ONE day in November 1953, a chief glazier, Mr Arthur Howe, was photographed applying the finishing touches to an inscription in a new, 13ft-tall window destined for the north wall of the choir at the medieval Glasgow Cathedral.

The inscription read: “This window, dedicated to the Glory of God, is the gift of James Haldane Calder MacLeod, 1953, to replace Munich glass given by Graham Somervell of Hamilton Farm, 1861”.

Watching Mr Howe at work was the window’s designer, Mr Edward Liddall Armitage, who was based in stained-glass studios in Wealdstone, Middlesex.

Referring to the subtle colours in the window, this paper’s London correspondent reported: “Small and brilliant fragments of red, blue, and gold pick out here and there the general pattern of the new window ... but the effect of the whole is of a cool glaucous translucency.

“The grey and austere light entering through it will, it may be hoped, fall not inappropriately on the stones within, and will show their stern contours as they have scarcely been seen for a century; nothing could prettify Glasgow Cathedral, and no one would wish to see it attempted, but there is much to be said for seeing, in something less than Stygian gloom, the formidable virtues that are there”.

Two years earlier, in June 1951, a photographer from The Bulletin visited the Cathedral as workmen erected stained-glass windows that depicted incidents in the life of St Mungo.

The windows, presented by Mr Andrew MacGeorge, replaced the family window of the Earls of Glasgow, which were said to have fallen into disrepair.

Read more: Herald Diary