‘I became known in the family as the baby blown out of the window’: Almost 80 years on, survivor reveals miracle of 1249 Govan Road

As she looks at the framed family photographs in her living room, Anne Singh can count her blessings.

The mum to three sons, gran to seven, great-gran to five has every reason to look back on a lucky life.

It is one she should not, by rights, have survived to enjoy and Anne, who celebrates her 80th birthday this year, has revealed her miraculous escape when she was just 15 months old and blown from a second-storey tenement window as the Nazis blitzed Glasgow.

Entire families were killed as the building was destroyed in the Second World War bombing raid. Tragically, Anne’s mum, Rebecca Duthie, was among the casualties.

© West Dunbartonshire Libraries & Cultural Services

Speaking for the first time about her traumatic escape, only child Anne says her miraculous survival is down to how tightly her mum wrapped her in a shawl that evening.

“I was in a cot at the window and was sleeping, yet when they found me I didn’t have a mark on me,” said Anne.

“There are 38 names on the list of people who died at the tenement block between 1249 and 1259 Govan Road and, as far as I’m aware, I’m the only one who survived.”

It is thought the Luftwaffe were aiming for the Stephen’s shipbuilding yard when they struck the red sandstone tenements on the night of March 13, 1941.

Anne’s dad was working in a sawmill at the time and came home to the scenes of destruction.

“He never spoke about it,” Anne continued. “But my aunt said they couldn’t find me and then they discovered I was in the Southern General.

“I was told this when I was five or six, but I didn’t think to ask any questions. I just became known in the family as the baby who was blown out of the window.”

It was a chance meeting just a few years ago in Largs, Anne’s mum’s home town, which provided her with more information about the night.

She said: “It was the first time I’d ever met someone who knew anything about what had happened.”

Anne had visited St Columba’s Parish Church looking for information about her relatives when she met church elder, David Hendry, who realised he already knew Anne’s story.

David said: “My dad, also David, was a bus driver during the war and was driving through Govan that day when the air raid siren sounded.

“A warden told him to pull over by the 1249-1259 Govan Road tenement, but the passengers were concerned about being so close to Stephen’s shipbuilding yard, so the conductress bravely walked in front of the bus, guiding my dad away from the area.

“The next morning, the pair set off on their route from Largs and when they arrived in Govan were shocked to see the mass destruction from the previous night.

“The tenement Dad had been told to park next to was a pile of rubble.

“Then a small cry was heard by the exhausted rescue workers and they found a baby girl.”

© Chris Austin / DCT Media

Anne and her dad, William, stayed with her aunt and uncle in Largs, and later with a couple in Cardonald, Glasgow.

She married and had three sons, Thomas, Stephen and Kevin. When her husband died aged just 40, Anne went out to work to provide for the family. She married again and has been with second husband David for more than 30 years.

The council decided not to rebuild homes on the site and now a petrol station is in the space, with the remaining tenements on either side.

Anne added: “I know I was lucky to survive but I always say I must have been kept for a reason.”

As she looks around at the framed pictures one more time, the answer is right in front of her.