Plean heroes help sink

U-boats

People in Plean were taking pride in the exploits of two villagers John Edgar and David Chalmers who were among the crew of HMS Antelope which had a short time earlier sunk two German U-boats in one day whilst escorting merchant ships.

Pals before they joined the Navy in August 1939, the two lads had just arrived home to enjoy some leave.

David’s homecoming was, however, tinged with sadness as he only had time to say a few words to his grandfather, Mr William Chalmers, before the elderly man died after illness.

Haircuts were being encouraged to save lives of men handling ammunition, the Observer of early 1940 noted. Hairdressers were being asked to collect hair clippings so they could be used to make felt which was needed for the safe packing of explosives. Up until then animal hair had been used for felt-making but it was found that human hair was just as good.

The paper said the average haircut yielded half an ounce of hair and in

Britain at that time there were an estimated three million hair cuts a week. In a later issue of the paper, in response to this piece, a correspondent pointed out that following the outbreak of war, hairdressers were among the first to increase their prices.

As a consequence, the writer had his hair clipped once every three weeks instead fortnightly. The writer was happy to do his patriotic duty and have a trim every two weeks but wanted hairdressers to restore their prices to pre-war levels.