My father is in this picture of the Eglinton Harriers. If we take the three sitting on the floor as row 1, he is sitting on row 2 – extreme right – proud as a peacock, ready to race across the Stevenston sand dunes. I don’t know when he became involved with the Eglinton Harriers, but essentially it was because of the outbreak of Wordl War I.
As you are aware, you can’t wage war without explosives and Alfred Nobel’s Explosives Factory at Ardeer, an area in Stevenston, was gearing up for the conflict. In addition Scottish factories were paying twice the wages Dad was getting in his job at the ship yard in Belfast. At the beginning of 1915 he began work at Ardeer Foundry. He boarded at the home of his Aunt (?) and Uncle (?) Isabel McManus and William Rainey in Ardrossan. It so happened that Willie Rainey was the coach of the Eglinton Harriers.
So I assume that he introduced his young nephew to the manly art of cross country racing and sprinting. He must have joined the club around the Spring of 1915. He won some medals, but on the 7th of March 1917 he was sworn in as an ordinary seamen in the Royal Navy.
