"Get the bars off," desperate onlookers shouted to firemen

Mr Brown, 36, worked at the upholstery factory of A.J. and S. Stern in James Watt Street, Glasgow.

Fire broke out at around 10.30am. Horrified eyewitnesses watched helplessly as people, trapped behind iron-barred windows in the upper floors of the burning building, screamed for help, beating the windows with furniture in a vain attempt to escape. Onlookers shouted at firemen to "get the bars off", but the sheer intensity of the blaze and the dense smoke made rescue efforts impossible.

Firefighters who entered the building found that fire-escape doors had been padlocked from the inside.

A number of young people were among the 22 who lost their lives. One girl of 15 died alongside her mum.

The tragedy stunned Scotland and led to major changes in fire safety in factories. It took place only 400 yards from Cheapside Street, where 14 Glasgow firefighters and five members of the Glasgow Salvage Corps died while fighting a serious fire at a whisky warehouse on March 28, 1960.

"In terms of lives lost," say Alan Forbes and Jim Smith in Tinderbox Heroes, their book about Glasgow's postwar fire service, "the fire at A J & S Stern's factory eclipsed all the other dreadful fires that gave postwar Glasgow its Tinderbox City reputation."

Bereaved relatives told the fatal accident inquiry of fears of fire at the factory that had led to threats of a strike. Other witnesses described the factory as a "death-trap" and a "madhouse."

The jury said the fire was probably caused by some smoking material, carelessly discarded by an unspecified person, which ignited a large quantity of inflammable material stored on the mezzanine floor.

It found that 20 of the deaths were due to the fault and negligence of the firm and of Samuel Stern and his late brother Julius, who died in the blaze.

Mrs Davies, who lives in the Shetland islands, recalls her own mother struggling to raise four children on her own. "Her personal devastation sadly meant that my dad was never mentioned again. It was like he never existed at all."

Mrs Davies says she thinks of her father every day and that the sense of "enormous loss" she felt has shaped her life every day since.

On Sunday, the fiftieth anniversary of the tragedy, she will be present at St Andrew’s Cathedral at the midday Mass for a special Mass to remember the deceased and their relatives. The celebrant will be Archbishop Tartaglia, and Bailie John Kane will represent Glasgow City Council. Senior members of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service will also attend.

She said: "I'm over the moon that a service is happening on Sunday because really there has been fifty years of silence over the victims of the fire. The city has never seemed to remember the James Watt Street fire or to have recognised the decades of grief it meant for twenty-two families.

"My longer-term goal is to get some sort of official commemoration or statue to them. They deserve nothing more.

Mrs Davies added: "I was never told what has happened. I didn't go to the funeral, I didn't go to the vigil mass that was held after it. My mum was so traumatised by what had happened that she never talked about my dad again. It was just too painful to discuss it.

"She lived until she was 80 and I never heard her mention him for the rest of her life.

"I grew up in a silence surrounding his death, but it led me to try to understand what was going on, and I ended up working as an NHS clinical psychologist, trying to find some meaning in what happened to my dad.

"The jury made firm recommendations, prohibiting the bars on factory windows, and controls on the storage and use of foam plastics and other inflammable materials.

"They changed a lot of things in factories and work-places and though 22 people died, many other lives have been saved as a consequence."

Bailie John Kane said: “The James Watt Street Fire was a shocking tragedy that cost 22 people their lives. More than 100 fire fighters bravely tackled the blaze. On the 50th anniversary of this disaster, I hope this Commemoration Mass brings comfort to the bereaved family members and everyone else affected. This horrific incident led to changes in legislation to help keep people safe at work.”

Archbishop Tartaglia told the church's Flourish magazine: “I will be glad to offer the 12 noon Mass for all who were affected by the tragedy. Anniversaries like this are so important to those who suffered and it’s good that we gather together in times like this to remember, to pray and to grieve.

JIM Smith, who volunteers as a Scottish Fire and Rescue Service historian, was a firefighter in November 1968 and was one of those who tackled the fire at James Watt Street.

"The big problem for the firefighters were that we had no idea where the people were in the building," he recalled. "The smoke was so dense that it was extremely difficult to even see the building, let alone the barred windows."

Mr Smith and some colleagues put on breathing apparatus sets and climbed a smoke-filled stairway. On the first floor he realised that the steel escape-door was padlocked from the inside. He cut a panel out of the door. Many of the casualties were found in various places on the first floor.

"The other big problem for us were the toxic gases that were coming from the burning polyurethane foam that was stored at the factory. If we had used cutting equipment to cut the bars out of the windows, we would have had an ignition and we would have been blown across the street."

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) website says that during the fatal accident inquiry, the union "actively and repeatedly" turned attention to the need for fire safety improvements.

It adds: "The inquiry’s recommendations included a ban on bars on the windows of factories, the control of the storage and use of foam plastics and other flammable materials that give off toxic fumes when ignited, and the extension of restrictions on smoking in factories.

"In addition, measures were introduced for more frequent inspection of factories with a high fire risk and for introducing certification of premises to ensure they had safe and suitable means of escape."