Boy (8) killed in gun tragedy

Ploughman presses wrong trigger

‘Gloom was cast of the Killearn’ following a gun tragedy in which a child was killed, the Observer of 1929 reported.

It happened when a ploughman carrying a double-barrelled shotgun was out at Glenboig accompanied by eight-year-old Donald Leitch, son of Mr Archibald Leitch, Glenboig Farm.

The ploughman was in the act of lowering the hammer of the weapon to ‘half cock’ but pressed the wrong trigger ‘with the terrible result that the charge of a barrel was lodged in the hip of Donald, who was about 10 yards from the gun’.

Donald was taken to a Glasgow hospital but died eight hours after the accident.

The Observer said: ‘The catastrophe, deplorable beyond words in itself, and coming as it has done so soon after the death of the child’s mother, has evoked from all the district profound sympathy.’

Donald was, added the paper, ‘bright and wise beyond his years’ and had just been complimented by his teacher for the excellent progress he had made at school.

His funeral at Fintry Churchyard was attended by representatives of almost every household in the vicinity.

A touching site was the group of child mourners – Donald’s schoolmates – who lined up beside the grave,’ added the Observer.

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June, 1929 also saw a fatality on the area’s roads. Mr Hamish Ferguson, 23, who was from Comrie but well known in Stirling, was killed in a motorcycle accident at the Pass of Leny, Callander. Mr Ferguson, whose father lived at Auchinner, Glenartney Forest, near Comrie, was employed at the livestock marts, Stirling. A man discovered Mr Ferguson’s wrecked motorbike as he was travelling through the Pass of Leny. It was lying alongside the road, at the foot of a fir tree, near the Leny Falls. His body was found near the falls. There were no witnesses to the accident but it was thought Mr Ferguson’s had been thrown a considerable distance after his machine skidded and hit a tree.

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The Observer reported a new exhibit had been added to the Smith Institute, Stirling. Mr RB Cunninghame-Graham, of Ardoch, gave to the museum a ‘fine old Spanish door, beautifully designed in Arabesque pattern’. It had been the property of the late Mrs Cunninghame-Graham who bought it in Cadiz. Measuring seven feet by four feet it was thought the door would form an interesting study for all who visit the museum.