People

A LIFETIME of public service to the people of Helensburgh and District and beyond came to an end in April 2012 when Provost Billy Petrie, OBE, JP, DL, retired from local government.

ONE of the leading figures in post World War Two aircraft design, who died on May 24 2012 at the age of 89, began his aviation career in Helensburgh.

In 1943, after leaving Edinburgh University, James Hamilton joined the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at the Rhu-based RAF Helensburgh.

HELENSBURGH Heritage Trust was left with a mystery after fulfilling a sixteen-year dream with the opening of its Heritage Room in Helensburgh Library in West King Street.

ONE of the Firth of Clyde’s worst disasters took place in 1947 when an open pleasure boat sank off Rosneath Point, and twenty men, women and children were drowned and only three were saved.

A CARDROSS woman was both one of Scotland’s foremost activists for women’s rights and the first Scottish woman to stand for parliament.

FLAGS were at half-mast throughout Helensburgh and Rhu when a much-loved centenarian died at what is now the Ardencaple Hotel.

A ROMANTIC elopement did not bring happiness to a society beauty who spent much of her life in Helensburgh and district.

A HELENSBURGH woman devoted her life to the service of others in far off countries.

Nora Maxwell — known to all as Noreen so as not to clash with her mother’s name — was a senior information officer with the United Nations.

HELENSBURGH has been the home of many notable doctors over the years, but one has gone into local history for two quite different reasons.

Dr Fordyce Messer’s double claim to fame is that his coachman, coach and horse disappeared into the Gareloch, never to be seen again, and he is also responsible for the two ‘devils’ facing St Michael and All Angels Church in William Street.

ONE of Helensburgh and district’s most remarkable and best known residents for many years died in September 2006 at the age of 90.

Meg Brown was a nurse for 40 years, a war heroine, a natural historian, a writer — and an international expert on rabbits.

A POPULAR Helensburgh doctor of the past was instantly recognisable because he almost always wore a white hat.

Teacher's son William Robert Sewell, MD, CM, VD, JP, lived in the attractive 19^th century villa, Rosemount, 10 West Argyle Street, with its coach house at the rear.

A HELENSBURGH man who was the longest serving judge of the current Scottish bench retired in May 2011.

It was the end of a highly distinguished legal career for 73 year-old Lord Osborne, born Kenneth Hilton Osborne in the burgh in 1937.