AGS Magazine February 1918

FEBRUARY, 1918.

Vol. XXI., No.

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CONTENTS. THE F.P. MEMORIAL PAVILION

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WAR HONOURS AND REWARDS TO F.P.'s

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INTERAMNA BOREALIS " ..

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JERUSALEM

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PRO PATRIA MORTUI 66

SINCE I LEFT SCHOOL.

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BY REV. G. STANLEY RUSSELL

TORPEDOED!

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SCHOOL RUGBY ..

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THE LITERARY AND DEBATING SOCIETY

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Interamna Borealis r" The Northern Town between the Rivers ")

Being Memories and Portraits from an old University Town between the Don and the Dee. By W. KEITH LEASK, M.A. Eight Illustrations and Portrait of the Author.

6/- net. By Post 6/6 net.

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Some Opinions of the Press.

Mr. Leask The Times. which has given the book two long and two short notices, says i of James Boswell, writes with a happy grace of delineation. He knows well the work recording the that give remembering and words instinct for and he has the Boswellian the key to character and thought."

The .1Iorning Post says :—" To old alumni this book with its illustrations will be a veritable treasure-house. The dedication has its poignant memories ; the notes are little works of art ; even the index, with its long string of names, makes one re-echo the cry of another son of Alma Mater on a similar occasion : 'This to me reads like a perfect novel.'"

The Graphic says :—"Aberdeen graduates all over the world will revel in this delightful book, while educationists generally will find in it many an inspiration."

The British Weekly says :—" Whimsical and wayward as it often is, it is strongly individual, and that quality is so rare and so precious that its presence disarms criticism.

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The Scotsman says:—" It has nothing narrow-minded or parochial in its outlook, and will quickly and pleasantly engage the consideration of anyone interested in the study of academic life."

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The Aberdeen Free Press says :—" Old admirers of Mr. Leask's picturesque pen will be glad to have this handsome volume, and doubtless many new readers will here make acquaint. ance with a writer who has delighted successive generations of students."

The ,4berdeen Journal says:—" Mr. Leask's hook, with its humour, its keen insight, its unfailing shrewdness, and its altogether delightful ballads, will be welcomed with loyal heartiness to the shelves of all graduates and alumni of the University of Aberdeen."

The Banffshire Journal says :—" There are provided a number of beautiful illustrations, including a capital portrait of the author. The whole forms a work of the greatest merit."

The Inverness Courier says :—" We cannot imagine any Aberdeen student of the last forty years who will not desire to possess the book, and who will not find in its pages an inexhaustible well of happy memories."

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Aberbeen &mutat School tllaga3ine.

Vol. XXI.

No. 2.

FEBRUARY, 1918.

S The "Magazine" is issued under the auspices of The Former Pupils' Club, in February, June, and October. All communication*, with regard to the "Magazine" should be addressed to the Editor, Theodore Watt, M.A., 10 Moray Place, Aberdeen, and not to the Grammar School.

The F. P. Memorial Pavilion.

The suggestion that a Pavilion should be erected in the new Field as an appropriate memorial to those of the School who have fallen in the War has been warmly welcomed, and already a number of subscriptions have been received. On the walls of the Pavilion it is proposed to inscribe the names of all Former Pupils who have died "Pro Patria." While there is no intention of pressing the scheme so long as the War continues, it should be understood by all interested that the subscription list is now open.

The following contributions have been received since the last issue of the Magazine :— Rev. PIRIE PHILIP, Manse of Kells, New Galloway, Kirkcudbright Major JAMES H. EDWARDS, R.F.A., B.E.F., France ("in memory of a pal who was killed at Beaumont Hamel") GRAMMAR SCHOOL SPORTS FUND, per Mr. James Davidson, M.A., . . . . .

Aberdeen Grammar School .

Mrs. J. B. GILLIES, and Mr. and Mrs. T. R. GILLIES (hi memory of Captain 4lainc3 13rolDn iStiliteo, in three . . £5 National War Bonds, repayable 1922 . . . . . .

Amount previously acknowledged .

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£0 2

6

3 3 0 3 3 0 15 0 54 19

0 0

£76

6

7

Intimation of subscriptions may be made either to Mr. Stodart M. Chrystall, solicitor, the interim secretary of the Former Pupils' Club, 21 Bridge Street, Aberdeen, or to the Rector at the School.

Recreation Ground Scheme.

Major H. J. Butchart, Headquarters, 74th Division, E.E.F.

.

£5 5 0

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

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War Honours and Rewards to F.P.'s.

ORDER OF THE BATH. James Lawrence Smith (1877-79), M.V.O., M.B., Surgeon-General, Royal Navy, was at the New Year appointed a Companion in the Civil Division of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath in recognition of services during the War. He received the Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 1898.

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ORDER OF ST. MICHAEL AND ST. GEORGE. The following received on New Year's Day appointments to the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George :— Charles William Profeit (1884-87), D.S.O., M.B., Colonel, Army Medical Service, to be a Companion (C.M.G.), for services rendered in connexion with Military operations in the Field. He was awarded the D.S.O. on New Year's Day, 1917, and has been repeatedly mentioned in dispatches.

Sir John Collie* (1873-76), M.D., Temporary Honorary Colonel, Army Medical Service, to be a Companion (C.M.G.), in recognition of valuable services rendered in connexion with the War. He received his knighthood on New Year's Day, 1912.

In August last he was appointed by the Minister of Pensions Director of Neurasthenic Institutions. He has just received the further appointment of Director of Medical Services for the Ministry of Pensions.

Thomas Wardrop Griffith* (1871-76), M.D., Major, R.A.M.C., to be a Companion (C.M.G.), in recognition of valuable services rendered in connexion with the War. He is Professor of Medicine in the University of Leeds.

ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. The following received in January appointments to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services in connexion with the War :— John Scott Ridde114` (1876-79), M.V.O., M.B., Colonel, Red Cross Commissioner for North-Eastern District of Scotland, to be a Commander (C.B.E.). He has also recently been promoted from Honorary Associate to be a Knight of Grace of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England.

George Reid (1865-68), M.D., Medical Officer of Health, Staffordshire County Council, to be an Officer (O.B.E.). He graduated M.B. at Aberdeen in 1875, and M.D. in 1881.

Harry James Wilson* (1883-86), Superintending Inspector of Factories, to be an Officer (O.B.E.). He is National Service Commissioner for Scotland. * Indicates Member of the Former Pupils' Club.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

63

Charles Michie* (1881-84), Representative of the Ministry of Pensions, North of Scotland, to be a Member (M.B.E.).

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER. Godfrey Power Geddes* (1903-11), Temporary Lieutenant, Gordon Highlanders, was (as briefly reported in last Magazine) awarded the D.S.O. in September, 1917. The following statement of service for which the decoration was conferred was published in the London Gazette of 8th January, 1918 :— " Although dazed and much shaken by the explosion of a shell he, as Adjutant, took command of the front line when allthe other officers had become casualties, and coolly and energetically directed the work of consolidation and organization. He also repulsed an enemy counterattack by his able handling of the battalion's Lewis guns. On the following day when very heavily counter-attacked he directed a short retirement to a stronger defence line, from which he held up the enemy and eventually drove them back when reinforced, personally leading the attack. Although wounded in the hand he behaved for three days with the utmost courage and ability, filling a responsible position under very trying conditions and, practically unaided, by his fine personal example inspiring all ranks to most untiring efforts in attack and defence."

Thomas Davidson* (1893-97), Major, Royal Field Artillery, was gazetted to the D.S.O. on 27th October. The act of gallantry for which the decoration was awarded has not yet been announced. Major Davidson is a director of Messrs. C. Davidson & Sons, Ltd., paper manufacturers, Mugiemoss, Aberdeen, and has been on service since the outbreak of war.

He was mentioned in General Haig's dispatch of 13th Novem ber, 1916.

John Knox Ewart (1881-83), Temporary Major, Army Service Corps, was awarded the D.S.O. on New Year's Day. William Riddell Matthews* (1881-90), M.B., Temporary Lieut.-Colonel, R.A.M.C., was also awarded the D.S.O. on New Year's Day. He has been mentioned in dispatches for services in Egypt and in France.

Archibald Stirling Kennedy Anderson (1900- 06), M.A., M.B., M.C., Temporary Captain, R.A.M.C., was awarded the D.S.O. on 18th January. He received the Military Cross in August, 1916, and a Bar to his Cross in March, 1917.

Robert McPherson Barron (1882-88), Major (Temporary Lieut.-Colonel), Indian Medical Service, has received the D.S.O. as from 1st January, 1918, for services rendered in connexion with military operations in Mesopotamia.

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS. Peter Shaw (1888-91), Lieutenant-Commander, Royal Naval Reserve, was invested with the Distinguished Service Cross on 21st November last, in recognition of services in action with enemy submarines.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

MILITARY CROSS. The following were reported in last Magazine as having been awarded the Military Cross, and the London Gazelle of 8th January, 1918, contained the statements of service for which the decorations were conferred : George Joseph Allan* (1897-1902), Second Lieutenant, Royal Engineers.— " For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty whilst acting as liaison officer. He repeatedly made journeys through heavy shelling and returned with valuable information, showing a disregard of danger and devotion to duty, which enabled the working parties to get on with their work at the earliest possible moment."

Arthur Morrison Barron* (1910-13), Second Lieutenant, Gordon Highlanders.— "He led his platoon to the furthest objective, which he reached with a Lewis gun and five men. He immediately reorganized his platoon, collecting the remainder of his men who had become mixed up with other units, and in spite of persistent sniping, successfully consolidated his position. He displayed the greatest courage and determination throughout."

Clement Rickard MacLeod* (1894-1903), M.B., Tempor. ary Captain, R.A.M.C.—

"For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when in charge of an advanced dressing station. In the face of extreme hostile shelling he led stretcher-bearers, collecting the wounded and gassed cases, and throughout a period of twenty-four hours displaying a coolness and gallantry which directly influenced the saving of many lives."

John Douglas Taggart* (1906-14), Temporary Second Lieutenant (Acting Lieutenant), Royal Field Artillery.— "During a bombardment of enemy wire, when aerial observation became impossible owing to the velocity of the wind, this officer, together with another, went out with telephone equipment and took up a position in full view of the enemy, where they remained until the mortars were registered and the wire cut. His promptitude and fearlessness were invaluable in promoting the success of the attack."

The following were announced on 19th November as having been awarded the Military Cross, but no account of their acts of gallantry has yet been officially published :— Alexander Ogilvie Gray (1903-09), Second Lieutenant (Acting Lieutenant), Royal Field Artillery. When war was declared he was a lance-corporal in the School Company of the Gordons, and went out to France early in 1915, being afterwards invalided home. He was subsequently commissioned in the R.F.A. Prior to the War he served as an apprentice in the Harbour Engineer's Office, Aberdeen.

Douglas John Kynoch (1908-11), Second Lieutenant, Gordon Highlanders. He has been twice wounded. Before entering the Army he was studying dental surgery.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

65

James Stewart McConnachie (1897-1900), M.B., Captain, R.A.M.C. He has been on military service in France for over two-and-a-half years, and is attached to a field ambulance. s

a.

The following were awarded the Military Cross on New Year's Day :— James Adrian Crombie (1894-96), Temporary Captain, Reserve of Officers, Royal Field Artillery. He was mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig's dispatch of 9th April, 1917.

John Grant* (1906-12), Temporary Second Lieutenant, Highland Light Infantry. He graduated M.A. in 1915, and became an articled apprentice with Messrs. Jeffrey & Milne, C.A., Aberdeen. He joined the London Artists Rifles O.T.C. in the beginning of 1916, and after being commissioned to the H.L.I., went to the Front in October of that year.

Maurice Richard Johannessen (1898-99), Lieutenant (Acting Captain), Royal Garrison Artillery. He has been serving in Italy for some months.

Wallace Laing (1906-07), Temporary Captain, Royal Artillery.

Douglas Meldrum Watson Leith* (1903-10), Lieutenant, Gordon Highlanders. He joined the Gordons as a private shortly after the outbreak of war, and crossed to France early in 1915. He received his commission in the autumn of that year.

John MacMurray (1902-04), Lieutenant (Acting Captain), Royal Field Artillery. He graduated M.A. at Glasgow in 1914, and prior to the War was studying at Balliol College, Oxford.

James Bruce Miller (1876-80), Captain, Royal Engineers.

He is a partner in Messrs. John Miller & Co., Sandilands Chemical Works, Aberdeen.

Hugh Lewis Pirie (1899-1904), Temporary Inspector of Ordnance Machinery and Honorary Captain, Army Ordnance Department.

Launcelot Hugh Ross* (1898-1901), Temporary Captain, General List. He was mentioned in General Haig's dispatch of 13th November, 1916.

Robert Tindall* (1891-98), M.B., Temporary Captain, R.A.M.C. John Bruce* (1896-1903), Lieutenant (Acting Captain), Royal Engineers, was awarded the Military Cross on 18th January. He was mentioned in Field-Marshal Haig's dispatch of 7th November.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

The following were awarded the Military Cross on 4th February :--Douglas Falconer* (1891-1900), Captain, Gordon Highlanders. He was mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig's dispatch of 9th April, 1917.

John Douglas Fiddes* (1896-1902), M.B., Captain (Temporary Major), R.A.M.C. He was mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig's dispatch of 7th November.

James Hall McI. Gordon* (1901- ? ), Captain, Gordon Highlanders. For a time he was on the Staff of General Sir Ian Hamilton at the War Office, but latterly has been with his regiment at the Front.

Patrick Magnus Spence* (1904-06), Lieutenant (Temporary Captain), Grenadier Guards, Special Reserve. Prior to the War he was on the staff of the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, London.

The following were awarded the Military Cross on 18th February :— John Leslie Chalmers* (1901-03), Temporary Lieutenant, Royal Irish Fusiliers.

Charles Wright Glass* (1904-10), Temporary Lieutenant, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

Ian McBain* (1904-14), Temporary Lieutenant (Acting Captain), Royal Garrison Artillery.

Herbert James Jones* (1902-07), Lieutenant, Royal Scots, has recently been awarded the Military Cross. He is at present serving in Palestine.

MILITARY MEDAL. James William Mathewson* (1909-13), Corporal, Royal Field Artillery.

James -Douglas Brown* (1907-10), 51st Divisional Signallers.

MENTIONED IN DISPATCHES. William Hamish Chalmers (1901-03), Second Lieutenant, Punjabis, Indian Army, was mentioned in General Sir Charles Monro's dispatch on military operations in the Indian Empire, published on 31st October, 1917. He was killed in action at Seistan, Persia, on 13th April, 1916 (see Magazine, Vol. XIX, p. 148).

Peter Shaw (1888-91), D.S.C., Lieutenant-Commander, Royal Naval Reserve, was gazetted on 17th November as having been mentioned in naval dispatches for services in action with enemy submarines.

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

67

Maurice Joseph Williamson* (1894-1903), M.C., M.B., Captain, R.A.M.C., who has been serving on the Staff of the Salonika Force, was mentioned in Lieutenant-General G. F. Milne's dispatch of 25th October, published on 28th November.

He was awarded the Military Cross on New Year's Day, 1917, and had previously been mentioned in one of Sir John French's dispatches.

•

The following were mentioned in Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig's dispatch of 7th November, published on 11 th to 28th December :— Eric William Harcourt Brander* (1894-1901), Captain, Gordon Highlanders—on General Headquarters Staff.

Alexander George Nicol-Smith* (1880- 88), D.S.O., Captain (Temporary Major), Army Service Corps—on General Headquarters Staff. He received the D.S.O. on New Year's Day, 1917, and recently was awarded the Croix de Guerre (see p. 69).

James Noel Thomson (1896-1900), M.C., Captain, Royal Artillery—on General Headquarters Staff. He was awarded the Military Cross on New Year's Day, 1917.

Thomas Davidson* (1893-97), D.S.O., Major, Royal Field Artillery. He was awarded the D.S.O. on 27th October (sec p. 63).

Ian McBain* (1904-14), Lieutenant (Acting Captain), Royal Garrison Artillery. He has since been awarded the Military Cross.

John Bruce* (1896-1903), Lieutenant (Acting Captain), Royal Engineers. He has since been awarded the Military Cross.

Alfred Forbes Lumsden (1887-? ), D.S.O., Major (Acting Lieut.-Colonel), Royal Scots. He was awarded the D.S.O. on the King's Birthday last year, and has been mentioned in dispatches repeatedly.

Herbert H. Bower* (1881-92), Lieutenant, Gordon Highlanders. He is a partner in the firm of Bower & Smith, C.A., Aberdeen.

• Godfrey Power Geddes* (1903-11), D. S.O., Temporary Lieutenant, Gordon Highlanders. He was awarded the D.S.O. in September last (see p. 63).

John Milne* (1888-94), M.C., Captain (Acting Major), Gordon Highlanders. He was awarded the Military Cross on New Year's Day, 1917.

Charles Duncan Peterkin* (1893-1905), Major, Gordon Highlanders. At the outbreak of war he was in command of the School Company.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

Patrick Taldo Pirie (1906-07), Lieutenant, Gordon Highlanders.

Charles Cook Reid* (1895-1906), Captain (Acting Lieut.Colonel), Gordon Highlanders.

George Alexander Smith* (1888-91), D.S.O., Major (Acting Lieut.-Colonel), Gordon Highlanders. He was awarded the D.S.O. on the King's Birthday, 1917.

John Knox Ewart (1881-83), Temporary Major, Army Service Corps. He was awarded the D.S.O. on New Year's Day, 1918.

Kenneth William Mackenzie* (1893-97), M.C., M.B., Temporary Captain, R.A.M.C.—on Headquarters Staff, Army Medical Service. He was awarded the Military Cross in October, 1916, and a Bar to his Cross in February, 1917.

Charles William Profeit (1884-87), D.S.O., M.B., Lieut.Colonel (Temporary Colonel)—on Headquarters Staff, Army Medical Service. He was appointed C.M.G. on New Year's Day, 1918.

Archer Irvine -Fortescue* (1892-97), M.B., Captain (Acting Lieut.-Colonel), R.A.M.C. Hector Mortimer* (1904-09), M.B., Temporary Captain, R.A.M.C. John Douglas Fiddes* (1896-1902), M.B., Captain (Temporary Major), R.A.M.C. He has since been awarded the Military Cross.

William Riddell Matthews* (1881-90), M.B., Lieut.Colonel, R.A.M.C. He was mentioned in Sir Archibald Murray's dispatch published on 7th July, 1917, and was awarded the D.S.O. on New Year's Day, 1918.

William Alexander Hunter* (1898-99) , Temporary Lieutenant (Acting Captain), General Staff, General Headquarters, Home Forces, was mentioned on 21st December for valuable services rendered in connexion with anti-aircraft service in the United Kingdom. He was originally gazetted to the Cameron Highlanders, and served in the Dardanelles campaign.

Henry Jackson Butchart* (1890-99), Major, Yeomanry, was mentioned by General Allenby on 16th January. He is on the Staff of that General.

Sir John Collie* (1873-76), M.D., Temporary Honorary Colonel, Army Medical Service, and Thomas Wardrop Griffith* (1871-76), M.D., Major, R.A.M.C., were mentioned on 12th February " for very valuable services rendered in connexion with the War up to December 31, 1917."

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Foreign Decorations.

CROIX DE GUERRE. Alexander George Nicol-Smith* (1880-88), D.S.O., Captain (Temporary Major), Army Service Corps—gazetted 17th December, 1917—for organizing arrangements for the evacuation of civilians.

Alexander Donald Fraser (1898-1900), D.S.O., M.C., M.B., Captain (Acting Lieut.-Colonel), R.A.M.C.—gazetted 17th December, 1917. He received the Military Cross in June, 1916, the D.S.O. on the King's Birthday, 1917, and has been repeatedly mentioned in dispatches.

Gilbert Burnett (1893-96), serving in the French Army as a motor ambulance driver. The following is the official record :— " Burnett, Gilbert, Conducteur Volontier, Le 17 juillet 1917, s'est signale en accomplissant plusieurs transports de blesses sous un violent bombardement. Par son nobilite et son sang-froid a reussi a s'acquitter heureusement de sa mission, bien que sa voiture ait ete en plusieurs endroits endommagee par des eclats d'obus."

RUSSIAN ORDER OF ST. STANISLAS. Clement Lee Cobban (1891-96), Major, Indian Army2nd Class (gazetted 14th January, 1918).

Jerusalem.

A sonnet written on the approach of the British troops to the Holy City.

Thou art a city of the dead. Thy fame The mighty spirits of the past have made ; Thine ancient walls have looked on kings arrayed In arms against Philistia ; the same Old crumbling battlements that heard the name Of conquering Roman Pompey rise and fade Have seen our Lord Emmanuel betrayed, And watched the path by which Napoleon came.

Then shall these walls, by conquering Roman ire, Flung down as low as Rome soon after fell, Now perish, swathed in all-devouring fire, A last revenge of fleeing Infidel ?

Never ! while British arms can strike a blow To save the Holy City from the foe.

K. ROBERTSON (Classical V.)

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PRO PATRIA MORTUI. "So they gave their bodies to the commonwealth and received, each for his own memory, praise that will never die, and with it the grandest of all sepulchres, not that in which their mortal bones are laid, but a home :n the minds of men, where their glory remains fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes by."—TnucvpinEs, II, 43.

iatnes 36ertram Man (1894-96), South African Infantry, was killed in action on 15th October, aged 35 years.

On leaving the School he engaged in engineering fora short time, and thereafter went to South Africa, and became an ostrich farmer. He served throughout the South African War, receiving two medals, and after a time resumed ostrich farming. When the present War broke out he once more volunteered his services, and after taking part in the SouthWest African campaign, went to France, where he was killed. )avth Rnberson* (1908-11), of North Loirston, Cove, Lance-Corporal, Canadian Mounted Rifles, was killed in action on 26th October, aged 24 years. On leaving the School he studied at the North of Scotland College of Agriculture, and thereafter went to Canada to gain experience in farming before starting shorthorn breeding in this country. He enlisted in Canada shortly after the outbreak of war and was at the Front for two years. He was wounded at Ypres in June, 1916, and went back to France in October of that year. He was a member of a signalling section, and in the action of 26th October last was in charge of forward lines. When owing to heavy shelling the wires had become broken, he went forward with a companion to make repairs. An enemy shell exploded close beside him and killed him instantly. His colonel characterized him as " one of our best and most reliable signallers."

Cbarles Zucban (1906-08), M.A., Second Lieutenant, Lancashire Fusiliers, was reported early in December to have died of wounds. He was 29 years of age, and was a graduate in Arts of Aberdeen University, where he had a very distinguished career, being a prizeman in a considerable number of classes, and finally taking First Class Honours in Economics. While at Aberdeen he took a very active interest in the Students' Christian Union, of which he was at one time President. In 1912 he went to Glasgow to study for the ministry at the U.F. Church Hall there. He still continued to distinguish himself in his classes, but, when war was declared, he left his studies to engage in Y.M.C.A. work. This he took up with great enthusiasm, and after a year, although not by any means robust, he decided to enlist. When he had been some eight months in the trenches as a private in the Gordon Highlanders, he came home in 1916 to a Cadet School. While a private at the Front he mixed with all sorts and conditions of

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DAVID ANDERSON.

JOHN MARTIN ELLIS.

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IAN ALISTAIR KENDALL BURNETT,

WILLIAM TAN STEPHEN.

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men, and if any man thought well of the British Tommies it was Charles Buchan. To hear him talk of them was amazing.

Although never given to much demonstration, he really got enthusiastic about the great intrinsic merits of the British soldier, and he was exceedingly loath to leave his old company.

He was commissioned to the Lancashire Fusiliers in April, 1917, and had been at the Front with them for about four months when he met his death.

3an Elistair ltenttail 16urnett* (1894-1903), Captain, attached East Lancashire Regiment, who was previously reported missing, believed killed, on 31st May, 1917, is now officially presumed killed on that date, aged 31 years. He left the School in 1903 as Dux and Gold Medallist, and graduated M.A. at Aberdeen University in 1907, taking First Class Honours in Modern Languages in the following year. In 1909 he was appointed Librarian in the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, and in 1910 he became an assistant in the Department of Printed Books of the British Museum. There he was thought very highly of, and was regarded as one of the coming men. He was one of the two compilers of List of Catalogues of English Book Sales, x676-1900, now in the British Museum, published in 1915. On the outbreak of war he volunteered for military service, and received a commission in the Infantry Special Reserve of Officers, being subsequently attached to the East Lancashire Regiment. During a night attack on 30th May of last year his company was in the front line, and he himself was going to the point where most trouble was to be anticipated. "He was first up to the enemy trench," wrote his Commanding Officer, "and being hit through the body, fell into the German trench. He was conscious, but very badly wounded, and told one of his N.C.O.'s who was there to go on, as he was done. . . . I fear he received further wounds in a bombing counter-attack, and the small party that had gone to bring him in was driven back." His C.O. went on to say that " as a Company Commander he was quite excellent. He knew all his men intimately—studied their peculiarities, and always got the best out of them.

Personally I shall miss him more than I care to think about, for his interests were more varied than those of the majority one usually meets, and his sense of humour was delightful. . . . Altogether I have lost my best Company Commander, and a man who in more ways than one can ill be spared, and not replaced. His calm courage was of the highest order, and I know he would not have chosen any other end."

The School Dux of 1905, who is likewise an assistant in the British Museum, in the MSS. Department, has sent the following appreciation of his colleague :—

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SIS FELIX !

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" To many Grammar boys of the early nineteen hundreds the death of I.A.K.B. will recall a name of brilliant promise and a personality of rare attraction. Although my own intimacy with him dates from a later time, I well remember the day during the Bursary Competition of 1904 when he first addressed me in the quadrangle of Marischal College, a mark of recognition grateful to a humble junior. Solicitude for the welfare of the School was ever predominant among his interests, yet his attitude towards men and affairs was entirely cosmopolitan.

His memory for facts and events was prodigious. He knew the record of all his friends. He forgot nothing and nobody.

His hospitable rooms were always the howff of vagrant Aberdonians. What interested him in men was chiefly their surface peculiarities, not the profounder sides of their character, for which, indeed, his candid spirit lacked the acid so necessary to elucidate the evasive elements of the soul. Hence his delight in anecdote, his fund of humorous and often ludicrously inconsequent stories. " Gentle by birth, I.A.K.B. was by temperament wholly Bohemian, with none of the absurd self-consciousness in the matter which often makes the Bohemian snob more odious than his brother of society. For this reason I.A.K.B. always required a little sordidness in his surroundings in order to appear in perfect harmony. (Indeed he was singularly unresponsive to aesthetic stimuli.) His rooms, on the second floor of a battered-looking house between Hampstead and Golder's Green, revealed the very essence of the man. Space to move there was none, the unoccupied area being dominated by an immense and straggling collie. My first visit found him engaged in darning socks, in which he alleged (waving at the same time an ocular disproof) that long practice had made him proficient. He recalled more than anything certain aspects of the perpetual hero in M. France's novels, especially as incarnated in M. Brotteau of Les Dieu ont Soil, a book and an author he admired immensely. As I looked round the room with a rude and apparently disapproving eye, he hastened to explain that he had often thought of making a shift, but that his present rooms had one convenience which he could not forgo. At the back of the house extended a large piece of waste ground into which he could cast his superfluous belongings directly from his back windows. Such an inestimable and cogent advantage could not with ease be found elsewhere.

Whimsical sophistry ! His professed philosophy was to make a joke of things, and the undying charm of his personality lay in the contrast between this attitude and the background of disillusion against which the action of his life was played. As with men, so with matters : it was the outward show, the

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varied texture of life that engrossed him. Weary of ultimate things and fearful of insincerity, he would of purpose interrupt an ambitious argument by some humorous application which would bring the visionary down to earth with a faint sense of being ridiculous. From the same impulse he threw himself zealously into the work which came to his hand, partly from hatred of slovenly craftsmanship, and partly, it would seem at times, in a desperate effort to wrest some significance from life, or like a hero of Tchehov, submerge himself in the trivial. His real detachment was only revealed by his ironic self-criticism. " After the War broke out I saw him only twice, both times in great form. With an exquisite appropriateness his talk was all of big Willies and little Willies. As to the meaning of War he was the last man to venture an opinion. In the words applied to a kindred spirit many will remember him as `le plus gentil esprit qui ait jamais fleuri sur la terre.' "—H. J. M. M. )ouglae Cratottivie (1908-10), Private, Gordon Highlanders, was reported wounded and missing on 23rd April, 1917, and is now officially reported killed in action on that date. He was 23 years of age. ilelilttam Cramottb (1905-07), Private, London Regiment, died of wounds on 30th December, aged 26 years.

Although an excellent classical scholar, he decided to enter the Civil Service while still in the second highest class of the School. He did very well in his entrance examinations, and got a post as a Second Division clerk in Somerset House, London.

He rose rapidly and was holding a very good position when he enlisted early in 1916 in the Artists Rifles. Very quiet and unassuming, he was full of humour, and was a great reader and philosopher. He was also exceedingly fond of walking, and had done many big pedestrian feats in the Lake District and Trossachs.

3obn 'Dania Vito* (1895-19011, Lance-Corporal, Wellington Mounted Rifles, was killed in action on 14th November, aged 30 years. On leaving the School he went to Merchiston for two years, and thereafter entered the business of his father—Messrs. Ellis & M'Hardy, coal merchants, Aberdeen. In 1911 he went to New Zealand, where he engaged in sheep farming. His younger brother, Captain JAMES ELLis (1896-1904), Gordon Highlanders, died on 24th April, 1917, of wounds received in action. To the elder brother an intimate friend pays the following tribute :— " ' Far over all that folks hold worth There lives and there leaps in me A love of the lowly things of earth And a passion to be free To make my body a temple pure, Wherein I dwell serene ; To care for the things that shall endure : The simple, sweet, and clean.'

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These verses of Robert Service very aptly describe our friend, and it was only to a very few of us that the privilege was given of knowing the inner feeling that lay at the root of his strong character, but we—and, alas, our number is sadly reduced by the sacrifice of two of his friends—will never forget his modest, unassuming nature. " Spending the last two years of his schooldays at Merchiston, he played three-quarter for the XV, and, when he returned to Aberdeen, in his quiet way enthusiastically supported the Former Pupils' Club and its Rugby Football section. He was also a keen member of the Aberdeen Rowing Club.

"Later, the call of the hills came to him, and it was on these expeditions that one really got to know and appreciate him.

Our last scamble will ever live in my memory. After a hard walk, for the snow on the low ground was soft, the summit of Cairntoul was reached by way of the Soldier's Corry, and our quartette, proud of the long and difficult day, rested a few minutes, with a couple of eagles for company, to admire the wonderful scene, which appealed to Ellis more than to any of the others. And now I am alone, this Christmas Day, in an important English city, and the others, all Former Pupils of the old School, have made the supreme sacrifice. Soon after this day on the hills our friend felt that the routine of commercial life—although a position was ready to his hand—was impossible, and he left for New Zealand, where ranching gave his spirit the freedom it so passionately longed for. " Joining the New Zealand Light Horse at the outbreak of war as a private, he saw service in Gallipoli, Egypt, and finally in Palestine, where he fell. The world can ill spare men such as he was, and as for those of us left behind, "When his glorious task was done, It was not of his fame we thought, It was not of his battles won ; But of the pride with which he fought, But of his zest, his ringing laugh, His trenchant scorn of praise or blame, And so we grave his epitaph— ' He played the game.'"

M.

jobn ball (1897-1901), Private, W.I.R., New Zealand

Expeditionary Force, was killed in action on 24th November, aged 32 years. He served his apprenticeship as an engineer with Messrs. Clyne, Mitchell & Co., Ltd., Aberdeen, and thereafter went to New Zealand, where he remained until the early part of 1917, being latterly engaged as manager of a garage business. iDarib lartbyte tarbte (1902-07), Second Lieutenant, Royal Flying Corps, was killed in action on 18th November.

[At present the Editor has no information about him, and will be glad to receive a short note on his career.]

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Oxides %tuart lbenberson (1904-06), Private, Australians, was reported some time ago to have been killed.

Prior to the War he was engaged in farming in Western Australia. [The Editor wishes to receive further particulars about him also.]

3ames Ogilvie ikemp (1882-83), Captain, Royal Scots, died in December from illness contracted on active service, aged 52 years. He graduated in Arts at Aberdeen University in 1886, and became a member of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh, in 1889. fliSacken3ie (1884-85), D.S.O., Lieutenant, 3an South Africa, died last autumn in Central Africa from injuries received accidently. He began his military career in the Natal Carbineers, and saw much service in the Boer War, rising to the rank of captain in the Scottish Horse, and receiving the D.S.O. After the outbreak of the present War, he volunteered for German East Africa, whence he was invalided with fever after a year's service. In 1917 he re-enlisted, and was sent to Central Africa. He was a son of the late Mr. John Russell Mackenzie, architect, of Disblair, Aberdeenshire.

193tWarn antes 11IMIne* (1900-04), Lieutenant, Indian Army Reserve of Officers, attached Indian Infantry, died at the Officers' Hospital, Bagdad, of enteric, on 29th October, aged 31 years. He graduated M.A. at Aberdeen in 1908, and thereafter became a probationer for the Indian Forest Service, studying at Oxford and in Germany. Of his work in Germany he contributed a short account to the Magazine in 1911, before joining the Forest Service in India as assistant conservator, attached to the Northern Circle of the Bombay Presidency.

In 1913 he was placed in charge of the East Khandesh Forest Division, and at the outbreak of war was transferred to the Indian Army Reserve.

Zlilli[ltam 3an Stepben* (1906-15), Second Lieutenant, Indian Army, attached Lancers, died at Aden on 4th December, aged 19 years. He was a member of the School Company of the Gordon Highlanders, and was mobilized when war broke out. He became a lance-corporal in the Gordons, and served with them until he passed the Indian Army Entrance Examination in 1915. After his training at Wellington College, Madras, he was stationed at several places in India.

Transferring to the Lancers, he crossed with them to France, and remained there until last October. He was returning to India in order to go to Mesopotamia when he died of dysentery at Aden.

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I

The dates given in parentheses after names indicate the sessions of attendance at the School.

DEPUTY CHIEF OF INDIAN GENERAL STAFF. Andrew Skeen (1881-86), C.M.G., Brevet LieutenantColonel (Temporary Brigadier-General), Indian Army, A.D.C. to the King, was in December gazetted Temporary MajorGeneral whilst employed as Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Indian Army, to date from 1st November, 1917.

"ONE OF THE ABLEST INDIAN OFFICIALS." Sir James Scorgie Meston* (1876-80), K.C.S.I., LL.D., whose extended term of office as Lieutenant-Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh expired on 15th January, has just been appointed Financial Member of the Executive Council of the Governor-General of India, in succession to Sir William Meyer. In order to enable our Old Boy to take a short period of leave before assuming charge, it has been arranged that the change of office will take place at the end of August next. In announcing this appointment The Times said :— "Sir James Meston is recognized as one of the ablest of the Indian officials. Educated at Aberdeen University and at Balliol, he entered the Indian Civil Service 33 years ago, serving in various capacities and becoming a member of the United Provinces Legislative Council in 1899.

He was appointed officiating secretary to the Indian Government, Financial Department, in 1906, and until his appointment as LieutenantGovernor of the United Provinces in 1912 was engaged in the financial branch of the Government, finally holding the post of Financial Secretary and sitting for a short term as temporary Financial Member of the Governor-General's Council. It is in finance that Sir James Meston's abilities have been conspicuously shown."

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GENERAL ASSEMBLY MODERATOR-DESIGNATE. James Nicoll Ogilvie* (1872-76), M.A., D.D., is ModeratorDesignate of the Church of Scotland. He graduated in Arts at Aberdeen in 1881, and four years later was appointed to a chaplaincy on the Indian Ecclesiastical Establishment. He served at Madras and Bangalore for 20 years, being during the last five of these Presidency Senior Chaplain. In 1905 he retired from India, and became minister of New Greyfriars Parish, Edinburgh. For the last nine years he has held the convenership of the Foreign Mission Committee. Since 1900

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two other F.P.'s have held the Moderatorship of the Established Church : JAMES MITCHELL, D.D., South Leith, in 1901 ; and ANDREW J. MILNE, LL.D., Fyvie, in 1905.

CONTROLLER OF MEDITERRANEAN SHIPPING. Charles Davidson* (1881-83), Lieutenant-Commander, R.N.R., has been awarded the Royal Decoration for Long Service, and appointed Shipping Control Officer of the Mediterranean. He entered the service of the British India Steam Navigation Company in 1895. After the outbreak of war he was engaged in transport work, and served through the Gallipoli campaign. His ship was torpedoed last year.

SUPERINTENDING INSPECTOR OF FACTORIES. Harry James Wilson* (1883-86), who became one of H.M. Inspectors of Factories in 1892, has recently been promoted to be Superintending Inspector of Factories for Scotland and North Ireland. In January he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

John Craig* (1864-66) retired on 31st December from the position of General Manager of Williams Deacon's Bank, Limited, after 39 years' service. As the General Manager of one of the chief Manchester banks, with important London connexions and branches to the number of 114 in London, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, and Derbyshire, and funds on current and deposit account totalling 28 millions, Mr. Craig has been intimately associated with the great developments in trade and commerce that have taken place in those centres in which his bank has played a leading part.

Colonel William Johnston (1854-57), C.B., M.D., LL.D., Army Medical Staff, was at the time of his death (which occurred on 26th n.rpmhpr 1914) engaged on a biographical history of the Army Medical Service. This work, left unfinisted, was placed in other hands for completion and has recently been published under the title : " Roll of Commissioned Officers in the Medical Service of the British Army, June 20, 1727, to June 23, 1898, with an Introduction showing the Historical Evolution of the Corps." When reviewing the book The Times said :— "This is one of those books which demand endless industry, endless research, endless drudgery, and the most painful accuracy, which are wellnigh maddening to steer through the press, and which bring to the compiler neither wealth nor fame. It is, therefore, a book to be welcomed with gratitude and with sympathy ; and we feel no ordinary regret that Colonel Johnston should not have lived to receive the thanks that were his due for an admirable piece of work. It seems that, though an enthusiast in his own noble profession, he had a passion for this particular description of labour, for he had already drawn up a Roll of the Graduates of Aberdeen University. But it needs no ordinary

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courage in a man past sixty years of age to enter upon the gigantic task of tracing, however briefly, the professional careers of over 7,600 obscure individuals through the musty papers and pay-lists of half a dozen public offices. Yet Colonel Johnston accomplished the work, though hp died before it could be published, and has thereby erected to himself a monument, acre perennius."

Alexander Reid Gordon* (1884-88), D.Litt., Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature in the Presbyterian College, Montreal, is the author of a recently-published book entitled : "The Prophets of the Old Testament." It is a companion volume to "The Poetry and Wisdom of the Old Testament," which came from Dr. Gordon's pen in 1913.

William Fenwick Newlands* (1905-09) was recently admitted a member of the Society of Accountants in Aberdeen.

Archibald Carmichael* (1862-64), M.A., M.D., Barrowin-Furness, who died on 22nd February, 1916, by his will bequeathed the residue of his estate, subject to certain liferents, to the University of Aberdeen in order that the income thereof may be applied " for the advancement of the work of the medical side of the said University in such manner and subject to such regulations as the Senatus Academicus of the said University may from time to time determine and think fit." The value of the residue is understood to amount to about £12,000.

Joseph B. Jobberns* (1880-86), M.A., The Rectory, Carnoustie, has been appointed Clerk of the Synod of Brechin Diocese, and a Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral, Dundee.

Horace O. P. Hepburn* (1895-1903), who went to Canada in 1911, is at present engaged as a civil engineer on the Hudson Bay Railway.

William Riddell Matthews* (1881-90), D.S.O., Lieut.Colonel, R.A.M.C., was in January promoted Colonel, and appointed Assistant Director of Medical Services to a Division in the B.E.F. in France.

Adam Fyfe Findlay* (1880-85), M.A., minister of Bristo U.F. Church, Edinburgh, has resumed his ministry after two years' absence as a Chaplain to the Forces. He was latterly working among the troops in Palestine. A short time ago he was appointed to the Ker Lectureship in the United Free Church.

Patrick A. B. McKerron (1904-10), Captain, Gordon Highlanders, has been seconded for service with the Indian Army Reserve of Officers in the rank of Lieutenant on probation.

Robert Bruce* (1886-89), D. S.O. , Lieut.-Colonel, R.A.M.C., was in December appointed to visit Auxiliary Hospitals in the Scottish Command, with a view to ensuring rapid disposal of cases whose condition is not considered to warrant continua-

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tion of treatment, or which, from the nature of their disabilities, could be better treated elsewhere.

Douglas H. W. Williamson* (1894-1902), who joined the London Regiment last year, was in November taken out of it to do dental work, and now holds the rank of Lieutenant.

At present he is attached to the Cadet Brigade, Royal Flying Corps. The Brigade-Major is Captain PERCY JOHNSTONSAINT (1894-98).

Frank M. F. Dawson* (1904-15), Second Lieutenant, Gordon Highlanders, was reported wounded and missing in September last. Up till now no further word has been received about him.

James S. G. Collie* (1905-10), Captain, R.F.C., was in December promoted Flight Commander.

Douglas M. M. Fraser* (1898-1910), M.B., Captain, R.A.M.C., is at present on the medical staff of a hospital in Jerusalem.

Harry William Mackintosh Mackay* (1910-14), Lieutenant, Gordon Highlanders, has been gazetted a flying officer (observer) as from 25th October, 1917. At the outbreak of war he was a member of the School Company of the Gordons.

William H. Maxwell (1910-11), who enlisted as a private in the Black Watch, and passed through the Cambridge Cadet Training Corps, has been gazetted Second Lieutenant in the Highland Light Infantry.

James William Milne* (1884-95), C.A., Secretary of the Former Pupils' Club, who has latterly been acting as chief accountant of a small advisory committee of chartered accountants appointed by the Board of Inland Revenue, has gone back to the Ministry of Munitions to act as Director of Engine and Machine Tool Contracts, and Adviser to the Machine Tool Committee of the Ministry on Machine Tool Prices. He has also been appointed a member of the Machine Tool Committee.

Sydney Frederick McKinnon* (1905-15) was in November gazetted Flight Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Air Service from Temporary Probationer Flight Officer. He started training with the R.N.A.S. in May of last year.

John Alexander Spark* (1914-17), who was Classical Dux of the School last year, was in December gazetted Second Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps. He was previously an air-mechanic.

William Morrison Pressly* (1895-99), after eleven years' residence in Canada, is serving as a corporal in one of the Canadian Forestry Corps in the south of England.

Arthur Keith Forbes (1908-12), Sergeant, R.A.M.C., was awarded the Military Medal last year. He was in the

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historic landing in Gallipoli in April, 1915, and coming safely through the campaign there, was subsequently in Egypt, and then in France. He gained his honour in the big advance of the early summer of last year. He has recently been in training for a commission.

Alexander Munro Halley* (1904-12), Second Lieutenant, R.G.A., has recently resigned his commission on account of ill-health, and has been granted the honorary rank of Second Lieutenant.

Armand Bruce Christen (1898-1903), who went to U.S.A. as an electrical engineer in 1912, is in the Division of Research and Inspection, Signal Corps, American Expeditionary Force.

Douglas Ritchie (1909-15), who left the School early in 1915 to join the Scottish Horse, has latterly been serving as a private in the Imperial Camel Corps, Egypt.

George Laing* (1911-15), who some time ago passed the Marconi wireless telegraphy examination first class with distinction, is now attached to the Royal Flying Corps as wireless operator, and is meantime stationed in the south of England.

Andrew Baxter* (1882-86), M.D., Captain, R.A.M.C., has been gazetted Acting Lieut.-Colonel whilst commanding an East Lancashire Field Ambulance.

Reginald Stanhope Martin* (1913-16) was gazetted in August last Second Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps and has been training in Egypt.

James Douglas Scott* (1904-15) is serving in France with the British Red Cross.

Allan C. Anderson* (1907-12) is serving with a Canadian Field Ambulance in France.

Arthur Percy Spark* (1905-11), M.B., R.N., is surgeon on one of H.M. Monitors.

Charles Alastair Aymer* (1913-15), who has completed a portion of his medical course, at present holds a commission in the Royal Garrison Artillery.

OBITUARY. George Clark (1845-46), M.A., LL.D., who founded and carried on for fully 40 years the Dundee West-End Academy, died at Newport on 12th November, aged 86 years. He was a pioneer in phonetics and shorthand, and contributed to the literature of dialect and spelling. He received the degree of LL.D. from St. Andrews University as recently as July of last year-67 years after graduating in Arts at King's College, Aberdeen.

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Alexander Johnston (1848- 50), M.A., died at Aberdeen on I 1 th December, aged 82 years. After graduating M.A. at King's College in 1854, he engaged in teaching, and eventually became parish schoolmaster of Glentnlick. Owing to an affection of the throat he had to give up teaching, and entering the service of the Great North of Scotland Railway, he was stationery stores clerk for over 40 years. He retired about 12 years ago.

George Will (1853-56), Colonel, Royal Artillery (retired), died at Boars Hill, Oxford, on 7th February, aged 76 years.

After studying at Marischal College for four years, he received a commission in the Royal Engineers in 1863, and rose to the rank of Brevet Colonel in 1895.

Charles Adam (1859-60), M.A., M.D., died at Elgin on 3rd February, aged 74 years. He had been in medical practice in Elgin for about 50 years.

John Robb (1860-61), M.D., Lieutenant-Colonel, Indian Medical Service (retired), died at Aberdeen on 20th December, aged 74 years. After graduating in medicine at Aberdeen in 1868, with highest honours, he was commissioned to the Medical Branch of the Indian Army (Bombay Division). From 1873 till 1882 he was Civil Surgeon at Zanzibar, East Africa, during which period he acted from time to time as Assistant Political Agent and Consul, in addition to performing his medical duties. While at Zanzibar he had to open, examine, and report upon the package brought from the interior of Africa by Dr. Livingstone's servants and believed to contain the remains of their master, to whom they were devoted. He was thus the first white man to view the remains of the great missionary and traveller. This was in February, 1874, and on 5th March, 1874, an official report of the matter was submitted to the Political Agent and Consul-General for transmission to the Foreign Office, London. He retired from the Service in November, 1889, and subsequently settled in Aberdeen.

Henry James Vollar (1861-65) died at Bournemouth on 18th January, aged 68 years. After leaving the School he was for four years in the service of the late Mr. James W. Barclay, Aberdeen, who held " a very high opinion of his abilities, of his steadiness and moral character." In 1872 he went out to Ceylon, to the estate of a relative of his own, the late Mr. Robert Boyd Tytler. There he did valuable work as a pioneer planter of cocoa and was held in high esteem for his perseverance and steady industry and intelligence. He was a leading member of the planting community from 1872 to 1897, when he retired to settle in England. For the greater part of the last 20 years he resided in a little Berkshire village.

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Thomas Patrick Baird (1861-65) died at Moorland, Bieldside, on 13th December, aged 67 years.

Harry B. Simpson* (1862-65), Commander, R.I.M. (retired), died at Dalhousie, Huntly, on 30th October, aged 70 years. He engaged in seafaring for 36 years, during 27 of which he was in the Royal Indian Marine. One who knew him well in his later years writes :— " He was a man with a very strong sense of duty, and scrupulously exact in the discharge of any work that he undertook. When the War broke out he fretted that his age prevented his being on active service, but seized the opportunity of joining the local forces in Huntly, and his friends believe (which he himself would doubtless have denied) that it was the hard training and long marches in all kinds of weather, especially in snow and ice, that proved too strong for his health and years. He was also an exceedingly kind man, and a very loyal friend. He was naturally reserved ; but, when you got him on congenial topics, his talk was extremely interesting.

One such topic was Principal William Lawrence Brown of Marischal College, with whom he was closely related, and many of whose literary prizes (such as silver medals, etc.) he possessed and loved to show to his friends. One likes to remember that in him and in the other members of his family, we still keep up in Aberdeen the connexion with the Marischal College of a century ago and more, and with the author of the First Burnet Prize Essay on Theism."

William Smith* (1863-65), advocate, died at Aberdeen on 22nd November, aged 70 years. He served his legal apprenticeship with Messrs. Jopp & Reid, advocates, and was admitted a member of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen in 1873.

He started in business on his own account, and in 1880 joined in partnership the late Mr. Lessel Stephen, the firm name being Messrs. Stephen & Smith. Mr. Smith built up a large private practice, and in addition was for about 40 years associated with the North of Scotland Canadian Mortgage Compiny, Ltd., first as secretary and latterly as managing director. He was also interested in other important local commercial enterprises and was Clerk of Lieutenancy of Aberdeenshire.

George Findlay Sim (1863-66) died at Aberdeen on 28th January, aged 70 years. He spent his life as a tanner and currier in Aberdeen.

John Connon Middleton* (1875-78) died at New York on 8th September last, aged 52 years. He entered the service of the North of Scotland Bank at Turriff in 1882, and of the Bank of New South Wales, London, in 1884. From 1886 to 1892 he was with the London Bank of Mexico in London, and in Mexico. In 1893 he became H.B.M.'s Vice-Consul at

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Monterey, Mexico, and continued in this position for four years.

Thereafter he devoted himself to private interests in Mexico and the United States.

Ranald Roderick Macdonald (1876-78) died at Aberdeen on 1st February, aged 52 years. After attending classes at Aberdeen University and being for two years in the office of Messrs. James and George Collie, advocates, he entered the office of his father, who was for many years factor of the Cluny Estates. Here he was trained in estate management and factorial work, and became first of all assistant to his father, and later was appointed joint factor. In 1903 his father died, and he was appointed to succeed him in the management of the Cluny Estates. He took a prominent place in the public life both of the town and county of Aberdeen.

Robert Watson Lyall Hay* (1881-85) died at Aberdeen on 4th January, aged 49 years. He served his apprenticeship with Messrs. Hay & Lyall, carvers and gilders, Aberdeen ; was assumed as a partner in this firm in 1894 ; and from 1896 was sole partner. He had a wide and reliable knowledge of art, and did not a little to foster the love of art in Aberdeen.

Duncan Charles Campbell (1883-87) died at Old Trafford, Manchester, on 27th December, aged 42 years. After graduating M.R.C.V.S. with honours at the Dick Veterinary College, Edinburgh, he received a Government appointment in South Africa. When the Boer War broke out, he joined Brabant's Horse as a Lieutenant, and at the conclusion of hostilities returned to this country and became associated with the veterinary firm of Messrs. Greaves & Faulkner, Manchester.

At the time of his death he was senior partner of this firm.

Ranald D. Mackenzie (1883-87), son of the late Mr. John Russell Mackenzie, architect, of Disblair, Aberdeenshire, died suddenly in Durban in the autumn of last year.

Craigie Milne (1894-97) died at Georgetown, Demerara, on 30th September, aged 35 years. He had been engaged as a planter in British Guiana from 1904.

Henry Shulver (1913-16) died at Aberdeen in the beginning of January. He was only 17 years of age.

MARRIAGES. GRIFFITH (1869-74).--On 6th December, at Holy Trinity Church, Corris, Major ALEXANDER HILL GRIFFITH,* R.A.M.C.(T.), of 17 St. John's Street, Manchester, seventh son of the late Charles Fox Griffith, of Aberdeen, to Mary Ursula, second daughter of Lieut.-Colonel A. A. Ruck, late The King's Regiment, and Mrs. Ruck, Esgan, Pantperthog, Merioneth.

ButtocK (1877—80).--On 8th December, by special licence, at Kensington, JOHN MALCOLM BULLOCH,* to Edith Kate Roach, of Q.A.I.M.N.S.R., in France from April, 1915, to November, 1917.

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MINTO (1888-98).--On 18th February, at All Saint's, Fulham, CHARLES CREIGHTON MINTO,* solicitor, Aberdeen, younger son of the late Wm. Minto, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Logic and Lecturer on English Literature in the University of Aberdeen, to Lucy Ida, younger daughter of the late Henry Allevne Nicholson, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Natural History in the University of Aberdeen.

DANsoN (1892-94).—On 6th February, at St. Mary's, Cairo, E. D. LOGIE DAMSON,* Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak, third son of the late Dean of Aberdeen and Orkney, to Ada Irene Harvey, Sydney, Australia.

LORIMER (1894-1906).—On 16th February, at the Cathedral Church of St. Andrew, Aberdeen, Captain JAMEs VAss LORIMER,* A.S.C.(T.), B.E.F,., to Eleanor, second daughter of the late George Atkins, and of Mrs. Atkins, 54 Polmuir Road, Aberdeen.

CLARK (1895-1901).—On 23rd October, at Cathcart, Cape Province, South Africa, ANDREW CLARK,* youngest son of the late Rev. Alexander Clark, M.A., Kingswells, Aberdeen, to Alice Maud, younger daughter of th3 late Rev. Thomas Spargo, and Mrs. Spargo, Cathcart.

REID (1895-1906).--On 23rd January, at Holy Trinity Church, St. Marvlebone, Major CHARLES REID,* Gordon Highlanders, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter A. Reid, Woodbank, Aberdeen, to Marjorie Mellor, only daughter of the late H. Ogden Mellor, and of Mrs. Mellor, 2 Portland Court, W. DUFFUS (1897-1904).—On 21st November, at Mannofield Parish Church, Aberdeen, JAMES CATTO DUFFUS,* Major, R.F.A.(T.), eldest son of Alexander Duffus,* (1871-76), advocate in Aberdeen, to Florence Mary, elder daughter of Alexander Davidson, Broomhill Park, Aberdeen.

WALLACE (1898-1903).—On 25th October, at Garden City, Kansas, U.S.A., WILLIAM ELLERSLIE WALLACE,* the Deliver Alfalfa Milling Co., Harlman, Colorado, younger son of John Wallace, Millbank, Hardgate, Aberdeen, to Vida, daughter of David W. Pitts, Garden City.

MELVIN (1899-1900).—On 26th December, at the U.F. Church, Cults, ALFRED Ross LAWRENCE MELVIN,* 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Scots, Balquhidder, Murtle, to Margaret ("Daisy"), only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Gordon, Sunnybank, Bieldside.

DUNCAN (1899-1906).—On 26th October, at Aberdeen, HUGH M'LENNAN DUNcAN, Lethenty, Alford, to Isabella Ann, (laughter of William Skene, Blackstone, Ellon.

WILSON (1899-1907).--On 2nd January, at the West Parish Church, Aberdeen, Lieut. WILLIAM DAVIE WILSON, R.E., eldest son of John Wilson, 39 Argyll Place, Aberdeen, to Georgina Livingston Smith, only daughter of William Milne, 36 Rose Street, Aberdeen.

LEDINGHAM (1900-09).—On 26th November, at Glasgow, ARCHIBALD REITH LEDINGHAM, youngest son of the late John Ledingham, baker, Aberdeen, to Edith, youngest daughter of the late George Grant, decorator.

MAxsoN (1901-04).—On 21st December, at St. Columba's, Church of Scotland, Pont Street, Kensington, London, W., Captain ALEXANDER MANSON, Gordon Highlanders, only son of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Manson, of Kilhlean, Oldmeldrum, to Isabel Reid, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Reid, late of Balgreen, King-Edward, and now of New Zealand.

WALLACE (1901-04).--On 14th December, at the Grand Hotel, Aberdeen, Company Sergeant-Major FREDERICK CHARLES WALLACE,* Canadians, to Isabella Copland, only daughter of the late John K. Flett, baker, 194 George Street, Aberdeen.

Sim (1901-06).—On 3rd October, at Toronto, Canada, JAMES HAROI n SIM,* Canadian Bank of Commerce, Inspector's Department, Toronto, to Beatrice Riddell, elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Bell, Palmerston Gardens, Toronto.

COPLAND (1902-07).—On 22nd December, at The Cathedral, Madras, ROBERT COPLAND,* only son of Mr. Robert Copland, Milton, Ardlethen, Ellon, Aberdeenshire, to Marjorie Pym, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur W. Sutton, Crieve House, Colonne Road, Wimbledon.

LAWRENCE (1904-06).—On 29th December, at the Cathedral Church of St. Andrew, Aberdeen, JOHN ROBB LAWRENCE, youngest son of the late George Lawrence, Bank Agent, Fraserburgh, to Ethel, (laughter of Alexander Guild, 30 Elmfield Avenue, Aberdeen.

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" Interamna Borealis." * Thomas Gray prefixed to his Pindaric Odes a Greek motto to the effect that they speak to those who know, but for the general multitude they need interpreters. And the same might be said of Interamna Borealis—not that Mr. Leask writes obscurely or discusses abstruse problems, but because the volume abounds in reminiscences and allusions which, in spite of the illuminating notes appended, require the reader (and herein lies for some of us the prime beauty and chief delight) to be a King's man in order to understand them, to appreciate their choice quality, to feel the intimate thrill they can impart to those who know. But if the reader is to understand, to appreciate, to feel to the utmost, he must be something more : must be a King's man of a certain era—of, say, the twenty-five years ending circa 1895, that is, of the period immediately preceding the advent of women, and the end of "classes."

For the " class" of those happy times no longer exists ; " class" meaning the band of men who, in any October, entered as Bajans, and then for four sessions continued in close fellowship, practically all listening to the same lectures in the same order.

The fact that Semis looking forward to Honours usually went to Natural History with Magistrands hardly disturbed the class community any more than did the occasional vagary of a man who inverted or subverted the customary succession of subjects.

But besides listening to the same lectures and passing, or failing, together, the happy band of brothers during their quadrennium shared in a common life of sport and play, in matters gay as well as grave ; and there was developed an amazing esprit de corps, a wonderful solidarity, which in great measure compensated for the lack of the collegiate life of Oxford and Cambridge, and the loss of which is now the price paid by the University for greater specialization and multiplicity of subjects. Mr. Leask's volume throbs with this "class" feeling, which at times displayed itself in a quaint form. Witness the anecdote told, pp. 55-6 :— " One night George Morrison had succeeded in the lark [of turning off the gas and leaving the Humanity manse in darkness] when Professor Ferguson had a Senatus dinner-party. Suspicion fell upon him, but he evaded the charge by an alibi. His landlady was before the Senatus, and I believe I have read the minut,1 of proceedings in their official records. I now feel like Stenie's Recording Angel, when he flew up to Heaven's Chancery, and dropt the obliterating tear on the record as he handed it in. 'She swore black and white,' said my informant, a minister of the Church of Scotland. 'She was a Papist, and maybe saw her wye. Let us not too hastily prejudge. "It coudna be Mr. Morrison, because at the time his boots, his only pair, wis afore the kitchen fire, and the door wis lockit." Weel, weel ; it lies atween her and her Maker this nicht. She obscured the fact that George gaed oot no his stockin'-soles.' an old Uni* INTERAMNA BOREALIS, being Memories and Portraits from versity Town between the Don and the Dee. By W. Keith Leask, M.A. net.

Aberdeen : The Rosemount Press. 1917. 6/-

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Then he brightened up. 'But she'll hoe the support o' oor Class, onywye.'

To my mind the idea of that Arts Class, on the Day of Judgment, constituting itself into an Advisory Committee or Exemption Tribunal (under Lord Derby's recruiting scheme), has something in it positively of the Sublime."

It was in 1883 that Alma Mater originated, and a glance at pp. 357-363 will show how unflagging and how valuable a contributor Mr. Leask has been to its pages, both in prose and in verse. Reprints of these form the bulk of the contents of Interamna. In the forefront Mr. Leask places an interesting account—not a reprint—of the awakening of "pietas" towards the University in the sphere of research into its history and antiquities. As one of the priceless "sources," future historians of the University will rank Interamna itself.

Mr. Leask divides his book into sections, the first being "Cursus Academicus." Here in prose and verse we have presented various aspects of the curriculum—the excitement of the declaration of Bursaries, "O who that shared them ever shall forget The emotions of the spirit-rousing time ! "—

the humours of the Aulton Market, Class Suppers, and so on — all admirably sketched. Many of us will readily echo Mr. Leask's words when he sings :"0 ! the days that now are gone— Since the year that we were Bajans on the road to Tillydrone."

Those were the days when the Bursary Competition was a power in the north-east and north of Scotland ; but now the Competition has served its day and outlived its use. The time has long come for its abolition, or reform, "Lest one good custom should corrupt the world."

The next section deals with Alma Mater. To read again the paper on Willie M`Donald brings at once sadness and delight to those who knew that gifted son of Strathdon, "dead ere his prime.''

Under " Olim Cives" we have professors and other worthies, as John Barbour, who would have been a King's man had he and the University been contemporaries, and John Colvin, inimitable of sacrists. Like Chaucer's Summoner, John could, on occasions, auote Latin. Has Mr. Leask heard the following ? A cheeky Bajan was trying to score off John. John turned on him and, with suave gravity, asked him to translate, "Nunquam vidi stultum priusquam vidi te." Delightful are the portraits of Geddes, Fyfe (Johnny, redolent of bog-myrtle as well as reminiscent of Binnie), Fuller, Thomson, Rennet, Masson (where is the "Masson Medal" foreshadowed to the Grammar School ten years ago ?), and Donaldson.

Other papers discuss Class Records. One of these has a peculiar interest for us as members of the Grammar School,

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of which, by the way, we are proud to recognize Mr. Leask as a most loyal "old boy." This paper tells of the Grammar School Class that began its "literary career" on the 26th day of October,- 1807. From 1817 onwards for some fifty years the Class kept up its anniversary meetings.

But we cannot follow Mr. Leask's fascinating volume further, not even when tempted by the anecdotes of the Grammar School in 1868 or the story of the "Downie Slauchter." Enough has been said to show the great value and absorbing interest of Interamna Borealis; enough, we hope, to induce many to buy and read this beautifully illustrated and admirably printed product of The Rosemount Press.

While all King's men will be deeply grateful to Mr. Leask, those who had the good fortune to be his pupils owe him a double debt. For these papers are a fine revelation of their author and remind many of us of the hours we spent as Bajans or Semis in the room in the old Tower at King's.

W. MURISON.

Mackay of the Great Lake."

This book, the fourth of a new series called the Pathfinder Series, should have a special interest for everyone connected with Aberdeen Grammar School, for in it we find told in vigorous and dramatic style the story of Alexander M. Mackay, explorer and missionary in Uganda, who was a pupil at the School from 1863 to 1866. " Mackay of Uganda" is how we have previously referred to him in these pages, but Mr. Padwick has chosen an equally picturesque phrase—" Mackay of the Great Lake." The book is dedicated "To the Boys of Rhynie Public School, Aberdeenshire," while the Grammar School, although referred to, does not attain the dignity of capitals— the only little grumble we have to utter.

Pk' 106 When Mackay came from his native parish of Rhynie to Aberdeen at the age of fourteen to attend the Grammar School, he seems to have spent most of his Saturday half-holidays in the shipbuilding yards, watching the great hammers pounding and the fine " clippers " for the China trade growing in graceful lines from week to week. All his life he had a mechanical turn of mind, and, had he wished, he might have been at the head of some great engineering or shipbuilding firm. At the age of twenty-four he left Scotland to be a designer in big locomotive works near Berlin. Soon he became the head of the whole locomotive department, and later he was offered a partnership, which he refused, greatly to the surprise of the * MACKAY OF THE GREAT LAKE. Oxford University Press. 3/-.

By C. E. Padwick.

Pathfinder Series.

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heads of the firm. The reason, perhaps, may be guessed from an entry in his diary at this time: "This day last year Livingstone died—a Scotsman and a Christian, loving God and his neighbour, in the heart of Africa. ' Go thou and do likewise.'"

He had read Stanley's book, How I found Livingstone, and also the appeal from the Church Missionary Society for a teacher who could "turn his hand to anything--like a sailor." He volunteered his services at once, and at once he was accepted.

So he started to get his steam launch, the Daisy, built to take with him to the Great Lake. She was built in sections and he himself designed the boiler and engine.

After landing in East Africa, Mackay had the distance of 700 miles between him and the Great Lake, but this did not daunt him. A fascinating account is given of how he at last succeeded in wresting a path from Nature. Then his real work commenced at the court of the savage Mtesa, King of Uganda. It was, perhaps, on account of the great mechanical skill of Mackay that he made such an impression on the Buganda. They were deeply impressed by the ease with which he turned out things at the forge and lathe. Thus he got his opportunities for Christian propaganda, as in more recent times medical missionaries score success through their skill as doctors. Bitter opposition met him. The witch-doctors almost prevailed against him, but he seemed to bear a charmed life. Young chiefs came secretly to him for Christian instruction, and many were cruelly put to death for their faith. But the lamp, once lighted, could not be put out.

When a new king came to the throne it seemed that the native converts, with their missionaries, were to be treated as the early Christians were under Nero. Many were burned to death. Moving stories are given of these dark days. Yet through all the dangers that daily threatened him Mackay was never daunted. It was not without reason that Stanley called him " the toughest little fellow you could conceive." Stanley and his caravan stayed for three weeks with Mackay. But fourteen years in tropical Africa will sap the strength of any man, and to do himself justice Mackay should have come home to recuperate, but he would not. At last, weakened by the continuous strain of his work, he fell a victim to fever and died in 1890. Over his grave his beloved native Christians carved, not the Christian Cross, but the massive oval shield of a Buganda Warrior.

A more fascinating book of real adventures, hairbreadth escapes, setting forth the story of a noble life, we have not read for many a day.

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A Humanist's Offensive ; Or,

What I Did in the Great War. THE NORTH COUNTRY THINKING SHOP. My first intention was to close it. The Harfleur speech was much in the air.

"When the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger : Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard favour'd rage."

That seemed the correct mood. Then another picture found favour—the pensive soldier in his tent at Philippi, reading his book and calling for music. This liked me better. There was Wolfe, too, sailing down the St. Lawrence and murmuring the verse from the "Elegy." Why not just take down the sign, and mobilize the shop too ?

THE WALLACE STATUE. That was bound to be my starting-place. A loyal Scot could have no other. So I read again the noble words round the base of the statue. If only that Falkirk speech had been left in its crisp old form : " I have brought you to the ring-hop gif ye can." Let be—we have the uncle's fine counsel to the young hero, and above all—" To Edward I cannot be a traitor, seeing I owe him no allegiance." Happy the sons of Bon-Accord reared in the shadow of that mighty monument.

SOUTHWARD Ho !

Our going from Castlehill was quiet; There was only one other recruit going to Plymouth, and we strolled down together to the Joint Station quite unostentatiously—" Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note." No ribald dames attended us, and my companion--a portly commercial traveller, in civil life—insisted on our imparting as casual an air as possible to our walk. He wished it to be thought that this Exchequer Row and Shiprow route was just an ordinary business thoroughfare for him. Certainly I found it difficult to realize that I had taken the plunge into the Great Adventure.

"MOVIES" IN THE TRAIN. The romance of railway-travel never palls on me. True, our eyes nowadays are oftener heavenwards, watching the story of aeronaut Daedalus---and Icarus, too, alas !—come true. But to eyes of wonder the iron horse has still its own fascination.

We sit there and see a whole country unrolled before our eyes-cities, villages, industrial hives, rural toil, rivers, ships, islandfortresses, great smoky chimneys and furnaces, all the varied life of man, a great panorama. It is just the reverse of what

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we enjoy at our picture houses. There we sit still, and the animated picture passes before us. In the train it is we who race past the picture. We may be more at our ease in the cinema hall, but the locomotive train has the advantage in verisimilitude. It is a page from life itself, the real thing.

There is something detached too in the outlook from the train, which makes it peculiarly congenial to the contemplative mind. What food the melancholy Jacques would have found in it for moralizing ! The philosopher of the iron-road has still to arise, the Carlyle who will make it his eyrie whence to look forth on Weissnichtwo and preach his new gospel.

LONDON--O.H.M.S.

In the old schooldays Mr. Murison used to advise us boys to know our own land well first before we ventured further afield ; and I had been laying his advice so well to heart all these years that here I was in London for only the second time, and, even so, incidentally. It amused me indeed to reflect that both times it had been O.H.M.S. Then it was for an afternoon, on our way back from Aldershot, where we of the 1st V.B. Gordon Highlanders had been in camp. Now it was for the forenoon, before setting out for Plymouth. Was ever the greatest city in the world treated so casually ? I felt like calling on King George at Buckingham Palace, just to say that here I was, his faithful liege, bound once more on his errands.

But staid Commerce was aghast at the suggestion, and fled incontinently to the train.

FROM LONDON TO PLYMOUTH.

0

The uppermost impression left on my mind of-this South of England was the prettiness and miniature effect of everything.

Fields, villages, streets, gardens, houses, windows—everything was on a surprisingly small scale. No wonder our colonials, when they come across here, feel like putting their arms round the little island, after the wide spaces they have known. Then, too, it was all very pretty. That was the word to describe the rich blooming flowers and vegetation, a word you would never dream of applying to Scotland. What a contrast indeed to "Caledonia stern and wild" ! These truly were the "gay landscapes and gardens of roses" that another F.P. exclaimed against, when he sighed for the valley of dark Lochnagar.

PLYMOUTH HOE-BOWLS.

From the railway station we descended the terraced slopes, which were thronged with soldiers and sailors ; then we ascended to the Hoe, that magnificent sea-esplanade where stands the citadel. Here we must begin our soldier career, and here some day we must come, as come we surely for our discharge. But let us not think of that just now.shall,

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pictures, So this was the famous Hoe, the Hoe of boyhood's of bowls game their of Drake and the other sea-dogs playing There was the as they waited for the coming of the Armada. horizon. western the statue of the great sea-king, scanning Armada. the of defeat the commemorating There was the statue even as of yore, There was the Sound, alive with ships of war with craft that and proportions, and build but of how different to sail the air, those old Devon heroes dreamt not of—craft waters under the in sail to craft water, or air craft to sail either were fashionable the earth. And here, on the Hoe itself, where strains of music stirring and crowds, moving hotels, merry were men playing from the bandstands, here on the Hoe green was good, and omen The old. of days brave bowls as in the citadel. in good heart I turned to enter the FIRST DAYS-UNI-FORM.

accompanied by The donning of the khaki uniform was seemed to arise it Analysed sensation. sinking something of a individuality. I from the feeling that I was surrendering my in the " umpnumber—somewhere a unit, mere had become a word full of a is Uni-form—that teen" hundred thousands. is uniform everything Everyone, Army. the significance in of movements bearing, Dress, and uniform is everything. speech—all one's hail, one's looks, one's limbs, head, eyes, one-form, uni-form. must be to a prescribed cut and pattern, DELECTABLE DUCHY. RAMBLES-THE MAYFLOWER-THE of the citadel One never tired of wandering round the wallsships, Drake's myriad its with and looking out on the Channel, distance, and just Island, the•Eddystone Lighthouse in the far the ramparts one From across the blue waters, Cornwall. the esplanade, glorious summer afternoon I looked forth on gathered to be were forces where various military and naval who had come down inspected by the American Ambassador, The march Plyinouth. of freedom from London to receive the statues, those before ground, historic that on past of the troops of strains jubilant the amid and with that seascape in front, a sight was Britannia, Rule, and Banner The Starspangled never to be forgotten. visit I realized The appropriateness of the Ambassador's tablet set up a is there where when I stood on the quayside, briefly of the telling Fathers, Pilgrim the of by descendants to America in 1621 men who sailed from here in the Mayflower was New England here now And England. to found New in the day of her sending her sons to stand by Old England unfolds. history of drama peril. So the old bones of the Not but what there was life yet in the the still summer in stood I as reflected, I Nations, Mother of clean dive from evening and beheld boy after boy spring with

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the pierhead, and swim in gay emulation across the water to another jetty.

Of course I had to visit Cornwall, the Cornish Riviera, on which, depicted in garish posters, my absent-minded gaze had often rested in days gone by, when sailing past on the Rosemount car. The ferry boats plied steadily, and though the journey was a short one, it meant passing into another world, that old, old world of the Delectable Duchy, as described to us by "Q" in his charming stories. Cawsand and Kingsand —they reminded me of our own Gamrie and Pennan—villages nestling away beneath beetling cliffs, seemingly forgotten of the outer world, with streets across which it was possible to shake hands, while the sea with its ceaseless croon lapped their ancient feet.

SIGNALLER OR GUNNER ?

One day an officer came down the ranks on parade and asked us individually what we had been in civil life. According to our answers we were divided into Gunners and Signallers— sheep and goats, though which is which we have not yet discovered. Those chosen for signalling, of whom I was one, were then taken to the Recreation Hall and given a piece of dictation, which incidentally was a test also in handwriting.

Several who, in the soldiers' phrase, had "got the wind up," thinking they were destined for the Suicide Club, deliberately misspelt some of the words, and scrawled what was meant to be an undecipherable hand. This latter required no effort on my part. However, none were rejected, and one fine morning about the end of August eighty of us were mustered, with our kit-bags and odd parcels, to proceed to a Signalling School in -shire. The pipes played us to the station, and when these ceased, voices struck up a favourite ditty of those days :— "Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag, And smile, smile, smile ; While you've a lucifer to light your fag, Smile, boys, that's the style— What's the use of worrying ?

It never was worth while, So, pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag, And smile, smile, smile."

e

t

BACK TO SCHOOL-THE SIGNALLER'S VADE MECUM. So here I was, back to school, and, as it so happened, on the very day that my school in the north was reopening after the summer vacation. But there was this difference—I was no longer a master, but a humble pupil. It was Anstey's Vice Versa in real life, and I was to have the arduous role of Richard Bultitude, Esquire. There came to my mind the " Debater" performance of the dramatized version of the story in the School Hall some twenty years ago. I wonder how many of my readers saw it. Albert Rhind was a charming Dulcie. Richard

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Bultitude pore, pompous and consequential, was played to perfection by "Billy" Minto—that I should allude thus familiarly to a Major in my own branch of the Service !--Edmond Aust was a most dignified schoolmaster; Charles Watt was the bully, while Andrew Wilson and Bruce Butchart were two of the other schoolboys.

It was in truth a school, and all the usual paraphernalia were there—blackboards and easels, chalk and maps, diagrams, besides various science instruments—electro-magnets, cells, wires, discs, prismatic compasses—dear to the "Modern" mind, but to us of the " Classical," caviare.

We began from the foundation with a new alphabet—the Morse—my ninth, I reckoned, and prayed it might be easier than the Russian. Having mastered it in some sort—we began applying it to our various signalling instruments, the buzzer, which is our telegraphic means of communication, the small flag, the disc or shutter—" flapper" is its apt unofficial name—and the various lamps, Begbie, Electric, and Lucas, Semaphore flagging meant another alphabet.

We had to be able to read all these at the recognized Army rates—our commandant, a martinet of a schoolmaster, made us pass two words a minute above the Army rates—we had to send on them, and we received a fairly thorough grounding in electricity and magnetism to prepare us to understand and handle our field telephones with intelligence.

We had a course in map-reading, studying both ordnance and artillery maps. We got up the conventional signs by which railways, rivers, windmills, trees deciduous, trees coniferous, a church, a church with a spire, a church with a tower, are recognizable on half-inch and one-inch maps. Above all, we studied contours. There are men in whom, to their dying day, that blessed word will induce a wan, weary smile.

Then there was despatch-riding, which was certainly a misnomer, reminding me of a capital cartoon in Punch. The picture represents a sailor, grimy and weary with shovelling coals, while underneath are these words : " Bill (who has been persuaded to join the marines on the ground that it was a blend of soldiering and yachting)—' I suppose this is the yachting ! '" Our despatch-riding consisted of trudging the countryside on foot with messages, hunting for Battery this, Battery that, Brigade Headquarters, and so on, though there were interludes of damson-gathering which compensated for much.

Cable-laying was another of the accomplishments we had to acquire, and incidental to that was the mastery of various knots—reef, double-reef, clove-hitch, sheep-shank, fisherman's bend—all anathema to me who had only read of the Gordian knot. The reeling out of cable across country, along hedges and ditches, with aerial crossings which meant climbing trees tci fix up the wire, was an exhilarating prank, in the course of

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which I often, figuratively as well as literally, felt up a tree, and was inclined to harbour there till the tempest underneath of raving N.C.O.'s and distracted telephonists had blown past.

No one could complain of the lack of variety in a Signalling School. We learned to read flags and to wave them, to trace the circuits of the simple buzzer and the D III telephone.

There was Exchange work, and the Fullerphone and Transmitter Vibrator. Physical jerks helped us to digest the Army duff. Altogether it was a crowded course, and it was nothing unusual in the night-time to hear some worried signaller shouting out excitedly as though he were reading the lamp or flag.

EXAMINATIONS. Plato has said in a memorable sentence that the unexamined life is not worth living. Often, in gravely ironic mood, I felt tempted to preface one of our innumerable examination papers with this apt quotation from Greek philosophy. At least it would have moved the sergeant-major to eloquent and picturesque speech, as on the occasion when I tried to sum up the telephonist's duties in vox—et practerea nihil.

Certainly, to see a crowd of schoolmasters—for signalling seemed to rope in most of them—desperately " doing their bit " as examinees, was a sight for their former pupils ! Dick Bultitude was having his revenge. Nor was it merely the scholastic profession that was going through this mill. There were men prematurely grey-haired, prematurely bald, paterfamiliases, solicitors, bankers, clerks, accountants, insurance agents, masters of businesses, journalists, tailors, merchants— all were to be found on that great and notable day of examination, perspiring and uncomfortable, with fingers clutching a pen, darting oblique glances at neighbours whom they thought likely to be helpful; anon, casting all dignity to the winds, cribbing like the veriest schoolboy. For this was where Mr. Bultitude and real life parted company. Anstey's humour makes Mi. Bultitude retain the speech and manners of the elderly business gentleman. Not so in our Signalling School.

It was astonishing how quickly these erstwhile stolid, staid, business and professional men relapsed into the tricks and ways and subterfuges of schoolboyhood. What a rush to get beside a chum, what trepidation before the test, what nervous laughing and affected gaiety—it was all droll beyond words!

One privilege there was accorded, not yet in vogue in the ordinary academies of learning—to smoke; and that did, indeed, seem to pull together some of the nervous wrecks.

The non-smoker was left to suck caramels or butter-scotch.

Before we began our course we had a Preliminary Examination in general knowledge or intelligence. Once more we had a "bittie" of dictation, then a paper of fourteen "sum-

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mies "—not one of those formidable weekly papers which Dr. Macleod used to give us in the "Seventh," but just simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, long division, and reduction, with many of the answers—though not always correct — obligingly written in. At the end of this mathematical "stunt" was a problem—meant for the elect—" given the length of the sides of a right-angled triangle, to find the length of the hypotenuse " ! This last led to much searching of heart among the patresfamiliarum. It sounded like hippopotamus, and seemed equally relevant. A halo of supermanhood encircled me for some time in virtue of having solved that problem.

But the crowning touch of this Preliminary Examination was to write a free composition on "My Native Town." It class and the good old essays. i took me back to Mr. Munson's Off I ran on an eloquent panegyric of the Silver City by the Sea, telling of its big-hatted citizens, and its various names, though what the sergeant-major said about Interamna Borealis I never found out, and hardly like to think. Also I told of that F.P. dinner when Professor Davidson spoke of the view from the Stocket Hill, with the spires gently veiled in mist, as reminding him of the glimpse which Christian had from the Delectable Mountains of the Celestial City. Thus I filled both sides of my paper, while the sergeant-major, who was acting as invigilator, stood by in round-eyed wonder, muttering, y Scotchmen ! " " These b R.G.A. AND SIGNALLING MOTTOES. Each regiment of the British Army has its own peculiar tradition, that which makes up its esprit de corps. That the R.G.A.'s position is something unique, sui generis as it were, may best be illustrated by the story, often quoted among ourselves, of the woman who said she had five sons ; four of them were in the Army and one in the R.G.A. Our regiment, indeed, seems to be cursed with the artistic temperament, varying between flamboyant bravura and utter self-distrust. In the former mood we quote "the R.G.A.—the pride of the British Army, the terror of the world," or sing :— " When we get to Berlin, The Kaiser he will say, 'Hoch, hoch, mein Gott, What a very fine lot Are the boys of the R.G.A.' ! "

In the latter mood we frankly exclaim, " Thank God we have a navy ! " One thing we speedily learned in our school—to double.

Everything had to be done at the double in the artillery, we were told. We doubled on to the parade ground, we doubled off ; we doubled to our meals, we doubled to our classes. It reminded me of desperate sprints in days gone by, across the playfield, in the endeavour to be in time for " Prayers,"

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"Double, double toil and trouble,"

I used to mutter with the witches in Macbeth. I wished, indeed, to substitute that for our fine Latin motto of Ubique quo fas et gloria ducunt, though the translating of this and such like mottoes is the only occasion in my soldier career that I speak as one having authority. Rob me of that function, and my occupation's gone. We might as well stop the War. LAMP-READING.

The story of Aladdin and his wonderful lamp fascinated me as a boy, but the stories I read from the Signalling Lamp Electric were much more wonderful. It was a tantalizing as well as a chilling experience to stand there of an hour, on the bare hillside, with the night wind blowing, trying to decipher the flickering dots and dashes far away. In despair, tinged with irony, I would recall the old familiar words :— "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are !"

THE SERGEANT-MAJOR'S RHETORIC. In that heart-to-heart talk which it soothes me to think I shall one day have with the sergeant-major after the War, I have not yet decided on my peroration, but of my exordium I have long been sure. It is : "Well of English undefiled !"

That he speaks " the tongue that Shakespeare spake" I could . easily prove, but it would be by reference mainly to the talk of Falstaff, and not a Bowdlerized Falstaff at that. The S.-M.'s sanguinariness of speech is not, like the Duchess's in Pygmalion, confined to one occasion ; rather it would, like Macbeth's hand, " the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red." He has figures of speech too, not of deliberate intent—for, like Shakespeare again, the S.-M. is "nature's child "—but simply from the fullness of his heart he has given me some notable instances of euphemism—verbal camouflage, so to speak—which may not be without interest to those of my readers who have heard of Pontus Euxinus, Eumenides, and Homo Trium Literarum, from the Rector and Mr. Middleton.

"My lad," he would say to some delinquent signaller, "you will be sent to the guns, and out to France in a few weeks, and then you'll 'go west.'" Or it might be, "you'll be pushing up the daisies," or—in more utilitarian humour—" you'll be helping to grow spuds."

Of tmesis, too, crude vet spontaneous, he was splendidly capable, though he himself would disclaim the soft impeachment. Readers who remember Quo nos cumque feret fortuna, sequemur, or, " faith to God ward," and the Rector's crashing instance from Ennius : cere comminuit brum, will appreciate lutely" and the S.-M.'s simple yet effective, "abso possible," y " im b

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ON THE WELSH BORDER. -shire is a land of lovely meres, quiet canals, rich vegetation, and picturesque, black-and-white gabled timber houses. Accustomed for long to bleak Buchan, I was for ever marvelling here at the luxuriant growth of fruit and nuts.

The roadsides were strewn with ripe dark damsons. They were too plentiful for the market. In the streets of a Welsh town I have seen children pelting each other with the luscious fruit that Aberdeen folks would have given money to buy.

The first Saturday afternoon that I got out of camp, walking along the country road and rejoicing in my freedom, I noticed the damson trees bending with their laden branches over the roadway. There seemed something strangely familiar in the sight, and then I remembered a picture that used to charm me in my old Pilgrim's Progress. It was an incident in Part II, Christian's children reaching up to some clustering grapes that were hanging over the roadway, just like these damsons. After all, it was just this England that Bunyan knew and wrote about in his allegory.

It was the England, too, of Chaucer and Shakespeare, and of the novels of Scott and G. P. R. James. I continually felt that. Here the "gangrel" life was well supplied with the means of subsistence. As a boy, dreaming of that vagabond life, I had had misgivings, reared in the north, as to where the alleged hips and haws of the hedges were to be got. Here nature dispensed them with lavish hand. I had almost a sense of that golden age which Ovid wrote of, when everything grew of its own accord, and fruits abounded.

Many a rare ploy had we grown men, when out mapreading or despatch-riding, shaking the richly laden trees in autumn, and catching the mellow fruit in our caps and palms, or even clambering up into the branches. Sentinels would be posted to give us timely warning of the approach of the dreaded sergeant, though, on occasion, even that ogre has been known to succumb—and, after all, we were in Wales- -to the "rare and refreshing fruit " !

Nor shall I easily forget an afternoon that I spent in company with a paterfamilias gathering walnuts. We beguiled the time lamenting the scanty fare we got in camp, and my companion sought and won my sympathy, as he told how he, the father of four children, had got C.B. for three days recently, because he had been caught munching an apple in class ! His apologia was ingenuous in the extreme, and some of my young readers may wish to try it—he did not think, he said to the officer, that his eating of an apple during the lecture was hindering him from attending to his work !

But, to come back to our nuts, we poked about with sticks in the thickly fallen leaves beneath the silver-boled tree, and

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every time we found a great shaggy-haired nut it was as though we had found a nugget of gold. I remember my surprise at finding that the walnut of the shop window was merely a kernel, encased in the big rough husk. But threats of police finally made paterfamilias and myself beat an ignominious retreat.

THE RUSSIAN GADFLY. Ino was not pursued more relentlessly by that gadfly than I am by the Russian language. Frankly, among my baser motives for joining the Army was this—that I might not have to spend another winter studying that dreadful language.

The Revolution in Russia, I may say, did not surprise me.

Nothing that the people do who speak such a language will ever surprise me. They deserve rather our pity. I doubt if they understand each other.

What then was my consternation on reaching my hut in Wales, to espy on our corporal's shelf—he, too, was afflicted with the gift of tongues—the very Russian book of which I had left my copy in the far North. This was Polycrates' ring with a vengeance. " Hast thou found me, 0 mine enemy," I murmured, and for seven days maintained a stony silence.

Then, just as the moth is drawn to the candle flame, I let drop a remark which betrayed me. The corporal, till then detached and preoccupied with his polyglot enthusiasm, graciously unbent and chatted with me on the speech of the Slavs, ending up by offering me a Russian dictionary to amuse—that was his very word—my leisure hours ! "This was the most unkindest cut of all."

READING-FREEDOM FROM STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE A CONDITION OF ART. Consecutive reading is, indeed, difficult in our gregarious hut-life. The life itself is so unsettled and unsettling. That " wise passiveness," which is the ideal reading state is almost impossible. Standing of a morning, capped and coated, ready for parade, I may snatch a golden lyric from the Treasury, but that is all.

Even so one may start a line of thought, as thus. In the rough weather, when to hold on to life seems all we are capable of, a truth is borne in upon my mind with freshness—though, after all, it may be but a platitude—that for art and all the creative work of art and literature, a certain degree of sheer physical warmth, of positive sunshine, a certain easing off from the bare rock of mere existence, is necessary. This is not to deny what Lord Rosebery has claimed in regard to Burns, that in a luxurious environment his poetic gift would have dried up. Burns's genius expanded in the large, leisured moods which are incident to the bucolic and pastoral life.

Such were the sunny days when he composed "To a Daisy,"

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" To a Mouse," and, most notably, " Tam o' Shanter." It is all a question of richness of emotional power. Worldly wealth need not enter in as a condition at all. The flow of soul, whether spontaneous or artificially engendered by John Barleycorn—that is all that must be postulated.

Gray seemed both to confirm and contradict me. In the " Elegy " I found :— "Chin penury repress'd their noble rage, And froze the genial current of the soul."

But in " The Progress of Poesy" he makes it one of his main points that the Muse has flourished in every clime, arctic as well as torrid, no less than the warm Mediterranean lands :--" In climes beyond the solar road Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam, The Muse has broke the twilight gloom To cheer the shivering native's dull abode."

Gray, of course, is thinking of those Norse and Icelandic sagas in which he was so deeply versed. But the inconsistency is. after all, only superficial. It was at the festal board, just when life was at its rosiest, when wassail and mead abounded, that the Skalds expanded in song. It was in such mellow mood that Snorro Sturlasson would write of Harold Hardrada, just as it was in such mood Burns wrote many of his finest poems.

But when the winter sky froze, Snorro had doubtless to concentrate all his physical heat on nursing the vital spark. On those days the Muse would call in vain. Anyhow I have still to be shown the literature of the Eskimos.

BRUTUS. The character of Brutus, as depicted by Shakespeare, draws me much in this soldier life.

"0 that a man might know The end of this day's business ere it come !

But it sufficeth that the day will end, And then the end is known."

Haunting words, but what an undertone of melancholy ! This is not the mood in which St. Crispin Days are fought. The man was so temperamentally out of it. His pace is so leisured, academic almost; his language and mood so philosophic and quiet, in striking contrast to the nervous energy of fretful, febrile Cassius.

More and more I incline to agree with Mr. Frank Harris that when we find Shakespeare repeating a certain type of character in play after play, we may take it that the mood which created that type is native to the man Shakespeare himself, is part of his own inner nature. That type, which I may call the Il Penseroso type, and which finds its apotheosis in Hamlet, is met in Brutus, Jacques, and even Macbeth. This last I apprehended suddenly one evening in Banff, when I saw the Benson Company perform the play. The cramped stage made the thane sit down time and again, to indulge in his

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monologues. "Why, this is just Hamlet," I said to myself, " and no man of action at all." In Brutus, however, the kinship to Hamlet, and therewith to the dramatist himself, is obvious to all. The garb is the garb of a Stoic Roman, but the voice is the voice of Penseroso Shakespeare.

THE PHILANTHROPIC ARMY. My last word shall be to sound the praises of ow philanthropic Army. It clothes us and feeds us ; it gives us free tours to all sorts of delightful and out-of-the-way places. It looks after our health and welfare with a solicitude more than maternal. It tells us when to wear our greatcoats and when not ; and if we disobey, it speaks to us by the voice of the sergeant-major "more in sorrow than in anger." It insists on our being in our quarters at half-past nine every evening, and in bed by a quarter-past ten ; even then, knowing that some of us in our enthusiasm to follow the circuits of the D III would sit up late, the Army benevolently switches off the electric light and we are left lamenting. It wakens us with music in the morning, and alludes to the incident by a French name, Reveille. To make sure we shall not miss the music, it sends round a sergeant specially to call our attention, and this man never leaves us till an animated discussion on the dulcet harmonies has been opened. It sends three men to examine our personal appearance every day, and each of these is free to suggest improvements, or alterations in our looks and attire.

It is not the Army's fault that we are not Beau Brummels. In hair the Army is the dernier mot, and for me Othello's " hairbreadth scapes" have assumed a richer, fuller meaning. I have had my hair cut oftener by the Army in six months— gratis, too—than it has been cut in all my previous life.

Whether they claim to be chiropodists as well I do not know, but they are trichologists par excellence. They suffer us to lack nothing—goggles for our eyes, a "hedge of teeth "—we may have them all for the asking. At mealtime a full commissioned officer, attended by a sergeant, comes round our huts to ask : "Any complaints." Thereupon we mention if the bacon is a little too salty, or the tea hardly sweet enough, in the full confidence our grievances will be redressed. Our course in domestic economy—washing of plates and basins, sweeping and scrubbing of floors, lighting of fires, washing bed boards—would rival that of Atholl Crescent, and again we get this training gratis, and " in our own time."

And what shall I say more ? I look at my left sleeve, where I have set the pair of " flaggies" the Army has given me, alleging I am " a first-class signaller and telephonist "—a specialist, forsooth—and I murmur with Horace: militavi non sine gloria.

TERTIARY JOHN.

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Since I left School.

It would be impossible to refuse the Editor's request for "something for the February Magazine." In the first place I have such a tender recollection of the position which he now holds and of its difficulties and perplexities ; and in the second place, there are few things to which I look back with more unmingled happiness than to the time when, as boys at the School, he was Business Manager and I Editor of this Magazine and, subsequently, of Alma Mater. It was a strange partnership which, amongst our colleagues, we carried on : our gifts, temperaments, tastes, and attitudes were often entirely opposed. Yet I recall with intense satisfaction not only that we secured commercial success, but that the combination of our personalities was always harmonious, and productive on both sides of an abiding regard.

I hardly know what to say : my literary days are over— unless I have a spasm sometime and write something round the old School as I knew it. The joys of botanical excursions to the Bay of Nigg, the excitement of the approaching "Comp.," the "Debater" and its incomparable Finales—in which I remember once wooing, as a middle-aged tradesman, my ministerial colleague, D. Bruce Nicol ; the great days of Moir and his "vairshuns," the letters and visits to Old Boys to get their reminiscences for the Mag., the coming of dear old " Cxsar"— all these and a thousand other things crowd my mind the moment that I attempt to discover a theme. Life produces many corrections and some regrets. With me one thing stands out clear--the wisdom of having entered and enjoyed the life of the School. I never did very much in the classes -not nearly as much as I should have done—but one certain fact is that I did not do too much in the common life of the place, and that the work of the "Debater," the Library, and the Magazine laid the foundation not only of fluent speech and decent composition, but of that knowledge of men and ability to work with them which is one of the first things the world demands. That there is a duty to the strictly educational side, a peril, of which we were reminded, of " obtaining your fathers' money on false pretences and possibly perishing on the gallows" (I decline to give the source of the quotation), I readily admit. Education is not complete, school has not done its work on a boy, and he goes out to the world an ignoramus in the science of living, unless he throws himself into its life. Most of this Magazine nowadays seems to be for us Old Boys. I appreciate that fact, though when I see the " cuts" for "School Notes" and other things that Watt and I introduced (out of profits), I think tenderly of the reams of stuff that used to amuse the Lower School in my day. Yet I would

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give this tip to the fellows who are leading the life of the School now—soak yourselves in it, drink in the tradition, come out into the arena convinced, as some of us are, that you were at the best School on earth and that it did all for you that it could do. The School won't do all it can for any boy who does not thoroughly and unselfishly enter its life. I had a dim kind of feeling to that effect when I was under its roof. I know now that I was right.

I feel like a very old "codger" : this strain is the privilege of dotards. No man ought to write his reminiscences until he has decided to accumulate no more. Yet who that knew it can ever forget the smell of the shark on the top corridor, or the intense delight of ink-pellets on a plum-pudding set as a seasonable Christmas copy ? I visited the School for the first time for nine years just a few months ago, sat on the table in the new Masters' Room, and renewed happy fellowships with the staff—some old teachers, one at least an old fellow-victim.

What do I not owe these men ? Your debt will never appear until you also greet them as equals and are able to look back on the School as a man remembers the mother who bore him and to whom his very life is traced.

Perhaps my having got old—and prosy—is the result of a varied career. From Aberdeen I went to Bradford. It's a dirty, woolly, busy, and somewhat slummy place. In the slums I lived—over a fried-fish shop and opposite a pub. A tiny mission room was my " parish "—and it was "some" parish. There seemed always somebody in jail for beating his wife or about to join the army because life had become unbearable. In the College they tried to teach me—without the least success save for my old friend Dr. Duff, a native of Fraserburgh, who gave me the only theology I have had—or needed. For the rest I stuck to my "parish," preached on Sunday nights, ran a B.B. Company of over 130 lads and had the time of my life. In those days I kept my touch with Aberdeen fairly well, and the contrast oh, the contrast !-of the squalid centre with the Silver City.

Thence to the ministry of a working-class Church in a town hard by. Mines, railways, and, above all, woollen mills, the problems of industry on which a parson was expected to have intelligent views, another big B.B. Company—developing into a Battalion of which I found myself (gather strength, those who once knew me !) C.O.—formed the second chapter. I went through their mills and saw every process, explored the cabins and works of their railways and heard the voice of the man who was expected to support a wife and children on 16s. 10d. a week. I descended their mines and did a bit of work coal-getting at the face. Above all, I joined their workingmen's club and would play billiards and smoke there with them.

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I think I can claim to know something of the working-man and his point of view.

The next move was across to Lancashire, to a seaside suburb of Manchester, and to the other extreme of the industrial world. The cotton magnates, business statesmen, millowners, and merchants of Liverpool, Manchester, Blackburn, Burnley, and half a dozen towns made up the congregation.

Amongst them was Sir C. W. Macara, Bart., the founder of the International Federation of Cotton Associations, the "smasher" of the American cotton ring, and the originator of " Lifeboat Saturday" and the Industrial Council. Decorated by nearly every country in Europe—except his own—received by monarchs and statesmen, the head of a historic business house, this man was a proof of what a Scots boy, fresh from his father's manse, without money or influence, can do in the world by sheer grit and determination. His anecdotes of the King of Spain, Lord Kitchener, his relative Sir Henry CanybellBannerman, and a host of other "great ones" were those of a man who had met and worked with all these people as a matter of daily routine, and the services of Sir Charles Macara to international movements as well as to British industry have never received--save abroad--the recognition they deserve.

And now to London. The great old church of which Dr. Guinness Rogers—the friend of Gladstone and himself the G.O.M. of English Nonconformity--was minister for thirty-five years is re-forming its life and outlook. A fine broad atmosphere, which has no room for the religion that offers a gospel it can't explain to a man who doesn't exist, is round me, and I have come from the river to the ocean in which I can find space and scope. Round the corner, if I go now, I am sure to find John Burns promenading his front lawn. I.ast week I had a committee meeting where some of the most interesting men in all branches of the Church (that's the only way to talk of " denominations") from the Dean of St. Paul's to Dr. Estlin Carpenter, discussed the chances of doing something really effective to finish this ghastly war which is dying all too hard.

About a year ago I met Bernard Shaw who, of course, pretended that he had heard of my fame for years and was consumed by one wish only--to meet me before he died. One night I was left for some twenty minutes to entertain Herbert Samuel, who impressed me as one of the most modest and effective men I ever met. R. J. Campbell I encountered in my Yorkshire days and have valued ever since, though I see him but rarely now. Edward Carpenter I took tea with in a doctor's house-an Aberdonian, by the way--only a few weeks ago. This is the wonder of London—its life, varied, intense, and constant.

One travels in the tube with H. B. Irving, sees a taxi in the Strand groaning under the weight of G. K. Chesterton, and

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finds Asquith in the next row at the theatre, perhaps. Things that are done and the people that do them seem to gravitate here, and occasionally one touches them. It is " living on the top of the fullness of life."

I don't say that with the least thought of impressing anybody. There are scores and hundreds of fellows who have had far more eventful, interesting, and brilliant careers than I. The Christian ministry is not the place for the man who wants to "get on in the world." It has suffered too much already at his hands. Mine is therefore a very ordinary, hum-drum, and average story since I left the north and ceased the daily walk up and down Craigie Loanings with "Norrie" Munro, or the evening hour with Moir—blind and broken, yet tenderly loved by none more than those who knew him best—in which I was invited to correct my own "vairshun" and give myself full marks because, of late, I had been " a nice boy."

I tell the story because I know that anything I have done in the world for good, and anything I am ever likely to do, has its roots deep down in the School, in a tradition and atmosphere to which I can never be sufficiently grateful, and a wise and careful training which was not only intellectual but moral and spiritual too. When I write that book of which I have spoken, I shall perhaps repeat some of the things Moir said to me.

Some know how well I knew him in my boyhood : no one ever knew—he least of all—how thoroughly I honoured him and, through all and under all, saw the great scholar, the affectionate friend, the real and might-have-been man. In evenings in the lamp-light, on holiday at Torphins—once especially, when he was going to Bridge of Gairn, where I was to have joined him later, just before his death—he would talk. It was wonderful : I recall and use still some of his renderings of the Greek Testament, and I shall never cease to pray for his soul as having now at last overcome "this body of death" and reached the fullness of its stature—and that was very full. When I write that book also I shall not forget the others who are no longer at the School.

There is Pope, who thrashed us all so often and so gently for the insults put on his coat-tails, and the things which "annoyed, perplexed, worried, tormented," and generally "roused" him. There is Brownie, who thrashed us all so seldom and so thoroughly, and who taught as one having authority—as indeed he had. By the way, I have it against his memory that he stood on a chair to thrash me, in order to equalize disparity in height. He could impart knowledge as few men could.

Peace to them all, as to those who, filling small places, did great things for a generation risen up to call them blessed and to love the remembrance of them.

Of the present staff I say nothing. It is not from lack of will but from fear of unseemliness. Their reward is greater

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than they know—vaster than they dream. It is from henceforth that every lad, coming to the new birth of mind, will know what they do for him now. It would be difficult in any school to collect a staff more thoroughly powerful and affectionately wise than those whom I re-visited only a few weeks ago.

Ordinary as our courses through the world may be, it is yet the great task of educators to make the most of the average life. Given brilliance, little is needed to bring it to full brightness. But the work of life is not all done by brilliant boys.

As often as not one looks back and marvels to find how the genius has belied his early promise. It is the average mind well trained and surely..disciplined that is to supply the hope of the nation and of the earth. It is in its power so to train and discipline it that the glory of the old School resides—no less than in its ability to win the ribbons, blue and otherwise, of the educational turfs.

That power must abide. It is manifest now : it must so remain. In two visits to Canada I met Grammar boys here, there, and everywhere. Young Merrylees and Scroggie endured the ordeal of a sermon from me in Windsor, Ontario, and came to spend the rest of the evening with me ; Bob Fleming was at my wedding ; others I struck everywhere—" making good" every one of them. The air of the old place was round them, the touch of the old tradition on them, the fire of the good Scottish adventurer within them. It is a small thing to do a day's work : it is an impossible thing to decide its extent.

It's a rambling and confused story that I have penned— laying me open to the accusations, so ancient now as to be almost precious, of cheek, conceit, and dogmatic utterance ; but it is simply the voice of an ordinary man of to-day to the ordinary men who helped to make him and the ordinary men they are still helping to make. It says "Sursum col da" : it affirms that the thing they do abides ; above all it sends north the fervent and repeated prayer :— Vivat, crescat, floreat Schola Grammatica A berdonensis.

G. STANLEY RUSSELL. 4, THE CHASE, CLAPHAM COMMON, S.W., 28th January, 1918.

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Torpedoed !

[It was announced by the Admiralty at the end of January that the transport Aragon had been torpedoed and sunk in the Eastern Mediterranean on 3oth December. In the following letter a member of the F. P. Club, who was on board the transport, gives a graphic description of the experience he passed through.-Ed., A.G.S. Mag.] " I was playing bridge in the upper smoking-room, which is on a level with the boat deck, when the explosion took place.

We all realized what had happened and rushed off to our appointed stations. I had to go down three flights of stairs to the aft well deck, then up one to the poop deck. The men were going up to their stations as we were going down. One or two who had been wounded passed me, one having his face streaming with blood. We could see as we were going down that the explosion had taken place opposite the well deck.

One boat was hanging from the davits in pieces, and several dead were lying on deck, and the water was washing over it. " We—the unattached officers—assembled on the poop and the roll was called. The boats began to go off with the women and the ship's crews, who left first. We had no provision made for us, no boat or even a raft ; but Providence watched over us, for every officer on the poop was saved. We did not know what to do, so watched the boats go off and cheered the nurses, who behaved very pluckily. We saw all the men off our deck, and then it was evident the ship was going down by the stern—the water began to come in on us. I can't swim a stroke, as you know, and did not know how my lifebelt would behave, so I was nervous of trusting myself to the water.

However it had to be, so I walked into the water and tried to kick off. I had some difficulty in getting clear of the ship : I always seemed to come back on it. At first I thought I was going down, and struggled, which did not help me. Then I let myself go, and I found the belt held me up beautifully : I was just chin above the water. The waves bobbed me up and down and I really felt comfortable. It was a lovely, sunny day, with very little movement in the water. Two trawlers were in sight and made towards us on hearing the explosion.

As I lay in the water, I saw the old ship go down. Her bows rose high out of the water, then she slipped down into the sea.

There were some muffled explosions, flames danced on the water not far from me, and that was the end of our good old vessel. Meantime the trawlers had got up and were picking people off the boats and out of the sea. Boats unloaded on the trawlers and went back for more. The sea was covered with people on boats and rafts, and others like me with a life-

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belt only. I ought to say that before the ship went down a destroyer came close alongside and took hundreds off the decks, until I could see her black with people. We on the poop thought at one time we could get on her and started to get back, but found the well deck too full of water. It was impossible, and just as well. The interval between the explosion and the final disappearance of our boat was not more than sixteen minutes. As I bobbed about on the waves, taking occasional mouthfuls of salt water, I was thinking what I ought to do. Boats came near but paid no attention to me, and I had little power of shifting my position by my own will. Two men came near me with a plank under their arms, and I tried to make for that, but the waves always seemed to remove it from my reach. A boat came near full of men who were all mad evidently, they were yelling and cursing. The men on one side were rowing and those on the other side were sometimes backing and sometimes rowing. I shouted to them in hopes they would come over to me, but they paid no attention. At last they, by chance, put the blade of an oar within my reach—I grabbed it and then pulled myself hand over hand up it towards the boat and, seizing the side, managed to scramble on board. I was pretty fagged out then. I think I was in the water twenty minutes or so, but it is impossible to say. " My troubles were not ended even in the boat, though my position was much improved. The men seemed distracted.

I tried to get them to row, but they shouted and quarrelled and it was a bedlam. One man stripped to the skin and jumped over. We were full of men and the boat was evidently going down by the stern. Water was coming in. Meantime they had contrived to lose all the oars on one side and we seemed helpless. At last a wave brought an oar up to our side. I got a man to seize it and hand it to me. I got it in the rowlock and shouted to the man on the opposite side to row. I saw a trawler about thirty yards away in front. I pulled and he backed me and we got up to the trawler. Then we managed to get on board easily. There was a tremendous crowd on the trawler. We were as thick as we could stand on deck. The bridge was full of nurses. I was scarcely well on board and thought I was at last safe, when there was a terrific explosion.

We looked at the destroyer and saw she was just hit on the same place as we had been. I thought we would be the next victim and most of us were of the same opinion. I inwardly blessed the skipper when he said full speed ahead, and off we set for land. " The destroyer seemed to buckle a little when she was struck. Her stern and bows both went up slightly, but she looked very steady and we thought she might hold together.

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It was a terrible episode, as she was full of people. I hakre spoken to several who were on board and they say the rescued people were sent below. Some, thinking they were safe, took off their lifebelts. The greatest loss of life took place here.

As we plugged steadily away from the disaster we could see the destroyer turn sideways on, showing us the full surface of her deck, then the bows rose high, she turned completely round, and then slid into the water. As we went along we passed several more trawlers going to the rescue and a monitor. We were all feeling elate with joy at having escaped a great danger and cheered them as they passed. When I jumped on the quay a naval officer spoke to me and said if I came on his boat he would give me a hot bath and dry my clothes. He collected about a dozen others, put us in a row boat, and rowed across the harbour to his destroyer. I was shivering then from my wet clothes, and was very glad of the chance.

We stripped and got in the hot water. The same water had to do for us all, but luckily I was first. Then we were wrapped up in blankets and sat drinking whisky till our clothes dried.

It took an unconscionable time and was not much use. It was dark when I got on the quay again. I lost everything I was possessed of, but was fortunate to escape alive. I did not feel it so badly that day, but next day I was seedy and am now feeling very jumpy and depressed. I could not get on without my kit. I was very uncomfortable and could not sleep the first night. I saw the ship go down a score of times. Whenever I shut my eyes I felt the waves swinging me about, so after two nights I was allowed to sleep in a hotel. I have been busy buying new kit, which is a horrid business. All my old possessions are gone—my old razor I used for twenty years and my Sam Browne belt (I am now wearing a new horror). I had on my slacks and my better tunic with, luckily, all my money in the pockets. I have ordered clothes but will have to wait a week for them. The bank notes in my note-case stuck together and had to be taken out with the point of a knife by the bank clerk. " The morning after, some of us were taken down in an ambulance wagon to get money and then to order outfit. There were some queer figures. The man whose tent I was put in lent me trews and a tunic of drill, as my things were not dry.

He is well over six feet, so the garments were hanging in wrinkles all down my legs. There is a good deal more I could say about the disaster, but it might be objected to, so I had better leave it as it is."

•

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Further Letters from East Africa.

Since the issue of the Magazine in June of last year a large budget of letters has come from our I.M.S. Captain who was on the hospital ship working up and down the East Coast of Africa. As he explains, his labours have been transferred, for a time at least, from sea to land :— GERMAN EAST AFRICA,

Wednesday, 23rd May, 1917.

I have arrived and got settled down, for the time being at least, however long that may be. However, I'd better begin at the beginning of time and travel up from Kisiwani. I wonder if you have got my previous letters telling you that we were going ashore. This will be rather a surprise if you haven't.

We are said to be on a month's duty ashore, but when the month will actually end is very doubtful.

We lett the ship on Saturday afternoon and got bumped along to Kilwa Kivindje in a car. We spent the night there and made our arrangements next day, fixing up a place in the trolley for Monday morning. We were put up in the hospital at Kivindje till Monday morning, when we collected our gear and boys and trundled off to the "dump" some way out of Kilwa, where the trolley passes. After a pleasing wait of about three hours, the first trolley clattered in, followed by others, and all loaded up full. Each consists of a tractor—a rather primitive-looking little motor—and one or two small trucks drawn by it. We got our stuff piled on somehow.

Then the little convoy started off and at once the car I was on went off the rails, stopping all those behind. That was easily rectified, boys coming up and simply lifting it on again, and the caravan proceeded. Another half mile or so and stop again, the car in front having reported sick—one of its trucks had broken down, so it was unloaded, lifted off the rails and replaced by a healthy one. I asked the Eurasian gentleman who was driving if the thing ever capsized altogether, and he said in the pleasant, airy manner of his kind: "Aw Naw, unless it is crossing a bridge" I I sat in front and watched the rails —more like wires they were, bulging and sinking as we came on. It was just hardening up after the rains, when it was one continuous swamp from start to finish, but the black cottonsoil is most unsuitable for a track. We took from 9.30 till 2.30 to do 17 odd miles, going through elephant grass ten to twenty feet high, and scrubby bush the whole way.

At the end of the track we found native carriers growing at the roadside, so we press-ganged a dozen and loaded them up with our packages, which must each be approximately a 50 lb. load (a " porter load"). The hospital was quite near and_the

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I.M.S.- man in charge was expecting us. We had to start at 6 next morning with the convoy, so we turned in early, after arranging for six carriers each. Next morning my boy Esau (no relation to the hairy one, except his love for mealie-meal porridge) tied up my bed and we swallowed some bad tea in the dawn, and started off. Half a dozen Pathans went in front as an escort, then my collection, and I kept a keen eye on them in case they dropped out ; then a straggling crowd of 300 odd carriers, each with his 50 lb. load on his head. It was pleasant tramping along in the early morning. The road, such as it is, is hardening up now, but shows how bad it must have been in the rain, when men were marching always ankle deep, sometimes knee deep, in mud and water. The corduroy bits of road were still difficult, the logs irregularly sunk into the now hardened soil. I beguiled the time smoking and making Esau name things in Swahili, including my trousers, a fact I was thankful for later on when I was vainly hunting for a change of these garments. Then I had a talk with the escort, where I was at least more at home, and I thought of my first inarticulate days in India. Then I talked to myself in English, wondering at the average Britisher's insular impudence in making sport of the Baboo's high-flown English. As we neared Rumbo the convoy halted, and we sat watching one of our aeroplanes from Kilwa flying over and then dropping a few bombs on the German camp. A few dull explosions, and it flew back again to breakfast at Kilwa, 26 miles off. The German camp is only about two miles away, and there are occasional bouts of firing between us almost daily. The camp consists of bandas, i.e., the native huts of bamboo and grass bound together with bark strips. They are very comfortable to live in, much cooler than tents. Everything here is natural, bamboos, branches and grass bound into tables, seats, mats, benches. They do it quickly too. The men put up a banda in a few hours yesterday. The floor is earth, so I have no scruple in throwing tobacco ash, etc., an it, a habit that may stick to me when I'm in your drawing-room, unless you remind me.

6th June, 1917.

There is very little news to give you from this spot. I label the envelope " On Active Service," but the activity is not marked. There are three of us now in our little mess : another man joined us the other day. They built a house for him yesterday, starting it at 6 a.m. and finishing before tea. It is a bit green and raw-looking yet, but in a week or ten days it should be dry and ripe. Mine is well cooked by now. It has stopped dropping caterpillars on my head: a fresh banda always does that for a bit, till the roof and walls die. Certainly I'm not neglected altogether. I have a pet rat in the thatch,

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and sundry visitors from fowls down to locusts, and ants come in at the door and other openings when they think they want to.

The other afternoon the aeroplane came along and came very low down. We thought she had some engine trouble and was trying to land (an impossibility here almost). However she dropped a package, which I rashly hoped might be for me, as one of the airmen is a frequent visitor on the ship. However no such luck. It was only some cigarettes for a Gold Coast officer. It is no easy matter dropping things accurately from an aeroplane going at 60-70 miles, and say a mile up, on what, to it, is practically only a relief map. They say the German blacks are horribly scared by the " tin bird" dropping bombs on them : they scuttle right and left into the bush whenever they sight it coming.

I always want to say all manner of things beginning with " I wonder "—but it is too futile asking questions. I'm just hoping for letters soon. I hope you get these of mine sometime.

Now it is the heavy hour of 3 p.m. so I'll stop meantime.

9th June, 1917.

This is a horribly monotonous existence. In a sense we are more out of things than at sea. There we go from place to place getting different people on board from all over the country.

Here we are almost like a little convict settlement. We always know the date (from notes, etc.) but never the day of the week.

To-day I've been running about a lot with loaded hypodermic syringes, etc., from one banda to another. We have been bothered a lot recently with long, endless "safaris" of ants. That is a procession of any living thing on the march.

This particular one has started somewhere in the jungle and came through the camp, unfortunately going through our isolation bandas, not adding to the comfort of the niggers therein. We made several fires this afternoon at different points on them, but I see the twisting line is still going on in the extraordinarily tireless, methodical way of the ant. There is a line of stationary ants at each side, and between them the moving ants go along in opposite directions (why, I can't think). They throw out side flanking parties too, and at intervals is a huge writhing mass of solid ant. If you tramp on the line or break it with your stick, there is a sudden confusion till the orderly line is restored again.

Last night two rats (possibly more) were having a good time in my banda after I got to bed. They climbed up the walls of my mosquito net and then proceeded to scuttle about on the sheet that formed the roof of it. I had to bang the top

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several times to bump them off. Eventually either they settled down or I did, or both.

Now I must stop. I'm longing to hear the latest news of you all. Sometimes I hate the tropics with a bitter hatred.

Often, like everybody else, I wish I might never see a black skin again in my life. However that does not do much good and there are advantages and disadvantages everywhere.

Sunday, rst July, 1917.

I'm resting to-day after my unaccustomed exertions the last two days. We got sudden orders late on Thursday night to move at six next morning, so I hastily got ready. The whole camp did not go, but there was a good crowd of us. I got up at four next morning and got a few things together, and the section ready, and by six we were ready, joined the others and started off, a long thin line of us filing along the little track.

It was delightful then, in the early morning, the sun just rising over the trees in the east and the night sky changing colour.

It was distinctly chilly ; the first bit of the march was very pleasant, but after our first stop at nine for breakfast it got very warm when we went on again. . . . I feel much fitter after the exercise than I've done for a long time, not only physically but mentally. Sitting here in Rumbo week after week, my brain and thinking powers were steadily being boxed up more and more. The past two days marching through open country (it was far from open really) I seemed to expand and blossom out again. I could think and reason and follow out cause and effect in a way I could never do here. I felt myself getting blown free of cobwebs, and the weight of this monotonous existence being lifted off. I suppose the great expanses of wooded country did that for me.

I had memories roused to life of long summer holiday walks on Speyside and Deeside. Time after time I felt like that ; they say that a man dying of thirst dreams himself to madness, visualizing and hearing running streams. Well, I was not dying of thirst ; I had my water bottle on me, but sometimes trying to go as long as possible without a pull at it, I began thinking of that big hill beside Dufftown (I've forgotten the name), and I could hear the sound of the little brooks rushing down it absolutely realistically. The actual sight of it in this country would be like a miracle. Water is the great trouble everywhere now. During the rains it was the great trouble by being everywhere.

Saturday Evening, r.rth August, 1917.

This sheet [foolscap] reminds me of examinations, except that I could put down a good deal less now on certain subjects

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that I used to cover such sheets with, and a good deal more on others that did not figure in the question papers—and we'll leave it an open question whether it is gain or loss. The days are long here sometimes ; there is really not much to do.

It is horribly difficult to get things here. It's easy enough to order them from Zanzibar, but it's a question whether they will ever reach you safely and entire. I am going to send my boots to-morrow to Kilwa to see if I can get them soled. There is a small animal in this delightful country called a "chigger."

He belongs to the flea fraternity and his special home is the human toe, just at the junction of nail and skin. You get a feeling, half tickling, half pain, in some toe and when you look there is a small white blister with a black spot in the centre.

If you are wise you take your toe and its guest, not to yourself or a doctor, but to your own African boy. They are experts at getting the intruder out whole. If you do it yourself you will almost certainly burst it and scatter the eggs. I've seen some taken out the size of a small split pea. Since coming here I've had five in my toes, and as the boots I refer to have the holes left by ancient nails, I rather suspect members of the chigger clan are harbouring in these caves waiting for my feet.

If they are not properly taken out they may give very nasty sores. Oh, it's a fascinating country this for the zoologist and entomologist, and the beasts in question are not at all shy.

As they say: " It will give me great pleasure to answer questions from those wishing to investigate the subject more fully."

Yesterday afternoon the Post Commandant here, and I, went over to the Matanda River, about seven miles away.

We went in two old Ford cars which are used to bring our water from the river. We took two rifles, a revolver, and a Mill's bomb as a sort of afterthought in case we wanted to blow up some fish or shatter a crocodile. However we saw nothing, except a few kingfishers, guinea fowl, and parrots. Plenty of hoof marks of buck, eland, and panther or something of that sort. It must be a fine sight at night though when the game come down to drink. We finished up by heaving an empty kerosene tin into the river and potting at it with the revolver until it sank, just to give us some satisfying feeling of destruction before going home.

•

13th .4ugust, 1917.

I've been in a tidying-up mood to-day and in some ways I wish I hadn't, for I seem to have roused about half the minor fauna of tropical Africa about my ears. I started off with the office part of my mansion, piling up ancient telegrams and letters ranging from the beginning of time to the present day.

So far as I can make out I ought to get something like £7

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sterling for the paper if I were at home. My official conscience forbade me to throw them away, so I put them metaphorically on the top shelf (I've got no shelves really). Then I turned over the old picture papers and newspapers that cover my so-called office table, and of course spent about an hour gazing at the pictures of stage goddesses portrayed thereon, strange memories of a past life—Pavlova and others that I had seen in the Middle Ages, apparently still alive. Having torn myself from that and pinned them down again, clean side up, on their bed of grass and sacking, I dislodged a box which, lying on its side, makes a receptacle for papers and books, and in doing so roused from torpor to active life sundry forms of life which I could wish were still torpid. I slew as many of these as time allowed, but I can still see some running about at large and I'm wondering what their attitude towards me is now.

Having produced rather a nice effect on my escritoire, I next turned my attention to a tent behind my banda. This serves as a store room for about a dozen boxes, a happy hunting ground for the chickens, and a bathroom for myself on the occasions when I deem it desirable to have a bath. First I " redd up" some boxes of medical comforts, mostly pyjamas, with some inferior tooth-brushes and two safety razors (valued I should think at about 1111 each). They would undoubtedly be safe; I think I'll reserve them for the use of insane patients.

I packed the pyjamas away ; some of them were really quite chaste, while others also ran. I dug out from beneath them a case of "O.K." cigarettes in a condition of semi-decomposition.

They were not too far gone however, so I gave them out to the African stretcher bearers, whose powers of assimilation are rather like those of the ostrich : they are no doubt calling on their gods to bless me now. Next my attention was riveted by what looked remarkably like a chop box. It does not require long experience here to diagnose a chop box at first sight, so I opened it and found tins of tongue, butter, sausages, paste, salmon, etc. Then I remembered I had been told that some officer, invalided to India, had left it here, thinking that if he returned he might recover it. I don't know whether he was invalided for mental trouble. Anyhow he went in the distant past, and so far no one has claimed it. Now, we can't get chop here for love or money, so I sat down and worked out the Golden Rule with mathematical exactness, and finally concluded that if I had been the proprietor of that chop box, and were returning here from India, I certainly should not leave Bombay with nothing more nourishing than hopes of finding that box intact. So I made out a list of its contents, and I propose transferring them to my own chop box when I'm sent on trek again, leaving my name and address (if any) and an I.O.U. for the indignant owner, should he ever return.

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Well, the place is a bit tidier now, but I've still got an uncomfortable feeling of impending disaster : so many things are going about at large, and to add to my comfort W. told me a little ago that just as he was going to put his helmet on, an enormous tarantula dropped out, so I'm rather in the 'condition of the farmer who said he had " naethin' in his heid but beasts."

The next time I want to spring clean my banda I think I'll just burn it down and have a fresh one built. I sprungclean just a bit too far to-day.

To continue on the beast question : yesterday afternoon I watched an encounter between some chickens and a scorpion.

I noticed several old hens and a brood of quite small chickens circling excitedly round something and pecking viciously at it.

The hens picked it up and dashed it on the ground, till they finally almost killed it. It was a big brute, six inches long I should think, and all black. I'll come back to Scotland some day with a genuine affection for the decent, kindly, home " gollochs." They are really pleasant to deal with, and above all they don't introduce you to an absolutely fresh cousin every day, and sometimes twice a day, but here, every time I see some new incarnation of beastliness. I feel I wouldn't mind if I only thought it was the last of them, but I never know what's coming next. I'm reading H. G. Wells's " War of the Worlds " and I'm tempted to wonder if his Martian creations are the after effects of a flying visit to German East. It has its decent side however : there are some gorgeous butterflies and moths here ; one of my R.A.M.C. orderlies sent down some specimens to Durban museum that he had never seen there, and that place has one of the finest collections I've ever seen.

There is quite a collection of fowls attached to the hospital, what army lists would define as " details." An African gentleman is O.C. Hens, and he reports to me daily the number of eggs. During D.'s reign here the number got suspiciously low, so some slight physical correction (to the O.C., not the hens) seemed desirable. Next day the output rose surprisingly, and has continued at the same satisfactory level since I came to the throne. It varies tactfully between six and ten. Once it touched eleven, but I'm not very good at counting between eight and ten, though after ten I'm all right as they simply say " 10 and 1 " for 11 and so on. He comes and reports, say, Maiai saba (7). He knows to keep three for my breakfast (I'm rather ashamed to confess it), then I send the others to some other fellow who has no barnyard. My boy generally fries my eggs ; however, this morning I found a thing on the plate looking like a lady's crocodile-hide bag, rather overboiled.

This proved to be an omelette. It was not really so resistant as it looked, though for a time each mouthful leapt obstinately

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from one jaw to the other. Finally I got most of it down, goaded partly by hunger and partly by the feeling that I was a Scotchman and the omelette was not. The bacon, however, was as usual- impregnable, in the present delicate state of my jaws anyway, and I thought of sending it to the Ammunition Column. I requested the boy not to disfigure the eggs again in that way. I'm inclined to doubt if eggs figured in the thing at all ; it was possibly a subtle Eastern way of appropriating at least two of the three for his own personal use.

Now I've talked a lot of nonsense and probably given you the impression that we townsfolk of Mgerigeri are a happy family, cultivating poultry and far removed from war and wounds. Well we are out of it here, except for what comes through, but still it is a necessary link in the long chain, and we won't be left here long probably. Sometimes the humour of these little happenings seem to get hold of me and I must write it down.

8th October, x917.

I don't remember when I wrote you last. Some years ago at Mtandawala, I fancy. I left there three days ago, according to the usual reckoning of time, and seem to have put in three weeks fussing since. Just now I'm architect, manager of works, sanitary adviser to the post, receiver (unsympathetic) of complaints, judge-ordinary, and even doctor. We took over the hospital ground from the Column Ambulance and they have gone on with the Column. Now I'm trying to get bandas built, water carried, sick fed, etc., etc., with about a third of our staff and no equipment hardly—it has not come forward yet. When the A.D.M.S. gave me my instructions, he remarked in a cheerful sort of fashion : " I think it's rather fun shifting hospital like this every few days." Only a deep respect prevented me from saying : " Oh, it's devilish funny."

The amusing aspect has not come to the front up to the time of writing. There is another M.O. with me, an Irish gentleman, whose disposition is restful. His voice is almost hypnotic.

I think he hypnotizes himself with it sometimes, but I must say he does his job, though the Sphinx herself could not say how he regards it. He is not the usual genus of Irishman one meets so commonly. Also there is a Carrier M.O. living with us at present, Yule, an Aberdonian. So we dispense with the Sassenach in the city of Nahungu so far as medicine goes.

I suppose I'll get some sort of hospital " built" soon, and then we'll get ordered off farther south, and the A.D.M.S.'s distorted sense of humour will come into play again. (A.D.M.S. by the way stands for Assistant Director of Medical Services).

To-night I've given the job up, with a closing address to the world in general which I shan't quote.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

There are about a hundred invalid donkeys in the aerodrome about three-quarters of a mile from here, and after dark they begin talking. Last night I was wakened up in the small hours by an exaggeration of their ordinary call. I heard that a panther had been inspecting them, and from sounds coming now, they are apparently anticipating another visit. I trust he'll select the one with the most highly trained voice.

No mails yet : I think I'm getting to be a fatalist, though sometimes it would give me intense joy to poison the whole Army Postal Service, out here anyway. When I left Mnasi the Indian Baboo who was postmaster asked me for a chit (testimonial). I looked at him in surprise, till it dawned on me that in official correspondence he had done his best. I felt tempted to emulate the mess secretary of an Indian regiment who gave one mess servant a chit, which he proudly displayed in his ignorance of Anglo-Saxon, and which read : " LAL KHAN has waited in our mess for eighteen months : so have we."

However, I restrained myself. They also serve who only stand and wait for my mail ; and owing to my brief stay in Mnasi, his waiting was of no avail, so I gave him a chit which ought to make him Postmaster-General of the Punjab.

Things seem to be going well here, though we are really too near the front to get a proper view of the wood. This place was only taken a few days ago. There are three or four sharply rising hills round the ridge we are on, something like Dufftown, but unless your imagination is vivid, the resemblance does not hold in other respects, e.g., you don't generally hear machine guns popping near Dufftown, or see aeroplanes floating up towards Ben Rinnes. Also the vegetation differs.

But I'm not going to give you news. I hate the word " news."

My morning song is : "Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness : some boundless contiguity of shade." Is this Armageddon or is it still to come, in fifteen years from now as they tell us ?

I think I'll come back to Glenlivet, my first medical love, and talk broad Scotch, instead of Swahili and Hindustani. I've got an ancient Indian sweeper here, " the man who talks no known language." I love that man. If I ever understand a word he says I'll have him court-martialled. I'm sure he understands me thoroughly, judging from his conversation.

Well I'm afraid you think me flippant, but I've had only one interruption since starting this, and I find levity an excellent outlet for spleen. It's only the beginning of October now, but it will be nearer Christmas before you get this.

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The year is now well on its way but nevertheless we shall not depart from the ancient custom of extending to our readers our best wishes for the New Year. The Christmas holidays are long past, hut their exhilarating effect took a considerable time to pass off. The weather on the whole was very good and was taken full advantage of by a team, chiefly made up from the Rugby XV, who—more maiorum--went in for a special course of athletic training. * * * middle of a snowstorm, which in the School reopened The lasted for over a week. The frost was very hard and the sledging was excellent. Those who were enjoying it heartily commended the war economy policy followed by the Town authorities in not putting salt or sand on the roads. * * * The Leaving Certificate Examinations will soon be upon us and then follows a much-needed holiday. Already anxious enquiries are being made about the health of the Sixth, whom the combined effect of hard work and early mornings is fast wearing out. Before the next number of the Magazine the Bursary Competition will be over. The best of luck to all the School competitors ! * * * The Literary and Debating Society has so far had a most successful season. The remarkable success of the first lecture was a most favourable omen for the year, and the high standard set has been well maintained. An enthusiastic start was made, too, with debating, but we shall miss our faithful secretary, R. A. B. Jaffray, who proved one of our foremost orators but who has left us to join the Royal Flying Corps. Another committee member and Business Manager of the Magazine, G. M. Dean, left us at Christmas and is shortly to jcin the Army. Our best wishes go with these and with any others who may be leaving us for service. * * * This year again a large crowd assembled on Judicial Night.

A departure was made from the usual plan and a mock Military Tribunal was held instead. The applicants evidently thought

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magozine.

they would further their claims by donning most extraordinary and fantastic apparel, which, though it created a great impression on the spectators, failed to influence the stolid and inexorable members of the Tribunal. The lack of a prisoner to enliven the proceedings was felt badly, but one applicant who impersonated a famous comedian provided great amusement. * * * An eager throng assembled on Sing-Song Night, but their enthusiasm was too great to allow of all the various items being heard. Several choruses were sung with great effect, and solos and duets were also rendered. All who contributed to the night's entertainment were loudly applauded. The weather was excellent and a large and enthusiastic company carried out the usual serenading of the members of the Staff. * * * The football XV has been favoured with exceptionally fine weather almost all through the season, and consequently no matches have had to be put off. A special feature has been some very fine practices, which have doubtless largely contributed to the success of the team. Most of the matches have to be played against much heavier teams, but the School has done valiantly. The attendance, too, of the rest of the School has vastly improved, but the deserted state of the field on every day of the week except for the 1st XV games on Wednesdays and Saturdays, plainly shows that there will have to be a thorough re-organization of sport in the School after the War. * * * The membership of the Library now exceeds ninety.

This is easily a record, being almost three times as large as some previous years, and is most gratifying. The enthusiasm of the members is tremendous. The Librarians come upstairs exhausted after the turmoil of the " bun-fight " to find a struggling mass surging round the Library counter clamouring for books, and the short interval is occupied with satisfying the intellectual cravings of the juniors. * * * One Friday in the beginning of the year those classes which were fortunate enough to have French or German the last hour were entertained, and we trust instructed, by a gramophone recital in the School Hall. Lessons in grammar and reading were rendered in French and also in German and much appreciated. For this we are indebted to Mr. Croll of the School Board. * * * Great excitement prevailed in the School during Tank Week.

In fact several classes were carried away by an excess of patriotic enthusiasm on the first day of its visit. On the Thurs-

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day £206 was invested in the Tank through the School War Savings Association. This was entirely contributed by members of the Association and does not include the separate investments by those- -far too many—who are not members. * * * In one of our numerous exchanges, " Commerce Life," the magazine of the High School of Commerce, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A., we noticed the following comment upon our Magazine under the heading "What we think of others "—" Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine, Aberdeen, Scotland.—We are surely glad to hear from our exchange from over the seas. Your magazine put us in closer touch with the War. The accounts of the boys who gave their lives for the cause or who are working for the overthrow of autocracy were very touching." . _

Random Notes.

After much consideration we have decided that the Lent term is the dreariest of the three, and this one the dreariest in all our brief but gloomy experience. Holidays are distant, and the enchantment caused by this is lent at such a ponderous usury of exams. that it becomes a minus quantity. Everyone slouches up and down the bleak corridors with an appearance of the most funereal melancholy. In class, time is divided between leaning back with languished head unpropped, with a Damoclean stare at the feeble filaments of the electric lights, and leaning forward with one's aching brow pressed against the unyielding timber. Humour is as scarce as margarine and as watery as syrup, and we are sold out.

There is still, however, a certain liveliness in some sectors. sight may be witnessed in one particular room at strange A 10.45 every day. Three people may be observed behind a stout barricade in one corner, to wit, the Janitor and the sisters Kennaway (and Co.). The first-mentioned cautiously leaves the room, and hastens to press the fatal bell-push ; indeed, from the circumspection with which the rash act is performed the casual observer might think of some devastating mine-explosion. In this he would be confirmed by the next events. An ominous rumbling sound begins to be heard, swelling in volume like the roar of an avalanche. The Janitor hurries back to his entrenchment in the nick of time, for already the first detachments are massing for the attack. A brisk barrage of buns clears the glacis for a moment, but presently the attackers are once more struggling through the entanglement of gas-jets and so forth. For about five minutes the carnage is rivalled only by the uproar ; then in a gradual diminuendolthe combat subsides. The heroic defenders

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breathe once more—twice more—and continue to breathe.

Fierce though the struggle is, most of the horrors of war are absent from it, though some weeks ago we cherished a hope that the Tank might be tempted to the assault by the persuasive aroma of the buns set forth.

Speaking of aroma, there is one horror of war which has not been spared us. Some time ago the Sixth received a rude shock on entering the corridor at eleven to find themselves unable to see the other end. This was soon explained. The gentlemen of the Modern Side were attacking the bun-room with poison gas. Unfortunately respirators were not provided for the Classicals. Half-choked by the suffocating vapour, we staggered through a morass of coughing infants. Through the dank miasma we saw in the distance wailing shades that fled at our approach. In vain did we strive ! Alas, in our endeavours to reach the bun-room we got lost in the east-end cloakroom and retired abashed and hungry.

Before Christmas, now we come to think of it, life, if not amusing, was at least tolerable. There was for instance Judicial Night, which took the form of a Military Tribunal.

The board, looking very --er, preoccupied, bore a striking resemblance to the "horrible examples" in Johnnie Walker advertisements ; in fact the most out-and-out bounders we have ever seen. Each applicant was duly stethoscoped by a disreputable tout in a soft sun-hat, who was alleged to be Doctor Cumberbund. The first case was that of an ivorysnatcher of horrible appearance, one Professor Mowlar, clad mainly in placards concerning Euthymol and so forth ; he was accompanied by Miss Lydia Lyddite, a munitionette. Then appeared one Mr. Charles Chaplin, and the Rev. Septimus Spethune, a venerable old gentleman with an extensive vocabulary. Next a too-prosperous shipowner stated, in a grunting tone, that his name was Simoleon Guggenheimer. He was promptly dealt with, and was followed by a peculiar person in large green goggles, one Nazareth Dove, a conscientious objector. Although he appeared to suffer from some uneasiness in the region of his whiskers, he received no mercy. Nor did better fortune await the Oil-king of Pittsburg, Pa., Pharaoh J. 13uttercluck, who vainly polluted the air with a malevolentlooking " stogie." One member of the tongue-tied board was stirred to converse with Mr. Divot Sudds and his mother Soaphronia, a washerwoman with a temperament, who came next. Then the eyes of all were dazzled by the hue of the garments of Rafale Mushenuff, the Parallelopipedist sculptor ; in vain did he deliver an obscure but impassioned harangue ; in vain did his purple trousers plead for him ; exemption was refused. Last came an Italian musician, one Piccolo Con-

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sordino. All these were vigorously questioned by Lieut.

Camombert Burlington, the military representative.

Recently a School athlete was heard to refer to the "sweet and tremulous treble" in which one of the teams he had played during the holidays had cheered. We are completely mystified, for we did not hear of any football matches at that time. The question has been laid before the Oracle at the Adelphi, which declares that the answer is in the negative.

There is a mouse in Room I. No one ever sees him, but he spends the week-end in eating the plaster on the walls, thereby adding to the more than sufficient draught. During the recent snow, indeed, one master went so far as to plug these apertures with paper and to camouflage a ventilator with a sheet of cardboard. The mouse was apparently in good appetite that night. Talking of ventilators, what remarkable things they are 1 The old type consisted of a sort of drawer that communicated with the outer air through a savoury midden composed largely of greasy sandwich papers and decaying scone. Now we have the "adjustable" (!) kind. This consists of a series of boards between which the wind rushes in with a reflective and cheery whistle. If one pulls the string which leads to its interior, about a foot of mildewed twine comes away and the wind accelerates fifty per cent. Then there is the non-adjustable type which looks and smells like the window of a peculiarly noisome dungeon. That is why we all use the windows.

We would continue, but remembering those sardonic jesters, the compilers of the Leaving Papers, we feel outclassed, and cease. From deference to the outraged sensibilities of Classical V and Modern II, we have made no joke about the Tank.

The School Museum.

The Malay spears and swords bequeathed by the late Lieut. Vere Stephenson form a handsome trophy, now on view.

Presented by Alex. Stirrat, the bones of a whale's ear. By " F.P.," portions of a Zeppelin brought down in Yorkshire, including the head of one of its petrol tanks, and a hit of the fabric forming the skin. By Mr. L. I. Thomson, Brazilian Bow, 8 ft. 11 in. long, and several Arrows about 6 ft. 6 in. in length! also one Arrow with detachable head—used in turtle fishing, the rest of the shaft, attached by a string, acting as a float, to trace and retard the quarry when struck ; also 33 coins from the same.

Our Contemporaries.

The Editor begs to acknowledge receipt of the following magazines, with apologies for any omissions: "Glasgow High School Magazine," "Scotch Collegian," "The Watsonian," "The Courier," "The Boltonian," "The Portmuthian" (2), "School News" (Belfast), "South African College School Magazine," "Edinburgh Academy Chronicle" (2), "The Fettesian" (2), "The Herioter," " Glasgow Academy Chronicle" (2), "The C.A.I." (Coleraine, Ireland), "The Williamsonian," "St. Andrew's College Magazine" (Dublin), "The Erasmian" (Dublin), "Commerce Life" (Ohio), "The Tucsonian" (Arizona), " Our School Times " (Londonderry).

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

School Rugby.

20th October.—On this date School played Gordon's College and their F.P.'s. The School were all over Gordon's and shortly after the game started Gordon touched down behind the line. School failed to convert, but it was not long till Gordon ran through again. This time the try was converted.

School soon got into the opposing "25" and scored through Hopkins. Before half-time Gordon scored once more. The second half was similar to the first, except that Gordon's made a few runs. Gordon scored another try for the School between the posts. School remained in Gordon's "25" for the rest of the game, and shortly before time was up Huss very neatly dropped a goal. The final scores were-23--0 for School.

27th October.—School and F.P.'s v. Longside R.N.A.S. Longside kicked off and found touch well in School's "25." School kept them out for a short time, but after getting through once, I.ongside scored again and again. As none of the tries were converted School were kept in their own "25" nearly all the first half. At half-time the scores were 26—0 for Longside. Next half School played much better and pressed hard for a long time, although they failed to score. The game changed very quickly into the School's "25" through a good run on the part of Longside's three's. Longside scored shortly afterwards. After the School had worked their way down the field, Bisset got away with the ball and scored a brilliant try. This try put fresh vigour into the School and for the next few minutes the game became very intense, till Gordon scored between the posts. Taking the kick himself, he easily converted. I.ongside scored again through their three's, who were faster than the School's.

Final scores-34-8 for Longside.

3rd November.--On this date School played the F.P.'s. School kicked off, and after some kicking on the part of the backs, School found touch in the F.P.'s "25." From the throw-out School pressed nearer the goal-line but failed to score. The F.P.'s gradually worked their way up the field, but from a free kick near the centre of the field Huss very neatly dropped the goal.

The F.P.'s were now determined to score, and this they did through Lindsay, the back. Half-time scores-3-3. Next half the game became very erratic, sometimes in one "25" and sometimes in the other. However, School scored through P. Walker ; Huss took the kick, which was no easy one, and put the hall over. School scored again, and again Huss converted. The F.P.'s now pressed hard in a final attempt to score a second try, but were kept out. Shortly before time was up Gordon scored for the School. Final scores--18-3 for the School. Huss was easily the best among the backs.

10th November.—School v. Gordon's College and their F.P.'s. There had been much rain on the preceding days, yet the pitch was in good condition.

I.ike the last game, School were all over Gordon's, and scored several times in the first half through Bisset and Moir. In the second half P. Walker soon scored with a good run. Towards the end of the game Gordon's played well and once or twice they nearly scored. The final scores were-29—0 for School.

17th November.—School played the 3rd Gordon Officers on this date.

The game started with the School making a rush up the field into the Officers' "25." The game became very intense and neither side made much advance till the Officers got the ball out to their three's, who quickly changed the game to School's "25." School defended well, but the Officers scored, and also converted. At half-time the scores were-5—0 against School. In the next half School had the best of the game. At the beginning, however, the Officers scored from a scrum in School's "25," but did not convert. Soon after, Mackay picking up the ball in the open, scored for the School with a good run. The kick was not successful, but it was not long till School scored again through Stewart. From a free-kick Huss added three more points by a good dropkick. The Officers then followed suit by converting a free-kick they got in School's "25." Gordon had very hard lines in not scoring just before time was up ; after passing the three's he was brought down a few yards from the goalline. The final scores were-11-9 for the Gordons. This, perhaps, is the best game School has played so far this season. Gordon was the best of the forwards, and Huss of the backs.

24th November.—On this date School played 'Varsity. In the first half of the game School played with the wind, which was very strong the whole afternoon. School did not play as well as they should have, though the 'Varsity were never past the centre. The ball very seldom came out to the three's, with the result that the play was mostly between the forwards. School were often nearly through, but not once did they score. At half-time there was no

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125

scoring. Next half School played better, though, with the exception of a few runs, they were in their own "25" most of the time. 'Varsity now made full use of the wind, with the result that they scored three tries in quick succession, but owing to the wind they did not convert them. The 'Varsity scored again before School made a rush up the field and got into the opposing "25." The forwards fought it out and eventually the ball came out to the School three's, who succeeded in scoring. Final scores-12-3 for 'Varsity.

1st December.—On this date School played Longside R.N.A.S. at Longside.

Before the War, and even in the second year of it, School went to Montrose to play the Academy, but since then the School has not played Montrose Academy.

School's "away" match this season was at Longside. They went by rail in the morning and were met at Mintlaw station by two of the officers and two cars. After arriving at Lenabo, School were shown round the premises, which were very interesting to them, as most had never seen the place before. After dinner, School stripped for the game, and walked over to the pitch. A very strong wind, and a pitch under water in several parts, did not make the game very enjoyable to either side. In the first half Longside scored three times, and converted one of their tries. Next half School played better and had bad luck several times. Longside scored twice, and School once, through Moir, who played a good game. The game ended 17-3 against School. The forwards had the game to themselves, for the ball was much too slippy for passing out to the dime's. After tea, School had a considerable time to wait before starting for the train, but this period soon passed as everyone had some magazine to read, or watched others playing billiards. School had a splendid day, but if the weather had been better the game would have been better.

15th December.—School played 3rd Gordon Officers on a very hard pitch.

After a period of hard play in School's "25" the Officers succeeded in breaking through, but failed to convert. From the "25" the School gradually worked their way up, and Reid scored with a fine run. Now the game became scrappy, and resulted in another score for the Gordons. At half-time the scores were6-3 against School. In the second half School pressed hard for some time in the opposing "25" but did not succeed in scoring. The Officers showed their superiority in three's by some fine runs, but the School held their own in the scrum. The Officers scored several times, and the game ended-20-3 for them. Among the School backs Huss and Reid were the best.

19th December.—On this date School played a team composed of Gordon Officers and 'Varsity. The scores were-34-12 for School.

9th February.—School played 3rd Gordon Officers on this date. From the Christmas holidays, mostly on account of the long spell of snow, School had no matches till this one. The ground was in very good condition, and a slight wind blew most of the time. The Gordons had a very strong team, and their strength lay mostly in their three's. School played with the wind the first half, but the Officers soon scored and also converted. From the "25" School made a rush down the field and kept the game at mid-field for some time, till the Officers scored again through their three's. Shortly afterwards School scored 1 points through Huss, who dropped the goal from the centre of the field.

This encouraged the School, and for some time they pressed hard in the Gordons' "25," and eventually scored. Half-time scores were 8 7 against School.

Next half School did not score at all, and played on the defensive most of the time. The Officers scored thrice, but did not convert any of their tries. Though School were in the opposing "25" several times, they never got through. Huss and Thomson, in the backs, played well. The final scores were-17-7 against School.

The Swimming Club.

From the beginning of the session to the Christmas holidavs—the end of the Swimming Club's 1917 season—the Club has progressed adMirably. Two new members, D. Cochran and J. Ferrier, have been chosen to represent the Lower School in the Committee. Several polo practices were held, giving promise of a strong team for 1918. As many as possible of the Club were timed, with excellent results. Excluding the senior Committee men, the times of our fastest swimmers for 60 yards are as follows : J. Crombie, 48 secs. ; J. Stirrat, 49 secs'; J. Watt, 57 secs. As the weather is becoming better, the 1918 season will shortly commence.

126

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

The Literary and Debating Society.

12th October.—The first meeting of the season was held in Room I at 7 pan., with Mr. Stephen, Vice-President, in the chair. The subject of the evening was a debate, "Does the Sportsman perform a greater service for his School than the Student ? " Mr. D. S. Stewart and Mr. D. L. Thomson delivered their papers amid loud cheers and then the debate was taken up and well sustained by the meeting. The vote resulted in a majority for Mr. Stewart, who supported the affirmative, and he then took the chair and a "Hat Night" was held. Various questions were enthusiastically discussed, including the exclusion of Middle III from the Society, starting hockey in the School, and even "soccer." The supporters of this last were finally howled down.

19th October.—About 150 boys assembled in the School Hall to hear a lecture by the Rev. G. H. Donald, M.A., entitled, "With the 51st Highland Division in France." Mr. Middleton introduced the lecturer, who began by relating several amusing anecdotes. Then a series of splendid slides was thrown on the screen. Numerous references were made to F.P.'s of the School whose photographs appeared, and these were very much appreciated. Mr. Middleton truly expressed the feeling of the meeting when he said that be felt as if he himself had been with the lecturer in France. He then called for a vote of thanks to Mr. Donald which was very heartily given.

26th October.—The Society met under the presidency of Mr. Stewart to discuss the question, "Should we have Reprisals ? " Mr. Murray, in an able paper, supported the affirmative, while Mr. Reid brought forward some excellent arguments against reprisals. After some discussion the meeting decided by a large majority in favour of the affirmative. The question of whether there should be an O.T.C. in the School was raised and received enthusiastically.

Discussion was carried on till after nine.

2nd November.—On this evening the Rev. A. Austin Foster, M.A., delivered a lecture on "Tennyson." Mr. Foster spoke of the poet's life and of the age in which he lived and emphasized the beautiful melody of his poetry. The lecturer displayed great dramatic power in several extracts which he read, including one in the Lincoln dialect, which was greatly enjoyed. Mr. Charles Davidson thanked Mr. Foster for his lecture, and was himself accorded a vote of thanks for presiding.

9th November.—" Magazine Night" was held but there was little criticism offered. A debate, "Are there Ghosts? " was then proceeded with. Mr. G. M. Dean delivered an interesting paper into which he introduced several amusing host stories. Mr. M. Stephen, in support of the negative, read a paper amid great attention, which testified to the high merit of his discourse.

Messrs. Thomson and Ironside told a few more stories about ghosts. After some discussion a vote was taken and Mr. Stephen won.

16th November.—Mr. Murison presided over the meeting of the Society in the Hall and introduced the Rev. J. C. Ormerod, M.A. (Oxon.), who delivered a lecture, " Roughing it in Palestine." The lecturer first described his route and mode of travelling, and then showed some exquisite slides of places of interest he had visited in the Holy Land. Mr. Ormerod was thanked for his lecture, and Mr. Thomson proposed the vote of thanks to Mr. Murison.

23rd November.—Room I was full this evening to hear a lecture by Mr. W. Murison, M.A., Honorary President, on the subject of "Fools." Times and places specially associated with fools were spoken of, and the lecturer told many very amusing stories, which were thoroughly enjoyed. Mr. Stewart proposed the vote of thanks to Mr. Murison for his splendid lecture and this was accorded with exceptional heartiness. The rest of the evening was filled with a "Hat Night."

30th November.—On this evening the Society met in the Hall with Mr. M. H. Mackie, M.A., in the chair. Mr. Townend delivered a lecture entitled, "How to look at Pictures." The lecturer spoke of the many styles of painting and of some of the chief artists. Some beautiful slides were shown.

14th December.—Judicial Night (see p. 122).

21st December.—There was a large attendance in Room I for the Christmas Sing-Song. The proceedings began with several choruses from the Students' Song Book, and then the officials sang solos. Popular choruses were sung with great zest by the whole meeting. Our thanks are due to Mr. G. Walker and the others who played the accompaniments.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

127

I 1 th January.—"With Allies and Neutrals" was the subject of a very interesting lecture by Mr. G. Middleton, M.A., Honorary Vice-President. The Channel Islands were first fully described, then parts of France and Belgium.

Some of the lecturer's experiences in Switzerland and North Italy were related and much enjoyed. Mr. Middleton was thanked by the Chairman, Mr. D. L. Thomson, hi a neat speech in which he referred to his own visit to Switzerland.

25th January.—This evening Room I was packed when Mr. Charles Davidson, M.A., Honorary Vice-President, delivered a lecture upon "The Miseries of a Millionaire, by one who has shared them." Mi. Davidson described in his usual admirable manner his extraordinary experiences as private secretary to a millionaire on a Continental tour. His wonderful power of description and inimitable humour completely captivated his audience, who showed their keen appreciation by the very cordial way in which they accorded the vote of thanks.

1st February.—The Society met in Room 9 at 7 p.m., when Dr. M`Leod delivered a lecture, "Fire and Flame (with Experiments)." Dr. M'Leod described the work of the early experimenters in chemistry, and how fire came to be known and made use of. Numerous experiments with flames, explosive gases, and electricity were shown and explained. The whole lecture was most instructive and interesting, and the experiments were all very successfully carried out.

8th February.—The subject for debate was, "Are the mental capacities of the sexes equal ? " Mr. G. N. Gordon, for the affirmative, delivered a paper which was received throughout with loud applause. In the absence of Mr. C. B. Bisset his paper was read by Mr. Reid, who opened the ensuing discussion with a neat speech in support of Mr. Bisset. 1'he matter was then very fully discussed, and also "Votes for Women" and the part played by women in the War. Almost all present contributed to the debate, which resulted in favour of Mr. Gordon.

Notes on our Scouts.

Since the last notes appeared in the February, 1917, issue of the Magazine the 1st and 7th Troops and the 9th Cubs have been going strong, notwithstanding the ever-increasing drain of the older members being called away for military service. The Roll of Honour has grown in both Troops, the 9th heading the list with 39.

We had the honour of being inspected on 1st September by our Chief Scout, Lieut.-General Sir Robert Baden-Powell, K.C.B., K.C.V.O., at Pittodrie, where there was a large gathering of all Aberdeen Troops and those of the surrounding districts.

The two Troops in conjunction with the 9th Cubs held a most successful concert in the School Hall in April, the total takings being £10, less expenses.

Thanks to the support of parents and friends, an even more successful concert was held in December, the sum realized being over £20. Master Tom Macdonald and Scout G. Graham held a very successful little entertainment on 27th December, in aid of the 1st Troop's funds, at which the sum of £1 3s. 6d. was drawn. Part of the funds has been used to help to pay off the standing debt on the 1st Troop's Headquarters, and the remainder to pay the rent of the 9th Troop's Headquarters.

The 1st Troop, although short of officers, has increased its membership to 66. In all, there must be close on 200 Scouts and Wolf Cubs in the School.

In addition to Y.M.C.A., Hospital, Fire Station, and Coastguard Services, the Troops are supplying the Town Lighting Inspector with two Scouts daily.

We also supplied a number of Patrol-Leaders for Coastguard duty in Sutherland during the months of June, July, and August, the 9th having the privilege of being the first Troop in Aberdeen to send Scouts so far North. The Commissioner for Sutherland expressed his great satisfaction with the way in which the boys carried out the duties assigned to them.

The 9th Wolf Cub Pack has now increased to the number of 50.

A Serbian Patrol has been started in the 1st Troop, it being the first of its kind in Scotland.

We have greatly to deplore the death of our respected Commissioner, Mr. Ranald R. Macdonald, who has so long been a good friend to us and the movement in general.

D. P. C.

128

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

The Former Pupils' Club.

List of New Members.

LIFE MEMBERS.

Gordon C. Grant (1904-17), 92 Morningside Drive, Edinburgh.

Captain Archibald F. Hyslop (1897-1910), 285 Great Western Road, Aberdeen.

Rev. Robert N. Paton (1898-1904), B.D., The Manse, New Byth, Turriff.

Second Lieutenant George C. Kelly (1905-14), 62 Rubislaw Den North, Aberdeen.

Ernest R. Horne (1912-14), "Bonn-na-Coille," Murtle.

Second Lieutenant J. J. Johnston (1905-06), "Clach-Ian," Cults.

Second Lieutenant W. S. Forrest MacLennan (1908-15), 1 Woodstock,Road, Aberdeen.

Alexander Mathewson (1883-87), Muirland School House, Denny.

Robert W. Lyall-Grant (1884-91), LL.B., Blantyre, Nyasaland.

Sergeant Wallace Troup (1907-12), General Staff Headquarters, Canadians, Argyll House, 246 Regent Street, London, W.1.

James Davidson, Jr. (1883-89), Provost Blailde's Quay, Aberdeen.

James Y. Hunter (1881-89), "Temora," West Cults.

Robert Y. Hunter (1895-1904), "Temora," West Cults.

ORDINARY MEMBERS.

John Lumsden (1907-13), 23 HamilAlan Tait (1906-13), View Cottage, ton Place, Aberdeen.

Port Elphinstone, Inverurie.

Robert F. Gordon McCallum (1910-17), Archibald Argo (1914-17), Moray 38 Abergeldie Ter., Aberdeen.

House, Golspie.

Francis W. Kynoch (1912-15), 62 Redvers N. Ironside (1907-17), 29 Gladstone Place, Aberdeen.

Rubislaw Den South, Aberdeen.

Douglas J. C. Davidson (1905-13), John L. Fiddes (1906-17), " MarchBroomhill Park, Aberdeen. mont," 42 Rubislaw Den South, Alexander Craig (1910-13), 23 FontAberdeen. hill Terrace, Aberdeen.

Private James R. Mowat (1916-17), Alexander Taylor (1911-15), 9 RoseR.A.M.C., 12 London Road, bank Terrace, Aberdeen.

Beccles, Suffolk.

George Laing (1911-15), 45 Stanley Eric R. Linklater (1913-16), 4 GladStreet, Aberdeen. stone Place, Aberdeen.

James G. Ritchie (1910-15), 12 MileAlexander Cruickshank (1911-17), 501 End Place, Aberdeen.

Great Western Road, Aberdeen.

William R. D. Glennie (1911-17), 11 Eric E. Duthie (1910-17), 25 King's Albert Street, Aberdeen.

Gate, Aberdeen.

William Hay Courage (1907-15), 60 Herbert J. Edwards (1906-17), BeechCarden Place, Aberdeen. hill House, Mannofield.

Edmund Mitchell Anderson (1914-16), Murray R. Henderson (1914-17), St. 2 Woodstock Road, Aberdeen.

Cyrus, Banchory.

Alexander William Walker (1906-15), Jack R. Cowper (1910-17), 13 Fort 52 Union Street, Aberdeen.

Street, Dundee.

John P. Sutherland (1912-15), 214 D. Stuart Easton (1905-17), 111 Rosemount Place, Aberdeen.

Hamilton Place, Aberdeen.

Surgeon Arthur P. Spark (1905-11), James F. Gerrard (1911-13), SchoolR.N., The Manse, Dums. house, Bucksburn.

Arthur R. H. Angus (1913-16), 318 Great Western Road, Aberdeen.

NOTE.—In the list given in last Magazine the name "John M. Milne 1909-12)," should have been given as "J. Norman Milne (1909-12). 5' _

-

ADDRESSES WANTED.

•

The present addresses are wanted of the following Members of the Club.

Information will be gladly received by Mr. Theodore Watt at 10 Moray Place, Aberdeen, or at The Rosemount Press, Aberdeen (telephone No. 1035) :— JAMES D. Cook (Aberdeen).

A. W. Dime/or (British North Borneo).

R. D. FENTON (F.M.S.).

W. HEPBURN HORNE (Aberdeen).

ALEXANDER REID (Glasgow).

Telephone 1750.

Established 1859.

FOR

MILK and CREAM, BUTTER, EGGS, TEA CAKES, SCONES, & OATCAKES, TRY -

FINDLAY'S DAIRY, 457 UNION STREET, & BRANCHES, ABERDEEN; Also, THE SQUARE, CULTS.

W. LUMSDEN & SON, 58

STREET,

UNION

Elberbeen.

•

GROCERIES, PROVISIONS, WINES and SPIRITS, ALL OF

HIGHEST QUALITY.

HAVANA CIGARS in Great Variety.

Telegrams: " TRAVELLED, ABERDEEN."

'PHONE 260.

GEORGE ANDERSON, "THE"

19

IRONMONGER,

BROAD

STREET,

"Journal" and "Express" Office exactly opposite.

The recognised Store for Kerbs and renders—all. kinds al I sizes.

Incandescent Lighting a Speciality.

'PHONE 2174.

Telephone No. 609.

Telegra , x

"Reid,

Auctioneer,

Aberdeen."

JOHN W. REID, auctioneer, Valuator, an0 Mire assessor, 7 CROWN STREET and 63 LOCH STREET, ABERDEEN. SALES

I3_1-1LD

WEEKLY_

Established 1883.

Grammar School Specialities, Navy Serge Football Shorts, wide cut, 4/11, 5/11.

Coloured Cashmere Jerseys, Newest Colours, 5/6, 5/11, 6/6, 7/6.

Cream Viyella Jerseys, Buttoned Shoulder, 4/6, 4/11, 5/6.

White Wincey Shirts, detached Collar, 8/11, 4/6.

White Repp Shirts, Polo Collar, 2/11, 8/6, 3/11.

Navy Serge Eton Caps, Piped Red, White, Blue, 1/11i, 2/6.

Self-Navy Serge Eton Caps, 1/114, 2/6.

Grammar School Cap Badges, Stid. each.

Red, White, Blue Knitted Ties, 6&d. each.

Red, White, Blue Elastic Belts, 61d., 1/- each.

Navy Cloth Tennis Jackets, Corded Red, White, Blue, 5/11, 6/6, 6/11.

Boys' White Eton Collars, various depths, 71d. each.

Youths' Soft Collars, Double or Polo style, Sid., 71d., SO. each.

Youths' White Starched Collars, double style, various depths, 70. each ; 3/6 half dozen.

0 -

01-IN FALCONER00

FAMOUS FOR A CENTURYE,QUARTER FOR QUALITYCOVALUEI

HE ROYAL ARCADE ABERDEEN

Messrs. MORGAN, 'Photographic Artists, Miniature Vainters, ant Mailers of artistic frames, . . .

393 UNION

.

STREET,

ABERDEEN.

Special Cerms to Grammar School Stuaegts.

10 A.M. TILL 5 P.M.

TELEPHONE No. 603.

Have you friends abroad or at the Front ?

Are you sending reminders to them ?

OUR SPECIALITIES are known and appreciated in all parts of the World.

Orders can now be booked for

PLUM PUDDINGS, SCOTCH BUNS, SHORTBREAD, and other seasonable goods.

Special Attention given to Packing and Dispatching.

1\T1\T _A_W_A_-Y" 5 and 7 I-KILBURN STREET and 173 UNION STREET.

TELEPHONE No. 1891.

ARCHIBALD MIELLAR, 'Ninth) Grocer and Wine 112ercbatit,

456 UNION STREET, g B ER DE E1\1.

—*— We Specialise in Cooked Gammons, "Sinclair's"

Belfast Smoked Hams,

"Harris's"

Wiltshire Bacon.

Medicinal Wines—Vibrona, Hall's, Wincarnis, Glendenning's,

W. J. MILNE, Ltd., 251

UNION

STREET,

ABERDEEN. (Opposite Royal Northern Club.)

Telephone 1293.

Appointed Agents for Burberry Coats.

M. H. SINCLAIR, SEED AND BULB MERCHANT FLORIST,

AND

347 Union Street, ABERDEEN. Telephone

SPECIALIST IN ALL KINDS OF FLORAL WORK.

1121.

CHOICEST FLOWERS ALWAYS ON HAND.

FOR

.

.

.

Instruments

Drawing

Materials,

and

TAYLOR,

i itc.itrtt ri c.ictjf - 'raenollcortiariliZ 11,

SCHOOLHILL, ABERDEEN. Telephone 2870.

J. GEDDES, tobacco a Cigar ffiercbant.

All High-class Tobaccos. Cigars, and Cigarettes in perfect conditicn • may be had at

/

'~

A 14 • All kinds

of Smokers' Requisites

4'

.t large and varied Stock of Walking Sticks by the nest London Makers

Sole Agent for the famous Dunhill Pipes.

478 Union Street, Aberdeen.

TYPEWRITERS BOREDHT, ALL MAKES £3 to £24.

100 in Stock, Pre-War Prices.

CHARLES

REPAIRED, SOLD.

H. WEBSTER,

472 UNION STREET, ABERDEEN. 'Phone 505.

All Fresh from ElIon Daily.

The Fountainhead for Fine Buchan Butter, Fresh Farm Eggs, Fine Home made Cheese, Fowls, Chickens, Rabbits, Ducklings, Jams (all own make), Honey (in Supers, 11b. and 2 lb.), Honey (in nice Tumblers I

MILNE, Ellon Stall, New Market ,.

TELEPHONE 746.

And Branch - 404

UNION" STREET Tel. 251.

JAMES FYFE & SON, PAINTERS & GLAZIERS, OFFICE & SHOWROOMS, 11 DEE ST. 'Phone 304.

Tel.: Fyfe, Painters.

Best Quality of DRUGS, etc., at Lowest Cash Price.

JAMES D. DUNCAN, M.P.S., Cbcnitiit, Pbarmactst,

231- UNION STREET Telephone

D.

231

311.

WY L LI E &

S 0 N,

247 UNION STREET, ABERDEEN. Agents for Ordnance Survey Maps.

Booksellers, Army and Navy Stationers.

Circulating Library in connection with Mudie's, of London.

Engraving, Bookbinding, and Printing of every description.

Fountain Pen Emporium.

Premier House in the North of Scotland for the sale of Scottish Publications.

Publishers and Proprietors of " The Aberdeen Book-Lover."

Telephone 402.

Established 1814.

Telegraphic Address : " Wyllie, Booksellers, Aberdeen."

CAST=OFF CLOTHING. Mrs. M`CALL, 50 UPPERKIRKGATE, ABERDEEN (Established over quarter of a century)

will wait upon Ladies and Gentlemen, and give Extreme Value for all Kinds of

LEFT-OFF CLOTHING,

OLD GOLD AND SILVER,

WORN-OUT JEWELLERY, SHEFFIELD PLATE,

TRINKETS,

FALSE TEETH,

FURS,

FURNITURE, etc., etc.

BANKERS—North of Scotland and Town & County Bank, Ltd. Telephone No. 3002.

BUSINESS STRICTLY PRIVATE.

M. GERARD, JEWELLER

AND

SILVERSMITH,

411 UNION STREET (WEST).

Engagement and Wedding Rings.

JEWELLERY OF EVERY DESCRIPTION: ALSO

Watches, Clocks, Silver and Electro-Plated Goods in Newest Designs, and Large Selection to choose from.

7 cephone 447.

ABERDEEN GRAMMAR SCHOOL. (Founded previous to 1256.)

Rector—H. F. MORLAND SIMPSON, M.A. (Cantab.), LL.D., F.S.A. Scot.

Boys a The School, which is one of the Secondary Public Schools of Scotland provides fur School complete course of study—Elementary and Secondary, Classical and Modern The Lower upwards. and stage Infant the receives Boys of The School contains excellent Laboratories—Chemical and Physical, Art Room, Workshop, Botanical Garden, Gymnasium. Library, and Reading Room.

The situation of the School is open and healthy, within ten minutes of the Railway Station.

There is a Cricket Field, and there are separate Playgrounds for the various departments.

Boarders are received by several of the Masters. be Information as to Fees, Scholarships, etc., is given in the School Prospectus, which may had free on application to the CLERK of the SCHOOL BOARD, 22 Union Terrace. or to the RECTOR.

ABERDEEN HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. Head Mistress—Miss LUCY L. WARD, B.A. (Loud.)

Public Schools of Scotland, is organised in Three The School, which is one of the Secondary last combining Modern and ChiDepartments—a Junior, an Intermediate, and a Secondary—the are under highly qualified Masters and Govervarsity Sections. The Art and Music Departments additions, consisting of an recent Years.

The Five of age the from nesses. Pupils are received and a Suite of Laboratories of the most approved elegant Hall, Cookery and Laundry Rooms, make the School one of the best Biology, and Chemistry, Physics, description for the teaching of are provided. equipped in the country. A Library and Reading Room and Luncheon Rooms minutes of The School occupies a spacious site in the West End of the City, within twelve the Railway Station. a distance. of Pupils from Boarding the The Head Mistress can arrange for may be Information as to Fees, Scholarships, etc., is given in the School Prospectus,orwhich to the HEAD had free on application to the CLERK of the SCHOOL BOARD, 22 Union Terrace, MISTRESS.

CAST-OFF CLOTHING & OLD JEWELLERY WANTED.

MacK AY'S, 15 SC1-40068166, Give Highest Prices for Ladies' and Gentlemen's Cast-off CLOTHING, OLD JEWELLERY, FALSE TEETH, OLD PLATE, &c.

We will call at your residence on receipt of Post Card or Telephone 2612.

BUSINESS STRICTLY PRIVATE. BANK REFERENCE.

TELEPHONE 2612.

Note A ddrees —15 SCHOOLHILL.

Bring or send your Cast-off Clothing to MacKay's, 15 Sohoolhill.

When you are in need of ANYTHING in the Chemist's line Telephone 1784, or call at

476

UNION

STREET

(Between Rose Street and Holburn Junction) when your requirements will be attended to.

WILLIAM Cbemtst

F. HAY,

(From Duncan Flockhart & Co., Edinburgh),

476 UNION STREET, ABERDEEN. (Near Holburn Junction.)

FRED HARDIE, 1Pbotograpbtc Erttst,

I#16 UNION ST., RBERDEEN, For every style of In- and Out-door Group, Composite Groups, and General Portraiture, etc., Telephone 851.

At Popular Prices.

The Aberdeen School of Shorthand, Typewriting, and Business Training (C. M. LAWRENCE),

19 & Telephone 875,

21 CROWN STREET. Established 1884.

...The kouse with t176, ,fircaae.

Perfect Fitting Suits for Boys and Youths.

Y

OU naturally do not wish to pay more for your clothes than is

necessary. At the same time you want to be correctly fitted and get a suit that will hold its shape for months to come.

R. K. SMITH'S service of READY-TO-WEAR, CLOTHING to call is so well known that we have no hesitation in asking you that prices at offer we fittings and see the big variety of styles and taste. good and enable you to dress with economy Our name on your suit is a dependable guarantee of quality and style—and there is no guess work about the workmanship either.

R. K. SMITH, Ltd., The King's Buildings, II3-II9 Union Street, ABERDEEN. Telephone No. 677.

Dunn's

Telegrams-"Clothing, Aberdeen."

0O Marching Boot

For

For

Comfort

Durability

As illustrated, 36 '6

JOHN A. DUN N, 26 and 175 UNION STREET, ABERDEEN. Repairs with either Leather, Rubber, or Gutta-Percha.

Printed at T HM. ROSMIMOUNT PRESS. Aberdeen, for the ABERDEEN GRAMM AR SCHOOL. FORMER PUPILS CLUB (Interim Secretary ST,WART NI. C RVSTALL, I.A.• Solicitor, a I Bridge Street.

Aberdeen).