The importance of the Boys Brigade as an influence on my life is such that I

                                decided to devote a page exclusively to the Brigade.  I had been a member of

                                the Life Boys (the junior reserve of the Boy's Brigade) and then on reaching

                                the age of 11 or 12 I transferred to the Boys Brigade proper and was a member                 of the  216th Glasgow Company Boy's affiliated to the New Bridgegate

                               Church, Dixon Road, Glasgow, pictured on the left.  The church has since

                               closed and become a place of business.

 

                               The company is seen here outside the church in 1949.

 

                                The BB activities kept us occupied with week-night events such as

                                gymnastics, drill, pipe band practice, etc. as well as the weekly Bible Class

                                and monthly Church Parade led by the company pipe band.  I still value the

                                time spent in the Brigade whose noble objective was "The Advancement of

                                Christ's Kingdom among Boys".  Under the drive and leadership of Captain

                                William Blair Picken, the company set as an objective to make a three week trip a visit to Denmark via London in 1949 and to stay with the families members of the Danish F.D.F. (the Danish equivalent of the Boy's Brigade) for which each boy had to contribute £10 of the total cost of £20.  The balance was found by the brigade with whist drives, jumble sales and the collection of mountains of waste paper.

Denmark

Eventually the great day arrived and we travelled by overnight train to London, enjoyed a bit of sight-seeing in the capital, before being put up in the drill hall of one of the High Barnet company of the B.B.  The next day we embarked on the boat train to Harwich where we boarded the Danish Ship M/S Kronprinz Frederik for the voyage to Esbjerg, the return voyage being made on the sister ship Kronprinsesse Ingrid.

The pictures of Kronprins Frederik, Kronprinsesse Ingrid and the two ships alongside at Esbjerg,  culled from the web, are shown in the photo gallery below.

One of the things I remember was the quality of the food onboard the ships of which there seemed to be an abundance.  Things were still rationed and in very short supply in the U.K. and to see the Danish smorgaasbord with the marvellous selection meats, breads, cheeses, mueslis etc had our eyes like organ stops.  We probably all looked a bit like the boys in "Oliver"!  During the voyage the company put on a bit of a show with the pipe band as well as highland dancing by some of the boys which well received by the passengers.  Here are a couple of pictures of our brief stay in London and on the ship:

 

We travelled by train to Kolding, and at a brief stop somewhere we managed to buy some Danish ice creams that were presented in a manner totally different from what we had at home - ice creams on sticks with various flavours available - delicious!  On our arrival at Kolding we were very warmly welcomed by the Danish people, for whom the British defence of freedom would never be forgotten, and following a parade led by the F.D.F. brass band, and our own pipe band we were introduced to our hosts, mine being the family Schroder who owned a scrap metal business in the town.  My particular host was Hans Christian Schroder, who also had older brothers and sisters as well as younger.  Here are some pictures of them:

We left Kolding after about a week and went to stay with families in Odense, the home of Hans Christian Anderson, although I cannot remember very much about the visit.  Following this we went to a camp at Fredricia right on the beach which rounded up our visit.

The following year the company of the Danish F.D.F. paid a return visit to Glasgow and were received by families of the boys in the brigade, but our situation at home meant that we could not be hosts.  Here are some pictures taken at the time:

Inevitably I lost touch with most of my school and BB friends although I did correspond with Stewart Gillespie for some time.  He subsequently joined the RAF.  Alistair McNeil established himself as a watchmaker with a shop in Cathcart Road, Glasgow.  I did bump into him in 1962/63 whilst enjoying a fish supper at the Unique Fish & Chip Cafe in Allison Street and we reminisced on our boyhood days and in particular playing in 'the bombed house' which after the rubble had been cleared was left vacant for several years.  At that time we had a great time building corrugated iron huts which were the envy of our BB friends at the top of Boyd Street.  I don't remember much more about 1950 except that I left school to work in J. Lizars mentioned above, and in 1951 joined the Navy.