Eye on Millig: Sergeant won two gallantry medals

***************

AS THE year which saw the centenary of the World War One Armistice draws to a close, it seems appropriate to mention some of the Helensburgh and district men who made the supreme sacrifice.

They are all men I have researched in recent weeks, but not mentioned on this page before - men like Sergeant Norman Connor, who was killed in action on September 4 1917.

Born in Garelochhead on June 7 1896, Sergeant Connor, of the 17th Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry (3rd Glasgow), had the unusual distinction of winning the Military Medal for bravery in the field twice in Flanders.

He was the son of Irish-born village school headmaster John Connor and his wife Jeannie from Mochrum, Wigtownshire. He had two older brothers, railway clerk John and Henry, two older sisters, teacher Jeanie and Norah, and a twin sister, Eva.

The family lived at the village school house for a number of years, then his parents retired to Armadale Street, Dennistoun, Glasgow.

Norman joined the Army as a Private in 1915, and he served in France with his battalion for nearly two years.

As an Acting Sergeant Norman was awarded his first MM in November 1916, and the Bar to the Medal five months later — when he was recommended for the Distinguished Conduct Medal. He also received the 1915 Star, and posthumously the British War and Victory Medals.

A tribute in the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times recorded: “He was a fine soldier, to be thoroughly depended upon in any emergency.

“Letters from his officers and others to his parents express their great admiration for his courage and character.

“When at home on leave he seemed to all who saw him the very embodiment of quiet strength and manly vigour.”

In the United Free Church on Sunday September 16, the Rev W.E.Ireland paid a moving tribute to what he described as “so brave a man”.

He also referred to the sorrow which had come to those who for so many years had been members of the congregation, and who still had numerous friends in Garelochhead.

He is buried at Coxyde Military Cemetery at West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, and is listed on the Glasgow Roll of Honour.

A HELENSBURGH man who died at Ypres in World War One outlived both his parents.

Lieutenant Charles William Hewer, of 5 Glenan Gardens, West Argyle Street, was reported missing after fighting near Ypres on August 22 1917, and it was later assumed that the 22 year-old was killed in action that day.

Charles was born at his hotelier maternal grandfather’s home, the Sutherland Arms Hotel in Bowling, on September 19 1894.

He was the son of master mariner Captain William Chibbet Hewer and his wife Jessie Freebairn, who were married the previous year in Old Kilpatrick.

His father died of a heart condition at the hotel in 1900, and his mother took her son to live in Helensburgh where she died on February 25 1916 at the age of 66, also from heart disease.

Charles was educated at the town’s Larchfield School, and then Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh.

He joined the General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation Ltd. in Glasgow in October 1912 when he was 18, and he enlisted in the 9th (The Dumbartonshire) Battalion, Princess Louise’s Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, on September 12 1914.

The London Gazette of April 23 1915 recorded that Private Hewer had been commissioned as a Second Lieutenant.

He served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from July 1915, and he was promoted to Lieutenant on July 1 1917. The following month he was reported missing in action.

He is remembered on the Helensburgh war memorial in Hermitage Park, the Merchiston Castle School World War One memorial, and the Tyne Cot Memorial and Zonnebeke, West Flanders, in Belgium.

WORLD War One had only a few more months to run when a young Helensburgh officer lost his life.

Second Lieutenant Alan Hope Smith Nicholl, who was serving in the 24th Brigade with the Royal Field Artillery, was killed in action on March 21 1918 at the age of only 19.

The former Officer Cadet was the youngest of three sons of steamship manager Charles Andrew Nicholl and his wife Christina Morrison Nicholl, of Clunie, 22 Upper Glenfinlas Street.

The other two sons, Charles Kenneth and John Morrison, were also on military service, and he had two sisters, Noel Elizabeth and Mary Morrison.

The Helensburgh and Gareloch Times reported: “This gallant young officer was only 19 years of age.

“On finishing his education at Sedbergh a year ago, he at once joined up, and had been about three months in France.

“With Mr and Mrs Nicholl the deepest sympathy is felt in the unspeakable loss they have sustained.”

He is named on Bay 1 of the Arras Memorial and on the Helensburgh War Memorial in Hermitage Park, and his parents erected a memorial plaque which is underneath the main balcony in Helensburgh Parish Church.

A 29 YEAR-OLD Helensburgh pilot died in a flying accident a few weeks before the end of World War One.

Second Lieutenant William Milne Wright was the son of coachman Thomas Wright and his wife Annie, nee Milne, and was born on January 4 1889 at the mansion Cairndhu on the seafront where his father worked for former Glasgow Lord Provost John Ure.

After his father’s death his mother moved to Myrtlebank, 15 Henry Bell Street.

William previously served in the 5th Battalion of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, but then was attached to the fledgling Royal Air Force.

He joined 2 Training Depot Station at East Fortune in East Lothian when it was formed in June 1918 as the Fleet Torpedo Pilot Finishing School.

He died on October 1 1918 while flying an RAF SE5A biplane fighter aircraft of the Fleet School of Aerial Fighting and Gunnery.

The aircraft crashed, and the official report stated: “The starboard wings of the aircraft folded back at 1,000 feet while diving steeply.”

He was buried at Helensburgh Cemetery, and his name is on the Helensburgh War Memorial in Hermitage Park.