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As examples of the interesting talks which have been held in previous sessions
at the Society, the list shown opposite are ones which the Society has
heard in the past.
The Images of women appearing on banknotes over the past two centuries.
Virginia Hewitt, former curator at the British Museum
This vessel exploded off Arran in March, 1943 killing
379 people, but only 23 bodies are in marked graves.
Did Alan Breck really kill the Red Fox and then flee across half of Scotland
together with David Balfour?
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote "Kidnapped" around this
incident and there is a Stevenson Way tracing their
flight, which finishes up in Corstorphine where the two
bronze figures can be seen.
Our speaker
Dr. Irene O'Brien
Mr. Ian Mitchell
Benbecula, the Dark Island.
Keystone Mill, Milngavie.
Margaret Lumsdaine
Professor Ian Bone
Vanessa Collingridge
Jimmy Crawford
Dr. Gordon Barr
Mr. Len Murray
The Great Tapestry of Scotland
The Ha-has of Dougalston
The Great Railway Races.
Susan Morrison the well known historian and comedienne told the
bewitching story of this extraordinary character living in the 1660s.
Not for the faint hearted.
Dr. David Lawson with his affection for Orkney where John Rae was born
related the courageous journey taken by him through the Arctic and beyond
to find this elusive seaway. His pioneering work is at last being
appreciated albeit a century after his death.
Hamish MacDougall, our last chairman, talked about HMS Warrior, from 1860 to
today (and forever)
Professor Roy Burdon gave an insight into whether it is Fake or
Fortune. The historical problems which confront potential art buyers
and art forgers will be explored along with forgers’ preferences and
reasons for pursuing the trade.
Our speaker focussed on the diverse nature of the
working class family and illustrated how premarital sex,
cohabitation and marriage breakdown are by no means new phenomena.
Professor Oswald Jarrett told of the modest beginnings in a small
shoeing forge in Sauchiehall Lane in 1862 to the present large
complex at Garscube Estate. The School has been at the forefront
of innovation in animal welfare, public health, basic research and
veterinary education. Recent research has been done on the feline
leukaemia virus.
Short talks on:
The Tay rail bridge disaster
Palmyra in Syria
Dr. Brian Moffat made a welcome return to give an update of
the investigations at the mediaeval hospital at Soutra; exotic plants
brought in for medical purposes still in use today and other strangely
prophetic skills.
Tom Addyman is an archaeology expert and involved in a
major project to preserve a “Unique Indian Fortress” adjacent to the
major city of Amritsar – famed for its golden temple.
Fiona Baker is a
consultant archaeologist. She was responsible for The Loch Lomond Survey
carried out between 1995-98 which was commissioned by the Friends of
Loch Lomond. She works all over Scotland at present dealing with
river hydro schemes.
Mr. Douglas Annan gave a wonderful tour of Glasgow from
his collection of old photos from the Annan collection dating back as
far as 1855.
Mr. Burns Shearar's talk presented a picture of the
problems facing travellers on Clydeside in the early 1800s, the successes
and disaster which befell The Comet, the perils of early steam navigation
and the quite amazing development of the shipyards on the Clyde.
Mr. Callum Christie was one of the last generation of
British district officers and one of a few still able to recount this
closing period of British Imperial history through his contemporary letters.
Dr. Joan McAlpine talked on Isabella Elder who
inherited her husband’s shipyard on his early death. She died herself in
1905 having left large sums of money to deserving causes e.g. the Fund
for Indigent Widows among others. Her portrait hangs in Kelvingrove Art
Gallery.
Short talks on:
The Scottish Bicycle
My Family at War
The island where nothing makes sense.
Dr. Vanessa Collingridge returned to talk on the three epic journeys where
Captain Cook discovered more of the earth’s surface than any other man.
Not only was he a prolific seaman, but he was also valued as a scientist, cartographer and
surveyor. Quite simply, James Cook was the greatest explorer in history.
In this richly-illustrated talk Vanessa talked about the life and voyages of the explorer
Captain James Cook - and why he spent years searching for a Great Southern
Continent that didn’t exist!
Kenny Brophy talked about "The Cochno Stone" in Clydebank which is now one of
the most important prehistoric rock-art sites in
Scotland. This talk will recounted its colourful history, from antiquarian discovery, to being
painted by Ludovic Mann, to vandalism and burial. The story was brought up to date
with details of the excavation of the Cochno Stone in 2016 and provide updates on analysis of
the data gathered during this fieldwork.
The Lord Lyon King of Arms gave a short history of the Lyon
Court which is the heraldic authority for Scotland and deals with all
matters relating to Scottish Heraldry and Coats of Arms, maintaining the
Scottish Public Register of Arms and Genealogies.
Carol Primrose spoke about Cawder and its history. Part of the Antonine Wall
crosses the area which was subsequently granted to a follower of
King David 1 in the 12th century and became the home of the Stirlings of Cawder
until the present role as a golf course.
Anna Magnusson gave a lecture on the beginning of the institution founded by the
shoemaker William Quarrier in the 1870s. He himself had experienced a very impoverished
childhood, a situation which he overcame through hard work, determination and Christian
faith. Out of the orphanage he founded grew a children’s village where poor children from the
town and cities of Scotland might enjoy a new life in cottage homes under supervision of house
fathers and house mothers. This grew to a self-contained community with a church and a large
school.
Nick Dixon gave a fascinating talk on crannogs and other artificial islands in
Scottish lochs which can be considered, by their nature
being surrounded by water, as fortresses. However, underwater excavations have
demonstrated a massive amount about the way of life of their inhabitants. Clear evidence for
farming, hunting and gathering show that the crannog dwellers were sophisticated farmers and
exploited the landscape around them for a varied food supply. The evidence for Homestead or
Fortress was explored.
Short talks on:
Gavin's Mill
Using Computer Simulation in Archaeology
La Belle Place in Glasgow
Shackleton....and Me!
Alan McBride - Alan works for the Ranger Service at Mugdock
and has an in-depth knowledge of the place. From 14th century castle and
sinister gallows, to a WWI gun site and a zoo with wandering elephant, Mugdock
has seen the lot.
Susan Morrison - Kidnapping, murder and treasonous intrigue
were all part of the royal day for a Stuart Monarch. From James VI, such
dangers were hereditary, with both his parents victims of conspiracy.
Comedian and presenter of BBC Radio Scotland’s Time Travels, Susan
explored three plots that had a lasting impact on James VI, from his own
narrow escape at Gowrie House, to the fatal undoing of his mother through the
Babbington Plot and the trail of guilt surrounding his father’s murder that
night in the Kirk O Fields. A night of kidnap, mayhem, murder and ink!
Nicholas Gray - Just over 400 years ago Scottish King
James inherited the English Crown and a country in ferment. James decided to
commission a new Bible translation both to unite his people and also fix his
own regal position in the new Union. The idea was not a new one; it was a
re-run of an idea he had hatched in Fife several years before. Would it
succeed? Third generation Bible publisher Nicholas Gray, whose company holds
a royal licence to print the Bible in Scotland, explored the background to the
first printing of the Authorized Bible in 1611 and assesses its legacy for
the world.
Jim Walker - The Antonine Wall was the frontier built by the
Roman Army between AD 140-142 on the orders of the Emperor Antoninus Pius. It
ran for 40 Roman miles (60km) from Bo’ness to Old Kilpatrick, and consisted of
a turf rampart with a stone base topped with a wooden fence and boardwalk. The
frontier was abandoned just 20 years after being built, with the army
withdrawing to Hadrian’s Wall.
Sarah Reid - Sarah is a Forensic Scientist at the Scottish
Police Authority and talked on the science in Scotland.
Alan MacDonald - The two earliest paintings by Scottish
artists in the Glasgow Museums are a portrait of Harry Nisbit, Lord Provost
of Edinburgh in 1598, by George Jamesone, and a still life of Game Birds,
by William Gouw Ferguson, c1640.The collection of paintings in Glasgow Museums
includes works by these and many other Scottish artists such as Ramsey,
Raeburn and C.R. Mackintosh and many of these paintings illustrate
significant figures of events in the history of Scotland, and formed the
core of Alan’s presentation.
John Jackson - A collection of books accumulated for the last
fifty years was the basis of a look at various historical themes about the
island – the clearances and the profound social changes of the eighteenth
century; the growth of tourism; and the development of the science of geology
in which Arran played a big part. And as an aside, something about the books
themselves and the development of publishing.
Short talks on:
Milngavie Water Works
Symerhill and Ludwig
Cancelled.
An AGM was held on Zoom.
Ailsa Turner also gave a talk on the artist David Wilkie.
James Duncan was a businessman and sugar refiner who became a philanthropist
and art collector. His house and grounds became Benmore Botanic Garden.
A cache of Viking-age gold and silver was unearthed in 2014 and was the
richest collection ever found in Britain. It is of international
significance.
This talk is about the direct ancestral line of Theodore Roosevelt and
Eleanor Roosevelt originating in Baldernock in the 17th century, and the
story's connection with the disastrous Darien Expedition of 1698-99, the
American War of Independence, the American Civil War and the Panama Canal...
Why is there such world wide interest in Burns, why are there Burns Suppers in
over 200 countries throughout the world and why is he the only figure in
world literature who is treated this way?
Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson (1817-1875) and Owen Jones (1809-1874), were
architects and designers based in Glasgow and London respectively. Almost
direct contemporaries, they were known for their innovative adaptations of
the styles of ancient foreign cultures – primarily the Grecian for ‘Greek’
Thomson, and the Islamic for Jones. Both were enthusiastic historians of
design but, unlike many Victorian Revivalist architects, they did not merely
copy the forms of the past, but developed their own architectural language
fit for the modern age. They experimented with new materials, like cast iron
and plate glass, and created uniquely dramatic, colourful interiors. They
designed the types of buildings required by the commercial Victorian age:
villas, tenements, warehouses, bazaars, exhibition halls. Yet both men were
idealists, with a profound belief in the importance of architecture and
design for society.
This illustrated talk is titled “Are We Nearly There Yet?” and was about
Scottish milestones. Not just distance markers, but early methods of
measurement and mapping and the 18th and 19th century travellers whose
journals laid the foundations of the Scottish tourist industry.
In 1637 a rebellion broke out in the province of Shimabara, in the south of
Japan. It was a peasants' revolt, following years of bad harvests in which
the local lord had refused to lower taxes. Many of the rebels were Christians,
and they fought under a Christian banner. Following the revolt, the Japanese
were ruled by the Shogun, who closed Japan to foreign visitors for 250 years,
apart from a small trading post in Nagasaki.
The talk provides a general introduction into the work of the
Commonwealth Graves Commission - covering the foundation and activities right
up to the present day. We then look at the Archives and how the public can
research their own families.