Civilian Transit Camp Neilston

Records indicate that a World War II civilian transit camp was located in Neilston, south west of Glasgow, on both sides of Double Hedges Road and Kingston Road, approximately 250 metres southwest of Neilston railway station.

The purpose of the Neilston camp, together with another established at Bridge Of Weir, was to accommodate some 6,000 civilian refugees, displaced and evacuated from Gibraltar at the start of World War II. The refugees had been moved from London in 1944, after the V1 flying bomb attacks began. Aerial photography from 1946 shows at least 48 huts with pitched roofs, arranged in streets around a large T-shaped building, which was a dining hall and kitchen.

The camp in Neilston was called Kingston Hostel and also housed at the camp were refugees from Malta and Norway, the Norwegians were housed there from March 1945 until September 1945.

The site has been lost to later housing development, however there is one building still remaining and is within Kingston Playing Fields used previously as a sports pavillion.

There is more information on East Refrewshire Council's website about the Norwegian's who stayed at the camp.