Military

A VERY well-known Shandon man was a hero of midget submarines in World War Two and was named in the best selling book ‘Above Us The Waves’.

A YOUNG Helensburgh man who went straight from school into the Royal Air Force in the Second World War shot down and destroyed four aircraft before he himself lost his life while on a mission.

Flight Lieutenant Robert Henderson, DFC, known to family and friends as Rob, was the second son of Thomas B.Henderson, of Dungoyne, 1 Upper Colquhoun Street, and his wife Ethel, and was educated at the prestigious Rugby School.

A VICTORIA CROSS winner and Commander-in-Chief of the British Army had close family ties with Helensburgh.

Field Marshal Earl Roberts, possibly the most decorated soldier in the army’s history, is commemorated with a large equestrian bronze statue on the slopes of Park Circus in Glasgow, overlooking Kelvingrove Park.

AN ARROCHAR village butcher was a World War Two German prisoner of war from 1943-45.

John Alexander Bell was serving as a Flight Engineer in the RAF when his plane was shot down over the Moselle Valley, part of which is in Germany and part in France.

AN RAF pilot from Helensburgh died in a tragic accident in Australia during World War Two, but he is still remembered by people in the area.

Now an Australian who produced a dvd tribute to the two pilots who died in the accident is seeking help to find a photograph of the burgh man, Squadron Leader Henry Wright.

ALL the pioneering research work for the world’s first jet seaplane was carried out at the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at RAF Helensburgh and Rhu.

The Morris Furniture Company of Glasgow provided wooden models of the world’s first jet propelled seaplane fighter produced by Saunders Roe, as before the prototype could be made and flown, scale models had to be produced and tested.

THE LOSS of a coach and coachman in the Gareloch at Rhu Spit in 1886 was a local tragedy, but a naval officer's disappearance some 80 years later made international headlines.

Commander Peter Fickling, Royal Navy, who was 42 and lived in Helensburgh with his wife and five sons, left the submarine depot ship HMS Maidstone berthed at Faslane at 11pm on Wednesday February 10 1965, and has never been seen again.

MOVE over Deborah Kerr, John Logie Baird and Andrew Bonar Law . . . the Helensburgh district has another VIP.

Of course that is Very Important Pussycat. His name was Pyro, and he was born and bred in Rhu.

THE grave of a nurse from Helensburgh who died over 90 years ago is still lovingly tended by members of the Red Cross in Slovakia.

Margaret McCallum was working in a British Red Cross Mission in the town of Turzovka when she caught typhus, and she died soon after on September 30 1919.

NOTHING had indicated that the night of May 5 1941 would be different to any other in the village of Cardross . . . until the drone of the German bombers was heard.

THE World War Two role of the now boarded-up Helensburgh seafront mansion Cairndhu as the headquarters of a degaussing unit was just one example of how the district helped the war effort.

Within days of war being declared on September 3 1939 hundreds of visitors started arriving for a stay that would last more than five years — and they had the pick of accommodation available.

A REMARKABLE interview given by a Helensburgh man who was awarded the United States Medal of Honor in 1894 for bravery in the American Civil War has come to light.

Sergeant James Jardine, who had emigrated from the burgh, received the award for “gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party".