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Category Archives: Smillie family history
The search for a soldier without a name (part 5)-the mystery.
The shell came in low and straight, eight hundred metres a second and closing. It sped over the beach cutting between the loose formations of soldiers and slammed into its target-a Sherman tank. The explosion shredded the tank’s track, leaving … Continue reading
The Search for the Soldier Without a Name (Part 3) – Ten photographs
So here they are, ten photographs taken as trophies of war. Some of them are 79 years old, if the dates on the back of those photographs are correct. Black and white pictures that through the World Wide Web and … Continue reading
The Search for the Soldier Without a Name (Part 2) – An encounter in the desert
This was a foolish act that cost the Italian officer everything he had. Everything dear to him, was taken off him, including those black and white photographs I now have. That act took place somewhere in the Western Desert probably … Continue reading
The search for the soldier without a name-Part 1
The Italian with the sword has stared at us Smillies for two generations now. He stands proud in his uniform and his knee high boots. His kepi cuts his face at an angle, as was the style in the 30s. … Continue reading
The ghost of a young man.
Every family has them, heirlooms handed down from previous generations. Each has a story. These are some of mine and the stories they carry. The ghost staring from the over exposed black and white photograph is the uncle I didn’t … Continue reading
When the census man returns. Part two, the mystery.
Festus’s eyes had followed me for days. They stared at me as I walked up the street, and when I left the front gate. His eyes were on a poster, placed on a street lamp directly outside my house. … Continue reading
When the census man returns. Part one
This post morphed into an article that appeared in The Star newspaper. That article was the space limited, Reader’s Digest version, this is the original in two parts. He first came knocking 170 years ago, three weeks ago he … Continue reading
Posted in Smillie family history
Tagged Census, Pollokshaws, Robert Smillie, Smillie
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