Lt Cleweth Donaldson

Their names will be remembered for evermore

The twists of fate that war brought about can be seen in the Donaldson family. Lieutenant Cleweth Donaldson was just three months short of his 21st birthday when he was shot down over France. Although death dominated many families during the war, the Donaldsons' story revealed its more unusual consequences.

Two classes come together

Cleweth's family founded the Donaldson Shipping Line in 1854. It was famous throughout the Empire, particularly for its emigrant routes to Canada. By the 1880s, Archibald Donaldson, the senior partner, was living between two large houses and had among his staff a nurse. Jane Lee was the daughter of an English journeyman joiner, and one of five children living in Springburn. She was 12 when her father died in 1870, and her mother opened a greengrocer's in Maryhill to support the family.

Jane trained as a nurse, and in the 1891 census was registered as a servant of Archibald at his Largs mansion. The following year, she married her employer - as her mother also did, in 1881, after becoming a housekeeper to a coal merchant.

Shot down over France

Twins were born in 1893, but Archibald Jr died in infancy. Marion survived, and was joined by Cleweth in 1896. Jane was now mistress of the house in which she had once been a servant. She was widowed in 1907. Cleweth, meanwhile, went to Fettes College in Edinburgh and in 1915 joined the Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry as a second lieutenant. Serving as a cavalry officer, his unit took part in the Battle of Loos, suffering heavy casualties. He transferred to the 52nd Squadron, The Royal Flying Corps, in 1916. On 24 April, 1917 he and his second lieutenant were flying a BE2 biplane over Metz-en-Couture in support of British forces around Arras when they were shot down. The death toll suffered by The Royal Flying Corps in this period was so high it became known as "Bloody April".

Back in Glasgow, the shipping company's fortunes grew. Cleweth had been left money from his father's estate, but would not have inherited until he was 25. Having died younger, this left his share in question. Marion married a ship broker in 1921, and her cousin, William Donaldson, who was now head of the renamed Anchor-Donaldson Ltd and a trustee of Archibald's estate, invited her to launch the Athenia from Govan in 1922. That same year, Marion took her cousin to court claiming £500,000 interest accrued from her dead brother's share of Archibald's estate. She won.

Cleweth's name featured on a commemorative window in the Largs church where Marion had married, when the memorial was unveiled by Jane in 1924. Jane died the following year. One final twist came in 1944, when the ship Marion had launched was the first British vessel to be sunk by a German U-boat within hours of the start of World War Two.

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Images:

• An advertisement for the Donaldson line, showing their first purpose-built passenger liner, TSS Cassandra, launched by Scott's of Greenock in 1906. Her maiden voyage was to Quebec and Montreal, Canada. Source: Chamber of Commerce Yearbook 1915, Private Collection

• The less glamorous side of shipping - one of the main sources of the Donaldson business was the importation of cattle into Scotland. After 1907, foreign animals were landed at Merklands Wharf, Glasgow, pictured around 1914. Credit: John Lindsay, editor, 1914, Municipal Glasgow: Its Evolution and Enterprises, p1466-7.