The Lyon Street Glasgow Memorial, Memorial To Men Of Lyon Street Options

[Raymond Bell]

I have been assisting the local school in Raglan Street to try and find this memorial dedicated to those who fell during the first world war - have read some mentions of it in your pages but there must be someone out there who can add to the story - It used to be kept in a local pub and would be paraded in Lyon Street on 11th November as a mark of respect. All that is left of Lyon Street is a pile of stones that are in the playground of St Josephs School which has recently been fenced off either to stop the school kids playing on them and hurting themselves or to stop local vandalism to the stones. St Josephs have recently had a poem which was written in1917 mounted into the school with a smaller copy put into the local library.

There must be some reader out there who's gran or grandad can add to the story- I was told that a brewers had taken the memorial and it was in their board room or foyer can anyone help????

Raymond Bell

This post has been edited by Raymond Bell: 9th Oct 2006, 02:39pm

[Heather]

Raymond it is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The search for this memorial has been going on for a long time.

Good luck. Maybe someday it will turn up.

[Oor Wullie]

I found this on another website, posted by one of the members here, I believe.


The Men of Lyon Street


There’s a little street in Glasgow
At the top of Garscube Road,
That has bred some noble soldiers
Worthy of a King's abode.
The street is not a long one,
Just about six hundred feet,
But it's turned out a man per foot
The Men of Lyon Street.

Some of them were in the Seaforths,
In the Sweeps or H.L.I.
The Argylls and the gallant Gordons:
In a foreign grave they lie.
Some are in the Forty Second,
Or the Borderers, so neat,
Cameronians, Fusiliers, all fighters,
The Men of Lyon Street.

Some are serving in the Navy,
Royal Scots, and R.F.A.
Some are in the Royal Irish
Pushing Fritz out of the way.
One a least has gained the honour
Of commissioned rank complete,
As they won a score of medals, have
The Men of Lyon Street.

They have surely made a record,
Even in this record war,
And we ought to sound their praises
Over all the world afar.
They have nobly done their duty
Those men who can't be beat,
Who are worthy of all honour,
The Men of Lyon Street.

[Raymond Bell]

Thanks to Heather and Oor Wullie for your replies, the poem that you submitted is the one that the school copied onto a lovely plaque and the large one is in the school with a smaller A4 size being in the Woodside library at the war book section. I have a few newspaper cuttings concerning the memorial.

The story goes that it may have been taken by a brewery company and displayed in their foyer or board room - so does anyone know which breweries covered the area?

Lyon Street was short Street with some seven closes (dwellings) on one side and four on the opposite side - have looked at ward maps covering the area of about 1913 and have found the names of the families that lived in the street during that period.

I looked up the war graves and entered some of the names and found a couple of names matching the occupants who came from Lyon Street but not all of the searches show family details such as addresses and next of kin.

As Heather said it could belike looking for a needle in a haystack but if those reading this may have some relatives who remember the memorial could add to the story - the needle could be found or what happened to it!

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[Heather]

I remember Lyon Street, as I lived just down the road from it. But do not remember the names of people who lived there as my family moved away whilst I was still at school.

I will phone my aunt tomorrow and ask her if she knew the names of anyone who lived in Lyon St. during that era. She was the one who first told me about the memorial.

[Raymond Bell]

Heather - Thanks for the post looking forward to ANY info

Raymond

[Oor Wullie]

According to Channel 4 News web page the memorial :-

" ....went missing from St Joseph's Church in 1985"

If that's true and if the " brewery theory" is correct, a letter to all the breweries operating in the City at that time might bring results.

There weren't many breweries in the city by then and 1985 is not so very long ago.

Just a thought.

This post has been edited by Oor Wullie: 13th Oct 2006, 03:41am

[big tommy]

there were a lot of breweries up at the canal in Port Dundas beside the canal .reaching to Dobbies Loan
Lots of woodworks as well
Tommy

[Raymond Bell]

Hi wullie and Big Tommy - Thanks for your posts I have tried the Brewery in Duke Street but no luck I am drafting another letter to a few other breweries and might get a result? (fingers Crossed) We also tried Peoples Palace but the lady there said they did not have it - it could be there but may be tucked away from where they looked also tried RHF (Army Museum) but nothing.

THE SEARCH CONTINUES - ANY IDEAS WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE - I HAVE A NEWSPAPER CLIPPING SHOWING A GENTLEMAN WEARING A SOFT "BUNNET" STANDING NEXT TO A PLAQUE BUT DETAIL NOT TO GOOD.

Could everyone question their relatives because this should not be forgotten in honour of the Men of Lyon Street

Thanks for all your help so far but keep posting info something might come to light

Raymond

[Oor Wullie]

According to the channel 4 web page it was a reredos [ painted or carved screen] and it was :-

"... 3 feet long - red gold frame - in memory of the men from lyon st who gave their lives in the great war 1914 1918 "

[Raymond Bell]

Hi back again still searching - a John Cunningham who came from Lyon Street gave me a copy of an old newspaper dated 16th Oct 1962, which I have copied out the text to hopefully put something into the search - it mentions that the bar was the Garscube Bar was this true?? I was also told it was either Keirens or Duffy's or The Milestone - Any advisers??

This clip also has a photograph that I mentioned in a previous posting it appears to have had 15 small oval discs mounted on the plaque - reading this newspaper clip could this have been the names of those who died although as you read through this post it mentioned 16 dead??

It also mentions Scottish Breweries Ltd are they still in existance because they may be the brewers I mention in previous posts

I know this is a long post but please read through it and once again please put your wee bit in because you never know???

[B]Tuesday Oct 16 1962 – Evening Times Page 5

Any day now the bulldozers will rumble through the last crumbling buildings in Lyon Street. Already the planners have scheduled the demolition of the pub around the corner.

AND WHEN THE DUST BLOWS AWAY.

The last memories of Britain’s bravest street will drift off into the past unless a Roll of Honour drawn by an unskilled but painstakingly hand over 46 years ago is saved from the scrapheap.

On that home made roll are the names of over 200 men emerged from a mere half dozen tenement closes in gritty tough Lyon Street off the Garscube Road to enlist in almost every Scottish regiment that fought in the First World War.

The roll hangs on the wall of the Garscube bar it lists the bare details of the 211 who enlisted to serve in the H.L.I., the Scottish Rifles, K.O.S.B., Gordons, Black Watch, Royal Scots, R.S.F., Camerons, Argylls, the Seaforths, and the Service Corps, the Navy and the Royal Irish Fusiliers.

It lists whole families who joined at the one time – the five Bell brothers, Tommy, John and “Nipper Daly. Over 100 went into the H.L.I.. Fathers went with sons, neighbours and friends went together, and they were all keen to go – for these were fighting men!

HARD MEN

Old Jimmy Mulvaney who stays in Sawmillfield Street and drops into the Garscube for a pint most evenings told me what it used to be like in Lyon Street round about 1914…..Whisky for breakfast, down in the corner with the boys, fights with intruders from other districts, pitch and toss and a few bob when you could pick it up.
“In those days you wouldn’t get a polis coming round here without a mate.” Said Jimmy.

I remember one who did I believe from the Shire he ????? (The copy of the newspaper clipping I have is faded at this part so I don’t know what came after the word he) ??? way, some of the lads lifted him up and hung him by his braces from the lamp post at the corner and the wains danced round him like redskins.

“AY IT WAS A HARD PLACE AND IT PRODUCED SOME HARD MEN”.

That it did, for Lyon Street became famous as the most decorated street in Britain. Medals clinked in every close as the boys came marching home – home to unemployment and to the 30 single ends up each close in the grey, stark tenements.

LAST POST

Sixteen of them never came back: and 27 were shot, gassed, maimed. Two were simply marked “missing” on the roll. And Lyons Street didn’t forget.

Every Remembrance Day until shortly before the Second World War a piper and bugler from the H.L.I. at Maryhill Barracks marched smartly up the street under the fluttering Armistice flags and streamers hauled from the trunks for this one day a year.

The piper played a lament, there was a short service attended by all the street…. Then the bugler sounded the Last Post.

To-day Lyon Street is gone - the friends, neighbours and relatives scattered. In its place will rise a new school. (The School is St Josephs)

Some people still remember the Roll of Honour drop into the bar in an act of remembrance to the men long dead, names like McNulty, McNeilly, Fagan, Stevenson – even J Joyeaux, a soldier whose family had fled from the Channel Islands when the Germans invaded France.

All these years and the Roll of Honour hung on the wall of the pub as licensees and managers came and when I contacted the Scottish Brewers, Ltd the present owners of the Garscube Bar they didn’t know about the Roll of Honour.

But the executive to whom I spoke assured me – We haven’t got an exact date for the demolition of the premises. However, we wouldn’t want to see the Roll of Honour lost. Perhaps some organisation would like to have it.

DELIGHTED

Major F.J. Hawley, regimental secretary of the Royal Highland Fusiliers – the amalgamated H.L.I. and R.S.F. – was amazed to hear of the Roll of Honour.

“The Remembrance Day ceremony in the street would be before my time” he said. “and I doubt if there are many in the regiment who would remember it. I don’t know why it should have stopped.

As the majority of the men served in the H.L.I and as that’s the city of Glasgow’s own regiment we would be delighted to give the roll a place of honour in our regimental museum.

[hudggy]

Hi Raymond,

The bar that the plaque was in was Garscube Bar not quite on the corner of Lyons Street that is where I last saw it. I was later told that it was moved to the HLI Bar which I believe opened accross from the old barracks on Maryhill Rd the name maybe wrong but I know for a fact if you find where in the late sixties a guitarist was accidentally electrocuted that is the bar. I have already stated this before and was told it had been checked out.
My grandfather Charles Carrigan was a Sergent in the HLI at the time. His younger brother Hugh ran away and joined the Cameronians Scottish Rifles at Hamilton and was KIA 18 July 1916 at the Somme both from Lyons St. I hope you find the plaque as I only ever saw it once in the Garscube Bar.

Hudggy


PS The Scottish Brewers is now McEwans or Scottish and Newcastle Brewerys they used to be in Port Dundas Rd

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[Raymond Bell]

Huddgy

Thanks for your reply I'll follow it up - I read your other post on Channel4 posting - someone out there has more info - interesting that you mention 2 memorials - was the one in the chapel made of stone or wood as people I have spoken to mentioned the second one but no one remembers a wooden one in the chapel- Frank Norville mentioned a plaque in his book and he mentioned it being dedicated to WW2 soldiers - was there one for the WW2 casualties as well??

Everyone who reads this please post if you can add to the search please put fingers to keypad and add to this story

Thanks

Raymond Bell

[kmacc]

Hi Raymond,I remember the plaque it was in the garscube bar
(Keirans) the milestone was two shops up from it.
the bar that hudgy mentioned is the Elephant and Bugle
(the insignia) on the H.L.I. badge, where the guitarist was killed.
the bar was opened in the 1950/60s next to the barracks,don`t
know if it`s still there,hope this helps,good luck.kmacc

[Raymond Bell]

Hi KMACC

Thanks for your posting The Elephant Bugle is till there I remember a few years ago it used to have along the top of the bar a list of Battle Honours won by the HLI. At the time it was going under new management and the new owner was painting over the honours and at the time I was a sergeant major with the local TA unit at Hotspur Street and I visited the bar to see the honours the owner said he was painting over them I don't know if he ever did - It was later when Liz from the school approached my adjutant concerning the Lyon Street memorial and he in turn passed Liz onto me and that is my reason for continuing the search - The bar used to have a painting in the left corner as you go through the door which showed Highlanders in a line of battle and the owner said he was going to cover it over with a mirror so if he did that painting may still be behind the mirror the painting was like "The Thin Red Line" type with the Highlanders facing the enemy - I always wondered if he ever did cover it but initially he was going to give it to me for the battalion but he said that it was being covered that night so who knows??

I left the Battalion last year although I now work with the cadets every so often my thoughts go back to the Lyon Street memorial and that is the reason why I started posting here to see if anyone can add to the story. I was at the unveiling of the poem at St Josephs and it was a lovely event but how much better it would be if the real memorial could be found. I initially posted flyers concerning the memorial in churches/chapels/ doctors surgeries and rest homes and received some good leads most of which lead to dead ends but you never know someone might just give us a lead to it's whereabouts. By posting here more roads may open - even if it was on display in one of the brewers boardrooms or foyers it would be great to see it and even just get a photo of it to be given to Liz of St Josephs as she spent a lot of time looking for it and STILL IS!!

Liz is the inspiration and deserves to see her dreams fulfilled.

I urge anyone else who can add anything to the tale to do so to make a ladies wish come true. PS and mine as this has been the only task of this type that I did not manage to do in all my military time. So anyone reading this please contribute

Raymond Bell