The grandson of a former Caledon Shipyard managing director, who is backing a campaign for a model of the “most significant ships ever built on the Tay” to be returned to Dundee, is donating his grandfather’s archive to the city.
Jim Shearer, the grandson of Henry Main who was the Caledon Shipyard managing director from 1932 to 1949, met with city archivist Martin Allen this week to present the valuable historic artefacts.
He was joined at Dundee City Archives by his brother Cameron and former Caledon manager John ‘Jack’ Reilly who described the material as “astonishing”.
The hand over of the materials followed a previous visit to Dundee by Mr Shearer, who met with Jack Reilly and fellow Dundee ship enthusiast, historian Dr Andrew Jeffrey.
Inheritance of estate
Jim, whose late mother was Main’s youngest daughter, never knew his grandfather as he died eight years before he was born.
However, the 65-year-old, who lives near Haddington, told The Courier how he learned more about his grandfather after inheriting the papers through his late aunt’s estate.
With more time on his hands after retiring from asset management, he got the box back out of the attic and started researching.
That’s when he found Jack Reilly’s details and got in touch.
The archive includes lots of photographs of launches of ships during the 1930s and 40s when his grandfather was managing director of the yard at Caledon.
There were also lots of letters from various government departments that went to the chairman and his grandfather while they were at the yard during the war.
Poignant photographs
One particularly poignant artefact was a photograph album covering the launch of HMS Hurst Castle in February 1944.
The ship was lost along with 16 of her crew six months later.
Also of great significance within the archive was Main’s Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau medal which was awarded by the Dutch government for his support given to the Dutch submarine flotilla based in Dundee during the Second World War.
Jack Reilly, who is campaigning with Dr Jeffrey to bring a 12 feet long shipyard model of Alfred Holt’s Caledon-built cargo and passenger liner TSMV Glenearn back to Dundee, said the material would be a great addition to the Dundee City Archives.
He said: “The outcome of the meeting was that between Jim Shearer, Dr Andrew Jeffrey and myself we will produce a book using the archive materials which will be record for all of Henry Main’s living family members to have.
“Then Jim Shearer will place the materials in the safe hands of the City of Dundee Archives.”
Who was Henry Main?
Henry Main CBE was managing director of Caledon from 1932 to 1949.
Born in West Calder, Midlothian in 1888, he served an apprenticeship with the London and Glasgow Shipbuilding & Engineering Company n Govan.
Gaining experience in Troon, London and Greenock, he was appointed an assistant chief draughtsman aged 23 and in 1914 he became chief draughtsman at Hall, Russell & Company in Aberdeen.
After a spell as repairs manager at Ardrossan Dockyard then a stint on the managerial staff at Lithgows Ltd, he joined the Caledon company in Dundee on February 1, 1927 and was appointed the general manager of the shipbuilding side of the business.
In 1929 he became a director of the company then in 1932 he was appointed managing director.
His service at the Caledon took in a time of deep recession for the whole industry and country, as well as the Second World War when the supply of new ships was a crucial and urgent requirement.
But more than 73 years after Main died in a sleeper train travelling from London to Dundee in April 1949, and more than 40 years after Caledon closed, more information has come to light about Main’s role at Caledon thanks to the unearthing of private letters.
Campaign to bring home model
Earlier this year, Jack Reilly, whose book The Caledon Shipyard has been re-published five times since its release in 2012, launched a campaign with Dr Jeffrey to bring the shipyard model of TSMV Glenearn back to Dundee.
As previously featured in The Courier, the creation by Caledon model maker William Gateshill was loaned to the National Maritime Museum in 1947 and has been in storage at the Historic Dockyard Chatham in Kent for decades.
The model represents the Glenearn (built 1938) and her sister Glengyle (1939) which were requisitioned by the Admiralty on the outbreak of war in 1939.
However, Leisure & Culture Dundee has said that the McManus is not in a position to host the model.
Mr Reilly said he and Dr Jeffrey were continuing to investigate various possibilities for the future of the Glenearn model – even wondering if it could be temporarily housed in V&A Dundee.
They say it represents a “jewel in the crown” of Dundee’s industrial heritage and should become a “memorial” to Dundee’s Caledon yard, which closed in 1981, and to show case the remarkable history of these vessels.
Conversation