As a little boy growing up in Broomhill, Richard Macfarlane loved to play in Victoria Park.
âHe lived so close to the gates, it was easy to run down with his brothers,â explains his niece, Gail.
âThey would have spent a lot of time there.â
On Remembrance Sunday, Gail and her family will join other West End residents, veterans and speakers to pay tribute to those who, like her uncle, lost their lives in service to their country.
Flying Officer Richard was a member of the famous 617 Squadron - the Dambusters - who took part in daring raids on German dams during World War Two.
Of the 133 aircrew that took part, 53 men were killed and three became prisoners of war. On the ground, almost 1300 people died in the resulting flooding.
Richard survived the initial raids in May 1943, but was killed in action just a few months later.
Last year, Gail travelled to the Lincolnshire village of Scampton to attend a touching service marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of 617 Squadron.
âI discovered a book I hadnât seen before, called The Complete Dambusters, which tells the stories of all the men involved, and I hadnât realised there were only 133,â she says. âItâs quite something to think our uncle was one of them.
âWe have always known his story. The family always talked about it, especially around Remembrance Sunday, but it was only when we were older we realised the enormity of what he had been doing.â
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Richard lived on Broomhill Drive with his brothers Hamish and Norman (Gailâs dad, later Lord Macfarlane of Bearsden, esteemed peer and patron of the arts.)
âRichard was very talented - he went to Hyndland School, then passed the exams to go to the High School of Glasgow,â says Gail.
âHe worked for an accountancy firm while he studied law at Glasgow University, but in 1941 he signed up to the RAF â without telling his parents. His mother was very upset.
âBut off he went, and he wrote letters back home to his parents.â
Richardâs mother kept the precious letters in a shoebox, and when she died, Gailâs dad took them home.
âHe could not face reading them, though,â says Gail, sadly. âThey are a wonderful read, actually â this was a young man, training in Scotland, in Wales, Canada and Miami, enjoying himself.
âHe was playing rugby, cricket â he was young, having a good time.â
In one letter, Richard asks for a bike to be sent to him at RAF Kinloss; in others, he recounts the day to day activities he was enjoying.
âHe seems to have taken to the discipline and order of a life in the services very well,â says Gail.
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The news that Richard was missing in action arrived at his parentsâ home by telegram in December 1943.
âIt was devastating for his family,â says Gail. âThat was a terrible Christmas. As time went on, I think they told themselves that missing did not mean gone, and there was still hope.
âIn February 1944, however, they found out he had been killed.â
Such was the secrecy surrounding the Dambusters, Richardâs family were told not to talk to anyone, especially the press.
Gail adds: âEverything was top secret. They were told not to speak to the newspapers, or reveal anything about what Richard had been doing.
âThey didnât really know anything anyway â everything was confidential. It was only afterwards they found out what it had all been about.â
Gail and her siblings â Fiona, Margie, Hamish and Marguerite - have donated Richardâs dress uniform to the International Bomber Command Centre in Lincoln.
âThe centre also took the letters to digitise them, and they are now being used as a resource by the centre and Lincoln University,â explains Gail.
âWeâre glad they are helping people understand the impact of war.â
The Victoria Park Remembrance Sunday service was reinstated seven years ago, when local woman Gillian Mawdsley, who has had a keen interest in war history since her schooldays, approached Friends of Victoria Park to see if they would consider organising an event.
âThe memorial in the park is not personalised, so I started researching some of the local men who died in both wars, and I found so many interesting and moving stories,â she explains.
âThe scale of loss in Glasgow was quite incredible.â
At this yearâs event on Sunday, November 10, which begins at 2pm, speakers will include Gillian and Dr Yevgen Gorash, of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain.
As Gail prepares for Sunday, she looks once more through her uncleâs letters - now back in her home and safely stored in the same shoebox her grandparents kept for so long.
âItâs important to share my uncleâs story, to raise awareness of the war memorial in Victoria Park, and to remind people in Glasgow the impact of the war not just far away where the fighting was happening, but here in the city,â says Gail.
âWe never met my uncle Richard, but through his letters, we feel like we know him.â
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