GLASGOW’S new Lord Provost, Victor Warren, had to miss the kirking of the magistrates at Glasgow Cathedral in May 1949. His doctor had ordered him to bed for a complete rest after a harrowing experience while on a fishing trip in Loch Arkaig, in Inverness-shire.
It was reported that Warren had been fishing with a friend from Glasgow when their boat was overturned in a squall. The friend’s chauffeur, who had been acting as gillie on the day, was drowned. He sank 20 yards from the shore while Warren was helping him to swim from the site of the accident.
After a brief rest the Lord Provost swam back to the upturned keel of the boat, to which his friend was clinging, and they dragged the boat into shallow waters. Exhausted, they walked three miles to the nearest cottage to raise the alarm.
Warren later received the Glasgow Corporation medal for bravery and the Glasgow Humane Society’s certificate for gallantry for his actions. The commendations were mentioned in Warren’s obituaries, in March 1953, upon his death at the age of 49.
He became Lord Provost in 1949 (he is photographed, right, taking the oath of office) and served until 1952, when he was appointed Civil Defence Controller for West Scotland. He was knighted in the 1951 New Year’s Honours list. The Glasgow Herald reported that he had died in a Glasgow nursing home after having been taken ill while in London.
Warren had been the leader of the Progressive group on the town council when he became Lord Provost in May, 1949. He won by a single vote - 57 to 56 - over the Labour contender, Thomas Kerr.
During the war he had commanded the 15th Scottish Divisional Signals and, later, the 82nd West African Divisional Signals. In 1946 he had unsuccessfully contested the Bridgeton parliamentary by-election, after the death of James Maxton.
“Sir Victor”, noted the Glasgow Herald on his death, “may not be reckoned by posterity among the most distinguished of Glasgow’s Lord Provosts. But he was by no means an unremarkable or unobtrusive holder of the office. He came to it in 1949 with a reputation for blunt, forceful, opinionative assertiveness, established as a familiar identity during his 18 years’ previous service in the town council”.
His vigour and courage had stood out, too. His physical courage had been indicated by his actions on Loch Arkaig.
“His moral courage may have been less readily apparent; yet the circumstances in which he took over the Lord Provostship -- from 15 years of Socialist administration of Glasgow, by a single-vote majority ... with a minimum of co-operation from the former holders of office, and in extremely difficult times -- must have daunted a more imaginative or less determined man”.
Read more: Herald Diary
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