BACK in those days - June 21, 1940, when the above photograph was taken - the Glasgow Herald still carried advertisements on its front page. But the war was of course the dominant presence on the news pages. The fall of France was all but complete; and for the second night in a row, more than 100 German bombers had pummelled targets on Britain’s south and east coasts. Up to 20,000 British children would be evacuated to Canada and Australia over the next three months. Authoritative sources in London said there was no truth in the “ridiculous suggestion” that an order had been made for the arrest of the Duke of Windsor. A separate article addressed a review ordered by Churchill (who had replaced Chamberlain as Prime Minister the previous month) of the possibilities of a Nazi invasion of Britain. A Herald reader wrote to the paper to suggest that “responsible and intelligent men” such as works directors and head foremen, whose essential work made it difficult for them to join the Local Defence Volunteers, should be given marksmanship tests so that they could use firearms in the event of any attack on the city by enemy detachments. A photographer was in the meantime on hand to record a stretcher drill for 300 Glasgow Scouts and Rovers, carried out by members of the St Andrew’s Ambulance Association. The Scouts’ services, it was reported, would be used for Air Raid Casualty Hospitals.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here