WAY From idyllic start to cruel death
WE REVISIT DEREK PARKER’S RAMBLES THROUGH RENFREWSHIRE
Mine of information
Paisley poet Robert Tannahill admired the duck pond and waterwheel at Coldstream Mill when he walked across the Gleniffer Braes from his home at Queen Street.
He was on his way to visit relatives at Boghall Farm, near Beith, where his mother, Janet Pollock, lived before her marriage.
More than a century after Tannahill’s death, Coldstream Mill – dating from 1782 – was worked by miller Joseph Smith and sons Andrew and Robert.
Its revolving millstone ground cereals for families at nearby Trearne House and estate owned by the Ralston-Patrick family whose ancestors lived at Ralston House, Paisley, and are commemorated by a stained glass window in Paisley Abbey.
The Second World War raged in fiery frenzy when Robert Smith received a letter notifying him he was exempted from military duties because his grain milling work was more important than soldiering.
Dad Joseph had previously applied
Derek Parker knew many of Paisley’s secrets – the grimy and the good.
He wandered every corner in search of the clues that would unlock Renfrewshire’s rich history.
These tales were shared with readers in his hugely popular Parker’s Way column.
We’ve opened our vault to handpick our favourites for you.
for military exemption for his son. But Robert was determined to join the Army. So he burned the letter without telling anyone he’d received it – then enlisted with the Royal Signals.
Following basic training, Signalman Robert Smith 2365456 was posted to the Far East where Japanese forces were over-running south-east Asia.
Robert was captured in February, 1942, and sent to the notorious prisonerof-war camp at Tamakan in Thailand. Along with hundreds of fellow captives, he was brutally beaten by cruel guards.
Following three horrific years of violent bludgeoning, malaria and starvation, Robert Smith died on January 16, 1945, aged just 24 – dreaming of his dear family and the happy haunts of his youth at the old mill with its reed-fringed duckpond.
After the war, his friend – Seaton Barbour, who served with the Parachute Regiment and whose father was gamekeeper at Trearne – investigated the harrowing deaths of Robert and other prisoners-of-war.
Seaton discovered the callous guards had inflicted fiendish atrocities on the prisoners – like skinning flesh from their hands and arms then allowing flayed limbs to knit together. Other prisoners had their hands cruelly bolted together.
Country boy Robert Smith’s grave at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery is marked with a stone plaque inscribed with his name, service number and date of death.
Like the churning waterwheel at Coldtream Mill, his memory rolls on through the ages.