The Archive...

Here at Burniston HQ we have been raiding the Archives and coming across some interesting stuff. We're lucky enough to own an extensive photographic archive of the Glasgow, Inverclyde and Clyde Coast areas spanning the 1940's, 50's and 60's. The Clyde river was obviously massively important during these decades with it being a major factor in the wartime effort and responsible for the building of masses of ships including the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth 2. Here's a couple of interesting things we've found...



The original Queen Elizabeth leaving John Browns Shipyard, Glasgow, painted battleship grey, March 1940.



German Prisoners of War overlooking German Graves in Greenock Cemetery.



The Maillé Brézé was a Vauquelin class destroyer of the French Navy.

On 30 April 1940, at 14:15, as Maillé Brézé was anchored at the Tail of the Bank off Greenock, a torpedo tube misfunctioned and launched an armed torpedo on the deck, setting fire to the fuel tanks and the forward magazine, which however did not explode.

Wikipedia Article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_destroyer_Maill%C3%A9_Br%C3%A9z%C3%A9_(1933)



Evacuees from the SS City of Benares in Greenock, 1940. The Ship was Carrying 90 child evacuee passengers who were being evacuated from wartime Britain to Canada when it was hit by German Torpeedos. During the Rescue operation a lifeboat was mistakenly left abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean for eight days. Shown here are some of the evacuee boys from that lone lifeboat.

Wikipedia Article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_City_of_Benares



Baxter Street in Greenock after the German Air Raids, 1941. Large Parts of Greenock and the surrounding area were heavily damaged after two nights of intensive bombing. The attacks failed to damage the Shipyards, which were undoubtedly their target.

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenock_Blitz

Expect more updates like this soon...

All Images Copyright Norman Burniston 2009. Photographs by James Hall.

www.burniston.com