Glasgow police officers faced rise in crime as the war ended

Germany had surrendered and on May 8, 1945, the war in Europe which had lasted six long years was finally over.

However, for Glasgow’s hard-pressed police officers, another war was about to take place – against a rising tide of crime.

The conflict in Europe had seen thousands of young men leave the city to fight abroad – including hundreds of serving police officers.

However, those officers left behind were left to combat a more traditional enemy – the common criminal.

Wartime conditions including shortages, rationing and night-time blackouts created ideal opportunities for law-breaking and black marketeering.

In fact, crime had flourished in the city during the war.

However, the end of hostilities was to lead to lawlessness on an even greater scale.

With almost 200 young cops still on military service the remaining officers struggled to contain it.

One of the worst outbreaks of public disorder was on the very day that peace was declared.

For the celebrating citizens, it was the time to let off some steam, made worse by the copious amounts of alcohol consumed.

In the drunken euphoria, some stepped over the line breaking into empty properties and ripping out items like window window frames to use in makeshift bonfires.

During one incident in Townhead, a mob threw two police officers into the flames.

On the third night, police had to move into George Square to clear the crowds.

Later council cleansing staff ­reported that three tons of booze bottles had been left behind.

Though the war had ended – crime continued in the city as if nothing had happened.

Malcolm McCulloch (Image: Newsquest)

That year Chief Constable Malcolm McCulloch reported: “Reaction to the hardship and restrictions of war has led to a general slackening of self-discipline which among certain classes has found expression in a growing disregard for law and order.”

One senior officer Robert Colquhoun at the time, who went on to become head of Glasgow CID, reported that the city had descended into a “shadowy cesspool of crime”.

There were also increases in ­illegal gambling and casinos with soldiers returning from war with cash in their pockets and time on their hands. The lucrative black market continued after the war’s end when many of the shortages ­including food got worse.

People were happy to pay that ­little bit extra for a few luxuries and not ask any questions.

The night-time blackouts also ­continued after the war in a bid to conserve energy supplies which in turn encouraged more crime.

Robert Colquhoun (Image: Newsquest)

Among the growing army of ­criminals in the city were thousands of returning deserters, who did not have any ration books or identity papers.

They had to steal to survive – clothes, food, money – anything they could get their hands on.

Burglaries from people’s homes, shops and businesses literally shot through the roof.

Around 18,000 break-ins were reported to the police in 1945 and accounted for 85% of all recorded crimes.

One type of criminal who ­flourished during this period was the safe blower.

By the early 1950s, it was estimated there were 300 operating in the city – three times as many as before the war.

There was also an increase in the theft of explosives to be used in the safe cracking – mainly from mines.

In one case in 1945, thieves broke into a music shop in Sauchiehall Street and stole £30 (£1300 today) from the safe after blowing it open.

A newspaper reported at the time that the bungling robbers had missed a second safe in the same store which contained £100.

A few days later another gang broke into the shop and cracked that one open escaping with the cash.

At the end of the war, there was also a major outbreak of armed ­robbery – something the city had never seen before – due to the large numbers of guns brought back as souvenirs by soldiers.

Criminals realised they could get a lot more money from people, by ­simply pointing a gun.

Firearms were used in a variety of crimes from street muggings to shop hold-ups.

In October 1945, two such robberies took place in Milngavie and Langside where a gang using stolen cars approached people in the street and took their valuables at gunpoint.

On another occasion that year, two men armed with a revolver stole money from a tobacconist in Hope Street.

Just before Christmas a 20-year-old former Merchant Navy seaman was found guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court of possessing two revolvers, robbing a man and woman in ­Howard Street in the city centre at gunpoint, and breaking into a business premises in nearby Washington Street with two other men.

In the latter, the trio used masks and forced a woman to hand over the contents of a safe at gunpoint.

In September 1945, three Polish soldiers held up a man in Dennistoun at gunpoint and forced him to hand over £19 he was carrying.

They then broke into a house in Castle Street in Partick and stole clothing.

However, they were finally caught by police after attacking three officers following a break-in at a house in nearby Finnieston.

At their trial at the High Court in Glasgow, it was revealed that all three had been forced to serve in both the Russian and German ­armies following the invasion of their country.

At the end of the war, they ended up in Glasgow where they had no means of feeding or clothing ­themselves.

So they turned to crime.

However, the judge was unimpressed with their hard luck stories and gave them prison terms, ranging from 18 months to three years.

At that time a large number of Chinese men who had served in the Merchant Navy during the war were based in Glasgow.

In June 1946, Norman McPherson was murdered by two Chinese ­seamen following a disturbance outside a seaman’s mission in Govan.

It emerged that the victim and a friend had been drinking and had also been abusive to the two Chinese and made racist remarks.

As a result, the murder charge was dropped against one and the second accused was found guilty of the lesser charge of culpable homicide and sentenced to 10 years.

Understandably Chief Constable McCulloch was under pressure to reduce the crime wave, despite his depleted resources.

Malcolm McCulloch (Image: Newsquest)

He put all available men on ­compulsory overtime and doubled shifts at night.

One initiative was to target many of the deserters who were committing the crimes.

On New Year’s Eve 1946, a major operation was launched at dancehalls and nightspots including the Barrowland Ballroom on deserters.

Police took over the premises, closed the doors, and ordered all the men to provide identification.

A weapon amnesty was also held when more than 400 guns were handed in to police including a machine gun and incendiary bombs.

A crackdown was also launched against the armed robbers resulting in 80% of suspects being arrested.

A special sheriff was also appointed to process the cases through the courts.

In an interview in our sister ­paper the Glasgow Herald in 1945, the Chief Constable urged the public to make use of the 999 service which had been recently introduced to ­report crime.

He revealed that 40 cars were on the street, all with radios so that ­officers could react to calls ­immediately.

That same year the police also managed to end the reign of terror of one of Glasgow’s most violent and dangerous men.

Patrick Carraher, then 40, was known as the fiend of the Gorbals for his random and unprovoked acts of violence.

Patrick Carraher (Image: Newsquest)

In 1934, he cheated the hangman noose when he was cleared of the murder of a young soldier.

In November 1945, Carraher was charged with the murder of John Gordon who had served 20 years with the Seaforth Highlanders and spent several years in a German PoW camp.

He stood trial at the High Court in Glasgow the following February and was found guilty by a unanimous verdict.

Carraher was hanged in Barlinnie on Saturday, April 6, 1946, by famed executioner Thomas Pierrepoint.

He was the second Glasgow murderer to have hanged at the jail that year.

Two months earlier, a young man called John Lyon had been similarly executed for a gang-related killing in the city.

Along with most of Britain, Glasgow hadn’t hanged any civilians during the war as it was seen to be bad for public morale.

However, with post-war violence rising through the city, both were sent to their deaths.

A decision welcomed by both ­police and the public alike.