School’s tribute to ‘Britain’s bravest street’ St Joseph’s Primary pupils create a memorial garden as reminder to heroes who lived there
ALL that remains of ‘Britain’s bravest street’ is being well-looked after by children in a Glasgow primary school. Pupils at St Joseph’s Primary in Maryhill have created a memorial garden around the “Lyon Street rocks”.
Lyon Street, off Garscube Road, was home to a few tenement closes from which more than 200 men enlisted in almost every regiment in the First World War.
Of the 211, 16 of them never returned from the war; 27 were shot, gassed or maimed. Two were simply marked “missing”.
At St Joseph’s, Abdirahman, Freya and Qin Rong have all worked on the moving project. With the help of the school janitor, the stones have been turned into a mini-memorial garden with flowers and crosses made by the pupils.
“We learned about the rocks during our First World topic recently,” explains Abdirahman.
“These used to be part of the tenement buildings which stood here on Lyon Street, but they have all been demolished now.”
Freya adds: “Lyon Street was called the ‘bravest street in Britain’ because so many men who lived here came back with medals from the war.”
Qin Rong says: “We feel very proud to have these rocks here because they are a reminder of the brave men who lived here.
“It made us quite sad too because some of them died in the war.”
The Evening Times of October 16, 1962, recounts the search for the missing roll of honour, which used to hang on the wall of the Garscube Bar,
“It lists whole families who joined at the one time – the five Bell brothers, Tommy, John and Nipper Daly. Over 100 went into the HLI. Fathers went with sons, neighbours and friends went together, and they were all keen to go - for these were fighting 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.”
The article says people will always remember the “Lions of Lyon Street” and continues: “Every Remembrance Day until shortly before the Second World War a piper and bugler from the
HLI 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.”
At St Joseph’s, pupils mark the importance of the memorial garden each year at Remembrance Sunday.
Principal teacher Laura Slinger says: “The children have been very moved by what they have learned about the men who went to war from Lyon Street – young men, some not so very much older than them. They worked hard on the project, and they are very proud of the memorial garden and the part their school plays in keeping that important history alive.”
Freya says: “Our garden is a memorial for those who died to keep us safe but wars still happen round the world and that has got to stop. If people would maybe just talk to each other it might not keep happening.”
Picture: Kirsty Anderson