History > Stories

Plenty of Bankies have stories to tell, do you have a memory? Were you playing hide and seek in the tenement close whilst the Bombs were falling during the Blitz...won't mention names Dad! Feel free to share the stories. Do you know someone with a story? Contact us

Bare feet & Fag’s!! By Lorraine Hamilton

This is a true story which my late mother used to tell me, which I believe typifies the "fighting spirit" of the people of Clydebank during the Blitz.

At the time of the Blitz, my mother Grace Gregg (then aged 8) lived with her parents (Robert & Nellie Gregg, my grandparents) at 1, Second Terrace. On the night of 13th March 1941 her two older sisters and brother where at the La Scala Picture House (Graham Avenue), the eldest sister Pearl was in the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) in the London area.

My mother describes how all the residents in the Close (Tenement) moved into the bottom flat and vividly remembers the building being hit by a bomb. She and my grandparents escaped by crawling through a hole in the rubble, and hurried down Second Avenue with my mum in her nightgown and bare feet. She remembers feeling the soles of her feet burning with the heat of the road surface from the fires. (The nail beds in both feet were permanently damaged, and her nails always grew abnormally thereafter).

At one point my grandfather was knocked off his feet by a blast. When he got up he was fortunately unhurt but half his jacket had been ripped cleanly off, right down his back, and was nowhere to be seen. As he rummaged fruitlessly in his remaining pocket for his cigarettes, he gave a curse and said to my grandmother, "Christ, Nellie, they've (i.e. the Germans) even got the pocket wi' ma fags!!!"

They had nothing but what remained of the clothes they were wearing, but all Grandpa Gregg was worried about was his fags (cigarettes)!

Next day they were evacuated to Johnstone, where I'm sad to say they were not received well due to the dirty & disheveled state they were in. It took some time, but eventually the rest of the family was reunited. They were found "accommodation" in an empty condemned building, where they stayed until able to come back to Clydebank around 1949/50. Incidentally, this building, derelict and condemned in 1941, was still standing in the 1970's, when my mother took me to see it.

Last Night there wuz a murder in the Chip Shop

“ Last night there was a murder in the chip shop
A wee dug stole a haddie bone
A big dug tried tae take it aff it
So ah hit it wi' a tattie scone

Ah went up tae see ma Auntie Sarah
Ah shouted Auntie Sarah are yea in
Ah took a wee peak through the key hole
and you never guess whit a seen

Her false teeth were lying on the table,
Her curly hair wuz hingin on a peg
Ah nearly burst ma sides wae laughin
As she tried ta screwing aff her widden leg.”

Ok, not really a story but a well know Clydebank version of an old West of Scotland song. It is known that this song has been useful in a wide variety of ways e.g. winning prizes for un-named Canadian children of Clydebank decent at school Variety Competitions circa 1978!!!! (Help)

Further Reading:

Clydebank Life Story Group Untold Stories: Remembering Clydebank in War Time Clydebank, Clydebank Life Story Group 1999, Re-print 1999, 2003. An excellent collection of personal stories from those how survived. A must read for those interested in the Blitz and its survivors ***** Available from the group direct or West Dunbartonshire Libraries.

MacPhail, I .M.M The Clydebank Blitz Glasgow, Clydebank District Libraries 1974 Re-print 1991, 1995, Dunbartonshire Libraries 2000. One of the earliest and the main reference book for those interested in the Clydebank Blitz and Scotland at war in general. A gem of a book ***** Available from West Dunbartonshire Libraries.

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