THIS year of 2013 is the 70th anniversary of some very important work at the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at RAF Helensburgh.
From 1940 its efforts had been mostly directed at devising ways to sink U-Boats and rescuing ditched RAF crews.
HELENSBURGH mourned the loss in January 1919 of a medical man who had been praised for devotion to duty.
But the life of Major William Smith Sinclair, MB, CM, DPH, very much had its ups and downs.
A PHOTO of a military man found in a shop in Inverness sparked a search which led to Helensburgh, and to a tragic First World War tale.
HOW could more than 300 men and women simply disappear from Helensburgh after working in the district during World War Two?
That is the question retired Merseyside newspaper editor Robin Bird is left asking after researching in depth the history of the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment between 1939 and 1945.
A HELENSBURGH hotel manager was involved in one of the best-planned escapes from a German Prisoner of War Camp in World War Two.
The late Norman Drummond was the urbane, charming and highly regarded manager of the town’s Queen’s Hotel from 1947 until the hotel closed early in the 1980s, and during that era it was the area’s top hotel.
THE villagers of Cardross turned out in force at the station in 1918 to honour a Victoria Cross-winning hero of World War One.
Lieutenant Reginald Graham was the first of six members of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders to be awarded the highest honour for gallantry in that conflict.
A 19 year-old Helensburgh man was sent to France during World War One . . . and nine days later he was dead.
HELENSBURGH men gave patriotic service in the Boer War from 1899 to 1901 — and were rewarded with carriage clocks.
Poor logistics and disease made the South African campaign a tough one for the British soldier, men often having to go without basics such as food and water, and enteric fever — which killed many thousands — was a constant drain on manpower.
A HELENSBURGH man was a World War Two Royal Air Force flying ace, and then went on to reach high rank after the war.
Bill Pitt-Brown, of Saunton, Havelock Street, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in Burma in May 1943, the American DFC in France in July 1944, and a bar to the British DFC in January 1945, the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times reported.
