The deadliest of nights

Robert Cochrane told how he survived direct hit which killed his baby brother.. now daughter Lynn is keeping alive family's history and still tends her uncle's grave

- BY ANNA BURNSIDE

ON THE morning of March 14, Robert Cochrane was pulled from the rubble of his family's home in Castle Street. The four-year-old had survived the Luftwaffe attack that devastated so much of Clydebank.

His toddler brother, Wallace, was not so lucky he died aged just 17 months.

Robert's daughter, Lynn, keeps a photo on the wall of her Clydebank home to remind her of that night. It was taken not long after the Blitz.

She said: “It's a photo of the main road, just by the street where my dad lived. It shows a tram that’s been blown in half. One side of the tram is still there. The other side is gone.”

This image is part of Cochrane's mission to keep her family's links with Clydebank's darkest days alive.

She was born more than two decades after the photo was taken but she's adamant her late father's memories must be preserved and shared with future generations.

Robert died in 2023 and now Lynn looks after Wallace's memorial at Kilbowie Cemetery

She said: “I follow the same ritual my dad did, I pat his stone and say a few words. I sprinkled some of my father's ashes there. I kiss my hand and lay it on the grave. He never forgot what happened that night.”

On the 80th anniversary of the Clydebank Blitz, Robert told the Sunday Mail about that night.