I'm just back from the Dick Institute in Kilmarnock, where I was interviewed by BBC Radio Scotland's Mark Stephens about my great grandfather's story in Belgium during the First World War, for the Past Lives series.
David Hepburn Paton was the manager of three Brussels based shoe shops owned by Glasgow firm R. & J. Dicks (based at Greenhead Works, Glasgow Green), and remained in the city with his family, including my grandfather Charles, after war was declared in 1914. As a civilian, David should have been interned by the Germans, but managed to escape into hiding for 16 months, eventually collapsing and dying from the strain of it all in April 1916. The peg for the story involves a Radio Scotland tie in to the 100 greatest objects in history series that Radio 4 is currently doing, and a series of playing cards that somebody owns which was produced by the firm of R & J Dicks Ltd.
It's a fascinating story, and one which led me to becoming hooked on researching my own family history further, and can be read about at http://chrispatonscotland.tripod.com/id63.html.
The programme itself, produced by Debbie McPhail and presented by Mark Stephens, will be going out on BBC Radio Scotland at 11.30am on Monday 29th March 2010 - enjoy!
(Thanks to both Mark and Debbie for a fun morning!)
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Scotland's Greatest Story
www.twitter.com/chrismpaton
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