IN February 1916, one of the young heroes of the Great War lost his life while fighting in the Middle East for King and country.

At exactly the same time his uncle was at home in Glasgow facing jail for criticising the conflict.

But despite his time behind bars, he would go on to be MP for Maryhill.

John William Muir was born in December 1879 at a house in North Woodside Road.

He became a skilled tradesman at the precision engineering firm of Barr and Stroud, of Anniesland.

At the outbreak of war in 1914 he was editor of The Socialist, the paper of a small Marxist set called the Socialist Labour Party.

John Muir was drawn to the shop stewards' movement which opposed the Munitions Act which brought private companies supplying the armed forges under the tight control of the newly created Ministry of Munitions, regulating wages, hours and employment conditions.

The Clyde Workers Committee, which was formed to campaign against the government controls, threatened to disrupt munitions production.

Muir, who was its intellectual leader, presented the case for workplace control of production at famous meetings with Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions at Christmas 1915.

That was a year after the first of four of his nephews was killed in action.

Matthew Sinclair, who was a private in the 1st Battalion Highland Light Infantry, was born in Tradeston and joined the army in 1911 at the age of 19.

He arrived in France in November 1914 but was killed in action the following month.

Matthew's brothers Joseph, Colin and Henry also fought overseas during the war.

Joseph, who was also in the Highland Light Infantry, arrived in France in August 1914 but was transferred to Mesopotamia - today's Iran and Kuwait.

He died there on February 1, 1916 at the age of 22. His name is on the Basra Memorial.

His brother Colin, a private in the 10th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders had enlisted in the 4th special reserve in January 1913 and joined the regular army four months later.

He arrived in France on June 8, 1915 and was killed in October the following year. He was 20.

The final brother to die was Henry who was in the 2nd Battalion Cameronian Scottish Rifles.

He arrived in France on November 1914 and was killed on September 30, 1916 at the age of 27.

As the last of the brave young men died, their uncle was at the start of a year-long prison sentence having been convicted under the Defense of the Realm Act.

His crime was publishing an article entitled "Should the workers arm" - it decided that they should not.

Muir, who had no part in writing the article, was released from prison in 1917 and in 1922 was the successful Labour candidate for the Maryhill seat in Westminster.

He spoke passionately in Parliament about poverty and unemployment and was a supporter of Scottish home rule.

After losing his seat in 1924, he ran the Workers' Education Association until he was forced to retire in 1930 because of ill health.

He returned to Glasgow, where he died in Robroyston Hospital of a spinal tumour on January 11, 1931. He is buried at the Western Necropolis.

When thousands of women took control...

BY the end of World War 1, half of all Scottish men aged between 18 and 45 were fighting at the Front.

At home, a further 100,000 males were working for the war effort in shipbuilding yards on the Clyde.

And a further 20,000 men were employed making munitions in Beardsmore's Parkhead Forge, then the largest steelworks in Scotland.

With so many men enlisting, women were increasingly needed to replace them and took up jobs in fire stations, on the trams, in the shipyards and in factories.

At Glasgow Fire Service, almost 70% of the service enlisted and were replaced by women working in local factories who were specially trained at what is now Springburn Fire Station.

In 1915, the first two female tram conductresses in Britain were employed by Glasgow Corporation Tramways to keep the city moving.

Ministry of Munitions figures show that by 1916, there were 18,500 women working in metal trades in the Clydeside area.

By the end of the war, the number of women involved in the war industries in Clydeside munitions factories was estimated to be 65,000.

Maryhill's Malayan veteran Jim dies at 82

A RIFLEMAN who fought in Malaya has died at the age of 82. James Moir, born and bred in Maryhill, passed away peacefully in hospital from a chest infection.

His wife of 58 years, Elizabeth, also 82, said: "I'll really miss him. He was my hero."

Jim fought for two years with the Cameronian Rifles in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency, having been deployed at the age of 19. He then served almost a decade in the Territorial Army, training as a paratrooper.

Betty said: "He loved the Army and the TA. He was so proud of what he did there, especially the paratrooping.

"He used to jump out of the American Dakota planes. He must've been mad, but he enjoyed it. It suited his character - he was a daredevil."

Through the TA Jim also trained as a driver of the DUKW vehicles, known as Ducks - amphibious vehicles used for carrying troops and goods over land and water.

Ever the joker, one day he drove a group of friends along Maryhill Road in a Duck, stopping at tram stops to let them off - a move which failed to impress his TA seniors.

Jim and Betty met at the Locarno ballroom on Sauchiehall Street.

At the time he played centre forward for Maryhill's amateur football team Hopehill Stars.

The couple married two years later and shortly after had their two children, Gordon and Loretta.

Jim went on to train as a driving instructor and later opened his own driving school, but had to retire when he suffered a stroke aged 54, from which he never fully recovered.