Old Photograph Seaview Place Bo'ness Scotland

Old photograph of a shop, horse and cart and people on Seaview Place in Bo'ness in West Lothian, Scotland. Group Captain George Lovell " Uncle " Denholm was born at Tidings Hill in Bo'ness on 20 December 1908. The son of a coal exporters and pit prop and timber importer. He attended Cargilfield Preparatory School and Fettes College, and later studied law at St John's College, Cambridge, England. At Cambridge, he joined the University Cadet Corps. In 1933, Denholm took an interest in planes and joined No. 603, City of Edinburgh Squadron of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. He took flight training on Airco DH.9A biplanes at RAF Macmerry and RAF East Fortune in East Lothian. In August 1939, Denholm was drafted as a flight commander to 603 Squadron at RAF Drem. By the start of the Second World War, Denholm had converted to fly the new Mk.I Spitfire. It was whilst on combat patrol in his Spitfire on 16 October 1939 that he shared in the shooting down of a Heinkel He 111, which was attempting to bomb the Forth Railway Bridge, near Port Seton in East Lothian. It was the first German bomber to be shot down over Great Britain in the Second World War. On 12 March 1940 he damaged a Dornier Do 17 off the coast near Aberdeen. Due to Denholm being 32 at the time and much older than other pilots in the squadron he was nicknamed " Uncle George ". With the Battle of Britain in full swing in the summer of 1940, Denholm's squadron was transferred to RAF Hornchurch in southern England. Flying regular bomber interception sorties, Denholm claimed a probable He 111 on 26 June and shared Junkers Ju 88 on 3 July, plus a Messerschmitt Bf 109 destroyed and another probable on 28 August. On 30 August, whilst in combat with Me 110s over Snargate in Kent he was shot down but managed to bail out. In April 1941, he relinquished command of No. 603 Squadron and was posted as Fighter Controller to the Operations Room at RAF Turnhouse in Edinburgh. On 10 May 1941, Denholm was on duty when Rudolf Hess's Me 110 was intercepted over Scotland and the Reich Deputy Führer was arrested. After the war Denholm returned to the family business, J & J Denholm, and in the 1950s was briefly a member of Bo’ness Municipal Council. He married Betty Tooms in 1939. They had two sons and two daughters. He died on 15 June 1997.



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