The Fife Pilgrim Way is a new long distance walking path, following in the footsteps of medieval pilgrims coming from Culross or North Queensferry to see the relics of St Andrew. Over several weekends I am trying to run the route, and find out a bit about the local history on the way.
Arriving in Dunfermline from either Culross, or North Queensferry, the medieval pilgrims would head on towards St Andrews, out of Dunfermline through open countryside. One hundred years ago travellers would have been walking through mile upon mile of mine-workings, pit bings and bustling communities. Now the coal mining has all gone. Although many of the miners' villages still struggle on they are a shadow of their former selves. It seems amazing that so much of the infrastructure of Fife's industrial past has been completely erased from the landscape, and between Dunfermline and Ballingry few hints at what was there before now remain.
Dunfermline
On the Fife Pilgrim Way you arrive in Dunfermline from the south, into its "heritage quarter" past weavers cottages and abbeys. You leave through the centre of town and out through the east end.
With a population of 50,000 it is the most populous town in Fife. It was a royal town and an abbey town. Then it grew as a mining town and flourished with linen weaving. Now few industries remain and the service sector is the biggest employer in town, with Dunfermline being the main shopping area in Fife. Dunfermline is home to the Alhambra Theatre, and now the old art deco fire station on Carnegie Drive has been re-modelled as an arts centre. Dunfermline's other contributions to the arts include gifting the world members of the bands Nazareth, Jethro Tull and Big Country, as well as the inimitable Barbara Dickson. They should all get together as a Dunfermline supergroup.
The Carnegie Hall
As you head east through town, you pass "the second" Carnegie Hall as its website describes it, which I see has Danny John Jules and Neil Oliver performing there soon, though I suspect not together. There aren't many signposts for the Fife Pilgrim Way over the next couple of miles, so following the directions on the official website or using a map is necessary. Skipping onto a path parallel to the main road we pass between Dunfermline Cemetery and East End Park, home to Dunfermline Athletic Football Club. Before getting there on the left you will see the former Poorhouse of Dunfermline. Built in 1843 it was extended several times, before later being known as the Dunfermline Combination Home and Hospital, being incorporated into the NHS when it was founded in 1948.
Dunfermline Poorhouse, now converted into housing
The path behind East End Park football ground
The path here passes between Dunfermline Athletic Football Club and Dunfermline Cemetery. The football club was started in the late 19th century as a way to keep players of Dunfermline Cricket Club fit during the winter months. By 1885 they had split away to become a separate club. The club's greatest achievements were in the 1960s, twice winning the Scottish Cup and reaching the semi-final of the European Cup Winners Cup in 1969. As a Glaswegian child it was the club crest that I knew before I got to know the team as a travelling Partick Thistle fan, as it was so totally unlike the badge of any other Scottish club. It was designed by a local school art teacher in 1957 and features Malcolm's Tower (the ruins of which lie in Pittencrieff Park), the "hanging tree" of Malcolm III's time, and what looks like a glass building of contemporary 1957 Dunfermline that I haven't been able to identify. A splash of green at the bottom represents East End Park. Mr Dymock, take a bow. There ain't no club badge like that one. As a Partick Thistle fan I write this in November 2019, looking up to Dunfermline FC's mid-table Championship mediocrity with envy.
Club badge of Dunfermline Athletic Football Club
Leaving Dunfermline the Pilgrim Way heads around the town's modern Queen Margaret Hospital, named after the saintly Queen Margaret that we have met already, and heads up the Townhill road and on to Kingseat. From here, looking out across the M90 off to the right lies Hill of Beath. The hill itself was used for Covenanters gatherings, held here in the 1670s, a good place to look out for approaching soldiers coming from afar to break up your meetings. From the days of The Reformation 100 years earlier, to the Covenanters and beyond, the splits and divisions over religious doctrine in Scotland were tied to many other social changes, with shifting allegiances, land ownership and royal interventions mixed into a murky theological mix which still brings problems to Scottish society today.
Hill of Beath, off to the right of The Fife Pilgrim Way
The village of "Hill of Beath" just beyond the hill was established to house miners, as were most of the villages in this area. In 1963 once the local pits had all closed, dismantling the pit bing here was the first of many subsequent land reclamation projects in the area. The land between the path and the Hill of Beath in the photograph above had been home to coal mining from the 1700s, now all gone.
If Hill of Beath rings any bells for you, it may be due to its football connections. This small village, which is still home to a Juniors team, was the childhood home of three famous Scotland internationals; 'Slim' Jim Baxter (whose statue stands on Main Street), Willie Cunningham, and current Celtic captain Scott Brown.
Kingseat
Kingseat
We come next to Kingseat, another former coal mining village, with four pits sunk in this area in the mid-1800s. The village grew up about the mines and a report in 1875 bemoans the fact that there were few amenities here, with "no ashpits or closets over all the village". The report also mentions that for those living here "(t)he water for the village is got from a field near at hand. It is surface water and becomes dirty in rainy weather". All this for 6s 8d a month for a room and kitchen. Mining continued here until 1945 when the last pit up beside Loch Fitty flooded, and was abandoned. On the edge of town new houses are being built, and like several of the towns around here, many people live in this area and commute to work in Edinburgh and surrounding areas.
The village allegedly takes its name from a large rock that sat near by, beside the long gone Craigencat Quarry. King James was supposed to favour this as a place to sit when journeying between Falkland and Dunfermline, enjoying views across to Arthur's Seat.
Even in this small village, home to 800 people at its peak, for those who worked the local pits death was an ever present danger underground. By the time the last pit closed in 1945, 27 people had lost their lives in the Kingseat pits, the youngest being an 11 year old and two aged only 14 year old. The last to die were in November 1945, when two brothers-in-law died working their last shift in the flooded Pit No. 3 that was being closed down.
Between Dunfermline and Kingseat lies the former Muircockhall Colliery, on the edge of Townhill Wood. From 1868 until 1943 this pit was worked. Towards the end of World War 2 with growing demands for coal, men were conscripted not to serve in the armed forces, but to work underground on producing coal. Over 5 years 48,000 men served as "Bevin Boys" across Britain. Muircockhall was where these men from Scotland and the North of England, including my great-uncle Peter, received 4 weeks of training. After the war Muircockhall continued as a miners training centre until 1969. Did my great-uncle decide to carry on as a miner after the war? Not on your nelly. He hated it from day one, and only a few weeks in, working in a pit in East Lothian, he was caught in a cave-in, breaking his leg which left him with a limp for the rest of his life. Once he had recovered he was sent back down the mine, at which point he deserted in terror, refusing to go down again.
Kingseat
Leaving Kingseat the path heads down towards Loch Fitty, and across the causeway here. Walking this way you pass over the former route of one of the many mining railway lines and the site Kingseat colliery Pit No. 3, the last one to close here, which stood just by the loch. Though once a trout fishery, Loch Fitty is surrounded now by just farmland, with the sounds of ducks and swans, cows and horses rather than that of machinery.
The path across Loch Fitty
Lassodie
New Rows, Lassodie
On the other side of Loch Fitty the path leads you into a curious area. On some maps this area is described as "Lassodie" but no signs of human habitation exist. The rise and fall of Lassodie village is an extreme example of what has befallen much of this area, whose fortunes have come and gone with the Scottish coal industry. In 1901 Lassodie was a village of over 1400 people and several mines. There was a post office, a church and two co-op stores. By 1931 the cost of pumping the water out of the remaining pits made them unprofitable and they were closed down, with some families given 14 days notice to quit their homes.
1854 map, before the miners' houses were built
If you click on the 1854 map above to expand it, the Lassodie estate is there, in the days before the landowner had built any miners' houses. Also on this map is "St Margaret's Well" showing that centuries earlier, this area probably did have associations with those on their pilgrimage from Dunfermline Abbey to St Andrews.
In the 1930s the Reverend David Patrick Thomson maintained the church and manse for a while as an evangelical retreat, in the now quiet village. Scotland's one time Olympic athlete Eric Liddell was one visitor to the centre. Another visitor to the village in the 1930s and 1940s was a young Sean Connery whose gran and granda had retired to the village. Young Sean (at that time still known as Tommy) was taken on the bus to Dunfermline to watch the football by his grandad. Another former Lassodie resident was my wife's uncle Archie. He spent his working life as a driver, and was a keen amateur footballer. We have his runners-up medal from the 1931-2 Fife Cup, when his Inverkeithing team were beaten in the final by Bowhill Rovers, 3-0 after two replays.
Archie Notman (R). Driver and one time footballer. Picnic in Dunning Glen
For a short while at the start of World War 2 the quiet village became a place of refuge for people fleeing Nazi Germany. All the remaining buildings from the deserted village were swept away when mining briefly returned to the area. St Ninian's open cast mine operated here in the 1960s, and then again from the late 1990s until 2013.
On running along this way the village has completely vanished from the face of the Earth, but one thing remains. A slight detour off the Fife Pilgrim Way brings you to the village's war memorial, which sits now at the side of the B912. On it are listed the names of the 21 men from Lassodie that died in the First World War, and 4 men that died in the 1939-1945 war. As the memorial says "we will remember them". However it feels strange to find that no other record on the ground of the village that these men grew up in survives today. All but forgotten.
Lassodie war memorial
The Fife Earth Project or The Scottish World
St Ninian's opencast mine has now closed down, and the area partly remodelled by landscape architect Charles Jencks. Sometimes called "The Fife Earth Project" or "The Scottish World" the project was abandoned in 2014. By then he had created a sort of mappa mundi in stones, with areas where Scots have settled around the world in four imagined continents, and had carved out two artificial hills. One of the hills is fitted out with sculptures of trees and tyres, and a row of old mining equipment that looks as if it is a twentieth century henge lined up to catch the winter solstice. The Fife Earth Project is now a strange curio, and with so much empty land and not a soul in sight it feels rather desolate. If you look at his website, he had ambitious plans to create a major attraction for the area, which would have involved carving out a watery map of Scotland. As Charles Jencks died in October 2019, it seems unlikely his vision will ever be realised and you will need to look at his works outside the Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh and Jupiter Artland to imagine a completed version. Here are some pictures I took when I went to explore the area. It seems odd and neglected now, this vast swathe of empty land. The half finished artwork feels like some strange archaeological vestige of a vanished civilisation. It is all rather melancholy.
Kelty
After passing through Blairdam Forest the Fife Pilgrim Way then comes into Kelty.
Entrance to Blardam Forest
Kelty is one of the larger towns in this area, much reduced in size from its peak when mining was in full swing. A century ago the authorities were concerned about the negative effects of alcohol on the workers. So a number of towns established bars on the Gothenberg principle, a Swedish model of co-operatives which refused to allow credit, no gambling, dominoes or other vices on the premises, and they were generally unadorned. In return they could promise an unadulterated product for sale at the bar, and profits fed back into the well-being of the local community. The No.1 Goth still stands in Kelty but looked decidedly closed when I passed through town. A mural here marks the life of young boxer Connor Law from the town, who died earlier this year.
Totem pole, Kelty
An unexpected sight were several totem poles in and around the town. These were carved by Canadian aboriginal totem carvers who visited Kelty in 2005. You may be unaware, as I was, that Kelty was once home to an undefeated world champion. Robert Stewart became world draughts champion in 1922 after a narrow victory in Glasgow over the reigning champion from America (a narrow victory after 2 wins, 1 loss and 37 draws). His obituary in the Montreal Gazette reports that he "lost only 2 out of 8000 games" in his draughts career and retired as British champion after multiple victories "for want of competition". The table and chairs in Kelty's memorial garden are an appropriate tribute I think you would agree.
Sit and remember Robert Stewart. Champion.
Lochore Meadows
The Fife Pilgrim Way as it is routed manages to just miss several other notable former mining villages. A short detour will be required if you want to pass through the villages of Ballingary, Lochgelly, Cardenden or Lochore. I ran up to Lochore to catch sight of a notable Goth pub that was still very much in business when I passed, The Red Goth, possibly named after a famous Communist Robert Smith fan (or maybe I just made that up).
Red Goth, Lochore
Before getting to Lochore, we pass through Lochore Meadows, a large country park on the edge of Lochore which has Fife's largest loch in the shape of Loch Ore. 'The Meadies' as it is more commonly known, is now an area of grass, hills and lakes used for dog-walking, outdoor pursuits and sports, but it is all laid out on land reclaimed from former mines and pit bings. A few mementos of the former industry of this site still exist, but you have to seek them out. (This short film shows the extent of the work that had to be carried out here to create the park-> Lochore Meadows Reclamation.)
Canoeists and dog walkers are what can be found now in Lochore Meadows
Some memorials to the mining heritage of the area exist, in some subtle ways. The children's playpark consists of several hillocks, and each represents a pit from the area - the tree house below represents the Nellie Pit for example. The cafe and community building is called the Willie Clarke Centre, after Fife's longest serving Communist councillor, who just died last week. He had served as a councillor for over 40 years. He had began working as a miner in 1949 aged 14, and he was elected as the councillor for the Benarty ward in 1973, representing the Communist Party. Fife has a strong history of elected Communist representatives, founded in the radical history of the miners here, who had to fight for every advance in their conditions. We will come back to this in the next part of the Fife Pilgrim Way as we continue through mining areas.
Playpark at Lochore Meadows
Willie Clarke Centre, Lochore Meadows, Fife
The concrete headframe and winding wheels of No. 2 Mary pit stand beside the visitor centre at Lochore Meadows, beside a decaying NCB steam engine. Like other pits in Fife and elsewhere, the work of the miners was never safe and a board nearby lists the names of the 78 men who lost their lives in the Mary colliery that worked here from 1902 until 1966. Apart from maybe fishermen and soldiers it is hard to think of any other profession where death is accepted as an occupational hazard.
The concrete headframe of No. 2 Mary pit, Lochore
A small plaque stands opposite the Willie Clarke Centre to commemorate the miners strike of 35 years ago that effectively marked the end of mining in the UK. It reads "Erected by the Scottish people in recognition of the struggle by Fife miners and their families during the year long strike 1984-1985".
Small plaque commemorating the miners strike of 1984-85
Nothing was put in place to succeed the mines when they all closed down. Thousands of skilled workers were abandoned and years later these former mining communities are still suffering. A report out this week (November 2019) shows that "Fife's former mining communities are being left behind the rest of the UK" with regard to unemployment rates, ill health and rates of incapacity benefits, both in former miners and in the generation that has followed.
Update, June 2018. I wrote this blog 3 years ago in 2015. On the 78th anniversary of the sinking of HMS Glorious I have added a brief update at the end. My granny is still going strong in her 94th year, and although her memory is failing, her beloved brother Donald is still a strong memory that she retains. He died, aged 21, when HMS Glorious was sunk in the North Atlantic on the 8th of June 1940. I recently discovered some old photographs which he had taken during his time on ship, mainly between Alexandria and Hal Far in Malta. On behalf of my granny I have applied for his Arctic Star medal since researching the original blog, which he was awarded posthumously for serving in the Arctic campaigns. Also included below are some more photographs that belonged to my granddad, who served in Normandy, Belgium and Germany. I hope that you find these items of interest...
The story of my great uncle, Rodger Donald Bailey, and the HMS Glorious
My granny celebrated her 90th birthday just before Christmas there. When she was 6 years old her mother died at the age of 34. In June 1940 she was 15 years old when her only brother died at sea. His name was Rodger Donald Bailey, although she called him Donald. He served in the Royal Marines and was one of the 1,207 men who lost their lives on board the HMS Glorious when she was sunk on the 8th of June 1940 by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The Royal Navy knew nothing about the sinking until it was announced on German radio and some confusion still surrounds the details of the events that day.
HMS Glorious was lost 75 years ago this year. In the same encounter the two destroyers escorting her, Acasta and Ardent, were also sunk and 1,519 British seamen died. Although it is now 75 years since Donald and his companions died, my gran remembers her brother fondly and I recently had the chance to look through some papers she has held onto. These show the confusion after the sinking, with false rumours coming to the family that Donald may have been a prisoner of war until finally, over a year after the sinking, his death was confirmed. The letters from the Admiralty would also have been sent to many other families so I have copied them here in full to allow anyone else interested in these events to see what happened.
So on this anniversary of his death I'm looking back on his short life, my gran's big brother.
Rodger Donald Bailey
Rodger Donald Bailey was born the 25th of March 1919. His father, my great-grandfather Joshua Bailey, was a blacksmith, originally from Wednesbury, in the heart of the Black Country, where his father had been a bootmaker. Joshua and his family moved to Walsall where my granny and her only brother grew up.
My granny with her brother Rodger Donald Bailey,
who was six years older than her.
In this note a young Donald has written back home to his mum from a trip to see his grandmother. He tells her that he sleeps in the dark now, and does that say Aunt Lily has gone to the map to see the cows be boiled on a stick? Maybe not.
In 1927, aged 8 he is attending Palfrey Boys School in Walsall and acheives third place that year in the class.
Class photo of Donald Bailey and his classmates at Palfrey Boys School about 1928
By 1932 he was attending Elmore Green Central School on Elmore Row, Bloxwich, Walsall, in what looks like a class of 36 pupils in this report card.
Elmore Green Central School report card, 1932
Rodger Donald Bailey, 1936
After leaving school he was working as a tool setter but 1936 was the year of the Jarrow March and high unemployment, particularly in the local coal mining industry. He made other plans. No sooner had he turned 17 on the 18th of March 1936 than he had applied to join the Royal Marines.
On the back of this photo my gran had written at some time in the past "R. D. Bailey March 1936, aged 17".
On the 28th of March 1936 he was sent this reply from the Royal Marines recruiting office in Birmingham. It told him to report there 3 days later for a medical examination and if deemed fit he would be straight off to the Royal Marine Barracks in Portsmouth .
1936 Royal Marine Recruiting Office, Birmingham. Letter of reply
From the form below you can see that only seven days after his 17th birthday he signed up to the Marines for 13 years. At the bottom of the form you can see that he signs to "be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty, King George the Fifth". I quite like the fact that instead of re-printing the application forms the king's name has been scored out and "Edward the VIII" draw in red pen alongside. The new king was nine weeks into his ten month reign so I am sure that they got around to running off some new forms in time for his abdication in December 1936. Also this form states that, if he wishes to, he can pay the crown £20 anytime within the next three months and be discharged from the Marines.
Royal Marines application form, 1936
Within days of applying it seems that training had begun...
Royal Marines Certificate of Education, 1936
In these two photographs Donald is wearing the uniform of the Royal Marines. In the first picture he is standing on the right alongside two colleagues and the studio picture was sent home by the 17 year old Donald to his dad and sister.
Rodger Donald Bailey and colleagues in the Royal Marines, 1936
Rodger Donald Bailey, Royal Marine, 1936
Sadly there are no letters or postcards home still surviving to tell us how he got on or what he thought of his life at sea. The only other item I have from Donald himself is an undated Christmas greeting to his family.
HMS Glorious
During the war Donald served on HMS Glorious. HMS Glorious was a battlecruiser built for World War I and rebuilt as an aircraft carrier at Rosyth and Devonport in 1924. After briefly serving in the Mediterranean she passed through the Suez canal where the ship took part in the unsuccessful hunt for the Admiral Graf Spee.
By April 1940 she had rejoined the Home Fleet to provide air support for British forces in the Norwegian campaign. When Germany invaded France in May 1940 the British Expeditionary Forces had to be withdrawn and after 62 days of fighting Germany captured Norway on 10th of June 1940.
HMS Glorious made trips between Norway and Scapa Flow supplying aircraft for the campaign but when she arrived off Norway on the 2nd of June 1940 it was to support the British evacuation. British Gladiator and Hurricane planes were flown on board. The captain of HMS Glorious, Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes, is reported to have frequently come into dispute with the professional aviators under his command and to have often rejected their advice. On the 8th of June he made a request to set off independently to Scapa Flow instead of travelling with the fleet, to hold a court-martial of his Air Commander. The ship was accompanied by the destroyers Acasta and Ardent.
In conditions of maximal visibility as it was that day it would be normal practice to have spotter planes in the air on combat air patrol, but this was not the case, and when the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau spotted the funnel smoke of the three ships and attacked there were no aircraft on the flight deck ready for quick take off and no look out in the crow's nest.
The authoritative Jane's Naval History of World War II reports that HMS Glorious was "proceeding independently for no good reason".
-German newsreel footage of the German attack on HMS Glorious, Acasta and Ardent
Two hours and thirty-five minutes after the Germans had spotted the British ships all three had been sunk. Again, from Jane's Naval History of World War II, "It is possible that, had she been following correct procedures, she could have greatly discomfitted the prowling Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. In the event she was sunk with heavy loss of life."
Survivors have estimated that about 900 men abandoned HMS Glorious, but the Germans made no attempt to rescue the men in the water. No British ships came to the aid of the men either, despite HMS Devonshire being 30-50 miles away. It appears that HMS Devonshire was the only ship which received the transmission from HMS Glorious that she was under enemy fire. As HMS Devonshire did not rebroadcast this enemy sighting no other ships were informed. HMS Devonshire had been ordered to maintain radio silence and proceed to Britain at full speed as she was evacuating the Norwegian royal family and government to London. Therefore no effective rescue was launched by the British Navy.
Over the next five days several survivors were found by two Norwegian ships and by a German seaplane. In total there were only thirty eight survivors from HMS Glorious and one seaman each from the Acasta and the Ardent survived. Although I only know the story of Rodger Donald Bailey, 1,518 other men lost their lives that day.
News Reaches Donald's Family
Out of the blue on the 11th of June 1940 Donald's father receives a telegram from the Marines in Plymouth. It says "Deeply regret to inform you your son Marine R. D. Bailey is missing, possible a prisoner of war."
The same day, 11th June 1940, a letter is posted from the Royal Marine Barracks in Plymouth. It says "there is insufficient evidence to enable a reliable estimate to be made of the possibility of his being still alive, but you may be assured that I will inform you as soon as any further news is available."
Two weeks later the next letter is posted from Plymouth on 1st July 1940. It reports that 35 survivors have been brought to Britain and their reports confirm many deaths. "In its comments...the German High Command communique stated that there were several hundred survivors from our ships. It is, however, now clear that few if any survivors...can have been taken on board the enemy warships." This news is bad for Donald's father and sister in Walsall, but surely leaves his family clinging to the hope that Donald is now a German prisoner of war.
My gran has no other letters which the family received until 4th January 1941, seven months after the sinking. It is an update of efforts taken by the Marines to ascertain the fate of the men remaining missing. It again recounts German claims of hundreds of prisoners of war and steps taken by the International Red Cross to find out who these men are. Even if the "hundreds" of prisoners now looks in doubt, Donald's family are being told that there are six men from the British ships being held. Again it must only be a normal reaction for the family getting this letter to hope that Donald is amongst the six.
Finally on 20th October 1941, over 16 months since the sinking of HMS Glorious, the Admiralty confirm that they believe Donald and all the other missing men from the ships, have died. We are still six weeks away from the bombing of Pearl Harbour and America's entry into the war. They report in this letter that the International Red Cross and the American embassy in Berlin had been helping with their enquiries but there is no longer any hope that Donald is alive. "The long continued suspense and anxiety which you have had to endure is deeply regretted..." and for me, hard to imagine.
A letter the following day, 21st October 1941 confirms the formalities of discussing any possible estate of Donald and pension for the family. In the space of 24 hours any lingering hope that Donald's father Joshua or his sister, my gran, may have clung on to, is extinguished. Donald was 21 years old when he died.
In 1941 my granny was 16 years old and still living with her father and step-mother in Leamore, Walsall. Her response to the loss of her brother is to go to an army recruiting office, lie about her age and sign up. She told me that her dad scolded her for this. He said that he had already lost one of his children to the war and didn't want to lose his other, but her mind was made up. She spends the next 4 years operating anti-aircraft guns in Bristol and Whitby.
On 5th November 1941 Joshua receives a letter from Buckingham Palace offering the condolences of the king and queen for his loss. Like all of these other letters first Joshua and then my gran holds onto it and keeps it with the few photos they have of Donald and with his school report cards.
Letter from Buckingham Palace, 5 Nov 1941
A few days later they receive official confirmation from the Admirality of Rodger Donald Bailey's death "when HMS Glorious was lost by enemy action". Four months later in February 1942 a letter comes confirming that Donald's family will receive his estate, £13 11s 5d. This is a good bit short of the £20 he would have needed to pull together to buy himself out of the Marines in 1936.
After the war has ended thoughts turn to remembrance. In 1951 the Imperial War Graves Commission contact Donald's father to advise him that his name will be recorded on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.
Donald's father is 63 years old in 1954 when he is invited to attend the unveiling of a plaque on Armistice Day in Walsall dedicated to the memory of the 741 men and women of the borough who lost their lives in the war.
So what about Donald's sister
So my gran's response to this was to leave home at 16 years of age and enlist in the army. She volunteered to be sent abroad but instead was trained to work the radar for the anti-aircraft guns. In this photograph below she is with her colleagues in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (fourth from the left in the second back row). She has held onto her uniform badges and let my son see them for a school project he was doing recently.
Women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service in World War 2
A young Private Bailey on the left
Uniform badges of the Auxiliary Territorial Service and the anti-aircraft command badge
She spent almost 4 years outside Bristol, at Portishead, at the anti-aircraft guns there. When working on the anti-aircraft radar she says that she would work beside the predictors who would calculate where the aircraft were and pass on the message when to fire. It had been decided by Churchill that women were not to be put in the position of actually pulling the trigger but could undertake all other roles.
British WW2 anti-aircraft gun lay out
British anti-aircraft guns
During the day they were given other jobs, sometimes peeling potatoes or helping farmers mow their hay or bring in grass. Her favourite job was to take the laundry from the camp into Bristol as it was a trip into town. Even when recalling the shrapnel hitting the building where she slept at night she remembers it all being a lot of fun and when she was discharged from the ATS at the end of the war she re-enlisted to join the NAAFI (Navy Army Air Force Institute).
My granny was third from the right in the front row of this photograph with her colleagues
In May 2015 my parents visited Portishead as the remnants of the anti-aircraft gun positions are still standing, although now overgrown with weeds. A quick jump over a barbed wire fence and my dad was able to see where my granny spent her war years, at the Bristol B2, Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery 237.
Bristol B2 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery at Portishead in 2015
Bristol B2 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery at Portishead in 2015
After the war
Whilst in the NAAFI my granny met a soldier from Scotland, my grandad. He was from Glasgow, living in the shadow of the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Govan where his father worked. He had enlisted in June 1940 and was trained as a radio operator and mechanic. In this role he crossed at Normandy into France and then up through Belgium, eventually crossing into Germany at the end of the war.
When he left the army he proposed to my gran and brought her back to Glasgow, where she has stayed ever since.
My grandad on the left in uniform and colleagues
Caricature of my grandad, the note on the back says it was done in France
My grandad standing beside a German plane whilst serving in Antwerp
Remembering HMS Glorious
As stated above the names of the men lost from the Acasta, Ardent and HMS Glorious have been remembered at the Plymouth Naval War Memorial and also usually in their home towns. In St Nicholas Church at the Naval base in Devonport the Glorious, Ardent and Acasta Association unveiled a plaque in 2001 in memory of the dead. Since then other memorials have been unveiled and in 2010 on the 70th anniversary of the sinking a plaque was laid at Harstad in northern Norway.
In Cumbria lies St Peters Church at Martindale in the heart of the Lake District. In this church there are memorial stained glass windows to St Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors. These windows are dedicated to the memory to the men of HMS Glorious and represent a bird's eye view of the aircraft carrier in full steam.
St Peters Church, Martindale, Cumbria
Memorial windows at St Peters Church
My gran was unaware of any of these memorials until I found out about them recently and once I told her about them she was keen to visit. This year my parents took her and her partner Bert for a day trip down to the church in the Lake District. They left a verse Bert had written and my gran left a ceramic posy. She was pleased and surprised to see that other people had visited too. She wrote to me "Other people had been to pay their respects also... It is wonderful to think that someone else had thought about them too." She said "We had a lovely day there. The church is old and solid and set amongst the hills."
My gran is 90 years old now and still very fit and active. In December 2014 she celebrated her birthday with some of her family and seven great-grandchildren.
Memorials are there to help us remember those who died in war and not to glorify war. We remember Donald, my great uncle, my dad's uncle, my gran's brother, who didn't get the chance to see his own family grow up.
Update, June 2018
As mentioned above, I have discovered some more photographs that my granny has held onto. Most of these were taken by her brother Donald, and sent back to her from Malta and Egypt when he was serving on HMS Glorious. There are also some newspaper clippings referring to the sinking which she has held onto. Where Donald has added some comments on the back of the photographs, these are copied below.
Donald Bailey in the 1920s, Walsall
King's Squad Royal Marines, passing out inspection, Portsmouth, with Donald Bailey marked with a cross
"The bridge, HMS Glorious"
"HMS Glorious"
"On the left, Malta 1939, just coming from a swim, Hal Far"
Hal Far, Malta
"another crash, Hal Far"
"our sister ship, HMS Courageous"
"Alexandria Harbour, a view I took from the ship"
(no caption, but obviously a group of sailors on a trip from Alexandria, visiting the pyramids on camels)
Newspaper clippings about HMS Glorious
Arctic Star medal for Roger, Donald Bailey
I also include here four photographs that belonged to my granddad. These photographs are tiny, about the size of postage stamps, and are expanded here. They show the damage that he encountered as they made their way through Normandy after D-day.
"Cherbourg railroad station"
"St Marias, (unreadable)"
"wrecked Jerry garrison at Lison (Normandy) with Wayne"
Apologies for any inaccuracies in the above and please add a comment if you wish me to make any corrections or clarifications.
