Popular author finds inspiration for next book in Glasgow Times

Carol MacLean, who writes historical sagas, was fascinated by our Times Past story about women stationed in Drumchapel during the Second World War.

“I was inspired to set my third novel in this setting, with my main characters ATS ‘gunner girls’,” she explains.

“I loved the old photos in the article too – I’m always most interested in the people stories, and these women seemed really fascinating. I’d love to hear from anyone who is related to them, or remembers them.”

The ATS – Auxiliary Territorial Service – was formed from the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp (WAAC), which had been disbanded after the end of the First World War.

Carol MacLean (Image: Newsquest)

More than 250,000 women served in the ATS during the Second World War, making it the largest of the women’s services.

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The first recruits were employed as cooks, clerks and storekeepers, but duties were eventually expanded and ATS members worked as orderlies, drivers, postal workers and ammunition inspectors. Because of shortages of men, women were also recruited to become radar operators and part of the crews of anti-aircraft batteries, military police and searchlight regiments.

ATS and Lt Frank Beard at Garscadden Mains (Image: Courtesy of Eric Flack)

In our article last year, Eric Flack, who lives in Drumchapel, recalled the farmer at Garscadden Mains telling him what it had been like to have the ATS stationed there.

“The Buchanans farmed there - both brothers had served in World War One,” he says. “One of them was a farrier and worked with the horses of War Horse fame. Old Buchanan wasn’t that pleased about having his best potato field taken over by the army.”

Eric added: “He persuaded the army to let the lads and lassies work around the farm in between their duties. He got them weeding the turnip fields, cutting logs in Garscadden Wood and learning to use the plough. He even had them planting potatoes around the gun pits.”

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Eric has a photo which shows the craters left by the bombs at the site, and a second, which was given to him by the wife of Frank Beard, a Second Lieutenant who served on the Drumchapel gunsite.

“Frank Beard was there in September 1941 – he wrote about his experiences many years later. In the photo, given to me by his wife, he is pictured with a group of ATS women at the ‘ack ack’ site at Garscadden Mains, which is now part of Jedworth Avenue. By 1941, there were something like 80 women and 80 men working on this site.”

Carol is hoping to turn the story of the Drumchapel gunner girls into her third novel.

Her first, Jeannie’s War, was a huge success and her second, Elsie’s Wartime Wish, comes out on January 26 and has already had warm previews. Both are part of Carol’s historical saga series, The Kiltie Street Girls, about a group of young women living on a Maryhill street during WW2.

“I’ve always loved writing – for years, I’ve written short stories for women’s magazines, and pocket novels,” says Carol. “It was always my dream to be a published author.

“Then, during lockdown in 2020, I was off work recovering from an operation and feeling a bit sorry for myself, and I started to think about how people in much worse situations, like the war, would have coped.”

The result was Jeannie’s War, and a two-book deal with Hera swiftly followed.

“Then I got a second two-book deal, and I was thinking what I could write for book three, spotted your article and it all seemed like serendipity,” laughs Carol, who is a full-time ecologist as well as a writer. “It felt like a touch of magic was involved.

“I had no idea there was an anti-aircraft battery at Drumchapel, and I have worked not far from there. In fact, I knew very little about Glasgow’s war until I started researching for the books.

“We know a lot about the Clydebank Blitz, for example, but Glasgow was badly hit too – in some parts of Maryhill, you can still see the gaps where buildings are missing, the ones that were hit. I wanted to help tell the stories of Glasgow’s war.”

If you know the stories of any of the Drumchapel “gunner girls”, get in touch with Times Past by emailing ann.fotheringham@glasgowtimes.co.uk or write to Ann Fotheringham, Glasgow Times, 125 Fullarton Drive, Glasgow G32 8FG.