This cenotaph type memorial is located in Christie Park, Alexandria, Dunbartonshire. It is dedicated to the men of Bonhill Parish. Alexandria, three or so miles from Dumbarton, is the biggest town in the Vale of Leven. (Mail has been said to have been re-directed from Egypt stamped with the words”Try Scotland.”) Bonhill lies over the river Leven from Alexandria.

War Memorial in situ:-

Closer view:-

Names for Great War  above, World War 2 below.

Dedications:-

Names on Reverse of Memorial. Great War above, Second World War below:-

North aspect:-

Great War 100th anniversary bench in Christie Park:-

One of the places we visited on West Dunbartonshire’s Open Day last September was the Masonic Lodge in Gilmour Street, Alexandria. It was originally built as the Ewing Gilmour Institute for Working Girls in 1888 but by 1915 it had become the “Bonhill and Alexandria St Andrew’s Royal Arch Lodge, No. 321.”

It’s fairly imposing from the outside (this is a stitch of two photos to get it all in):-

However the interior is amazing. Murals adorn the corridor’s walls. This one is above the entranceway:-

The paintings were all done by Harrington Mann and we were told the model for all the female figures was a girl from the school.

Corridor window. Note the 1888 on the run-off collector above the rone pipe to left:-

The main hall is impressive:-

Close-up on mural above fireplace and below clock:-

The hall has a hammerbeam roof:-

There was a craft sale on that day. I had to drape back some of the items for sale in order to photograph the Lodge’s Roll of Honour:-

I photographed the War Memorial for Milngavie and District when I was over in Dunbartonshire for the Raith game at the end of the season.

The memorial is set in a sort of square just off the town centre. The inscription reads, “Nobly they kept alight the lamp of liberty.”

I think the figure is holding a dove of peace in her hand but it’s hard to be sure.

Over a week ago we visited Glasgow and of course I took some pictures.

This extravagant confection of a building is the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

It was constructed in order to house Glasgow’s collection of Art works and was partly funded by using the surplus resulting from the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1888.

Another such Exhibition was held in 1901 to celebrate the opening of the Art Gallery which has been a favourite haunt of the Glasgow public ever since. It was much missed when closed for refurbishment for a few years recently.

I’d never really noticed the details above the windows before.

Each of the gallery type windows has the arms of a Scottish county above it. Further along past the (back) entrance is the one for Dumbartonshire. Note the elephant and castle.

A persistent urban myth is that the Art Gallery’s plans were misread and that it was built the wrong way round (the main entrance faces the Kelvin river and not the west end of Argyle Street) and the architect is supposed to have committed suicide as a result. All complete nonsense.

At the time the road (not Dumbarton Road as the link above has it; that starts just beyond the Kelvin, to the right of the Kelvin Hall in my picture below) would not have been considered so important and the view to the Kelvin out over Kelvingrove Park would have taken precedence.

The later (1927) Kelvin Hall, now mainly a sports venue, is just over the road from the Art Gallery.

There are some stylistic similarities between the two buildings.