The last surviving British Legion Cub in Glasgow is appealing to people to help secure the club’s future.
The Knightswood Branch has been open since 1944 when there were thousands of ex service men and women demobilised after World War Two.
Dwindling membership and falling income has left the club looking to recruit new members and get more people using their facility.
Barclay McCran, President of the Knightswood Branch, said there was at one time 1800 ex service members plus their families.
It is now down to just 220 members and only 91 are ex service personnel.
He said the club is mainly for older people but not exclusively and it was open for the whole community.
Since it opened Mr McCran said there have been 4500 members over that time but few new members join now.
Mr McCran said: “Membership is falling and the club is a bad financial state. We are in danger of losing the last British Legion Club in Glasgow.
“It is a lifeline for a lot of ex servicemen and women in the city.
“It is open to anyone and anyone in the Glasgow area can join.
“This year is the anniversary of the end of the First World War and there are events and commemorations we would like to be planning but we have not been able to.”
Mr McCran has been a committee member for 38 years and seen many changes and numbers dropping to critical levels in recent years.
He hopes to encourage more people to see what the club has to offer and increase the public hire of the hall to generate income.
He added: “All clubs are struggling and pubs are shutting too. The smoking ban didn’t help us either when that came in.
“But there is not as many ex services now as there once was.”
The nearest British Legion Club to the Knightswood Branch is East Kilbride.
There are 160 Branches of the Royal British Legion across Scotland and 60 associated clubs.
It was established in 1921 when charities formed to help soldiers from the First World War amalgamated.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here