VE Day 80th Anniversary

Today, Thursday 8th May, marks the 80th anniversary since VE Day, and we remember Hutchesonians and all those who bravely served during the Second World War.

By VE Day all prisoners of war had returned, including Former Pupil Robert Stirling, listed below in our Hutchesonian magazine in 1944 as a Prisoner of War (POW). (Sadly, his younger brother Andrew did not return from the war. He died in 1944 and is listed on the School’s War Memorial.) On this 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe, we remember both brothers.

Robert Stirling, was born in Glasgow in 1917, he attended Hutchesons’ Grammar School where he was a keen sportsman. When he left school in 1940, he went on to work at the Bank of Scotland before joining the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He trained as a Hurricane pilot during WWII, surviving a German attack on his base and later took part in a night patrol on 11 April 1941 from Exeter. During this mission, he pursued a German bomber but, due to faulty navigation and low fuel, mistakenly flew toward Guernsey instead of Britain. He bailed out over Lihou Island, unknowingly crossed a minefield unharmed, and reached a cottage owned by Tom and Myra Brouard, who sheltered him.

By morning, realising he couldn’t hide and not wanting to endanger his hosts, Robert gave himself up and was taken into German captivity, eventually interned in a Stalag POW camp in Germany. Though officially declared missing and presumed dead, a message heard via radio in Canada informed his family he was alive. He attempted to escape three times during his captivity, including once on a bicycle.

After the war, he resumed his banking career in Scotland, married Elizabeth (‘Betty’) Scott, had three children, and became a respected golfer. In the 1960s, he visited Guernsey to reconnect with the Brouards, maintaining contact until his death in 1987. The bond between families endured, with his children later visited Guernsey and meet relatives of the Brouards. In tribute, the Brouards had named their son Robert George after him as Myra gave birth 3 weeks after Robert had turned up at their door.

Sadly, whilst Robert was in the Stalag camp, he received news of his brother, Andrew’s, death. He had died taking part on Operation Garden Market. His body was never recovered. He was 20 years old.

(Credit: The above article was based on Tim Osborne’s research and Element Film’s YouTube documentary Stirling’s War Documentary – YouTube)