How does a city like Glasgow remember the people, organisations and events that shaped its history?
Look around and you will discover a multitude of memorials. Some celebrate a person’s achievements or services to the city while others remember a single day or a larger event.
Some of our most iconic city memorials are public buildings.
Philanthropic bequests from Robert Couper (millowner) and Stephen Mitchell (tobacco manufacturer) created the Couper Institute and The Mitchell Library respectively. The Sir John Neilson Cuthbertson Primary School was named for the former School Board of Glasgow chairman in 1905.
Look inside particular public buildings and you’ll discover other memorials within. For example, there’s Langside Library’s magnificent mural of the Battle of Langside. This commemorates the conflict between the forces of Mary Queen of Scots and those of the Regent Moray in 1568.
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Of course, private buildings also act as memorials. An excellent example of this, and one of my favourite Glasgow buildings, is The Cleland Testimonial. It sits at the corner of Sauchiehall and Buchanan streets and was built in tribute to Dr James Cleland (1770 – 1840) for his many years of public service as Glasgow’s Superintendent of Public Works. Evidence of his civic work can be found in the many reports, letters and maps he created which are now in our collections.
Fittingly for the dear green place, there are also areas of memorial parkland. For example, Carnwadric Park started life as King George’s Field. It was one of many similar fields created throughout the UK in memory of King George V after his death in 1936. This form of commemoration was deliberately chosen to be of more use and general enjoyment to the public than a statue.
Of course, there are also many examples of statues within Glasgow which immortalise royal, political, military and cultural figures. One of the newest statues is that of Mary Barbour unveiled in Govan in 2018. One of the key figures of the rent strikes in 1915, she later became a city magistrate and bailie.
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The idea that memorials could also be functional is embodied in several of the city’s fountains. Several are dedicated to particular people such as the publisher Sir William Collins, who served as Glasgow’s Lord Provost and who was also a prominent advocate for the Temperance movement. His drinking fountain in Glasgow Green would have been a free alternative to alcohol and was therefore a fitting tribute to him.
Some of the most sobering and thought-provoking city memorials are those which are dedicated to people who died in wartime or in accidents. The Cenotaph in George Square and the large memorials in Victoria Park and at Govan Cross are just a few of the many tributes to the fallen of the First and Second World Wars. Twin memorials, one in Elder Park and the other in Victoria Park, memorialise the shipworkers of Govan and Partick who lost their lives during the disastrous sinking of the SS Daphne in 1883.
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