AGS Magazine December 1951

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CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS Facing page

Mr. Henry Paterson, M.A. .

. 46

Facing page

Upper VI, 1951-52

With a Held Ambulance in Korea. By John L. Kilgour .

Decline and Fall—Farewell to Abadan. By Ian M. C. Crawford . . .

In the Stcps of Battus. By Edward Fraser . . . . .

Notes about Old Boys . . . . . . . .

University Notes . . . . . . . .

Books by F.P.s . . . . .

Legacies for School and Club . . . . . .

First Boarding House Reunion . . . . . .

Marriages . . . . . . . .

Obituary . . .

School Section— .

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Changes in the School Staff .

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Evensong .

• • • • • • • Tobermory . .

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• London Rhapsody .

Dic Maultrommel . . . .

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School and Random Notes House News. Lower School Notes .

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Literary and Debating Society .

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Combined Cadet Force Notes. Pipes and Drums Scout Notes . . .

Swimming Club. Arts Club. Scottish Schoolboys' Club .

School Sporting Activities— .

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Rugby . . .

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• • • • • • Hockey. Cricket Club— The Former Pupils' • • • • • • • The Annual Dinner .

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London Centre • .

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Glasgow Centre • • • F.P. Golf Section .

• F.P. Cricket Section .

• • • • • • • F.P. Rugby Section . . .

• • . .

• F.P. Hockey Section .

• . .

F.P. Club Consuls . .

• • F.P. Club Boarding House. New Members of the Club .

F.P. Club Office-Bearers, 1951-5 2 . . . . .

Club Subscription Rates . . . . . . .

School and F.P. Rugby Fixtures in the South .

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine 68th year, No. z69

Vol. LV

(New Series, 59th year, No. 16i))

DECEMBER 19SI

No. r

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The Magazine is published under the auspices of The Former Pupils' Club in December and July. Communications should be addressed to the Editor, ALAN C. R. WATT, M.A., LL.B., 12 Bon-Accord Crescent, Aberdeen.

NOTE : An asterisk after a name indicates that the F.P. is a member of the F.P. Club; dates after a name indicate the years of attendance at the School.

With a Field Ambulance in Korea Spring of 195o found 22r men in all parts of Britain going about their daily jobs coping with the many frustrations of a normal day's life in what we call our civilised community. Some of these were in uniform, most were not. Those who were not, however, had an almost forgotten tie with the Army and the last war, in that they were still on the Army Reserve. With the fulfilment of spring's promise, the name KOREA appeared in the daily press but had little omen for the 221 ; yet before autumn all were gathered from their familiar surroundings and found themselves collected in a group and called z6 Field Ambulance. Rarely or never can there have been such a unit. On the credit side was the wealth of accumulated experience embodied in the Reservists; in the debit columns were the age of the men and the many near insoluble personal problems and heartbreaks caused by their recall.

After a few weeks spent in formation, training and the collection of kit, stores and vehicles, they began to take an interest in things beyond their unit and realised that they were part of 29 Independent Infantry Brigade Group which was to be Britain's second instalment of help in the Korean war. It is a brief and scanty chronicle of this which follows, as seen through Aberdonian eyes.

The O.C. of the unit was an Aberdonian and a Grammarian— Lieut.-Colonel Alastair MacLennan* (1923-29), O.B.E., R.A.M.C.; the Second in Command had just taken a Kincardineshire wife; and another Medical Officer apart from myself came from Aberdeen— a real North-East colony!

The movement of z9 Brigade, comprising the Northumberland Fusiliers, the Gloucesters, and the Ulster Rifles, with the 45th Field Regiment of Artillery and the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars in support, was undertaken by a procession of ships leaving many ports

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

in the United Kingdom in early October. . . . It was only after leaving Singapore that the idea of unknown Korea being the next stop became realisation in most of our minds. The progress of our ship speedily brought fact to compare with our speculations, and the afternoon of 5 November found us huddling on deck against the sleet blowing from the hills which badly subserve their function of sheltering Pusan.

This, as a port, is good; as anything else, the least said the better. As a foretaste of dirt and apparent confusion it was a true sample of things to come.

At Pusan we were separated from our stores; our vehicles, having been shipped separately, had not arrived, and we, the personnel, went by a not too uncomfortable (relative to others) train, which in three days, with many vicissitudes en route, deposited us at Suwon, an ancient, dirty and picturesque walled city some twenty-five miles south of Seoul, the South Korean capital. In Suwon, a place we were to get to know very well in the ensuing months, we spent three weeks doing as much training as our lack of stores and vehicles permitted. The nights now were becoming cold, though there was still much sun during the shrinking hours of daylight. Our first acquaintance with Koreans was made here. We found them hardy, personally clean when circumstances permitted, though living in surroundings which would grey the hair of a British sanitary inspector over night, and, above all, honest. This last quality was the most surprising to those of us who had memories of Egypt or India.

At this point the war situation ended our isolation in Suwon.

In the far north at Sinanju the Eighth Army was preparing its " End the War by Christmas" offensive. How strange it sounds now!

Then in very short time the feared Chinese intervention became fact, and the recently victorious army was pouring South as fast as legs or wheels could carry it. Our Group was rushed north of Pyonyang in bitter weather, with equipment half unpacked, to stem the tide. On paper we held the bridgehead north of Pyonyang, but fortunately the Chinese were unable to exploit their success, and we personally made no contact. Those of us on the airfield at Pyonyang the night before the evacuation will always have the unforgettable memory of the vast demolitions which took place around us as enormous quantities of stores and facilities were burned or blown up.

In the middle of the same night we were ordered to pull back, or as the Americans say, " bug out ". We then moved ninety miles south in fourteen hours' continuous driving—another memory not easily forgotten and surely a marathon in the history of movements of " disengagement ". Morale at this point was not high. We had gone north prepared for battle, then fallen back in punishing weather —all without firing a shot in anger—without seeing one of the enemy.

This, however, was soon to be remedied. Hogmanay found our Brigade in positions covering Seoul on high barren hills with narrow supply routes to their positions. In these positions we were hit by the Chinese. Our battalions acquitted themselves very well, but in the withdrawal two companies of the Ulster Rifles were cut off

With a Field Ambulance in Korea

3 and suffered heavily. There was no doubt that whatever equipment the enemy lacked, he had no shortage of men who were courageous and determined soldiers.

From this action we fell back in good order and eventually the position was stabilised some fifty miles south, of the Han River, on which Seoul is situated. There, in temperatures reaching fortysix degrees of frost, the next assault was awaited—an assault that never materialised. Once again the Chinese were unable to exploit their advantage. In this anxious period the H.Q. of the Field Ambulance was situated in a much shell-shattered building north of Taejon, which had been a volcanic bath spa. In some incredible way, the baths themselves were intact, as was the constant artesianlike supply of steaming clear water. How welcome it was to sink up to the neck in those Japanese-style baths in very warm water and feel the heat permeating through the frozen marrow of one's bones.

While we were there, a new influence was making itself felt.

The name " Ridgeway" began to be mentioned more and more often, and soon the Eighth Army went on to a slow and deliberate offensive—an offensive that gained momentum as time passed—an offensive that revived the low morale of the U.N. Forces and led to the recapture, in early spring, of Seoul itself, finally carrying 29 Brigade to the banks of the Imjin River, close to the 38th Parallel.

At this time the barren, desolate landscape of ribbed brown hills and dusty frozen valleys—a landscape in which we had thought nothing could grow—began to change. From all sides little suggestions of green appeared. Soon it fought the brown on even terms, finally overcoming it in a luxuriant rush by mid-July. The richness of the vegetation was rivalled by the variety of the bird population —never before have I heard so many cuckoos or seen the lovely colourings of the golden orioles and kingfishers—and many others.

But before this sub-tropical summer we were involved in the bloodiest encounter of the war. On the night of April 22/23, the Chinese launched a very heavy attack, with the initial object of recapturing Seoul. Nowhere was the attack heavier than on the 29 Brigade front, and there on the Gloucesters particularly. There is no need here to elaborate on that much told story, save to say that no description can do full justice to their gallant action.

After a brief period for rest and re-fitting, we found ourselves on the Imjin River again, but this time in strength, with the Canadian and Commonwealth Brigades beside us.

Now we watch our old comrades going unit by unit, or one by one, Home or to other Commands; we make new friends among the newcomers; we wait in hope, tempered with caution, for the results of the cease-fire negotiations. While we wait, the seasons change, having gone the full circle since we arrived. An eventful year, but what next . . .?

IN THE FIELD, Ociober 1951.

JOHN L. KILGOUR* (1936-41).

Decline and Fall Farewell to Abadan At 1.3o p.m. on Wednesday, 4 October 1951, under a cloudless blue sky from which the sun beat down furiously, and to the strains of " Colonel Bogey" (a strange swan-song perhaps: a hopeless gesture of defiance to the hundreds of Iranians lining the jetties) played by the Marine band on board, H.M. cruiser Mauritius weighed anchor and steamed slowly up the Shatt-el-Arab towards Basra.

She carried on board the 330 employees of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company whose fate it had been to remain in Abadan to the end.

The men laughed at the derisive element in the music, but the majority of hearts were heavy, imbued with sadness at the thought of relinquishing without a struggle the huge organisation built up over the past forty years from the efforts of British manpower and brains; the vast accumulation of equipment and installations (many of these massive units the men treasured dearly and treated as their own children), which through continued disuse and lack of proper attention would simply rot and slowly disintegrate; the hospital, reputedly the finest in the Middle East; the comfortable houses which in many instances were the only homes families had known.

The reasons for the final and complete eviction of the A.I.O.C. from its rightful place and property in Iran are manifold, and have been discussed at sufficient length in the newspapers, on the radio, round the conference-table, and in so many a house and publichouse that I feel this is neither the time nor place for further discussion of the subject. All I shall say on that score is that the responsibility for our loss in the Middle East cannot be laid at the feet of any one government, political party, commercial organisation or individual.

What follows, therefore, is merely a few personal impressions of the situation in Abadan during the few weeks prior to our ignominious evacuation. Before I present these impressions, however, it is perhaps pertinent to set the scene by giving a brief outline of the progress of the company's operations in Persia. * * * at Abadan as looking it is to-day would guess that people Few forty years ago it consisted of only a few odd huts and some palmgroves. In 1951 Abadan supported a population of approximately 18o,ooo, of whom some 3500 were Europeans, the others being a mixture of Iranians, Armenians, Arabs, Jews, Indians and Pakistanis.

Since 1909, when construction of the refinery started and the annual intake of oil from fields was about 400,000 tons (x ton = 25o gallons, approx.), the refinery had increased its operations to such an extent that in 1951 its throughput was at the rate of 3o million tons per annum, which ranked it as the largest single oil-refining and processing unit in the world.

The A.I.O.C.'s ramifications throughout Iran provided work for some 70,000 personnel who, with their families and dependents, made up a scattered community of nearly zoo,ooo people, representing 4

Decline and Fall 5 connected with the oil inprofessions and trades numerous the all dustry, from the most highly qualified scientists and engineers to the manual labourers and apprentices. Tehran graduates were frequently sent at company expense to complete their training at British universities, while apprentice training in our own workshops was offered to Persian youth from an early age, and primary training in the three Rs followed by simple technical instruction was given to thousands of the once semi-illiterate labour class.

Roads were constructed, bridges built, and housing estates laid out where hitherto had existed nothing but sand. Free medical and dental attention, good working conditions, receipt of one's weekly or monthly wage or salary a certainty (an uncommon factor in the Iranian business world), a civilised form of life such as many had never known, made thousands of workers flock to the oil company from all over the country. Many of the older staff and labourers were genuinely sorry to witness our departure, but most of the young bloods, their minds poisoned by all the illogical and nationalistic haverings propagated by Tehran radio and by people such as Britainhater No. x, Hussein Makki, firmly believed that British influence was responsible for Iran's present backward economic state, and that once we had disappeared, the country would be transformed into a paradise, if not overnight, then in the almost immediate future. * * * On 23 June, after many days of frustrating haggling with the Iranian authorities as to whether the tanker masters should sign receipts for oil loaded in favour of the National Iranian Oil Company (which was, in fact, never done), the last tanker which we ever saw in Abadan waters dropped her moorings and sailed away from the jetty down the Shatt-el-Arab into the Persian Gulf. Throughout the weeks to come, apart from the occasional merchant vessel off-loading its cargo, the once throbbing, bustling port was to become as silent and depressing as the grave. Where one's view had once been obliterated by a sea of masts, funnels, bridges and sails, one's gaze could now travel the length of the Shatt, right to the horizon, without encountering any obstacle.

With no tanker fleet at its disposal, and stocks of the refined petroleum products in the tank farms building up day by day, the refinery was obliged to cut its throughput. Throughout the months of July and August the pipelines carrying the crude petroleum from the oilfields 15o miles up-country were one by one blanked off, while in the refinery commenced the soul-destroying task of gradually shutting down all the enormous units—the distillation benches, the superfractionating towers, the cracking and reforming units, the catalytic cracker itself, the acid washeries, and sulphur dioxide plants —save what were required for processing the trickle of crude oil still entering the refinery.

By the end of August the whole mighty organisation within the refinery walls had creaked to a standstill, with the exception of a certain amount of construction work and the continued operation

6

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

of the power station, essential for our electricity supplies, our clean hot and cold running water supplies, and the efficient running of the cooling units in almost every office and home which made life more tolerable in the sometimes rather trying climate. At night the dark, velvety, star-speckled sky was no longer reddened for miles around by the "cat. cracker" and other flares, nor was the atmosphere resonant with the familiar hum of the boilers, the turbines and the oil being pumped through the veins and arteries of this great throbbing organism.

Throughout the month of September, although all routine and major overhauls had been cancelled, our engineering group was still kept hard at work cleaning up the units which had been shut down, and preparing them either for handing over to the Iranians in a workable state, or for their being started up by ourselves immediately the news came through that a working agreement had been reached.

Not only the refinery operations, but also the home and social life of the Europeans in Abadan suffered disruption. Following the strike fomented by a group of student apprentices in April, and the riot not long afterwards in which three British employees and two Italian seamen unfortunately lost their lives while numerous other British civilians were bruised and shaken, the whole political and economic set-up became increasingly enigmatical, with an overriding atmosphere of uncertainty about the future. As a precautionary measure, therefore, it was advised that wives and children should be, temporarily at any rate, evacuated: and so in the end-June-beginning-July period, plane-load after plane-load of wives and families left Abadan, until only two of the good ladies remained, and they, being actually employed within the company, stayed with us to the end. The ranks of the nursing staff too were gradually depleted until only fifteen of the girls remained to be evacuated in the last stage of the wind-up. A special word of praise should be extended to these sisters and nurses (two of whom, I believe, are Aberdonians) for staying on through all those troublous and frustrating times with climatic conditions anything but favourable—one day the temperature rose to I 23i degrees in the shade. Their very presence and their cheery dispositions served as a grand morale-booster to all who were in Abadan.

But it was not only the female element of the European staff which disappeared from the streets. For as refinery operations were gradually curtailed, and there seemed no definite hope of re-starting in the near future, the company realised that little could be gained by retaining men in idleness, so it decided to send home on " special leave " and in regular stages, all staff except those required to maintain the essential services such as transport, power, food-distribution, cooling-systems, medical and fire services, as well as a skeleton staff to be in readiness to recommence refinery operations if and when the need arose. The big drive started in mid-July, and of approximately r700 working staff normally in Abadan, only just over 300 remained to be taken on board the Mauritius.

During the last few weeks life continued quietly, a mere shadow

Decline and Fall

7

of its former self. The same dozen people would appear daily at our beautiful, open-air swimming pool, by this time inundated with Iranians: the same eight or ten would grace the tennis-courts: it became increasingly more difficult to find twenty-two men sufficiently keen to indulge in an evening's cricket. As the days gradually passed, one could almost count the individual faces missing from the evening cinema-show. (Full marks to the Social Services here, who provided us with a different film five nights of the week.)

The palm-tree lined streets and avenues of the residential areas of Braim and Bawarda became more and more deserted, and no longer was it necessary to queue in the stores to obtain one's daily supplies.

Outside almost every bungalow one could see a pile of empty wooden crates, small, medium-sized, large, and enormous, ready to take anything from a tiny ornamental Persian cigarette-box to a huge oak wardrobe, should the order come for immediate packing and evacuation. A number of men cleared out their own quarters completely and moved in with friends with whom they would share running and messing costs. Latterly, the majority of the men were living in mere shells of houses, utilising only the bare essentials for daily needs, most of their worldly goods either lying packed or awaiting customs clearance, or shipment from Basra, or already on the high seas bound for England. Private motor cars, previously British owned—and these were numerous—were now but seldom seen on the roads. They were all in the hands of Iranians to whom the British had been more or less compelled to sell on a rapidly falling market.

Despite these manifold grievances, the morale of the British staff remained at a very high level, although the existence of an attendant atmosphere of tension must be admitted, caused mainly by the general state of inactivity coupled with a sense of complete uncertainty when almost weekly one had to alter one's opinion as to the outcome of the dispute. It seemed most paradoxical at the time that we should have to tune in anxiously to B.B.C. broadcasts from London to discover the most recent pronouncements on the case. Although the company was often blamed for lack of dissemination of information, it is doubtful if this argument can be given much credence, as the whole affair by this time was being handled at Foreign Office level, so that the company managers had really little more information than the various members of the staff themselves.

Apart from the riot mentioned previously, no violence was suffered

by British staff, chiefly as a result of martial law which was imposed immediately after a hostile march from the bazaar, and which was effective until our withdrawal. (Or perhaps it was as a result of the presence of the British Navy in the form of a cruiser and four destroyers, which, from the Shatt-el-Arab, kept ceaseless vigilance on our well-being, a fact which every member of the Abadan staff will long remember with gratitude.) At almost every street corner one could see an individual or group of police or soldiers, all fully armed with revolvers and fixed bayonets, ready to pounce on any hooligan

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine 8 the moment trouble started. Apart from their passive duties of keeping the peace, we had little else to thank these characters for, as they could be at times most devilishly provoking and annoying, and seemed to make absolutely no effort to prevent burglaries of British staff houses.

It was incidents such as the above-mentioned, together with such pinpricks as ridiculous stopping of cars on routine check-ups, the insolent attitude of guards at refinery gates, prohibition of landing of aircraft at Abadan without five days' notice, refusal to grant permits to visit Basra or environs, needless emptying of carefully packed boxes in the customs sheds, which rendered life somewhat trying in these days. These occurrences were followed by the gradual take-over by the Persians of our packed oil department, our training department, our transport department, and our shipping department, and when British staff were finally prohibited from entering the refinery itself, we realised that the end was near.

But the end certainly came with a greater rush than ever we expected. Back in August, personal letters were sent to each A.I.O.C. employee by the Iranian Temporary Board of Directors requesting the recipient to re-sign an individual contract with the N.I.O.C. if he wished to remain in employment in Abadan. Naturally no heed was paid to this notice, and the Board was made aware of the attitude of the British staff to working under Iranian management. In late September a second edict was forwarded to individuals informing them that their services were no longer required, and that they should leave Iran by Thursday, 6 October. After due consideration, a special request was despatched to London for planes, which was turned down. The N.I.O.C. Board reiterated its previous demand with the rider that, if British staff had made no move to leave by Thursday, they would be escorted under arms to the Iraqi frontier.

Finally, on the last Sunday, information was released to the effect that all British staff would be evacuated to Basra in H.M. cruiser Mauritius, and that everyone should be standing by ready to depart first thing on Wednesday morning. There followed a feverish two-day period of last-minute packing, infuriating waits while the goods were cleared through customs, and then a short spell of relaxation in our stripped bungalows while we awaited the morning of departure.

Wednesday came—another hot, sunny day. Most of us rose early, between 5 and 6 a.m., to receive from our sad-faced cooks our last meal in Abadan. Between 7 and 9 a.m. we were collected by bus in groups and deposited at the Gymkhana Club, the main social rendezvous on the island, where we gathered and occupied our time until ro a.m., sipping refreshing drinks, swotting flies, taking last-minute photographs, or just standing gossiping.

In true Iranian fashion, the authorities had forbidden the Mauritius to dock at the Abadan jetties, but had offered us the use of two of their small naval rivercraft to transport the British staff out to the cruiser anchored quarter of a mile away in mid-stream. So commenced a shuttle-service which was not completed until about midday

Decline and Fall

9 by which time all British personnel were aboard the ship with the exception of two or three press correspondents and photographers as well as a B.B.C. Radio Newsreel reporter, who were permitted to remain to record our inglorious exodus, and the " new era of progress and prosperity about to descend on barren Khuzistan ".

And here we return to the opening phrases of this article. At I.3o p.m., with the tide in our favour, the Mauritius steamed out of Abadan waters up the Shatt. Within half-an-hour we had our last glimpse of Abadan—the tops of the tall, slim fractionating towers in the refinery, which gradually diminished in size and disappeared over the horizon. By 5 o'clock we had landed in Basra.

Contrary to expectation, the journey was accomplished under truly excellent conditions, and the fullest praise must be given to the officers and men of the cruiser, who did everything in their power to make us comfortable and contented, while watching us with infinite patience as we, a motley throng of undisciplined civilians, mobbed the wardrooms or lounged idly on deck scattering our cigarette ends and papers to the four winds.

In Basra, having bade farewell to the Navy, we found that the organisation lapsed somewhat, especially when it was discovered that no planes were to leave that night after all. As a result, while some remained at our temporary headquarters, the Basra Airport Hotel, almost zoo of us were unfortunate enough to be transported at 10.3o p.m. to Shaibah, an R.A.F. station i 5 miles west of Basra, right out in the middle of nowhere. After a singularly uncomfortable night sleeping in an old disused hangar, we were awakened promptly at 6 a.m. by a squadron of jet aircraft warming up for the morning's flights, and by io a.m. we were on our way back to Basra, whence, at various intervals throughout the day, Constellations, Argonauts and Tudors flew us without incident to England and home.

At London airport we were horrified to find ourselves besieged by a horde of reporters and photographers who, luckily for the majority of us, pounced on the one unfortunate member of our group who had thoughtlessly draped around his shoulders a large, white, woolly sheepskin hearthrug which he had determined to salvage from his bungalow. While this quaint figure, with violin tucked under one arm (he had been the conductor of the Abadan orchestra) and a case in each hand, valiantly tried to stave off the attentions of the thronging pressmen, we others slyly sneaked off to the customs sheds, to undergo the usual formalities before parting on our respective journeys home. And so it all ended.

But the uncertainty continues, and although we may all have our opinions, no one can at present forecast with certainty the outcome of this protracted and contentious problem. It lies in the lap of the gods, or at least in the hands of the United Nations, who, we trust, may ultimately be able to find a solution agreeable to all parties concerned.

IAN M. C. CRAWFORD* (i935-44).

In the Steps of Battus A sustained yell would suddenly shatter the stillness of the night, and then itself disintegrate into a series of monotonous cadences, often developing into a sophisticated theme, often becoming a frenzied and impassioned chant. Such was the music which pursued us through Cyrenaica; at Benghazi it would echo through the Suk (enclosed market), at Derna it raved unrestrainedly from an amplifier in the square, at Jalo it thundered from the Met. station receiver. Only at Cyrene did we escape it for a time, camped as we were among the dead.

In spite of its strangeness to Western ears, perhaps due to the use of quarter-tones and unfamiliar scales, one or two of us did become attached to it, though for most it remained cacophony. Yet it made a fair contribution to our conception of Cyrenaica, whither we had been sent as an expedition by the University of Aberdeen. The principal purpose of this expedition was geographical research under Dr. Fisher, but a zoologist, a botanist, and a classical student (myself) were included in the party. We arrived in Benghazi on 18 September, and spent two days in " acclimatisation " there; the remainder of the first fortnight was passed in Derna and Cyrene. The subsequent fortnight we whiled away in the desert, staying for a week in the Jalo oasis. Then back to Aberdeen, the winter term, frost and snow. . . .

So many new experiences came our way, so much was said and done, that it is difficult to give an accurate or a balanced account of our travels. Benghazi provided for us our first taste of the East; the first time we entered the town we met an Arab funeral with its shrieking mob of mourners. Swimming in the Mediterranean was an exotic experience of a different kind, whilst the closest personal contact we made with an unfamiliar world was at the party to which the Arab Legion invited us. We were joggled through the Arab quarter in decrepit " garries "(horse-cabs) to the carpetted barrack-square.

Shoes off, squat down and stuff seemed to be the order of the day.

Soup, white-hot with spices, was followed by generous lumps of sheep served in a communal bowl of curried rice. Grapes and various brews of Arab tea were accompanied by Calypso-type chants and flute music; the air was heavy with incense; the stars gazed down incredulously from the wheeling sky.

Derna is a pleasant garden city, the second town in Cyrenaica.

Here two surveys were performed, one of the contours of the Upper Wadi Derna, the other a Land Use Survey of the town itself. Performing the latter gave a thorough knowledge of the town, for every available piece of land is used in the cultivation of date palms, maize, millet, olives, vines etc. The first escarpment of the Jebel (the Cyrenaican coastal plateau which catches the winter rain) hugs the coast, and only at Derna and a few other favoured spots does it grudgingly concede a small coastal platform where sailors can find harbourage. The heights were held by the Bedouin against the Italians from 191I till 1931, and the Italian perimeter wall is a memorial of their struggle. The former Italian barracks are now occupied by the British Army, who found room for us during our five-day visit.

IO

11 In the Steps ofBatts The weight and stifling warmth of the night air seemed to retard us as we plodded between barracks and town. Occasionally the expense of hiring a " garry" would be incurred, though our custom was ill-omened: one garry caught fire when transporting some of us home; the horse of another grew restive and shattered its shaft.

Nobody cared.

Cyrene is situated upon the edge of the second coastal escarpment, ten miles from the sea and 1,8oo feet above it, just north of the TripoliBenghazi-Derna-Tobruk road. Classical remains are its principal claim to fame, and of these I shall write anon. We camped among the ancient tombs which, in the Graeco-Roman fashion, lined the approaches to the city. One shrine tomb served as a washstand; boundary stones were used as seats and tent-pegs. In contrast to Benghazi and Derna, Cyrene was cool, often cold, and clouds marred what hitherto had been perfect photographic weather. But the weather did not discourage the lizards or the chameleon or the tortoise which visited us by day, or the dogs and cats which paid less formal visits by night. Such was the state of mind induced by these feline and canine marauders that a heavy stick and a pile of stones lay by each bed, and when a voice in the night inquired, " Hey, boys, look!

Is it a man or a monkey? " a cold hand gripped the vitals of those nearest the door, and from each pile of blankets a single cautious eye protruded, peering for some drooling Caliban shambling its way through the shadows. One of our somniloquists had spoken. We were camping among trees which had been part of an Italian plantation scheme, and are now under the care of the new Cyrenaican government through their representatives the Forest Guards, frequent visitors to our site. Our short stay at Cyrene was perhaps the most enjoyable part of this wonderful journey, possibly because of the more temperate climate, and the pine-tree plantations. Once as I walked between the trees from the Temple of Zeus to the village of Shahat, my mind leapt to the plantations at Clinterty, so near and yet so far.

And so to the desert. On our way to Benghazi to prepare for the journey inland we passed the magnificent gorge of the Wadi Kuf, the town of Barce (centre of an agricultural area dotted with colonial farmhouses of the Italian period, now used as Arab byres, mostly) and other settlements till we came to Tocra airstrip where we spent the night. Now deserted, this was during the war the base whence diplomatic and other missions flew to Yugoslavia. Our course from Benghazi lay by road to Agedabia; thence to Jalo following the tracks across the sand. Going was heavy across the soft sand which lay on our path, and one or other of the seven vehicles in our convoy was apt to break down or get stuck. So it took us three-and-a-half days to get from Benghazi to Jalo, but the days in the desert were a worthwhile experience. Inconveniences such as water shortage were trivial for such a short time, whilst it was a novel thought that on every hand stretched " mile upon mile of nothing but sand ".

All agreed that this area would be very suitable as an international battlefield. Nights spent under the clear stars were not always warm, but they compensated for the heat and dryness of the day. We would

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

see Sirius chasing Jupiter across the sky, and following them Venus, early herald of a brilliant dawn. The eye could see why the earliest astronomers lived in these latitudes; here the Zodiac is more highly elevated than in our northern hazy land, and the atmosphere is clear.

The effect of the change in latitude was manifested by the Plough, which to an observer at Jalo seemed to graze a furrow in the horizon.

Jalo oasis, twenty miles south-east of Augila and much more extensive, has no surface water or soil; crops and trees grow out of sand artificially irrigated from wells about twenty feet deep. Wells were included in a map of the central area surveyed, and one sandy garden watered by the operation of the usual " shadoof " (whereby a man and a donkey maintain a constant stream of water) was the subject of more detailed examination. The most remarkable point concerning the irrigation was, in our eyes, that any growth could survive the action of Jalo water. This was a concentrated solution of mineral salts which had untoward effects upon one and all, and the vagaries of the climate could also be troublesome (in the first week of October the shade temperature was at one time i o3°, with a humidity of 9 per cent., at another 8 5 ' and 65 percent.). After nightfall the hordes of flies disappeared, the evening meal was eaten, and we would adjourn to the tower of the Government Rest House, where we " digged ".

Fully twenty feet below us was the " square" with its clutter of meteorological equipment and odd bodies. The tower was our point of vantage whence we could remain au fait with Jalo night-life; we heard the distant drum being beaten with abandon, we saw the two local policemen vanish into the night on camels equipped on the White Knight principle. Destination unknown, but they returned alive. From the tower we witnessed the ecstatic welcome which Jalo and district gave to the coffin of a former Grand Senussi (religious leader). This was being brought from Kufra, where it had been taken to avoid the Italians, to be reinstated in the coastal area under the auspices of the new Government and the Emir, the present Grand Senussi. Tribesmen from all parts converged on the Rest House amid the ululations of women and the carefree discharge of rifles.

We felt like Foreign Legionnaires holding the fort against all odds.

But any such feeling could soon be dispelled by the occasional snatch from the B.B.C. Overseas Service blared forth from the Met. station, or by the Air Ministry chart of cloud classifications, which includes a shot of King's College crown.

On our return journey we travelled much more quickly, as a different route on firmer sand was chosen; we made Benghazi in two days. Jalo with its blazing sun was 300 miles away; we had returned to heavy cloud and freezing blasts of wind. By a lucky chance, Benghazi had its biggest dust-storm for years before we left, giving us a final exotic demonstration. The fine red dust filtered everywhere, and at its most agitated it gave clear windows the appearance of bloodred stained glass. Once it settled we were able to set off for Malta (and the Phoenicia Hotel of happy memory), Nice (and an " English " breakfast of ham and eggs) and London. Home again to a hectic term, and the scribbling of disjointed impressions. Much of great

In the Steps of Bata!

13

value will be published as a result of the expedition, but the scientific data is still under examination. Meanwhile the inexpert pen has its day.

A BRIEF NOTE ON ANCIENT CYRENE

Cyrene itself stands on a commanding site overlooking the coastal plateau and the sea. The Fountain of Apollo springs from the steep northern slope of the Acropolis Hill, below the ancient and the modern town, above the natural terrace upon which the Sanctuary of Apollo grew. This spring gave birth to the ancient city, and still is ample to supply the needs of the area and of casual visitors as we were. In ancient times ceremonies of purification were carried out with its water; the troughs and tanks in which worshippers washed are still visible, as are the caves in the hillside where ritual may have been performed. Probably purification was essential for admission to the Sanctuary, the central building of which is the Temple of Apollo.

Among the foundations of the temple have been found columns believed to date from the sixth or seventh century and the first beginnings of the Greek city. Several other temples are situated here, as too are the Baths with their mosaic flooring, hypocausts and statues.

At the west end of the terrace is the Theatre-cum-Amphitheatre. Built as it is on the hillside, it is probably of Greek origin, but it was reconstructed by the Romans. Tier upon tier of seating still remains and glorious views of the Sanctuary and the sea may be had from the topmost rank.

The upper area has not been so extensively excavated, but the Agora (Market-place) with its paved square, circular tomb of Battus, Town Hall, Capitolium and other public buildings can now be seen.

To the west stands the Roman Forum and Basilica, flanked by two late theatres; between the Forum and Agora is the house of Jason Magnus with its fine mosaics. On the north-eastern hill over which Cyrene spread, few sites have been dug. Most notable is the Temple of Zeus, lying unrestored, just as it collapsed in a fourth century earthquake. This was the largest temple in Cyrenaica, and its isolated setting gives it added grandeur. The course of the ancient walls can still be followed; outside them is the Necropolis containing fifty square kilometres of tombs. Among other notable suburban buildings are cisterns and tanks for the catchment and storage of rain water.

Much more could be written about Cyrene, which even in its ruined state retains the charm which Pindar praised twenty-four centuries ago. But much more digging must be done at Cyrene before the whole truth is known. I visited the ruins as a classicist, not an archaeologist, and my function was to learn and observe, and correlate what I saw to what I had read. I have had the experience, rare and valuable for the classical student, of seeing for myself some of the work which the Greeks and Romans accomplished far from home. Veni, Vidi.

EDWARD FRASER* (1936-1949).

*** The Editor will be glad if F.P.s will send him, from time to time, information for this section of the Magazine. News of appointments, promotions etc., and other items of interest which are not reported in the press are particularly requested.

American Bronze Star Medal for Service in Korea Alastair MacLennan* ( i 9 23-29), O.B.E., M.B., Ch.B., LieutenantColonel, R.A.M.C., who has been commanding z6 Field Ambulance in Korea since November 195o, has been awarded the American Bronze Star Medal with V device for valour.

In January 1951, 29 Independent Infantry Brigade (of which z6 Field Ambulance forms part) covered the withdrawal of the U.N. forces south of the Han River and it was in this action that Colonel MacLennan gained his award. His unit was the last of the United Nations medical services to leave the north side of the river.

Another F.P., John Lowell Kilgour* (1936-41), M.B., Ch.B., Major, R.A.M.C., is now his second-in-command and in an article in this issue of the Magazine Major Kilgour gives an account of their unit's experiences in Korea. In a letter dated 3o October 1951, written south of Choksong, he writes: " Such action as continues, though sharp, is on a small scale in our area—possibly influenced by the finger of hope in the western night sky—the searchlight beam at the ' cease-fire' area ".

Last August 26, Field Ambulance was visited by LieutenantColonel Eric Linklater* (1913-16). (See page at.) (Their distinguished visitor was glad to borrow Colonel MacLennan's copy of the last issue of the Magazine.) He dined with the unit and, according to our correspondent, " had a most enjoyable evening, with the bowl of usquebaugh circulating and the roof of the tent threatening to take off with the students' songs we were singing. I need say no more than that it reminded me of an evening in ' Ma Cameron's '."

Alexander Elder Anton* (1932-33 and 1 93 5-40), M.A., LL.B., advocate in Aberdeen, has been assumed as a partner in the firm of C. & P. H. Chalmers, advocates, Aberdeen.

William Cranna Bain* (1930-39), M.A., B.Sc., Ph.D., is now senior scientific officer in the Radio Research Station at Slough.

There he hopes to continue working on the propagation of very long radio waves and on the properties of the D region of the ionosphere.

After graduating B.Sc. at the University of Aberdeen in 1948, with first class honours in Natural Philosophy, he obtained a research scholarship and worked for some time on the problems of the 14

15 Notes about Old Boys ionosphere in conjunction with a team of physicists in the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. Thereafter he was an assistant lecturer in the Natural Philosophy Department at the University of Aberdeen.

Bertram John Alexander Gray Barr* (1909-13) has retired from the Mercantile Bank of India Limited after thirty-two years' service in the Bank's branches in India, Burma and Ceylon. Latterly he was manager at Bombay. He now lives at Tolhurst, 224 Chislehurst Road, Orpington, Kent. In 1931, when he was accountant in the Madras branch of the Mercantile Bank of India, he was appointed an F.P. Club Consul.

Norman Darroch Begg* (1915-24), M.D. (Aberd.), D.P.H. (Lond.), who joined the World Health Organisation in 1947, was in September appointed Regional Director for Europe. Since 1949 he had been in charge of the Organisation's Special Office for Europe in Geneva.

Thomas Stewart Boyd* (1930-38), who has been a customs and excise officer for the past three years, took up duty in August 1951 at the Imperial and Foreign Parcel Post Depot of the General Post Office, London. Prior to going to London, Boyd was stationed in Perth.

Basil Ernest Brocks (1927-36), M.B., Ch.B., was appointed in June to be full-time consultant physician in Physical Medicine for the Leytonstone and Romford group of hospitals under the North-East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. Previously he was for three years senior registrar in the Physical Medicine Department of King's College Hospital, London.

Charles Alexander Brown* (1920-32), M.A., M.D., F.R.C.S., D.O.M.S., was in January 1951 appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon to the United Bristol Hospitals and the South-Western Regional Hospital Board. He is also clinical teacher in Ophthalmology at the University of Bristol. Previously he was for three years on the staff of the Royal Eye Hospital, South London.

Michael Geoffrey Carson* (1940-51), who left School in October of this year, has joined his uncle in Dublin in order to learn the business of the fur trade. He is with the Southern Fur Company.

Gordon Fordyce Cassie* (1929-39), M.B., Ch.B., was in June admitted a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. In 1948-49 he was a lecturer in the Anatomy Department of the University of Aberdeen and thereafter he received an appointment as surgical registrar at the West Middlesex Hospital, London.

Douglas Paterson Cochran* (1906-15), well known to many F.P.s as secretary of the F.P. Rugby Section in pre-war days, is now honorary secretary and treasurer of the Scottish Midlands District Rugby Union. Since 1945 he has been manager of the Dundee branch of the Royal Exchange Assurance.

George Lewis Courts (193o-32), radio officer, is one of a small number of B.O.A.C.'s staff chosen to become the world's first aircrew of pure-jet civil airliners. A comparative junior in terms of flying

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

experience, he attributes his selection for this job to his lecturing ability, of which B.O.A.C. have made use from time to time, and to his sound technical background. He has been investigating conditions of communication at high altitude and developing a technique of operation suitable for high-speed aircraft. He is now engaged in training those who will form the crews when B.O.A.C. commence commercial operations with de Havilland Comet four-jet-engine airliners early next year.

After leaving the School he studied for two years at the Caledonia Wireless College, Edinburgh, and later worked as a post office engineer and as a marine radio officer before being appointed a lecturer at the Glasgow Wireless College in 1939. The following year he was appointed lecturer at the Dundee Wireless College and he then spent six years with the R.A.F. Signals Branch reaching the rank of Flight Lieutenant. On demobilisation he returned to the Glasgow Wireless College as lecturer and was in charge of technical studies there. He joined B.O.A.C. in June 1947 and has flown mostly in York, Lancastrian and Hermes aircraft between Britain and the Middle and Far East and Africa.

James Fyvie Cowie (1937-43), M.R.C.V.S., left in July of this year to take up a government appointment as district veterinary officer at Arua, West Nile, Uganda. Since 1948 he had been assistant to a veterinary surgeon at Kippen, Stirlingshire. He was married two weeks before he left for Uganda. (See page 35.)

John James Crawford* (1941-42) is now a cinema projectionist with the Odeon Circuit. On leaving School he joined the staff of James F. Donald (Aberdeen Cinemas) Limited.

Theodore James Crozier (1931-43), M.A., who had a very distinguished career in Classics at the University of Aberdeen and who won an open scholarship in Classics at Caius College, Cambridge, was in June awarded a First Class in the Classical Tripos, Part I. He was dux of the School in 1943.

Eric George Beattie Davidson* (194o-47) is now a junior executive in the large firm of Hahne & Company, and works in their new branch at Montclair, New Jersey. He has been in the U.S.A. since he left School in 1947.

Vaughan Nicol Dean* (1913-20), C.A., general manager, Associated British Picture Corporation Limited, Elstree, was in July 195o granted the dignity of an Officer (Brother) in the Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. His Majesty the King is Head of the Order and Mr. Dean was invested by the Lord Prior (H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester) in November 195o at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. The A.B.P. Corporation provide all the stagings, settings and scenic backings for the St. John Ambulance Brigade and for the Association of First Aid and Nursing Competitions throughout the year and it was as a token of appreciation of these services that the honour was bestowed on Mr. Dean.

Douglas George Dempster* (1924-33), B.Sc., B. Sc.(Agri.), Regional Director of County Work, North of Scotland College of

Notes abokt Old Boys

17

Agriculture, visited Denmark and Sweden this summer. He went to Denmark to obtain information about Danish agricultural organisation and practice in preparation for a Danish-Orcadian agricultural conference which is to be held in Orkney in the summer of 1952.

He visited research institutes, the agricultural college, experimental farms and several other private farms. He also spent some time in Jutland inspecting the work of the Danish Heath Society, which has been responsible for the reclaiming of a great deal of land in this part of Denmark. Before leaving for home he had an opportunity of visiting the Plant Breeding Station at Svalof in Sweden. This station has been responsible for breeding and raising many of the varieties of oats, barley and wheat that are in use in this country to-day. The government have only a fifty per cent. share in the station, the other fifty per cent. belonging to the Farmers' Co-operative, which is responsible for bringing up the new varieties of crops to commercial quantities.

Ian Alexander Dinwiddie (1926-33), elder son of Mr. Melville Dinwiddie, C.B.E., D.S.O., M.C., Scottish Director of the B.B.C., has been in the Colonial Service in Northern Rhodesia since 1943. While on leave this year he was married and in October he returned to take up the post of district commissioner at Mumbwa, 12o miles west of Broken Hill.

David Inglis Duff* (1915-16), M.A. (St. Andrews), who returned from India in 1949 after twenty-nine years with Barry & Company, Calcutta, is now a partner in Macneill, Barry & Company, London.

In June 195o he set the seal on what is perhaps a unique academic career by obtaining the degree of M.A. at the University of St. Andrews. On leaving the School in 1916 he passed the first year of his Arts course at the University of Aberdeen and, after serving in France and Germany for two-and-a-half years, he passed his second year at the University of Edinburgh. Thereafter he sat the I.C.S. examination for ex-servicemen but, before waiting for the outcome, left for business in Calcutta in June 192o. As a " failed B.A. " in India, however, he nursed an ambition to finish his course and he did this at the University of St. Andrews in 1949-50. By this time his family had caught up with him and father and daughter were undergraduates together 1 He is a brother of Miss AGNES H. DUFF, M.A., who retired from the School staff earlier this year rfter thirty-four years' service.

Leo Durnin* (1914-17), A.R.I.B.A., F.R.I.A.S., has been elected president of the Aberdeen Society of Architects and vice-president of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. In these offices he succeeds another F.P., John Maclennan* (1 914-20), A.R.I.B.A., F.R.I.A.S., F.R.I.C.S. James Dully)* (1900-02), C.B.E., chairman of directors of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland for the year 19So-51, has been re-elected chairman for ir 95 I - 52.

James Raffan Fiddes* (1924-37), M.A., B.A., LL.B., advocate, has been appointed a member of the Supreme Court Legal Aid

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

Committee in Edinburgh. In October he was appointed standing junior counsel to the Ministry of Pensions.

Andrew Scott Finnie* (1915-35), M.A., C.A., has been appointed secretary of the North-East District 'of the Scottish Golf Union.

He has succeeded James Hay* (1883-87), M.A., B.L., LL.D., D.L., advocate in Aberdeen.

George Forbes* (1902-04), advocate in Aberdeen, has been appointed procurator-fiscal of Aberdeen Juvenile Court. His partner, Mr. Gavin Sinclair, has recently retired from business on account of ill-health and Mr. Forbes is now sole partner of the firm of Sinclair & Forbes, advocates, Aberdeen.

George Leslie Fraser* (1936-49), who is serving as a Sergeant in the Royal Army Educational Corps at Nairobi, spent his leave this year near Moshi. From there he climbed Kilimanjaro (19,321 feet). His party consisted of two friends, an African guide, a cook and seven porters. The others had to give up but Fraser, accompanied by the guide, reached the summit.

Richard Michael Fraser (1925-29) has been appointed director of the Conservative Party Research and Administrative Departments.

Frederick Michie Gardiner * (1937-45) passed the final examination of the general examining board for the Chartered Accountants of Scotland held in May 1951.

Alexander Forbes Gordon* (1937-42) obtained the Ministry of Transport Engineering Certificate, First Class (his " Chief Engineer's Ticket") in September 1951—an unusual, distinction for a man of twenty-four. He was married at the end of September and hip wife and he left at the beginning of November for Singapore, where he is to take up a post with " Cable & Wireless " as Second Engineer in the cable ship Retriever. He is to live ashore and expects to be in Singapore for two years. He is a son of Alexander Forbes Gordon (1904-06) and a nephew of James Gordon* (1901-06), O.B.E., Chief Engineer in the Moreton B. George Mitchell Groat* (1927-40), who has been farming in Southern Rhodesia for the past three years, is trying to arrange a reunion of F.P.s in the Salisbury district of Southern Rhodesia. His address is P.O. Box 510, Salisbury. One of the F.P.s he has met recently is Thomas Marshall Knox (1932-35), C.A. Alexander Merrie Hardie (1918-z8), M.A., B. Sc.(Eng.), A.M.I.E.E., has been appointed senior lecturer in Electrical Engineering at Robert Gordon's Technical College, Aberdeen. At the University of Aberdeen he obtained a " double first " in Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering in 1933 and 1934 respectively, and was awarded the Sir James Caird scholarship. Thereafter he obtained a post with Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company Limited, Manchester, and during the war he served in the R.A.F. Technical Branch. In 1944 he was seconded to the Admiralty Signal Establishment and was associated with Sir Robert Watson Watt in the development of radar, his special interest being the design of

19 Notes about Old Boys naval radar equipment. Since demobilisation he has been engaged in research on high-power valves with Metropolitan Vickers. He was Classical dux of the School in 1928.

James Masson Hector (1889-190o), B.Sc. formerly Professor of Agricultural Botany at University College, Pretoria, South Africa, has returned to this country and is living in retirement at Mayfield, Cullen, Banffshire.

Gordon Harvey Henderson* (1921-34), M.A., LL.B., advocate in Aberdeen, has been assumed as a partner in the firm of Huntcr and Gordon, advocates, Aberdeen.

Graham Henderson* (1906-I z), M.C., E.D., who has been with United Sua Betong Rubber Estates in Malaya since 1920, retired from Malaya in September of this year. There have been F.P.s on one or other of his company's estates since 1919, when Robert Rannie Cook * (1899-1908), who is now in Kenya, joined the company. In 1920 John Gibb Lorimer* (1905-14) and Mr. Henderson became members of the staff and, although the former had to retire on account of illhealth two years ago, the connection is being maintained by Harry Wilson McCaskill* (1939-41), who went to Malaya in 1950. Mr. Henderson was F.P. Club Consul in Negri Sembilan and he has now been succeeded in this office by William John Mearns* (1916-20), of Seremban Estate, Sungei Gadut, Negri Sembilan.

Mr. Henderson intended re-visiting South Africa and Southern Rhodesia on his way home. In 1949 his wife and he spent a leave there and met several F.P.s including Frank Bruce Farquharson Duguid* (1919-26) and James Wyness MacGregor* (1910-23), the F.P. Club Consuls in Durban and Umtali respectively, Stanley Frank Walker Humphrey* (1912.-22), in Johannesburg, George Grant Thomson* (1910-12), formerly of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, his brother, Charles Ferguson Thomson* (1912-14), M.C., and Norman Henri Lyall* (1912-16), C.A. Hamish McNa ughton Henderson* (1932-40), B.A., has been undergoing training on the manufacturing side of J. & P. Coats Limited, Paisley, since August 1950. He expects that the company will be sending him to Italy next summer to do ten months' further training there. He read Classics at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and had classical archaeology as a special subject. His brother, George Matthew Henderson (1937-46), is in his second year at University College, Dundee, studying Dentistry.

Gordon Frederick Hendry* (1928-39), M.A., who is an economist with the Department of Agriculture for Scotland in Edinburgh, returned in October from a five-month visit to the United States.

He was engaged there, in connection with the technical assistance programme of E.C.A., in studying recent developments in agricultural economics. For three months he worked in the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., and then went on a trip of 5,500 miles through the north-eastern and midwestern States and also into southern Canada to visit a number of

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine 20 universities. In Chicago he received a warm welcome from the F.P. Club Consul, JAMES BRUCE SMITH* (1918-25).

Ronald William Hepburn (1936-44), who graduated M.A. at the University of Aberdeen in July with first class honours in Moral Philosophy-English, has been awarded a Clark bursary valued at £225 per annum for three years for the study of Divinity, and tenable at the University of Aberdeen and Christ's College, Aberdeen. He was Classical dux of the School in 1944 and is Scoutmaster of the 17th Aberdeen (Grammar School) Troop of Boy Scouts. This summer he attended the World Scout Jamboree at Bad Ischl in Austria. A second Clark bursary of the same value was awarded to another F.P. who attended " the other place" after being for five years at the School. He is Edward Macallan Robertson (1936-41), M.R. (Aberd.), B.Litt. (Oxon). He graduated at Aberdeen with first class honours in Mental Philosophy in 1949 and has since been at Queen's College, Oxford. Both bursars intend to enter the ministry.

Arthur Robert Horne* (1903-05), who was for many years associated with Homes Limited, wholesale produce merchants, Aberdeen, and who has been in business in Jersey since 1946, recently re-visited Aberdeen. He states that he sends his copies of the Magazine to the various schools and colleges in Jersey, where it is highly appreciated by the headmasters, most of whom are products of English public schools.

THE GENERAL ELECTION, igsz

Douglas Harold Johnston* (1913-26), K.C., B.A., M.P., who was Solicitor-General for Scotland t in Mr. Attlee's Government from 1947 to 1951, was re-elected Member of Parliament for Paisley at the General Election held on 25 October 1951. He was first elected to this seat in 1948. At the General Election in 1950 he had a majority over his Conservative opponent of ro,203 and in this year's Election he increased his majority to 13,025. On this occasion he also had a Liberal opponent but Mr. Johnston obtained 366 more votes than he did in 1950 and had a clear majority of 5,734 over the total number of votes cast for his two opponents. He remains, so far as is known, our only M.P. At the General Election two F.P.s who are brothers were unsuccessful candidates. John Mackie (1924-26), The Bent, Laurencekirk, was the Labour candidate in North Angus and Mearns and Maitland Mackie* (1926-28), B.Sc.(Agri.), Westertown, Rothienorman, was the Liberal candidate in West Aberdeenshire. They arc the sons of Maitland Mackie (1897-1902), Q.B.E., North Ythsie, t Excerpt from OA-ial Report of Scottish Standing Committee in House of Commons, zz July 1951:— THE SOLICITOR-GENERAL FOR SCOTLAND: . . . I remember my first headmaster was about 6 feet 6 inches in height and one of the most distinguished Greek scholars of that time in Scotland. lie terrified me on the day when I went to sec him at the age of five, and he terrified me for the rest of my life. I suppose I share with all hon. Members a feeling of awe and reverence when one meets former masters.

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Tarves, who, it was reported, proudly announced after the Election that he had voted Tory!

Andrew Ross Laing* (1921-32), M.B., Ch.B., Major, R.A.M.C., left the headquarters of the British Military Mission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in September 1950, and has since then been in charge of the British Convalescent Depot at Deversoir in the Suez Canal Zone.

James Ritchie Leith* (1917-24), C.A., was in June elected to be one of the Aberdeen Harbour Commissioners. After qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1929, he was with Thomson, McLintock and Company, chartered accountants, London, for about six years, and in 1937 he was appointed secretary of Associated Lothian Coal Owners Limited, Edinburgh. For the past five years he has been a director and secretary of Ellis & McHardy Limited, coal merchants, Aberdeen.

Eric Robert Russell Linklater* (1913-16), M.A., LL.D., holding the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, visited Korea this summer. Commissioned to write the official story of the part played by the British services in the Korean war, he arrived in Hong Kong in July ; he went to Korean waters in the New Zealand frigate Rotoiti, was transferred to the British cruiser Kenya, and later joined the British frigate Cardigan Bay. While with the Navy, he met the masters of Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels, the supply ships of the Navy, and was then put ashore at Inchon where he joined the British Commonwealth Division. Some days later, one of the Firefly aircraft of H.M.S. Glory took the Colonel to the carrier for a stay of some days and thereafter, having been catapulted from the Glory in another Firefly aircraft, he rejoined the British troops in Korea. During the 1939-45 war Colonel Linklater wrote three official publications in " The Army at War" series, entitled The Northern Garrisons, The Highland Division and The Defence of Calais.

After leaving Korea he went in a civilian capacity, under the auspices of the British Council, to New Zealand on a lecture tour, and after visiting Australia he was to lecture in Ceylon, South India, East Africa and Mauritius.

Eric Linklater is associated with three other prominent Scotsmen, James Robertson Justice, Compton Mackenzie, and Moray McLaren, in a new Scottish film venture known as Albyn Films Limited. The promoters hope to make more and better films about Scotland in Scotland. In their opinion this country should begin to project herself through films to the world in the same way as Sweden and Denmark have done.

John Gibb Lorimer* (1905-54), who was compelled on account of ill-health to return in 1949 from Malaya, where he had been engaged in rubber planting for many years, is now living at Auchenblae, Kincardineshire.

John Blake Lyon* (19oo-o4), who has been with the San Paulo Gas Company Limited, Sao Paulo, Brazil, since 1912, is to retire in May 1952 and will probably be returning to this country. He has

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

been succeeded as F.P. Club Consul for Brazil by James Irvine Melville* (1917-zi) (q.v.).

James Watt McAllan (1925-32), M.B., Ch.B., is now assistant medical officer of health in Nairobi, Kenya. Previously he was deputy adviser and medical lecturer under the Scottish Council for Health Education.

Neil Hunter Macdonald* (1934-38) left Aberdeen this summer to take up a post in the design office of the engineering department of Albright & Wilson Limited, manufacturing chemists, Oldbury, Birmingham. He it living in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

Robert Forbes McFarlane* (1921-25), B.Com., who has been engaged in market gardening in East Lothian for over twenty years, has been appointed one of the Scottish representatives on the Tomato and Cucumber Marketing Board. He is vice-president of the Lothians horticultural branch of the National Farmers' Union of Scotland and is a J.P. and local town councillor in East Lothian.

Robert Gordon McKerron (1907-13), who was referred to in the article on " The Bar and the School " in the last issue of the Magazine, has been a practising member of the Johannesburg Bar since he gave up the chair of Law in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in 1948.

John Bryce McLeod* (1937-46), M.A., who graduated at the University of Aberdeen in 195o, with first class honours in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, has been awarded a certificate of honourable mention by the trustees of the Ferguson Bequest Fund on the recommendation of the examiners. He is now at Christ Church, Oxford.

William Soutar Mackie* (189 5 -1 9o1), M.A. (Aberd.), B.A. (Oxon.), has retired from the chair of English Language in the University of Cape Town which he has held since 1921. He has been in this country on holiday this summer and visited the Secretary of the F.P. Club. After a few weeks in France he intends to return early in January to Cape Town, where he is to spend his retirement.

He is Club Consul in Cape Town and says that his principal job in that office has been to advise F.P.s leaving India who are thinking of settling in South Africa.

James Fraser McLuskey* (1920-31), M.C., M.A., B.D. (Edin.), whose book Parachute Padre was reviewed in the last issue of the Magazine, was appointed minister of East Church, Broughty Ferry, at the end of 1950.

Duncan Arthur Hutchison McNaught* (1928-35), M.B., Ch.B., has gone to Assam as medical officer to the Jokai (Assam) Tea Company. For the past three years he has been in practice in Perth.

James Godsman Mearns* (1913-20), B.Sc.(Agri.), who was invalided home from Malaya in 1948, less than a year after his return there after the war, has been living since the summer of 195o near

Notes about Old Boys

23

Strachan, Kincardineshire, where he is engaged in pig breeding and poultry keeping on a small scale. His health has greatly improved since he took up this outdoor occupation.

James Irvine Melville* (1917-21), who has been with the Royal Bank of Canada in Sao Paulo since 1927, has been appointed F.P. Club Consul for Brazil.

Douglas Falconer Middleton* (1920-25) was appointed manager of the Bridge of Allan branch of the Union Bank of Scotland Limited in September of this year. He joined the Bank in 1925 and, except for six years at the Hyndland branch in Glasgow, he has spent all his service in Aberdeen.

Andrew Nicol* (1903-15), M.I.C.E., who was in Government service in Hong Kong from 1921 to 1950, latterly as Director of Public Works, has been appointed resident engineer to the Borough of Morecambe and Heysham and is responsible for four large sewerage contracts under the well-known consulting engineer, Mr. A. H. S. Waters, C.B.E., M.I.C.E., of Birmingham. Sewerage, he writes, is perhaps not a very romantic subject but the construction of large-diameter pipes in busy thoroughfares provides scope for ingenuity in overcoming the many obstacles found buried in the ground of which records seldom seem to exist. On returning from Hong Kong, where he was Club Consul, Mr. Nicol built a small house in the Isle of Man, intending to settle down there, but found that the anticipated pleasures of retirement turned out to be somewhat akin to hard labour. He was glad to start work again in his profession!

Fordyce Ross Paterson* (1927-40), a former member of the F.P. rugby XV, who played in the S.R.U. final trial in 1948-4g, is now a physical training instructor at Torry Junior Secondary School. His marriage is reported on another page.

William Ogilvy Pattullo* (1939-41), M.A., LL.B., advocate, has relinquished the probationership which he held under the Colonial Legal Service Scheme and is remaining in practice at the Scottish Bar. Ian Durance Pennie* (1926-33), M.B., Ch.B., who has been in medical practice at Tongue, Sutherlandshire, since 1947, has been appointed by the Sutherland Health Executive Council to a vacant practice in Golspie and Rogart.

John Riddell Knight Pirie (1915-26), B.Sc., B.L., was appointed in June 1955 to be president of the Aberdeen and District Organists' Association. This body was formed five years ago for professional and amateur organists and Mr. Pine is the first amateur to hold the office of president.

Harry James Rae* (5898-1904), M.C., M.A., M.B., Ch.B., D.P.H., medical officer of health for the City of Aberdeen and the Counties of Aberdeen and Kincardine, whose term of office in these posts was extended for one year from January 1951, is to retire as M.O.H. for Aberdeenshire in January 1952 but is to continue as M.O.H. for the City of Aberdeen and Kincardineshire until 3o September 1952,

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

the date on which his appointment as head of the Department of Public Health in the University of Aberdeen terminates.

James Ogilvie Rae* (19t2-2 t) has, after a year's searching, found a suitable country home with a few acres of land in New Zealand and has commenced poultry farming. He finds it very pleasant to be working for himself after many years with a limited liability company.

(He was with the North British 8c Mercantile Insurance Company Limited in India from 1924 to 1949.) His farm is situated at Herbert, North Otago, thirteen miles south of Oamaru and about fifty-seven miles north of Dunedin and he will be very happy to give hospitality to any F.P. who may be visiting his part of the world. North Otago is a very healthy part and one of the most important wheat-growing areas in New Zealand.

James Ian Raeburn Ranldne* (1925-37) has for the past two years been on the staff of Edinburgh Corporation Planning Department. Another F.P., Henry John Gray Connochie* (1937-47), is living in the same " digs ". He is studying Law at the University of Edinburgh.

Edward Birnie Reid* (r902-13), O.B.E., C.A., has been appointed a member of the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. Another member of the Council is Gordon James Innes (1905-07), C.A. The Institute was formed earlier this year on the amalgamation of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh (incorporated by Royal Charter in 1854), the Institute of Accountants and Actuaries in Glasgow (incorporated by Royal Charter in 1855) and the Society of Accountants in Aberdeen (incorporated by Royal Charter in 1867). All C.A.s in Scotland are members of the new Institute.

Douglas Reith* (1924-35), M.A., LL.B., advocate, has been appointed by the Lord Advocate, the Right Hon. J. L. Clyde, K.C., to be advocate-depute for the Sheriff Courts.

George Barclay Rickart* (1923-30), who has been with the Phoenix Assurance Company Limited in Aberdeen since he left School, in August 1951 went to Canada where he is now manager of the insurance department of Balfour Guthrie (Canada) Limited in Vancouver.

His new company is concerned mainly with shipping.

Ian Grant Rogers* (1941-46), who is a final-year student at the School of Architecture, Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen, has won Aberdeen Town Council's annual civic architecture competition.

The subject for this year's competition was " Municipal Offices and Town Hall ".

Simon Douglas Ross* (1914-20), B.Sc.(Agri.), who has been for about twenty years in the Department of Agriculture in Nigeria, has retired from the Colonial Service. He has not, however, retired from Africa and he now holds the post of Director of Agriculture at Accra, Gold Coast.

Notes about Old Boys

15

Cecil Arthur Grant Savidge* (1913-24), M.B.E., M.A., who returned to this country in 1949 from Pakistan, where he was Agent to the Governor-General and Chief Commissioner in Baluchistan, is now assistant director of the International Chamber of Commerce (British National Committee). He has been working in London.

Alexander Mackenzie Shinnie* (1896-1900) celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his first professional appearance on the stage in August of this year. He is still one of the best known figures in dramatic circles in the North-East of Scotland, and his voice is frequently heard in B.B.C. broadcasts. His stage career commenced before he left School, for on 14 April 1899 he played Penelope in a one-act farce, " The Area Belle " at a concert in the School Hall in connection with the School Debating Society. After leaving School he continued concert work, and'played in several amateur performances.

His first appearance on the professional stage was on 5 August 1901 at the Theatre Royal, Lincoln, where he played a small part and was assistant stage manager in a musical play called, " The New Mephisto ".

For several years he played in London and on tour in all kinds of plays from Shakespeare to pantomime, often acting as stage manager (or, as it would now be termed, stage director). After the 1914-18 war, in which he served in France with the 51st (Highland) Division, he continued producing for amateurs—comic opera, Gilbert and Sullivan, musical comedy, straight plays and Shakespeare—and altogether he has had thirty productions in His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen. He has been broadcasting since the Aberdeen station opened in 1924, and he was the first official announcer at 2BD. From 1926 to 1948 he was on the staff of the Ministry of Labour in Aberdeen.

Alexander George Nicol Smith* (z880-88), D.S.O., LieutenantColonel, was the oldest member present at the thirty-sixth reunion dinner of the 51st (Highland) Division Dinner Club held in Gleneagles Hotel at the end of October. Along with Major-General H. Murray he replied to the main toast, which was proposed by Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Lord Tedder. During the 1914-18 war he commanded the 51st Divisional Train, R.A.S.C. Douglas William Cumming Smith* (193o-41), M.B., Ch.B., is this year's captain of the London Scottish rugby team. Another F.P. who has been playing for London Scottish is Eric Rogers* (1940-43), B.Sc.(Eng.).

James Tindal Soutter* (1898-19oz), M.A., who retired in September 1949 from the parish of Whitekirk and Tyninghame, East Lothian, re-entered the active ministry in June 1951. He is now at Advie, Morayshire.

Alexander Logan Speirs* (19z6-38), M.B., Ch.B., M.R.C.P., is now a senior registrar at Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow.

William Hay Stephen* (1920-29), of Messrs. John R. Stephen, fish curers, Aberdeen, is one of nine Scotsmen appointed to the White Fish Industry Advisory Council. He is a former chairman of

Aberdeen Grammar School MagaTine the Federation of British Kipperers' and Herring Merchants' Associations, of the Scottish Kipperers' and Herring Freshers' Association, and of the Aberdeen Fish Merchants' Association.

Kenneth Ian Sutherland* (1937-45), M.B., Ch.B., whose marriage is reported on another page, is assistant in a medical practice at New Deer, Aberdeenshire.

Kenneth Alexander Macdonald Tomory* (1899-1908), C.B., O.B.E., M.B., Ch.B., K.H.P., Major-General, was appointed by the King to be a Colonel Commandant, R.A.M.C., with effect from 1 July 1951.

Alexander Adam Walker* (x9o4-I7), M.A., has been appointed senior lecturer in English at the Malayan Teachers' Training College, Kirkby Fields, near Liverpool. For the next two years at least the Malayan Government is to send student teachers to the United Kingdom so that they may have a year's training and some experience of the British way of life. Staff and students will be housed at Kirkby Field, a large hostel with its own theatre, cinema and many other amenities. The connection between Malaya and the School is a long-standing one and he says that he is glad to think that in his new appointment he will have an opportunity of strengthening it.

His first appointment after graduation at the University of Aberdeen was that of English master in Inverness Academy. He then held a post in a technical school in Wednesbury for about thirteen years and for the next two years he was on the staff of Southend Municipal College. After the war he was at Kirkby Fields, which was then a resettlement centre, and latterly he has been senior lecturer in English at the Liverpool College of Commerce.

Ralph Spence Walker* (i9to-22), M.A. (Aberd., Cantab.), lecturer in English at the University of Aberdeen, has been granted leave of absence from his lectureship to enable him to spend a year in the United States of America helping to prepare for publication eighteenth-century manuscripts at Yale University. He is the editor of James 13eattie's London Diary 1733 and James Beattie's Day Book 177;1798, published by the University of Aberdeen and the Third Spalding Club respectively. During his stay in America he is to address the annual meeting in Detroit of the Modern Languages Association of America on the literary criticism of Ben Jonson.

Vane Walker (1904-05), M.A., who has been rector of St. James's Church, Cupar, Fife, since 1944, has been appointed a canon of St. Ninian's Cathedral, Perth.

Alan Crombie Robertson Watt* (1925-37), M.A., LL.B., advocate in Aberdeen, was assumed as a partner in the firm of Gray & Kellas, solicitors, Aberdeen, in July of this year.

Edward William Murray Watt* (1918-31), M.A., retired on medical grounds from the Colonial Service earlier this year. He had been in Sierre Leone since 1936. In September he was appointed secretary and finance officer of the Inverness Hospitals Board of Management. He has accepted the appointment in an interim capacity 26

Notes about OldBoys

27

pending a decision on a proposal that two separate boards of management should be set up to look after the hospitals in Inverness.

Ian Mackenzie Watt* (1935-43), B.Sc.(Eng.), has since May 195o been an engineer with J. & J. Crombie Limited, Grandholm Works, Aberdeen. His marriage is reported on another page.

Ian Stuart Watt* (1928-40), B.Sc.(For.), who has been on the staff of the Forestry Commission since 1949, has been transferred to the Scottish headquarters of the Commission in Edinburgh, and is now an assistant acquisition officer. Previously he was stationed in Fife and thereafter in Perthshire.

James Allan Newton Watt* (1927-39), C.A., is now assistant accountant/secretary of Capper Pass & Son Limited, Bristol. This is an old established company whose business is the smelting and refining of non-ferrous metals.

David Alexander West* IO939-44), M.A., was this summer awarded a First Class in the Classical Tripos, Part II, at Cambridge.

He also gained the Craven Studentship, a post-graduate award for research in Classics. In 1948 he graduated at Aberdeen with first class honours in Classics and thereafter he attended Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.

Man Harley Wilkins (1938-41), B.Sc.(Eng.), who graduated in Civil Engineering this year at the University of Aberdeen, has received an appointment in the Colonial Engineering Service. He has been posted to Hong Kong.

Robert Bertram Williamson* (1906-18), D.S.O., T.D., M.A., LL.B., advocate in Aberdeen, was inadvertently stated in the last issue of the Magazine to have been appointed chairman of directors of the Aberdeen Association of Social Service. This was incorrect.

He was previously vice-chairman of the Association and is continuing as a director. He is also the Association's honorary legal adviser.

James Fenton Wyness* (1915-20), F.R.I.B.A., F.S.A. (Scot.), was the architect of the massive memorial commemorating the Battle of Corrichie in 1562, which has been erected by the Deeside Field Club on the site of the battle (fourteen miles from Aberdeen on the Raemoir road). He is one of the Club's honorary presidents. The stone of remembrance, which is more than sixteen feet high and weighs seven tons, was taken from Inver quarry, near Balmoral Castle. The memorial was to have been unveiled by Her Majesty the Queen on 29 September 1951 but the King's illness prevented her being present and it was unveiled by Viscount Arbuthnott, Lord-Lieutenant of Kincardineshire. At the unveiling ceremony the chairman was Charles Davidson* (1882-86), M.A., president of the Deeside Field Club; William Douglas Simpson* (1901-13), M.A., D.Litt., F.S.A. (Scot.), an honorary president, explained to the company the events which led up to the Battle of Corrichie (in which the forces of Mary Queen of Scots defeated those of the Earl of Huntly); and William Clark Souter* (1893-98), M.D., D.O., proposed votes of thanks.

University Notes Degrees and Prizes At the Summer Graduation in the University of Aberdeen on

12 and 13 July 1951, degrees were conferred on the following

F.P.s:—

DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PH.D.)

William Cranna Bain* (193o-39), M.A., B.Sc. Thesis—" The Propagation of Radio Waves of Very Low Frequency ".

DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (M.A.)

(I) With First Class Honours James Milne* (1935-47), in Classics.

Ogilvie Milne Clarke Buchan (1930-42), in Moral PhilosophyEnglish.

Ronald William Hepburn (1936-44), in Moral Philosophy-English.

John Richard Masson* (1937-43), in Geography. (z) With Second Class Honours William Gordon Kidd (1934-37), in English (Language and Literature).

Peter Rennie* (1938-43), in English (Language and Literature).

Alan Fowler Niven* (1941-44), in History.

Hamish Simpson MacRae (1934-47), in Economic Science.

Douglas Charles McKay (193z-36), in Geography.

George William Ferries* (1933-47), in Psychology-Philosophy.

(3) With Third Class Honours John Fraser Kirk* (1937-47), in Classics.

(4) Ordinary Degree William Alexander* (1945-48).

Austen Ogston Carnegie* (193 2-45).

Bruce Mayor Cockie (1930-43).

Frank Clark Connon* (1932-44 Hugh Diack (1948).

Malcolm George Lyall* (1935-48).

DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF LAWS (LL.B.)

Frank Clark Connon* (1932-44).

DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF LAW (B.L.)

Alexander Munro Davidson* (1937-45).

Ronald Lee Mackinnon* (1 93 2-45).

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University Notes

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DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (B.Sc.) (I) With First Class Honours

Norman Keith Bonner Robson* (1933-40), in Botany.

(2) With Second Class Honours

Ronald Dennis Fortune (1944-47), in Natural Philosophy.

George Erskine Leslie (1944-47), in Natural Philosophy.

Thomas Ian Morrison* (1934-47), (B.Sc., 1950), in Chemistry.

Arthur John George Notholt (1937-47), in Geology.

DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN FORESTRY (B.Sc. (FOR.)) William Henry Brough Forbes* (1939-48).

Ian Wilkison Kirton* (1934-40).

DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN ENGINEERING (B.Sc. (ENG.)) (2) With Third Class Honours

Peter Duncan Laing* (1931-43), in Mechanical Engineering. (a) Ordinary Degree

Gordon Sinclair Elmslie* (1933-43), in Civil Engineering.

Ronald Isaac Hopkins (1934-35), in Civil Engineering.

Michael Peter Littlejohn* (1939-43), in Civil Engineering.

Alan Harley Wilkins (1938-4I), in Civil Engineering.

Andrew Ritchie Williamson* (1946-48), in Mechanical Engineering.

In the Faculty of Arts Alan Stirling Hall* (1937-40 and 1943-50) was awarded the Dc Gurbs Prize in Greek and John Richard Masson* (1937-43) was awarded the Royal Scottish Geographical Society Silver Medal in Geography.

In the Faculty of Science Norman Keith Bonner Robson* (1933-40) was awarded the Trail Prize in Botany.

In the Faculty of Law Norman Alexander Shepherd (1930-32), M.A., was awarded the Hunter Gold Medal in Roman Law; Ronald Lee Mackinnon* (1932-45) was awarded the Society of Advocates Prize in Scots Law II; John William Reid Gray (1931-45) was awarded the Society of Advocates Prize in Jurisprudence; and Thomas Ballantyne* (1942-47), M.A., was awarded the Society of Advocates Price in Public International Law. Michael Sutherland Jamieson (1936-4o and 1942-49) was awarded the Martin Prize in Christian Evidences and the Henry Prize in Moral Philosophy; James Edward Fraser* (1936-49) shared with two others the Henry Prize in Logic; and Norman Keith Bonner Robson* (I933-4o) was awarded a Kilgour Senior Scholarship in Botany. * * * At the Graduation in the University of Aberdeen on 31 October 1951, degrees were conferred on the following F.P.s:—

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (B.Sc.) Ian Mackenzie Davidson* (1937-44).

Ian Martin Calder Murdoch (1940-41).

DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN ENGINEERING (B.Sc. (ENG.)) Alastair Harry Tawse* (193o-43).

Athletic Blues

The following F.P.s were awarded Blues at the end of the summer term:— ATHLETICS. Full Blue—Kenneth Coutts* (T944-5o).

BOATS. Half Blue—Robert Brown* (1932-43).

FENCING. Half Blue—Malcolm George Lyall* (1935-48). * * * Stephen Goodbrand* (1927-40), M.A., has been elected president of the Students' Representative Council for 1951-5z. In 1943-44 he was president of the University Union. He graduated M.A. in 1949, and is now a third-year Divinity student. He is also an assistant to the minister of the West Church of St. Nicholas, Aberdeen. * * * In September a party of two lecturers and ten young graduates and students from the University of Aberdeen went on an expedition to Cyrenaica to carry out geographical, botanical and archaeological research. Four of the party were F.P.s, namely, Ian Ross Fraser* (1942-48), James Edward Fraser* (1936-49), Malcolm Thomas Henderson Hamilton* (1931-43) and John Richard Masson* (1937-43), M.A. Masson graduated in July with first class honours in Geography, I. R. Fraser and Hamilton are final-year Geography students and J. E. Fraser is a third-year Classics student. (See article on pp. ro-13.) * * * At the University of Edinburgh George Irvine Matthews (192 5-3 3), M.A., LL.B. (Aberd.), was in July 1951 awarded the Diploma in

Administrative Law and Practice.

GRAY'S SCHOOL OF ART, ABERDEEN

The following diplomas and prize have been awarded to F.P.s at Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen:— Diploma in Drawing and Painting—William Thomson Ord (1942-47)Diploma in Design and Decorative Art—Ian MacKenzie Stuart (1941-46).

Alexander C. Barker's Legacy Prize in Architecture—George Alexander McNab* (1936-44).

Books by F.P.s The Editor will be glad to receive for review in this section of the Magazine copies of books, pamphlets etc. written or edited by F.P.s.

ALEXANDER JOHN YOUNGSON BROWN (1923-36), M.A. : The American Economy, 186o- 194o. George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. I is.

This volume, from the pen of a Former Pupil who has studied the American economy at first hand, is a significant contribution to the understanding of the forces which have shaped the development of the United States, and which underlie its approach to-day to problems not only of economics but of politics and social philosophy as well.

The author, now lecturer in Economic History in the University of Cambridge, held a Fellowship of the Commonwealth Fund of New York after graduating at Aberdeen, and the present book is a most practical and direct method of furthering the Fund's aim of increasing international understanding.

The eighty years covered were years of rapid development, but Mr. Brown has contrived to give an exceedingly clear account in the relatively small space of zoo pages. This he has done by first setting the scene with chapters on the peopling of the United States and its economic development from the Declaration of Independence until the Civil War. Thereafter he follows the admirable plan of concentrating attention in turn on a number of the growing points of the economy. In this way discussion of the development of the railroads, the growth of large-scale manufacturing industry, the varying phases of agricultural expansion, discussion of the financial system and trade policy arc successively made to contribute to an understanding of the American economic scene.

It is a pleasure to find that all this is accomplished in a manner which makes the book exceedingly readable. The work is careful, objective and well documented but direct in its approach, and the plan of concentrating the many textual references in an appendix allows the narrative to flow smoothly along to a succinct account of the transition from the vigorous nineteen-twenties, to the days of depression, and then to the New Deal.

Mr. Brown's reflections on the efficacy of the New Deal policies make interesting reading, his appreciation of their domestic successes being tempered by recognition of the fact that it was not until the advent of the Second World War that the problems which gave rise to the New Deal were fully solved. The unanswered question is how permanent that solution will prove to be.

The spirit of the American economy is well caught throughout and the reader is left in no doubt as to the dynamic qualities which have made possible the emergence of this economic colossus.

G. F. H. *

*

*

ERIC LINKLATER* (1913-16), M.A., LL.D. : The Campaign in Italy. H.M. Stationery Office. 12s. 6d.

Laxdale Hall. A Novel. Jonathan Cape. r2s. 6d. *

*

*

1898-1904), K.C.I.E., C.S.I., LL.D. : Kingdoms of Yesterday. John Murray. zis.

SIR ARTHUR L0THIAN* (1892-94 and

The School's long and honourable connection with India and the Indian Services makes it particularly appropriate that an account of the last vital epoch of British rule should come from the pen of a distinguished F.P. and Indian Civilian. Kingdoms of Yesterday by Sir Arthur Lothian opens quite unnecessarily with an apology for adding to the already formidable list of books on India, The apology is unnecessary because the story the author unfolds and the manner of its telling have resulted in a book which it is difficult to put down.

Sir Arthur's experiences in the course of an eventful and varied official career in India, which form the theme of this fascinating book, extend over a period

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

of thirty-five years embracing both world wars. No period in the world's history has witnessed such swift and profound changes in so brief a span and it is no wonder that the India which the author left in 1946 was very different politically, socially and economically from the land he first came to know as a junior member of the I.C.S. in Bengal in the early years of the century. In those days, even in politically precocious Bengal, the British Raj was still very much the " benign sirkar" and the voice of the professional politician agitating " agin the government" was largely unheard.

The author's official career in the Political Department of the Government of India—a Service, which, in point of interest, he rightly says " can have had but few rivals "—was largely spent in the Indian States and it is with these colourful " Kingdoms" that his narrative is principally concerned. In books on India, as in the consideration of the political problems of the sub-continent, the extent and importance of the Indian States have seldom been given sufficient weight.

As the author points out, they " unfortunately are not well known, and have been much misunderstood in the West". Too often they have been depicted as Gilbertian pleasure grounds, existing primarily for the support of decadent and inefficient potentates, bolstered up by a reactionary paramount power. Nothing could be further from the truth and Sir Arthur's account of the life and administration in a great variety of States of which he obtained intimate and first-hand knowledge and experience is a welcome and timely corrective.

The major political problems of the period leading up to the end of British rule in 1947 are discussed with refreshing frankness and insight. There will be many readers who, with the author, will gravely doubt the wisdom of the final arrangement for the liquidation of our Indian Empire and wonder whether an extension of the indigenous system of government obtaining in the " Indian India " of the States would not have provided a better basis of happiness for the sub-continent than the so-called democracy, drawing its inspiration from extraneous and unIndian institutions, which emerged.

The concluding chapters dealing with the events leading to the absorption in the Indian Republic of Hyderabad State, the foremost Indian State of undivided India, are a striking and disturbing commentary on the working of power politics.

The recent storm of indignation at the unilateral abrogation of contractual rights by the Persian and Egyptian Governments seems strangely inconsistent when one reads the illuminating correspondence quoted in the book, in which the Ruler of Hyderabad, bearer of the historic title of " Faithful Ally of the British Government ", pleads in vain as a friend for the fulfilment of the most solemn assurances given to him. For many of us who were in India at the time, there was indeed little honour in the manner of our going.

But Sir Arthur Lothian's book is not just another treatise on Indian politics and government. It is eminently readable and entertaining—unlike many written by sun-dried bureaucrats—and contains many fine passages of descriptive writing in which notable events and personages, already shrouded in the mists of past history, are made to live again with delightful vividness and humour.

C. A. G. S.

Legacies for School and Club Miss Jessie A. M. Mackie, who died on 1o September 1951 at the age of ninety, bequeathed legacies both to the School, which was the centre of her life for almost sixty years, and to the Club, in whose activities she maintained an intense interest to the end of her life.

To the School she left the sum of f5o to be used for the provision of books for the Junior School Library, and to the Club she left the sum of £200.

Miss Mackie was on the staff of the School from 1892 to 1923, and for most of that period she presided over the Lower School as Junior Mistress.

(An obituary notice appears on pp. 44-45.)

•

First Boarding House Reunion Presentation to Mr. Eddison

On Saturday, 13 October 1951, thirty-eight former members of Grammar School House assembled in the Royal Athenaeum, Aberdeen, to hold what was, it is hoped, the first of many Boarding House Reunions, and to do honour to their old House Master, Mr. James S. M. Eddison, who presided over the fortunes of the School Boarding House from its inception in 1928 until 1949.

For the purpose of making a presentation to Mr. Eddison an appeal fund had been launched, and every effort was made to give every ex-boarder an opportunity of contributing. The response was an impressive testimonial to the high regard in which Mr. Eddison is held among his former charges. Over seventy F.P.s now resident in many parts of the United Kingdom and in many countries abroad sent contributions to the fund, and during the evening Mr. Eddison was presented with a fitted wardrobe, an antique coffee table and an initialled brief case. There was also handed over to him a leather handbag for Mrs. Eddison.

The success of the function was such that a committee was formed, not only to arrange further reunions from time to time, but also to put forward to the F.P. Executive a proposal that a new Boarding House Section of the Club should be formed.

The Chairman at the reunion was W. Dallas Allardice, and, in addition to Mr. Eddison, the guests were Mr. J. W. Coulthard, who succeeded Mr. Eddison as House Master, and Mr. A. J. M. Edwards, a former Under House Master. It was Mr. Edwards who proposed the first toast, " The House and the School ".

He said that in so far as at one time or other all the company had been " fathered " by the same person, the modest gentleman to whom they were met to do honour, they were all brothers. They also all shared a common tradition and many happy memories. He recalled that the Boarding House scheme was launched in 1928 when there were a dozen boarders who resided at No. 8 Queen's Road. For twenty years the presiding genius of the Boarding House was " Jimmy" Eddison : he had a definite flair for housemastership and had been cut out by nature to make a success of the job he undertook at the request of the Rector and the directors of the Boarding House Company.

The toast was replied to by DouGLAs K. CAMERON, and he began by relating some highly diverting anecdotes culled from the memories he retained cf his years at the Boarding House. He went on to say that the affection of boarders towards their House Master was apparent not only when Mr. Eddison was in loco parenhis, but also in the years after they had left the SchooL The wonderful response from all parts of the world to the presentation appeal fund, and the attendance of those present at the reunion, were in themselves a remarkable indication of that affection.

DALLAS ALLARDICE then presented to Mr. Eddison the various gifts subscribed for by so many ex-boarders, and in a short speech he also referred to the great esteem in which Mr. Eddison was held by all who had been under his guidance.

He said how honoured he felt to have been asked to make the presentation.

In expressing his deep gratitude, Mr. Eddison stated that he had had no little difficulty in recognising himself as the person to whom Mr. Edwards, Mr. Cameron and Mr. Allardice had referred in their speeches. The goodwill and affection which had been shown to him that evening by those whom, with some right, he might call his sons had made him supremely happy. They had honoured him by inviting him to their first official reunion, by making him their principal guest 33

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magaine

and by presenting to Mrs. Eddison and himself such magnificent gifts. Not only, he said, were they honouring him, but through him the House and the School which had done so much to make them the men they had become. He was proud to have played some little part in that creation.

Mr. Eddison went on to recall those whom circumstances had prevented from being present, but who had sent their good wishes. Nor, he said, could they meet together on such an occasion without there being present in their thoughts that comparatively large number of House boys who had fallen in the war. One above all must be with them in spirit—Bill Stewart, in whose death the House and the School suffered a loss that was greater than was even yet recognised.

As some of those present might soon be thinking of sending their own sons to the Boarding House, Mr. Eddison asked them to consider the advantages which the boarder had over the day-boy.

In conclusion he suggested that F.P.s who were ex-boarders should form a special Section of the F.P. Club, take a special interest in the House, and obtain for a representative of their number a seat on the board of directors of the Boarding House Company.

H. E. R. SHAND proposed a vote of thanks to the committee responsible for arranging the reunion, remarking that, although almost every generation of Boarding House boys had fully intended to hold a reunion, none had been held until that evening. F. K. SELLAR, the secretary of the committee, replied.

He proposed that efforts should be made to implement Mr. Eddison's suggestion about the formation of a special Section of the F.P. Club and this was unanimously approved. A committee, consisting of W. D. Allardice, A. J. M. Edwards, J. M. Eddison, I. F. Ogilvie and F. K. Sellar, was formed for this purpose and to arrange further reunions. * • * The following ex-boarders were present at the reunion, the list being arranged in order of seniority based on the session of entry to the Boarding Howe. (The dates in brackets are dates at School.)

1928-29. Arthur William Walker (1928-35).

1931-32. Douglas Williamson Grassick (193x-34), Harry Edward Ross Shand (1925-34) (from Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire).

1932-33. Douglas Knox Cameron (1932-35) (from Edinburgh).

1933-34. Ian Dunbar Innes (1933-38) (from Hull), Gordon Sinclair Elmslie (1913-43).

1934-35. William Dallas Allardice (1934-39), George Scott Grant (1935-4o) (from Blacksboat, Banffshire), Gordon Murray Paterson (1932-46).

Robert Knowles Simmers (1924-35).

1935-36. Thomas Hill Buchan (1935-47), James David Garden (1935-40, Donald McCombie Grassick (1935-39), Lewis James Harper (1935-37), Gordon Innes Graham (1936, 1941-43 and 1944-47), John Anderson McNicol (1935-41), Ian Farquhar Ogilvie (1935-45).

1936-37. Ian Henry Lyall Murray (1935 -47) (from Longfield, Kent), John Tower Sorley (1936-45), Ian Stuart Watt (1928-40) (from Edinburg).

1937-38. Douglas Wyndham Mating Grant (1937-41).

1938-39. Alexander Ian Cheyne (1937-4o and 1943-48), Peter Mitchell Gordon (1939-48).

1939-40. George Fraser Dumo (x939-47), James Duncan Durno (1940-42), John Michael Eddison (1939-48), Alan Stirling Hall (1937-40 and 1943-50), Norman Watson Taylor (1939-42).

1941-42. Alarster Gillies MacCrimmon (1942-49), Ian Grant Rogers (1941-46), Forbes Keith Saar (1933-45).

1942-43. David Allan Graham (1942-43 and 1944-50).

1943-44. David Antony Brittain (1943-49), Herbert John Alexander Longmore (1943-48).

1944-45. William White Isles (1944-46), David Jack (1944-50), John Cowan Wilson (1934-47)Guests. J. S. M. Eddison (House Master, 1928-49), J. W. Coulthard (House Master since 1949), A. J. M. Edwards (1908-21) (Under House Master, (x934-35 and 1939-40).

Marriages Allan (193o-3S).—At Holburn West Church, Aberdeen, on 15 August 1951,

GEORGE ALLAN, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. G. Allan, 193 Great Western Road,

Aberdeen, to Mary Kitson, younger daughter of the late Mr. W. Kitson and of Mrs. W. Kitson, 1S7 Great Northern Road, Aberdeen.

Alsop (193o-4o).—At Gilcomston (St. Colm's) Church, Aberdeen, on 29 August 1951, SPENCE ALSOP, elder son of Mr. and Mrs. Spence Alsop, tor Fountainhall Road, Aberdeen, to Yvonne Alice Davidson, daughter of the late Mr. George Davidson and of Mrs. A. W. Porter, and step-daughter of Mr. Andrew W. Porter, 179 Rosemount Place. Aberdeen.

Anderson (1935-40).—At St. Ninian's Church, Aberdeen, on 16 July x951, WILLIAM ROBERT ANDERSON, youngest son of the late Mr. William Anderson, Auchamie, Forguc, and of Mrs. Anderson, 120 Osborne Place, Aberdeen, to Helen Dorothy Gordon, youngest daughter of the late Mr. John R. Gordon and of Mrs. Gordon, Wellheads, Huntly.

Argo (x942-45).—At St. Clement's Church of Scotland, Dingwall, Ross-shire, on 28 August 1951, EDWARD ARGO, M.R.C.V.S., elder son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Argo, 25 Camperdown Road, Aberdeen, to Catherine Rose McCallum, elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Duncan McCallum, Sliochd, Dingwall.

Bain (1929-41).—At the High Church, Elgin, on 15 September 195x, ROBERT Joss BAIN,* son of Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Bain, 65 Westburn Drive, Aberdeen, to Jean E. Grant, daughter of the late Mr. C. M. Grant, View1eld, Urquhart, and of Mrs. J. Grant, 2 Bellmount, Rose Avenue, Elgin.

Bain (x93o-39).--At King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, on 25 August 1951, WILLIAM CRANNA BAIN,* M.A., B.Sc., Ph.D., only son of Mr. and Mrs. William D. Bain, 64 Hammerfield Avenue, Aberdeen, to Kathleen Rayner, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Rayner, 587 Clifton Road, Aberdeen.

Bruce (192x-3o).—At Ruthrieston West Chuch, Aberdeen, on 15 June 1951, EDWARD STRACHAN BRUCE,* son of Mrs. J. A. Bruce, 32 Momingside Avenue, Aberdeen, to Margaret Georgina Johnston, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Johnston, Mains of Buthlaw, Peterhead.

Cameron (x935-37).—At Morningside Baptist Church, Edinburgh, on 22 June x951, ALLAN Ross CAMERON, B.Sc.(Eng.), only son of the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. R. T. Cameron, 12 Carden Place, Aberdeen, to Sheila Mary Campbell Dovey, S.R.N., eldest daughter of the Rev. and Mrs. A. Campbell Dovey, 24 St. Ronan's Terrace, Edinburgh.

Cowie (1937-43).—At South Church, Buchlyvie, Stirling, on 5 July 1951, JAMES Frv1E COWIE, son of Mr. and Mrs. James F. Cowie, 5 Lilybank Place, Aberdeen, to May Christie, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Christie, Heights Road, Buchlyvie.

Craig (1932-36).—At St. Werburgh's Church, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, on 24 November 1951, IAN GEORGE LOGAN CRAIG, M.B., Ch.B., son of the late Mr. J. D. Craig and of Mrs. Craig, Aberdeen, to Kathleen Bradbury, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Bradbury, Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Davidson (1934-43).—At St. Columba Church, Elgin, on 1 September 1951 GEORGE CIIESSOR DAVIDSON,* B.Sc.(Eng.), youngest son of the late Mr. James Davidson, Mill of Clove, Mintlaw, and of Mrs. Davidson, 5 t Gray Street, Aberdeen, to Isobel Louise Anderson, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Anderson, Norham, Reidhaven Street, Elgin.

Davidson (1932-39).—At Old Parish Church, Nairn, on 19 September x951, JAMES WArr DAVIDSON,* M.B., Ch.B., eldest son of the late Mr. James Davidson, Mill of Clova, Mintlaw, and of Mrs. Davidson, 51 Gray Street, Aberdeen, to Grace Tolmie, younger daughter of Mr. P. Morrison Tolmie, F.R.C.P., I lazelbrae, Nairn, and of the late Mrs. Grace Tolmie, Montague House, Bridlington, and niece of the late Winifred Holtby. .

35

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Aberdeen Grammar School MagaVne

Dean (1922-26).—At Beechgrove Church, Aberdeen, on 22 September 1951, ERNEST BEVERLEY DEAN, son of the late Mrs. Singer, Anderson Drive North, Aberdeen, to Alice Burwood, daughter of Mrs. Ross, TOO Bonnymuir Place, Aberdeen.

Dinwiddie (1926-33).—At the Kirk of St. Michael, Inveresk, on 23 June 1931, IAN ALEXANDER DINWIDDIE, elder son of Mr. and Mrs. Melville Dinwiddie, 22 Polwarth Terrace, Edinburgh, to Ailie Bartholomew, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Bartholomew, The Manor House, Inveresk, Midlothian.

Doverty (1936-4o).—At St. David's Church, Buckhaven, on 28 June 1931, JOHN DEGUID DovEarr,* eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Doverty, i1 Craigie

Park, Aberdeen, to Irene Constance Moodie, younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. L. Moodie, 13 West High Street, Buckhaven.

Fraser (1934-42).—At St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Aberdeen, on t8 August 1951, HUGH CAMPBELL FRASER, son of the late Mr. Hugh Fraser and of Mrs. Fraser, z6 Whitehall Terrace, Aberdeen, to Joan Gregory, daughter of the late Mr. Samuel Edward Gregory and of Mrs. Gregory, Stafford Villa, Brora.

Gordon (,937-4z).—At High Church, Hilton, Aberdeen, on 27 September 19SI, ALEXANDER FORBES GORDON,* son of ALEXANDER FORBES GORDON (1904-06) and of Mrs. Gordon, 31 Great Northern Road, Aberdeen, to Constance Doreen Johnston (Doreen) Reid, younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Reid, Alvah, 28 Ashgrove Road West, Aberdeen.

Greig (1927-39).—At St. Cuthbert's Church, Billingham-on-Tees, on zi July 1951, ERIC WILLIAM HUNTER GREIG,* A.M.I.C.E., son of Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Greig, io Esslemont Avenue, Aberdeen, to Irene Loughton, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. Loughton, 143 Central Avenue, Billingham-on-Tees.

Griffiths (z931-43).—At Holy Trinity Church, Chelmsford, on 18 August 195I, DAVID RONALD GRTEFITHS,* B.Sc.(Eng.), younger son of the late Mr. J. L. Griffiths and of Mrs. Griffiths, 86 King's Gate, Aberdeen, to Audrey Healey, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Healey, Chelmsford, Essex. limes (1928-31).—At King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, on 27 October 1951, ROBERT ALEXANDER INNES,* B.Sc.(For.), eldest son of the late Mr. R. A. Innes, Wrangham, Inch, and of Mrs. Innes, Kininvie, Countesswells Road, Aberdeen, to Henrietta Macdonald, elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Macdonald, Mor Monadh, Stornoway.

Laing (t935-45).—At Christ Church, Bridlington, on 9 July 1951, ALEXANDER WOOD LAING, M.S., Ch.B., son of Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Laing, x41 Blenheim Place, Aberdeen, to Beryl Hudson, daughter of the late Mr. Bernard Hudson and of Mrs. Hudson, 16 Victoria Road, Bridlington.

Mackenzie (t929-41).—At Christ-the-King Church, Liverpool, on 25 July 1951, JAMES Ross MACKENZIE,• M.B., Ch.B., only son of the late Mr. James Mackenzie and of Mrs. Mackenzie, 9o Union Grove, Aberdeen, to Veronica Willis, M.B., Ch.B., younger daughter of Captain and Mrs. Mark Willis, Rhyl, Flintshire.

Mackinnon (I932-45).—At King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, on 29 September 1951, RONALD LEE MAcKaNNoN,* youngest son of the late Mr. Neil Mackinnon and of Mrs. Mackinnon, late of Aberdeen, to Elizabeth Jane Davidson, only daughter of the late Mr. Alexander Davidson, bank manager, Buckie, and of Mrs. B. K. Davidson, 8 Gladstone Place, Aberdeen.

Masson (x937-43).—At St. Mary's Cathedral, Aberdeen, on 23 June 1951, JOHN RICHARD MASSON,* M.A., only son of Mr. and Mrs. John Masson, 19 Argyll Place, Aberdeen, to Stella Frances Harper, younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Harper, 25 Brighton Place, Aberdeen.

Milne (193z-43).—At the Station Hotel, Aberdeen, on 3 November 1951, TON MILNE,* eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Milne, 15 Ashley Park ANDREW North, Aberdeen, to Catherine Elizabeth Rose Melvin, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. R. Melvin, 275 Union Grove, Aberdeen.

Marriages

37

Morrison (t922-25).—At Hampstead, London, on IS June 1951, DONALD ALEXANDER CAMPBELL MORRISON, elder son of Dr. and Mrs. G. A. Morrison, 23 Albert Place, Dufftown, to Elma Margaret Craig, elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Craig, 12 Highbury Avenue, Linthorpe, Middlesbrough.

Mutch (1935-O).—At Carden Place Church, Aberdeen, on I8 September 195 1, ALASTATR CAMERON Murcii,* son of Mr. and Mrs. A. R. Mutch, The Knoll, Culter, to Jean Rae, daughter of the late Mr. John Rae, Havana, Cuba, and of Mrs. Rae, 9o Blenheim Place, Aberdeen.

Paterson (1927-4o).—At St. John's Church, Galashiels, on 22 September 1951, FORDYCE Ross PATERSON,* only son of Mr. and Mrs. G. F. Paterson, 2 Mackie Place, Aberdeen, to Janette Campbell Dodds, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. Campbell Dodds, 3 Forest Avenue, Galashiels.

Peters (I929-41).—At St. Catherine's Church, Gorseinon, Swansea, on 23 August 1951, KENNETH JAMIESON PETERS,* only son of Mr. and MTS. W. J. Peters, 67 Beechgrove Terrace, Aberdeen, to Arunda Merle Jane Jones, younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Jones, Cynlais, Frampton Road, Gorseinon, Swansea.

Ramsay (I942-44).—At Churston Paris Church, Devon, on 9 June 1951, CAMERON RAmsnx, twin son of Mr. and Mrs. G. G. Ramsay, 278 Great Western late Mr. Road, Aberdeen, to June Georgina Newport, younger daughter of thePaignton, E. Newport and of Mrs. M. Newport, Sans Souci, Waterside Road, Devon.

July 1951, Ross (1937-44).—At King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, on 4Ross and of G. James Mr. late the of son Ch.B., M.B., Ross,* GAVIN RONALD Nisbet Margaret to Aberdeen, Terrace, Woodhill 8 Ross, R. Christina Mrs. Gray, Alice Mrs. of and Gray S. David Mr. late the of daughter S.R.N., Gray, Aberdeen.

Drive, 17 Anderson 's Church, Ellon, on 2 June 1951, GORDON Sandison (1934-39)At St. URQUHART SANDISON, son of Mr. J. Sandison and of theto Mrs. Sandison, Mrs. Gowanlea, Hatton, Aberdeenshire, to Isabel Shepherd, daughter of Mr. and C. Shepherd, Parkview, Hatton, Aberdeenshire.

1951, Slessor (1927-29).—At Monkstown Parish Church, on 7 September younger son ROBERT STEWART SLESSOR,* M.B., Ch.B., Colonial Medical Service, D.P.H., Fraserof ROBERT ALEXANDER SLESSOR * (1887-92), M.A., M.B., Ch.B.,J. H. Brough, 1 burgh, to Sheila Margaret Brough, youngest daughter of Mr. Brighton Valc, Monkstown, Dublin.

June 1951, Smith (I927-38).-At St. Mary Redcliffe Church, Bristol, on 16Dr. and Mrs. of son only M.R.C.O.G., M.D., SMITH,* M'CREDIE ANTHONY JOHN M.B., Ch.B., Storkey, Medora to Aberdeen, Road, Fountainhall ;8 Smith, John Cotterell, elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur G. Storkey, May's Hill, Frampton Bristol. near 1951, Summers (19z7-39).—At the Assembly Hall, Aberdeen, on 8 September of Mr. G. N. GEORGE NOBLE SUMMERS,* M.B., Ch.B., D.P.H., D.T.M., elder son Aberdeen, Summers, and of the late Mrs. Summers 39 Devanha Gardens South, Street, 341 Jersey to Margaret Alice Street, S.R.N., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Street, Osterley, Middlesex. on 25 July Sutherland (z937-45).—At King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, and Mrs. Kenneth 1951, KENNETH IAN SUTHERLAND,* M.B., Ch.B., son of Mr.Elizabeth Anderson Sutherland, z68 Westbum Road, Aberdeen, to Constance Errolbank, Fraser, M.A., LL.B., daughter of Baillie and Mrs. W. A. Fraser, Dufftown.

London, on Taggart (193r-42).—At Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church,Harry Taggart 1 September 19SI, JAMES SINCLAIR TAGGART,* M.A., son of Mr.Doris Elizabeth and of the late Mrs. Taggart, 47 Aridcrson Drive, Aberdeen, to 18 Hanover Alexander, M.A., elder daughter of Mr. and Mts. W. H. Alexander, Park, London, S.E.15.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magatine

Thomson (1938-44).-At St. Nicholas Church, Union Grove, Aberdeen, on 14 July 1951, ALISTAIR SILVER THOMSON, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. G. S. Thomson, Ahoy, Cults, to Mabel Coutts, second daughter of the late Mr. Alexander M. Courts and of Mrs. A. Ponczek, 2 St. Devenick Crescent, Cults, Aberdeenshire.

Townshend (194z-45).—At King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, on 7 August 1951, GERALD KILVINGTON TOWNSHEND,* B.Sc., only son of Mr. and Mrs. F. N. Townshend, 39 Woodend Place, Aberdeen, to Gillian Mitchell Park, M.A., younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Park, 5o King's Gate, Aberdeen.

Watt (1935-43)At King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, on 9 August 1951, IAN MACKENZIE WArr,* B.Sc.(Eng.), son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Watt, 71 Beechgrove Avenue, Aberdeen, to Margaret Keturah Stephen, daughter of the late Mr. J. A. Stephen and of Mrs. Stephen, 3o Craigie Park, Aberdeen.

Watt (1927-39).—At All Saints' Church, St. Andrews, on 8 September x951, JAMES ALLAN NEWTON WATT,* C.A., Bristol, elder son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Watt, Foxgrove, Blue Anchor, Somerset, to Huldah Marigold Walker, M.S.R., only daughter of Canon VANE WALKER (1904-05) and of Mrs. Walker, St. Andrews.

Westland (1934-4f).-At St. Columba's Church, Glasgow, on 14 September 1951, ALAN GEORGE WESTLAND,* only son of Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Westland, 140 Blenheim Place, Aberdeen, to Catriona M`Lean, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Neil M`Lean, 4 Alexandria Terrace, Dunoon.

Wetherly (1922-34).—At King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, on 9 August 1951, ROBERT ERSKINE WETHERLY,* B.Sc., second son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Wetherly, 35 Louisville Avenue, Aberdeen, to Nancy Dalziel, M.A., only daughter of the late Captain Dalziel and of Mrs. Dalziel, 9o Forest Avenue, Aberdeen.

Wilkins (1938-4 O.—At King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, on 3 i August 1951, ALAN HARLEY WILKINS, B.Sc.(Eng.), elder son of Mr. and Mrs. P. A. Wilkins, r Lake Road North, Cardiff, to Una H. M'Coss, younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. M'Coss, 105 Duthie Terrace, Aberdeen.

-Obituary Thomas Davidson* (1893-97), D.S.O., T.D., J.P., of Caskieben, Kinellar, Aberdeenshire, died at his home after a short illness on 22 August 1951. He was in his seventy-second year. For fifty years he was closely associated with C. Davidson & Sons Limited, paper and board makers, Mugiemoss, Bucksburn, Aberdeenshire. He joined the company in 1901, after three years at the University of Oxford, and then spent almost two years in Vienna and elsewhere in Austria studying paper making. He became a director of C. Davidson & Sons Limited in 7911, and was managing director from 1925 to 1946, when he retired. He retained his seat on the board of directors of the company and its subsidiaries until his death. For twenty-one years he served on the Executive Council of the British Paper and Board Makers' Association, and he was chairman of the Association's Technical Section from 1938 to 1940.

On mobilisation in 1914 he held the rank of Captain in the 1st Highland Brigade (later 255th Brigade), R.F.A.(T.F.), and from 1915 he served with the 51st Division in France, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was " mentioned " three times and won the D.S.O. in October 1917 and a Bar in September 1918. Early in 1919 he was awarded the Croix de Guerre (avec palme).

He was closely associated with the Territorial Army for the rest of his life. In 1927 he was promoted to the rank of Colonel (as from 1925), and he retired in 1937 on attaining the age-limit. In 1939 he was appointed to the Territorial Army Reserve of Officers, with the rank of Colonel, and he retired in 1943. From 1945 to 1950 he was Honorary Colonel of 75 Heavy Regiment, R.A. (Highland), T.A., which in 1947 was re-designated 275 Highland Regiment, R.A., T.A. His main interests, after paper making and soldiering, were field sports and gardening. He was a very accomplished and knowledgeable horseman, a keen shot and a very pretty fisherman. In his later years he was an enthusiastic gardener.

Alexander Munro Halley (1904-05 and 1906-12), of 3z Barkston Gardens, London, S.W.5, died in hospital on 6 September 1951, in his fifty-fifth year. Prior

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to the 1914-18 war he was a partner in the firm of Halley & Company, coffee essence manufacturers, Aberdeen, and after the outbreak of war he served in the ranks of the Gordon Highlanders. He was commissioned in the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1916 but resigned his commission on account of ill-health in 1918.

Some years later he obtained an appointment in Shanghai with Messrs. Theodor and Rawlins, a London tea-buying and shipping firm. He was one of the Shanghai F.P.s who presented the Shanghai Clock to the School in November 1927.

Both his sons, WILLIAM ALEXANDER MUNRO HALLEY (1929-30 and 1932-35) and THOMAS FORBES HALLEY (1929-30 and 1932-35), attended the School. The former was killed on active service in 1941, while serving in the R.A.F. William Francis Harper (1889-1900), M.A., died at Lymington on r February 1951, aged sixty-seven. He was ordained as a deacon in the Scottish Episcopal Church in 1906 at Dundee and was a parish priest there for some time. Thereafter he became curate of Holy Cross, St. Pancras, London, and later he held a charge at Brighton. In 1931 he entered the Roman Catholic Church and, after training as a Catholic priest at Collegia Beda in Rome, he was for many years parish priest at Kingsbridge, Devon. Latterly he was parish priest at Wimborne, Dorset.

His brother, DOUGLAS HARPER * (1888-98), has been in Canada since 1907: he is a partner in the firm of Corbett, Harper & Corbett, barristers, solicitors and notaries, Edmonton, Alberta, and is Club Consul for Alberta. Another brother, GERALD HARPER (1891-1902), died at Pretoria, South Africa, in 1941.

John Winchester Henderson* (1885-91), retired shipmaster of the Standard Oil Company of New York, died at Aberdeen on 17 September 1951, aged seventyfive. He joined the Aberdeen White Star Line at the age of fifteen and was apprenticed to his father, the late Captain John Henderson, with whom he sailed in some of the famous clippers built in Aberdeen. One of these was the Samuel Plimsoll and another the Thermopylae which beat the famous Catty Sark on a trip from London to Australia. Having obtained his Master's certificate, he sailed in several of the ships of the Aberdeen Line but in 1912 he went to New York to join the Anglo-American Oil Company and became Master of one of their steamers. During the 1914-18 war he was engaged in carrying oil from the Far East to Scapa Flow and after the war he was Master of various tankers belonging to the Standard Oil Company of New York. He retired in 1938 and came to live in Aberdeen with his two sisters, but latterly he did not enjoy good health.

James Ledingharn* (1885-88), J.P., manager of the chief office of the North of Scotland Bank Limited in Glasgow from 1921 to 1938, died at Fairfield, Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire, on 24 November 1951. He was the senior member and first president of the Glasgow Centre of the Club and on the day before his death he sent a telegram of good wishes to those present at the Centre's Annual Dinner. An obituary notice will appear in our next issue.

Edward Legge (1893-99), M.A., B.L., eldest and only surviving son of the late Rev. JAMES W. LEGGE (1845-5i), M.A., who was one of the Classics masters at the School from 1855 to 1891, died at Aberdeen on 31 May 1951. He was aged seventy. After graduating M.A. at the University of Aberdeen in 1903 and B.L. in 1906, he went to Canada in 1909 and was with Messrs. Aylesworth, Wright, Moss & Thomson, barristers, Toronto. While there he had the distinction of winning the Dominion Golf Association tournament in his first year in Canada.

Later he engaged in insurance and real estate business in Winnipeg. During the 1914-18 war he served in France with the Canadian Expeditionary Force and was a staff captain at Canadian Headquarters in London. Thereafter he worked in the Ministry of Information in London and for a time he was employed on the Disposals Board with Sir Howard Frank of Messrs. Knight, Frank & Reilley.

For five years he was on the staff of the Daily News and from about 1930 until he retired in 1949 he was engaged in financial advertising in London, first with Dorland Advertising Limited and later with Dorland (City) Limited. He was a director of the Walton Heath Golf Club and when he retired he was elected an honorary member of the Club. Latterly he lived at Aboyne, Aberdeenshire.

When at the University he was secretary and treasurer of the Athletic Club and one of the students responsible for the raising of funds for the laying-out of the playing field at King's College in the early years of the century. He won

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many golf tournaments at the Links and elsewhere around Aberdeen. Throughout his life he had a host of friends and wherever he lived he knew and was loved by every small child. He was unusually fond of children, who took to him instinctively. He was predeceased by his wife and they had no family.

Two of his brothers were F.P.s and both died in 1915: STAFFORD HENRY LEGGE (1900-03) died at Croydon and ANGUS FORSYTH LEGGE (1901-07), M.B., Ch.B., D.P.H., Lieutenant, Singapore Volunteer Medical Company, was killed in a riot following a mutiny at Singapore.

Malcolm Donald Macdonald (1902-04), M.A., F.E.I.S., died at Tigh-naDrochit, Alness, Ross-shire, on 3 November 1951, his seventieth birthday. He retired seven years ago from the headmastership of Bridgend School, Alness, a post which he had held since 1918. After graduating M.A. at the University of Aberdeen in 1909, he began his teaching career at the High School, Oban, and in the following year he was appointed to the staff of Cornaigmore Higher Grade Public School, Tiree. In 1912 he obtained his first headmastership at the Public School, Hill of Fcarn, Ross-shire, and he spent six years there before he was appointed headmaster of Bridgend School. In 1940 he was elected a Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland.

Archibald F. McGillivray• (1882-85) died in Glasgow on 27 March 1951.

He was aged eighty-one. For fifteen years after leaving the School he was with Messrs. Leith & Paterson, wholesale warehousemen, Aberdeen, and in 1900 he went to Glasgow. There he was in business on his own account as a manufacturers' agent for forty-nine years until he retired two years ago.

Henry William Malcolm (1886-87), M.A. (Aberd.), Ph.D. (Heidelberg), D.Sc. (Aberd.), chartered electrical engineer, died at Gidea Park, London, on 25 October 1951, aged seventy. He graduated M.A. at the University of Aberdeen in 19oz and B.Sc. in the same year. From 1904 to 1906 he was a Carnegie Scholar engaged in research on physics and from 1906 to 1908 he was a Carnegie Fellow.

He obtained his Ph.D. at Heidelberg in 1906 and his D.Sc. at Aberdeen in 1907.

In 1914 he was elected a Fellow of the Physical Society, London. For sonic years he was head of the submarine cable department, India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company Limited, London, and thereafter he was consultant to Imperial and International Communications Limited. He was at the School for only a few months during his early boyhood.

Alexander Duncan Mann (1900-01) died suddenly at 367 Great Western Road, Aberdeen, on 29 May 1951, aged sixty-three. He entered the service of the General Post Office at Aberdeen in 1904 and held various posts, being at one time accountant and later in charge of the investigation branch. When he retired in 1949, he was assistant superintendent at Aberdeen.

James Yeats Meldrum (1908-To) died at 79 Irvine Place, Aberdeen, on 25 November 1951, aged fifty-six. He was with William Knox & Company Limited, grain merchants, Aberdeen. An obituary notice will appear in our next issue.

James Milne• (1896-1904) died at 18 Belvidere Crescent, Aberdeen, on 17 October 1951, in his sixty-fifth year. He was employed in the office of Mr. G. T. Duncan, advocate in Aberdeen, in 1905/1906 and from 1908 to 1947 he was with the legal firm of Wilsonc & Duffus. He was a distinguished musician and was organist and choirmaster of Belmont Congregational Church, Aberdeen, for about twenty years until 1940. He was also the author of many Scots poems, several of which have been published.

William Robertson Myers* (1895-99), C.B.E., of the Chinese Maritime Customs, died at Hong Kong on 17 October 1951, aged sixty-seven. Latterly he was Deputy Inspector-General of Customs at Shanghai. Born in Formosa, he entered the Customs Service in 1904 and from time to time held various posts in different parts of China. In 1908 he was at Mengtsz, Yunnan; in 1922 he was acting Deputy Commissioner at Harbin, North Manchuria; and in 1927 he became Assistant Commissioner of Customs. In 1938 messages in the Japanese Press paid tribute to the assistance he had given as British Commissioner in connection with the taking over by the " new " Peking Government of the Maritime Customs in North China. His friendly attitude, they said, would prove of advantage to

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Great Britain. In 1941 he was Commissioner of Customs at Tientsin and in December of that year he was interned. After eight months, spent mostly in solitary confinement, he was released and reached the United Kingdom in 1943 via Portuguese East Africa. He returned to China in 1945 as British Red Cross Commissioner for all China and was stationed at Chungking. From 1947 to 1950 he was special adviser to the Inspectorate-General of Customs, a post which he held at the time of the Communist occupation of Shanghai in 1949.

He was one of the Shanghai F.P.s who presented the Shanghai Clock to the School in 1927. In an article which he contributed to the Afagazine of June 1943 he wrote: " In China a reputation good or bad always precedes you wherever you may go". His successful career and his popularity in that country bear witness to the great reputation which he enjoyed.

In a tribute which was published in The Times a friend wrote:— Tim Myers, as he was known affectionately to a host of friends of a now passing generation, was a typical commissioner in the tradition of Sir Robert Hart. Loyal and devoted to the service of his choice, he was a wise counsellor to his employers, progressive of mind, and adaptable to changing times, but withal a sincere and frank critic, qualities which earned him widespread and merited esteem. Old-timers in China will remember him as a cheerful companion, a good friend, and an ever-helpful official, and, scattered though they now are, they will regret the passing of a popular member of their shrinking band.

C.M.G., D.S.O., Major-General, Patrick Barclay Sangster• (1884-88), died in London on 19 June 1951, aged seventy-eight. Born at Bogart, Sutherlandshire, he spent two years after he left the School in the Town and County Bank at Golspie, holding at the same time a commission in the 1st Sutherland Highland Volunteers. In 1894 he was commissioned on the unattached list of the Indian Army and, after serving for a short time with the Hampshire Regiment in India, he joined the znd Lancers in 1896. In 1897-98 he served in the Tirah campaign and from 19oz to 1906 he was adjutant of the and Lancers. In 1912 he was appointed Brigade Major of the Ferozcpore Brigade and in this capacity he served with the B.E.F. in France in t914-15. Later he became D.A.A. and Q.M.G. of the Indian Cavalry Corps. He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in 1916 and commanded the 29th Lancers in France, Egypt and Palestine. He was awarded the D.S.O. in 1916, was " mentioned" four times and created C.M.G. in 1919 for services in Egypt.

After the war he commanded the 17th Cavalry Brigade for a time and was then appointed Commandant of the Equitation School at Saugor, Central Provinces, India, in 1921. From 1924 to 1926 he commanded the Rangoon Brigade Area, officiating for part of the time as Commander of the Burma District, and from 1926 to 1928 he commanded the 9th (Jhansi) Infantry Brigade, which formed part of the Shanghai Defence Force for seven months in 1927. When he retired in 1928, he was created C.B. for his services in the Shanghai Defence Force.

During his retirement he worked for eighteen years on the Joint Committee of the Order of St. John and the British Red Cross Society and he also was closely associated with the Officers' Association. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in 1933.

During the second world war he was an air raid warden at Rochampton and a well-known figure at St. Columba's Church, London, where he frequently attended services in Home Guard uniform.

Captain W. L. E. Gordon writes:— I first met Pat Sangster (as he was known affectionately by all those who had dealings with him) in the earliest days of the " L.D.V.", afterwards the Home Guard, in 1940.

Sangster, who, since the outbreak of war, had been a civil defence instructor for the Wandsworth Borough Council, had been appointed to command the unit which subsequently became the 27th (County of London Battalion) Home Guard, and had to start from scratch. He very soon organised his battalion into companies which became so strong that two of them afterwards split off to become separate battalions.

Meantime the work of training and administration had become more

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than a full-time job which would have driven a lesser man crazy. Not so Pat Sangster : he took it all in his stride and inspired his subordinates with his own energetic and indomitable spirit.

A recurring incident often comes back to me now. I drafted many of his letters which sometimes contained the opening words " I am afraid ", by way of softening a refusal: Sangster's invariable comment was " I'm not afraid of anything!" That comment was, I am sure, absolutely true and summed up the man.

At the age of seventy Sangster was obliged, under the regulations, to relinquish his Home Guard duties and immediately acquired an allotment to grow food—all he cared about was helping the national effort in any way he could.

For the last three or four years of his life Sangster was a sick man, but he never allowed his ill-health to quench his spirit—he was always full of life and full of fun—a grand old soldier and a grand old patriot.

James Charles Stewart (1943-50), an Arts student at the University of Aberdeen, was fatally injured in a motor cycle accident near Braemar on 51 August 1951. Aged nineteen, he was to have spent part of his University vacation as a beater on the moors of the Invercauld Estate but he was killed the night before he was to have started work. He was very fond of the hills and had acquired considerable skill as a rock climber.

WILLIAM DIXON BROOKER* (1938-50) writes:— Jimmy was the most cheerful person I ever had the good fortune to know.

His optimism was unbounded and he could see humour in any situation, however unpleasant. His popularity among his fellows was a measure of his friendliness and complete unselfishness.

At School he was outstanding neither in work nor games but bad the enviable ability to " go in for everything" for enjoyment's sake. He was a " live wire " in the Boarding House and his many interests included rugby, athletics, tennis and swimming. At University his vigorous love of life became even more apparent and his wide circle of friends increased.

With a keen love of the open air and an excellent physique he discovered in mountaineering the way of living which was nearest to his heart. In the hills he could dicrnrd convention, forget the outside world, and pursue the carefree, adventurous life which suited him so perfectly. As a climber, he could only be described as brilliant; and as a comrade—no man ever had a better. I like to think that his last holiday, spent with some of us in the wilds of Wester Ross, was the happiest of his life.

To the large number who knew Jimmy Stewart, there is, even now, a deep sense of something lacking by his absence. We miss his irrepressible gaiety, his unfailing devotion to his friends, combined with an almost legendary generosity. Those who could call him friend are proud to have been so privileged, and can never forget him.

Although our loss is considerable, that of his mother and relations is even greater and to them we offer our sincerest sympathy.

George Eddie Thomson* (1894-99), M.A., B.D., formerly minister at Monquhitter, Aberdeenshire, died suddenly at his home, 15 Crook o' Ness Street, Macduff, on 15 September 1951. He was aged seventy-one.

His brother, JAMES LAING THOMSON* (1894-96), M.A., B.D., who was minister at Peterculter, Aberdeenshire, from 1905 to 1948 and who now lives in Edinburgh, writes:— He was the second son of the late Rev. JAMES LAING THOMSON (1863-65), M.A., B.D., minister of Menmuir, Angus, and was born in the Manse of Menmuir on 8 June 1880. He went to the Public School of Menmuir, was afterwards taught privately by his father, and was a pupil at the School from 1894 to 1899. Proceeding to the University of Aberdeen, he graduated M.A. in 1902. On entering the Divinity Hall he gained the Barty Prize open to students of the four Scottish universities, and graduated B.D. in 1906, with honours in all the subjects, gaining the King William Scholarship. He then studied at the Universities of Jena and Berlin. He was

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licensed by the Presbytery of Aberdeen, and was assistant to the Rev. H. W. Wright, D.D., Ferryhill Parish Church, and afterwards to Rev. Hector Mackinnon, Shettleston Parish Church, Glasgow. He was ordained in 1913 by the Presbytery of Dunkeld, as first minister of the newly-built church at Murthly, to which he was inducted in 1914. In 1917-18 he served as a Chaplain to the Forces in Egypt and Palestine. In 1925 he was inducted to the Church of Scotland in Newcastle-on-Tyne' and in 1929 he became minister at Monquhitter. On 13 December 1441 he married Mary Barclay, of the nursing staff of the Hospital, Murthly.

A keen and diligent student throughout his life, he was an earnest, faithful and devoted minister, held in high esteem and affection by his people and by all who knew him. On his retiral from Monquhitter in September 1950, Mrs. Thomson and he were presented with an inscribed silver salver and a wallet of notes. In his short retirement of one year at Macduff, he won the warm regard of the people.

John Thomson (1882-93), M.A., minister at Carmyllie, Angus, from 1904 to 1948, died on 2 July 1951, aged seventy-six. After graduating M.A. at the University of Aberdeen in 1897 with first class honours in Philosophy, he was a student for four years at the United Free Church College, Aberdeen. In 19ot he became an assistant at the United Free Church, Inverurie, and two years later he became lorusn learns at St. David's United Free Church, Dundee. In 1904 he went to Carmyllie as minister of the United Free Church which, after the Union in 1929, was known as the West Church. When the East and West Churches were amalgamated in 1943, he became minister of the united congregation.

Mr. Thomson was the author of a volume of sermons for the young published in 1911 and entitled The Six Gates. Under the pseudonym of Peter Gray he wrote a number of plays in Scots, some of which were produced in Canada, as well as in Scotland and England. Some of his plays were broadcast. Warmly interested in the welfare of his parishioners and in the affairs of the district, he served as a member of Carmyllie School Board and later on the School Management Committee. He was also a member of the District Council of Angus County Council and treasurer of the District Nursing Association. A keen philatelist, he held office as honorary vice-president of Arbroath and District Philatelic Society.

John Walker* (1931-43), as reported in the last issue of the Magazine, died as the result of a road accident in Malaya on 9 December 195o.

J. McL. writes:— John Walker took up a planting appointment with the Chembong Malay Rubber Company Group, and he arrived in Malaya on 5 February 195o.

From then onwards our business associations matured, and with passing months we more and more appreciated the sterling qualities and fine character evinced by this gentleman.

His earlier training and general background fitted him for a planting career, and in casual conversation one never failed to note that his interests were rooted in the soil and that he had the making of a first class agriculturist for service either in the Old Country or overseas. We can depict John as having been in his best element when engrossed in conversation with the wittier of the Buchan farmers. When in debate or argument, we visualise the illuminating twinkle that came into his searching blue eyes which, together with his genial good fellowship, brought him winning affection and a ready hearing from both friend and adversary. This Grammarian had other versatilitics, however, and the knowledge and experience gained in the capacity of mariner, engineer, aeronaut and student farmer, had matured his outlook and set seal to his being a valued employee.

It was indeed a blow to all of us that the life of one so promising ended as the result of a tragic motoring accident on the afternoon of 9 December 1950.

Johnnie Walker was a good lad and his many associates in Malaya and elsewhere deplore his untimely passing and, with the stricken family at 20 Camperdown Road, Aberdeen, mourn the sad loss of a worthy son of the North-East and an esteemed member of the Aberdeen Grammar School Former Pupils' Club.

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John Webster* (1896-98), M.C., son of the late Rev. John Webster, Cluny, Aberdeenshire, died at 8 Brighton Place, Aberdeen, on it August 1951, aged sixty-eight. He served his apprenticeship with the Aberdeen Electrical Engineering Company and thereafter was on the staff of the Aberdeen Corporation Electricity Department. During the 1914-18 war he was commissioned in the Royal Field Artillery and served with 1S7 Brigade (Taggart's Own). He was awarded the Military Cross and was demobilised with the rank of Major. After the war he was a consulting electrical engineer. In 1940, being a reserve officer, he was called up and served in the R.A.F., in which he rose to the rank of Squadron Leader in 1941.

Frederick Wishart (1897-1906), O.B.E., M.A., LL.B., barrister-at-law, died suddenly at na East Side Road, London, N.W. xi, on i 1 November 1951, aged sixty-three. The eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. F. W. F. Wishart, Battlehill House, Huntly, Aberdeenshire, he graduated in Arts and Law (with distinction) at the University of Aberdeen in 1909 and 1911 respectively, gaining the Edmond Prize for the most distinguished graduate of his year in Law. From 191 a to 1914 he was at Balliol College, Oxford, and in 1915 he passed the final examination for the English Bar. From 1916 to x9i9 he worked in the Ministry of Munitions, latterly as assistant controller of the Timber Supplies Department of the Ministry, and in 1920 he was awarded the O.B.E. After the war he returned to the Inner Temple.

Charles Melville Young (1891-9z), M.B., Ch.B. (Aberd.), died at The Glen, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, on 8 June 1951, aged seventy-five. He was the eldest son of the late Mr. Andrew Young, valuer to London County Council, and was born at Clapham. After leaving the School he attended St. Albans Grammar School but returned to Aberdeen and graduated in Medicine at the University there in 190o. Thereafter he became assistant medical officer and casualty officer at the London Temperance Hospital before commencing practice in South-West London, near Wandsworth Common. He was elected honorary anaesthetist to the Bolingbroke Hospital and was associated with that hospital for over twenty years. During the 1914-18 war he was attached to the 91st Field Ambulance and served in France. In 1925 he was appointed medical officer to the Royal Masonic School for Girls at Wandsworth and in 1934, when the school was moved to Rickmansworth, he gave up his practice and devoted himself entirely to the school. Ill-health compelled him to retire last year.

In a tribute published in the Britirb Medical Journal" V. Z. C." wrote:— The bare outline of Dr. Young's life gives but little idea of his modest but great personality. He had the true vocation of a doctor. His life was in his work and he lived for his patients. No trouble was too great and no time was sacrosanct when the good of the patient was in question. Being without guile himself, he found difficulty in seeing anything but good in others. These qualities or faculties endeared him to his patients and well fitted him to be the medical officer of the large Masonic School. He was fond of children, and found great satisfaction and happiness in looking after the welfare of many generations of girls at the school. He was certainly one of the best doctors both as to ability and character that I have ever known.

In 1907 Dr. Young married Beatrice Pertwee, and his family life was exceedingly happy. Everyone's sympathy will go out to his widow and daughter.

FORMER MEMBERS OF THE STAFF Miss JESSIE A. M. MAcitia, a unique personality in the annals of the School, died at her home, 5 Osborne Place, Aberdeen, on to September 1951, aged ninety.

She succeeded the late Miss Daniel on the staff of the Lower School in 1892 (when Dr. James Moir was Rector) and for many years she presided over the Lower School as Junior Mistress. In 1913 she retired after thirty-one years' service in the School but thereafter she maintained to the full her intense interest in the School and in the fortunes of her hundreds of former pupils. She was a regular attender at School functions and was present at the prize-givings every year until 1949.

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For no less than fifty-nine years the Grammar School was the centre of her life and as a token of her affection for the School and her old boys she bequeathed legacies to both the School and the F.P. Club. (See page 32.)

One of her brothers, ALEXANDER HENDRY MACKIE* (1881-85 and 1886), M.A., M.D., now lives in retirement in Birmingham. Another brother was MAXWELL H. MACKIE, a very well known member of the School staff for a period of forty-three years from 1881 to 1924. He died in 1940.

EDWARD WYLLIE FENTON* (/895-I908), M.A., B.Sc., one of her old pupils, writes:— The passing of Miss Mackie is, to those of my time, the end of an age.

Miss Mackie represented a small group of teachers in the Lower School who laid a very careful and solid educational foundation on which others built, and built worthily. The others of this group were the Misses Anderson, Duffus, Davidson and Adam. It is not always fully realised how important are the early formative years for influencing and moulding the future personality and character of a boy. Miss Mackie realised this, for she was not only a brilliant teacher but a sound organiser, who never forgot that there were other things quite as important as " lessons". Even after fifty years the songs and carols the Lower School were taught to sing under the patient and skilful guidance of Miss Mackie are still a vivid memory.

It was not unusual for these " lady teachers " to call at the homes of pupils and thus make the home-school relationship very friendly and personal.

Such visits were not confined to special occasions when some pupil had been a " bad boy ". Among items discussed were the ability and general conduct of the pupil and the intentions and hopes of parents regarding the future careers of their sons. It was rather early in life to consider such problems but very sound advice was freely given where this was needed or requested.

Only a few years ago I enjoyed the great and unexpected pleasure of meeting Miss Mackie in a hotel on Deeside where she was spending a summer holiday. This was the first time we had met since 1 left School in 5908.

To my surprise she was still much as I knew her in my early school-days--as keen and intelligent as ever in spite of her years. Her knowledge of my days at the School was amazing in its detail, even to recalling certain rather humorous occasions which I had long since forgotten.

It is only as we grow older that we fully appreciate the tremendous debt we owe to our teachers for all they have done for us. It is a great privilege to be able to pay this all too brief tribute to the memory of Miss Mackie.

GEORGE NEISH Rirctim, M.A., a master in the French Department of the School from 1900 to 1921, died at Aberdeen on zo October 1951. His early retirement was caused by ill-health but happily his health improved thereafter. He died at the age of eighty-one. At the School he was affectionately known as " Crippen."

THOMAS Dunics.N, M.A., B.Sc., F.E.I.S., who was on the staff of the School for a few years prior to 1905, died at Aberdeen on 9 October 1951, aged seventynine. He was head Science master at Aberdeen Central School for many years until he retired in 5937.

Missing Robin Burnesa Taylor* (1938-44), B.Sc. (Eng.), who went to Hong Kong in August 195o to take up a post with the Jardine Engineering Corporation, was reported missing in April x951, after taking off from Hong Kong on a training flight in an R.A.F. Spitfire. No further news has been received of him but the International Red Cross are continuing their investigations. It may be that his plane was forced down in China and that he is being held by the Communists.

Aged twenty-four, he is the youngest son of the late JOHN CAMERON TAYLOR (19o4-o6), who died in August 195o. During his years at School, Robin was at the Boarding House.

SCHOOL SECTION Changes in the School Staff Departures MR. HENRY PATERSON, M.A., Deputy Rector of the School, retired on 9 November, having been a member of the staff for more than thirty-two years.

When Mr. Paterson came to the Grammar School in 1919 as senior assistant in French and German, he had already served a useful apprenticeship in George Heriot's, and after five years here he was promoted to the headship in Modern Languages. The responsibilities of this important post he discharged for over twenty years during a period when the counter-attractions of Classics and Science, and the continued emphasis on grammar imposed by examination requirements made the teaching of French and German in boys' schools a singularly arduous task.

At no time, however, were Mr. Paterson's services to the School confined to the classroom. He was a prime mover in the introduction of the House System at the Grammar School, and, as House Master of Byron, he long kept its star steadily in the ascendant. During these early years, too, he was in great demand as rugby coach and referee: indeed, his was a major contribution to the build-up of Grammar football in the period between the two wars.

From 1930 onwards, fresh responsibilities rested on Mr. Paterson as senior assistant and deputy rector, responsibilities which in their extent and variety reflected the increasing size and complexity of the School. To the cheerful efficiency with which Mr. Paterson discharged the duties of Deputy, Mr. Andrew would have testified as gladly as I. Quick to grasp what was wanted and energetic in carrying it out, Mr. Paterson always smoothed the way by the tact and friendliness of his approach to others. These admirable qualities were never more happily in evidence than during the past difficult year, when as our liaison with the host of workmen about the School, he was charged with the making of all those day to day adjustments which allowed their work and ours to go forward together.

Not the least of Mr. Paterson's services during the years of his seniority has been his influence on younger colleagues, to whom he has in two most important regards set an excellent example. He has stood consistently for that tolerant, reasonable temper which despite the wear and tear of school, keeps the life of the Grammar staff blissfully free from faction and friction; and he has succeeded in combining a strong attachment to old ways with a sane openmindedness in face of inescapable change.

These last weeks have brought to Mr. Paterson unmistakable evidence of appreciation and goodwill from colleagues and from pupils past and present alike. It is the sincere wish of all Grammar folk that happiness and continued good health may attend him in the years ahead.

J. J. R. 46

(;raits,ger

HENRY PATERSON, M.A.

Upper VI, 1951-52

a & W. Prophet, Dundee

Standing-1. M. Milne, A. G. Nicol, H. G. MacPhillips, C. M. McIntosh, D. R. Grieve, F. R. Dalziel, D. B. Haggart, K. R. M. Elder.

Sitting—J. L. Wilkie, D. M. F. Bright, R. Bain, A. S. Noble (Senior Prefect), J. G. Lillie, A. W. S. Brown, John A. Brand.

Absent-J. A. S. Bett.

School Section

47

Miss JANE F. DAVIDSON retired in October of this year after thirty-eight years' service in the Lower School. Except for an initial period of three years in Aberdeenshire and Stirling, Miss Davidson spent all her teaching days in the Grammar. Successive generations of Grammarians who passed through her hands in the junior classes of the Lower School will recall her brisk, methodical and purposeful treatment of the three Rs, her insistence on neatness and accuracy, the bark that seldom became a real bite, and the scolding that was so frequently accompanied by a twinkle in her eye. The School has indeed been fortunate in the past few decades when one reflects on the sterling qualities of that band of very able Lower School ladies who gave such loyal and whole-hearted service between the wars—Miss Mackie, Miss Ledingham, Miss Reid, Miss Tough, Miss Pink, Miss Duff. And now we bid farewell to yet another—Miss Davidson.

Her daily connection with the School may be severed, but Miss Davidson will undoubtedly continue to show a lively and practical interest in all our activities. The tea-pavilion at Rubislaw will surely see her, as energetic, helpful and friendly as ever, on Sports Days next year and, we sincerely hope, for many years to come. Fortunate is the teacher who spends his or her working days in the Grammar, but how much more fortunate is the School to have the services of teachers such as Miss Davidson.

A job has been loyally, ungrudgingly and effectively done—and now we record our sincere thanks and best wishes for a long and happy period of retirement.

Arrivals MIDDLE AND UPPER SCHOOLS MR. WILLIAM G. WATT hails from Elgin, where he received all his schooling and training as an engineer. Thereafter he held posts as works foreman both in Elgin and Aberdeen, and on the outbreak of war in 1939 he was appointed civilian fitter instructor with the Air Ministry at Blackpool. In 1943 he volunteered for aircrew service in the R.A.F., and on completing a full tour of operations in Bomber Command he was appointed flying and ground instructor, and finally chief instructor on the Flight Engineer Leader course.

On demobilisation in 1946 with the substantive rank of Squadron Leader, he resumed work at his trade; but his R.A.F. experience as instructor impelling him to qualify as a teacher of technical subjects, he entered and finished a course at the Training Centre, Aberdeen, after which he was appointed on a temporary basis to the Technical Department of the Grammar. This appointment has now been made permanent, and the School is most fortunate in having at its command the experienced service of a keen craftsman and skilful teacher.

Mr. Watt still holds his commission in the R.A.F. Auxiliary Reserve, and has further cause for pride in that his older boy, a Grammar F.P., is shaping well in the Service at Cranwell.

48

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

MR. ALEXANDER ROBERTSON, M.A., Dip.Ed., went in 193 8 from Perth Academy to Edinburgh University. After two years as a student, he joined the Royal Armoured Corps, serving for five years first in England, then through the whole campaign from Normandy to Germany. On demobilisation he resumed his studies, graduating in 1947 with first class honours in Classics and winning a Vans Dunlop scholarship. After a year's training at Moray House, during which he took a diploma in Education, he taught for three years in Falkirk High School, and commanded the school contingent of the Army Cadet Force. From Falkirk he has come to join the staff of the Grammar School. Since his arrival he has been an assiduous student of the rules and technique of rugby, a game about which he previously knew very little. Golf and badminton also claim his interest, though in neither game does he boast such proficiency as to take it too seriously. * * * MR. GEORGE L. MCGHEE, M.A., Dip.Ed., barely remembers his birthplace in Inverness-shire, whence he migrated early to Edinburgh. There he received his schooling at Heriot's, and on finishing joined the Army, in which he served from 1944 to 1948 with the Royal Scots in Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Malta and finally Trieste.

On demobilisation with the rank of Lieutenant, he resumed his studies at Edinburgh University, where in 195o he graduated with honours in French and Spanish. He also gained the diploma in Education during his year of training, and has come to the Grammar well equipped for the Modern Languages Department. His sporting interests are rugby, tennis and walking, in all of which he will find plenty of scope and hearty comradeship in the School.

LOWER SCHOOL MR. G. CLIFFORD SELLER, B.A. (Cantab.), was educated at Hymers College, Hull, from which he went straight into the Royal Artillery.

He developed a liking for Aberdeen when he was on a six months' course for Artillery officers at the University here; after this he was commissioned in 119 Field Regiment which formed part of the S.E. coast defences. After demobilisation he went to Pembroke College, Cambridge, for which college he played rugby and took part in athletics. On graduating he was appointed senior English master at a boarding school near Wakefield, Yorkshire, but soon felt the lure of the North again. After a spell of training at the Training Centre here, he was appointed to the Lower School staff in 195o.

In addition to his enthusiasm for rugby and athletics, he is interested in the production side of drama and in music. * * * MR. J. ELLIOT WEIGHAND, M.A., is a native of North Berwick, where he received his schooling in the High School. After a year at Edinburgh University, he joined the forces, serving for two years in the Royal Scots and one year at Gibraltar with the Royal Army Education Corps. After demobilisation in 1948 he returned to his

School Section

49 University studies, and graduated M.A. in 195o. Following the usual course of professional training, he was appointed to the Grammar and found his place on the Lower School staff. He takes keen interest in many forms of sport, golf in particular, and is keeping fit by hard training with the F.P. Rugby Section. We wish him every happiness and success both in work and in play. * * * Miss AILEEN K. STEWART, M.A., who was appointed to the Lower School staff recently, received her education in the High School for Girls, Aberdeen, and graduated M.A. at our University in 1947. After training, she had three years' experience elsewhere in town, which will stand her in good stead with her Grammar charges.

Belonging to a family of schoolmasters and having two F.P. brothers, she has come to the Grammar knowing the ropes and all the answers I She has had no difficulty in settling in with ready assurance to her new work, to which we give her hearty welcome. *

*

*

R. Courrs has recently been appointed to the Kindergarten of the School, replacing Miss Ella Robertson, M.A., who left us on promotion. Miss Coutts, in addition to having Training Centre qualifications, was also Froebel-trained at Edinburgh.

MISS ISOBEL

Evensong The sun's bright sword was dipped in scarlet flame, But now the sombre scabbard of the night Hath sheathed the gleaming light From whence it came.

Now twilight's dusky red and golden hand Has drawn a curtain over half the globe.

Diana dons her robe In heaven to stand.

A swallow dips in flight, a quaint salute, To where belated sparrows homeward fly; A tawny owl wings by On business mute.

A squirrel works till night, then through the gloaming Treeward hurries, thought of hoard in mind, Or on to-morrow's find While gaily roaming.

So passes by the night in dreamy cloak, Until the day, in fiery armour clad, Brings forth the farmer's lad And forest folk.

GEORGE MURRAY (Lower VI).

So

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

Tobermory For days on end the Spanish ship Before the winds was blown; The great green waves around her rose, Full crested high with foam.

Found she at last a haven safe, And to it made her way: To drop her anchor hard and fast In Tobermory Bay. The Scottish chief upon the shore Gazed o'er the watery moat And caught the glint of soldiers' swords Aboard the Spanish boat.

With wily smiles and crafty words He struck a bargain sure, And soldiers fine his foes to beat Himself he did procure.

He trounced his foes with Spanish aid; His enemies were dead; And on that night the foreign steel Was steeped well deep in red.

The chieftain hatched a clever plot The Spaniard's gold to win: But Spanish craft beat Highland guile, And trapped the chieftain's kin.

But Donald Glas was clever yet, And cursed their Spanish pride: He blew their handsome ship in twain, Scattering it far and wide.

Achieving full his sweet revenge, He lost his life indeed: But left a mark in Scottish hearts Of Highland steadfast breed.

Beneath the waters dark and deep, In Tobermory Bay, There rests a mighty treasure, That lies there to this day.

DONALD R. Nicol, (Middle IIA).

School Section

St

London Rhapsody White paper and black notes and tawny sunlight. The pattern was very beautiful; yet the formal, graceful marks meant nothing— not as music. He rubbed his eyebrows fiercely and cocked an ear to the running, irregular rhythm of the city. The growl of engines, the wavering cry of a newsboy, the echo of massive walls, the rush of feet on, on, on. . . . He closed his eyes. Cockaigne was written years ago, yet it is still true to the audible life-beat; why is this so dead, being written in the heart, high up among the ranges of roofs ?

He lit a black, foul pipe and stood hands in pockets at the window, puffing hard with a sudden irritation. The notes came stealing into place, bar after bar, but in ten seconds a harsh cacophony of klaxons and the roar of a red, articulated serpent across the chimney-pots had made a sudden end to the sequence. With a feeling of frustration, he turned slowly and shouldered brusquely into the studio.

The dusty, neutral-tinted room was a relief after that cramped little hole, but what a stink! He stood holding his nose, looking down the slatternly stairway. " Time the Smiths swept their chimney, isn't " said his wife.

She backed away gingerly past a pile of dirty bric-a-brac, brush held in an affected manner and eyes narrowed.

A sneeze was all the answer she got. She darted forward quickly like a sparrow and mixed a weird hue with the air of a cook. After a tentative smear she looked round enquiringly. The door on to the landing was ajar and a scuffle of feet was still echoing in the grimy downstairs lobby as the door banged. She shrugged.

Having added several square miles of purple and yellow landscape, she sat back on the stool, wiped oil paint off her fingers on her greasy slacks, lit a cigarette, fidgeted with a mixing dish, contemplated the dark blue sky. Finally she went into the attic and sat down carelessly upon the crumpled manuscripts on the table.

The sun was shining strongly on to the colourful, shabby spread of roofs and streets. Looking down, over the sill into sunlit space, into the triangular prism of cool shadow lying along the far face of the street, she saw his fair, smooth hair at the door of the little epicerie; he was stuffing a cheese into his pocket as he walked off.

She thought, with the sun beating white on her eyelids as she scanned the useless manuscripts. How he is thinking, angry and scornful of his work, weary with frustration; he will come home drunk to-night up the dark stairs. She was not pitying him, but rather was annoyed at his self-contempt, his eternal " maladjustments ".

He stepped over the kerb on to the main road, striding with hunched shoulders over the gleaming, sticky macadam, quite unmistakable among those other people, with his great height, towering above the dependable and sane and very unimportant people. He disappeared among the light, dust-glittering heads of the plane trees in the avenue. Shc turned away.

D. BRIGHT (Upper VI).

5a

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine Die Maultrommel I

After three days travelling half across Europe I arrived at Aschau railway station in the Salzkammergut along with nine other boys from Aberdeen. Before us stretched the wonderful view of the Austrian Lake district. We shouldered our packs and after a few minutes' walking arrived at the World Boy Scout Jamboree of 5955.

Two days of feverish activity passed and a canvas city had sprung up. The Jamboree was on!

Fifteen thousand boy scouts were intermingling and making friends. You never saw so many bare knees and happy faces and you have never heard such a noise. The lofty horizon throws back the echo of the sound of axes, singing and general camp noises, but above all echoes the magic word, tawcben—scouts of the world go round to " swop "; some scouts even swopped their kilts. To add to the general din, the national music of many lands rises in a mighty anthem, the bagpipes, the drum, the guitar and the tom-tom vie for first place in this welter of sound. Occasionally the air for miles around is rent by the crack of American stock-whips. Some of the Americans were masters of this strange but deadly weapon.

The evening-before-Agincourt scene in the film Henry V is the only thing to which a Jamboree night can be compared. Thousands of camp-fires add a fairy-like atmosphere to the scene.

If you walk round the camp the natural place to start is the market.

It is just like an oriental bazaar with its seething mass of different coloured people all talking their own tongues. At this market you can buy gifts, knives, sweets, clothes and even a haircut. Jew's harps are prominent for that is the symbol of the 595 x Jamboree. There are Jew's harps everywhere, on flags, on poles, on stamps and in mouths.

A feature of the camp is the gateways. Each troop built its own gateway. Some were small, some were large, some were simply works of art, others represented national curiosities. Some English troops built skylons, the Dutch built windmills and one French troop built a yacht complete with sails.

Two incidents stand out in the minds of most people who were present there. The first was the Protestant Church service in which all the Protestant scouts took part. It was wonderful to hear the old familiar tunes sung in over forty different languages. The other incident was the dosing ceremony in which every• scout present joined hands with his neighbour and the tongues of Babel again rose in harmony to the strains of "Auld Lang Syne "—surely a tribute to Scottish literature.

This organisation of youth has done what politicians have failed to do. It has brought the nations of the world into one congregation and every man had a smile for his neighbour. In the words of the Jamboree song they were " united in one brotherhood ".

JOHN G. WATT (Lower VI).

1

Die Maultrommel—thc Jew's Harp.

School Section

53

School and Random Notes Well, then, the promised hour is come at last, The present age of wit obscures the past.—JoHN DRYDEN.

Past editors have usually started off with a moan about the exhaustion and mental fatigue caused by the writing of these notes: we do the same. Gaudeamus igitur in the fact that it is our turn now to brandish the pen with bright and devastating wit. And, with our editorial feet upon the editorial table and our minds complete blanks, we proceed . . . . * * * With great regret friends of the School and F.P.s will learn that Mr. Paterson, our deputy rector, has left us. We have no intention of trying to record how long he has guided us and what services he has given the School—an impossible task, and one which is done as fully as it can be elsewhere—but only to express the School's warmest thanks and best wishes. At his presentation Mr. Paterson was given an absolutely deafening Grammar School farewell; its echoes, like the memory of his presence here, will not soon die away. * * * Another member of staff who has left is Miss Jane Davidson.

Miss Davidson has spent thirty-eight years, nearly all her professional life, in teaching at the Grammar School. A host of Grammarians will remember " Jeannie " with affection. * * * We have an innovation at morning assembly: the music is contributed by a sextet of wind instruments. The reason given out generally for this revolutionary change is the furthering of music in the School, but we really believe that Mr. Norris doesn't trust the organ, which, being electrical, is vulnerable to any stray powercut that may be wandering around the North-East at 8.45 a.m. Anyhow, it has caused some ructions, mainly among the noble Vlth, who have been cast down from Olympus into the body of the hall to make room for a real choir of masters and first-year boys. Another result is a number of cases of shattered ear-drums in the prefecture, who sing their hymns with a trumpet carolling gaily into one ear and a tuba booming into the other. * * * A prefect stepping on to the lectern and peeping over the top at boo heads below, has, confidentially, a " butterflies " sensation around his belt (or braces). And it is not reassuring to feel the lectern itself wobbling in sympathy. Alterations to the stage have meant that it cants forward very slightly, and in dreams we sometimes have wild visions of the whole mass toppling on to the heads of the defenceless prefecture below, jerked over the edge by some member of the sixteen who has had a hard evening's heckling the day before. There are some cynics who would say that such an accident would be a good thing. This we ignore.

54

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

Our assistant editor is so called since some fellows took a wrong meaning out of " vice-editor". They suggest that if he did have the job of recording the sins of this wicked and sinful generation (we refer particularly to VI), he would do it better than anybody else in School. But this cannot be true of the secretary of the S.U. (S for Scripture), or can it? He may be leading a double life. * * * Upper VI, we have discovered with surprise, is looked on as the School's Labour Force for " jobbies" of all kinds. And in our ingenuous youth we believed it was the Nirvana, the Seventh Heaven of delight for the slaving schoolboy who has hoisted himself laboriously from Middle I to Upper V! As it is, we expect to do a little digging in the School garden before long (Mr. Banks is just waiting until the frost has had time to get into the soil). We are contemplating forming a Union of Grave-diggers. * * * It is impossible to avoid referring to these people who flit about the School so busily in these quaint blue dresses. Editorial curiosity is aroused. What are they doing? Past editors and other mortals have tried on the Sherlock Holmes act before, but have never got very deep into the mystery. Strange sounds come from the library wing; looking through these huge new windows reminds us of some H. G. Wells workshop; the hall, corridors and classrooms change colour now and then, and little things like notice-boards and fire-escapes get tacked on to the historic fabric of the School; huge chunks of granite are missing from walls here and there. We believe there is some connection. We actually saw one of these gentlemen filling a truck with white sand while fifty urchins gazed at him with passionate interest. Anyway, these activities, or it may be hauntings would be a better description, have become so familiar and continuous that no one takes any notice except the Magatine editors, who have to think of something to say about the School.

*

*

*

The Science Department is currently taking a keen interest in Biology; that does not apply to the School, though. They always have. . . .

Dismembering frogs is a fascinating task. (These prefects are right sadistic types, ain't they?) We wander around the School lugging skeletons behind us, with an aura of formalin dinging to us and a few common beans in our pockets. This pilgrimage is in search of a vacant classroom, and the beaming smile tells anyone who passes that we haven't found one yet. * * * The ist XV is becoming highly cryptic in its language these days.

Allusions to Samson and Delilah (no connection with the de Mille epic) and various other biblical characters, letters, numbers, etc., etc., surround the line-outs and make a rugby match a most interesting affair. But we are sorry for the wing three-quarters. They have a dazed look.

School Section

55 The swimming activities in School progress vigorously under the supervision of the Messrs. Hunter and Mr. Wilson, but it has been ascertained that Mr. Paterson did not undertake to give lessons in the pool outside the prefects' room. And if the floor is not suited to aquatic sports then we fear that a few drops may have been added to the ocean frequently referred to in the classroom below. Which one? " Ach, use your head! " * * * The assistant editor of this magazine has been considerably disturbed by the presence in the janitorial washing of a certain scarf which belongs to Puellarum Altus Ludus, not our pupils; and he takes this opportunity of congratulating the first year and downwards on their unexpected stroke of good fortune. * * * Prefects arc exposed to many hazards, but the grimmest is one compared with which facing a rogue elephant is child's play: we refer to the rush of the plebs up the stairs when the end-of-interval bell rings. Great agility and speed are necessary, since the prefect who fails to reach the top first will inevitably be trampled underfoot.

If some cunning and malicious soul does a little organising, and the " Grammer Scool " becomes a little quicker off the mark, the prefecture is going to have a hard time of it. * * * Some members of Upper School appeared last term with hair styles which made us believe that they had received some severe shock. We now know that this is not so. Nature observers operating from the " houf " have observed that these small creatures are re-growing their hair. We deduce from this that the summer baldness is a form of moulting and expect that in the near future (probably the exam. season) they will go into hibernation with a full winter coat. For further information write " Nature Parliament", Broadcasting House. * * * Yess. . . . Well, now, where were we? * * * A propos of Biology, the museum has a fine petrified zoo. In fact it seems to hold the fruits of the labours of all the former young ornithologists, philatelists, geologists and historians School has yet produced. We solemnly undertake to leave to the museum, after we attain the eminence of F.P.-dom, our entire collection of Eagle., as a specimen of 1951 culture.

But it is a truly noble collection and most instructive. The staple food of Tibetans is tsamba or parched barley; the staple drink of Scotsmen is whuskey or fermented barley; we have found an ancient, musical instrument which is surely le cor de Roland; and finally we regret that owing to lack of space the comprehensive nature section does not include a roc's egg.

Aberdeen Grammar School Magatine We mentioned before a certain deafness in the prefecture. Dumbness is affecting us too—that was an incautious remark, what ?—and our senior prefect gives us orders almost entirely by the written word. Entering the " houf" reminds us of a paper-chase, there are so many notices. Not long ago we found a conspicuous one (conspicuous by its brevity) saying " All peashooters to be confiscated ". That is all. And quite enough too. Those five words warn us to keep our collars well up and our noses well down for the rest of the week. We sally out a few minutes later in a heavily armoured column to capture the enemy artillery. But we like elastic bands best. What can you do with a peashooter, except peashoot?

56

*

*

*

There used to be a certain vault or crypt in the grounds which reminded us of the " caverns measureless to men" of Coleridge's opium dream—that is rather appropriate—but reminded the rest of the School of the S.U. That is, unfortunately, no more; the editors of a while back had the sad task of writing its obituary. And in its place have sprung up three new offices. Now the S.U., sadly depleted in numbers, we believe, may consider that this trebles their chances (we fear our own expensive experiments with Chance make us suspicious of deductions like that), and facilities have certainly improved.

So we suggest that the Cr—bb—rs' Union agitate for improvements on the same lines. The traditional Corner really provides poor quarters for those gentlemen we see working so frantically on their Maths. exercise at the interval—such industry deserves a better reward. * * * The usual party from Upper VI went down to Edinburgh at the beginning of term for the usual reasons, and a lovely week-end was had by all. A camouflage of respectability was obtained by adding Mr. Macdonald to the party, all of whom returned worn out by high living and breathing in spirituous odours as they listened to Mound politics or excerpts from the " Thrie Estaites ". They report that Edinburgh has fully recovered from the post-war depression and is a booming burg; the more experienced compare it favourably with Gay Paree. Wacko I * * * Now these sundry paragraphs have taken some time and our normal work having been perforce done by dishonest methods (we confess it), if at all, we hear a solemn voice, a voice which saith, " Six times for to-morrow, please ". We are thus required to take up other literary pursuits, and therefore quietly " sub-side ". *

*

*

We could have had a quotation here, but thought better of it.

'Twas from Shaxberd, but we spared you. And so, good-night, sweet friends.

School Section

57

House News Byron House Captain— R. W. Donald House Vice-Captain— D. M. F. Bright Rugby Captain— I. L. F. Smith Rugby Vice-Captain— A. R. P. Paton Swimming Captain— E. G. Anderson Hockey Captain— A. F. Pringle Junior Rugby Captain— A. K. G. Paterson

Dun

Keith

Melvin

A. S. Noble

J. A. S. Bett

R. Bain

B. D. M. Grassick

J. M. T. Cheyne

G. W. Blyth

A. S. Noble

J. A. S. Bett

G. W. Blyth

B. D. M. Grassick

J. M. T. Cheyne

II. Bain

B. D. M. Grassick

R. G. Gauld

J. B. Watson

A. D. C. Grassie

I. M. Milne

D. J. Stephen

D. R. Nicol

H. A. B. Harper

W. S. Robb The above officials were elected by the Houses for session 1931-52. The interHouse rugby and hockey tournaments have begun, with the usual unpredictable results. In the senior rugby matches Byron, last year's champions, with a team looking sound enough on paper, were heavily defeated by Dun House; Dun's expected superiority in the tight (having both 1st and and XV hookers and the lion's share of senior forwards) was not so marked as their predominance outside the scrum. In the other match, Keith, with a strong back division rather weakened by injuries, was beaten by Melvin fairly comfortably. In the junior matches Keith avenged this defeat, while Byron drew with Dun. At hockey Melvin, with a very strong side, proved superior to the other three House XIs. Swimming activities are vigorously pursued as usual, but opinion has not yet expressed a decided preference for the chances of a particular House yet; however, time and the Gala will show.

House captains R. Bain and J. A. S. Bett are off School at present, the latter fur some considerable time, due to injuries sustained in rugby matches.

'

Lower School Notes It is with the greatest relief that we record that alterations to the Lower School are now approaching completion. We have been spared the attention of tradesmen for most of this term, and now there remains but the redecoration of the corridors and staircases, which will be done during the Christmas break.

Once again there are changes to report in staffing. In the first weeks of the term Miss Davidson left, after thirty-eight years' most valuable service to the Lower School. Her presence in the classroom and staffroom will be greatly missed and we wish her many happy years of retirement. Mr. Trevor Smith has moved to an appointment in another school. Miss Aileen Stewart and Miss Betty Gilmore are two welcome additions to the Lower School staff: to both these young ladies we give a warm greeting.

There is little of change to report in the daily routine of Lower School life.

The roll remains around the 37o mark. The Transfer Examinations are largely things of the past; whatever the boys of Lower V may think of these examinations, there is no doubt that they are warmly welcomed by the younger classes, giving, as they do, two mornings' escape from the classroom. Extra-curricular activities continue to flourish—particularly so on the musical side. Choir rehearsals take place weekly and are enthusiastically attended. The number of boys receiving individual tuition in instrumental work is on the increase. Physical education continues to be a popular item in the curriculum. Swimming classes for beginners are over-subscribed, and the proportion of boys holding the Elementary Swimming Certificate grows annually. Thanks to favourable weather, activities at Rubislaw have suffered little interruption. To date no rugger or soccer fixtures have been arranged with outside teams.

D. M. A.

58

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

Literary and Debating Society The Society has again got off to a successful start this season with a slightly larger membership than last year—I43 members as compared with 133. Our average attendance at debates has also been encouraging and there has never been a lack of willingness to speak. It may be said of this year's Society that, although the speaking in open debates is not always of a high standard and is sometimes quite off the point, it is there, and members give vent to their views with remarkable confidence.

Unfortunately, as the Library is being reconstructed, the Society has held its meetings in the Geography room (kindly km by Mr. McNay) and this classroom, while it is the best available and we are very thankful for the use of it, does not lend itself to the " debating feeling" that was induced by the learned air of the Library. However, we hope to return to our old quarters, much improved, in the New Year.

We began our season's programme with two straight debates, the first on " That going to Pittodrie is no better than going to the dogs " and the second on the subject " That civilization is too moral ". The former motion was defeated by a substantial majority, largely due to the eloquence of our vice-president, Mr. Brand, who put forward a well-argued case for the negative, in opposition to Mr. Henry MacPhillips, who is well known for his not-so-well thought out appeals to our emotions. The second debate—on the morals of civilization—was remarkable for the keenness of the open debate which, led by Mr. Nicol and our president, Mr. Bright, (who spoke for affirmative and negative respectively), showed that the Society was fairly evenly divided on the matter. The vote proved this, as the motion was defeated by only two votes.

Our customary F.P. debate was its usual success and produced some fine speaking from Messrs. Hall, Coutts, Morris and Craig. Unfortunately our own members were rather overpowered by these gentlemen's oratory and not one spoke.

The following week we had a most successful afternoon which took the form of a Masters' Brain Trust, and I am happy to say that not one question " stumped " the masters' panel which was composed of Messrs. Macandrew, Walker, Taylor, McGhee and Renaud. This meeting attracted our largest attendance—seventy members.

The Election formed the topic of our next week's meeting. This took a new form—a pre-Election survey. That is, six members of the society, in the course of the week before the meeting, interviewed members of the general public who had a vote and noted their opinions. Then, at the meeting these members told us how these people would vote and their reasons for doing so. The open debate which followed was naturally very lively and the Society's general opinion seemed to be in favour of Conservatism.

The Middle School Debate on the motion " That this has been, and is likely to be, the happiest year of our lives " showed, both by the large attendance of boys and the quality of their speaking, that the Society need have no fear for the future. This meeting was ably chaired by Mr. A. Henderson of IIIA and the leading speakers were Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Center.

Following this came our first inter-school debate of the session—and our firstever debate with St. Margaret's School. The subject was " That routine is the grave of the soul ". The debate was well attended by Grammar boys but unfortunately the quality of their speaking in the open debate was poor. The motion was defeated by a large majority.

Finally I should like to express the Society's thanks to the many people who help it on its way: firstly to Mr. Russell, whose untiring energy and ceaseless help make the smooth running of the Society possible, and secondly to all other members of staff who have helped in any way, especially those who have acted as unofficial recruiting sergeants.

JAMES L. WILKIE, Secretary.

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Combined Cadet Force Notes The strength of the Contingent stands meantime at a officers and 71 cadets.

The Army section is 3o strong, the R.A.F. section i6, and the Basic section 25. i t Cadets of the Army section possess Certificate A, Part U, while 7 cadets of the R.A.F. section have obtained the Proficiency Certificate set on the new C.C.F. syllabus. The other cadets of these sections have passed Part I of Certificate A. The following are this year's senior N.C.O.s: C.S.M. A. S. Noble; C.Q.M.S., J. A. S. Bett; F./Sgt., J. L. Wilkie; Sgts., R. Bain, A. W. S. Brown. Unfortunately, John Bctt has been in hospital almost since the beginning of term, but we arc glad to hear that he is fast regaining his health after an operation. We all wish him a very speedy recovery and look forward to the day when we shall see " Bonzo " re-ensconced in the store.

At the end of last summer term we were indeed sorry to say goodbye to Mr. Couper. " Scotty" was beloved by all, and his breezy and cheerful character and infectious enthusiasm were a tonic to everyone. We hope his boots are as blessed in Kirkcaldy as they were at the Grammar School.

Our congratulations are due to Cadets W. Rennie and J. K. Lothian for their prowess at the A.T.C. sports meeting in London during the summer holidays.

Rennie won the British A.T.C. quarter-mile championship, and was awarded an A.T.C. blue, while Lothian represented the Scottish Group A.T.C. in the relay.

The respective training programmes of the various sections have got well under way. R.S.M. Shore, 4/7 Gordons, is giving the recruits an excellent start, while R.S.M. Howitt, Scots Guards, of the University Contingent, S.T.C., is putting the prospective Part II examinees through their paces. This term the Post.-Cert. A. squad is under the S.S.M. of the University S.T.C., and it is hoped that its members will classify as cadet signallers before Christmas. A Drill and Weapon Training Cadre has been arranged for next term, and it is hoped to have M.T. instruction in the summer.

Both the Army and R.A.F. sections are hoping to go to camp at Easter, but as yet nothing definite has been arranged. Possible sites arc Dundonald for Army and Cranwell for R.A.F. training. We await the decisions of the " Powers that be ".

The response to the call for recruits has been disappointing this session, and unless more arc forthcoming, the Contingent will suffer in two or three years' time. Many boys could join if they would only make that little extra effort, and realize the advantages the C.C.F. has to offer.

ANDREW S. NOBLE, C.S.M.

Pipes and Drums Enthusiasm in the piping and drumming classes has this session reached its highest level in the post-war years. With twenty-one boys already enrolled, entry to the piping class is now closed for the session, as far as beginners are concerned. Boys who can already pipe will, however, still be welcome in the class. Recruitment for the drumming class has been much slower, but the eight members of this class have now settled down to tuition.

The main event of this session's activities to date has been the turn-out by the School Pipes and Drums at the Deeside Field Club ceremony at Corrichie.

Thanks to the ready assistance given by former members, a creditable performance was given. There will undoubtedly be further invitations to outside events during this and subsequent sessions if the present rate of improvement in playing continues.

Largely through the efforts of friends in the city, some progress is now being made with providing the pipers and drummers with suitable dress and equipment.

In the past few months we have obtained tunics, sporrans, hosetops, gaiters and drummers' waistbclts. We still have no kilts, but it is to be hoped that this deficiency can be made good in the near future.

And finally—once again our sincere thanks to our instructors. Mr. Couper and Peter Cromar are rendering a fine service to the School and to them we say once again and with all sincerity—" Thank you ".

D. M. A.

6o

Aberdeen Grammar • School Magazine

Scout Notes 1st Troop A most enjoyable summer camp was held this pear on Glen Tanar Estate, Aboyne. Although the date was a fortnight later than usual, we certainly had ideal weather, which permitted all forms of scouting activities. Three large camp-fires were held, and at two of these we had the pleasure of inviting a troop from Bo'ness and one from Cheltenham to join us.

Two members, Seconds L. Kilgour and A. Anderson, had the honour of being chosen to represent Aberdeen at the World Jamboree in Austria, and P.L.s George Murray and J. Hay were selected to attend the Jamboree in Denmark.

A very successful whist drive has already been held this year, and there has been another coffee morning which broke last year's record, the total sum realised being over _434. The proceeds of these are going towards our café which is being held on 24 November in the School.

The following promotions have been made : Hugh R. Wynne-Edwards and Ross Renton to A.S.M.s; Ewen Gregor to T.L.; James Hay and Lindsay Kilgour to P.L.s; Douglas Brown and Robert Miller to Seconds.

The cubs are still very strong and held a very successful Hallowe'en party.

Wedding bells will be ringing in the near future for our cubmaster, Miss I. J. R. Mackintosh, and we wish to extend our warmest congratulations and best wishes for health and happiness in the future.

Our scoutmaster, John K. Blair, who is resigning after the café, wishes to take this opportunity of thanking all members of the Troop, past and present, and all parents for the grand co-operation and help that they have given him in the past.

He extends to Mr. Ronald Walker, his successor, best wishes for every success in his new venture, and wishes the Troop very good scouting in the future.

A. W. BLAIR, Group Scoutmaster. gth

Troop

The Group has had a successful summer.

At King's College playing fields the Pack again added to Group honours by winning the Athletic Shield. The Pack picnic, this time at Belhelvie, was a most enjoyable afternoon. Promotion has been rapid. M. Clark, R. Fairbaim, M. Grey, G. Highland, I. Stephen and A. Flett are now Sixers and R. Lamb, G. McDougall, G. Graham, C. Hall, I. McLean and K. Ewen are Seconds. Miss Wallace and Miss Macpherson have now joined us as assistant cubmasters in place of Miss Mochrie, Miss Elliott and Miss Colquhoun, whose leadership has been so good. Meantime Sandy Brown, Billy Hutchison, John Harper and Bill Steele have done excellent work keeping the Pack running from September to November.

The Troop received the good of the cub training when ten of the cubs came up from the Pack after the summer. Others also went up a step when J. Harper, P. Philip, D. Cook and I. Davidson were promoted P.L.s and J. Robb, J. Hay, A. Esslemont, J. Galloway, R. Meldrum, M. Mackie, Seconds. H. MacPhillips is now an A.S.M. in the 23rd Troop.

Badge work has been progressin rapidly and we have now seven new 1st class scouts : A. Brown, R. Macleod, J. Hay, G. Glennie, P. Philip, D. Cook, I. Davidson.

Even further went J. G. Watt who gained the King's Scout Badge and was presented with it by Lord Rowallan, when he attended the Austrian Jamboree.

At the Danish Jamborette the Troop was represented by W. Hutchison.

While this was going on, the Troop was more quietly (?) having its annual summer camp, this year run by R. Tennant, on Witchill Estate, Fraserburgh. Not content with forestry work and a visit to the fish-freezing factory, eighteen of the Troop went deep-sea fishing with the herring fleet for a night or two. But after the majority had proved themselves poor sailors, they were more happy paddling round the less turbulent Red Loch in canoes.

LAIN ESSLEMONT, Assisiani

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z7d2. Troop Attendance at this year's summer camp was greater than at any previous camp of which the Troop has record—five full patrols as against three the year before.

Meetings this autumn are maintaining this evident enthusiasm. One Friday evening was spent in open-air games (in the dark!) at Templars' Park, Maryculter, —an experiment we hope to repeat in the future.

A.S.M. George Macdonald has completed his engineering apprenticeship and has recently flown to Canada to join a ship as Second Engineer. We have also (temporarily) lost Charlie Ritchie on National Service training.

We take this opportunity of thanking these scourers and all other former helpers for their services to the 17th, and hope with confidence that their memories of scouting days will be an inspiration in their present activities.

RONALD W. HEPBURN, Sala Markr.

Swimming Club Interest in swimming was greatly stimulated at the start of this session by an announcement in the public press that a piece of ground, adjacent to the School, had been purchased by the Education Committee for the purpose, ultimately, of constructing a Swimming Pond for the Grammar School. It was unfortunate that the word " ultimately " had to be included, but we can now at least fed that the Committee appreciate our great need for a pond of our own.

The Annual General Meeting was well attended by boys of all ages. Brian D. M. Grassick was elected Captain, Robert G. Gauld, Vice-Captain, and David T. Baird, Secretary.

We are fortunate once again in having the same generous provision for the teaching of beginners. Ac present 56 boys of the Lower School and 6o boys of the Middle School arc receiving instruction at the Municipal Beach and Middle School Ponds. Mr. Allardice is preparing a class of az for the R.L.S.S. examinations, whilst Mr. Barron and Mr. Wilson arc giving further coaching in the crawl and breast strokes respectively.

It is hoped in the near future to announce a new system of membership for the Swimming Club, and also the granting of further privileges for Club members at the Municipal Pond. The difficulties of arranging inter-school competitions are many, but the granting of these privileges will enable us to have modified competition within the School. The Swimming Gala is to be held in the Municipal Pond on Friday, 1 February i93z.

J. C. HUNTER.

Arts Club The Arts Club takes on a new lease of life each session with an intake of new members. That, of course, is only to be expected. However, the number of new members from years I, H, and III this session has been amazingly good. It is also rewarding that old members who have left School look in sometimes on a Friday evening to see how the Club is faring.

Much water and paint flows on to paper. Model projects materialize strangely.

As usual some of our members are occupied in painting decor for the School dramatic production. Some others are engaged in the construction of a relief model of Aberdeen.

A. S. HUNTER.

Scottish Schoolboys' Club Although the Club has been hampered by lack of support from the Upper School, the small number attending the meetings have shown great enthusiasm.

So far the meetings have been divided into two sessions, one for basket-ball, the other for badminton. A table for table-tennis is also available.

Representation from the fourth year would help to assure the future success of the Club.

ALISTAIR. R. P. PATON, School Rapremstative.

6z

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

School Sporting Activities Rugby Thanks to the fine spell of weather in September and October, all our teams were able to practise, and learn the fundamentals that are so necessary for good team play.

The record of the ist XV this season is especially good. To date six games have been played and all have been won; 167 points have been scored for, and not a single point against. Much of the credit is due to Andrew Noble and his pack of forwards who, with their quick, well-drilled moves and superior weight, have outplayed the opposition, and given their own backs a maximum amount of the ball. The backs of course have also played their share, as is evident from the results. Noteworthy among the victories are those against Glasgow Academy, Dollar Academy and Gordon's College.

All the other teams have put up some very good performances, and have won all but three of their games. At times there have been as many as eight XVs playing on Saturdays, five senior XVs and Colts, Juniors and Minors. Enthusiasm is very great and it should be possible to maintain the extraordinary high standard set up by this year's teams.

My sincere thanks are due to the members of staff who have so willingly given of their time and energy to assist in coaching and refereeing games. For the ist XV games I am indebted to Mr. Jamieson, Mr. Herbert and Mr. Meldrum.

Season 1951-52 has started well and there is no reason why it should not be one of the best years in the annals of Grammar School rugby.

Enwn.; HUNTER, Games Master.

1ST XV INTER-SCHOOL MATCHES 22 September 195 I—P. Dundee High School at Dundee.

Team: E. G. Anderson; I. A. Cavanagh, J. M. T. Cheyne, J. B. Rennie, G. A. Taylor; R. Bain, W. W. Hutchison; T. C. Graham, R. R. Comber, E. J. S. Michie, I. L. F. Smith, A. R. P. Paton, B. D. M. Grassick, R. W. Duncan, A. S. Noble (Captain).

Only a few minutes after Dundee had kicked off, Hutchison opened the scoring for School when he dashed across for a try from a scrum on the Dundee line.

The School forwards, who were very much bigger and heavier than their opposite numbers in the High School pack, dictated play, and tries were added by Noble, Smith, Paton, Duncan—all forwards—Rennie and Cavanagh. Bain had two conversions and Cheyne one to make the score 27-o at half-time.

The second half was a repetition of the first. Backs and forwards, both handling well, combined to play some delightful, fast, open rugby to which Dundee had no answer. Cavanagh (2), Smith, Rennie, Comber, Hutchison and Grassick had tries of which Cheyne converted three. The opposition was weak forward, and was completely overwhelmed by a team which looked well-nigh unbeatable.

Result—School, 54 pts.; Dundee High School, nil.

29 September 1951.—v. Glasgow Academy, at Rubislaw.

School, showing no change, elected to play against the slope and it was obvious from the start that both sides were disposed to try passing movements as often as possible in spite of a slippery ball which made handling difficult. Once again the opposing forwards were outweighted but School were sluggish in the loose and did not use their height to full advantage in the line-outs. The first score came after about twenty minutes, when J. Cheyne made the opening very cleverly for his wing, I. Cavanagh, to score an unconverted try in the corner. School still pressed hard and, following a series of set scrums and line-outs on the Academy line, Hutchison sent Cavanagh crashing over for another try. Now School seemed to flag and half-time came with them fighting to keep Academy out.

For a short period after the re-start School were very weak indeed, but they gradually gained the upper hand and became the more aggressive side. Following a scrum inside the Academy's " twenty-five ", Rennie cut through beautifully to score a fine try under the posts which Cheyne had no difficulty in converting.

Academy now seemed to despair, and School went further ahead when left-wing Taylor intercepted a pass to score a try that was perhaps a trifle lucky but never-

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theless well taken; Cheyne again converted. School's tactics were not all they might have been in this half, as the forwards were too inclined to " take "repeatedly instead of giving their backs opportunities to handle the now dry ball. Academy were rather unlucky, and School slightly flattered by the substantial points margin.

Result—School, 16 pts.; Glasgow Academy, nil.

6 October 1931.—t). Gordonstoun, at Rubislaw.

Gordonstoun kicked off, and as always played a keen and hard game. School's backs were faster and cleverer, but again the forwards failed to assert their obvious superiority in weight and height, the Gordonstoun boys offering stout resistance.

Although their defence was good, they could not for long prevent School from scoring through Hutchison, Cheyne (who converted his try), and Grassick. Near half-time Taylor had a particularly good run to score in the left-hand corner.

After the interval School came away strongly and the forwards showed something like their Dundee form. Three of them, Graham, Duncan and Paton, had tries, while both Hutchison and Taylor scored again. Cheyne kicked two penalty goals and converted the last two tries of the match.

Result—School, 39 pts.; Gordonstoun, nil.

13 October r931.—v. Dollar Academy, at Rubislaw.

Owing to an injury to I. Cavanagh, Grassick moved out to the right wing, and McPherson took his place at wing forward. Dollar kicked off, on a good day, and in the first five minutes pressed hard, but School, not to be outdone, retaliated strongly and Noble was all but through, only to be beaten by the bounce of the ball. Then Taylor ran hard on the left wing, and from the ensuing furious scrummage on the Dollar line, T. Graham touched down to give School a lead.

Immediately on the resumption of play, Dollar were caught completely unawares, and Hutchison scored an unconverted try in the right-hand corner at the Harlaw end. Dollar had spells of aggression, but their very fast backs, potentially dangerous, were never allowed to get moving properly. They should, however, have scored from an easy penalty award. Close on the final whistle, Taylor ran very strongly and though he hesitated a yard from the line, Noble got over for the try which Cheyne did very well to convert. Again School's forwards did not give of their best, especially in the first half when they were poor. At times they seemed to refuse to listen to the orders of A. Paton, an able leader. School deserved to win, but not by eleven points on this showing.

Result—School, i t pts.; Dollar Academy, nil.

7 November 1931.—v. Gordon's College, at Scofield.

School made one change, and there were several positional alterations in the pack. Smith and Duncan moved to front row and Michie joined Paton, while D. T. Baird came in at back in place of Graham. The pitch was very soft after heavy rain in the beginning of the week, but the ball remained remarkably dry throughout the match. Gordon's kicked off and it soon became obvious that by playing seven forwards and a " rover" they had effectively put an end to all attempts to play the kind of rugby that delights the spectator. School, however, quickly gave their supporters hopes of a big victory, when they scored twice in the first five minutes. From a scrum near Gordon's line Bain cut through to score near the posts, and Cheyne converted. The latter player added a penalty goal a moment later. But after ten minutes Bain was forced to retire with a knee injury and was unable to return: Cheyne moved to stand-off and Grassick took his place in the centre. The game now became very scrappy with both packs far too inclined to " mix it " to the detriment of the play. Close on the interval Grassick touched down after a furious melee on Gordon's five-yard line, and School thus had, not very deservedly, a lead of eleven points.

After half-time School were obviously the better side, and had their backs seen more of the ball, scoring would have been high. The forwards, however, persisted in their ragged play with too much wild kicking. Tries were added for School by Cheyne, Rennie and Michie, while Hutchison dropped a neat goal.

In the closing stages of the game School's fourteen men fought hard to increase their lead, and Cheyne had one brilliant run down the middle, only to be foiled at the last minute. The score could have been greater, but School were somewhat disconcerted by eight backs. Gordon's too could have converted several penalties.

Result—School, 23 pts.; Gordon's College, nil.

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Aberdeen Grammar School MagaVne

to November 1951.—v. Abbey School, Fort Augustus, at Rubislaw.

All other school matches in Aberdeen were cancelled, and the game was played under very bad conditions. School kicked off against a strong, bitter wind in pouring rain and the game quickly developed into a very scrappy affair.

The Abbey played hard, although the School forwards were twice as big, and once or twice had threatening moves. School backs, with D. M. Bain at stand-off in place of injured R. Bain, did not even attempt to handle the ball, and in the first half School scored only eight points—tries by Hutchison and Smith, the second of which Cheyne converted.

With the wind behind them, however, School pressed hard, and scores came through Comber, Grassick, Cavanagh and Duncan. Anderson did very well to convert two of these with long kicks. Abbey played well and their backs always looked dangerous, but they could not hold School's forwards who overcame by sheer weight. On the whole this was School's worst game to date, though admittedly on the worst day.

Result—School, 24 pts.; Abbey School, nil.

Stop Press Results-

24 November 1951.—School, 14 pts.; George Watson's College, 3 pts. (At Edinburgh.) a December 1951.—School, i2 pts.; Strathallan, nil. (At Strathallan.)

8 December 1951.—School, 38 pts.; Morgan Academy, nil. (At Rubislaw.)

Hockey Thanks to the mainly good weather conditions, the Hockey Section has been able to fulfil a big programme.

The 1st XI, with only four of last year's team as a nucleus, took some time to settle down, but a growth of confidence—particularly amongst the forwards —led to improved performances. In seven matches, the team has scored 26 goals, against 17 goals, their victories including two over Gordon's College and one over the Training Centre. Considering that they have generally been opposed by senior clubs, this is a creditable record.

The back division has maintained a very high standard of play, with D. Stephen ever a tower of strength. Amongst the forwards, that sprightly gnome, I. Milne, has enlivened many a match with his nimble running on the wing, while S. Banks had the honour of leading the attack in a recent local trial.

It is difficult to find suitable outside opposition for the znd XI, but the team —particularly the defence—has shown promise, and has held the 1st XI to narrow victories on Wednesday afternoons. Once the stickwork and finishing of the forwards improve with practice, more goals should be forthcoming.

The 4th Year XI and the olts XI have each played two games against corresponding Gordonstoun teams, and although both our teams were beaten, enjoyable games resulted.

S. B. H.

Cricket The 1951 season will be remembered because of the very bad weather which prevailed throughout. As a result practice was often restricted, but nevertheless all teams played remarkably well and maintained the high standard established in previous years.

There were the inevitable cancellations, especially of matches for the younger teams, but such was the enthusiasm of these sides that the keen interest was maintained throughout the season.

The Masters v. Boys match in June was a most " enjoyable, comfortable " game, and was greatly appreciated by players and spectators alike.

As in previous years, I am greatly indebted to the staff for their generous assistance with coaching and umpiring, and to Mr. Tyson for his most able coaching and the preparation of very fine wickets.

EDWIN HUNTER, Games Matter.

The Former Pupils' Club Founded 1893

The Annual Dinner The venue for this year's Annual F.P. Club Dinner held on Thursday, r November 193i, was, for the first time, the Northern Hotel, Aberdeen. The President of the Club, Mr. J. C. DUFFUS, was in the chair, and the principal guest was Mr. W. W. DICKIE, Rector of Buckie High School, a former member of the School staff and an honorary member of the Club. There was an attendance of 173 members and guests.

The guests included Mr. J. J. ROBERTSON, Rector of the School, Mr. Henry Paterson, Deputy Rector, who was to retire from the staff a few days later, Mr. D. E. Collier, Headmaster, Robert Gordon's College, Professor R. D. Lockhart, President, The Gordonian Association, Mr. W. Balfour Robb, representing the Aberdeen Centre, George Heriot's School F.P. Club, Mr. Arthur Dickson, representing the Aberdeen Centre, The Watsonian Club, Mr. J. G. M. BIRSS, Secretary of the Glasgow Centre of the Club, Mr. J. H. DAVIDSON, representing the Edinburgh Centre, Dr. A. G. Anderson, C.V.O., and Professor P. S. NOBLE, an honorary member of the Club. Three past presidents, Mr. CHARLES DAVIDSON, Mr. A. G. NIcoL SMITH and Dr. EDWARD W. WArr, were at the top table, as were Mr. IAN G. MCPHERSON, Vice-President of the Club, and the Rev. P. D. LAWRENCE, School Chaplain.

After dinner had been served the President welcomed the company and called on Mr. W. W. DICKIE to propose the principal toast. On rising, Mr. Dickie received a great ovation and was greeted with an enthusiastic and vociferous, if somewhat unrnelodious rendering of " For He's a Jolly Good Fellow ". " THE SCHOOL AND THE CLUB "

" On leaving the Aberdeen Grammar School in May 1938, after ten of the happiest years of my life ", Mr. Dickie began, " I stated in my then youthful folly that I should be very pleased at any time to serve the School which I had grown to love so well. Several years have passed since then, and in those years I have been able to render slight service by refereeing rugby games both for the School and for the Former Pupils' Club. But I never bargained for this I (Laughter.) " On 4 April 1947, 1 was proud and privileged to receive from my old friend and pupil, Scott MacLachlan, a letter inviting me to accept honorary membership of the Former Pupils' Club. This letter stated—and I quote—' I may say that this involves you in no liabilities whatsoever'. (Renewed laughter.) I leave you to form your own conclusions!"

He was deeply conscious of the honour done to him in his being invited to propose the toast of " The School and the Club ", and he regarded this honour as a very high compliment to one who had been not only a very humble junior master in the School but who also in his earlier years had committed what to F.P.s was the unpardonable indiscretion of going to " the other place" to be educated.

He regarded it also as a compliment to his profession—so often despised but so indispensable—the profession described by Ian Hay as " the most responsible, the least advertised, the worst paid and the most richly rewarded profession in the world ". In his remarks he proposed to dwell for a little on the old School as he knew it, before the days of free milk, school dinners, fire escapes, hot and cold water and inside lavatories. When he entered its portals in 1928, he did not need to be reminded of its antiquity—one could smell it everywhere! (Loud laughter.) " But what a grand spirit was there—a spirit which is undying because no school with a history and traditions like the Grammar School of Aberdeen could ever lose it. I have often remarked that I have never come across a school where work and sport were so perfectly blended. I quickly realised that this was due in no small measure to the infectious enthusiasm of my colleagues on the staff —men like Andrew Milne, Mac Eddison, the late Bill Stewart, Ian Park, Freddie Edwards and others, who gave most generously of their time and talents on the

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magaine

sports field, in the ' Debater ', and on numerous excursions which ranged from Brimmond Hill to the heights of the Cairngorms. My memory goes back to those wonderful `Masters' Debates', when we slanged one another like fury for two hours and then laughed over our exploits for a week; to our trips up Bennachie, especially to that unforgettable day when I was persuaded to take my portable gramophone, complete with records, to the top, and was left to carry it myself; to the rugby and cricket matches at home and away, and especially to the Empire Day cricket games when the boys began to take the masters seriously and to lose more often than they won. These were indeed happy years. Could there ever again be dances like the Boys' Dance in Kennaway's Rooms, where the youthful masters turned up solo and proceeded most successfully to rob the boys of their charming partners ? " I think back on that grand race of boys, many of whom, alas, made the supreme sacrifice in the recent war. We had the scholars and the sportsmen, and a great number who came under both headings, the all-rounders. Aberdeen Grammar School was a pioneer in that combination."

He was confident that the School was still in good heart, and that it still had its brilliant scholars, its sportsmen and its all-rounders. In its distinguished Rector, its staff and, above all, in its boys, it was a fortunate institution, and, as one who owed a deep debt of gratitude to the School, he wished it prosperity and success in the years that lie ahead.

Turning to the Club—" our Club "—Mr. Dickie said that the School was fortunate, too, in its Former Pupils. The Club in its many and varied activities was the envy of many another similar body. It owed its success primarily to the School which had inspired many to keep alive the School spirit, to maintain its traditions and promote its welfare, but also to enthusiastic leadership and the whole-hearted support of its members. No magazine connected with a school was held in higher regard, and the Club had always been fortunate in its officebearers. The organisation they had built up was world-wide.

He then referred to the Club's sporting activities—to the rugby, hockey, cricket and golf Sections, and advised F.P.s not to be unduly worried if the standard of the play of their rugby team had declined. " One meets a Donny Innes only once in a generation ", he said, " and Dally Allardice can't last for ever I Grammar F.P.s struck a great blow for North Rugby in the immediate post-war years, and by their good sportsmanship and attractive play successive F.P. teams have established friendships in Scottish Rugby from Galashiels in the South to Dingwall in the North. The great years will come again."

Mr. Dickie concluded by saying that he was proud indeed of his long association with the Grammar School and its Former Pupils' Club, and expressed heartfelt good wishes for their continuance in good work and for additions to their laurels.

THE RECTOR'S REPLY

Replying to the toast on behalf of the School, the Rector expressed satisfaction at the growing recognition in many quarters of the great benefit that had accrued to the older secondary schools from the existence and vitality of their former pupils' clubs. The Advisory Council on Education, for example, urged the development of such associations in the newer schools and their encouragement in every way by the Education Authorities. " That", he said, " is excellent, provided we remember always that such bodies cannot be manufactured; they must grow, and they will grow only in the right soil and nourished by the proper sentiments."

Men would always be grateful for sound instruction, but they would never lose their hearts to a tutorial institute. If a school was to hold the interest of its F.P.s, its life must be such that those who had shared in it remembered their teachers and their classmates long after lessons were forgotten. People were what mattered most, and his remarks would centre on four persons who in their different ways revealed what warmth and generosity of feeling could be evoked by a school like the Grammar.

Paying tribute to the late Miss Jessie Mackie, he recalled that she had joined the staff as long ago as 1892 and that " even in a school singularly rich in personalities she was for more than thirty years a dominating and well-loved figure, very

The Former Pupils' Club

67

characterful indeed and resolute, yet wonderfully understanding of young folk and devoted to them. 'Then through almost another thirty years in her retirement she watched the ever-changing life of the School with lively interest and unabated affection. Every prize-giving saw her in her place on the platform, busy no doubt with her memories, for was she not looking on the faces of boys whose fathers she had taught and disciplined half a life-time before?" To the last, the School and the many generations of her boys were, as they had ever been, the heart and centre of her life.

Mr. Robertson went on to say that it gave him the utmost satisfaction to see Mr. Duffus in the presidential chair. He recalled with warm appreciation Mr. Duffus's admirable words to the boys when he presented the All-Round Trophy at the prize-giving in July and also the ungrudging attention he was always willing to give to the endless succession of details affecting the life of the School Boarding Houses. " I am satisfied ", he added, " that one thing only would make so able and busy a man bother with such seeming trifles at all, namely, that he saw in this work the repayment of a debt and deemed the School worthy of the best service and the continuing loyalty of its sons."

After a reference to Mr. Dickie's fine service in the Grammar School and to his marked success as a headmaster, Mr. Robertson said :— " I hope the good folk of Buckie know that some part of their good fortune is owed, first, to that excellent honest and purposeful ' other place ' which schooled their Rector, and second, to that community of ours into which he came as a young master, to be made free of a fellowship that satisfied, to learn lessons of wide applicability, and to discover that he had formed attachments so strong and lasting that to-night, years after, he is able to be one of us and to voice our thoughts and feelings in a way which is as creditable to him as it is pleasing to us all."

Finally, in a brief tribute to Mr. Henry Paterson, on the eve of his retirement, the Rector remarked : " I lere is exemplified the happy interaction of the tradition and the individual ; for, if Mr. Paterson's genial and companionable spirit was fostered by the Grammar School, he in turn has in these years of his seniority set younger colleagues a fine example of kindliness, tolerance and good humour amid the wear and tear of school life ".

Referring to the School, " the source and end alike of our concern ", Mr. Robertson said in conclusion:— " Its buildings arc refurbished, its numbers expanded, its spirit undaunted, and its internal life as varied and vigorous as ever. And what of its external relations ?

How stands it with the Education Authority that so largely controls its fate? " The provision of staffing, equipment and apparatus of all kinds is admirably generous; the procedure governing appointments is still better than in most Scottish areas, though it is not so wholly satisfactory as it was even five years ago; but it must be confessed that in matters other than staffing, there is no provision for bringing the headmaster into regular, direct association with the Committee when it is deliberating major issues affecting. his school. If I characterise this as a regrettable and unsatisfactory state of affairs, it is not to claim any privilege for the Grammar that I would not equally claim for High or Central or indeed for any big secondary school. For here is a flagrant failure to make full use of expert knowledge and long experience, such as would never happen in the case, say, of the manager of a factory or the superintendent of a hospital. " The elected member does not abdicate when he listens to a headmaster any more than when he listens to an official. If it be pleaded that there is no time, it is no disrespect to suggest that not infrequently a fully informed word might save a committee many uninformed words: if it be argued that committees have Directors of Education, it must be replied that the merited respect in which the Scottish Directors of Education are held rests on the competence and zeal with which they discharge their proper administrative duties, not on a patent fiction of educational omnisttence. " I am too near the end of the professional road to see the needed reforms, but I believe that the biggest problem facing local administration in the years ahead is just how to make effective use of its professional and technical experts—how, that is, to keep the last word, as is most necessary and proper, with the layman and the elected representative, while always giving a careful hearing and consideration to the man on the job."

68

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY

In replying to the toast on behalf of the Club, Mr. J. C. DUFFUS first thanked Mr. Dickie, and suggested that it was a great tribute to the School that it could leave so deep a mark in the mind and heart of even a Gordonian (Laughter), and allow us to say of him, "Is Saul also amongst the prophets?" (Renewed laughter.)

He went on to say that despite the difficulties of the times the Club continued to flourish and grow. Referring to the Athletic Sections, and particularly to the Rugby Section with which he had had a more intimate connection, he said that the position to-day was very different from that in the years when he had been playing. The Rugger Club then was quite well known, but over a good few years we could dairn only one Scottish " Cap "—George Ledingham. Now not only our own F.P. team but, he was glad to say, our old rivals, Gordonians, had both made themselves forces to be reckoned with in Scottish Club Rugby.

In recent years Daily Allardice and Doug. Smith, and Bruce of Gordonians, had between them collected not a few " caps ", but over and above this we had provided what would in his day never have been dreamt of, the Scottish Captain on more than one occasion in the person of the many-capped Donny Innes. " The Club's activities", he continued, " have definitely widened over the years: first hockey, then tennis, now golf, and in addition we have seen the growth of many active Centres throughout the world. But one activity which flourished in my early days in the Club, and in which 1 took some little part, no longer exists.

Where is the Dramatic Section? Are all the modern Peter Simpsons, John and Willie Craigens and Charlie Watts too shy to tread the boards, or arc they already thirled to some of the newer dramatic dubs and dramatic competitions? Quite apart from the entertainments which it gave, the Dramatic Section of those days did much to help the Club's finances. I know that those in authority have vastly improved the stage in the School Hall and its accessories, but the original stage came from money raised by the Dramatic Section, whose profits on entertainments also often helped the finances of the Athletic Sections. I take leave to suggest that the revival of a Dramatic Section should be encouraged. " During my long spell on the Executive I worked for many years in Club matters very closely with that main pillar of the Club, Theodore Watt. His death caused many of us to wonder what would happen to the Magazine. I should therefore like to express my sincere opinion—which I hope is also yours—that in the short time since Theodore Watt's death, his son, Alan Watt, has proved himself to be a worthy Editor son of a worthy Editor father. It was, of course, the Alagazine which he made peculiarly his own, and it is largely through the Magazine—which has no equal of its kind—that the Club has been able to climb to its present position."

He went on to pay another tribute. He had been secretary of the Boarding House Company since its formation, and people had been kind enough to credit him with a large part of the success of that venture, but quite apart from the time and work given by the directors past and present, for which they must get full credit, the major credit for the success must go to the fortunate choice of the first house master, who held the position from 1928 until two years ago—Mr. James Eddison. His intense interest in the School and the House, his individual interest in every boy, and his tactful handling and understanding of the minds of parents were of inestimable value, and he (Mr. Duffus) had received innumerable tributes to Mr. Eddison from parents and from Old Boys. The House had been passing through a bad time, chiefly through erroneous ideas in the jealous minds of some of our rulers, but he was glad to say that the numbers were once again practically up to maximum, and that the Company would again contribute—in a modest way to start with—to the finances of the Club. " Gentlemen ", Mr. Duffus continued, " this School and this Club have in the past contributed many eminent men to this country, the empire and the world, and I have no doubt they will continue to do so, if one aspect of the School education is kept in mind and encouraged. In these modern days—and I do not refer merely to the past six years—the tendency to look after everyone from the cradle to the grave, with superannuation and other funds not only in government service and nationalised industry but also in private enterprise, is doing much to kill one of the most vital necessities for the welfare of the country, namely, the willingness to take responsibility. From that point of view I have come to think

The Former Pupils' Club

69

in recent years that one of the most important contributions to the School from a Former Pupil and the Club is the All-Round Trophy. " When Charles Watt presented that trophy, he left it to the Executive to draw up the conditions for its award, subject to one overriding object. Those of us who were responsible for drafting these regulations kept his main object well in view, and looking back I think that the donor and the Executive of that time builded better than they realised. The conditions do not demand that the winner shall be dux of the School or top of his class. If he is, so much the better. Those in the running must have done their school work to the best of their ability. The marks really go to the boy who holds positions and enters into activities outside actual work and who thereby shows what was demanded by Charles Watt, namely, leadership and willingness to take responsibility. Many of the positions which count arc gained through election by the boy's own schoolmates. The schoolboy in the main has a pretty accurate critical faculty, and he rarely puts anyone in, or allows anyone to gain a position of leadership and responsibility, who is not worthy and fitted for it. The final test is an interview by the All-Round Trophy Committee of the Executive, and it was my privilege and pleasure to be a member of that committee from 1921 to 1946. During those years I have joined in meeting and interviewing about zoo boys and, with extremely few exceptions, all those boys would compare more than favourably with those of any other school in the country. No school which can produce boys of that calibre need fear comparison with any other school. " Lest it be thought ", he concluded, " that I have suggested that the standard is not what it was, let me say this. The things I have spoken of and many others, now part of the normal School and Club routine, were desired by that great Rector, Morland Simpson, but times and points of view were not ripe for them. The times and the man came together in Douglas Miller, whose time at the School was all too short. He was followed by David Andrew, and perhaps his greatest service to the School and the Club was that, despite his shy and retiring disposition, he always used the full weight of his position to see that the innovations of Douglas Miller were not only maintained but expanded. Our friend ' J. J. R.' holds perhaps the highest position in the education world of any Rector of the School, and, knowing his views, the Club, while he is at the helm, can safely leave the important aspects of the School's educational curriculum to which I have referred in his capable hands with a tranquil mind."

Mr. DAVID HANNA proposed the toast of " The Guests ", and Colonel H. S. Tawse replied. Mr. IAN McPtimesoni, Vice-President of the Club, then proposed the toast of " The Chairman ", and Mr. Duffus replied. *

a

•

The following members of the Club were present at the Dinner, the list being arranged in order of seniority, based on date of entry to the School:1880. A. G. Nicol Smith (1880-88).

1881. Charles Davidson (1882-86).

1883. E. W. Watt (1883-94).

1890. H. J. Butchart (1890-99).

1893. N. J. J. Walker (1893-1902).

1894. William Shepherd (1894-2903).

1895. R. J. Anderson (1895-99).

1897. J. C. Duffus (2897-1904), A. M. Geddes (18 97-1 903).

1898. A. M. Johnston (1898-1903).

1900. D. G. Robertson (1900-09).

1901. J. U. Mackintosh (2901-04 and 1905-06).

1902. George Forbes (2902-04).

2903. Ranald Esslemont (1903-13), G. P. Geddes (t903-11).

1904. C. G. Kennaway (1904-56).

1905. D. A. Davidson (1905-t ), James Leith (1905-17).

1906. H. J. Edwards (1906-17), J. P. Jeffrey (t906-18), W. C. MacKinnon (19O6291O), II. J. Stewart (1906-ta), R. B. Williamson (1906-18).

70 1907.

1908.

1909.

1910.

1911.

1912.

1913.

1914.

1913.

1916.

1917.

1918.

1918.

1920.

1921.

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine A. C. Hendry (19o7-t4), J. L. Riddell (1907-16).

A. J. M. Edwards (1908-20, E. J. Galloway (1908-18).

J. G Kilgour (1909-16), P. D. Lawrence (1909-16).

Alexander Gray (1910-22), L. R. Harper (1910-17), I. G. McPherson (1910-17), E. G. Robertson (1910-19).

W. G. Thow (1911-22).

J. G. Mackintosh (1912-16), R. J. Maitland (19 c 2-18), J. G. Sellar (191 2-18), N. B. Sellar (1912-21).

J. B. Esslemont (1913-24), M. G. Gibb (1913-22), J. H. Henderson (19131921), J. I. Scott (1913-21), J. S. Walker (1913-17).

J. H. Davidson (1914-2;), Leo Dumin (1914-17), W. G. Hutcheon (1914-23), John Maclennan (1914-20), D. L. Rennet (1914-26), M. C. Ross (1914-21).

F. B. Cartwright (1915-24), Harold Esslemont (1915-t9), R. L. Milne (1915-26), E. A. Sinclair (1915-23).

Maurice Cramb (1916-29), David Hanna (1916-22).

J. H. Gray (1917-29), C. J. Strachan (1917-21), G. A. C. Walker (1917-23).

J. R. Carry (1918-30), H. J. Fraser (1918-22), D. W. Garvie (1918-30), W. M. Miller (1918-23), I. G. Shinnie (1918-28), I. L. Smith (1918-30).

J. G. Bisset (1919-29), A. D. Troup (19,9-22).

A. J. Peters (1920-30), H. G. Stephen (1920-30), W. H. Stephen (1920-29), N. F. Wisely (1920-32).

W. J. Brown (1921-28), G. H. Henderson (1921-34), E. H. M. Stott (1921-

.

1924).

1922. J. S. MacLachlan (1922-3z), J. S. G. Munro (1922-28), H. C. Reid (1922-34), F. A. Smith (1922-28 and 1930-33).

1923. J. R. S. Inns (1923-35), R. R. Russell (1923-35).

1924. A. G. B. Young (1924-26).

1925. James Hughes (1925-35), H. W. Rankine (1925-35), J. C. N. Rcid (19251937), A. C. R. Watt (5925-37).

1926. J. G. M. Birss (1926-38), J. S. Calder (1926-40), W. H. P. Walker (1926-39), H. M. R. Watt (1926-38).

1927. P. S. Boyd (1927-40), G. F. Chrystal (1927-38), William Milne (192 7-39), N. R. Wishart (1927-40).

1928. Eric Buthlay (1928-40).

5929. R. J. Bain (1929-41), T. W. N. Davidson (1929-41), D. N. Georgeson (1929-39), D. G. Patterson (1929-36), K. J. Peters (1929-41), J. F. Semple (1929-41).

1 930. W. L. Connon (1930-40).

1931. R. J. Anderson (1931-37), Simpson Shepherd (1931-41).

1932. Alexander Stuart (1932-45).

1933. Eric Craig (1933-46), Ian Stuart (1933-46).

1934. R. J. Armstrong (1934-41), Thomas Blair (1934-44).

1935. A. C. Mutch O935-4O. 1940. E. H. Cruickshank (1940-49).

Honorary Members. W. W. Dickie, P. S. Noble, J. J. Robertson (Rector).

London Centre The Annual General Meeting was held on tt October 1951 in the Albert In the unavoidable absence of Lord Alness, Sir James Crombie Tavern, took the chair.

The following office-bearers were elected:— President (t95 i-53)—The Right Hon. Lord Alness, P.C., G.B.E., LL.D. Members of Committee—C. W. France, D. S. S. Marr, D. J. Calder, Dr. P. C. B. Shirreffs.

Mr. A. H. K. Slater was re-elected Icon. Secretary.

The Former Pupils' Club

71

Glasgow Centre The principal guest at this year's Annual Dinner held in the Grosvenor Restaurant, Glasgow, on Friday, 23 November 1951, was Mr. J. M. Bannerman, a Glasgow High School F.P. and the holder of a record number—thirty-seven—of international rugby " caps ". The President of the Centre, MR. JAMES STIRRAT, was in the chair, and the other principal guests were the President of the Club, Mr. J. C. DUFFUS, and the Rector, Mr. J. J. ROBERTSON. Others at the top table were Mr. R. J. Donaldson, representing the Glasgow and West of Scotland Branch of the Gordonian Association, Mr. G. Newton, representing the Glasgow High School Club, and Mr. A. C. R. Wien., Editor of the Magazine. In all there was a company of thirty-five members of the Centre and guests.

In proposing the toast of " The School and the Club " Mr. Bannerman spoke of the similarities between thc High School of Glasgow and the Grammar School. Both had been closely knit with the cities in which they are situated, and their attainments ralities were alike. The Grammar School, however, had been spared the aneu y blow " which the High School had received about twenty years ago, when it was proposed in one short year to sweep away its long tradition by making it a " territorial " school. The blow had been parried successfully, thanks to the efforts of the F.P. Club, but the threat remained, and he was glad that the status of the Grammar School had not been placed in such jeopardy.

He believed that there were two evils in the educational trend of to-day, firstly, the effort at standardisation which sought to bring everyone to a level, thereby stultifying initiative and enterprise among boys, and secondly, over-centralisation, which had wrought devastation in Scottish rural areas, and particularly in the West Highlands. In the past twenty years hundreds of Scotland's rural schools had been closed down on account of this policy, and it was a devastating thing for those children who, at their most impressionable age, were removed from their villages and homes and spent most of their time travelling miles in draughty buses to get their education.

Referring to the sporting side of education Mr. Bannerman, speaking as one who had chased a ball for a few years in his far-off youth, admitted that those who were most interested in sport did not always show the same interest in their scholastic activities, but nevertheless they settled down to their studies when the time was ripe and, being well trained in the rules of sport, they were all the better able to tackle any job with which they might be faced.

The three Rs were undoubtedly very necessary, but the inculcation of discipline and the moulding of character were very dependent on the individual's attitude to games. To achieve greatness in sport it was necessary to strain beyond the point of enjoyment, and one of the great lessons to be learned was that of temper control.

The School, he said, had suffered in that, geographically, it was unfortunately situated, but with the present-day methods of transport, he suggested that it should be possible for more games to be arranged with clubs in the South. He hoped that School and F.P. teams would visit the South more often, and that similarly schools and clubs in the South would be encouraged to pay more frequent visits to the North. He thought that it was on account of the comparative remoteness of the North-East of Scotland that that area had not had more representatives in national teams. The School had recently gained three Scottish " caps "—Inns, Allardice and Smith—but he was convinced from his knowledge of the School's attainments that more F.P.s must have been worthy of places in Scotland's team.

The Grammar School, he concluded, had a proud heritage and a tradition of enterprise and individuality. One of its most famous Former Pupils, the late Lord Meston, was a man for whom he had the greatest admiration. He had stood firm for his principles and given tremendous encouragement to the younger generation. If he was a typical product of the School, there need be no fear for the School's future.

In his reply thc Rector referred to Mr. Bannerman's opening remarks about Glasgow High School and Aberdeen Grammar School, and reaffirmed his own conviction that "while certain administration changes and pressures might irk and hamper, the School would suffer no deadly blow, so long as it kept its own infant and junior departments and was free to recruit at every stage from the whole city ".

After paying tribute to the late Miss Jessie Mackie—" a potent influence in the

72

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

school for more than thirty years"—Mr. Robertson went on to describe the extensive renovation and improvements carried our at the School during the past couple of years.

In conclusion, he assured the Centre that the Grammar still schooled a desirable variety of types, " not the least important being those boys of little showing whose later success and usefulness arc a salutory reminder to the race of schoolmasters that there arc qualities not always fully evidint to the pedagogic eye or easily measurable by the pedagogic yard-stick". " And", he said, " we still continue to live happily together—an indispensable condition of good schooling. How otherwise can a school part with its boys and not lose them?

How otherwise will these boys be minded as the years pass to come together on evenings like this and make the present bright with all the light and colour of a happily remembered past ?"

Mr. J. C. Duffus replied on behalf of the Club. He stated that the F.P. rugby teams now travelled a great deal, and that the ist XV had in the immediate post-war seasons made itself a force to be reckoned with in Scottish Club rugby. This season, however, their record had not been so surcessful.

He went on to make a suggestion to the Rector regarding the annual School prize-giving. He stated that he had been disappointed to note at the prize-giving in July 1951 that the Hall had been by no means full, and he had been told that attendance at the prize-giving was restricted to those boys who were to receive prizes and their parents. This, he thought, was a mistake, as the absence of the boys who bad not won prizes deprived the ceremony of its time-honoured " atmosphere ". Nowadays the audience was too prim and proper, and one missed the remarks interpolated from time to time by the boys. It would be better, he thought, since accommodation was limited, to reduce the number of relatives present at prize-givings, and to give the non-prize-winners their old place. He remarked that, while he did not wish to belittle the chief prize-winners, it was remarkable that the most spontaneous bursts of applause at prize-givings were usually accorded to the boys who had against all expectation managed to gain a place however lowly in the prize list.

The toast of " The Guests " was proposed by Mr. LAUNCELOT H. Ross, and Mr. R. J. Donaldson replied. Rev. SYDNEY C. STILL then moved a vote of thanks to the Chairman.

The following F.P.s were present at the Dinner, the list being arranged in order of seniority, based on date of entry to the School:1895. C. S. Buyers (1895-98).

1918. W. G. Gow (1918-28).

1921. I. F. Stratton (192x-23).

1897. J. C. Duffus (1897-1904).

1898. L. H. Ross (1898-x9o1).

5922. R. L. Richards (t922-34).

1901. George Lawrence (r9or-o3). 5923. G. N. Pennie (1923-26).

1901. D. M. Semple (Igor -o6).

1925. A. C. R. Watt (1925-37).

1904. S. C. Still (r9o4-ro).

1926.

G. M. Birss (1926-38).

1906. D. C. Sangster (1906-13).

1929. . D. D. Emslie (1929-35).

191I. James Stirrat (x 9 r r-ax).

1930. A. C. Thomson (193o-41).

1912. K. R. T. Matthew (1912-24)- 1932. H. M. Henderson (1932-4o).

Hon. Member, J. J. Robertson (Rector).

*

*

*

The Annual General Meeting of the Centre was held in the Grosvenor Restaurant, Glasgow, on Wednesday, 7 November 1951. The following are the office-bearers for 1951-52 :— President—James Stir fat (I911-21); Vice-President—C. S. Buyers (1895-98) ; Hon. Secretary and Treasurer—J. G. M. Birss (1926-38); Commims—D. C. Sangster (1906-53), I. F. Stratton (1921-23), Dr. R. L. Richards (1922-34), Rev. G. N. Pennie (1923-26), B. D. D. Emslie (1929-35) and H. G. Edwards (1905-14)• The second joint social function with the Glasgow and West of Scotland Branch of the Gordonian Association was held on Friday, 5 October 1951. This again took the form of an informal Dinner-Theatre Party and proved most enjoyable. The Dinner was held in Ferrari's Corner House Restaurant and thereafter the company of over fifty adjourned to the Theatre Royal, where even Harry Gordon's references to a certain long-standing rivalry failed to diminish the harmony in which " enemies " of earlier years sat side by side.

The Former Pupils' Club

73

F.P. Golf Section The 1951 golfing season is now finished, but the Section has held a series of enjoyable outings all of which were favoured with excellent golfing weather.

On io June an outing was held at Aboyne and the principal prize winners were:

I- I I Handicaps1st and 3rd 12 and Over Handicaps— ISt znd ;rd Guests-

Dr. M. G. Gibb H. G. Stephen

72 72

E. Buthlay J. L. Riddell H. J. Stewart

73— 8=65 73 — 4=69 79 — 9=70

J. F. Semple E. H. M. Stott W. Miller

80 - 14= 66 83 -16=67 83-15=68

J. Renfrew 83-17=66 The August outing to Peterhead was reasonably well attended, although many members were on holiday. The prizes in the first handicap section were won by two guests, J. L. Moffat and F. Clark, but the second handicap was won by J. S. MacLachlan, 91 less 19=72. E. W. M. Watt took second place with 93 less 17=78.

A second visit was paid to Aboyne on 16 September and twenty-seven members and guests produced some good scoring. The prize winners were:— Scratch— Dr. M. G. Gibb 70 I-I I Handicaps1st J. G. Kilgour 81 — 11= 70 and G. A. C. Walker 8o- 9=7!

12 and Over HandicapsI. L. Smith 1st 85 -17= 68 znd J. S. MacLachlan 87 -18=69 90-20=70 J. S. G. Munro 3rd 86 —16= 70 W. H. P. Walker GuestsDr. H. Fowlie 78 — 1o= 68 One of our guests, Hubert Hill, announced at the prize-giving that he wished to present a dozen balls at the Ballater outing, which followed on 7 October.

His generosity enabled us to have a fairly large prize list at Ballater and of the forty-five members and guests who played, no less than twenty-one received prizes. The results were as follows:1- i 1 Hadicaps— H. G. Stephen ISt 73 — 3=70 E. Buthlay 76— 6=7o H. J. Stewart 79 — 9=70 znd J. L. Riddell 76- 4=72 12 and Over Handicaps 88 -17=71 1St G. E. C. Barton E. Craig 95 -24=71 A. Gray 97 -26=71 znd W. Miller 87-15=72 J. I. Scott 89 - 17= 72 Guests1st A. L. Downs 72- 3=69 and 83-13=70 G. M. Lawrence Special PriZes— Ist E. Walker znd R. J. Armstrong A. Mutch D. N. Georgeson

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

74

The following are the principal prize winners for the year, and were presented with their trophies at the Annual Dinner of the Section which was held in the Northern Hotel on 26 November 1951 :— Dr. M. G. Gibb The Russell-Henderson Cup (Scratch Award)— E. Buthlay The Walker Cup (Best Handicap Performance)— The Jeffrey Mug (Best Section II Handicap Performance)— J. S. MacLachlan J. G. Kilgour The J. L. Riddell Prize (Best Five Net Scores)— The finalists for the Gibb-Thow Match Play Trophy were E. Buthlay and H. J. Stewart and after a good tussle over the Murcar course E. Buthlay was winner.

He has thus won both the principal stroke award and the match play award in the same season, although his handicap in the Section has been continually reduced.

H. G. STEPHEN, Hon. Secretary.

F.P. Cricket Section The most creditable performance of the season was the progress which our Strathmore XI made in the Three Counties Cup. Apart from the successes in this competition reported in the last issue of the Magazine, an excellent victory was recorded against Mannofield Xl. Very consistent batting and an excellent feat of bowling by L. E. Tyson saw us comfortably through to the semi-final. The match against Meigle was most exciting, but our opponents won in the last over.

The return of Mr. Tyson seemed to have a very great moral effect on the team, and our position in the Strathmore Union improved. However, there remains room for improvement in all departments. Many times the team was given an excellent start by our opening pair, J. S. Manley and K. J. Peters, but inconsistent batting by our other " stars" led to the team's dismissal for very low scores.

Despite an excellent standard being set by our skipper, D. Stuart, there is room for improvement in the standard of fielding. The ability is there, however, and we can look forward to a more successful season in 1952.

The Reserve XI, playing in Friendlies throughout, had quite a successful season, but in numerous cases the opposition was not of a very high standard.

Attempts arc being made to provide a more attractive fixture-list for next season so that members can really be assured of some very enjoyable games.

The Club has been honoured by the selection of A. M. Davidson and K. J. Peters for the " Counties " side. May I take this opportunity of congratulating these members on this notable feat.

We are again indebted to Mrs. Tyson, Mrs. Wood, Mrs. Manley and Miss Ann Innes for their having so willingly given assistance at the tea interval; to Major Andrews for umpiring and Mr. Tyson for the preparation of excellent pitches.

At the Annual General Meeting held in November the following appointments were made:— Hon. President—Mr. Alan McBain (re-elected): Hon. Vice Presidents—N. H. Macdonald and James McIntosh.

Strathmore XI Captain—K. J. Peters: Vice-Captain—I. Stuart.

Hon. Secretary—N. C. Irvine: Hon. Treasurer—C. H. Webster.

STRATHMORE XI AVERAGES

A. M. Davidson .

A. A. C. Edmond L. E. Tyson •

. .

•

. .

•

Runs

Wickets

31

z6;

26

IO• r

III

13

278

27

173

46

318

z6

10. 2 12.2

Rims

Highest Score

Average

254 247 145

41 57 31

19'5 19.o 70.3

Times Innings Not Out

Batting:— K. J. Peters J. S. Manley I. Stuart .

Maidens

x zo

Overt

Bowling:—

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14 13 15

I — 1

Average

N. C. IRVINE, Hon. Secretary.

The Former Pupils' Club

75

F.P. Rugby Section The rugby season to date has for the Rugby Section been very pleasant except in one respect. The membership is a record, enthusiasm for training has never been higher, the weather has been extraordinarily kind and for the first time in the history of the Section four teams can be put in the field. Unfortunately, in contrast, the tst XV results have been most disappointing. Out of eleven games played to date, only four have been won and the team has on no occasion yet been able to defeat any of the senior teams from the south.

It is difficult to apportion blame for this unfortunate state of affairs and many excuses can be put forward. The old bogey of injuries and unavailability of players has had as usual some effect, causing constant team changes, but whatever way one looks at it, the play of the XV has not been satisfactory. From the touch-line there appears to be a complete lack of " devil " on the part of many players and also a lack of that little bit of extra effort so necessary to bring success in senior rugby.

Too often one has seen one player battling vainly with several of the opposition while his comrades appeared to be merely looking on admiringly or at any rate not rendering assistance. The writer cannot see a change in fortunes occurring until every player on the field is prepared to keep going much harder and assist his teammates in both attack and defence as well as doing his own job.

The most annoying feature is that the team has on occasion produced spells of good play, but has never kept it up throughout a game. The defeats have generally come about by the other side's being just that bit quicker on the ball.

The znd XV started off very badly but that was very excusable as a large number of players were working out of town until the beginning of October. It is only in the last match that a full side has been fielded. The 3rd XV is now practically as strong as the and and has recently been having excellent results—in particular a draw with what was virtually the R.N.A.S., Lossiemouth, 1st team. As above stated a fourth team has been put on the field on several occasions. At present there is difficulty in finding opposition for them, but it is hoped to remedy this during the remainder of the season.

I have again great pleasure in recording that the Section has obtained the fullest support from boys leaving School. Conscription has unfortunately already taken some of these away, but, apart from that, practically every available boy has joined the Section.

There have been two changes among the office-bearers since the July issue of the Magazine. The new officials arc as follows:— Vice-Captain—E. H. Cruickshank. Teams .Secretary—A. Stuart.

The Section has been most fortunate in obtaining a non-playing teams secretary for the first time for many years, and the increased membership is to a large degree due to his industry and enthusiasm.

In conclusion, any F.P.s, and particularly players on demobilisation, wishing to join the Section, are requested to contact the Secretary, N. I. W. Meldrtun, 15 Golden Square (Phone 25266 or 35167).

The following players have been chosen for representative games to date:— North v. Midlands at Perth on 3 November mt.—W. D. Allardice, E. H. Cruickshank, D. N. Georgeson, C. D. Mowat, T. G. Smith and A. H. Tawse.

North v. South at Galashiels on io November 1951.—W. D. Allardice (Captain) and C. D. Mowat.

North of Scotland v. South Africa at Aberdeen on z8 November 195 t.—W. D. Allardice (Captain) and C. D. Mowat.

First International Trial at Murrayfield on 15 December 1951.—C. D. Mowat.

1st XV Results Lost.

• 0-21 Sept. t 5. v. George Heriot's School F.P.s at Goldenacre .

Won. . Is-3 . .

• . „ 2z. v. Centralians at Rubislaw Lost. . . 17-22 „ 24. v. Hillhead High School F.P.s at Hughendcn Lost. . . 3-16 29. v. Allan Glen's School F.P.s at Rubislaw . . . 34-21 Won. .

Oct. 6. v. Perthshire Academicals at Rubislaw Lost. . . . 3-14 „ 13. v. Edinburgh Academicals at Rubislaw Won. . .

• 11-8 • zo. v. Gordonians at Seafield • Lost. . 11-23 . .

17. v. St. Andrews University at Rubislaw

76

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

Nov. 3. „ to. „ 17. )I 2 4.

Dec. 1.

v. Panmure at Forthill . . . v. Aberdeen Wanderers at Rubislaw . v. Greenock Wanderers at Rubislaw . v. Ross and Sutherland at Edinburgh .

P. Watsonians at Rubislaw .

.

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.

2nd XV Results Sept. 15. r. znd George Fleriot's School F.P.s at Goldenacre „ 22. r. Aberdeen University at Rubislaw . . .

1.1 29. v. Moray at Elgin .

Oct. 6. v. znd Gordonians at Rubislaw .

T.R.R.E. at Rubislaw . . .

13. „ zo. v. znd Perthshire Academicals at Perth 27. r. Centralians at Chanonry .

Nov. 3. V. and Panmure at Chanonry . . . ,, 17. v. 2nd Greenock Wanderers at Rubislaw .

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• •

8-19

8-3 o-t 4 6-5 3-23

Lost.

Won. Lost.

Won. Lost.

0-50 Lost.

• 13-22 Lost. . o-25 Lost. . t1-3 Won. . to-to Drawn.

Lost. .

I 6-5 Won. .

Lost.

8-14 . 13-5 Won. .

3rd XV Results Sept. 15. /'. 2nd Aberdeenshire at Rubislaw . . 6-22 Lost. . v. and Aberdeen Wanderers at Hazlehead 5-9 Lost.

PP 2 9.

Oct. 6. t.. 3rd Gordonians at Seaficld . . . 1 5- to Won. v. R.A.F., Edzell, at Edzell . . 15-9 Lost.

PP 1 3 . „ 20. v. 3rd Gordonians at Rubislaw .

9-9 Drawn.

27. v. znd Aberdeenshire at Seaton . .

• . 17-II Won. Nov. 3. t. R.N.A.S., Lossiemouth, " A " XV at Seaton 3-3 Drawn.

N. I. W. MELDRUM, Hon. Secretary.

• •

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•

F.P. Hockey Section The hockey season, to date, has been most successful, both 1st and 2nd XIs having lost only one game each. The ist XI is practically unchanged from that of last season and has more than held its own in inter-district matches. The znd XI contains a large proportion of players who are in their first season with the Club.

Their keenness and increasing experience has helped to improve the XI's standard of play beyond that of most senior teams in the district.

We have been unfortunate to lose T. 1. Morrison, who has for so long been a stalwart, and A. J. Peters, who has, however, not given up all interest in the Section.

Ten of our players have played in trials this season, some of them from the znd XI—a sign which augurs well for the future.

The prospects for the remainder of the season are excellent, and both XIs are extremely confident.

The Annual General Meeting was held on 1 September 1951, and thf following officials were appointed for season 1951-52:— lion. President—The Rector. Hon. Vice-Presidents-Mr. J. A. Sutherland, Major W. D. Andrews, Dr. A. G. Gibb, Mr. A. D. Henderson and Mr. D. J. Walker.

Captain DI XI—M. A. A. lnnes; Vice-Captain ist XI—A. W. A. Main; Captain 2nd XI—S. Crudcn; Vice-Captain and XI—J. F. Kirk; Match Secretary— A. J. Peters; Secretary and Treasurer—R. P. Wishart.

Sept. 22.

PP 2 9.

Oct.

6.

13.

20.

27.

NOV. 17.

PI

ist XI Results v. Richmond . v. Kinloss . v. Perth . . . v. Grove Academy F.P.s . v. 'Varsity . . . v. Morgan Academy F.P.s v. Dundee Wanderers .

•

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. I1-0

Won. Won. Drawn.

Won. • o-6 Lost.

• 3-3 Drawn.

Won. • 4-3 M. A. A. INNES, Captain.

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. 13-0 .

I-I • 3-2

SIM PSONS' for

SPORTS & SERVICE Tennis

Badminton

Cricket

Golf

Football

Bowls

Table Tennis

Hockey

Swimming

Running

Squash

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Tennis and Badminton repairs and re-stringing a Speciality also Expert Golf and Cricket repair work

'Phone 21094

impsons' SPORTS EMPORIUM 28 BRIDQE ST

Closed Wednesday 1 p.m.

ABERDEEN

(Corner of Bath Street)

JOHN SIMPSON & SON (S. & T.) LTD.

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The PALACE Restaurant OPEN TILL 11 P.M. Our Five Floors are at your Service

OUTSIDE CATERING A SPECIALITY

Phone 26570 FOR TABLE RESERVATIONS AND FUNCTION ENQUIRIES

IP

The Former Pupils' Club

77

F.P. Club Consuls Since December 195o there have been the following changes in the roll of Club Consuls:— Resignations Brazil—JOHN BLAKE LYON (1900-04). Returning to United Kingdom, May 1952.

(See page aI.) Iraq—ERNEsr STRACHAN (1923-24 and 1926-36), Squadron Leader, R.A.F. Now stationed in United Kingdom.

Malaya (Negri Sembilan)—GRAHAm HENDERSON (1906-12). Left Malaya, September 1951. (Sec page 19.)

Sierra Loon—EDWARD WILLIAM MURRAY WATT (1918-31), M.A. Retired from Colonial Service. (See page 26.)

Appointments Brazil—JAmEs IRVINE MELVILLE (1917-21).

Malaya (Negri Sembilan)—WILLIAM JOI1N MEARNS (1916-20).

Malaya (Selangor)—Witi IAM Scorr GiLcintisx (1929-36), B.L. *

*

*

AFRICA Egypt—ALEXANDER GEORGE WALKER (1906-20), e/0 Northern Assurance Company Limited, St. Mark's Building, P.O. Box 1695, Alexandria.

Gold Coast—EDGAR REUBEN GAULD (1917-23), M.B., Ch.B., M.R.C.P., Medical Specialist, Sekondi Hospital, Sekondi, Gold Coast, B.W.A. Kenya—GRAEME GEORGE SUTHERLAND (19o3-o9), P.O. Box I002, Nairobi, Kenya Colony.

Portuguese East Africa—MARSHALL KEITH DUGUID (1919-29), e/0 Duguid & Anderson Limited, P.O. Box 422, Beira, Portuguese East Africa.

Southern Rhodesia—JAMES WYNESS MACGREGOR (1910-23), P.O. Box 91, Umtali, Southern Rhodesia.

Tanganyika—GEORGE ALEXANDER WILSON (1920-23), M.B., Ch.B., Medical Specialist, Labour Department, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika Territory.

Union of South Africa Cape Province (Cape Town)—Professor WILLIAM SOUTAR MACKIE (1895-1902), B.A., Dnunoak, Greenfield Road, Kenilworth, Cape Town.

Cape Province (East London)—JAMES MELVIN (.904-to), C.B.E., M.C., T.D., ALB., Ch.B., 44 Queen Street, Cambridge, East London, Cape Province.

Natal—FRANK BRUCE FARQUIIARSON DUGUID (1919-26), 8 Lambert Road, Durban.

Transvaal—JoHN EWAN I'IENDERSON (1884-87), P.O. Box 4466, Johannesburg.

AMERICA Canada Alberta—DoUGLAs HARPER (1888-98), M.A., B.L., 609 Tegler Building, Edmonton, Alberta.

British Columbia—WILLIAM ERNEST MILNE (I88/-9o), c/o Milne & Middleton, 347 Water Street, Vancouver, B.C. Manitoba-JOHN DUGUID CRUICKSHANK (1899-1904), The Canadian Bank of Commerce, Personal Loan Department, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Ontario—ROBERT FLEMING (1891-98), Wood Fleming & Company, Royal Bank Building, Toronto 2, Ontario.

Quebec—NORMAN MAcKiNNoN (1907-16), B.Sc.(For.), 1610 Sherbrooke West, Montreal, Quebec.

Falkland Islands ROBERT STEWART SLESSOR (1927-29), M.B., Ch.B., S.M.O., Port Stanley, Falkland

Islands.

Mexico PATRICK JOHN MILROY WALKER (1914-2o), C.A., Apartado 38 Bis., Mexico, D.F.

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

78

South America Brazil—JAMES IRVINE MELVILLE (1917-21), The Royal Bank of Canada, Rua 15

de Novembro, 240, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Colombia—ROBERT WILLIAM YOUNG (1914-21), ErIlbOtelladOra Tropical, S.A.,

Calle 9 del y Carrera Eugenio Macias, Barranquilla, Col,)mbia.

United States of America Colorado—FRANCIS JAMES MILNE 0924-30, M.R.C.V.S., Assistant Professor of

Veterinary Surgery, Colorado Agricultural and Mechanical College, Fort Collins, Colorado.

Illinois-JAMES BRUCE SMITH (1918-25), The Bruce Smith Insurance Agency, 208 South Lasalle Street, Chicago, Illinois.

West Indies British West Indies—KzNNErn REID (1901-04), King's Bay, Tobago, B.W.I. Dutch West Indies—GEORGE FERGUSON RITCHIE (1917-24), Lago Oil & Transport

Company Limited, Marine Department, P.O. Box 643, Aruba, D.W.I.

AUSTRALIA Australian Capital Territory (Canberra)CHARLES OGILVIE WILL BOWMAN (191o-15), Manager, Capital hill hostel, Canberra, A.C.T. New South Wales—ALAN REID (1911-14), 3 Iona Avenue, West Pymble, Sydney.

Western Australia—IAN THOM (1912-25), Wydga Station, Mount Magnet, Perth.

EUROPE Channel Islands—WILLIAM MILLER (1894- ?), Beaufort Hotel, St. Helier, Jersey.

Finland—ARTHUR ROY HANDASYDE KELLAS (1926-32), M.A., H.M. Legation,

Helsinki, Finland.

Switzerland (Geneva)—JAMES LAWSON Mower (1915-16), M.A., Ph.D., c/o

Bureau International du Travail, Geneva.

Switzerland

(Zurich)—ROBERT ALEXANDER ESSLEMONT

MENNIE

(1924-36),

M.A., B.P. Benzin and Petroleum A.G., Handclshof, Uraniastrasse, Zurich.

Yugoslavia—Professor Dr. DRAGOSLAV MILETITCH (5916-18), Medicinski Fakultet, Skoplic, Yugoslavia.

FAR EAST Hong Kong—FRANK CHARLES BRISCOE BLACK (1914-17), C/O Hong Kong &

Shanghai Banking Corporation, Hong Kong.

Malaya (Negri Sembilan)—WILLIAM JOHN MEARNS (1916-20), Scremban Estate, Sungci Gadut, Negri Sembilan, Malaya.

Malaya (Selangor)—WILLIAM SCOTT GILCHRIST (1929-36), B.L., C/o Messrs.

B,1M1011 & Bailey, Advocates and Solicitors, Kuala Lumpur, Malaya.

Singapore-WILLIAM FERRIER MAYOR (1923-30), M.A., c/o Customs House, Maxwell Road, Singapore.

INDIA, PAKISTAN and CEYLON India (Madras)—IAN CUMMING (1907-14), c/o Vernon & Company, 36 Second

Line Beach, Post Box 79, Madras.

India (West Bengal)—HERBERT BREBNER SCOTT (1905-08), C.B.E., M.C., The Royal Insurance Company Limited, 5-7 Netaji Subhas Road, Calcutta.

Pakistan (Karachi)--HERBERT TOWER SORLEY (1899-1909), C.S.I., C.I.E., M.A.,

D.Litt., F.R.S.A., Somerset House, Karachi.

Ceylon--CHARLES JAMES STRACHAN (1917-21), Anglo-Ceylon General Estates

Company, P.O. Box 13, Colombo, Ceylon.

NEW ZEALAND ANDREW ALEXANDER MARE DUCAT (1924-28 and 1929-34), 5 Seaforth Terrace,

Karori, Wellington, New Zealand.

Shirts with 2 Trubenised Collars In Poplin, neat Blue, Grey and Brown Stripes

27/10

30/8

37/6

Self Colours----Blue, Grey and Fawn .

R.A.F. Blue .

37/10 39/11

Oxford Shirts with 2 One Piece Collars In Blue, Grey and Brown Stripes

.

.

4Tb

High Grade Poplin Shirts with 2 Trubenised Collars Neat Checks and Stripes, Blue, Grey and Brown, 63/Former Pupils' Cashmere Ties .

„ „

Pure Silk Ties

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Sports Ties . „ Cashmere Scarves II Cuff Links with Crest

. .

. .

(0/6 16/6 17/6 31/6 42/-

ESSLEMONT & MACINTOSH (RETAILERS)

LTD. TAILORS AND OUTFITTERS

UNION STREET

-

ABERDEEN - .

Aberdeen Grammar School F.P. Club Boarding House Co. Ltd. GRAMMAR SCHOOL HOUSE JUNIOR HOUSE

SENIOR HOUSE 8

QUEEN'S

6

ROAD

QUEEN'S

ROAD

ABERDEEN

The Houses are conveniently situated in the west end of the town, and are equidistant from the School and the Playing Fields.

The Senior House, which can accommodate 45 Boarders, is specially designed and fitted for the purpose, having large common rooms, modern dormitories, bathrooms, changing rooms etc.

The Junior House, which has acconunodation for about 18 Boarders, is available for boys up to II years of age.

The Company have their own Hard Tennis Courts (3) and large Playground adjacent to both Houses.

Fees, £159 per annum.

House Master

Mr. JAMES W. COULTHARD

Under House Master

Mr. DUNCAN M. ANNAND, M.B.E.

Matrons Miss HELEN OGILVIE

Mrs. MARGARET D. ANNAND

For Application Fonns and further particulars apply to the Secretary of the Company, Mr. JAMES C. DUFFUS, Advocate, 7 Golden Square, Aberdeen.

The Former Pupils' Club

79

F.P. Club Boarding House This session there are fifty-nine boys resident in the House. The Junior Housc has a full complement of seventeen and in theBoarding Senior House there are forty-two boarders. The following is a list of the boys who have entered the Boarding House this session:— James Gordon Bites, s. of James F. Birss, Westcott Mission, Lusambo, Belgian Congo.

George Richard Stuart Clark, and Peter Norman Edward Clark, ss. of NORMAN CLARK (1916-22), M.B., Ch.B., F.R.C.S., 1I Rue Talat HacbGEORGE Pacha, Alexandria, Egypt.

Robert Watson Duguid, s. of ROBERT HtrrroN DUGUID (1918-23), c/o Duncan Brothers and Company Limited, 3t Nctaji Subhas Road, C.A., Calcutta, India.

Alan Watson Brown Grant, s. of HAMISH BROWN GRANT (1918-30), M.A., LL.B., Muirfield, Kingsmuir, Forfar, Angus.

Donald Elrick Mackie, s. of MAITLAND MACKIE, Junior, (1926-28), B.Sc.(Agri.), Westertown, Roth ienorman.

Colin John Mackenzie Martin, s. of Lieut.-Colonel C. J. M. Martin, Fetteresso Old Manse, Stonehaven.

William David Wishart Roberts, s. of Mrs. E. S. Roberts, 6 Royfold Crescent, Aberdeen.

Douglas Fraser Ross t and Graham Garland Ross, ss. of SnsoN DOUGLAS Ross (i9r4-2o), B.Sc.(Agri.), Director of Agriculture, Accra, Gold Coast.

Andrew William John Storrie, S. of WILLIAM CHARLES STORRIE (1921-26), 7ta Crescent Road, Sheffield 7.

Cailean MacArthur Macfarlane Taylor, s. of John MacF. Taylor, c/o Wilson,

21 Bright Street, Aberdeen.

t Re-entered.

New Members of the Club 15 May 1951—I December 1951 LIFE MEMBERS

Anderson, George MacDonald (1930-42), 6 Kingshill Road, Aberdeen.

Armstrong, Robert James (1 934-41), 6 Polmuir Road, Aberdeen.

Birss, John Gordon Michie (1926-38), M.C., M.A., 99 Essex Drive, Blair, John Kinniburgh (5927-37), 44 Forbesfield Road, Aberdeen. Glasgow, W.4.

Brown, Jack Leslie Keith (1921-25), c/o Guthrie & Co. Ltd., Kuala Lumpur, Malaya.

Chalmers, George Lovie (1943-51), 39 Powis Place, Aberdeen.

Cowie, Gordon Strachan (1937-39, 1940 and 1941-51), 57 Kepplestone Avenue, Aberdeen.

Duffus, Adrian Michael Campbell (1932-38), M.B., Ch.B., 62 Rubislaw Den South, Aberdeen.

Duffus, Alexander James (1932-38), B.L., 62 Rubislaw Den South, Aberdeen.

Duncan, Alexander (1938-43), 53 Seafield Road, Aberdeen.

Farquharson, Joseph (1929-43), 38 Ashley Gardens, Aberdeen.

Glashan, Robin Wattie (1 938-39 and 1940-51), 63 Dcsswood Place, Aberdeen.

McBain, John (1939-30, 7 Rubislaw Den North, Aberdeen.

Marr, Dennis Trevor Llewellyn (193o and 1936-42), British Vice-Consulate, Maracaibo, Venezuela, South America.

Pratt, William (5 936-44), 76 Devonshire Road, Aberdeen.

Slessor, Robert Stewart (1927-29), M.B., Ch.B., S.M.O., Port Stanley, Falkland Islands.

Watt, Ian Allan (1 931-43), M.A., Foxgrove, Blue Anchor, Somerset.

8o

Aberdeen Grammar Stbool Magazine

LIFE MEMBERS (Under Paragraph 5 of Constitution) Anderson, Thomas Gordon Greig 0945-50, tz Albyn Terrace, Aberdeen.

Bowman, Nelson Charles (1931-43), 28 Camperdown Road, Aberdeen.

Collins, John Stanley (1939-48), Lochans, West Cults, Aberdeenshire.

Courts, Thomas Gordon 0938-50, The Retreat, Bieldside, Aberdeenshire.

Grant, Arthur (1948-51), 31 Chestnut Row,. Aberdeen.

Grant, Hamish Brown (1918-3o), M.A., LL.B., Town Clerk, Forfar, Angus.

Guthrie, William Henderson (1939-51), tax Sunnyside Road, Aberdeen.

Jack, David (1944-50), St. John's Wood, Inverugie, Peterhead.

Jack, William 0945-50, St. John's Wood, Inverugie, Peterhead.

Kelbie, Emmanuel Buckland (1945-50, 70 West North Street, Aberdeen.

Laing, Arthur Gordon (1931-43), M.B., Ch.B., 1 r4 Anderson Drive, Aberdeen.

Leith, James Alexander (,939-5i), ix Bayview Road, Aberdeen.

Mcllwain, Alexander Edward (1945-51), 6, Louisville Avenue, Aberdeen.

Murphy, Peter Alexander (1945-51), 92 Gaitside Drive, Aberdeen.

Peters, Kenneth Jamieson (1929-41), c/o Aberdeen Journals Ltd., zo Broad Street, Aberdeen.

Ritchie, Charles (t 45-5x), 7 Bright Street, Aberdeen.

Steven, Ranald F4 e Findlay (1933-43), M.B., Ch.B., 107 High Street, Old Aberdeen.

Stewart, James Campbell (1942-5O, 6 Leggart Terrace, Bridge of Dee, Aberdeen.

Sutherland, Alastair McIntosh (1939-51), 32 Angusfield Avenue, Aberdeen.

Whyte, Roger Peter (1934-36), c/o Harrison, & Crosfield (Latex) Limited, Petaling, Selangor, Malaya.

ORDINARY MEMBERS Allan, George Gordon (1939-40 and 1949-5 1), 74 Desswood Place, Aberdeen.

Anderson, David Lyall (1938-40 and 1943-51), Kinnoull, West Cults, Aberdeenshire.

Anderson, William (1939-50, 4 King's Cross Road, Aberdeen.

Armand, Dudley Nicolson (1938-52), 114 Forest Avenue, Aberdeen.

Bates, James (Hamish) Stuart Martin (1941-51), 114 Hamilton Place, Aberdeen.

Borland, Blair Farquharson (1946-51), z, Woodend Place, Aberdeen.

Brebner, John Low (1938-51), 6z Carden Place, Aberdeen.

Bushell, Peter John (1944-50, 372 Great Western Road, Aberdeen.

Callum, Douglas 0944-50, 95 Crown Street, Aberdeen.

Carson, Michael Geoffrey (1940-5O, 2O Gordon Road, Aberdeen.

Cheyne, John Morrice (1947-50, 144 Falcondale Road, Westbury, Bristol.

Cradock, Richard Henry Whitby (1940-41 and x944-51), 125 Desswood Place, Aberdeen.

Crawford, John James (1941-4z), 37 Hilton Road, Aberdeen.

Cruickshank, Douglas Edward (1942-48), 130 George Street, Aberdeen.

Edwards, Hugh Robert Wynne- (1946-50, 7o High Street, Old Aberdeen.

Forbes, Charles Leslie (1938-51), 47 Richmondhill Road, Aberdeen.

Green, David Alexander (1947-51), 69 Desswood Place, Aberdeen.

Hay, Norman (1945-51), 15 Persley Crescent, Aberdeen.

Kemsley, Jeremy Neil (1941-51), 25 Cairnaquheen Gardens, Aberdeen.

McAndrew, Gordon Miller (r944-5,), 6 Cairnaquheen Gardens, Aberdeen.

MacIntyre, Ruaraidh Wishart (1945-50, 59 Forest Road, Aberdeen.

Marshall, Ian Howard 0946-50, 57 Abergeldie Road, Aberdeen.

Marshall, William Alexander (1947-50, 38 Maberly Street, Aberdeen.

Munro, Roderick Constable 0941-50, to Oakhill Road, Aberdeen.

Nelson, George Desmond Redvers (1938-51), 21 Rose Street, Aberdeen.

Paton, Andrew Watts (1945-51), Abbey Cottage, Hatton Fintray, Dyce, Aberdeenshire.

Raitt, William Lindsay (1938-40 and 1944-51), 6z Hamilton Place, Aberdeen.

Robertson, Stephen Andrew Cormack (1939-51), 96 Hamilton Place, Aberdeen.

Sellar, James Collie (1924-34), 37 Albert Street, Aberdeen.

Shand, Roy Cooper (1945-50, 498 Union Street, Aberdeen.

Steele, William Alexander (1945-5,), 15 Stafford Street, Aberdeen.

Smith, Francis Taylor (1938-51), 41 Ashley Gardens, Aberdeen.

Stewart, Ian Murdoch (1940-51), 5ta Stanley Street, Aberdeen.

Williams, Kenneth Brebner (1938-46), 137 Desswood Place, Aberdeen.

The Former Pupils' Club

81

F.P. Club Office-Bearers, 1951-52 Honorary President : JAMES J. ROBERTSON, O.B.E., M.A., B.D., F.R.S.E., F.E.I.S.

(Rector since 1942) Honorary Vice-Presidents : The Right Hon. Lord ALNESS (1884- The lion. Lord MACKAY (ALEXANDER MORR1CE MACKAY) (1882-91), K.C., 85), P.C., G.B.E., LL.D. 1\1.A., LL.D. President, 1928-29.

Sir ANDREW GOURLAY CLOW (1896-98), President, 1931-32.

K.C.S.I., C.I.E. The Right I Ion. Lord MasroN Sir PATRICK ASHLEY COOPER (1896(1901-02).

1901), B.A., LL.B. DOUGLAS GORDON MILLER, M.A. President, 1937-38.

Rector, 1921-24.

CHARLES DAVIDSON (1882-86), M.A. Sir WILLIAM PETERS (1900-06), C.M.G., President, 1947-48.

M.A. Colonel ARCHER IRVINE-FORTESCUE ALEXANDER GEORGE NICOL SMITH (1892-97), D.S.O., M.B., Ch.B. (1880-88), D.S.O. President, 1939-46.

President, 1926-27.

Sir ROBERT LYALL GRANT (1884-91), WILLIAM CLARK SOUTER (1893-98), T.D., M.A., LL.B. M.D., D.O. Sir HUBERT DOUGLAS HENDERSON President, 1949- i O. (1901-04), M.B.E., M.A., LL.D., Sir WILLIAM ROBERT TENNANT (1904F.B.A. 1910), C.I.E., M.A. Sir (WILLIAM) WILSON JAMESON (1892- Sir JOHN MACKAY THOMSON, C.B., 1902), G.S.E., K.C.B., M.D., LLD., M.A., F.R.S.E. D.Sc., F.R.C.P., K.H.P. Rector, 1920-21.

JAMES GRAY KYD (1891-98), C.B.E., GEORGE WATSON (1873-77).

F.F.A., F.R.S.E. President, 1934-35.

President, 1950-51.

EDWARD WILLIAM WATT (1883-94), Sir ARTHUR LOTHIAN (1892-94 and T.D., ,LL.D., D.L. 1898-1904), K.C.I.E., C.S.I., LL.D. President, 1936-37.

President, 1948-49President : JAMES CATTO DUFFUS (1897-1904), O.B.E., M.C., M.A., LL.B.

Vice-President of Club and Chairman of Executive : IAN GOWANLOCK MCPHERSON (1910-17).

Secretary and Treasurer : JOHN SCOTT MACLACHLAN (1922-3z), M.A., LL.B.,

zzo Union Street, Aberdeen.

Editor of Magazine : ALAN CROMBIE ROBERTSON WATT (1925-37), M.A., LL.B., 12 Bon-Accord Crescent, Aberdeen.

Secretaries of Centres : Bengal and Assam—H. B. SCOTT (1905-08), C.B.E., M.C., The Royal Insurance Company Limited, 5-7 Netaji Subhas Road, Calcutta.

Edinburgh—A. C. FRAZER (1925-30), M.A., W.S., to Atholl Crescent, Edinburgh, 3.

Glasgow—J. G. M. EIRSS (1926-38), M.C., M.A., 99 Essex Drive, Scotstoun, Glasgow, W.4.

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

8z

London—A. H. K. SLATER (1922-35), M.A., 2 Newton Grove, London, W.4.

Malaya—W. F. Msvoa (1923-30), M.A., c/o Customs House, Maxwell Road, Singapore.

Yorkshire—W. F. DUNNETT (1919-22), B.A., C.A., 212 Oakwood Lane, Roundhay, Leeds, 8.

Secretaries of Sections :

Cricket—N. C. IRvINE (1929-34), 27o Great Western Road, Aberdeen.

Golf—H. G. STEPHEN (1920-30), 252 Union Street, Aberdeen.

Hockey—R. P. WISHART (1919-31), zi John Street, Aberdeen.

Rugby—N. I. W. MELDRUM (1925-37), M.A., LL.B., 15 Golden Square, Aberdeen.

Executive Committee : The Vice-President of the Club, Chairman.

MAURICE CRAMS (1916-29), M.A., LL.B., Vice-Chairman.

The Secretary and Treasurer, and Editor of Magazine, ex officiis.

The Rector of the School, ex officio.

JOSEPH R. CARRY (1918-30), M.B.E. J. LENNOX RIDDELL (1907-16).

MITCHELL C. Ross (1914-2I), B.Sc., WILLIAM L. CONNON (1930-40), B.L. M.P.S., Ph.C. CHARLES R. CRUICKSHANK (1925-39).

ALFRED J. M. EDWARDS ( I 908-21), IAN L. SMITH (19 I 8-3o), B.Sc., B.Com. A.M.LC.E. DOUGLAS N. GEORGFSON (1929-39).

HENRY G. STEPHEN (1920-30).

MAXWELL G. GM) (19 I 3-22), M.B., JOHN S. SUTHERLAND (1935-48).

Ch.B. WILLIAM G. THOW (1911-zz), L.D.S. ROBERT J. MAITLAND (1912-IS), O.B.E. One representative from each of the ALAN J. PETERS (1920-30), C.A. Sections.

Hon. Auditors : Messrs. BOWER and SMITH, C.A.

Club Subscription Rates ORDINARY MEMBERSHIP. I OS. per annum (5s. for those under zr years of age on 1 January).

Any Former Pupil under 2I years of age has the option of paying the sum of £I Is. to cover membership for five years, provided he joins the Club not later than 31 December immediately after leaving School. or eight consecutive annual payments of LI Is. LIFE MEMBERSHIP.

School and F.P. Rugby Fixtures in the South The following School and F.P. rugby fixtures have been arranged for the second half of season 195 I -52 :— Jan. 19. F.P.s P. Morgan Academy F.P.s at Dundee. z6. School v. Glenalmond at Glenalmond.

Feb. z. F.P.s v. Hutcheson's Grammar School F.P.s at Auldhouse, Glasgow.

9. School v. George Heriot's School at Goldenacre.

Mar I. School v. Glasgow High School at Annicsland.

F.P.s v. Kelvinside Academicals at Glasgow. zz. School v. Morgan Academy at Dundee.

F.P.s v. NIusselburgh at Mussclburgh.

77

.

YOU CAN FLY

as a Naval Officer

DURING YOUR NATIONAL SERVICE

The most exciting years of your life can be those of your National Service.

And you can profit by it, too. By taking a R.N.V.R. Commission in Naval Aviation you can fly with the Fleet during your service, with good flying pay and the chance of foreign travel. You will also have the opportunity to serve a further two years and qualify for a gratuity of up to £525 tax free, and for a period beyond that date with further gratuity or a good chance of a permanent Commission.

Alternatively, you can take a Short Service R.N. Commission which carries I— i

i i i

a gratuity of £t,500 tax free after 8 years; and Short Service Aircrews have a one in five chance of a permanent Commission. Pay is high — a Lieutenant of 2 years' seniority can earn about £650 and all found (nearly £ i,ooo if married and 25 years of age).

For full details post the coupon today.

TO Secretary of the Admiralty, C.W. Branch, I BJ/54 Queen Anne's Mansions, London, S.W.t. I Please send me, without obligation, a FREE copy of II 'FLY WITH THE ROYAL NAVY' which gives full details of Short Service and National Service Commissions. Candidates I should be between 17 and 24 years old ; physically fit ; i hold School Certificate with pass in Maths., or General Certificate of Education with pass at ordinary level in English, Maths., and one optional subject.

Name Address

i

I

MODEL AIRCRAFT, SHIP & RAILWAY ACCESSORIES COMPLETE

RANGE

OF

KEIL,

AIRYDA KITS AND SPARES.

VERONS,

HALIFAX,

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UNION SUPPLY CO. 266-268

GEORGE

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Stationery,

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For all the latest books Pens,

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* An excellent library * And a special PRIZE BOOKS Department.

Copies of our Illustrated List of Reward Books are now available, post free.

All interested in children's gifts and prizes will find book suggestions to suit all ages and requirements

WEST END BOOKSHOP 412

UNION

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When it's an occasion ... be it a Dinner, Dinner Dance, Wedding, or other social function your intuition and our well founded reputation will lead you to the Northern. The constantly recurring bookings for a year ahead are some indication of the esteem in which we are held, and the satisfaction we have been able to give.

Weekly SATURDAY EVENING DANCE DRESS DINNER 12/6

G'3 oft , t...)

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The

NORTHERN HOTEL KIT1TYBREWSTER TELEPHONE

ABERDEEN

ABERDEEN1 4:3342

Those toothsome delicacies associated with the Festive Season, artistically Iced Cakes, Shortbread, Sandwiches, Tea Cakes, Meringues, Glace Fruits, Stem Ginger, Nuts, Cooked Meats and a host of other items can be ordered from Collies with the confidence that the quality is not only worthy of the occasion but will merit the approval of the most fastidious guest.

aw6u24, GC& 4OLtd FAMILY

GROCERS

UNION

-

WINE

MERCHANTS

STREET

COOKS

ALSO

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AT

CONFECTIONERS

BRAEMAR

BALLATER

ABERDEEN TELEPHONE,

•

2 72

4 4

BY APPOINTWIC,T GROCE ,If

& CULTS

REGISTRY TELEPHONE,

TO H.M. THE KING

20015

Boys will be BOYS! . . . and clothes won't stay clean for ever. But they will last longer and stay bright and fresh if you send them periodically to

TH E

GORDON CLEANING CO. LTD. Cleaners & Dyers

HUNTLY

ABERDEEN BRANCHES 434 Union Street

ABERDEEN

505 George Street

ABERDEEN

CALEDONIAN Insurance Company FOUNDED 1805 Incorporated by Special Act of Parliament

A World Wide Organisation Transacting All Classes Of Insurance General Manager : William Graham Robertson

HEAD OFFICE: St Andrew Square, Edinburgh LONDON OFFICE: 5 Lothbury, London, E.C.2

JAMES BLAKE LTD. Joiners and Building Contractors

Enquiries courteously solicited

7 ALBYN TERRACE Works: 23, 25, 29 Summer Street Telephone 24382 Telegrams " Blake Builders "

ALL CLASSES OF BUILDING WORK

Established over 100 years

WILLIAM CAY AND SONS (Funeral Directors) Limited Efficient Service Day and Night

Cremations All Funeral Arranged Requisites Supplied PRIVATE REST ROOM 415 UNION STREET 209 GEORGE STREET ABERDEEN ABERDEEN Tel. 29302 Telegrams—Cay, Aberdeen Tel. 20054

IMPROVED SUPPLIES are available of Typewriters, Desks (wood or steel), Chairs, Filing Cabinets, Cupboards

Come and see me

Everything for the Office

C. H. WEBSTER 489 Union Street, Aberdeen

Agents for Ordnance Survey Maps

Wyllies Circulating Library

WYLLIES (BOOKSELLERS LTD.)

247 UNION STREET, ABERDEEN Established 1814

Telephone 25534

ESTABLISH THE HABIT OF READING GOOD BOOKS

T Al LO R E D TO O

SHIRTS

* Tunic or Coat style * With 2 Soft or 2 Trubenised (Regd.) Collars * Numerous Woven Poplin designs and shades to choose from * Tailored in any size, including extra large * Delivery in approx.

14 Days Special Inclusive Prices

TAX

349

FREE and

3819

The above prices are in order at time of going to press but may fluctuate

JOHN FALCONER & CO. LTD. UNION STREET

Phone 25345

ABERDEEN

Ironmongery

STRACHAN

A large and varied stock always in hand

Commercial and Portraiture

Sheetmetal work a speciality

Photography

H. LEITH & SON LTD. 26-28 Netherkirkgate ABERDEEN

456 UNION STREET ABERDEEN Telephone 20851

Telephone 28777

4

TE L EP H ONE ABERDEEN 239 50 •

•

MILNE'S The PLACE

jtj ir

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TELEGRAMS 'GALLOWSES' ABERDEEN

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Clothes for Well Dressed Men W • J • MILNE

LTD

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WHOLEMEAL BREAD SOFT BISCUITS PERKINS

W

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PHERSON ad' and attAllo'Her IS FOUNTAINHAIL ROAD

ABERDEEN PICNICS CATERED FOR

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WILLIAM JACKSON (ABERDEEN)

LIMITED

18 BACK WYND, ABERDEEN Telephone 22591

Established 1855

"THE HOUSE OF FASHION"

A

UNION ST.

Ltd. ABERDEEN

The Store Conveniently grouped together for easy, tireless shopping, our New Fashion Salons solve the problem of how a woman can dress really well.

You will find the latest fashions well represented at Watt and Grant's, where, by long tradition, we sell only the best.

Ground Floor—Fashion Accessory Department and Linens.

First Floor—Fashions and School Outfittings.

Second Floor—Millinery, Knitwear and Underwear.

Third Floor—Restaurant and Coffee Lounge.

The Restaurant You will find the Restaurant a perfect rendezvous for Morning Coffee, Luncheon and Afternoon Tea. It is noted for its pleasant atmosphere, excellent service and, above all, for its good food, personally supervised by our Chef de Cuisine.

Tbe Rapper Rettle =beret COCKTAIL lounge . . . . there's nothing quite like it in the North . . . it's fast becoming an institution in Aberdeen—not an unusual experience with ' Caley' innovations. The new direct entrance from Union Terrace has earned full marks.

UNION

TERRACE

•

ABERDEEN

•

TELEPHONE

2V233

•

This is the ' Caley's' counterpart in Elgin. With the same reputation for comfort and service. Owned and controlled

by The Caledonian Hotel, Aberdeen.

Telephone ELGIN 2539.

CORPORATION

OF

ABERDEEN -

ABERDEEN

EDUCATION

GRAMMAR

COMMITTEE

SCHOOL

(FOUNDED BEFORE 1250

RECTOR .

JAMES J. ROBERTSON, O.B.E., M.A., D.D.,

J.P.

'TILE GRAMMAR SCHOOL provides a complete course of Primary 1 - and Secondary Education for Boys.

The School is organised as follows :—Nursery Class (4-5), Kindergarten (5-7), Lower School (7-i2), Middle School (12-15), Upper School (15-18).

The School, which occupies an extensive site in the West End of the City, has, in addition to ample classroom accommodation, an Assembly Hall with Stage, a spacious Library and Reading Room, five well-equipped Laboratories, three Art Rooms, two Music Rooms, four Workshops, two Gymnasia, a Dining Hall, a Museum, and a Botanical Garden.

While the School has a Classical tradition, it offers considerable variety of courses, the subjects of the Secondary Department being (in addition to Religous Education, Music, Physical Exercises and Games), English, History, Geography, Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Art and Crafts, Technical Subjects, and Commercial Subjects.

Boys are prepared for the Universities, the Civil Service, the Professions, Commerce and Industry. The Examinations normally taken arc the Leaving Certificate of the Scottish Education Department and the Bursaries Competitions of the Scottish Universities.

The School has spacious Playing Fields at Rubislaw, the games played being Rugby Football, Cricket, Hockey, and Tennis.

There are two Boarding Houses run in conjunction with the Grammar School.

ABERDEEN HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS (ALBYN PLACE)

HEAD MISTRESS . MISS B. M. ROSE, M.A. (OXON.), J.P. HIGH SCHOOL provides a complete course of education for THE girls between the ages of 5 and 18 years. It is organised in three Secondary. There is, in addition, a

Departments—Infants, Primary and Nursery Class. The girls in the Secondary Department are prepared for the Leaving Certificate of the Scottish Education Department and the Bursary Competition and the Preliminary Examination of the University : and those pupils who take Music, for the Examinations of the Associated Board. The subjects studied comprise Scripture, Physical Training, Class Singing, English, History, Geography, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Latin, Greek, German, French, Music, Art and Craft, Needlework, Cookery and Laundry. There is considerable variety possible in the choice of subjects and courses.

At least one afternoon a week and Saturday mornings are set aside for organised games at the School Playing Field of eleven acres situated at Htalehead.

Information as to Scholarships, Courses of Study, etc., at the Grammar School and the High School for Girls is given in the School Prospectuses, which may be bad free on application to the Director of Education, Education Offices, Municipal Buildings, Castle Street, or to the Rector or Head Mistress respectively.

Full savings facilities are provided for present and former pupils of all ages by the

ABERDEEN SAVINGS BANK INTEREST

WITHDRAWALS

2i PER CENT.

ON

DEMAND

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RUGGER

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FOOTBALL

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correct fitting by X-RAY pedoscope

JOHN A. DUNN LTD. FAMILY BOOT AND SHOE MAKERS

46 UNION STREET, ABERDEEN also at PETERHEAD, ELGIN, FORFAR, TURRIFF Phone 20158

PRINTED AT THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS