A Dumfries munitions girl is to be honoured by having her name added to the Maxwelltown War Memorial on Thursday.
The 2pm dedication service is ahead of Remembrance Sunday and acknowledges Christina Stevenson Carrol Caldow, who died at the age of 18 in 1915.
The teenager is one of hundreds of munitions girls across the UK who did not get their name on a local war memorial but played a significant part in the WW1 effort.
Now that is being corrected with Dumfries and Maxwelltown branch of Legion Scotland heading the outdoor service which follows Christina’s name being inscribed on the Scottish National War Memorial in 2019 – 104 years after her death.
Engineering historian, Dr Nina Baker, whose research then helped get the dedication on the national memorial to honour the part Christina played in the First World War at Heathhall’s Arrol-Johnston factory, had hoped at the time that the teenager would also be remembered in her home town.
Christina had been working for a few months at the factory when she died from inhaling tetrachlorethane fumes of the varnish – known as dope – which was used in making very early fighter planes.
The factory initially opened in 1913 to build cars but had to convert to munitions work with the outbreak of war and at the time of Christina’s death was making aeroplane wings.
Dr Baker said: “Christina was one of the unsung, very ordinary people who put their efforts into the nation’s service and paid the ultimate price.
“Like many working class girls in WW1 she was probably delighted to get a job in the brand new factory, with all its welfare facilities, and better pay than she would have got in domestic service.
“We know she must have been a conscientious worker, because the best work was done by girls who put their eyes close to the fabric they were painting with the dope.
“Sadly, the toxic chemical damaged her liver and gave her meningitis and she died in Dumfries Royal Infirmary just before Christmas of 1915.”
A fatal accident enquiry into the teenager’s death made it clear that the factory had taken reasonable steps and that, although there had been other deaths in the UK like this, Christina’s was the first in Dumfries and the only one at an Arrol-Johnston factory.
Records show the factory had undertaken to improve ventilation and the matter was considered to be a most tragic one-off incident.
Christina was born in Troqueer in about 1897. Her father, William was a gardener and served with the Galloway Rifle Volunteers. In 1900 he volunteered for service with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers for the Boer War. Her mother was Christina Carroll.
She is buried in Dumfries cemetery where her parents joined her in the 1950s, and she had an older brother and sister too.
Frank Roy, secretary of Dumfries and Maxwelltown branch Legion Scotland, said: “Christina was classed as a munitions worker and for that reason her name will live forever on the Maxwelltown War Memorial.”
The Rev Tom Telfer will lead the dedication service, Emma Johnstone is the bugler and the branch standard will be raised by Stuart Bond. Retired Major Charles Milroy will lay a wreath.
Staff and pupils from Troqueer Primary are expected to attend.
