Armed Forces and World Wars

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Updated 21 September 2008

Under construction - apologies for any confusion caused while pages of Local History are developed!

ARMED FORCES IN ARMADALE

• 1st Linlithgowshire Rifle Volunteer Corps consolidated with HQ at Linlithgow
   
• A Company at Linlithgow, formerly 1st Corps
   
• B Company at Bo'Ness, formerly 2nd Corps
   
• C Company  8th Volunteer Battalion Royal Scots at Torphichen, formerly 3rd Corps; moved in 1881 to Armadale and used the hall in South Street that had been bought for them by Colonel Hope of Bridgecastle.  They used Volunteer Field.

• 10th (Cyclist) Battalion, The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment)
• C Company at Armadale ( dets at Whitburn, Pumpherston, and Blackridge)

The Armadale Public School Roll of Honour

 Transcript of National Relief Fund: Armadale Local Committee Minute Book 1914 - 1916

ARMADALE'S DISTINGUISHED HEROES AND MEMBERS OF THE FUND COMMITTEE

26th September 1919

Display of War Memorabilia staged by Tom Gordon in Armadale Library 2006

The Roll of Honour page (link below) also contains World War II and Korea information

Armadale & District Great War 1914 – 1919 Roll of Honour  NAMES: Aitchison; Allan; Anderson; Angus; Balloch; Banks; Barbour; Baxter; Bennett; Bisset; Blackstock; Bonar; Borthwick; Boyle; Bradley; Brown; Brownlie; Calder; Campbell; Carlin; Christie; Conner; Copeland; Cosgrove; Coventry; Craig; Crichton; Cunningham; Curran; Darling; Davidson; Dickson; Donaldson; Dornan; Douglas; Dow; Drew; Dryburgh; Drysdale; Duff; Duncan; Edmond; Elliot; Ellis; Evans; Ferguson; Forgie; Forrester; Fraser; Frew; Friel; Gardener; Gilfoyle; Gilmour; Graham; Grieve; Grumbley; Hart; Harvey; Hastie; Hewitt; Hicks; Hogg; Hood; Hunter; Jenkins; Johnstone; Keddie; Kerr; Kirk; Knowles; Leckie; Liddell; Liddle; Mallace; Marr; Marshall; Mason; Martin; McAdam; McAlpine; McClory; McConnell; McCord; McCormack; McCubbin; McDermid; McDonald; McEwan; McGaw; McGlashan; McInulty; McKechnie; McKelvie; McKenna; McLaughlin; McMillan; Muirhead; Patterson; Neally; O’Reilly; Prentice; Ramsay; Ross; Smart; Smith; Sneddon; Spalding; Spiers; Stevenson; Stewart; Sykes; Syme; Todd; Traynor; Ure; Walker; Wallace; Watson;White; Williams; Wilson; Wylie; Young

For more details about the individuals named, including some photos, see Tom Gordon's excellent 

Website

(Please note that this is not a complete list)

CASEY (Patrick) b1881; DEWAR (James) bc1870; JOHNSTONE (George) bc1884, coal miner son of Alexander of Cambuslang, brother of James and Alexander; JOHNSTONE (James Leonard) bc1895, miner; McCALLUM (Douglas) bc1875, miner; McELROY James bc1891 bricklayer's labourer, son of James=Edith, brother of Charles and Edith; McKEOWN bc1894, coalminer, son of Thomas of East Main Street, Armadale, brother of John; NICHOL (David) bc1880, pressman in woollen mill, 1907 Galashiels=Nancy SWANSTON WILKINSON, father of Thomas, Isabel, William, David; RODGER (William) bc1889, coalminer, 1911=Janet BLACK, son of Peter b Glasgow; RUSSELL (Henry) bc1872, ploughman, Glasgow 1908 =Ann SMILLIE; RUSSELL (Henry) bc1881, miner husband of Ann of Airth, father of John, George, Henry and Agnes Bell; SANDS (Robert) bc1876, a maltsman; SINCLAIR (James) bc1892, coalminer son of Alexander of Cowdenbeath; STIRLING (George) bc1871; TENNANT (James) bc1894, son of Joseph of West End Garage, Armadale; TENNANT (Joseph) bc1891; YOUNG (George) bc1891

"One of my first memories in there (Park Terrace) was the start of the war, the start of the First World War.  I don't remember much about it, but I remember going up to Bathville Cross with my mother, I think it would be, to see the territorials marching up to the station to get the train away to join the army.  There was a territorial force in Armadale.  And that's about one of my first memories and it was just shortly after that I started school."

Courtesy of HAA: Early Memories interview extract interviewee: J. Love

Joseph Polland of East Main Street, Armadale, d 1992, aged 71.

Joe was born at Northrigg, one of nine children.  He performed well as a pupil at St Mary's Bathgate and went on to work in a firm of Chartered Accountants.

In 1939, he volunteered for the RAF and he became a rear gunner in Lancaster bombers.  He achieved the rank of Flight Lieutenant.  Although he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, he was reticent to speak of the circumstances in which he had earned this award.  He said that he was more proud that he could wear his uniform on special occasions after leaving the Service.  He was instrumental in setting up the local branch of the Royal British Legion.

After leaving the Service, he qualified as a chartered accountant and worked in the firm of Thomson and Balfour for ten years, before founding a firm at Shotts with his brother.

He is remembered as a generous benefactor to Armadale Children's Gala Day.

Help wanted!  Were you evacuated to Armadale in 1939 or later?  Did your family take in an evacuee?  Do you have any memories of evacuees in Armadale?

Does anyone remember an evacuee called James VANDEPEEAR who was sent to stay with an Armadale family in 1939? He has told me, "I was an evacuee from Edinburgh at Armadale.   I did not stay there long, and can only remember a row of terrace cottages sloping down to a field or play ground, and I recall sliding down a bing on a shovel.  I was barely 5 years old at the time, and what I do remember is very little.  The row of cottages on a slope is fairly certain, and a swing park at the bottom of the hill.  As to the names of the family I was with, I cannot remember them at all, except that they had three sons, at least, and I think I shared a bed with them." 

James Vandepeear's sister has written about the day she visited Armadale to collect James and to return with him to Edinburgh.  Here are extracts from her account:

"I was sent to bring him back.  It was also the first time I had ever been allowed to travel anywhere on my own, so I was nervous....

I boarded an SMT bus, asked the conductor to tell me when we reached Armadale then sat down....... when I saw Armadale my first impression was 'grey', grey skies, houses, streets, even the people on the bus were grey and dour looking.

However I got off the bus at the first bus-stop in Armadale, stayed on the left side of the road, passed by a rough hedge, there may have been a house behind it.  I must have walked about 100 yards before turning left into a long sloping street lined with houses which were stone fronted with a window each side of the front doors painted either black or dark green.  This was the first row of houses.  I stayed on the left hand side, walked over half way down on a slabbed pavement until I saw Jim sitting on the doorstep, a rather strange doorstep, the house being on such a long slope meant that if you lived at the top you had a thin step - the lower down the slope the higher the step.  The house Jim lived in had two and a half steps but they were not whitened with pipe-clay.  The pavement was not wide but had small kerbstones.  I remember how bleak it all looked, not a tree anywhere.

There was another little boy with Jim, also an evacuee, they were not allowed to play in the house even though it was late summer and chilly.  The adults in the house were, I believe, a single brother and sister in their late thirties."

Other possible clues: the surname 'Begbie' and the numbers 5 and 15.

 If you have information, which could help James to identify the place where he stayed, please e-mail Rosie