New book tells of soldier’s Bellshill link

Gary Blair, of Ballymoney, penned the story of William Hanna, who was killed a month before the end of World War One in his book entitled Eighteen Summers.

William was born at Finvoy in rural County Antrin in what is now Northern Ireland in 1900 and died in Belgium in October 1918.

Gary told us: “We knew hardly anything of his life and everyone who knew him is long dead.

“My grandmother was his sister and remembered him well, telling me many stories about him until her own death in 1992.

“What always struck me as odd is that his parents were never told about his death. In fact my granny often told me her mother spoke of him as if he were still alive until her own death 20 years later.

“It was only through a chance encounter I had with a woman employed by Scotland’s People in Stirling in 2015 that I started to unravel the mystery of William Hannah.

“On that day I found out that he had married a girl from Mossend while on leave in early 1918 and had spent all of his leaves in Bellshill and Mossend! Better still, he is commemorated in Bellshill Kirk where he was wed four months before he died.”

Gary adds: “This brief message doesn’t cover a fraction of the story that includes the coal mines of North Lanarkshire and the former MacDonald Memorial Parish Kirk in Bellshill.

“Sadly I found - too late for the publication of my book - an insert in the Bellshill Speaker archive a lovely tribute to William by his young wife.”