At the unveiling of the Govan War Memorial on Christmas Eve 1922, a silver casket containing a Roll of Honour was inserted into the Memorial by a Mrs. Ryan who had lost 4 of her household in the war, the 1122 men named on the Roll of Honour all came from the areas of Govan, Ibrox, Cessnock, Plantation, Drumoyne and Linthouse. These were all areas within Govan Burgh, which ceased to exist as an entity 10 year earlier in 1912 when it became part of Glasgow, despite this; the Govan Burgh Arms is prominent on Memorial.
In 2019 an opportunity was taken to retrieve the Roll of Honour when Govan Cross Townscape Heritage Initiative (GCTHI) commissioned the refurbishment of the War Memorial, the plan was to copy the names then conserve and re-insert the Roll of Honour back into memorial, however we were devastated when we found out that the Roll was completely destroyed due to water damage and no names could be recovered, the group knew that in 1922 each member of the War Memorial Committee had been given a copy of the Roll, we then set about trying to track down descendants of the Committee in the slim hope that their copy still existed within the family, soon after the research started we made contact with Sheila Lawson who found a copy belonging to one of the War Memorial Committee in a barn loft of a croft on the Isle of Skye and we were able to re-insert a copy of Roll back into War Memorial at the end of it's refurbishment, remarkably Sheila was not related to this War Memorial Committee member.
We thought that the 100th anniversary of the Govan War Memorial would be the perfect time to publicly display the 1122 names on the Roll of Honour, possibly the first public display in 100 years. Thanks to the support of Govan Cross Townscape Heritage Initiative, the event was held at the Pearce Institute on Remembrance Sunday on 13th November 2022. At the event we used exhibition panels to tell the story of the unveiling in 1922, the refurbishment of Memorial and amazing rediscovery of Roll of Honour, we also displayed the names of all 1122 men and told some of their stories. The group also has a list of 754 Govan men and 3 Govan women who are not recorded on the Govan War Memorial Roll of Honour, we also told some of their stories too.
You can view and download a scanned copy of the Govan War Memorial Roll of Honour below, you can also read the exhibition panels from the 100th anniversary event.
