HE was born, worked and retired in the shadow of Glasgow's most famous brewery.

 

And now Donald Smith has returned to Tennent's Wellpark site to visit for the first time in 10 years.

Donald started his working career as a cask washer but finished - 40 years later - as Distribution Director of the firm.

It was an impressive rise from a humble start.

Donald's grandfather had worked for Tennent's, organising deliveries right through World War II, well into his 70s.

His father also worked for the company and was in charge of the Stabling Yard in the 1930s.

Donald's first job earned him the grand sum of half-a-crown, delivering the Evening Times at the age of 10.

But before his career could progress further, World War II borke out and he was evacuated to Cromlix House - now the luxury hotel owned by Andy Murray.

Not long in to the war, Donald's father was killed in action in North Africa, while serving in the Royal Army Service Corps.

Donald felt it was important that he return to the East End and help earn money for the family, to suppliment his mother's income - working in Tennent's Brewery Canteen Restaurant.

First, Donald took work in the Co-op but the job earned him only 12 and sixpence a week and meant he would have to miss his beloved football at the weekend.

A neighbour said he could get Donald a job in Tennent's and, despite his mother being against the idea, he leapt at the chance - it meant more money and gave him a Saturday off.

He started in the brewery on June 1, 1941 when he was 13 - 22 days before his 14th birthday.

His first role was as a cask washer, which meant crawling inside the giant wooden barrels with a candle, scrubbing brush and hose.

The work meant daily soakings and Donald's health suffered so he was moved to the Lager Filter House instead.

It was the first of a series of moves to various departments in the brewery that would eventually see him become a senior manager.

When the industrial relations act of 1971 was passed Donald became involved in the union movement.

During the Second World War Donald was called up to the RAF. Stationed in Egypt, he was responsible for helping prisoners of war to return to their families.

He said: "National service gave you a different attitude to work.

"There were things about working overseas and the attitude of the Germans towards work I was dealing with that you brought back with you."

Parkhouse Lane, where he and his family lived, was almost part of the Wellpark grounds.

The street had five closes and four levels with three flats on each level.

It was a very close community and when the flats were razed - Donald's mother went to East Kilbride - they still kept in contact.

The area was taken over to become part of the brewery and an office block, containing Donald's office, was build on the site.

It meant he was working in the exact spot he had grown up and lived until he was 23 and was married.

And Donald remembers having an orange and black Ford Cortina car, which he parked right at the front of the office.

During his married years he and his wife progressed from a small flat in the east end to a home in Stepps and finally a house in Newton Mearns, which they called Cromlix.

The couple had a daughter, a maths teacher, who is aged 60 and a son, 55, who works for SPT and lives in Giffnock.

Donald said: "I never once applied for a job. It was just a case of people offering me things and saying, 'I think this might be the job for you.'

"I always had self confidence and the belief that if you applied yourself you would be rewarded for the results of your efforts.

"At one stage I turned down a job in London. I'm a home boy and I've never regretted staying."

Headded: "Looking around today, there's almost nothing that was as before: the stable yard is gone, the church is gone where I went to Boys Brigade.

"One morning we came out of the church service and a bomb had dropped just across the road. A German land mine dropped yards from the brewery, in Edmund Street. It was thought the Germans might have mistaken the building for the nearby Parkhead Forge.

Donald finally retired on June 1, 1989.

He said: "It is difficult to explain how it felt to retire after coming through those gates for all those number of years and suddenly realising this was the last time I would walk through them as a staff member.

"I was emotional.

"I didn't want people to say cheerio, I just wanted to leave quietly - I had done my stint.

"It was a wonderful career."