How I discovered mother’s wartime grave... 74 years on
HE was barely three years old when he l ost his mother to tuberculosis and she was buried in a pauper’s grave.
John Glasgow’s only picture of his mother Edna was a tiny photograph he has treasured for decades.
Now, 74 years after her death, her son has found her final resting place, in a cemetery in Glasgow.
Mr Glasgow, now 77, and his mother were evacuated from their home on Alderney in the Channel Islands on June 23, 1940, as Nazi troops closed in.
Yesterday he recalled: ‘Six ships came and church bells rang to tell people it was time to go. They were allowed one bag per person – pets were left behind to fend for themselves or be shot.’
They were a group of 1,500 residents taken to Glasgow for safety but Mrs Glasgow was diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis and on June 26 was admitted to the city’s Ruchill Hospital.
It was the last time Mr Glasgow would see his mother.
He was taken to a children’s home in Castlemilk, Glasgow, where he remained for three months until his soldier father Ian took him to England. Less than four months l ater, Mrs Glasgow died.
Mr Glasgow grew up knowing little about his mother. He said: ‘My father kept nothing and it took me 50 years to find out what my mother looked like.’
But he was determined to try to find where she was buried and contacted Glasgow’s Lord Provost Sadie Docherty. She passed his request to the city council and officials discovered Mrs Glasgow was buried in Sighthill Cemetery in the north of the city.
Two weeks after making the emotional discovery, Mr Glasgow travelled to Scotland to lay a wreath by his mother’s grave. It was accompanied by a poignant note which read: ‘To my dearest mother Edna Marian Glasgow... from her loving son, little John.’
Mr Glasgow described the visit as the end of a painful chapter in his life. He said: ‘I hadn’t expected such a positive result, albeit tinged with a little sadness. However, I feel at peace with myself.’