Gone, but not forgotton Guy Graydon 1894-1915 kia Gallipoli

[jimmy]

"Roll Of Honor", pictures provided by a relative of Laurence & William Dalglish.

[marina]

Nice to see them, Jimmy.

Marina

[Jonathan Saunders]

Great photo of Laurie. It actually means a lot to me to see his image having seen his name mentioned in Arthur's letters and having seeked out his grave.

Many thanks to Jimmy and Roger.

[jimmy]

28 Second Ave

Kings Park

May 8th 1917

My Dearest Margaret,

I dare say you will be a bit surprised when you get this epistle, but nevertheless, just you picture me lying in bed & now 10:30 AM, writing you this letter. I don’t know if I told you in my last letter that I may be going home, if not, it was because of the uncertainly & I didn’t want to disappoint you dear as well as myself.

Well I arrived here at midnight on Friday & this is Tuesday & I go away again on Thursday. Not very long eh! And the time just seems to fly. I didn’t go out on Saturday at all except at night, when Winnie and I went over to my cousins & paid the usual formal visit. On Sunday I was out at Church in the morning and there was quite a crowd of the boys there, five altogether. Willie Dalgleish, Harry McVey, Jonnie Leitch, Bob Mauchline, & yours truly. We all went out the road after, except Bob Mauchline, I don’t know where he slipped off to.

It was just lovely; a perfect day & so warm quite reminded us of old times. I was out to Strangs for tea & church at night & went up to Mary’s after church. Yesterday I was down at Largs with W Dalgleish & had a fine time, it was another beautiful day & the sea was just like glass. Elderslie is looking splendid & there were quite a number of visitors there altho’ we didn’t mix with them at all. Then today, well dearie I am still in bed, hence the pencil, and enjoying it very nice too. So that’s as far as I have gone, I have already told you that I was up at Mary’s, they are all ok. I was the only visitor, so it was just a quite evening. Mr. Harris is still as decent a sport as ever. Mary is looking very well just now, but still rather thin, I am going out with her this afternoon. I saw nearly all on Sunday bar “Our Ne-ie” (Nettie Brown) I missed her cheerless pardon cheerful face. Miss Joye was out & looking quite decent too. All the others were just as usual, the choir was rather poorly represented, and only one new face in it, a young girl, I don’t know who she would be.

Well sweetheart so much for that, the most pleasant part of arriving here, was to find two such lovely letters waiting on me from you dear. The first is dated 12th Apr & the other, a most welcome “extra” the 16th. I am so pleased darling that you have at last had a letter from me & then another shortly after. I missed three mails altogether, but it seems about six weeks before you got it. I know fine how you would feel dearie, but am so glad you are getting them once more.

I was very sorry to hear about little Gavin and I do hope he is now a lot better and his old self once more. It will be an anxious time for you all especially Teen. Glad you had such a nice time with Mammie Pollock, I am sure you both would have a high old time together. The weather just now is lovely, so nice and warm, and it makes things so much more pleasant. I can’t say too much about today, I haven’t been out yet, but from appearances it looks OK.

Well dearie I think this about all my yarn just now, it’s about dinner time & I’ll need to get up for that. I am having a fine time, but there’s that big blank everywhere I go. I do miss you sweetheart & seems so funny talking to all the girls here, & yet, well there’s no use grumbling, will make up for it some day. I hope you are all well & that little Gavin is a lot better now. We are all well here I am glad to say, of course mother is not quite so bright, but that’s only natural. She is a lot better than I expected. I will be writing my next letter back in old Yorkshire, worse luck. Goodbye just now darling, with all my love, your own,

Arthur

[jimmy]

Jonathan, Marina & Roger

I apologize for the absence, but I've been trying to do a bit more for Arthur's story and his letters. I've created a web site solely for Arthur and Margaret, also for all the others that are mentioned within the letters. I'm doing the site on my own, so it's a bit rough, but hopefully in time it'll be much better, as I have no ideal what I'm doing. The most important thing about the site, in time, will be a complete list of Arthur's letters and I'll try and fill in with other information the best I can give. I felt it would be nice if there was a site dedicated to Arthur and Mount Florida, there may be some spelling errors, but I'm working on it.

Thanks again for all the interests all have shown.

jimmy

http://mountflorida.com/

[marina]

Jmmy - just visited your site. It looks great. I haven't read the entire thing yet (just Margaret and Arthur's sections so far) but it's bookmarked for a long browse. Well done!

Marina

[Jonathan Saunders]

Looks great so far.

Jon

[Roger Gann]

Jimmy,

It's great to hear from you once more. Like the others, I've managed a quick look at the website, and think it's great. There's a lot of reading for me to do, and I'll take my time over it. I do like the opening photo - I guess it's around 1910-1920. The view today is more or less the same, though most of the shops have changed hands. I see you have provided a link to the church website, which is very good of you. If you have no objection, I'll ask our webmaster, Tom Muir, to do the same, and I'll arrange for your website to get a mention in our September magazine. Keep up the good work. By the way, is there any cost involved in the site? May be I can send you a donation towards costs, if you like. Let me know.

Regards,

Roger

[jimmy]

Roger,

Thanks for the thumbs up, and as always you are welcome to do what you want in regards of linking or mentioning the web site. The opening view is from Cathcart Road of the tenement-lined Clincart Road in Mount Florida, 1904. As mentioned, I'll be changing things around, adding, subtracting as time goes by, I only wished to get something started, even if it's a bit rough. As for cost's, hum? it doesn't cost me anything to tell you the truth, if you can believe it! so that's not a problem right now, but thanks anyhow.

Jonathan, Marina, Roger,

I was a bit surprised that I couldn't find the thread, it went a missing? I really had thought it had been deleted, as for why I didn't know, but I see now that it has been moved! That's good.

As for mountflorida.com, I figured that I would highlight all the names we know in red, within the letters, and also highlight some interesting statements made by Arthur in blue, I think it'll be a good thing?

Thanks again

Jimmy

[marina]

Hi, Jimmy - try th colour thing and we'll let you know!

Marina

[Guest jimd99]

I don't know if this thread is still active or not; there haven't been any posts for ages now, but I thought I'd add to it in any case.

I stumbled across this thread, as you often do, while looking for something else. Its a fascinating, touching and tragic insight into what is for me, a time gone by. I ended up reading pretty much the whole post.

What caught my attention were references to various family members, and to Mount Florida which I know well, having lived right across the road from Mount Florida church when I was first married. Both my father and mother were "Mount Floridians" and in particular it seems that my father's side were at least known to, if not part of, 'the gang'.

Although Guy Graydon and Arthur Sloan were unknown to me, there are references in some of the letters to my father's family - the Watt and Dougans family specifically. My grandfather's (Jimmy Dougans) forecoming wedding to my grandmother (Annie Watt) is mentioned as are the tragic deaths of other family members like Charlie Watt.

I've got this printed out to show to my father - he's now 87, and was quite taken that such a 'document' as this exists at all! Its so easy to 'lose' history as generations pass on - so much has already been lost. I'm hoping that he can add to my understanding once he has seen this thread.

Thanks so much for posting all this, and if I can add anything more I will.

Jim Dougans

[Jonathan Saunders]

I suspect you have already viewd the following link from having reading this thread

http://www.mountflorida.com/

This story probably remains my favourite thread from thoughout the history of the Forum.

Regards,

Jonathan S

[Roger Gann]

I don't know if this thread is still active or not; there haven't been any posts for ages now, but I thought I'd add to it in any case.

I stumbled across this thread, as you often do, while looking for something else. Its a fascinating, touching and tragic insight into what is for me, a time gone by. I ended up reading pretty much the whole post.

What caught my attention were references to various family members, and to Mount Florida which I know well, having lived right across the road from Mount Florida church when I was first married. Both my father and mother were "Mount Floridians" and in particular it seems that my father's side were at least known to, if not part of, 'the gang'.

Although Guy Graydon and Arthur Sloan were unknown to me, there are references in some of the letters to my father's family - the Watt and Dougans family specifically. My grandfather's (Jimmy Dougans) forecoming wedding to my grandmother (Annie Watt) is mentioned as are the tragic deaths of other family members like Charlie Watt.

I've got this printed out to show to my father - he's now 87, and was quite taken that such a 'document' as this exists at all! Its so easy to 'lose' history as generations pass on - so much has already been lost. I'm hoping that he can add to my understanding once he has seen this thread.

Thanks so much for posting all this, and if I can add anything more I will.

Jim Dougans

Hi to Jim Dougans,

I thought this thread was dead as I haven't been in for a year or two! Anyway, there have been sad developments at Mount Florida Church. We will be closing permanently in June 2010. This November will see the final Armistice Day Remembrance service at the church. From May 2010 we will unite with our neighbouring church of Battlefiled East Glasgow to form a new Congregation called Clincarthill. I will make sure the War Memorial is brought to the other building and suitably placed within the sanctuary. I would be very interested in making contact and finding out more about the Watts, Dougans etc. Feel free to get in touch and if any family relatives would like to visit the church before closure please let me know.

Regards

Roger Gann, Elder & Treasurer at Mount Florida Church, 1123 Cathcart Road, Mount Florida, Glasgow, G42 9BD.