Born Queen's Park area, Glasgow. Attended Melville Street and ARA 1945-1957. Attended
Langside College, then left Scotland for Canada in 1959. Now live near Toronto. Married
with three children and two grandsons. Retired editor. Hobbies are painting, writing and
creating web sites.
Heard from primary school pal Isabel McGibbon through the site and May Young from senior school, now looking for any mention of Angus McKinnon.
If you'd like to be included on this page, click here ......
....to email me
cursor over photos changes to school age image
Eleanor Andersen (nee) Reid
Lived in Kinning Park. Attended Lambhill Primary School from 1948 to 1949, Shields
Road Primary to 1956, then ARA to 1959. Went to Langside College for one year then worked as a shorthand typist and secretary. Married, divorced, married again. One daughter, one son, one graddaughter. Hobbies are reading, sewing, going on holiday and eating chocolate!
Survived (obviously) lung cancer five and a half years ago. Now fit, but fat. Trying to lose
weight but cannot stop eating chocolate!
Sarah Anderson (nee Livingston)
Born in Blantyre, raised in Glasgow. Schools attended, Scotland Street and Lambhill Street. Attended Langside College for one year. Moved to Paisley 1954. Moved to
Toronto, Canada 1957. Married, with one son, one daughter, one grandson, one granddaughter. Retired banker, Hobbies: walking, swimming, dancing, reading, computers. Would love to hear from anyone who may remember me from school days, or who lived in the Kinning Park area.
Robert P. Downie
After leaving ARA, I went on to Bellahouston Academy from 1960 to 1963. Then I emigrated
with my parents in '63 to Pugwash, Nova Scotia. I joined Canada Immigration in 1967 and
worked at various centres in the Toronto area and at the Canadian High Commision in London, England. In 1987, became self-employed Immigration Specialist/Consultant, assisting and representing clients as Counsel with their applications and procedures both here and overseas at our Visa Offices. Married to Jean since 1967, we have three sons and three grandchildren (including twins). We live in Oakville, Ontario.
John Sayers (Iain) Henderson
Born in Glasgow. Attended ARA 1946 to 1951. National Service 1951 to 1953 (Germany). Emigrated to Canda 1955. Married Muriel Paton (known since childhood) in Canada 1956. Three daughters, three grandsons. Started on assembly floor, and worked through many positions in factory and offices for same manufacturer of electrical distribution equipment for 43 years. Took various university level courses in accounting, sales and marketing. Spent 30years in International Sales, growing business from zero to $18 million annually. Retired in 1997 as Manager, International Sales. Business and recreational travels have taken our family around the world. Favourite places, (apart from Scotland), are New Zealand, Chile, and Costa Rica. Now live in Wingham, Ontario. Enjoy travel and theatre, golf, garden, church and various masonic lodges. I'd like to hear from Ralph Davidson, Frank McCann (Forth Street), Agnes Anderson (Nithsdale Drive).
Ian Pearson McDowall
Born Kelvingrove, Glasgow. Attended Melville Street 1930-37, "Big School" 1937-42. Degree course in Metallurgy Royal Tech. College, Glasgow 1942-45. Graduated B.Sc. (hons.) University of Glasgow 1946. Worked as Metallurgist, various companies until 1971 (Fellow of Institution of Metallurgists 1969). 1971 became Director in Head Wrightson Steel Foundries Ltd. 1980 left industry to teach Physics in 6th form college. Retired 1988.
Married Yvonne 1949 (died 1983) 3 children, 10 grandchildren. Travelled fairly widely in Western Europe and North America. Hobbies: golf, reading, theatre, cinema, art galleries.
Would love to hear from survivors of the pre-historic days in ARA - some names - Bob Anderson, Isadore Lyons, Edward Guinness, Frances Hamilton, Marion Campbell.
Now live in North Yorks. England. Visit Scotland 2-3 times a year.
Pat Bisset (nee Burns)
Attended ARA 1940 to 1947. Left at age fifteen to attend Miss Allpress's Secretarial College, Pollokshaws. Then worked in Glasgow as secretary to one of the directors of House of Fraser.
I have been married to Edwin (a Fifer) for 42 years and have three daughters and six grandchildren. We left Glasgow in 1960 and gradually moved further south, living for short periods in Doncaster, Wolverhampton and then to Surrey, where we lived for 30 years, before reitiring to the Algarve where we live most of the year. My hobbies are golf, gardening and trying to learn to play bridge.
I would love to hear from Maureen Livingstone, Sheila Smith (emigrated to Canada way back) Bridget Gumprig, or anyone who remembers our class.
Page started April 2002
Larry Bureau
After Pollokshields S.S. 1954-58, completed apprenticeship training in Lithography. Married and moved to South Africa for about eleven years. Joined South African Police Force (was always too short for Glesca Polis). Then to Canada. Set up Commercial Art and Design Studio. Next, to Toronto to take on production/art direction of a new regional magazine. Later to Alberta, U of A faculty of Education, vocational Ed and Edtech. Set up and developed an apprenticeship program in Graphics Arts for Alberta government. Currently with Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, Edmonton.
My Canadian wife is also a college prof. at a rival institute. We have four children, five grandchildren, three cats and one very shaggy dog named Ceilidh. My hobbies include building model boats, graphic design and computers.
I'd love to hear from Margery Watts, Anne Summers, Stuart Smith, Kenneth Henderson, John MacIntosh, John Niven, Walter Whitehill, Wee Wullie Clugston et al.
William (Billy) Kean
Born 1942 and raised in Kinning Park. Attended Kinning Park Public School near the Plantation Park end of Scotland Street. Moved to Melbourne, Australia February 1971, met my wife Agnes, a Scot, and have two daughters, Jennifer and Allison, 24/19 years. Still keep in touch with my daughter and son in Scotland from a previous marriage. Love reading and have written poetry since 1962 and in 1985 had a wee book of poems published called, "Stirrings of the Heart". One of my teachers at Kinning Park was Miss Bain who introduced her pupils to poetry by reciting 'Schule (School) in June' written by her father, Robert Bain who was a published poet. When I wen home in 1976 to visit my sick father, who died that year, I visited Miss Bain's home in Keir Street, (the street that is the boys' playground entrance to ARA). She complimented me and gave me a couple of her father's poetry books.
I became a Baha'i in 1975, and now being 60 would like to track down as many former pupils known to me, just to make my life complete.
Gilbert Wilson
Initially lived in Houston Street, Tradeston and attended Shields Road Primary. Moved to Herriot Street, Pollokshields when I was nine and attended Melville Street Primary until 1958. Teacher, Miss Paterson, was a bit of a tyrant but instilled in me a love of reading. Went to Pollokshields Secondary until 1961 where my performance was abysmal and was virtually thrown out. Latin teacher, Mr. McPhail, told me I had gone "ad canes" (to the dogs).Fortunately, got a grip of myself and got HNC in engineering at technical college and eventually a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Strathclyde University. I must have been a late developer. After uni, worked in Zambia for Anglo American where I met my wife Pat to whom I've been married for 31 years and have two children. All the way to Africa to meet a girl from Nottingham! Then worked for Bass Breweries for 28 years in Scotland, England and the Czech Republic. Took early retirement, stopped playing rugby 2001 at age 55, and now just chilling in Loughborough where I am the unpaid caretaker of the Elim Pentacostal Church.
Tom Berman
After I left ARA and Glasgow in 1951, I spent a year on a farm in Berks., then went off to a kibbutz in Israel. I did my army service there and went to study in the U.S....(why, and how, is a long story). I spent four years at Rutgers U. in New Jersey, followed by four years at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. Ended up with a PhD in microbiology, one wife and two and a half daughters when we went back to the kibbutz in 1964. Been there ever since with occasional time off for Sabbaticals in exotic places like Western Australia, Hawaii, Chile, France and assorted parts of the USA. If asked what I do, I call myself an "aquatic microbiologist". For much of the last 35 years I was the Director of a limnological (i.e. lake science) research lab on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (here called Lake Kinneret and a major source of water for this country). Now and again I also had a chance to do some marine microbiology. I am now officially retired but I still work as a "consultant", so I have an office and lab to mess around in. Just published a collection of poetry (Shards, a Handful of Verse, Writers Club Press).
Still have the same wife after 42 years, 3 daughters, 5 granddaughters and one grandson.
ed. note: Cursor over Tom's photo shows cover of his book. For more info, go to the Amazon.com link on home page, (if you order the book from there, a portion of the sale comes back to the site), go to "books", and type in the title in "search". I ordered mine today!
Above two photos courtesy Bill Smart. "Stitched" panorama by Deana
Albert Road - 2002
Norrie Henderson
Did my national service with the RAF in Hong Kong. Got married to Sheena in 1962 and we
have celebrated our ruby wedding anniversary this year. We have two sons and one grandson.
I worked at St. Andrews University as the Pensions Officer for twenty-five years until I took advantage of an early retirement package in 1993.
Since then I just play golf six days a week and we take Spanish holidays in order to seek out the sunshine.
Life is pretty wonderful!
Douglas Carrick
Son of James BF Carrick, jannie at ARA 1949-52. Lived in the jannie's hoose, which was the groung floor flat in the close nearest the school on Keir Street...difficult to be late for school! Then moved to Newlands when my Dad died. Still attended ARA....a long trek! Got into CA apprenticeship in 1958, but after three years, decided that earning money was a better bet. After a short spell as an accounts clerk and management trainee I was advised to become a computer programmer. Can't remember name of who advised me, but he knew what he was talking about. Most of my life has been in the computer industry, latterly as Quality Manager, with a short side step to House of Fraser (for retail experience).
Married, divorced and married again, much of my time spent south of the border. My main pastime is the theatre and I have sung and acted in musicals and plays. Have also directed and written plays, under the name David Welsh, (nine plays published). Now retired and helping out with Meals on Wheels so I can suss out the best retirement flats in Formby.
(ed. note: Sadly, Douglas passed away July 2005)
I was Velma Livingstone and lived in Maxwell Road, a stonesthrow from the school. So near, that in air raid practice I had to run home down Keir Street, accompanied by two "big boys" Isadore Lyons major, and his cousin Isadore minor.
I remember the following teachers....gym/hockey, played on the square, Miss McGavin.
History and English, how we had to learn Midsummer's Dream, Miss Hay. Music, Miss Souter.
French, learning the Marseillaise, Miss Bryson or Bannerman. Science, Mr Bernstein.
Maths, "stand the girl who's not here", Mr. King, Mr. Ross. Headmaster, Mr. Hamilton.
Here are some pupils....Irene Paterson (who lived in McCulloch Street), Irene Dennison (a good swimmer), Suzanne Edmiston, Olive Aitken, Myra Chapman, Jenny Stuart, Sula Friedlander (lives In London), Grace Simmons (lives in USA), Sheila Black.
I married Joe Lazar from Wales in 1950...widowed in 1985, live in London near our three children.
Hope all had a lovely time at Reunion.
phone: 020 8446 7795
George Graham Allan
Dear ARA Alumni
This is a note from George Graham Allan who was a student at ARA from 1942 until 1948. I am now Professor of Fiber & Polymer Science and Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.
My elder brother Frederick James Allan II (now deceased) was also a an ARA student from about 1934 until 1939 when he entered Royal Navy Research in England.
It was fascinating to read about the Pollokshields reunion on the ARA website and see quite a number of names that I recall. It would be helpful if there was a list of email addresses so that one could contact former classmates easily. My email address is create@u.washington.edu and I would be delighted to hear from any of you. If you are in the Seattle area please telephone me at home, 425 485 7249 or 425 486 1648 or fax 425 486 3348. My work no. is 206 542 1491. You can see me on the internet by looking up the Chemical Engineering Dept. of the University of Washington in Seattle. Don’t confuse it with the University of same name in St. Louis.
It is quite amazing the number of names from so long ago that one can recall so clearly. I have been interested in the chemistry of memory and how can those names be stored for so long without much deterioration ?
Some of the students whose names flash instantly back are Yvonne Barnett, Beatrice Swan, Margaret Ross, Shelagh Foster, Edna Nelson, Pat Samuels, Elspeth Harris, Doris Wilcox, Nan Grey, Margaret McClure, Rita Boyle, Claude Cowan, Monty Landstein, Sam Leckie, John White, Stanley Mason, Hans Burien, Hugh Sanderson, Hugh McCall, Tom Gunn, Raymond Bremner (somewhere near Toronto ?), Tom Hobson, Alan Marks, ? Bergman, Gordon Young, Campbell Love, Fred Wilde, Glen Hardie, Felicity and Derek van Heerden, my very good friend Gordon Moore (now deceased) as well as those listed as attending the reunion. I am not now in touch with any of these except Hugh McCall (lives at Glenfinart, 44 Sherbrooke Ave., Pollokshields) though I believe Monty Landstein changed his name and appeared in some movies. He certainly was on the stage in Glasgow.
Our collection of teachers was quite bizarre but did an amazing job which now being a professor I look back upon with fondness. Hamilton was the headmaster, then the charming MacEwan, then Weir as I recall. I had some severe brushes with Sammy Weir because he would never entertain the idea of ARA having a soccer team which the boys wanted …. only rugby had the requisite snob value. That brings to mind the gym teachers, Sam Ritchie and the statuesque Miss McGavin who dragged any reluctant male dancer to the floor to cavort with her during the joint gym periods near Xmas. I never had that pleasure because I did enjoy and still enjoy Scottish Country dancing and the Tango. Miss Bryson and Miss McCance taught French valiantly but why we never spoke French in class is still a mystery to me. We could construct complex if and when sentences, read Edgar Allen Poe in French , write poetry in French but we never SPOKE to one another It would be nice to meet them today and say Bonjour, c’est une plaisir de vous voir de nouveau. I have had graduate students from France, the Congo and Martinique, so now I can converse a little. How pleased they might be to see that all their efforts were not in vain.
Other teachers that spring to mind were Miss Scott , Bernstein and lastly Inverarity (Science) as well as Moffatt, Young, King and Ross (math). Poor Teddy Ross, a shell-shocked WWI veteran, was treated shamefully by some of the boys who did unflattering impersonations of his idiosyncrasies behind his back. An appreciation to him for all he suffered for his country would be well merited. Yuile and Miss Hays in English/History will always be remembered. The former because he frequently wore his pyjama jacket with its large buttons as a shirt and sneaked out to catch a tram at 3.45 leaving the bible 15 minutes unattended. Miss Hays always reciprocated one’s interest in History. And of course, Miss Soutar in music. Since I sometimes am invited to teach high school students as a guest I now appreciate what a gang of ruffians the ARA boys could be. What an opportunity missed to learn more about music theory. No wonder the strap (the illegal Lochgelly Special) was occasionally required. We also had Dorian for Latin for a time but I can’t recall his predecessor. Miss Baxter in Art was a committed teacher and ultimately had a male colleague (Stevenson ?) but I can’t recall his name for sure.
There was also an older white-haired lady whose name escapes me who came in temporarily during the War Years to teach English. She was a superb actress and made the Macbeth witches and Shakespeare really come alive.
Finally let’s not forget the janitor who lived in the close in Keir St. next to the school and whose main aim in life seemed to be to prevent the boys using the school playground after classes were over.
As for myself I went from ARA to the Yoony and the Tech. in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. While a graduate student I taught at the University of Paisley in the evenings. After graduation with First Class Honours in 1952 and a Ph.D. in 1955 I took a position with the DuPont Company in the USA for an intended couple of years (later six to be precise) which turned into a lifetime. After a transfer from Wilmington to and a very brief stay in Niagara Falls (too snowy in Winter) I moved to the West Coast and joined a giant pulp and paper company called Weyerhaeuser for four years. From there I returned to teaching and research at the University of Washington in 1966 and have been there ever since. In 1970, I received the first Doctor of Science degree awarded by the University of Strathclyde for Distinguished Research in Fiber & Polymer Science.
There is no compulsory retirement age in the USA and I am still teaching. At the moment it is a class on Creativity & Innovation with 255 students. It is has been rated one of the five courses at the university which should not be missed. This gives me the opportunity to influence some wonderful students and I get a great kick out of that.
All the best to all the ARAians.
GGA
Ian Hannah
After leaving ARA in 1958, I studied electrical engineering in Paisley, then London, before going to Canada. My work involved assignments in various places, from Dallas to Moscow, Washington to Stockholm, Caracas to Rome, and many others in between.
I created SQMC Ltd., a private company dedicated to the provision of cost effective management training and consultancy.
As SQMC Director of Programmes, I have been involved in Quality Management Innovation since 1967 (in Canada, USA and Scotland), as a Quality Manager, Quality Consultant, then as a College and University tutor. I have lived in Montreal, Vancouver, Willimantic and am now based near Dunfermline, Fife. Ian.Hannah@SQMC.co.uk
I attended Primary and Secondary school at ARA, between 1936 and 1949. For the first half of
that period I lived on Kenmure Street; the family then moved to Newark Drive. I was not a prize-
winning student at any point; I would be better categorized as average to indifferent! My only
claim to school fame was that I was made captain of the swim club in 1948 after winning a
bronze medallion in life saving (which came with a free pass to the public swimming pools).
After graduation, I was drafted into the Army for two years. I later qualified as a Chartered
Surveyor. In 1958, I emigrated to Canada, where I obtained successive positions with several
agencies in Vancouver, B.C. In 1967, I joined the faculty of the Building Program at the B.C.
Institute of Technology where I taught construction economics and also served as Program Head
for 5 years. From 1990, I taught project costing in the School of Architecture at the University of
B.C., until compulsory retirement in 1995.
I have earned two university degrees, one in philosophy (BA) and one in adult education (M.Ed).
I have had 4 books published (3 on building technology and 1 on humanism). I also volunteered
on committees related to my work. A life-long interest has been playing piano, mostly by ear.
In 1965, I married Lorraine, a Vancouver woman, and lived happily ever afterwards. We have
two grown children, Lindsay and Karen. Since leaving ARA, I have traveled extensively, to
Australia, most of Britain, China, Costa Rica, parts of Europe, Fiji, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Japan,
Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, to most Canadian Provinces and half of the United States.
Commander Donald Clark, shown at right in British Columbia at the age of 87, with his catch of the day, a 28lb salmon, passed away at the age of 92, on January 12, 2007. Following is an obituary published in The Herald (Glasgow) on January 22, 2007.
"The last link to Clydebank's founding family, Commander Donald Clark CD RCN, has died. He was 92. Born in Pollokshields, Glasgow on September 7, 1915, he died on January 12 at Saanich Peninsula Hospital in Canada.
Clark was the son of Dr, Donald Clark MB ChB and Esther Thomson, and the last surviving grandson of James Rodger Thomson of J & G Thomson Shipbuilding (later John Brown Shipyard) of Clydebank.
With the sale of Thomson's shipyard to John Brown, of Sheffield, in the 1920s, the extended Thomson family began to break up. Dr. Clark eventually settled and remarried in Salonika, Greece, where he founded Harman Keiu Hospital. The effects of both diabetes and malaria ravaged Dr. Clark's health and he and his new wife moved to Australia, where he died in 1928.. Esther and the couple's children moved to Canada in 1928 and settled in Montreal. It was there that Donald was placed in Weredale House Orphanage for Boys in 1929. He stayed at the orphanage until 1933. By 1938, he had worked for RCA Victor and the Foxboro Instrument Company in Montreal and was training as an apprentice electrician. In 1940, he joined the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve and, after receiving his journeyman's papers, worked on radar at the National Research Council before transferring to the Royal Canadian Navy in 1945.
His work with the navy led to an involvement in shipbuilding and he helped to write the manual for principal naval overseers as well as overseeing the building of HMCS Nipigon and HMCS Bras d'Or in Sorel, Quebec.
Clark had come full circle from the founding of the family shipyard of J & G Thomson in 1840 by his great grandfather, George Thomson, to overseeing the building of warships for the Royal Canadian Navy in the 1960s.
Clark retired from the RCN in 1966 and became a successful estate agent in Victoria, Canada.
He gradually retired from his second career to care for (sic) full time for his wife, Phoebe, who had suffered a severe stroke in 1975.
Clark is survived by his daughter, Anne. Phoebe died in 1984, and their son, Grant, in 2005."
Ken Anderson
Attended ARA 1950-55. On leaving joined the Royal Air Force for National Service. Then J & P Coats Ltd, at their Head Office in St. Vincent Street, Glasgow. Worked there for some seven years as a shipping clerk. Moved to the oil industry where I worked for Gulf/Chevron for 30 years in Glasgow and Edinburgh in marketing administration. Retired in 1993. Worked for Glasgow District Council Social Work Department for 4 years at the Gorbals Addiction Project. Retired in 1997 and moved to Haywards Heath, West Sussex where I live presently. I have a son and a daughter both of whom live with their families almost within a stones throw. Both have two children altogether three girls and a boy. I have been married to my wife Shirley for 46 years. My hobbies are - summer -lawn bowls, winter - building web sites. Would be very pleased to hear from any of my old school chums, at haywardlad@tiscali.co.uk
