Glasgow Celtic cashier who was Victoria Cross hero

But Robert Downie, who was a club cashier as well as a fan of the Parkhead side, was a war hero.

When he arrived home to Springburn from fighting at the Somme, he was hoisted shoulder-high by the crowds who turned out at Central Station to meet him.

Springburn Road and his home street, Carleson Street, were alive with colour as flags and buntings filled the air.

Robert Downie (Image: Newsquest)

Robert, who was a fitter’s mate at Glasgow Corporation’s tramways department, gained the Victoria Cross in 1916 when, as a sergeant in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, he led an attack on a machine-gun nest which was causing heavy casualties.

In January 1956, Robert and around 400 other Victoria Cross holders were invited to attend a celebration marking the centenary of the establishment of the award.

Sgt Downie in London (Image: Newsquest)

Three of the men were living in Glasgow at the time – Robert, Frederick Luke of Allison Street in Govanhill and David Ross Lauder, of Corran Street in Cranhill.

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Frederick was awarded one of the first VCs in the Great War, for saving artillery under heavy fire at Le Cateau during the retreat from Mons in 1914. The medal was presented to him in France by King George V.

On Armistice Day, 1919, he was one of the bodyguard, under General Freyberg, VC, of the Unknown Warrior.

David Ross Lauder (Image: Newsquest)

David won the VC and its Serbian equivalent during the Dardanelles campaign. As a private in the Royal Scots Fusiliers he threw a bomb which failed to clear a parapet and fell among the bombing party. Mr Lauder localised the explosion by putting his foot on the bomb. He lost a leg as a result.

Airdrie-born David, who settled in Glasgow later, was the first member of the Royal Scots Fusiliers to be awarded the VC in World War One. After the war, he worked for the General Post Office as a telephone operator, rising to become supervisor at the Pitt Street Exchange.

In 1937, he was a passenger aboard a tramcar which left the rails and crashed into a bus on Hope Street. Despite his injuries, once again, David helped others before himself. During the Second World War, David worked as a telephone switchboard operator, part-time air raid warden and served in the Home Guard.

Other Glaswegians who received the VC, did not return home from the war.

Harry Ranken was a brilliant young doctor with the Royal Army Medical Corps when he gave his life to save others. (When he sat the entrance exam in 1909, he came first among all the entrants from across the whole of the then British Empire.)

He had volunteered to serve alongside the King’s Royal Rifle Corps and within days of arriving in France on August 13, 1914, Ranken was appointed a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour for gallantry under fire.

On September 19, Harry’s leg and thigh were shattered by a stray British shell but despite his severe wounds, he insisted on treating the other wounded men for the whole following day. He died of a blood clot on September 25, 1914, aged 31.

On November 16, Ranken was named as one of the first nine recipients of the Victoria Cross in the war.

James Turnbull, a tailor and an outstanding footballer who had played for Third Lanark, cricketer and yachtsman, lost his life at the Battle of the Somme.

Sergeant Turnbull and the Highland Light Infantry were among the first men of the British Army to charge the enemy, capturing an important position. Many were killed in German counter-attacks, but Turnbull fought on with grenades and a machine gun until a German sniper shot him dead.