Obituary: Robert ‘Bob’ McCrum, soldier and taxi driver

A remarkable and special man was laid to rest in West Calder last week. Bob McCrum of Chapelton Avenue, Polbeth, was 92 years old and, over the years, had made his mark on a great many local people as was evidenced by the large numbers present at his funeral service held in the West Kirk .

Although he had lived most of his adult life in the area, Bob hailed originally from Hamilton in Lanarkshire, where he learned from his parents the qualities he always respected and lived by – hard work and integrity.

His father, Robert, was a miner and his mother, Isabella, supplemented the family income by making and selling boiled sweets from her home. They were good people – stalwarts of the Salvation Army.

On leaving school, Bob had gone to work as a farm hand and, like many other young men in the district, had later joined the Territorial Lanarkshire Yeomanry cavalry for the fun, camaraderie and adventure experienced on parade nights and at annual camps.

However, with the outbreak of the Second World War this had all changed when he and the others became full time soldiers. After training at Lanark, he and his fellow Gunners of the newly formed 155th (Lanarkshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment of the Royal Artillery were sent to India in preparation for action in the North African Desert against Rommel’s Afrika Corps.

Then, in August 1941, the Gunners were given a shock. They were to be split up with Bob’s battery, being sent to Quetta near the Afghan border and the other two batteries dispatched to Malaya to bolster defences on the possibility of a Japanese attack.

And as history now records, that attack did happen and the Gunners in Malaya were eventually taken prisoner after the fall of Singapore and spent the next three and a half years on the Death Railway or in other Japanese hell camps spread throughout the Far East. And for Bob? He had escaped one hell for another.

He became part of the famed Chindits, who carried out operations deep into Japanese-held Burma. Climbing over high mountains, through steaming, leech-infested jungles and wading through deep, fast-flowing rivers, Bob and his fellow Chindits gained a fearsome reputation.

And his earlier life with the former Lanarkshire Yeomanry cavalry came in handy when controlling the contrary mules, the pack animals that carried weapons, radio equipment and food for the marauding warriors.

Eventually he was given a rest and returned to Britain, where he instructed new recruits to the Royal Artillery.

It was on the training base in Wales that he met Agnes Kilday, a girl from West Calder who was then serving with the ATS. After a whirlwind romance, they became engaged and in September 1945 were married in the West Kirk in West Calder.

The young couple initially set up home in Hamilton but Agnes pined for her family in West Calder so they moved back and settled in Addiewell.

Bob followed his father’s occupation and began work in Burngrange Pit before setting out on business on his own, first with a delivery van and then with the taxi business which he ran until he was 74 years old.

The traits that he had developed at home in Hamilton – hard work and honesty – were obvious in all his dealings, although he was inclined to stop in his taxi and pick up neighbours and friends at no cost –hardly the mark of a hard-nosed entrepreneur!

He was an amusing and easygoing man who enjoyed his garden and a blether with his neighbours.

A true gentleman, Bob always put others first and his favourite saying, “Mind if ye faw, jist keep on running”, was indicative of how he lived his life. Our sympathies are extended to daughters Betty and Ella and all the family, who will miss him dearly.

CAMPBELL THOMSON