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Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 7:24 pm
by kosbboy
Hello Folks,
I am trying to locate the whereabouts of the old Army Recruitment Office in Glasgow (take a deep breath!) in and around 1919!! My father enlisted in the KOSB's in 1919 eventually becoming a Pipe Major. I would like to find our where the office would have been located in Glasgow. If you either know, or know where I could find out, I'd appreciate hearing from you.
As a matter of interest, he was from Duntocher and I was born in Radnor Street, Clydebank.

Re: Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Thu May 22, 2008 11:46 pm
by Dugald
kosbboy wrote:Hello Folks,
I am trying to locate the whereabouts of the old Army Recruitment Office in Glasgow (take a deep breath!) in and around 1919!! My father enlisted in the KOSB's in 1919 eventually becoming a Pipe Major. I would like to find our where the office would have been located in Glasgow. If you either know, or know where I could find out, I'd appreciate hearing from you. As a matter of interest, he was from Duntocher and I was born in Radnor Street, Clydebank.

Hello Kosbboy, and welcome to the Hidden Glasgow forum. Sorry I can't help you with the location of this old Army Recruitment Office in Glasgow. Let me mention that I find it a bit strange there would have been a recruitment office for the KOSB's in Glasgow. Oh yes, it could of course have simply been a recruitment for any British Army regiments. I' m just guessing in an endeavour to help, but wouldn't the KOSB's have been doing their recruiting down around Berwick on Tweed and around the border areas. Good luck with your search.

Re: Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Fri May 23, 2008 7:43 pm
by peter
At that time many regiments had Territorial Army HQs and recruited through them. The only fully dedicated place I knew were the offices for all services in Queen street.

Re: Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 8:47 am
by KonstantinL
As regards the KOSB's recruiting areas it needn't have just been the Borders. I went to a school in North Lanarkshire that wasn't particularly high up on the academic tables and a quite a few of the boys joined the army.

As far as I'm aware (99% certain) it was the KOSB's that they joined so that particular regiment obviously recruited from around the Glasgow area. I believe the KOSB's were the 'traditional' regiment for this area even though it wasn't strictly in the borders.

Re: Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 9:13 am
by Dexter St. Clair
They do have their own notice board and there is a handy list of published sources there.

http://www.kosb.co.uk/noticeboard.php


Image

Re: Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 10:40 am
by kosbboy
Thanks very much for taking the trouble to respond. He certainly would have gone to Berwick upon Tweed but, I assumed, that he enlisted in Glasgow. I know that there was an Army Recruiting Office in the centre of Glasgow for I rememember reading some years ago of public meetings being held "opposite" the Army Recruiting Office about that time. Whether they were anti war protests or Communist meetings I can't recall.
Thanks once again!
Kosbboy

Re: Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 3:22 pm
by onyirtodd
kosbboy wrote:Thanks very much for taking the trouble to respond. He certainly would have gone to Berwick upon Tweed but, I assumed, that he enlisted in Glasgow. I know that there was an Army Recruiting Office in the centre of Glasgow for I rememember reading some years ago of public meetings being held "opposite" the Army Recruiting Office about that time. Whether they were anti war protests or Communist meetings I can't recall.
Thanks once again!
Kosbboy



They might have been anti-army demos. Many (I've read 10,000) English troops were deployed to Glasgow at the time of the 40 hours strike in 1919.

Re: Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Sun May 25, 2008 9:33 pm
by Dugald
[quote="onyirtodd"They might have been anti-army demos. Many (I've read 10,000) English troops were deployed to Glasgow at the time of the 40 hours strike in 1919.[/quote]

Onny, from where were these "English" troops obtained? Were there any regiments in the British Army of 1919 which restricted recruitment to only English-born men? I doubt this very much. Oh yes, they may well have deployed British soldiers to Glasgow at the time of the 40 hours strike in 1919, but I doubt very much they were English soldiers.

Re: Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Sun May 25, 2008 11:22 pm
by Dexter St. Clair
We need some evidence other than your usual eye witness reminiscences Dugald.

According to Glasgow Digital library

Government concerns about industrial militancy and revolutionary political activity in Glasgow reached new heights after the events of 31 January 1919. Fears within government of a workers' revolution in Glasgow led to the deployment of troops and tanks in the city.

An estimated 10000 English troops in total were sent to Glasgow in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of George Square. This was in spite of a full battalion of Scottish soldiers being stationed at Maryhill barracks in Glasgow at the time. No Scottish troops were deployed, with the government fearing that fellow Scots, soldiers or otherwise, would go over to the workers side if a revolutionary situation developed in Glasgow.


and that is not to say they were no Scots in English regiments. And there were Scottish soldiers there.

Eventually there was a re-grouping and the workers began to move off from George Square to march towards Glasgow Green. At the front of this march were ex-servicemen who had returned from the war to "a home fit for heroes" and who were completely in support of the strike. When they reached the Green the police were waiting, ready to charge again. Undaunted the strikers, led by the ex-servicemen, pulled up the park railings and chased off their attackers.

Re: Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Sun May 25, 2008 11:59 pm
by Dugald
Dugald said: "Onny, from where were these "English" troops obtained? Were there any regiments in the British Army of 1919 which restricted recruitment to only English-born men? I doubt this very much. Oh yes, they may well have deployed British soldiers to Glasgow at the time of the 40 hours strike in 1919, but I doubt very much they were English soldiers."

Dexter said: "We need some evidence other than your usual eye witness reminiscences Dugald."

Dexter, I fail to see why you feel some evidence is required from me? What do i have to prove? As far as I can see from what I said to Onny, I made no claim at all. I asked two questions and expressed some doubt... but nary an assertion! Ah think maybe your 1919 eye witness reminiscences is a wind up!

Re: Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Mon May 26, 2008 8:47 am
by kosbboy
I think that the meetings I had read about were those mounted by the overwhelming response to John MacLean (A great Glasgow hero as far as I'm concerned) who had been treated abominably by the government and, in some instances, by local "dignitaries". Some of his meetings were anti war, or, as he would have seen it, anti-imperialist, and were held in Bath Street opposite the Army Recruiting Office on the corner of (as I have now discovered), Renfrew Street.

Re: Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2008 5:38 am
by AlanM
kosbboy wrote:I think that the meetings I had read about were those mounted by the overwhelming response to John MacLean (A great Glasgow hero as far as I'm concerned) who had been treated abominably by the government and, in some instances, by local "dignitaries". Some of his meetings were anti war, or, as he would have seen it, anti-imperialist, and were held in Bath Street opposite the Army Recruiting Office on the corner of (as I have now discovered), Renfrew Street.

Renfrew Street runs parallel to Bath St with Sauchiehall St inbetween so wouldn't have a corner with Bath St, do you mean Renfield Street?

Re: Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2008 9:42 am
by kosbboy
AlanM,
Yes, thank you for the correction - a "senior" moment!

Re: Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2008 10:06 am
by onyirtodd
Dugald wrote:Dugald said: "Onny, from where were these "English" troops obtained? Were there any regiments in the British Army of 1919 which restricted recruitment to only English-born men? I doubt this very much. Oh yes, they may well have deployed British soldiers to Glasgow at the time of the 40 hours strike in 1919, but I doubt very much they were English soldiers."

Dexter said: "We need some evidence other than your usual eye witness reminiscences Dugald."

Dexter, I fail to see why you feel some evidence is required from me? What do i have to prove? As far as I can see from what I said to Onny, I made no claim at all. I asked two questions and expressed some doubt... but nary an assertion! Ah think maybe your 1919 eye witness reminiscences is a wind up!


Of course Dexter is at the wind up but since you're here can you tell us what you saw at Culloden?

Re: Army Recruitment Office

PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2008 10:40 am
by Dugald
Onny said: Of course Dexter is at the wind up but since you're here can you tell us what you saw at Culloden?

Aye, an idiotic life-wasting bloody civil war!