Escape from runaway rock

The Observer said: `Fortunately there was no-one in the office at the time. Had the boulder, however, been six foot more to one side it would have killed L/Cpl William Crombie who was in an adjoining room.’.

L/Cpl Crombie said: “The first warning I got was a rumbling noise like thunder followed by a terrific crash and the two doors of the sergeants’ office being wrenched off their hinges.”

Usually, a camp guard used the wrecked room when off duty.

The boulder which came away stood alone. `Had it been one of a group, it is possible a landslide might have developed,’ speculated the Observer.

It was also reported that during a gale a few days earlier, nine-year-old George McNeill, 55 Lower Bridge Street, and 11-year-old Alban Paterson, 8 Johnston Avenue, both Stirling, were injured when part of a bill hoarding blew on to them.

It happened at the junction of Lower Bridge Street and Union Street as the boys made their way home from school. Neither was seriously injured.

Strong winds also brought down trees, blew over the half-time board at Stirling Albion’s Annfield ground, lifted the corrugated iron roof from Riverside School cycle shed and dislodged slates. Meanwhile, the drivers of doubledecker buses had difficulty controlling their wind-battered vehicles.