For more than 60 years, there was no sign that Andrew Brownlie was buried in Sighthill.

The 29-year-old aircraft fitter was laid to rest in the cemetery after his death during the Second World War but in the 1950s his grave fell into disrepair and was removed. He became a casualty of the war who had been largely forgotten.

But this week, that was put right when a new gravestone was erected for Gunner Brownlie and another soldier, James Motherwell of Dennistoun, whose grave was re-erected exactly 100 years after his death on October 18, 1916. The new headstones are among 85 that are being installed at Sighthill cemetery over the next few weeks as part of a commemorative project by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).

The event on Tuesday was marked by a wreath-laying and a small gathering by the graveside of some of Gunner Brownlie’s relatives who came from all over the UK to see the new stone being installed. Among them was Andrew Brownlie’s nephew Stuart Ogilvie, who is now 68 and travelled up from Northamptonshire for the event.

It was Stuart who first started to uncover his ancestor’s story while he was conducting research into his family history and discovered how the young aircraft fitter died. Gunner Brownlie had been serving with the RAF in Egypt and was on a plane flying back to Scotland when it hit bad weather and crashed in to a mountain on the Cooley Peninsula in Ireland on March 16, 1942. Fifteen other allied airmen died in the crash, which was one of the worst of the Second World War.

Stuart Ogilvie said the commemorative event at Sighthill cemetery - which was also attended by Stuart’s 69-year-old cousin Robert Coleman, from Glasgow, and Andrew Brownlie’s step-niece Fiona Barrett, 48, from Berkshire - was the end of a long process of discovering more about his ancestor.

“I’ve started to feel an increasing connection to Andrew,” said Stuart. “It’s a difficult feeling today because it’s almost like being reunited with somebody I didn’t know . But he is somebody who I’ve now learned a lot about and it’s almost like he’s come back into being part of the family again.”

Stuart also said that the re-erection of the gravestones was part of a much bigger project of remembrance. “It’s also too easy to forget, especially the casualties from the First World War. It’s about making sure that we remember.”

The other grave that was installed at this week’s event belongs to James Motherwell, a 32-year-old gunner with Royal Field Artillery, 51st Highland Division Ammunition Column, who died in October 1916 in a military hospital in Cambuslang after several months fighting on the Western Front.

Little was known about James until just a couple of days ago when genealogist Michelle Leonard researched his life for the CWGC and discovered his moving story.

“I felt compelled to try,” she said. “I went to the archives in Glasgow and I had only two hours, and I traced pretty much all his brothers and sisters and family. It’s a very sad story.

“His parents were James Motherwell and Margaret Rankin and they were a Denistoun family through and through and had nine children. It was really sad because out of their first six children, five died as children. Only four of their children made it into adulthood and one of those was James, who died in the war.”

Michelle also discovered James’s war records which revealed that he enlisted in November 1915 while working as a coal merchant in Rothesay. He then served three months on the Somme but by July 1916 was gravely ill with scarlet fever. He was then sent home, but developed acute septic peritonitis and died at Cambuslang War Hospital on October 18 1916 after doctors operated in an attempt to save his life.

What is also known about James is that he married just before he went out to France, but had no children and that his wife Jane died in 1973. There are some grand nephews and nieces living in England but they were only discovered in the last couple of days and were unable to attend.

Speaking by James’ new gravestone as it was erected, Iain Anderson, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s regional supervisor for Scotland, explained the importance of the ongoing project to restore the gravestones. He said the commission had been forced to take many of them down in the 1950s because the cemetery had fallen into disrepair, but that it was now determined to reinstate as many as it could.

“Even though our boys were commemorated at Eastwood cemetery for the last 60 years when the original headstones were removed, it’s very special to be able to re-install the headstones where they lay, so everyone can remember them,” he said.

“Every one of the stones has their own story and they are touching and thought-provoking. The main thing is to make people aware that there are war graves on their doorstep – wherever you are in Scotland, you will find war graves within a short distance.”