eastriggs Archives - Page 2 of 2 - The Devil's Porridge Museum

National Doctors Day

By Collections blog

12,000 women worked at HM Factory Gretna in World War One and one of the most remarkable must have been Agnes Barr Auchenloss. National Doctor’s Day seemed like a perfect time to share her story.

Agnes Barr Auchenloss

Agnes was born on May 30th 1886 in Paisley. She graduated from the University of Glasgow with a MB_ChB in 1911. Her name appeared nine times on the prize lists and she achieved first class certificates in Anatomy and Surgery during her time at University. After graduation, she worked as a doctor then moved to South Africa. She married Gosta Lundholm in Cape Town and gave birth to their first child in 1915.

Gosta Lundholm

Gosta was a chemist and his father was an associate of Alfred Nobel. His family originated from Sweden but had lived in Scotland for many years before the War and both Gosta’s father and mother had British citizenship. Gosta studied in Edinburgh, London and Zurich before travelling to South Africa to work as a chemist with the British South African Explosive Co. Ltd at Modderfontein in the Transvaal (this factory made explosives for use in the Rand goldmines).

In June 1916, the family moved to Eastriggs so Gosta could work in HM Factory Gretna (as an explosives expert, his skills were in demand during war time).

The Ridge in Eastriggs where Agnes lived.

This talented and intelligent couple lived at the No. 9, The Ridge Eastriggs with their son and both contributed to the war effort in their own way. Gosta assisted in the construction of the plant. He was regarded as one of the leading chemists in the Factory and was appointed Assistant Section Manager of the Nitro Glycerine section in 1917, a position he held until the end of the War.

Agnes worked as a Medical Officer in the Factory throughout the War. She was introduced to the King and Queen during their visit to the Factory in 1917 and said to the King, “It’s good to be in the hands of a kent face” which the King is said to have understood and appreciated when the phrase was explained to him.

After the War, they returned to South Africa and had another son. In 1929, they returned to Scotland when Gosta took up a position at an ICI detonator factory in Ardeer.

Gosta was known as a man who was absolutely dependable with an agreeable personality. He was said to have a lovely singing voice and enjoyed the opera, sailing and tennis. Agnes was always helping people who were unwell and generously gave her time to the sick and injured throughout her life. Gosta died aged 82 in 1969. Agnes died aged 86 in 1972.

A smiling person dressed in a apron with a broom.

Photographs, tour and information about Eastriggs online

By News

Just over a year ago, Sheila Ruddick, who was the Museum’s Secretary and a Trustee for over twenty years, took a group of young people on a tour of Eastriggs. She showed them all the sites she had researched over the years for her own interest, for the Museum and for the map she produced ‘Eastriggs: Commonwealth Walk Guide’ (which is available from the Museum online shop – see below).

The young people (and Judith, the Museum Manager) enjoyed their afternoon exploring Eastriggs and listening to all the things that Sheila had to say. Sadly, it was not long after this that Sheila’s health declined and she passed away much to the sadness of all at the Museum.

Vancouver Road as shown in an Auction Book from 1924 (when the Factory and townships were sold).

In case you aren’t aware, Eastriggs was built in World War One to house workers at HM Factory Gretna. It originally had a cinema, dance hall, fire station and other amenities such as hostels for the workers. The township was built along garden city principles and is named ‘The Commonwealth Village’ because its street names reflect the global nature of the workforce in the Factory (people came from India, Australia, South Africa etc. to contribute to the war effort here).

The young people involved have been working on and off on this map project for a year (there have been lots of interruptions due to study leave, people going to university etc.) but we have finally got an online version of the map in a condition to share with you.

Snow on The Ridge. Date unknown.

You will find photographs and information online (155 posts in total) here:

https://www.historypin.org/en/eastriggs-the-town-that-world-war-one-built-2/geo/54.985551,-3.169917,11/bounds/54.828984,-3.34302,55.14151,-2.996814/paging/1/pin/1128318

On some photos, you can compare the historic images with the current google street view image. The photos date from different decades and there is information relating to who lived in some of the houses too.

The Green, Eastriggs, still recognisable today, it was originally built in World War One to include shops, a bank, cinema and dairy.

This project is by no means complete – we find out more every day and we will continue to add it to this website. Members of the public can also share their own photographs and information to create a hub of Eastriggs history.

This map is not quite perfect but please do bear in mind that it was made completely for free by our young volunteers. The important thing is that we are making as much information available to the public as possible – hope you enjoy having a look through it!

You can buy a paper copy of Sheila’s map here:

Eastriggs Commonwealth Walk Guide

“The female excess”: the ‘problem’ of too many single women after World War One

By Collections blog

The Devil’s Porridge Museum’s main focus is on HM Factory Gretna, the greatest factory on earth in World War One. It employed 30,000 people in the production of cordite (aka the devil’s porridge). 12,000 of these workers were women.

A display within the Museum.

The majority of female workers were single and young. We know that some women married while they working at Gretna and there were married women and those who had been widowed due to the War working at the Factory but the majority of the girls were probably affected by the post-War shortage of men. The ‘lost generation’ i.e. the young men who died in the War meant that a lot of women remained unmarried and single women were perceived as a ‘problem’.

This article from the Times Newspaper in 1920 (published recently in their archive section), makes the point clear. One cannot help but think of the 12,000 ‘Gretna Girls’. They did so much to help win the War and it continue to impact on their lives in the decades to come.

1920s girl and the elusive male

This poem, written during the War by one of the female workers sums up how many of the girls may have felt: they were doing their duty, waiting for the boys to come home. Sadly, many of the boys never did return and the course of the girls’ lives did not run in the way they had anticipated.

If you would like to know more about the Lives of some of the Gretna Girls who made munitions at HM Factory Gretna in World War One, you might like this booklet (available from our online shop):

Lives of Ten Gretna Girls booklet

Two Australian flags with the words "Australia Day."

The Australian contribution to HM Factory Gretna

By Collections blog

HM Factory Gretna was the greatest munitions factory on earth in World War One. It employed 30,000 people (12,000 of them women). It was a worldwide effort as talent was drawn from across the Empire.

Eastriggs, the location of The Devil’s Porridge Museum, is now known as ‘The Commonwealth Village’ because its place names include Singapore Road, The Rand, Delhi Road and Vancouver Road to name but a few. The overseas workers left their mark in their contribution to the war effort and in the place names they left behind.

For Australia Day 2020, we thought we would share some information about the Australians we know about who worked in the Factory in World War One (we don’t know the names of all the Factory workers and we haven’t included the name of every Australian we know of who worked there either).

James Chalmers Hood c.1895-1957

c.1895 James was born in Oban, Scotland. He was educated at Perth Technical College.

He became a cadet at the Explosives and Analytical Branch of the Mines Department in Western Australia.

In 1914 he qualified as an analyst and then came to HM Factory Gretna.

Between 1917 and 1919 he worked at HM Factory Sutton Oak. This factory near Liverpool specialised in the production of poison gas (photographed below).

James then went on to work at Government Chemical Laboratories. First as a chemist, then senior chemist, acting supervising chemist, deputy government analyst from 1946 and director of laboratories from 1955.

Alfred James Occleshaw

1888-1969

19th September 1888: Alfred was born in Melbourne. He was educated at a working man’s college where he achieved a Diploma in Chemistry.

From 1904 to 1916 Alfred worked for the Mount Lyell Chemical Company (photographed below).

Between 1916 and 1918 he was involved in operative training and explosive manufacture at HM Factory Gretna.

In 1919 Alfred went to work for Chance and Hunt, an alkali company in Birmingham.

He returned to Australia in 1920 to work for the Mount Lyell Company research group.

Between 1921 and 1923 Alfred was a buyer for the Electrolytic Zinc Company, Hobart.

In 1923 he retired, and lived out his life in Melbourne.

You can see some of the street names in Eastriggs on the map below. The majority are places in the British Empire/Commonwealth.

In 1919, the following HM Factory Gretna staff left their work in Britain and gave their addresses as listed below:

B E Anderson

c/o Wischer & co

William Street

Melbourne

Australia

J R H Bartlett

c/o/ Dalgetty & Co.

15 Bent Street

Sydney

New South Wales

Australia

W S Bradley

“Leadhills”

Francis Street

Subiaco

W Australia

S Hough

c/o Messrs Lever Brothers Ltd

Balmain

Sydney

Australia

N S W Hudson

c/o/ T J Darling Esq.

Tymble

Sydney

Australia

S Parsons

91 Morehead Street

Redfern

Sydney

Australia

A F Parkin

Born 1892 in Victoria

Lived at 24 the Ridge, Eastriggs during World War One and had two children there (Tom and Gretna who went on to become Gretna Weste, a famous Australian botanist, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretna_Margaret_Weste)

Died 1971 in Tobago

In 1919, he gave his future address as:

Studley Avenue

Kew

Melbourne

Australia

G W R Powell

Gladstone Avenue

Mossman

Sydney

Australia

T M Steele

c/o C S R Co

O’Connell Street

Sydney

Australia

G S Skuthorp

Bullfinch Proprietery

G M

West Australia

L F N Stutterd

“Ashleigh”

Winyard

Tasmania

M B Welch

Boyle Street

Mosman Bay

NSW Australia

R G Walker

209 Ripon Street

South Ballarat

Victoria

Australia

Operating Staff

S B Abbott

71 Sydney Road

Parkville

Melbourne

Australia

N E Beaumont

Australia

F A Eastaugh, ARSM, FIC, AIMM

University Club

Sydney

NSW

Australia

F F Field, AMSM

21 Landsdowne Street

East Melbourne

Victoria

Australia

A F Gourley Australia

E L P Griffiths, BSc, AIC

Chemist’s Branch

Dept of Agriculture

Sydney

NSW

Australia

W J Kelly

32 M’Connell Street

Kensington

Melbourne

Victoria

J McE King

“Lochnager”

Ballast Pint Road

Balmain

NSW

Australia

A J Marsden Australia

A M Munro, MA, AIC, FCS

c/o Bank of Australasia

Melbourne

C W R Powell Chemical Dept

C S R Coy

Sydney

Australia

Danger Building Staff

A L Aspland, BSc

Lower Kalgan River

Albany

West Australia

World War Two ammunition shipped from Gretna to Russia

By Collections blog

We recently received a copy of the article below. It appeared in a newspaper local to the Museum, The Annandale Observer, on September 7th 1945. It details the wartime shipment of ammunition from a Central Ammunition Depot near Gretna Green (Eastriggs? Longtown?). The ammunition was sent via the Arctic convoys to Russia. We weren’t aware of this before and were very interested to find out.

If you are interested in this region during World War Two, you might like this book, which was published by the Museum following local history research and oral history interviews.

The Solway Military Coast book

This booklet (which is included within the Solway Military Coast book), specifically looks at The Ministry of Defence depots at Eastriggs and Longtown.

The Ministry of Defence Depots: Longtown and Eastriggs

gretna to archangel arctic convoy world war two

The life and death of Eric de Clermont

By Collections blog

Eastriggs (where The Devil’s Porridge Museum is based) is known as the Commonwealth Village. The majority of its street names are derived from places in the Commonwealth (or Empire) such as Vancouver Road, Delhi Road, Singapore Road etc. The township was built in World War One to house workers at HM Factory Gretna, the greatest munitions factory on earth at that time (the Museum tells the story of this factory and its 30,000 workers). The workers came from around the world and they left their mark behind in their wartime contribution and in the place names of Eastriggs. Here we feature one person from the Factory who worked here in World War One.

Eric de Clermont

Born: 1st November 1880

Died (in Gretna): 5th December 1918

Commonwealth connection: South Africa

Eric’s experiences before World War One

1st November 1880 Eric was born in London.

1899 Eric entered King’s College, Cambridge.

1901 Eric appeared on Census return aged 20, he was listed as a student. At that time, his family were living in Reigate. His father, Otto (48) was listed as a Mechanical Engineer and his sister, Helen (22) as a School Teacher. His cousin, Kenneth Heilgers (19) was also staying with them and he was recorded as an East India merchant on the census.

1902 Eric graduated from King’s College with a BA.

1903 Eric graduated from Camborne School of Mines, Cornwall with a qualification in Ore Dressing for which he was awarded an Honours Grade Second Class.

Some time after 1903 Eric travelled to South Africa to work in mining.

1916 Eric returned to Britain.

Accidents and ill health meant that Eric couldn’t volunteer for the army.

He had been an enthusiastic rugby player, even captaining his team at King’s College Cambridge before an injury.

He lost his eye and contracted miner’s phthisis (a lung disease) whilst he was working in the South African mines.

In 1916, he was nominated for a Commission in a tunnelling company and promised he would be sent quickly to the Front but his injuries and ill health put a stop to that.

Eric’s War work

Eric de Clermont joined the Ministry of Munitions and after his preliminary training at Pitsea near Basildon, he came to HM Factory Gretna in July 1916.

For more information on Pitsea, see: https://www.wattylercountrypark.org.uk/factory

He seems to have been a well known and well liked person as these quotes demonstrate.

“He had a schoolboy’s enthusiasm for everything he undertook, and a schoolboy’s instinct of playing the game.”

“He was full of enthusiasm for his new task, and was one of the first to take over a shift; he soon became a Range Officer, and finally was appointed a Sub-section Officer.”

“He worked his Sub-section up to a pitch of the highest efficiency, and was always devising schemes for increasing output and reducing costs; this he was enabled to do by real hard work, and by the respect and confidence of his subordinates, which he won without difficulty.”

The Death of Eric de Clermont

On November 25th 1918, Eric was taken ill with influenza (the Spanish Flu). He had to be prevented (by force) from going to work at the Factory.

He was said to have been full of high spirits when he entered the influenza hospital.

But after a few days, pneumonia began to develop and he became quieter and finally passed away on December 5th 1918 aged 38.

He was buried at Rigg Cemetery on December 7th 1918.

Eric’s death “…cast a dark shadow over the closing days of the Factory, for with his passing we had lost a man who had gained our affection as colleague and friend. He was an outstanding personality on the Cordite Section, and it is probable that but few of the thousands on the area did not know him, his ingenuous, engaging disposition, and the hundred and one little episodes associated with his name.”

Photograph above: shows Victory Avenue, Gretna which was Eric’s address when he died

“His old tweed jacket; his beatific smile when one of his many little tricks was found out; his intense local patriotism…his garden, which he would weed on a rainy day sitting on a camp-stool under an umbrella – all these, together with the many episodes remembered by those who lived with at Staff-Quarters, Sarkbridge, and at 96 Victory Avenue, remain and endear him to us.”

All quotes from Mossband Farewell magazine (in the Museum’s archive).

To find out more about Eastriggs in World War One a map has been produced: https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/product/eastriggs-commonwealth-walk-guide