There was a lot of kindness and a lot of good people – we were essentially refugees

COLIN SCOTT, 80, remembers the blitz spirit that saw people moved to help others – even when they had lost everything.

The lasting memories for him are the places his family moved on to as they tried to escape the danger and rebuild their lives.

Colin’s family home in Gordon Street survived the bombing but the rest of the street was gone, meaning they had to be evacuated anyway.

The enduring impression he has of that time is the generosity shown by strangers.

“There was a lot of kindness and a lot of good people,” he said.

Following the bombing, the family were evacuated to a house in Cardross.

However, they had to be moved on when an unexploded bomb was discovered on the railway line behind that house.

“If it had exploded you would not be talking to me now,” he said. Colin said the present- day situation with Syrian refugees makes him think back to his family’s life during the war.

He said: “A lot of people say we have enough people to look after in the country and we can’t cope with more but when the chips are down you can.

“We were refugees. People were very kind to us.”

When Colin married his wife Emma 52 years ago he discovered she had her own link to that terrible time.

He said: “She had been named after an aunt who died in the bombing. She was killed in an air raid shelter.”