A DESCENDENT of the man who was the Clydebank town clerk during the Blitz has described how his great-grandfather’s dedication to the job may have saved his life.

Henry Kelly, who was a veteran of the First World War, was given the added title of Civil Defence Controller during the Second World War.

He was tasked with making sure the town was as prepared as it could be for a bombing event and had responsibility for educating the public on what to do if a bomb was to strike.

Henry’s great-grandson, Craig, says his ancestor tried to hold a meeting just weeks before the Luftwaffe bombers raided the town only for the event to be ignored.

He told the Post: “On February 25, just before the Blitz hit Clydebank, he’d called a meeting at Clydebank Town Hall to discuss fire-watching arrangements in the town that basically nobody turned up to.”

Admitting his great-grandfather was less than pleased about the no-show, Craig said Henry’s jobs included making sure people’s houses were boarded up properly and not emitting any light as well as fire-watching duties.

And he believes Henry’s “workaholic” approach to his responsibilities arguably saved his life on the nights of March 13 – 15.

He said: “His family home was flattened. I’m not sure if it was the 13th or 14th, but it was bombed.

“So it was quite good that my grandfather had been evacuated and that Henry was out working. It probably saved his life.”

Craig’s grandfather, who was a baby at the time, was evacuated along with the rest of the family to Perthshire prior to the Blitz.

And those fateful nights in March 1941 took their toll on Henry, who was left behind to look after Clydebank and holed up in his office during the bombing.

The horrific events had a lasting effect on him for the rest of his life.

“My experience of the stories growing up was that this was something that was a really negative thing that had a massive impact on him as a person,” Craig added. “He never really got over it.”

Henry was one of the lucky ones who survived the Blitz and he went on to live until the 1980s, when he sadly died of a heart attack.

But his story is one of a man who cared deeply about protecting the people of Clydebank.