The Scots who went off the rails
Page 47
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AS BRITAIN rattled its sabre in Argentina's face, Glaswegians remembered the day in September 1914, when patriotic fervour combined with the influence of James Dalrymple, Glasgow Tramways Department's general manager, to persuade more than 1,100 men to volunteer for the 15th (Tramways) Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry.
The corporation had decided to raise two battalions of infantry at the city's expense and the tramwaymen were still wearing their green uniforms when they went to Gailes to begin military training. The unit's apotheosis came in the capture of Ayette on April 3, 1918, which brought two DSOs, six MCs, some DCMs and 26 The occasion for homage was the removal on that anniversary of the bronze memorial to the officers and men of the Tramways Battalion from Bath Street to the Museum of Transport, where it now stands alongside trams of the type that Dalrymple's men operated.
But I still find it difficult to reconcile the HLI's heroic dynamism with the inertia of tram driving.