Margaret. G. Bowman Author of The Lost Airfields of Angus

Interviewed by Sheena Macleod

talk about this book, could you tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your writing journey?

Hello and thank you. I was born and raised in Dunfermline in the beautiful Kingdom of Fife, Scotland. I came to Dundee many years ago to commence a career as a Registered General Nurse, which after 40 years, I retired from the post of Clinical Nurse Manager for Trauma and Orthopaedics. I have a ‘vivid imagination’ and always wanted to be a writer, but never had the time to pursue writing as work always got in the way. Things changed in 2016, when the opportunity arose to take early retirement and I have never looked back.

I joined Angus Writers’ Circle which is a local writing group whose members have the desire to progress in the field of literary works and I am now their President, representative to the Scottish Association of Writers and their Press Secretary. I’m also the Secretary of Tay Writers in Dundee and a member of Fife Writes. When I have time between writing projects, I am the Press Secretary for Carnoustie and District Heritage Group.

What led to you to write a book about the lost airfields of Angus?

It was living in rural Angus that prompted me to write The Lost Airfields of Angus, my debut book which won awards from the Scottish Association of Writers in 2020 and 2021. Where I live there is a road that leads to Arbroath through the back of the old airfield at RM Condor which was known as HMS Condor, a Fleet was RAF Edzell, my companion and myself were spotted taking photographs of the old runway and were viewed as acting ‘most suspiciously’. We almost got ourselves arrested! This site was a secret high-directional surveillance base post-war used by the USN and although little of that era remains above ground, the old WWII structures are still visible and that was only what I was interested in!

Air Arm base during WWII. There was an old dilapidated Nissen Hut and Hangar with an old Anderson Shelter close to the roadside, and I thought, if someone does not photograph and write about these now, they will fall to pieces and part of our history will be lost forever. Having previously written feature articles for many historical magazines, I thought this would make an interesting story and even provisionally selected the title as ‘Huts and Hangars’ but once I started to research the background of the other airfields in Angus, I soon realised this was a much bigger project than an article, so that is how it all started.

It is a fascinating subject. How did you go about researching the information for this book?

Living in the middle of these wartime airfields, I found their history fascinating and although many WWII veterans are no longer with us, there are still plenty of locals in the area keen to share stories of their wartime childhoods.

The more I researched, the more I realised the importance this relatively small Scottish county had during a period of volatile history. I decided to include WWI as well as WWII sites as some were operational during this time span.

I was fascinated to learn there were so many Scottish aviation pioneers from the area such as James Tytler from Fern near Brechin, who was educated at the University of Edinburgh and who performed the first British flight in a hot air balloon of his own design in 1784 which was called The Edinburgh Fire Balloon. Preston Watson from Dundee, was also recognised for being the designer of a ‘motorised heavierthan -air flying machine’ in 1903 with his first flight taking place at Errol. He died in 1915 during WWI when the aircraft he was flying crashed mid-flight, killing him on impact. Robert Watson-Watt, the Scottish pioneer of radar whose incredible work was a major factor in the defence of the nation, came from Brechin. All this history and I lived in the centre of it.

Every area had its troublemakers and I selected two high-profile cases from the area. One was the story of Jessie Jordan, from Dundee who spied for the Germans prior to WWII by giving them details of our coastal defences including sketches of the famous Tay Rail Bridge and military bases. Her behaviour was careless, leaving information lying by the till at her hairdressing salon thus leading to her arrest in 1938. The other was a fascinating story about Arbroath’s notorious nazi-sympathising aristocrat, Archibald Henry Maule Ramsay a descendent of the 12th Earl of Dalhousie. He established a fascist secret society called the Right Club whilst a Member of Parliament for Peebles and Midlothian. He was jailed in 1940 at Brixton Prison in London in which he still demanded his ‘parliamentary privileges’.

There are still some surviving military structures visible in the airfields. I visited each site and took contemporary photographs of the visible remains but I also was fortunate to have made contacts through the Montrose Air Museum and Heritage Centre of interested enthusiasts who were more than keen to share their knowledge and images. Montrose was Scotland’s first operational military airfield situated at Upper Dysart, prior to moving to the Broomfield site where it functions today as a fascinating centre of excellence for visitors and enthusiasts. RM Condor is a functioning military base, home of 45 Commando, which I required permission and security clearance and escort to enter. The remaining sites I could visit and photograph easily except RNAS East Haven which has gone back to agriculture, as many did post-war, and now has silos covering most of the disused runways. When I visited what

I toiled over almost 4 years researching local and nearby areas. My sources were Angus Archives; Dundee Archives; University of Dundee Archives; Montrose Air Museum and Heritage Centre; Libraries throughout Angus and Dundee; published material in specific military books; articles; newspaper archives; Military Organisations Archives (RAF; FAA etc); OnLine Publications; Film productions; TV documentaries and the most important individuals were people with stories, memories, and recollections of their own or through their families.

The images are spectacular. Where did you get your graphics from?

Most of the images presented in The Lost Airfields of Angus are my own and a colleague from Montrose Air Station was happy for me to also use his collection. Some historical images were taken from Public Domain sites on-line and the two spies photographs are under Crown Copyright due to their sensitive nature, which meant I had to purchase licenses for their use in a commercial sense.

What are you working on now? Can we expect a follow up?

My next project which I am currently steeped in research material for is ‘Wartime Defences of the Tay Estuary’. This examines the areas north and south of the Firth of Tay from Buddon Ness on the North to Fife Ness on the south. The format will be like ‘The Lost Airfields’ – but obviously the area coverage is much greater. I will be including land, sea and air defences travelling through Monifieth, Broughty Ferry, to Dundee – which was home of the 9th Flotilla Submarine Base HMS Ambrose; then onto Stannergate Seaplane Base operational from 1913, HMS Cressy the RNR Drill Ship which also trained WRENS; then along the Carse of Gowrie to RAF Errol. Crossing over onto the Fife side, from Newburgh; Wormit – RAF Woodhaven seaplane base and home of Norwegian 333 Squadron; Newport/ Tayport/Tentsmuir’ RAF Leuchars and RAF Stravithie to RNAS Crail and RNAS Dunino at Fife Ness.

I have been so fortunate this far to have met some wonderful individuals who clearly recollect the wartime years and have also collected memories from veterans who had joined the Services nearly at the end of WWII, but whose recollections are as clear as it were yesterday! Presently I am about 60% complete with the view to publication by either the end of this year or certainly the start of 2024.

What I learned by experience from my first book is – prepare my Reference and Bibliography lists as I go, also my Index!! This saves a lot of time and nervous exhaustion.

Margaret, thank you for joining us at Mom’s Favorite Reads. We wish you every success with your future writing.

Margaret’ G. Bowman is an award-winning author. Her works include mainly historical features and poetry which has been published in various history and other magazines in the UK. She’s had poetry published in the Scottish Book Trust ‘Rebel’ and ‘Future’ editions; The Writers’ Umbrella; Angus Writers’ Circle Anthology- A Kist of Scots, the University of Dundee Botanical Garden Anthology and, Fife Writes Anthology –‘Wild’ published in 2023 which was launched during Stanza week at St Andrews. She also writes Theatre Reviews for Abbey Theatre Club in Arbroath and the Carnoustie Theatre Group productions.

Sheena Macleod lectured at the University of Dundee, where she gained her PhD. She now lives in a seaside town in Scotland. Reign of the Marionettes is her first novel. She mainly writes historical fiction and non-fiction. You can learn more about Sheena on her website: https://www.sheenas-books.co.uk/