Glasgow memories: What my father did in the war...

The Bridgeton teenager took part in many daring voyages as part of a team defending the Convoys, which shipped across some of the most dangerous waters in the world between 1941 and 1945.

They delivered four million tonnes of supplies including tanks, fighter planes, fuel, ammunition, raw materials and food to the Soviet Union’s northern ports, sailing through freezing Arctic waters above Nazi-occupied Norway and facing storms, rough seas and enemy fire. Many ships and thousands of seamen from the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy died.

“I was very fortunate, because my ship was never hit, but there were some dreadful times,” Edwin recalls. “At times I had to be out on the deck of the ship in freezing cold weather conditions. It was thick ice, and you could barely stand. We had to keep the decks clear for the planes to take off and land – sometimes the aircraft would crash land onto the deck or flip over. The conditions were treacherous, and it could be frightening.

“We slept in all our clothes because it was too cold to take anything off. You’d literally freeze. Those were some days.”

Edwin stayed in the Navy until 1954, when his wife Margaret wrote to his commanding officers requesting he return home as she had seven children, and could not cope without him. He went on to work on the shipyards and as a lorry driver. More recently, he has been supported by SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity.

“I experienced hallucinations about the war,” he says. “I spent about six months in the converted convalescence hospital for the troops. Lots of men seemed to have been affected in that way.”

In the past few years, Edwin has needed some additional support to enable him to continue living independently. His late son Harry was an SSAFA Branch Secretary in Germany and Edwin’s daughter Elizabeth McKenna was an SSAFA caseworker, so they knew exactly where he needed to turn.

“He was a widower and quite isolated and lonely,” says Elizabeth. “The help we got from SSAFA turned his world around.”

SSAFA staff and volunteers like Elizabeth have been sharing stories as part of the charity’s What My Father Did in the War project.

David McAllister, chairman of the SSAFA Lanarkshire Branch, says his father George was called up in 1939, just after he had got married.

“He was sent to the island of Islay for intensive training in radar and radio mechanics,” recalls David. “Thereafter, according to his records, he spent time in the shore establishments developing his radar skills and took part in the Royal Naval convoy operations, seeing action in the Mediterranean invasion ... Sicily, Anzio and the South of France in the Indian Ocean, Red Sea area and Atlantic waters.”

David came across an article written by one of his colleagues, the ship’s surgeon, when Sicily was being invaded.

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“Now we know our fate, and there was ahead only one pleasing prospect - our mail - and it wasn’t there,” it read. “Still a merciful providence has decreed that one cannot look into the future. We have already spent six weeks waiting! For what? Somewhere it is written, ‘they also serve who only stand and wait.’’ Nevertheless a cry goes up. How long, Oh Lord, how long?”

George was demobbed Class A January 15, 1946 with a First Class character - AB Radar, aged 37 years.

“In 1955, my father joined SSAFA Lanark Branch, becoming a volunteer Divisional Secretary in Coatbridge and Airdrie,” says David. “He never drove a car but did his case work by bicycle or using his moped. In the 1960s, I became his chauffeur. He served SSAFA for 35 years, determined to help his veteran colleagues in any way he could, who like him, had given so much of their life to serve our country.”

Irene McCallum’s father volunteered for the RAF at the age of 39.

“The damage and destruction of the first two years of prompted him to do it,” says Irene, from Kilmacolm, who is part of SSAFA’s Renfrewshire and Inverclyde Branch. “He was 20 years older than the usual intake and must have been one of the oldest volunteers from the village; there were very many younger men eager to serve.

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“I have his diary for his first couple of months after joining up. After his last day at the chemical merchant’s company he worked for, he came home, ate dinner, packed some clothes, and got the night train to London.

“He was stationed in Weston super Mare, which was bombed on the nights of June 28 and 29, 1943, killing 102 people and injuring 400.

“My father helped put out the fires caused by incendiary bombs and was also on stretcher duty. He was released from his duties on January 8, 1946 with the rank of Flight Lieutenant and came home to his wife and three growing children, having missed out on four years of their childhood.”

What did your father (or mother) do in the war? Send us your stories and photographs.