AUGUST 14, 1939. The last summer of peace before 1945 was almost over. The main war-related story in the Glasgow Herald read: “Plan For Four-Power Conference - Britain, France, Russia and Poland; Soviet Frontier Guarantee to Warsaw Reported.” Talks at Berchtesgaden between Hitler, von Ribbentrop, and Count Ciano, fascist Italy’s foreign minister and Mussolini’s son-in-law, had caused a sharp increase in unease in many unofficial German quarters. “The newspapers,” the Herald said, “make it quite clear that no relaxation of the existing tension is intended; in fact rather the contrary.”

The War Office said Scottish units including the Royal Scots depot at Glencorse, the Royal Scots Fusiliers at Ayr and the Black Watch at Perth, would each receive 150 “militiamen” - people who had been called up for a year’s training in the armed services - in September and October. Militiamen already at the HLI’s Glasgow barracks are pictured here being given physical training.

The war was the subject of many public speeches. The Marquis of Douglas and Clydesdale, MP, lamented: “In foreign affairs we see solemn treaties broken, while self-interest seems to be the governing motive and an appalling lying propaganda appears to be the worst enemy of peace. Wars and rumours of war are current, and economic life is tremendously complicated...” Come what may, however, he was confident that Britain “shall survive with her freedom, dignity, and greatness.”