Remembering the Glasgow Boys' Brigade members who fought in World War One

It all started in a church hall in Glasgow.

A city Sunday School teacher, William Smith, formed the famous organisation in Kelvinbridge – at what was then the Free Church Mission Hall - on October 4, 1883. (The building is still there, and it was once home to the Woodside Social Club).

Glasgow City Archives holds a fascinating collection of Boys' Brigade material, including the records of many individual companies.

William Smith. Pic: Newsquest (Image: Newsquest)

Archivist Michael Gallagher explains: “The Brigade grew rapidly following the inaugural meeting of the 1st Glasgow Company as new groups sprang up across the city, then beyond. Each new company was to be officially connected with a church, Sunday School or other Christian organisation.

“These values would be taught to generations of Glaswegian boys, but just as important were the camaraderie and chance to take part in camps, sports and countless other activities. Its motto, Sure and Steadfast, will be familiar to many.”

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Our own archives hold photographs which capture many important moments in the history of the movement in Glasgow, including one of the 1st Glasgow Company taken in April 1885 at Garscube House (now the University of Glasgow’s Veterinary School grounds).

In 1933 the BB celebrated its jubilee with an assembly at Hampden in front of 130,000 spectators. Twenty years later, buglers of the 90th Glasgow company heralded the commencement of the late Queen’s coronation at Kelvingrove Park bandstand. (The band had recently won the Glasgow Battalion Bugle Band Competition).

90th Glasgow BB buglers. Pic: Newsquest (Image: Newsquest)

One of the lesser-known stories about Glasgow’s BB concerns one of the most famous battles of World War One.

In July 1916, the first wave of British infantrymen entered the Battle of the Somme. It was also the first test for the volunteer infantry battalions, which had been raised on the orders of Field Marshal Lord Kitchener when he was appointed Secretary of State for War in 1914.

Among those going over the top that morning was the treasurer of the Glasgow Boys’ Brigade, Lieutenant-Colonel David Laidlaw, commanding 16th Highland Light Infantry, who later remembered that his men were “singing and whistling as if they were going to a football match instead of one of the most serious encounters in the world’s history”.

No other battlefield of the First World War created more casualties per square yard than the Battle of the Somme, and the opening day of the battle was the bloodiest of the war for the infantry regiments which took part in the initial attack.

Of the 132,000 men who began the assault that morning 57,470 men were casualties – 21,392 killed or missing, 35,493 wounded and 585 taken prisoner.

In their number were 554 soldiers of Laidlaw’s battalion who were killed or wounded. In the following days the casualty lists in Glasgow’s newspapers were thick with local names and hardly any part of the city was unaffected by the losses.

The Boys’ Brigade members were part of a “pals” battalion – so-called because they kept together volunteers from the same cities or towns, or from working, sporting or social clubs. Approval was then given to the Glasgow Boys’ Brigade to form a battalion with the Highland Light Infantry. The Glasgow Post reported: “Nobly have those formerly connected with the Boys Brigade movement rallied to the flag.”

On the last day of the Somme, the BB battalion was motivated by their senior NCO, Company Sergeant Major George Lee, a roads foreman with Glasgow Corporation. Only 15 men and 30 who were “isolated, exhausted with little ammunition left” survived. The sacrifice of the Glasgow volunteer soldiers, who lie in nearby cemeteries, is commemorated by a plaque in the village of Authuille close to the Thiepval memorial to the dead of the Somme.