The Drysdale Memorial

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: 4 Jan 2013

This stone is one of the small number that survive in the old parish kirkyard of Image On account of its situation, the stone is sometimes overgrown; on the occasion of the present photograph, it had recently been exposed to view, and was sunlit. The stone is now rather worn, but the adjacent plaque supplies the missing details. This stone was missed during the 1969 survey of the kirkyard (carried out shortly before most of the existing stones were cleared away to make room for the new church halls), and it was only discovered a little later when ivy was cleared from this wall. The stone was erected by William Drysdale, plumber, who died 26th March 1856, aged 48, and it commemorates Romeo Drysdale, his father, who died 23rd of ... aged 84; Margaret Haggard, his mother, who died 30th April 1848, aged 73; Margaret, his sister, who died 16th June 1848, aged 29; Ilay, his brother, died 14th July 1851, aged 35. The father, Romeo Drysdale, is of interest: in 1810, he was appointed master gunner at Dumbarton Castle. He still held that post in 1849, when he died at the age of 84. This may seem unusual, but he was not engaged in active military duties: the infantry soldiers in the barracks at Dumbarton Castle at that time did not perform duties connected with the Castle, "nor were the veteran artillerymen actively engaged either but instead conducted visitors round the castle, expecting a gratuity in return". His role may not have been an active military one, but it was not an insignificant one either: there was no lieutenant-governor at the Castle after 1836, and no governor after 1843, so that Romeo Drysdale and his successors as master gunner were "nominally in charge for the rest of the century". For further details, see pages 153 and 156 of I.M.M.MacPhail's "Dumbarton Castle" (1979), from which the above quotes were taken. - - • - - Along the same wall, to the right of this stone, are two others, similar in size and shape, which I have not shown separately. The first of these was (according to its inscription, which is, at the time of writing, still entirely legible) "erected to the memory of John Gaskell, son of Henry L Gaskell esquire of Southworth House, Wigan, Lancashire, who died 25th July 1837, aged 25 years". To the right of that is another stone, whose surface has almost entirely flaked away, so that only "COTT" (part of a surname) is legible at the upper right. A nearby metal plaque records that the stone commemorates Peter H Mitchell and his wife Grace Scott. However, the plaque appears to give the wrong year for P H Mitchell's death; for further details, see the accompanying description for a picture of the Image That memorial is not located here, but in Dumbarton Cemetery. Robert Glassford Mitchell was Peter H Mitchell's only son, the issue of his second marriage.

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