Hi Ed, Below you will find a poem written by Mary Burns (McLaughlin) Woodlands Cres. It's about my father, Bill Walker
who was blinded in the war. He was well known around the Halfway.
I don't know how to post it on the site. If you would, I would be so grateful. George Walker.  (Apr 10)

When my chin I feel going down
No smiling face, only a frown
watch the blind man walking along
sightless his eyes, but knowing in song
sightless the eyes that take him ahead
no self pity he walks without dread
forward he goes, head held high
whistling a tune but never a sigh

                My father Bill Walker was born (1918) and raised in Bridgeton.  He married my mother Annie McGinley from Colebrooke  St.(1940) in St Brides church Cambuslang. He joined the army in 1939 and was posted to a Welsh regiment (as were lots of scots). He was badly wounded in 1945 in Belgium. He never spoke about it once to me, but an army friend of his told me it was a hand grenade in a confined space, while captured. That is all I was told.

                He lay in an English hospital for 18 months, while they re-built his face. I was 3-year old at the time. While he was in hospital we were allocated a house in Overton St. He was given a job in Govan labour exchange where he worked for 28 years on the telephone board (solo). He loved a pint in the Inglenook where he read Braille from his book. My father only saw me once when I was a baby, but sadly he never saw my sister Anne Walker who was born 1948. My father adored her, but sadly she died in 1972 with kidney failure just 23 years of age. He never got over this and after a couple of heart attacks he joined her in 1978 in westburn cemetery.    

             (True story: as he had glass eyes he received a blind pension. Twice in the sixties he was asked to attend a clinic in Glasgow to see if the sight had improved - no kidding)