AGS Magazine July 1950

THE

ABERDEEN GRAMMAR SCHML MAGAZINE

ABERDEEN

print2c1, forThe Former Pupils' C1ub at' The University Press Price - One Shilling and Sixpence Volume LIII, No. 2

July 1950

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CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS Facing page The War Memorial in the School . .

Hall . .

92 The Unveiling Ceremony 93 James Gray Kyd, C.B.E., . . . tox F.R.S.E. .

F.P. Rugby Section 1st XV—Season 1949-50 • • • • 132 School Rugby 1st XV—Season • 133 1949-50 .

Facing page

Eric D. Watt . . . .

Mr. Gavin Falconer, A.R.C.O., A.R.C.M. . .

• • School Prefects, 1949-5o . .

F.P. Reunion in Singapore . .

Winners of Three Cups . .

F.P. Hockey Section 1st XISeason 1949-50 . . .

148 149 180 181 188

189

The Unveiling of the War Memorial . . . . . . Page 86 The Roll of Honour. By Eric Linklater and Chairman of F.P. Club Executive . . . .

• • . » 99 The New President of the F.P. Club • tot .

Our Rugby Internationalist . .

102 The Rector's Letter to Former Pupils .

• • . . „ to; .

University Notes . .

• . . . . . . » 104 Notes about Old Boys . . . . .

• • . „ 105 .

Tracing Scots Ancestry. By J. G. Kyd . . .

• . . » 126 Nairobi, 1900-1950. By G. G. Sutherland . » 128 .

A Grandstand for Rubislaw. Aberdeen's Own Battalion. Books by F.Ps » 132 Marriages . . . . . . . . . . . » 1 33 Obituary . . . . . . . . . . » 135 School Section— Changes in the School Staff • • • . ,, 144 Sydney to Cape Town . . ,, 145 My Birthday . . .

• . ,, 147 Our Hockey Internationalist. .Annual School Service.

148 Mr. Gavin E. Falconer . . . . . .

• » 149 Aberdeen University Bursary Competition „ 150 .

Summer Dream in Prospect . .

• • . » 15 1 School and Random Notes . . „ • .

152 Who's Who among the Prefects • • • . » 1 58 Lower School Notes. Arts Club Notes . xO House Notes . . . .

162 .

• . ft Rambling and Mountaineering Club . . >9 Literary and Debating Society . .

• 16 .

SD Dramatic Society . . . . . . .

It Combined Cadet Force Notes. Pipes and Drums 166 Scout Notes . . . . .

• » 167 School Sporting Activities .

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29 Scottish Schoolboys' Club . .

If School Office-Bearers, 1949-5o .

The Former Pupils' Club— Annual General Meeting . . . . . . . „ 173 • Edinburgh Centre . . . . . . . . . ,, 177 Malayan Centre. London Centre . „ 181 . . . .

• Glasgow Centre . . . . . . . . „ 183 .

F.P. Club Consuls . . . . . . . " 285 . .

F.P. Rugby Section . . . . . . . . „ 187 F.P. Golf Section . . . . . . . . . » 188 F.P. Hockey Section . . . . . . .

18 9 F.P. Cricket Section. F.P. Club Office-Bearers, 1950-51 „ 190 .

New Members of the Club. Club Subscriptions . . . „ 192 •

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine 66th year ; No. r66 (New Series, 571.4 year, No. 157) JULY 195o

Vol. LIII

No. z -

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

[Nom: An asterisk after a name indicates tbat the F.P. is a member of the F.P. Club ; dates after a name indicate the years of attendance at the School.]

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The Unveiling of the War Memorial At a moving and memorable ceremony in the School Hall on the afternoon of Friday, 19 May 195o, the War Memorial to the 194 F.P.s who lost their lives during the second world war was unveiled by the Right Honourable Lord Alness (1884-85), P.C., G.B.E., LL.D. Twenty-seven years ago, on 8 May 1923, Lord Alness unveiled the Memorial to the 243 F.P.s who lost their lives in the first world war, and it was poignantly fitting that the School's most distinguished son should again be present to deliver an address with his accustomed grace and felicity and to unveil the second part of what is now the School's combined War Memorial. That he gladly consented to travel from Bournemouth to Aberdeen for the occasion was in itself a gracious gesture on Lord Alness's part, and yet another manifestation of his interest in and devotion to the School.

As will be seen from the photograph of the War Memorial opposite page 9z, the six panels bearing the names of those who fell in the recent war have been added to the nine panels which bear the names of the fallen in the previous war, and an additional series of small panels containing short biographical notes on the careers of those whose names appear on the main panels has been added, so that both parts of the combined Memorial are identical. Below the panels there have been added a small dais and six small pillars of carved oak, so that the Memorial is a shrine set apart from the body of the hall.

Mr. Alexander B. Gardner, F.R.I.B.A., the City Architect, has been notably successful in extending to the new part of the Memorial the simple and beautiful design of the old, which bears the distinguished hallmark of the late Dr. William Kelly, A.R.S.A. The Lord Provost of Aberdeen, Mr. Duncan Fraser, C.B.E., presided at the ceremony, and he was accompanied by Lord Alness, the Rev. P. D. Lawrence (1909-16), M.A., School Chaplain; Mr. J. G. Kyd (1891-98), C.B.E., F.R.S.E., President of the Club; Mr. J. C. Rennie, B.L., Town Clerk; Councillor J. F. Hall, Convener of

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the Education Committee of Aberdeen Town Council; and Mr. J. J. Robertson, O.B.E., M.A., B.D., F.R.S.E., Rector of the School.

The other members of the platform party were Baillie James A. Mackie (an honorary member of the Club), Baillies Ogilvie, Henderson, Stephen and Colin J. Maclver (19o2-o3); Mr. Frank Scorgie, Director of Education; Mr. J. F. V. Hunter, Town Clerk Depute; Councillor J. M. Graham, Convener of the Secondary Schools Management Committee; Mr. A. B. Gardner, City Architect; Mr. D. M. Andrew, Rector of the School, 1924-42; Mr. Alexander Gray (r9to-22), VicePresident of the Club and Chairman of the Executive; Mr. Ian G. McPherson (1910-17), Vice-Chairman of the Executive; Mr. J. S. MacLachlan (1922-32), Secretary of the Club; Mr. A. C. R. Watt (1925-37), Editor of the Magazine; and Alan S. Hall, Senior Prefect of the School.

The seating in the Hall had been specially arranged for the ceremony, the platform party being seated in front of the Memorial.

Relatives of the fallen, together with senior members of the School Staff, members of the Town Council, and external members of the Education Committee, were seated in the body of the Hall facing the Memorial, and on the stage were the other members of the Staff, past Presidents of the Club, and members of the Club Executive.

The School prefects acted as ushers, and at the commencement of the service they filed into their seats in the front row of the Hall. Present pupils, subscribers to the Club Memorial Funds, and others, were seated in a marquee, to which the service was relayed, on the lawn in front of the School.

THE SERVICE

The Order of Service was the same as at the ceremony in 1923, and the two hymns were the same as those sung on that occasion.

The proceedings opened with the singing of the Hymn, " Come let us to the Lord our God ", to the tune Kilmarnock, and thereafter the School Chaplain read the following introductory sentences:— The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance, and the memory of the just shall be blessed.

Their reward is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the Most High.

And His servants shall serve Him. And they shall see His face.

Mr. Lawrence then offered this Prayer:— Almighty God, the God of our fathers, Who in times past didst lead this people through many and great dangers; vouchsafe to us again, we beseech Thee, Thy gracious presence and aid us as we come to Thee on this day of solemn remembrance. We give Thee thanks for all the goodness Thou hast bestowed upon us as a nation in the generations that have passed, and above all for Thine unspeakable gift to us and to all mankind in Jesus Christ our Lord.

0 God, Who art not the God of the dead but of the living, and Who dost swallow up death forever; we thank Thee for the hope of life that is eternal. We bless Thee for the fellowship of the unseen, for those who are all gone into light, who see Thy face and serve Thee still. Their heroism and their sacrifice, their deeds and their endurance shall be the heritage of our children's children. With humble hearts and memories and lowly pride we commemorate before Thee those who died that we might live, who with the sunrise and the morning star gave up their days of love and joy that justice and freedom might not perish from the earth.

The work we do is harder for their absence. The road we tread is lonelier for their passing. We trust to meet them at the journey's end. We lift to Thee

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

91

the sorrows of our homes. Give us the grace to make the sacrifice complete.

Aid us to live as faithfully and bravely as they died, to cherish their memories in living monuments, and greatly resolve to build the City of our God in the land for which they gave themselves.

This we ask through the merits of Thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, in Whose prevailing Name and words we pray.

Mr. Lawrence then led the company in the Lord's Prayer and thereafter the Senior Prefect read a part of Chapter II of the Epistle to the Hebrews.

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INTRODUCTION OF LORD ALNESS

Lord Provost Fraser, in introducing Lord Alness, said:— We meet here to-day to unveil the Memorial to brave men, men who were proud of the traditions of this great School, and of the city of their birth or adoption.

In the darkest days of our country's long and varied history they heard the call of duty and, " counting not the cost ", went forth to fight for freedom. I doubt if there is any part of Scotland where love of country and true patriotism are more marked than in this northern city of ours.

Within the lifetime of many of us, Britain has been called upon to bear the brunt of two world wars. In the war of 1914-18 men from this area, in large numbers, made the supreme sacrifice, and from the Aberdeen Grammar School 243 of its best and noblest sons gave their all in the cause of Freedom. The names of these are inscribed on the Memorial of the first world war.

Towards the end of the summer of 1939, the country was again plunged into the most devastating war in history—and again the lads of the Grammar School, in large numbers, responded to the call.

We gather here in humble gratitude to God for the example and sacrifice of those who did not return to the land of their birth. They gave their lives in order that you and I should be free from the humiliation of a foreign yoke. I think we can say with deepest reverence this afternoon: " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends ".

We count it a high honour that Lord Alness has travelled north to unveil the Memorial to many former pupils of this fine old School, of which he himself is a distinguished former pupil. In Aberdeen we are justly proud of the brilliant career of Lord Alness who, in many spheres of life, has been an inspiration to his fellow men and an example of high statesmanship and of unselfish patriotism. It must be of interest to the younger people here to-day that Lord Alness unveiled the Memorial of the 1914-18 war on the 8th of May 1923.

I now call upon Lord Alness to unveil this Memorial which has been placed here in memory of brave men who gave to the uttermost in the years 1939 to 1 945" They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them."

Ladies and gentlemen, I call upon The Right Honourable Lord Alness, P.C., G.B.E., LL.D. .

LORD ALNESS'S ADDRESS

Lord Alness then delivered his address. He said:— I little thought, twenty-seven years ago, when the sad privilege was mine of unveiling a War Memorial to the memory of those boys of the Grammar School who had fought and died for their country in the first world war, that I should be called upon to unveil another War Memorial to the memory of a later race of Grammar School boys who, like their predecessors, fought and died for their country.

Yet so, in the inscrutable providence of God, it is.

It fell to my lot, when I was a Member of the House of Commons,

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

to unveil more than one War Memorial to my valiant and dead constituents in Roxburghshire. I said then—I believe I said it in this place in 1925—and I repeat to-day, that I wish a ceremony of this kind could be carried through in silence rather than by speech.

For, after all, what can one say on such an occasion that shall not sound conventional and even cheap? Custom, however, has otherwise decreed, and we must bow to its behests.

There are just two simple thoughts which I should like to leave with you to-day. The one is Remembrance. The other is Resolution.

Remembrance. Which of us can forget the urge which impelled these young men, whom to-day we mourn, to spring to the defence of their native land when its liberties were endangered by a foreign foe ? Many of them might have chosen the primrose path of dalliance, but they chose instead the hard road of duty. In Browning's words, they welcomed each rebuff that turns earth's smoothness rough.

The valour of these young men is to us to-day both an inspiration and a challenge. But for them and others like them, we should not be met here this afternoon. But for them, we should have been stripped of all the possessions, spiritual and material, which we hold most dear. But for them we should be the victims of the jackboot, the Gestapo and the concentration camp. But for them, we should be the slaves—the helots of Hitler.

Do you remember these lines? Listen!

They met with death, And nonchalantly passed the time of day. " Immortals these", he said beneath his breath, And put his scythe away.

When you go home, said one of them, Tell them of us, and say That for your to-morrow We have given our to-day.

How poignantly true that is! Surely, surely our hearts should overflow with gratitude to those young heroes who have wrought for us so great a deliverance. Of each of them, in familiar lines, we may say He died the noblest death a man may die, Fighting for God and right and liberty, And such a death is immortality.

To-day we pay humble homage to our great dead.

Our hearts go out in sympathy to many a home where there is a vacant chair and an aching heart. What can we do but commend these bereaved ones to the tender care of the Great Comforter, who alone can soften their sorrows and bind up their wounds. And yet, even they, as the years go on, may find it in their hearts to echo the noble lines written by Sir Owen Seamen:— Rejoice, whatever anguish rends your heart, That God has given you for a priceless dower, To live in these great times, and have your part, In Freedom's crowning hour.

But remembrance is not enough. Sympathy is not enough. They must be wedded to resolution. What, then, should be our resolve?

Surely to prove worthy of those young men who died, to see to it

The War Memorial in the School Hall

The Unveiling Ceremony

Left to Right—Mr. D. M. Andrew, Lord Airless, Lord Provost Duncan Fraser, Mr. J. G. Kyd, Rev. P. D. Lawrence, Mr. J. J. Robertson.

The Presentation of the Roll of Honour

Mr. J. G. Kyd, President of the F.P. Club, hands over the Roll of Honour to Mr. J. J. Robertson, Rector of the School.

Photographs by courtesy of "Boo-Accord".

Aberdeen Grammar School Mageqine

93

that their sacrifice has not been made in vain, to reap the harvest which they have sown in blood and tears. They say to us, in the words of a dead Canadian officer:— To you, from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.

They did not die to usher in a world of petty and fissiparous conflict. They did not die to usher in a world of suspicion and of strife. No, they died to usher in a new and better world, and we must join them in the great crusade, leaving behind the winter of our discontent.

I walked the other day through Hyde Park. The sun was shining.

The buds were bursting. The birds were singing in the boughs. Over the trees a thin veil of green was stealing. What did it all mean?

It meant that winter was dead. It meant that spring had come. And so, in the wider world of men and affairs, let us see to it that, purged and cleansed by the annealing fires of war, we shall play our part in raising a better Britain from the dead ashes of the past—a Britain which shall be the home of a contented and a united race.

THE UNVEILING AND PRAYER OF DEDICATION

The company then stood while Lord Alness, preceded by a Town Sergeant, moved to the east end of the Memorial and drew aside the curtain which had screened the new Memorial. The School Chaplain then offered the following Prayer of Dedication and Thanksgiving:— Almighty God, Who art the true light of faithful souls and the perfect brightness of Thy saints, and Who fillest heaven and earth with Thy Divine Majesty, but Who dost accept the offerings of Thy children, we dedicate to Thy glory this memorial of our brothers who gave their lives for us, beseeching Thee to bless unto us their sacrifice and to keep us ever mindful of their love.

0 Lord God, before Whom stand the spirits of all flesh, we bless and praise Thee; we thank Thee for the good examples and brave testimonies of so many who have passed through the portals of this School—especially for those whom this day we remember, who by their sacrifice for us have entered into the sacrifice of Christ and known its meaning. We do not mourn for them to-day. We praise Thee for their spirit, and we are content to leave them in Thy holy hands. Let the memory of their devotion ever be an example to us, that we, being faithful unto death, may with them at the last receive the crown of life ; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And grant, we beseech Thee, for His sake that this Memorial may be to those who follow after a perpetual inspiration. May those who learn here, and those who teach, be ever true to those high ideals for which our brothers died. May all who go forth from this School dedicate themselves to a life of service for others and the pursuit of whatsoever things are true, pure, lovely and of good report.

May we all from this time forth, having Thy goodness ever in remembrance, strive to please Thee by walking before Thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

LAMENT AND LAST POST

The company stood again while Pipe-Major W. Anderson and Pipe-Major R. Slater of the Gordon Highlanders played a lament from the vestibule of the Hall. This was followed by the placing of three wreaths. Lord Provost Fraser placed a wreath from the Corporation of the City of Aberdeen below the centre of the combined

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

Memorial and Mr. J. G. Kyd and the Rector placed wreaths on behalf of the Club and the School respectively below the 1939-1945 Memorial.

The company remained standing while Sergeant G. Rae and Corporal J. Mitchell of the Gordon Highlanders sounded the Last Post.

PRESENTATION OF ROLL OF HONOUR

The President of the Club then presented to the School a copy of the Roll of Honour which had been specially bound in morocco leather and suitably inscribed. Addressing the Rector, Mr. Kyd said :— On behalf of the Former Pupils' Club of the School, I hand to you this specially bound copy of the Roll of Honour. This I do in order that it may be kept in safe custody for all time, not only as a memorial to those who did not return, but as an inspiration to their contemporaries and to those who will follow after and who will have the privilege of being pupils at this great and ancient institution.

THE RECTOR'S SPEECH

The Rector, in accepting custody of the Memorial and of the Roll of Honour, said:— The goodwill of the Town Council has linked it with our Former Pupils in the joint giving of the Memorial so movingly commended to our gratitude and pride this afternoon. On this occasion, therefore, it falls to the School alone to speak the word of thanks and acceptance.

All about us here, the School has evidence of the generosity of its sons and of their achievements in every field of endeavour.

Of these we are justly proud, but never have we accounted them in any sense comparable with the shining glory of this Roll, which for more than a quarter of a century now has been speaking to us of high and imperishable things. As we have felt about the earlier Memorial, so do we feel about the new, which from this very hour becomes one with the old, uniquely precious in our sight and to be guarded as the School's dearest possession.

That assurance, together with the fullest measure of our thanks, I offer first to the Town Council and the Former Pupils' Club, and then, at a yet higher level of gratitude and indebtedness, to the many present this afternoon to whom we owe what is beyond all repayment. To them especially, I voice a firm belief that both the School itself and all who in these latter days share with us the use of this place, must ever count it much more than a mere hall of assembly, must indeed see in it a very focus of hallowed sentiments, the place where, if one may put it so, an ancient school keeps the book of its long history continually open at the noblest chapter of all, and every letter is of gold.

To you, Mr. President, and through you to the Former Pupils' Club, we give a further measure of thanks for the Memorial Record.

Great as is the appeal of the panelled Roll, its influence must as the years pass be most felt by the stream of young life flowing through the School. But in the provision of the Memorial Volume you have been mindful of the very many whose lives lie apart from this place; first, of those who, because one face and name are inexpressibly dear, will look on all the names and faces with a loving regard; and then, of us others who, spared the pangs of personal bereavement, can yet come and come again to these brief records and to the young vanished faces, and find in them a power to chasten our ambition and quiet our complainings and to leave us with a reconciling sense of the mingled dignity and sadness of our mortal lot.

For this gift and service to us, we give you heartfelt thanks, and we shall ever cherish this book, so fairly wrought without, so memorable within.

The Service concluded with the singing of the Hymn, " How Bright These Glorious Spirits Shine 1 ", the pronouncement of the Benediction by the School Chaplain and the singing of the National Anthem.

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

95

THE NAMES ON THE MEMORIAL

The following are the names inscribed on the 1939-1945 Memorial.

Dates at School are also given and the list is arranged here in order of seniority, based on date of entry to the School. (On the Memorial the names are arranged alphabetically.)

1884.

ALEXANDER JAMIESON (1884-85).

1886.

WILLIAM STUART EWING (1886-88).

1891.

CLEMENT LEE COBBAN (1891-96).

1898.

WILLIAM BENTON RENNIE (1898-1902).

1900.

JOHN No DAWSON (1900-04).

190I.

ALLAN JAMES STEWART (1901-07).

1905.

WILLIAM JOHN SIVEWRIGHT INGRAM (1905-06).

1906.

CHARLES ALBERT HENDRICK (1906-15).

ERNEST ROBERT SORLEY (1906-18).

RAYMOND GRAHAM WILSON (1906-I2 and 1915-17).

1907.

RICHARD OGILVIE GIRDWOOD (1907-15).

ALEXANDER SMITH BLACK KEMP (1907-16).

ALASTAIR TAIT (1907-17).

1908.

JOHN ERIC BAIN (1908-13).

DOUGLAS WILLIAM GORDON (1908-09).

TOM GORDON RENNIE (1908-I0).

1 909.

ALEXANDER THOMSON BEGG (1909-Io).

JOHN NORMAN MILNE (1909-I2).

1910.

HUGH EVELYN LISTER (1910- I 6).

1911.

SYDNEY DUFFUS (1911-17).

JAMES HENDERSON OGILVIE (1911-15).

1912.

RONALD GRANT DINGWALL (1912-21).

DOUGLAS DUNNINGHAM (1912-23).

1913.

ALEXANDER MOIR WALKER (1913-18).

1 914.

NORMAN JOLLY (1914-23).

ROBERT ALBERT RAINNIE (1914-18).

JAMES COWIE THOM (1914-26).

1915.

RITCHIE ALLAN Low (1915-27).

REGINA LD GEORGE WEIGHILL ( I 915-18).

1917.

WALTER GEORGE SWAN BENZIE (1917-19).

CHARLES LUDWIG (1917-26).

LOUIS KAY MELVIN (1917-20).

1918.

GEORGE DAVIDSON BISSET (1918-31).

HENRY ALEXANDER SHAW FRASER (1918-27).

HAMISH MACPHAIL MASSIE (1918-31).

STUART AULDJO MIDDLETON (1918-29).

CHARLES PEARSON SK ENE, JR. (1918-25).

ALEXANDER THOMSON (1918-22).

GEORGE THEODORE ROBERTSON WATT (1918-31).

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

96 1919.

DONALD JAMES DAWSON (1919-27).

JAMES HAY (1919-27).

I MN CHARLES FORDYCE MACGREGOR (1919-20).

ALAN MILNE SCOTT (1919-24).

1920.

GEORGE CRAIG (1920-27).

JAMES GLLLAN (1920-32).

CHARLES HUGH EDDIE Ross (1920-31).

GEOFFREY ALLEN ROWTON (1920-3 1).

JAMES GORDON SHEPHERD (1920-29).

VERNON WILLIAM LAMOND STANION (1920-23).

1921.

HARRY BEWS ANDERSON (192I-27).

JOHN ANDERSON (1921- 34).

LEONARD MASSIE CHEER (1921-30).

ALEXANDER GEORGE DAWSON (1921-26).

JAMES FRANCIS FORBES (1921-27).

ANGUS FREDERIC GALLOWAY (192I-22).

JoHN GRANT (1921-33).

DOUGLAS WILSON MILNE (192I-23).

JOHN ALEXANDER ROSE (1921-26).

1922.

HAROLD ANDERSON BLACK HALL (1922-29).

ANDREW HAILSTONES BRUCE (1922-37).

JoHN LUNDIE MICHIE BURR (1922-32).

JOHN DONALDSON (1922-27).

EDWARD MACKIE MCINTYRE (1922-33).

JOHN MACMILLAN (1922-29).

ALEXANDER WILLIAM OGSTON (1922-35).

ROBERT ANDREW STEWART (1922-34).

CHARLES CHAMBERLIN MACCULLOCH WATT (1922-27).

1923.

ALASTAIR MACKENZIE COCKLE (1923-36).

JAMES RONALD COULTER (1923-32).

HARRY GEORGE CRAIGMILE (1923-26).

JOHN MILNE RIGG CRUICKSHANK (1923-36).

FREDERICK SCOTT THOMSON DEWAR (1923-29).

WILLIAM MITCHELL GRANT (1923-34).

ALEXANDER BURNETT HUTCHISON (1923-29).

IAN ALEXANDER BRUCE JOHNSTONE (1923-27).

THOMAS LAUDER (1923-29).

ALASTAIR DAVID MACDONALD (1923-25).

EDWARD SUTHERLAND PRYOR REBECCA (1923-33).

JOHN MOIR ROBERTSON (1923-29).

IAN ALEXANDER SEGGIE (1923-34).

1 924-

PETER CORYNDON LUXMOORE-BALL (1924-29).

JOHN BROWN (1924-26).

DESMOND THOMAS KAVANAGII (1924-20 JOHN MACPHERSON MACDONALD (1924 -26).

DENNIS LORRAINE MACKAY (1924-29).

JoHN CUNNINGHAM MEIKLE (1924-33).

ROBERT COULSON MEIKLE (1924-33).

JAMES BARNETT MICHIE (1924-27).

JAMES MATTHEW Ross ( 192 4'30.

WYNNE JARVIE SCOTT (1924-36).

ROBERT ALLAN STEWART WATT (1924-36).

1925.

ROBERT DAVID SPITTAL FLEMING (1925-37).

EDGAR ALEXANDER GAULD (1925-39).

NORMAN ALEXANDER MERCER (1925-29).

KENNETH DAVID MILNE (1925-32).

WILLIAM FRANCIS MILNE (1925-29).

KENNETH DUNBAR PETRIE (1925-37).

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine OHN HALL DAVIDSON SHARP (1925-27).

JOHN MAXWELL STEWART (1925-36).

JOHN THOMSON WRIGHT (1925).

DONALD JAMES YOUNG (1925-36).

1926.

GEORGE ALLAN BUEUVErT (1926-37).

ROBERT NORMAN DRENNAN (1926-39).

ALEXANDER MACPHERSON GEDDES (1926-39).

HARRY BETHUNE GILCHRIST (1926-33).

ANGUS WILLIAM GRANT (1926-30).

KENNETH JOHN HAINE (1926-37).

JAMES VINCENT HAY (1926-35).

ANDREW GORDON MILNE (1926-35).

ALEXANDER ARBUTHNOT RODGER RIDDEL (1926-34).

EDWARD MACKSON THOMPSON (1926-28).

IAN FOWLER TOCHER (1926-34).

JOHN PATERSON SMITH WORLING (1926-3 5).

1927.

JAMES SHEARER WOOD BALLANTYNE (1927-38).

JAMES MEARNS DAVIDSON (1927-37).

DENYS WILLIAM ENGLAND (1927-35).

WILLIAM GEORGE FRASER (1927-33).

JOHN DAVIDSON FROST (1927-39).

IAN Ross FYFE (1927-33).

LAWRENCE HAROLD GRUER (1927-32).

LAWRENCE GRAHAM MURRAY HALL (1927-32).

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER WATT INNES (1927-39).

JAMES GRAHAM IRVINE (1927-38).

JOHN WC/PPE:WEN MCKENZIE (1927-37).

DONALD NOEL BOYD ORR (1927-36).

BASIL JOHN ALLAN RENNIE (1927).

ALASTAIR DRUMMOND THOMSON (1927-29).

a

•

1928. JOHN RUSSELL STEWART BELL (1928-41).

JAMES WHYTE CONNON (1928-39).

WILLIAM SCOTT CORMACK (1928-33).

JOHN FIDDES (1928-33).

GEORGE LEASK GIBE (1928-41).

EDWARD HUTCHEON GOODBRAND (1928-34).

DOUGLAS HARRY MOSTYN-HOOPS (1928-33).

JOHN ALEXANDER BARRIE JAMIESON (1928-35).

RONALD DAVID WHAMOND JAMIESON (1928-41).

NORMAN CRICHTON MACIVER (1928-34).

ALISTAIR CAMPBELL MACKENZIE (1928-36).

ALASTAIR IAN TAYLOR MOIR (1928-33).

JAMES MACONACHIE MORRISON (1928-33).

SYDNEY ROBERTSON SMITH (1928-37).

1929.

LEONARD JOHN BLACKHALL (1929-39).

WILLIAM DAVID CHEYNE (1929-40).

STEPHEN GEORGE ESSON (1929-34).

WILLIAM ALEXANDER MUNRO HALLEY (1929-30 and 1932-35).

ALEXANDER GEORGE MCLEAN (1929-39).

GEORGE PIRIE MOLLISON (1929-40).

ROBERT PHILP MUNRO (1929-36).

JOHN WILLIAM PAUL, JR. (1929-36).

ERIC WILLIAM TRAIL (1929-41).

GORDON BOWMAN WILL (1929-31).

1930.

ROBERT GEORGE LESLIE BAXTER (1930-33).

DAVID MATH IESON BELL (1930-35).

IAN CAMPBELL BENNETT BLACK (1930-39).

JOHN MARTIN HARRY ENGLAND (1930-33).

WILLIAM FORD WATSON PORTEOUS (1 930-34).

BRIAN ALEXANDER SUTHERLAND (1930-33).

97

98

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine 1931.

LESLIE DUNCAN DURNO (1931-38).

JOHN ALEXANDER GEORGE FIRTH (1931- 34).

THOROLD ANDERTON FIRTH (x931-32 and 1934-35).

WILLIAM FRASER JENKINS (1931-32 and 1936-38).

JOHN SANG (1931-35).

1932.

WILLIAM DAVIDSON (1932-42).

ROBERT REID MAITLAND (1932-35).

1933.

HUGH THOMAS CHRISTOPHER FORBES (1935-38).

THOMAS JOSEPH MACRAE FORBES (1933-41).

GEORGE OHN MACPHERSON (1933-40).

WILLIAM MCDONALD MENZIES (1933-35).

THOMAS CAMPBELL REID (1933-39).

WILLIAM ROBERT SCORGIE (1933-41).

JAMES HARKINS MACKENZIE WYNESS (1933-39).

1934.

GEORGE EDMOND ANDERSON (19;4-37).

JOI-LN PETER HUTCHESON (1934-40).

ALEXANDER JAMES JENKINS (1934-40).

JAMES MCPHERSON (1934-37).

GEORGE MURRAY PATERSON (t934-37).

DOUGLAS FINNIE REID (1934-41).

1935.

HARRY WILLIAM GLENNIE (1935-39).

ARTHUR MELDRUM MURRAY (1935-37).

KENNETH HOOD ROBERTSON (1935-41).

HARRY Ross (1935-41).

1936.

IAN MAXWELL CORMACK (1936-39).

ALLAN CRUICKSHANK HENDRY (1936-37).

MALCOLM HUGH ALEXANDER MACKINTOSH (1936-37 JOHN BRUCE MACLEOD (1936-39), CHARLES WILLOX PEASLAND (1936-37).

1937.

DAVID STRANG LENNIE (1937-42).

JAMES VALENTINE WALLACE (1937-41).

CHARLES DUNBAR YULE (1937-39).

1938.

ROBERT ANNAND MILNE (1938-40).

JOHN MANWARING STEWARD MO/R (1938-40).

WILLIAM HARKINS WYNESS (1938-39).

1939.

ROY ALEXANDER GRANT MACKENZIE (1939-41).

1941.

JOHN MICHAEL SCOTT (1941-42).

* REGULARS ..

NON-REGULARS

*

*

NAVY

ARMY

AIR FORCE

MERCHANT NAVY

TOTAL

5 17 22 -

10

IO

6o 70 -

71 ...._.

81 -

6 6

31 1 54 _ 185

_ I2 -

CIVILIANS

•,

TOTAL NUMBER OF NAMES ON WAR MEMORIAL

•.

9

_......

194

Aberdeen Grammar Sebool Magazine

99

The Roll of Honour What is one to say about a Roll of Honour that shows the photographs of nearly two hundred men, most of them very young, who lately died in a war that was forced upon us by wickedness without and ineptitude within? " Never again," is what one would like to say. " Never again! " That indeed is what we hope, but what we dare not say. We who have lived through this half-century have had too long an experience of the world's addiction to evil choice and the fool's decision to believe that error and malignity have all been put behind us. And so, perhaps, we may be tempted to pity only, and looking at these young photographs, say to ourselves, " Poor boys! And oh, poor parents! " But pity only would be as ill-judged as the expectation of perfection round the corner. The war, which we entered so reluctantly, was waged, when we did enter, for great purposes: for peace, and freedom, and justice, all ruling throughout the world. It failed to achieve those purposes—but it kept knowledge of them alive, when, had we refused to fight or quickly succumbed, all memory of them might have been obliterated. Hope is still alive, and the chance of better days to come, and high principle has not yet been defeated; we enjoy some comfort, we retain a measure of security. We live, in fact, in a shrunken but still persistent decency. And for that we have to thank those who fought for our principles and our comfort and, with humility, those who died for them. Their achievement was positive, though victory was not complete.

This is the second Roll of Honour that the School has published in thirty years, and that is sufficient evidence of the barbarity of our times. Against the modern barbarians, we who have been trained in the old ways of civil decency, humane learning, and Christian charity must take our stand; and the School's record, in the defence of Christian civilisation, is proud and honourable. We mourn those who have died in battle, and to their parents our hearts go out in sympathy. But pride comes welling in, to fill the space that grief has emptied, and having wept for these young men, we rise to applaud them. Like the Three Hundred of Leonidas at Thermopylae, they stood in the narrow pass between Right and Wrong. They stood, and held the pass, and they too may claim the epitaph made for Leonidas and his imperishable guard:— From Sparta came the order: Here you stay.

Greetings to Sparta! Tell her we obey.

• ERIC LINKLATER (1913-I6)

* * * As is generally known, the relatives of each Former Pupil who gave his life in the last war received from the Club a copy of the Roll of Honour. The volume was well described by the Rector in his foreword as " a moving and precious memorial ", and members of the Club will be gratified, although not surprised, to learn that scores

100

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

of letters of appreciation have been received from the next-of-kin of those whose names appear in the Roll.

I should like to quote a few excerpts from these letters :— May I, on behalf of my Mother, thank you for sending the Roll of Honour.

You will realise it is one of her most treasured possessions. . . .

Please convey to the members of the Former Pupils' Club my very grateful thanks and appreciation of the Roll of Honour Book—It is a beautiful tribute to the memory of such a lot of fine fellows, and I'm proud to be the Mother of one of them.

This is truly a heroic record of gallantry which fills all of us with pride and gratitude.

The work must have been stupendous . . . and all so carefully done. My copy will go eventually to my grandson. . . .

It is perhaps remarkable that there is no mention in the volume of the name of the Editor who was responsible for its production, but, on behalf of the Club, I should like to express our sincere thanks to Alan C. R. Watt, the Editor, and to J. Scott MacLachlan, Secretary of the Club, who collaborated with him, for their devoted labours which have been rewarded by such a satisfactory result.

Mr. James A. Dawson, C.S.I., C.I.E., LL.D., I.C.S. (retired), Dunolly, Bieldside, Aberdeenshire, father of two Former Pupils whose photographs appear in the Roll of Honour, has kindly sent the following tribute :— I have been asked by a former member of the Executive to write a few words of appreciation of the work done by the Editor, Mr. Alan C. R. Watt, M.A., LL.B., in compiling the recent Roll of Honour. Nothing could give me greater pleasure.

I can speak from personal knowledge of the painstaking trouble and endless patience which he took to elicit and verify all relevant facts relating to the careers of those who died, and to obtain suitable photographs. With Mr. Watt it was indeed a labour of love which is so often its own reward, but one should not overlook the self-sacrifice of time and toil which this task must have entailed. Even with all the resources, in material and personnel, at his command in the excellently equipped University Press, the burden of sifting, shaping and arranging the information placed in his hands must have fallen on the Editor. The beautiful illustrated volume which crowned these efforts must be one of which he is justifiably proud.

The best thanks and heartiest congratulations of parents and relatives are due, in full measure, to Mr. Watt.

ALEXANDER GRAY, Chairman of F.P. Club Executive.

COPIES OF THE ROLL OF HONOUR When the Roll of Honour was being prepared, the Executive of the Club arranged for additional copies to be printed, as they anticipated that many F.P.s and others connected with the School would wish to obtain copies for themselves. The price of these is 25/- each (25/8 post free), and orders should be sent to the Secretary of the Club, 220 Union Street, Aberdeen, or to any of the Secretaries of Club Centres.

r

Drunnnotod Young, Edinburgh

JAMES GRAY KYD, C.B.E., F.F.A., F.R.S.E.

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

101

The New President of the F.P. Club The President of the F.P. Club for the year 1950-5 I is James Gray Kyd* (1891-98), C.B.E., F.F.A., F.R.S.E. His professional career culminated in his being Registrar-General for Scotland from 1937 to 1948, but now that he has " retired ", he is, it seems, more than ever immersed in manifold activities, most of them concerned with Scotland or some aspect of the welfare of her people. The School and the Club have always ranked high among the objects of his interest and enthusiasm, and by electing him President, the Club has bestowed its highest honour on one who is among its most devoted members.

A son of the late Mr. Thomas Kyd, formerly manager, Northern Assurance Company Limited, Aberdeen, and one of two brothers who attended the School, he was himself in the service of the Northern Assurance Company Limited in Aberdeen and London from 1898 to 1911, before being appointed Actuary to the National Health Insurance Commissioners (Ireland). After eight years there he held the chief post in the Government Actuary's Department in Ireland from 1919 to 1921, and for the next five years he held the same post in Scotland.

In 1926 he returned to London to become principal actuary of the Government Actuary's Department at the Treasury, a post which he held for eleven years. Latterly he was also Secretary of the Department. In 1937 he was appointed Registrar-General for Scotland, and it was in this capacity that he became well-known 'throughout Scotland. In his annual reports, and in later years at his Press conferences, he delighted in demonstrating the fascination of figures and, thanks to his lively wit, dull statistics took on for many a new interest, and indeed an unsuspected charm. Many F.P.s will recall his wartime observations on the changing fortunes in the matrimonial market of the members of the various allied forces temporarily stationed in Scotland; and many, too, will remember with no little amusement the controversies raised by some of his disclosures as to, for example, the relative expectancy of life in Edinburgh and Gla'sgow, or by his periodical authoritative commentaries on the rival claims of Aberdeen and Dundee for the position of Third City in Scotland.

From 1944 to 1946 he was President of the Faculty of Actuaries, an honour which, he said in his presidential address, he would ever regard as the greatest event of his professional life, and in 1948 he was admitted to honorary membership of the Association Royale des Actuaires Beiges after he had lectured to the Association in Brussels.

In 1944 Mr. Kyd suggested that a modern Statistical Account of Scotland should be prepared in view of the great changes that were taking place in the country and all the reconstruction and planning that was being discussed. The First Statistical Account of Scotland was prepared between 1791 and 1798 by Sir John Sinclair, the first President of the Board of Agriculture of Great Britain, and the Second was prepared between 1834 and 1845: Mr. Kyd suggested that the middle of the twentieth century was a suitable time for putting on record a further comprehensive study at a local level of traditions and conditions throughout the country. His proposal was adopted,

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

and the Third Statistical Account of Scotland is now being prepared.

Our President has all along been the driving force behind this great enterprise, and it seems likely that in years to come his name will be as closely associated with the Third Statistical Account of Scotland as is that of Sir John Sinclair with the First Statistical Account.

Space does not permit us to do more than mention some of the other activities of Mr. Kyd. Since 1945 he has been chairman of the Scots Ancestry Research Society, of whose activities he gives some account in an article on page x z6; he is a member of the Scottish Council of Social Service, and a member of the Council of the National Trust for Scotland; from 1940 to 1948 he was chairman of the Scottish Civil Service Savings Committee; he has been convener of the Church of Scotland's Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund since 1948; and he is a member of the Statistical Committee which is assisting the Royal Commission on Population. Forty years ago he was Editor of the Cairngorm Club Journal, and he maintains his life-long interest in the Scottish countryside as a director of the Scottish Rights of Way Society.

Since returning to Edinburgh in 1937, he has been an active member of the Edinburgh Centre of the F.P. Club, and he is at present Vice-President of that Centre. He has been a speaker at several Club Dinners in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, when he has entertained the company with some choice samples from his storehouse of anecdotes. He will, of course, be presiding at the Annual Dinner of the Club to be held in Aberdeen in November, and we look forward with keen anticipation to his presidential remarks on that occasion.

Our Rugby Internationalist Douglas W. C. Smith* (1929-41), M.B., Ch.B., Captain, R.A.M.C., who played for Scotland in all four rugby international matches in 1949, was again "capped" this year against France, Wales and Ireland. A fortnight before the English match, however, he sustained a fracture of the right forearm when playing for the R.A.M.C. Depot and Training Establishment against the Royal Horse Guards (B.A.O.R.) in the semi-final round of the Army Cup. This, of course, precluded his selection for the Scottish team which won the Calcutta Cup. A month previously it had been announced that Smith had been selected, as one of the thirty players chosen from the four home countries for the British Isles Rugby Union Team, 1950, which is touring New Zealand and Australia this summer. On account of his injury there was some doubt as to whether he would be able to accept the invitation to join the team but, happily, the report on his fractured forearm was considered satisfactory and he sailed with the team from Liverpool on r April 195o. Up to the time of writing he has been unable to play in any of the matches in New Zealand, but we hope that the large crowds at the remaining matches in New Zealand, and in Australia later in the summer, will have an opportunity of seeing some of Doug's characteristic dashes for the corner-flag.

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

103

The Rector's Letter to Former Pupils In the past three or four years this letter has been devoted in the main to explaining the impact on the School of certain strong social and educational forces making for change. As there are at the moment no significant developments to record, I propose to comment on one or two matters of more immediate and personal interest to ourselves.

This session will be memorable for the unveiling and dedication of the Memorial to those sons of the School who fell in the second world war. The account of the ceremony on 19 May rightly occupies a large place in this issue of the Magazine, and I am concerned here only to acknowledge two major debts to which it was not easy to make adequate reference within the severe limits most properly set for the Memorial Service itself.

Our indebtedness to Lord Alness would be hard indeed to exaggerate. He might so pardonably have asked to be excused the long journey and the sorrowful re-enacting of the part he was called on to take twenty-seven years ago. Instead he came with a willingness that revealed once again the strength of his attachment to his old School; and his simple, eloquent words, charged with the wisdom and sincerity of a long life finely spent, gave to the service of dedication a moving quality which will remain in the memory of all who heard him.

It is a privilege also to acknowledge the great pains taken by the Lord Provost, the senior officials of the town, and our own Former Pupils' Executive, to ensure that the ceremony should lack nothing of simple dignity and appropriateness. Rarely can so much time and care have been given by busy men to a School occasion, and for this recognition of all that the Service meant to us, we cannot but be deeply grateful.

For the third time within four years the fellowship of the Staff has been broken by untimely death. Tribute is paid to Mr. Falconer elsewhere in the Magazine, but I could not pass over in silence the loss of one who worked for the School so devotedly and so long.

Gavin Falconer would not have desired for himself the facile and over-worked superlative. Let us be content to say that here was a good man who in no easy sphere laboured among us for nearly thirty years with faithfulness and unfailing competence, giving to his boys sound teaching, a worthy example and many an uncovenanted service, and to his colleagues the friendship of a loyal and generous nature.

Eric D. Watt's inclusion in the Scottish hockey XI, and his fine showing in all three Internationals, were matter of great pride and satisfaction to the School, the more so as this brilliant. individual performance can be viewed as the peak of much keen, high-level hockey played by our boys since the game was re-introduced some seven years ago.

It was remarked in a recent Report that " Education has its prose as well as its poetry ", and I make no apology for drawing attention to the considerable improvements that are being made in the material environment of the School. Our dining huts are being enlarged and a kitchen installed, to make us independent of food brought from a centre. Before another winter begins, the interior of all the

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine buildings will have been re-decorated and the whole School re-wired.

In prospect are the modernising of the laboratories, the levelling of floors and the re-decking of classrooms, and the renovation and rearrangement of the library. Most important of all, however, and longest overdue, is the provision, now almost completed, of lavatories inside the buildings and conforming to modern standards. How, I wonder, will the generations of Grammarians react to the news that soon there will disappear without trace certain malodorous but timehallowed subterranean premises in the East playground? I feel constrained to put on record that, when apprised of this, one pillar of the F.P. Executive, instead of expressing an adult satisfaction at this hygienic advance, could only lament nostalgically the disappearance of a shrine at which it had been so blessedly easy for the young worshipper to offer incense jointly to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Imperial Tobacco Company!

J. J. R.

104

University Notes Albert Alexander Lawrence* (1940-46) and James William Rogers* (194o-43) played for the Scottish Universities' rugby team

against the English Universities at Liverpool on 21 January 195o.

Another member of the team was John Maxwell Milne* (1934-46), M.A., a graduate of Aberdeen and now a Law student at the University of Edinburgh. The Scottish team were beaten by 17 points to 6. * * * Raymond Forrester Blackburn* (1941-46) was selected for the Scottish Universities' hockey team against the English Universities at Leeds on 4 March 195o.

Degrees and Prizes

At the Spring Graduation in the University of Aberdeen on 29 March 195o, degrees were conferred on the following:— DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF LAW (B.L.) Harvey Ferries* (192 5 -39).

DEGREES OF BACHELOR OF MEDICINE AND BACHELOR OF SURGERY (M.B., Cx.B.) Thoms Phillip Gray Allison* (1928-31).

Terence Franklin Phillip Pitnley* (1931-44).

In the Faculty of Law Ronald Lee MacKinnon (1932-45) won the Whytc Prize in Accountancy for Law students; in the Faculty of Medicine Lindsay Symon* (1934-46) won the Dyce Davidson Gold Medal in Materia Medica and the Russell Gold Medal in Pathology, and James Alexander Fowler (193o-39) shared with another the Lizars Gold Medal in Anatomy.

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

•

HONOURS AND AWARDS Knight Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (K.B.E.) James Ian Cormack Crombie* (1908-21), C.M.G., M.A., Third Secretary, H.M. Treasury, was created a K.B.E. in the New Year Honours. He is aged forty-seven. Classical Dux of the School in 1921, he graduated M.A. at the University of Aberdeen in 1925 with first class honours in Classics and then continued his studies at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He entered the Home Civil Service in 1926 and after three years in the War Office was posted to the Treasury. In 1932 he was appointed Private Secretary to Mr. Walter Elliot, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, and later he was Private Secretary to Mr. 1-Iore-Belisha who held the same post. In 1941 he became Principal Establishment Officer in the Ministry of Food and from 1942 to 1944 he was Principal Assistant Secretary at the Ministry.

Thereafter he was for two years Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office, where he was concerned particularly with the reform of the Foreign Service, and in August 1946 he was appointed to his present post. He was awarded the C.M.G. in the New Year Honours of 1947.

Patrick Alexander Bruce McKerron* (I 904-1 0), C.M.G., Colonial Secretary, Singapore, was also created a K.B.E. in the New Year Honours. In the 1914-18 war he served with the Gordon Highlanders in France, being wounded in 1916, and the following year he joined the Indian Army and served with the zoth Punjabis.

He entered the Malayan Civil Service in 1920 and from 1928 to 1931 he was British Resident at Brunei. The following year he joined the Federal Secretariat at Kuala Lumpur and from 1934 to 1936 he was Assistant British Adviser to the Government of Kedah, one of the Malay States. In 1936 he was appointed Commissioner of Lands and Mines in Trengganu on the east coast of Malaya and from 1939 to 1941 he was Chief Censor, Malaya. In January 1942 he became Chief Civil Liaison Officer to the 3rd Indian Corps and retreated with that formation from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. After the cease-fire on 15 February 1942, he escaped and made his way to Ceylon via Sumatra and Java. (He contributed a long and interesting article describing some of his experiences in the January 1944 issue of the

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Magazine.) In 1942-43 he was Political Secretary to the Commanderin-Chief, Ceylon, and then held an appointment in the War Office in London. He became deputy head of the Malayan Planning Unit and after the Japanese surrender he became Deputy Chief Civil Affairs Officer at Singapore with the rank of Brigadier. In 1946 he was appointed Colonial Secretary and on several occasions during the past two years he has been Officer Administering the Government of Singapore during the absences of the Governor. He has recently retired and is now living in this country. According to The Straits Times he did much for the liberation and rehabilitation of Singapore as deputy chief of the war-time Malayan Planning Unit and has shown considerable sympathy with the aspirations of the people of the Colony.

Commander of the Order of the Bath (Military Division) (C.B.) Thomas Menzies* (r 90 5 -1o), O.B.E., M.B., Ch.B., K.H.P., Major-General, late R.A.M.C., Director of Medical Services, Middle East Land Forces, was awarded the C.B. in this year's Birthday Honours announced on 8 June 195o. He was first commissioned in the R.A.M.C. (S.R.) in March r914 and, after serving in India, in a hospital ship sailing between Bombay, Basra and East Africa, and with the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force, he was granted a regular commission in January 1919. Much of his service between the wars was in India, but in 1939 he was at the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Millbank, London, holding the rank of Major. He was promoted Colonel in 2942 and in November 1943 he was awarded the O.B.E. for services in North Africa. He was mentioned in dispatches for services in Italy in February 1945. In 2948 he received his present appointment as D.M.S., M.E.L.F., and in March of this year it was announced that he had been appointed an Honorary Physician to the King with effect from 27 December 1949.

Commanders of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (C.M.G.) George Edmond Crombie* (1916-21), M.A., lately Counsellor of H.M. Embassy, Rangoon, was awarded the C.M.G. in the New Year Honours. In March of this year, having returned from Burma via Singapore and Ceylon, he was appointed Assistant Secretary in the Commonwealth Relations Office, London, and is in charge of the Western and United Nations Department, which deals with the Commonwealth aspects of Foreign Affairs.

He graduated at the University of Aberdeen with first class honours in Classics in 1930 and in the following year, having been successful in the open competition for the administrative grade of the Civil Service, he was posted to the India Office. There he worked in the Foreign and Political Department, dealing mainly with our relations with Persia, Afghanistan and the Arab States on the Persian Gulf. During the recent war he held a commission in the Indian Army and served with the Frontier Force Regiment in Italy during 1944-45. He was then recalled to the India Office and in 1947 he

107 Aberdeen Grammar School Magav'ne worked for a few months as Assistant Secretary in the Burma Office.

In June of that year he went to Burma " to do a recce " for the setting up of a U.K. High Commissioner's post at Rangoon, which would in due course be converted into an Embassy when Burma became an independent foreign country at the beginning of 1948. He stayed in Burma for about a month on that occasion but went out again to Rangoon as Deputy High Commisioner towards the end of 1947 to establish the post. (The High Commissioner himself followed in November.) On 4 January 1948 (Burma's Independence Day), the High Commissioner, Mr. R. J. Bowker, duly presented his credentials to the Burmese President as British Ambassador to Burma and Mr. Crombie became Counsellor of the new Embassy. He remained in Burma in that capacity until December 1949 and acted as Charge d'Affaires last summer when the Ambassador was on leave.

William Aitken Brown Hamilton (1921-27), M.A., who has been an assistant Under-Secretary of State in the Commonwealth Relations Office for the past year, was also awarded the C.M.G. in the New Year Honours. First Arts Bursar at Aberdeen in both 1926 and 1927, he was Classical Dux of the School in 1927 and graduated with first class honours in Classics at the University of Aberdeen in 1931. He gained first place in the open competition for the administrative grade of the Home Civil Service and was appointed to the Board (now the Ministry) of Education. He held several posts in that Ministry before being seconded to the Ministry of Food during the war and he returned to the Ministry of Education in 1944. Two years later he became Under-Secretary and Director of Establishments and Organisation, and in 1949 he was transferred to his present post in the Commonwealth Relations Office.

Commander of the Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.) Robert Moir Williamson* (188z-83), M.A. (Aberd.), LL.B. (Edin.), LL.D. (Aberd.), advocate in Aberdeen, was awarded the C.B.E. in this year's Birthday Honours. He has been chairman of the Aberdeen Savings Bank since 1928. Senior partner in the firm of Paull & Williamsons, advocates, Aberdeen, he is the senior member of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen and was president of the Society from 1926 to 1928. He was lecturer in Constitutional Law and History at the University of Aberdeen from 1908 to 1933 and a member of the Senatus from 1925 to 1933. In 1935 he was appointed an honorary sheriff-substitute and in 1939 his Alma Mater conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. Aged eighty-three, he is honorary president of the Cairngorm Club, of which he has been a member since 1892.

Officers of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) Alexander Milne (1911-13), T.D., B.L., was awarded the O.B.E. in this year's Birthday Honours. He relinquished command of the 4/7th Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders, T.A., in May of this year, having held the command since 1947 when the Territorial Army was re-formed. His connection with the Gordon Highlanders dates from 1916, when he joined the 4th Battalion as a Private and served with

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them in France. He was commissioned in 1917 and taken prisoner the following year. He was a Territorial officer in the 4th Battalion during the years between the wars and went to France with his unit in 1940, subsequently taking part in the retreat on Dunkirk. He was later given command of the battalion, which was converted into the 92nd (Anti-Tank) Regiment, R.A. He graduated in Law at the University of Aberdeen in 1937, and has since demobilisation been a partner in the firm of Peterkin & Duncans, advocates, Aberdeen.

John Ramsay* (1893-97), who retired from the post of Staff Controller of the Engineering Department, General Post Office, London, in 1945, was awarded the O.B.E. in the New Year Honours for his services to the Boy Scout Movement. He is Assistant County Commissioner, North London Area, and his connection with the Movement dates from 1913 when he helped with a Scout Troop at the Caledonian Church (Church of Scotland), Holloway, London.

In 1930 he was appointed District Commissioner of Islington and in 1944 he became an assistant county commissioner in charge of the North London Area, in which there are 11,100 Scouts of all ranks.

When he retired from the office of Staff Controller in September 7945, he had completed forty-eight years' service. He joined the Post Office at Aberdeen in 1897 and went to the Engineer-in-Chief's office at the G.P.O., London, in 7903. For almost the whole of his service his duties were concerned with the personnel of the Post Office engineering staff throughout the United Kingdom.

Member of the Order of the British Empire (M.B.E.) James Edward Bothwell* (19 z 5-13), M.A., LL.B., advocate in Aberdeen, was awarded the M.B.E. in the New Year Honours. He has been honorary secretary and treasurer of the Aberdeenshire branch of the Forces Help Society and Lord Roberts' Workshop since 1936. From 1933 to 1940 he was honorary secretary of the Aberdeen District of the Scottish Youth Hostels Association and last year he was appointed honorary secretary and treasurer of the Cairngorm Club. He graduated in Law at the University of Aberdeen in 1929 and is sole partner in the firm of Macqueen & Findlater, advocates, Aberdeen.

Harold Ferguson Merchant Aitken* (193o-33), M.R.C.V.S., Banchory, was elected in January to fill a vacancy in Banchory Town Council. He has been in veterinary practice in Banchory for the past eight years.

Hugh George Jeffrey Aitken* (1928-4o), M.A. (St. And. and Toronto), was appointed last November to be Resident Fellow in Economic History at Harvard University. He is carrying on research as a member of the Research Center in Entrepreneurial History and at the same time working for his Ph.D. in Economics. A graduate of the University of St. Andrews, he won a Hudson's Bay Company scholarship in 1947 for a year's study at the University of Toronto, and was there granted the degree of M.A. in September 1948. Since then he has been at Harvard.

109 Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine Francis Sheed Anderson* (1909-12), C.B., Under Secretary, Ministry of Food, about whom there have been several notes in recent issues of the Magazine in connection with international discussions on wheat, went to India and Ceylon early this year as the leader of a British tea mission. The mission had talks with government representatives in both dominions on the reopening of the Mincing Lane tea auctions in 1951.

Colin George Marr Angus* (1925-36), Captain, R.A.S.C., has a staff appointment at the headquarters of the North-Eastern SubDistrict, Kaduna, Northern Nigeria. His marriage is reported elsewhere in this issue. He says that he has met quite a surprising number of F.P.s in his part of the world. The O.C. Hospital is Lieut.-Colonel Donald Matheson* (1919-25), M.B., Ch.B., and at a party given by the Colonel, one of those present was Ian Kennedy Hay* (1920-33), M.B., Ch.B., Lecturer in Bacteriology at the Medical Research Institute, Lagos. On account of shortage of medical staff in the Colonial Service, " Young Doddy " was sent to Kaduna early this year when there was an outbreak of cerebro-spinal meningitis.

Other F.P.s whom Angus has met are William Grant* (1923-25), B.Sc.(Eng.) (Glasg.), A.M.I.C.E., who has been with the Public Works Department in Nigeria since 1931, and Simon Douglas Ross* (1914-20), B.Sc.(Agri.), who is with the Department of Agriculture.

John William Laing Bain* (1915-22), M.B., Ch.B., D.A., has been appointed to the full-time post of consultant and anaesthetist with the Aberdeen General and Special Hospitals. His brother, Alexander Adam Ness Bain* (1916-29), M.A., Ch.B., D.M.R. D. & T., was last December appointed consultant radiologist to the North Regional Hospital Board at Inverness. Both brothers graduated at the University of Aberdeen in 1936, and during the war both served with the R.A.M.C. Stewart Duncan Begg* (1909-10) retired last year from the Far East after twenty-nine years' mercantile experience in Shanghai and Hongkong. Latterly he was with Blair & Company Limited, Hongkong, and he is still a director of Doudney, Blair & Company Limited, London. He first went to the Far East in 1919, after serving with the 4th Seaforth Highlanders, and was successively with two commercial firms in Shanghai for some years. In 1932 he joined John I. Thornycroft & Company Limited, shipbuilders and engineers, Hongkong, and later he became secretary of the company's branches in Hongkong, China and the Philippines. He had twenty-five years' service in the Volunteer Corps and was a prisoner-of-war for four years in Stanley Camp, Hongkong, during the Japanese occupation.

His wife was murdered by Japanese soldiers while serving as a V.A.D. in Hongkong and his elder brother, Captain ALEXANDER THOMSON BEGG (1909-10), died in a prisoner-of-war camp in Malaya during 1943. His younger brother, Norman Darroch Begg* (1915-24), M.D., D.P.H., is with the World Health Organisation at Geneva and, to complete the family connection with the School, his sister, Mrs. Muriel Ross, was a teacher at the " Grammar " for about three years.

Mr. Begg was one of the twenty F.P.s in Shanghai who donated

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the Shanghai Clock to the School in November 1927, and it was he who represented these F.P.s at the presentation ceremony and set the clock in motion.

Thomas Blair* (1934-44) is serving with the Malayan Police in Negri Sembilan. He informs us that bandit-chasing continues to provide the police with most of their work, and that the police are slowly getting the upper hand. He fears, however, that the Emergency will carry on for a number of years yet before things are fully under control.

Robert Douglas Bruce* (1913-22), M.B., Ch.B., Wing Commander, R.A.F., has returned to this country from Singapore, where he commanded the R.A.F. Hospital at Changi.

Henry Jackson Butc.hart* (1890-99), D.S.O., B.L., D.L., Secretary of the University of Aberdeen and County Commissioner of the City of Aberdeen Boy Scouts Association, was awarded the Silver Acorn in the St. George's Day Awards, in recognition of his valuable services to the Scout Movement. Colonel Butchart has been County Commissioner since 1938.

Kenneth George Buthlay (1930-42), M.A., who has been a student at Columbia University since he graduated at the University of Aberdeen with honours in English last July, has been awarded one of the two Allen Seymour Olmstead Fellowships at Cornell University, U.S.A. These fellowships provide £250 for post-graduate research with free tuition.

John Sinclair Calder* (1926-40) was appointed by Aberdeen Education Committee last December to be a physical education teacher.

Leslie Thompson Carnegie* (1925-38), B.L., was appointed Depute County Clerk of East Lothian in February of this year. He was in the Town Clerk's office at Aberdeen from 1939 to 1948, and has been legal assistant to the County Clerk of East Lothian for the past two years.

Arnold Blatchford David Cassie (1919-20), M.A. (Edin.), D.Sc. (Edin.), Ph.D. (Loud.), who joined the Wool Industries Research Association in 1938 as chief physicist, was last December appointed Director of Research at the Association's headquarters at Torridon, Leeds. The research work done by the Association covers all wool growing and wool processing problems from animal genetics to dyeing and finishing fabrics. There is a branch laboratory at Galashiels which deals with the problems of the Scottish industry.

He graduated M.A. at the University of Edinburgh in 1925 with first class honours in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and in the following year he took the B.Sc. degree with first class honours in Physics. Thereafter he studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and in 1931 he obtained an award from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to do three years' research at University College, London. In the same year he obtained the degree of Ph.D. from the University of London. Before joining the Wool Industries Research Association he held appointments with Imperial Chemical

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine Industries Limited and at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. He obtained the D.Sc. degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1935.

John Clark* (1914-z z), B.Sc.(Agri.), agricultural economist on the staff of the North of Scotland College of Agriculture, has invented and constructed a new " sucklift" farm machine and has had the machine accepted for prize trials by the Royal Agricultural Society of England. It applies the principle of the housewife's vacuum cleaner to the harvesting of grass for silage or hay. At one and the same time it cuts the crop, lifts it by suction and blows it into a following trailer-cart.

Duncan Scott Cochran* (1914-24), M.B., Ch.B., Lieut.-Colonel, who has held a regular commission in the R.A.M.C. since 1935, is now O.C. British Military Hospital, Vienna, British Troops in Austria.

Previously he was D.A.D.M.S. (T.A.), H.Q., North Midland District, Nottingham.

Robert Copland* (1901-07) retired last year from Ceylon, where he had been engaged in tea planting since 1912, with the exception of six years when he was similarly engaged in Malabar, South India.

In 1918 he took up a post on the Mayfield Estate, Hatton, Ceylon, and in the following year he went to the Nichola Oya Estate, where he remained until January 1931. He then returned to the Mayfield Estate. When home on leave in 1945-46, he acquired a small property at Holywood in Dumfries-shire and he has settled there since his return from Ceylon in June 1949.

Harry George Coutts* (1908-13), M.C., retired in 1948 from the Kurti Tea Estate, Nagrakata, Jalpaiguri, after twenty-eight years' tea planting in the Dooars district of North Bengal, and is living in Aberdeen. " For the present", he says, " I am like Micawber."

In a letter he states that, although it is grand to be back in the old country, he does miss the contact with Indian labour and all the interesting work of a tea garden. However, as the old paternal status of the garden manager has to a large extent been supplanted by that of Government, the life is not now so attractive to older planters.

Douglas Frank Noel Crawford* (1924-34), M.A. (Glasg.), has been appointed by the Church of Scotland Foreign Mission Committee to be a missionary in Livingstonia, Nyasaland, and he received his charge from the Moderator during the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland held at Edinburgh in May of this year. He expects to sail for Africa in the autumn. After leaving the School he was for seven years on the staff of the North of Scotland Bank Limited, and during the war he served with a Friends' Field Ambulance Unit in China. On his return he took a combined Arts and Divinity course at the University of Glasgow and at Trinity College. He graduated M.A. in June 1949.

Theodore James Crozier (1931-43), who is to graduate in July with first class honours in Classics, won the Sir William Hamilton Fyfe Trophy for platform speaking at a meeting of the Aberdeen University Debating Society held in February. Nineteen speakers took part, the subject under discussion being " That Progress is a

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine Myth ". Last December it was announced that Crozier had won an open scholarship in Classics at Caius College, Cambridge.

Andrew John Maxton Cruickshank (1919-25), who is a professional actor, played the part of Cardinal Wolsey in the production of King Henry VIII at the Memorial Theatre, Stratford-on-Avon, on zo April 195o, in the presence of the King and Queen and Princess Margaret. He first went on the stage at the age of thirteen and became very well known in amateur dramatic and musical circles in Aberdeen in the years after he left School. At the time he was employed in the Harbour Engineer's office, but he gave up his training there in order to join Mr. Henry Baynton's Shakespearean Company, with which he subsequently played in London and the Provinces.

In 1934 he appeared in Richard of Bordeaux at New York, and in 1938 he played the part of Claudius, King of Denmark, in the modern-dress production of Hamlet at the Old Vic. During the war he served for four years with the Welch Fusiliers.

IT2

PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE IN THE WEST INDIES

Eric Kennedy Cruickshank* (192o-32), M.D., M.R.C.P. (Lond.), Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Aberdeen, where his father, Professor John Cruickshank, holds the chair of Bacteriology, has been appointed the first Professor of Medicine in the new University of the West Indies at Kingston, Jamaica. The University there, which serves the whole of the West Indies, was created as the result of the report of a Royal Commission on education in the colonies.

Medical education is already in progress at Kingston and chairs have now been instituted in the final year subjects.

He graduated M.B., Ch.B. at the University of Aberdeen in 1937, with honours, and after a year of post-graduate training at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, he became a research fellow in Surgery at Harvard University. In 1939 he was appointed an assistant in the Department of Medicine at Aberdeen, and the following year he joined the R.A.M.C. He was in Singapore when the city was captured by the Japanese, and was thereafter a prisoner in Changi Camp until the end of the war in 1945. He was twice mentioned in dispatches for his medical work before and during captivity. He became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1948, and later the same year he was awarded the degree of M.D., with honours, by the University of Aberdeen.

He is well known in rugby circles in the North-East, having played scrum-half for the School and for the F.P. XV. Since the war he has been a referee, and for several seasons he was a member of the selection committee of the F.P. Rugby Section.

Thomas John Davidson* (19 i z- i 6), M.B., Ch.B., D.P.H., Colonel, I.M.S. (retired), is director of the East African Medical Survey, with headquarters at Mwanza on the southernmost tip of Lake Victoria in Tanganyika. The object of the survey is to diagnose the diseases which are rotting away African life and, after diagnosis, to embark upon a series of mass experiments to eliminate the diseases, almost all of which are avoidable by education and example. Colonel Davidson joined the Indian Medical Service in 1923 and served in it

113 Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine for twenty-four years. He graduated in Medicine at the University of Aberdeen in 1922.

John Andrew Melvin Doig* (1930-36) has for the past three years been agent at the Bucksburn branch of the Aberdeen Savings Bank. He joined the staff of the Bank on leaving School and during the war he held the rank of Battery Sergeant-Major in the Scottish Horse.

David Owen Edge* (1937-44) has won an open competition in Natural Science for entry to Caius College, Cambridge. He has also gained a State scholarship, awarded on the result of the Oxford and Cambridge Higher Certificate examination held in July 1949.

Robert Warrender Farquhar* (1919-22), B.Sc.(Agri.), M.B., Ch.B., D.P.H., formerly Assistant Medical Officer in the Bury Health Division, has been appointed Medical Officer of Health for the Number Thirteen Division, which includes Heywood, Littleborough, Bacup, Milnrow, Wardle and Whitworth. He first graduated at the University of Aberdeen in Agriculture in 1925 and, after a year at the Rowett Institute, spent six years in Kenya engaged in agricultural work. He returned to Aberdeen in 1932 to study Medicine and qualified five years later. Thereafter he was an assistant in a medical practice at Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, and he served throughout the war with the R.A.M.C., mainly in Burma and India with the West Africans. He was a member of General Wingate's second Chindit expedition and later rose to the rank of Colonel, being given the command of a general hospital. After obtaining his D.P.H. at Aberdeen in 1947, he entered the Public Health Service.

Alexander Forsyth* (1923-30), B.Sc., M.P.S., is now with T. & H. Smith Limited, Blandfield Chemical Works, Edinburgh.

After qualifying as M.P.S. in 1934 and graduating at the University of Aberdeen in 193 5, he obtained a technical post with Honeywill and Stein Limited, chemists, London, and was stationed at Hull. In 1940 he became Transport Liaison Officer in the Molasses and Industrial Alcohol Control of the Ministry of Supply and from 1942 to 1944 he was assistant secretary to the Ministry's Chemical Control Board.

He was then released from this post and became acting general manager of Honeywell 8c Stein Limited, one of the subsidiary companies of the Distillers Company Limited. Shortly afterwards he became concerned with the distribution of penicillin from a factory built by the Distillers Company, as agents for the Ministry of Supply, at Speke, near Liverpool, and when the Company acquired the factory from the Ministry in 1947, he became sales manager of The Distillers Company (Biochemicals) Limited. In 1948 he was promoted to be head of the production and sales division of that company, which was then one of the two very large producers of penicillin in this country. In April of this year he joined T. & H. Smith Limited as wholesale and export manager.

Charles William France* (1922-30, who became inside manager of General Services (London) Limited in 1947, gave up that post on i April 195o to take up an appointment as secretary to De Vere (Kensington) Limited, engineers to the photographic trade. The

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work, he says, is in an entirely new field for him and he finds it most interesting.

George Leslie Fraser* (1936-49), who is a Sergeant in the Royal Army Educational Corps, left this country in the spring for Nairobi, where he is attached to the King's African Rifles.

CULTURAL ATTACHE IN TOKYO George Sutherland Fraser (1924-33), M.A. (St. And.), left London at the beginning of February to succeed Mr. Edmund Blunden as Cultural Attaché in Tokyo, a post which is a direct descendant of the Professorship of English in that city. Since the war he has become well known in London as an author and a poet, having published two volumes of poetry and two books, Vision of Scotland and News from South America. He is also well known as a reviewer in The Times Literary Supplement, The Observer, The New Statesman and other newspapers and periodicals. According to The Observer, he can probably also claim to be the only poet who served in the last war as a Sergeant-Major.

Edgar Reuben Gauld* (1917-23), M.B., Ch.B., formerly acting Assistant Director of Medical Services at Kumasi, Gold Coast, was in March of this year appointed medical specialist at Sekondi Hospital, Sekondi, Gold Coast. The previous month he was elected a member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (M.R.C.P. (Edin.)).

He is Club Consul for the Gold Coast.

George Mitchell Glegg (1925-34) is proprietor of " The Rats' Cellar " in Aberdeen. This establishment is advertised as " A Bar with a Difference ".

John Philip Grant* (x937-45), who is a first year Law student at the University of Aberdeen, took part in the Scottish Boys' Golf Championship held at North Berwick in April and was beaten in the fourth round. He is a six-handicap player in Deeside Golf Club.

Alexander Gray* (191o-22), M.A., LL.B., advocate in Aberdeen, succeeded the Earl of Airlie last October as president of the Scottish Squash Rackets Association. Early this year he presented a Cup for annual competition among university students and handed it over to the first winner at the conclusion of the Scottish Universities Squash Rackets Individual Championship held in Aberdeen.

John Alexander Gray* (1926-3o and 1932-35), who has been with the B.B.C. Monitoring Service at Caversham Park, near Reading, for the past two years, gets " caught up from time to time in the back-wash of the arguments between the Cominform and the ' TitoRankovic clique ' ". His spare time is occupied with B.B.C. Staff Association activities and during the past year he has been much occupied with the preparation of evidence for the Beveridge Committee. He says there is still a great dearth of Aberdonians in particular and Scots in general in the foreign language sections of the B.B.C.; in fact among his Soo or so colleagues he knows of only two Scotsmen.

Hamish Thomas Burns Hall* (1927-32), M.A., LL.B. (Edin.), is now a legal assistant in the Town Clerk's office in Aberdeen. He

1I5 Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine serving was previously in the Town Clerk's office in Edinburgh after his law apprenticeship with Messrs. Mitchell & Baxter, W.S., Edinburgh.

Arthur Desmond Fraser Hay* (1923-31) was appointed a director of William Hay & Sons (Aberdeen) Limited, aerated water manufacturers and beer bottlers, on x December 1948. He is the firm's country representative and covers the area from Dingwall to Edzell.

His brother, Johnston Farquharson Hay* (1922-3 t), was also appointed a director of the Company on the same date. He is now manager at the Inverurie branch.

James Hay* (1883-87), M.A., B.L., LL.D., D.L., advocate in Aberdeen, who has been secretary of the Royal Aberdeen Golf Club since 1921, was presented with his portrait in oils by the members of the Club at the end of March. The portrait was handed over by the present captain of the Club, Thomas Patrick Edward Murray* (1907-18), O.B.E., M.A., LL.B., advocate in Aberdeen. Mr. Hay joined the Royal Aberdeen Club in 1904, became captain in 1920, and was president of the Scottish Golf Union in 1932-33. He was a member of Aberdeen Town Council from 1928 to 1945 and convener of the Links and Parks Committee of the Council for fifteen years.

During that time his committee was responsible for the completion of two golf courses at Hazlehead. For twenty-six years he was in charge of the Northern Counties Cup Competition.

ABERDEEN SOCIETY OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS

Gordon James Innes (1905-07), C.A., was in February appointed president of the Aberdeen Society of Chartered Accountants for 1950-51. It is noteworthy that all except one of the Society's officebearers this year are F.P.s : Andrew Galloway Brown* (1915-21), C.A., James William Irvine-Fortescue* (1928-3o), M.A., C.A., James Patrick Jeffrey* (1906-18), T.D., B.Sc.(Eng.), C.A., Edward Birnie Reid* (1902-13), O.B.E., C.A., and Thomas Falconer Robson* (1918-3O, M.A., C.A., are members of the Council; George Francis Collie* (1916-26), M.B.E., B.L., advocate in Aberdeen, is law agent; and Lessel Murray Davidson* (1905-14), C.A., is secretary and treasurer.

Sir (William) Wilson Jameson* (1892-1902), G.B.E., K.C.B., M.D., LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.C.P., K.H.P., held a Press conference in London on it May 1950, the day before his sixty-fifth birthday on which he retired from the post of Chief Medical Officer of the Ministries of Health and Education, which he had held since November 1940. At the conference he gave a review of medical developments during and since the war that are likely to have a permanent effect on public health. Commenting on his final report as Chief Medical Officer—for the year 1948—The Times said: " In spite of the upheaval of war and the continued austerity of peace, he leaves his task with the national health far better, judged by all the accepted standards, than when he took office."

A week before his retirement Sir Wilson was given a complimentary dinner at the Athenaeum, London, by fellow medical

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine graduates of the University of Aberdeen, On i June he joined the staff of King Edward's Hospital Fund on a part-time basis.

OUR ONLY M.P. Douglas Harold Johnston* (1913-26), B.A.(Oxon.), K.C.,

M.P., Solicitor-General for Scotland since October 1947, who was successful at a by-election at Paisley in February 1948, retained his seat at the General Election in February of this year. Standing as a Socialist candidate, he was opposed by a Conservative and a Liberal and had a majority over the former of 10,203. His majority over his Nationalist opponent in 1948 was 6S4S. So far as we know, Mr. Johnston was the only F.P. among the 1863 candidates at the General Election.t Andrew Ross Laing* (192 I-3 2), M.B., Ch.B., Major, R.A.M.C., who now holds a short service commission, left this country in March to become senior medical officer at the headquarters of the British Military Mission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I-fe sailed from Liverpool to Port Said and spent his first night in Egypt at the British Military Hospital, El Ballah. The first two medical officers he met in the Mess there were F.P.s—Arthur Gordon Laing* (1931-43), M.B., Ch.B., Lieutenant, R.A.M.C., and Kenneth Stuart Hall Macgregor (1929-42), M.B., Ch.B., Captain, R.A.M.C., second son of Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan Macgregor, formerly Games Master at the School. During the war Major Laing served for six years with the West African Forces and since 1946 he has been in charge of the Convalescent Wing, Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, near Southampton, where he has been mainly concerned with rehabilitation.

Angus William Lindsay* (1934-38), B. Sc.(Eng.), who graduated in Civil Engineering at the University of Aberdeen in June 1949, has obtained a post with a firm of geophysical engineers from Houston, Texas, U.S.A. He went first to Lebanon and Syria and then to Iraq, where he has been engaged in exploration of the various deserts in that part of the world. The job, he says, is interesting and healthy, although one has not to be too particular about scenery!

Gordon Forbes Lindsay* (1931-39), M.B., Ch.B., is now in partnership at Aboyne with William Baxter Brodie Brown* (19151918), M.B., Ch.B. The latter qualified in 1925 and the former in 1944.

Eric Robert Russell Linklater* (1913-16), M.A., LL.D., chairman of the Scottish Centre of P.E.N., is to preside at the twenty-second International Congress of P.E.N., which is to be held in Edinburgh in August of this year. The P.E.N. Club is a world association of writers, editors and translators in all branches and classes of literature —belles lettres, poetry and drama, fiction, history and biography, science and philosophy—and was founded in 1921. Since the war t During the Election there was perhaps a natural tendency for some newspapers to lose a proper sense of perspective. We were therefore pleased to note this paragraph in a Highland weekly :— Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton was able to announce messages of good wishes not only from Mr. Churchill and Lord Woolton, but from Mr. Eric Linklater, noted novelist, playwright, and a former Lord Rector of Aberdeen University."

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international congresses of P.F..N. have been held in Stockholm, Zurich, Copenhagen and Venice, and it is expected that about 400 members from various parts of the world will gather in Edinburgh for this year's congress, at which the major topic to be discussed is " The Drama ". According to The Scotsman, Mr. Linklater has been putting an immense amount of work into the organisation of the congress, despite the inconvenience of having his home a long way from Edinburgh, and Scotland is fortunate to have in him a writer of international reputation under whose chairmanship the Congress has every augury of success.

At this year's Edinburgh International Festival one of the four plays to be presented is a new play by Eric Linklater, entitled " The Atom Doctor". It is to be presented by the Glasgow Citizen's Theatre, and is based upon an undisclosed theme by Ben Jonson.

It has a modern setting in a Scottish city.

R R-1904), Sir Arthur Cunningham Lothian* (1892-94 and I ...9_ K.C.I.E., C.S.I., I.C.S. (retired), is to receive the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Aberdeen at the Summer Graduation in July. He was president of the F.P. Club in 1948-49 and readers of the Magazine will be familiar with his distinguished career in the Indian Political Service from which he retired in 1947. During the last ten years of his service he held in succession what were perhaps the most important political charges in India, namely the posts of Resident for Rajputana and Resident at Hyderabad. Sir Arthur is a graduate of the University of Aberdeen in Arts and Science.

Donald Neil Lowe (19o3-o5), M.A., formerly head master of Tobermory Secondary School, to which he was appointed in 1920, was elected Provost of Tobermory in May of this year. Prior to going to the Island of Mull, he taught at Gamrie, Plockton, Rossshire, Bucksburn, Rothes and New Deer. He graduated at the University of Aberdeen in 1912.

James Watt McAllan (1925-32), M.B., Ch.B., took up an appointment at the beginning of this year as deputy adviser and medical lecturer under the Scottish Council for Health Education.

Alexander Walker McBain (1922-24), M.B., Ch.B., D.P.H., was appointed in February by the Aberdeen Executive Council of the National Health Service to succeed to the medical practice in Aberdeen of the late FRANK MILLER RORIE ( I 9o5-o7 and 1910-I2), M.B., Ch.B. (See page 141.) He graduated at the University of Aberdeen in 194o and gained his D.P.H. in 1947. During the war he was commissioned in the R.A.M.C. and served in Iraq, Egypt, Sicily and Italy. After being demobilised in 1946, he held posts at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, and on gaining his D.P.H. he was appointed Assistant Medical Officer and Assistant School Medical Officer to Somerset County Council at Yeovil.

John Macdonald (1902-04), M.A., F.E.I.S., principal teacher of English and History at McLaren High School, Callander, has retired.

He was appointed assistant master at Forfar Academy in 1907 and assistant master at Perth Academy in 1908, before becoming head master of Lairg Higher Grade School in 191 2. He went to Callander

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in 1921 and was for five years on the Town Council there. He also took an active part in the activities of the Burns Club and the Gaelic Society.

John Macdonald (1919-22), M.A., assistant secretary in the Scottish Education Department, is being seconded on 1 July for service with the National Coal Board as controller of the education, training and recruitment branches of the Manpower and Welfare department of the Board. He graduated at the University of Aberdeen with first class honours in Classics in 1926, and then spent a year at the Aberdeen Training Centre. Thereafter he was chosen by the National Committee for the Training of Teachers as one of two Scottish students to be awarded scholarships in Canada. He went to Montreal in 1927 and, while at McGill University, he continued his study of Classics and at the same time studied Canadian and American educational systems and methods. On his return to this country, he joined the Classics department of Leith Academy and then became Classics Master in Morgan Academy, Dundee. In July 1933 he was appointed one of His Majesty's Inspectors of Schools in the Glasgow and Bute district and during the war he was seconded by the Scottish Education Department to the Department of Health for Scotland for work, chiefly in London, in connection with the Government evacuation scheme. He returned to Edinburgh in 1941 to become assistant secretary in the Scottish Education Department, and latterly he has been particularly concerned with further education.

Colin John Maelver* (1902-03), M.A., who retired in 1948 after forty years' teaching in Aberdeen, including twelve years at his old School, was in May of this year elected a magistrate on Aberdeen Town Council. He was elected to the Council in May 1949.

Eric Beattie Mackay* (1930-40), M.A., has been appointed a sub-editor on the staff of The Scotsman.

Maitland Mackie* (1926-28), B.Sc.(Agri.), Westerton, Rothienorman, Aberdeenshire, spent three months at the beginning of this year on a lecture tour in America and Canada under the auspices of the British Information Services. His special function was to represent Agriculture.

Gordon Paterson Mare (1921-26), formerly an assistant with Messrs. Jenkins & Marr, architects and civil engineers, Aberdeen, left in April to take up an appointment in Glasgow with the Department of Agriculture for Scotland. He has been a stalwart in the F.P. Cricket Section for many years.

Angus Stewart Matheson* (1925-31), who for the past six years has been district surveyor with Inverness County Council at Tarbert, Harris, left the Outer Hebrides in June for Kilbrachan, Renfrewshire.

He has been appointed H.M. Inspector of Quarries in the Scottish Division of the Ministry of Fuel and Power. Before going to Tarbert in 1934, he was for four years an assistant in the Road Planning department of Aberdeen County Council and assistant road surveyor with Orkney County Council for three years.

William Seton Meston (1879-81), who is aged eighty-six, completed seventy years' service in the office of Messrs. C. & P. H.

119 Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine Chalmers, advocates, Aberdeen, in April of this year. He has the unique record of having travelled regularly by rail on annual season tickets between Inverurie and Aberdeen for seventy-two years. At Inverurie he still lives in the house in which he was born.

Robert Taylor Stewart Millar* (1915-26), M.A., B.D., who has been on the staff of Wilson College, Bombay, since he was first appointed by the Foreign Mission Committee of the Church of Scotland to a post in the Department of English there in 1935, has recently been home on leave. On 7 May he was the preacher at King's College Chapel, Aberdeen.

Alistair Macdonell Milne* (x924-3z), Lieutenant-Colonel, took over command of the 4/7th Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders, T.A., on x May 1950 from Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Milne (1911-x 3), T.D., B.L. (See page 107.) He was commissioned early in 1939 and posted to the 8th (M.G.) Battalion of the Cordons and during the war he rose to the command of the tooth Anti-Tank Regiment, R.A. (The Gordon Highlanders), with which he served in India and Burma. On demobilisation in 1946, he was released with the honorary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and a year later, on the reformation of the Territorial Army, he joined the 4i7th Battalion as a company commander. In civil life he is branch manager of the Scottish Insurance Corporation Limited at Aberdeen.

Charles Napier Gordon Milne* (1893-94), Major, who is factor of Glenmuick Estate, Ballater, was in February appointed president of the Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine Area Council of the British Legion, in succession to Alexander Smith Anderson * (1905-09), O.B.E., D.L. At the same time Harold James Milne (19o4-o7), M.C., solicitor, Fraserburgh, who is chairman of the Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine War Pensions Committee, was appointed a vice-president of the Area Council.

George Angus Mitchell* (19oz-13), T.D., F.R.I.B.A., F.R.I.C.S., senior partner of the firm of George Bennett Mitchell & Son, architects, Aberdeen, was the architect of the gateway to the military cemetery at St. Valery-en-Caux which was unveiled on to June 1950, during the celebration at St. Valery of the tenth anniversary of the capitulation of the 51st (Highland) Division on 1z June 1940. The gateway consists of two pillars made of Kemnay granite and a gate carved from oak grown at Aboyne. Lieut.-Colonel Mitchell is a former C.R.E. of the Division.

James Alexander Morrison* (1896-1902), M.A., has retired from the head mastership of Methlick School, Aberdeenshire, to which he was appointed in 1925. A graduate of the University of Aberdeen, he was assistant master at Trinity Academy, Leith, in 1906 and Classics and English master at Fortrose Academy in 1907. He was appointed head master of Cultercullen Public School in x915, and head master of Lonmay Public School six years later.

ABERDEEN TOWN COUNCIL

James Scott Gray Munro* (1922-28), B.L., advocate in Aberdeen, stood as a Progressive candidate for Gilcomston Ward at the Municipal

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Election held in Aberdeen in May of this year. He defeated the retiring Socialist member for the ward, who was convener of the Council's Education Committee, and thereby terminated the Socialist majority in Aberdeen Town Council. The present position is that there is an equal number of Progressives and Socialists on the Council and that the office of Dean of Guild, which carries a vote on the Council, is vacant. Councillor Munro is a partner in the firm of Stephen and Smith, advocates, Aberdeen, along with his father, Mr. J. D. Munro, who retired from the Council this year. He was formerly a prominent member of the F.P. Rugby 1st XV and an equally prominent member of the F.P. Club Executive.

Two other F.P.s were also candidates at this year's Municipal Election but neither was successful. Arnold Marischal Burns* (192o-25), M.A., stood as the Progressive candidate in Torry Ward and Gilbert Frewin Hamilton (1921-3o), B.Sc., M.B., Ch.B., was the Progressive candidate in St. Machar Ward.

Alexander Ross Murray* (1903-13), A.M.I.C.E., F.P. Club Consul for Perak, Malaya, has now retired from the Far East and lives at Longfield, Kent. He joined the Public Works Department of the Federated Malay States at Singapore in 1923 and for many years he was in the Drainage and Irrigation department at Kuala Lumpur and at Ipoh. He has twice been a prisoner-of-war--in 1918, when he was serving with the Gordon Highlanders in France, and during the recent war, when he was a Major in the Royal Engineers in Malaya.

Harold Adair Nelson* (1919-32), A.M.I.Mun.E., A.M.I.W.E., was in February appointed Deputy Water Engineer in the borough of Chelmsford. Water purification works and a new pumping station are at present being designed there in order to supply water for the town from the river Chelner. Previously he was a civil engineer on the staff of Aberdeen County Council. Like his brother, William James Adair Nelson* (1914-24), C.A., Treasurer of the University of Aberdeen, he will be remembered as a prominent member of the 9th Troop of Boy Scouts.

George Alexander Paterson* (1920-3o), who was an accountant in the Traffic department of the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway Company Limited from 1937 until 1942, went back to Argentine in 1946 but returned to settle in Aberdeen in April 1948. Since the end of that year he has been managing director of James Brown (Aberdeen) Limited, fish, game and poultry salesmen. He will be remembered as the School's full back from 5928 to 1930.

Douglas Gordon Patterson* (1929-36), B.L., advocate in Aberdeen, son of the late jAlms PATTERSON (1906-12), M.A., LL.B., was one of three new partners assumed in the firm of Watt and Cumine, advocates, Aberdeen, after his father's death. The senior partner of the firm is Herbert John Edwards* (1905-57), M.A., LL.B., advocate in Aberdeen.

Douglas Lamont Paul* (1933-4o), B.L., legal assistant with Messrs.

Butchart & Rennet, advocates, Aberdeen, was in February admitted to membership of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen. Another F.P.

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admitted at the same time was Alan Crombie Robertson Watt* (1925-37), M.A., LL.B., legal assistant with Messrs. Gray & Kellas, solicitors, Aberdeen.

John Poskitt Paul* (1939-43) graduated B.Sc.(Eng.) with first class honours in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Glasgow in April 1949 and was admitted as an Associate of the Royal Technical College, Glasgow, last November. He is at present an assistant lecturer in the Royal Technical College.

Kenneth Jamieson Peters* (1929-41) is a sub-editor with Kemsley Newspapers, Glasgow, and since last August he has also been sports columnist for the Weekly Journal, Aberdeen. During last winter he wrote a series of articles entitled " Stars of British Sport " for the Daily Record, and the subject of one of these articles was William Dallas Allardice* (1934-39), who won eight Scottish rugby " caps " during 1947-48 and 1948-49.

John Riddell Knight Pine (1915-26), B.Sc., B.L., was appointed at the end of last year to be librarian at the Torry Research Station of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in Aberdeen. Since 1946 he had been librarian on the staff of Aberdeen Journals Limited, Aberdeen. He is also the indefatigable secretary of the Aberdeen Film Society, whose hundredth film exhibition was given early in January.

John Robert Pope* (1885-96), General Manager of the Caledonian Insurance Company at Edinburgh, retired at the end of June, having completed fifty-four years' service with the Company. (As a result, his name no longer appears in the Company's advertisement in the MagaVne.) He was trained as an inspector in the Aberdeen branch and went to Edinburgh in 1909 to be senior inspector at the Company's head office. In I9Iz he became resident secretary in Birmingham and later returned to Edinburgh. At the annual general meeting held in May, the chairman said that the Company had benefited very much from Mr. Pope's wide experience and devoted service, particularly during his term of office as general manager, and the satisfactory figures before the shareholders were a measure of the success which he had achieved during the period of his direction of the Company's affairs. Mr. Pope was a member of the F.P. Rugby ist XV for several years prior to 1909 and on going to Edinburgh he played for Edinburgh Wanderers.

James Ogilvie Rae* (19,2-21), who left India for New Zealand in September 1949, has obtained employment on a fruit farm. He says that it is wonderfully refreshing to work in the open air in a healthy country after years of office work in the tropics. The housing situation in New Zealand is bad, but he has been very fortunate in obtaining a post with which there goes a most comfortable and pleasant all-electric cottage.

James Harold Robb* (1925-29), who has been secretary of the Edinburgh Centre of the F.P. Club since it was revived in January 1947, and who was on the staff of the Sun Life Assurance Society in Edinburgh, left early this year to take up an appointment in the Company's office in Johannesburg.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magaine

John Watson Robertson (19o3-o5), M.A., B.Sc., who has been head master of the Central School, Aberdeen, since 1926, was received as a Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland at this year's annual meeting of the Institute, held on 9 June 195o. He was among those recommended by the Institute's board of examiners as having rendered signal service to education.

David Forbes Ross* (1924-35), M.B., Ch.B., D.M.R.D. (Edin.), has been appointed senior registrar to the X-ray Diagnostic department of King's College Hospital, London. Previously he was a radiologist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

George Brebner Scott* (1882-91), M.D., has retired after fifty years in medical practice in London. A graduate of the University of Aberdeen, he first attended Gray's Inn Road Ear and Throat Hospital and Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, and continued his post-graduate education in Vienna. Thereafter he joined the late GEORGE DAVID KNIGHT (1873-77), M.D., in partnership in London.

He was appointed divisional surgeon of police for the S.W. district, and acted as deputy Coroner for the Western district of London for over six years. In 1924 he was entered as a barrister at the Middle Temple. In the first world war he was commissioned in the R.A.M.C. and served at Salonika in 1917-18, and during the last war he was medical officer in the troopship Empress of Japan, now renamed Empress of Scotland, in which capacity he made a voyage round the world.

He is a Freeman of London, being a member of the Barbers' Company.

As "another old Scotch doctor", he was very interested in Memories of a Scotch Doctor by Alexander Hendry Mackie* (1881-86), M.A., M.D., a notice of which appeared in the last issue of the Magaine.

William Douglas Simpson* (t9ot-t3), M.A., D.Litt., F.S.A. (Scot.), is writing a section of a new regional guide to the ancient monuments of Scotland which is being prepared at the instance of the Ministry of Works. Dr. Simpson's section is to deal with the medizval period.

Henry Gray Skinner* (1926-33), M.B., Ch.B., Lieutenant-Colonel, R.A.M.C., is now commanding a field ambulance stationed in the New Territories, Hongkong. The countryside there, he says, looks just like the Western Highlands of Scotland, with a loch, hills and sea, and a grey sky overhead. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, the whole illusion was spoiled by the fact that the Chinese New Year was then being celebrated and an apparently unending succession of fire crackers was being let off from a harbour packed with sampans, all bedecked with red paper. The scene, he remarks, is scarcely like that on a Friday afternoon in, say, Ullapool I Colonel Skinner was appointed D.A.D.M.S., 16 Airborne Division, in 1947 and before going to Hongkong he completed a tour of duty with the permanent staff of the Territorial Army.

Rowand Gordon Chalmers Skinner* (1935-39), D.F.C., B.Sc. (Eng.), left the English Electric Company, Stafford, in September 5949 and is now in the Rotating Plant Sales department of Bruce Peebles & Company Limited, electrical engineers, Edinburgh.

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Alistair Nicol Smith* (1919-29), who is associated with his father, Alexander George Nicol Smith* (188o-88), D.S.O., in A. & J. Smith (Jewellers) Limited, Aberdeen, was in February appointed president of the Aberdeen Junior Chamber of Commerce.

At the same time Duncan Herdman McDougall* (1921-34), C.A., who is with Messrs. James A. Jeffrey & Company, chartered accountants, Aberdeen, was appointed honorary treasurer.

Herbert Tower Sorley* (1899-1909), C.S.I., C.I.E., M.A., D.Litt., I.C.S. (retired), left this country in August 1949 to settle in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia. The climate there, he says, is the best in the world, and the country is one where, he confidently asserts, no person of enterprise or energy can fail to succeed. Since going to Southern Rhodesia, he has been offered and has accepted an appointment under the Pakistan Government. He goes to Karachi this summer on a two-year contract to become Secretary to Government, Finance Department (Revenue), and a member of the Central Board of Revenue for Pakistan. His work will deal chiefly with customs and excise administration. Dr. Sorley served in the Indian Civil Service from 1914 to 1947, latterly as Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay, and in Karachi he will be renewing his experience of Sind of which he retains the pleasantest memories from the days of his earlier service there. In his book, Shah Abdul Latif of Bhit, published in 1940, Dr. Sorley translated into English, with historical and literary commentary, the Risalo of Shah Abdul Latif, the Sindhi poet of the eighteenth century, who was justly famed as one of the chief mystic poets of his, or indeed of any, age. His is, in fact, says Dr. Sorley, the only truly great name that Sind has contributed to the literature of the world.

Arthur Percy Spark (19o5-1i), M.B., Ch.B., who was appointed Lord Mayor of the City of Stoke-on-Trent in May i949, was in January promoted to be a Commander (Brother) of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.

Malcolm Harold Tawse* (1928-4o), B.Sc.(Eng.), has been assumed by his father, Colonel H. S. Tawse, as a partner in the firm of Tawse & Allan, civil engineers and architects, Aberdeen. He joined his father's firm in 1948, after graduating with honours in Engineering at the University of Aberdeen.

William Clyne Taylor (1931-40), M.B., Ch.B., has been awarded the Diploma in Child Health by the Royal College of Physicians in London and the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Alec Bain Tonnochy (1897-1902), M.A. (Edin.), has been appointed by the principal trustees of the British Museum to be Keeper of the Department of British and Medixval Antiquities. He joined the museum staff in 1914 and has worked chiefly on medizval and Renaissance antiquities. In 1945 he was appointed Deputy Keeper of the department, of which he now has charge. He is the author of the museum's Catalogue of Seal-Dies which is to he published shortly.

James Trail* (1919-28) left Singapore early this year for Pontianak, Borneo. He is still in the service of the engineering firm, Ross

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Taylor & Company, which he joined in 1934. He is one of those in the photograph (opposite page 181) taken at the F.P. Reunion in Singapore in December last.

Daniel Jackson Walker* (1918-22), manager of the National Bank of Scotland Limited, Dalkeith, was in May elected a vicepresident of the Scottish Hockey Association. He was formerly honorary treasurer.

Edward Walker* (1917-20), A.C.I.I., who was previously chief clerk in the Aberdeen branch of the Scottish Union and National Insurance Company, was appointed assistant branch manager as from 1 April 1950.

George Douglas Walker (1919-22), who was manager of the Palace Theatre, Aberdeen, from 1946 to 1948 and who left Aberdeen in 1948 to become manager of the Odeon Theatre, Glasgow, has now returned to his former post.

Horace Walker (1922-28), M.A., B.D., secretary-depute of the Home Board of the Church of Scotland, submitted a report on Church Extension to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland at Edinburgh during May. He stated that after his experience of the past six years, first as a parish minister in a new housing area (he was minister of High Hilton Church, Aberdeen, from 1944 to 1947) and then as an official of the Home Board who had visited almost all the new development areas in Scotland and had seen what was happening there, he gave place to no one in his conviction that Church Extension was at once the most necessary and urgent task and the greatest opportunity of evangelism with which our national Church had been confronted in Scotland in many generations. He said that he could name new housing areas in Scotland as large as Oban, Peterhead, Rothesay, Forfar or Galashiels where there was not at present a single church building.

Alexander Lindsay Watson* (1933-45), B.Sc.(Eng.), who graduated at the University of Aberdeen in 1948, has since then been taking a post-graduate course at the radio development laboratories of the General Electric Company, Coventry.

Ian Allan Watt* (1931-43) has been elected to an open exhibition in Modern History at Merton College, Oxford. He has just been awarded first class honours in History at the University of Aberdeen.

Leslie Watt* (1923-35), M.D., who is a specialist in venereology and who has been at the General Infirmary, Leeds, for the past two years, has now received an appointment in Manchester.

Norman Herbert Fenwick Weldhen* (1934-39), who is an officer in the Blue Funnel Line, returned in March from Australia, where he had been for three months. When he was at Perth, Western Australia, he tried to contact the F.P. Club Consul, Ian Thom* (1912-25), at Mount Magnet, but on inquiring at Perth he discovered that our Consul's sheep station was 400 miles up country!

George Alexander Williamson* (1904-12), , D.L., advocate in Aberdeen, has been appointed commandant of the Scottish area of the Royal Observer Corps. When a branch of the Corps was formed

125 Aberdeen Grammar School Magre%ine in Aberdeen a few months before the recent war, he was appointed its commander and throughout the war he was the officer in charge of the operations room of No. 38 Group in Aberdeen. Since 1947 he has been commandant of No. 38 Group. He has also been appointed honorary Colonel of Aberdeen's heavy anti-aircraft unit-5o1 (Mobile) H.A.A. Regiment, R.A. (T.A.).

James Campbell Williamson* (1924-34), M.C., who was the first president of the Aberdeen Junior Chamber of Commerce, was in May elected chairman of the Federation of Scottish Junior Chambers of Commerce. The honorary secretary of the Federation is James William Irvine-Fortescue* (1928-30), M.A., C.A. Howard Bruce Wilson* (1921-25), M.B., Ch.B., D.P.H., D.A., F.F.A., R.C.S., Alfred William Raffan* (1919-3t), M.B., Ch.B., D.A., and another doctor, have been carrying out a clinical investigation of a new drug which it is hoped will be of great service in anaesthesia. The results of this investigation were published in an article in the British Medical Journal of 3 June 1950, entitled " Dimethyl Ether of D-Tubocurarine Iodide as a Curarizing Agent in Anaesthesia for Thoracic Surgery ". The new drug was found to be from two to two-and-a-half times more potent than D-tubocurarine chloride, the drug at present mainly used in anaesthesia, and the British Medical Journal, commenting on the doctors' investigation, stated that their evidence suggests that the new drug may be a modest but definite advance.

Douglas Moir Wood* (1918-29), M.A., LL.B., who has been Clerk of Orkney County Council since June 1940, was one of the central figures in the emergency which arose in Orkney at the beginning of May when ninety-six pilot whales were washed up in the Bay of Holland, Stronsay, Orkney. The disposal of the whales, essential for public health reasons, presented a considerable problem for some days, but eventually the carcases were towed out to sea by Orkney fishermen.

Ninian Blundell Wright* (1910-13), M.B.E., M.A., B.D., minister of the Kirk of the Covenant, Dalmellington, Ayrshire, since 1933, and latterly Moderator of the Presbytery of Ayr, is now minister of Fyvie Church, Aberdeenshire. His father, the late Rev. M. J. Wright, was the first minister of St. Ninian's Church, Aberdeen, and his brother, George Tod Wright* (1901-06), M.A., B.D., is minister at Carnock, Dunfermline.

Robert Park Yunnie (1921-26), M.C., A.C.I.I., is one of the leading dramatis persona in Private Army, by Vladimir Peniakoff, recently published by Jonathan Cape. After serving with the Libyan Arab Force, he was the first to be selected by " Popski" for his Private Army and he served with P.P.A. in North Africa and Italy from November 1942 until April 1945. His name constantly recurs in the course of this enthralling tale of the exploits of the smallest independent British unit formed during the war.

1z6

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

Tracing Scots Ancestry [Mr. J. G. Kyd, the writer of this article, has been chairman of the Scots Ancestry Research Society since its formation in 1945.1 It is a curious fact that Scots overseas seem to have pride of race and ancestry developed much more intensely than is the case with Scots at home, and this feeling seems to intensify with the succeeding overseas generations. When it is realised that the numbers living furth of Scotland with Scottish blood in their veins is much greater than the five million Scots at home, the powerful overseas Scottish link with the Motherland can be appreciated.

One of the outstanding facts about this little land of ours is that a higher proportion of our people have left our shores than in any other European country. This flight of the Scots reached its climax in the ten years ending in 1931, when the net loss by migration of young Scottish manhood, and womanhood, was no less than 390,000, representing 8.0 per cent. of the population. For England and Wales the net loss in actual numbers in the same ten years was 172,000—less than half the Scottish loss, and the proportion of the population lost was ol per cent., indicating that Scotland's loss was sixteen times that of England and Wales. In the same ten years the percentage of the net population lost in certain European countries was as follows:— Italy, 2-6 per cent.; Norway, 2.9 per cent.; Sweden, 1.5 per cent.; Denmark, r-2 per cent.

I give these figures to indicate the very great contribution which Scotland has made to the development of the world overseas. This has without doubt been of the greatest value in building the British Commonwealth of Nations, but it has left Scotland weaker by this greatest blood transfusion operation in history. While I have no definite statistical data to support my view, 1 believe that the former pupils of our School have proportionately made a greater contribution to the building of the British Commonwealth than any other similar community of Scots.

These preliminary remarks are really by way of introduction to the main subject of this note.

Some five years ago the Secretary of State for Scotland, The Right Honourable Thomas Johnston, suggested to me that this great bond of affection which Scots throughout the world have for the homeland might be nurtured by supplying them with facts about their Scottish ancestry and about the part of the country from whence they had sprung.

This was made possible by virtue of the fact that we in Scotland centralised all our old parochial registers in the Register House, Edinburgh, and we also had the records of the First Statistical Account of Scotland which give details of every parish of Scotland and of the way of life of the people as it was at the end of the eigheenth century.

Scotland is therefore in a very advantageous position in having her parish registers of vital events centralised, and not scattered through the individual parishes, as is the case south of the border.

As a result of the Secretary of State's suggestion, a small Society

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was set up to help Scots to trace their ancestry from these old parish registers and from other material available at the Register House, the National Library for Scotland, and elsewhere. The Society is nonprofit making. It is largely supported by donations from patriotic Scots, which enable it to help Scots abroad at a very small cost.

Since the organisation started in 1945, over 6,ooo applications have been received. Most of them are straightforward requests from persons genuinely desirous of tracing their stock. Many people are anxious to know whether they belong to a particular Clan, and what is the derivation of their surname. Other queries are of a less satisfactory kind, where people desire to establish connection with some noble Scottish family, either for the purpose of self-aggrandisement or in the hope of sharing in an inheritance. The Society, however, does not encourage such enquiries, and it refuses to endeavour to establish relationships for legal purposes; nor does it undertake to trace living relatives, although it is repeatedly being asked to do so.

As an example of how the Society operates, let us take an imaginary case of a man called Hugh Gordon who writes from America that he desires the Society to endeavour to trace his Scottish forebears. He informs the Society that his father John Gordon left the parish of Echt in 188o and that he was married to Mary Mackenzie before he left Scotland. The first step would be to trace the marriage of John Gordon and Mary Mackenzie. This is comparatively simple, as there exists a complete general index of all births, marriages and deaths which have taken place since x855. Let us assume the marriage is traced in the year 1878. The entry would give the ages of both the bride and the bridegroom and the names of their parents. If we assume that John Gordon was twenty-one when he married, we should find his birth in the index for the year 1857. The birth entry would give us also the names of his parents and the place and date of their marriage. The old parish register for the place of marriage would be searched for particulars in regard to the marriage which would yield information as to a further generation of ancestors.

And so the search goes on through the parish registers of births and marriages until the date when these registers started, which in some cases goes back to the early sixteenth century.

A report is issued to the applicant, and a family " tree " is prepared. Judging by the many hundreds of letters of appreciation which the Society has received, it is evident that the Society is fulfilling a useful purpose. A very considerable proportion of the enquiries received come from the dollar area, and in its small way the reports which the Society sends across the Atlantic are invisible exports which are earning dollars.

Many of the requests received reveal an almost pathetic affection for the homeland in the hearts of Scottish exiles. Requests are received from people in every walk in life from almost every quarter of the globe. One aged Scot from the Western hemisphere wrote asking whether we could inform him if a certain woman was alive and still unmarried, as he had parted from her as her sweetheart half a century ago. The facts were given at a press conference and as a result the lady in question wrote to the Society. Her letter was sent

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on to the enquirer, but we have no knowledge as to whether the old couple have been reunited.

Many requests come from people wishing to know whether they belong to a Clan, and whether they are entitled to wear a tartan.

One timid American was apprehensive as to wearing a kilt without establishing his right, as he informed us that he heard of a fellow American, without Scottish descent, being " de-kilted " on a dance floor at a St. Andrew's Ball in New York. One South African Scot asked the Society whether we could confirm the family legend that his Scottish great-grandfather stood 6 feet it inches and weighed a 5 stone!

This type of query is unusual. The normal work of the Society is the tracing of Scots ancestors, and in doing so it is fulfilling the principal object of its creation by binding Scots throughout the world more closely to the homeland. In the summer time there are many callers at the Society's little office at 4 North St. David Street, Edinburgh.

J. G. KYD (1891-94

Nairob

I goo-195o

A city was born. The time was the early months of 1899 and the place the flat swampy ground at the western fringe of the Athi Plains where the ground rises in a series of sloping ridges and valleys to become eventually the prominent ranges of the Aberdare Mountains.

For many years the interior of Uganda had been the happy huntingground of slave traders, who brought their human cargoes in chaingangs over hundreds of miles of game-infested country to the fort port of Mombasa. Public opinion in Britain, outraged by the cruelties perpetrated by slave traders, had clamoured for the abolition of slavery and in face of such opposition the British Government had pledged itself to build a railway from the coast to Lake Victoria Nyanza. In the autumn of 1896 the first rail of the Uganda Railway was laid at Mombasa and the line slowly crept towards the interior.

Thousands of Indian workmen were recruited from India to do the construction and by 1898 railhead had reached the Tsavo River, where the building of the Tsavo Bridge was seriously delayed by ravages of man-eating lions. Their night attacks on different sections of the camp, when sleeping men were snatched from their beds and devoured, struck terror in the hearts of the workmen, at least thirty of whom had the unhappy misfortune to be carried away to an untimely death. One engineer was taken from his camp-bed while his wife lay in another camp-bed a few feet away. An officer of the police volunteered to shoot the marauders and arrived at the camp in a railway coach: in the dead of night a man-eater entered the coach and dragged him out to a horrible fate.

Despite all difficulties, however, railhead finally reached the bleak swampy stretch of country adjoining the foothills in 1899. The intention had been to site the headquarters of the railway near Fort Smith, ten miles further on, on the top of a spur, but the disadvantages of steep gradients and limited space decided against this course. The locality was known to the Masai, the tribe who grazed their herds of

129 Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine cattle over the vast plains, as Nairobi—" the place of the cold water " —and thus the name " Nairobi " came into being.

Meanwhile, materials were arriving by rail from the coast. The Kikuyu natives, drawn by curiosity from the shelter of their upland forests, became accustomed to the sight of white men and their strange activities and ventured nearer the construction works. They displayed intense interest in all the new things they saw and their sense of acquisitiveness eventually got the better of them. Soon such things as nails, bolts and wire began to disappear, with the result that stores had to be built.

The tentage required to house the workers stretched over acres of ground. Railway Headquarters, being self-contained, included quarters for engineers, doctors, accountants, police officers, magistrates and subordinate staffs of Europeans and Asians. In addition, it was only natural that the Arab and Asian traders from the coast and Zanzibar should be attracted by the trading opportunities afforded and, as camp-followers poured in, their prospects expanded.

The daylight hours saw a fever of activity; at night, movement was restricted as lions were plentiful in the long grass skirting the swamps. Game in their thousands roamed in the plains and in the evenings they came to the streams to drink. Here a danger lurked.

Game-pits dug by the natives lay along paths of travel and the unwary might stumble into them and be impaled upon protruding spears.

The Uganda Railway was a semi-military " task-force " with wide powers and was in the hands of the Uganda Railway Committee at the Foreign Office in London. The effect of these powers was to secure to the railway the whole of the plain on the south side of the swamp; the activities of traders, the civil administration and nonrailway residents did not interest the railway officials. The administrators, faced with the choice of a site for an administration centre, finally decided on the high ground to the north of the swamp. Here Government offices and quarters were erected.

The railway town was thus divided into two parts, the land controlled by the Uganda Railway and the Government area, with a shopping centre between. This dualism of control made the situation impossible. Two things were urgently. necessary, the unification of the local government of the town and some shedding of the responsibilities of the Uganda Railway and the formation of a Nairobi Township Committee.

In April 1900 the Nairobi Municipal Regulations were published, defining the township of Nairobi as the area comprised within a radius of one-and-a-half miles from the present Government office, and they authorised the Sub-Commissioner to nominate a number of the leading residents and merchants to act with him as a committee.

The township of Nairobi was thereby established.

As the years rolled on, the township of Nairobi grew. The now recognised capital of British East Africa, whose wonderful climate, rich soil and wealth of game had become known both in the United Kingdom and South Africa, attracted to it pioneers and celebrities.

Between the years 1900 and 1914 Nairobi was visited by Winston Churchill, President Roosevelt, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught

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and many others. From the south trekked families of courageous Afrikaaners who settled in the Plateau district. Demands for farming land were greater than the Land Office could satisfy.

At the outbreak of war in 1914 the military force of the country was one battalion of the King's African Rifles stationed in Nairobi.

The settlers, mostly armed with sporting rifles, poured into the capital on horse to offer their services, and were drafted into the East African Mounted Rifles. Many temporary buildings had been replaced by permanent buildings, but the war brought an end to commercial undertakings and cast its blight on development in the town.

At the end of the war, although unofficial elections for Europeans were conducted, responsibility for the township still rested in the hands of Government, but the Colonial Office did support plans for improvement in the management of municipal affairs. In 1919 the Governor approved of the application of the Corporations Ordinance and in 191o the first election of European councillors to the new Corporation took place. Three years later the chairman of Council was elevated to the dignity of Mayor.

The continued expansion of the township raised fresh issues and, at the invitation of the Government, Mr. Justice Feetham headed a commission to make recommendations for the unification of town and suburban districts. The implementation of the Feetham Report involved the introduction of new areas into a compact municipality and the establishment of rating and wider representation and a new Municipalities Bill, known as the Local Government (Municipalities) Ordinance, 1928, eventually came into effect.

1930-1934 were years of depression, unemployment, locusts and drought, but the years 1935-1939 were more prosperous. Kenya organised stands at various Exhibitions; large sums were spent on publicity and a colour film of Nairobi and district, " Nairobi calls you ", was prepared; the East Africa Office in London championed new settlement; Government departments expanded and public services became more and more up-to-date. Then came the precarious years of the second world war.

Vast concentrations of troops were brought to Nairobi and the outlying districts. South African forces, West Africans, Rhodesians, Indians, Mauritians and the R.A.F. Great strains were imposed on the accommodation of the town and its capacity to meet the requirements of supplies, water, lighting, etc.

At 8 a.m. on 8 May 1945 gunfire announced to the citizens of Nairobi that the war in Europe was over. There was great rejoicing and later in the day a march-past of military units. Soon after came news of the atomic bomb and the surrender of Japan. Flags and bunting appeared in the streets at it a.m., an inter-denominational service of thanksgiving was held outside the Law Courts; at mid-day Nairobi's biggest parade of troops marched through the town.

Little by little life in Nairobi returned to civilian occupation. A five-year town planning scheme was under review; political development raised the status of the Commissioner for Local Government to that of Member for Health and Local Government and a non-official was appointed to be Member for Agriculture and Natural Resources.

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Certain services common to all three territories, Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika, were amalgamated under a High Commission.

The coming of 195o marked fifty years of Nairobi as the capital of East Africa and the time seemed opportune to make the town into a city. This could have been accomplished by an Act passed through the local Legislature. But, great as that honour would have been, the Council felt that something greater would be a more considerable spur and incentive. So the Mayor, on behalf of the Council, asked His Excellency the Governor to support a petition to His Majesty the King for the grant of a Royal Charter. The petition was granted and the King honoured Nairobi by sending the Duke of Gloucester to present the Letters Patent.

Thursday, 3o March 195o, Charter Day, dawned bright and expectant. The route from Government House to Delamere Avenue and the Town Hall was bedecked with flags and bunting. At io.55 a.m. Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess drove to the Town Hall through streets thronged with crowds to cheer the royal visitors.

The ceremony at the Town Hall itself was brief and dignified.

It was opened by the Mayor who greeted Their Royal Highnesses with an address of welcome and went on to give a brief history of Nairobi, mentioning that in 1906 the population of the township was recorded as 559 Europeans, 358z Asians and 7300 Africans, a total of 11,441. To-day it is more than izo,ooo. He paid tribute to the early missionaries, the early traders, the pioneers, the administrators and all the public-spirited men who had contributed to the development of the town, and particularly to our present Governor, His Excellency Sir Philip Mitchell, who has done and is doing so much to try to resolve Kenya's many problems.

The Duke of Gloucester then read a message from His Majesty the King. Addressing His Worship the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Nairobi Municipal Council, he said:— " I am very glad to be here to-day to hand over to you by the King's Command His Majesty's Letters Patent, conferring upon Nairobi the dignity and status of a City."

The Duke referred to his earlier visits to Nairobi and was able from personal observation to see how great had been its recent progress and development.

The ceremony closed with words of thanksgiving by the Provost of the Cathedral of the Highlands, who invoked God's blessing upon our city. Prayers were led by the Minister of St. Andrew's Church and the Bishop of Mombasa gave the blessing. The National Anthem was played by the band. The final act was the firing of the Royal Salute of zr guns as R.A.F. planes flew over the area. The Duke and Duchess then stepped into an open car and, amidst resounding cheers, drove slowly from the assembly.

G. G. SUTHERLAND 0903-09), F.P. Club Consul in Nairobi.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

A Grandstand for Rubislaw Appeal from the Rugby Section

For many years past the Rugby Section of the F.P. Club have been considering the possibility of having a covered stand erected at the main pitch at Rubislaw. Successive committees have, however, reluctantly shelved the idea, mainly on grounds of expense, and so far the best that has been done for the comfort of spectators is the provision of an uncovered grandstand to hold 3oo people.

During the past few seasons many requests have been made by F.P.s to the officials of the Rugby Section that a covered stand be erected and the present committee have decided to institute a building fund. The proposal is that a covered grandstand to hold approximately 3oo be erected on the Cromwell Road side of the main rugby pitch and the Section are at present considering methods of raising the money required. In this connection it is thought that many members of the F.P. Club will wish to help by making contributions to the fund and the Editor of the Magazine has very kindly consented to make space available for an appeal.

At practically all the grounds belonging to the Edinburgh and Glasgow schools comparable to the Grammar, there exist very substantial and commodious grandstands and the Rugby Section confidently appeal to all F.P.s for their whole-hearted support in order that a long-felt want may be satisfied at our own sports field.

All contributions should be sent to W. C. Connon, Hon. Treasurer, A.G.S.F.P. Rugby Football Section, i East Craibstone Street, Aberdeen.

Aberdeen's Own Battalion The School has close ties with the 4/7th Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders, T.A., now commanded by Lieut.-Colonel AusrAnt M. MILNE* (1924-3 z). The School's Cadet Company is, of course, affiliated to the Battalion, and with the intake of National Servicemen to the Territorial Army which commenced in June, it is hoped that many F.P.s will complete their service in the City's Own Battalion. Since the last war, however, the Battalion has spread its wings and its recruiting area includes much of Deeside and Kincardine. Vacancies exist for all ranks, including officers, and F.P.s who volunteer will be particularly welcome at Woolmanhill T.A. Centre.

Books by F.P.s ERIC LINKLATER* (1913-16), M.A., LL.D.: Mr. Byailla.

Rupert Hart-Davis. 8s. 6d. *

*

A Novel.

*

BritoN (1795-98): A Self-Portrait. Letters and Diaries, 1798-1 824.

Two Volumes. Edited by Peter Quennell. John Murray. 42s.

These volumes, according to the publishers, come as' near as anything can to being Byron's autobiography.

F.P. Club Rugby Section ist XV-Season 1949-5o

&mochas

Standing—J. H. Warrack, E. Hunter, R. J. Bain, E. H. Cruickshank, J. W. Cradock, D. H. Ross, J. A. McGregor, M. G. Lyall, N. I. W. Meldrum (Hon. Secretary).

Sitting--E. Craig, A. D. Lyall, K. W. Hunter, D. N. Georgeson (Vice-Captain and Hon. Teams Secretary), E. Buthlay (Captain), W. L. Connon, R. F. Buthlay, W. D. Allardice, A. H. Tawse.

In front—J. S. Sutherland, R. F. Craig.

School Rugby ist XV—x949-50

Standing—Mr. E. Hunter (Games Artifice), A. S. Noble, J. A. S. Bett, A. W. Milligan, D. S. McKay, A. S. Fraser, I. L. F. Smith. .Sitting—J. N. Kernsley, R. T. Hamilton, H. B. Paterson (Vire-Captain), C. D. Mowat (Captain), A. G. Watt, S. Monro, A. M. North.

In from—I. K. Robb, R. H. W. Cradock.

SZrachan

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

1 33

Marriages Adam (1925-37).—At King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, on 22 April 1950, WILLIAM ADAM,* M.A., B.Sc. (Agri.); Lower Bodachra, Dyce, Aberdeenshire, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Adam, 456 Great Western Road, Aberdeen, to Elizabeth Margaret Robertson Watt, youngest daughter of EDWARD WILLIAM WArr5 (1883-94), T.D., LL.D., D.L., and of the late Mrs. Watt, Glenhurnie Park, Aberdeen.

Angus (I925-36).—At Kano, Northern Nigeria, on 16 January 195o, Captain COLIN GEORGE MARK ANcus,* R.A.S.C., only son of Mr. and Mrs. P. D. Angus, 7 St. Devcnick Terrace, Cults, Aberdeenshire, to Mrs. Esme Lillian Hughes, eldest daughter of the late Major H. Willstrop, I.O.S., and of Mrs. Wilistrop, Kirkee, India, and Melbourne, Australia.

Archibald (1930-42).—At King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, on 8 January 1949, JOHN INGRAM ARCHIBALD,* B.Sc., son of the late Mr. John Archibald, Hankow, China, and of Mrs. Archibald, 14 Osborne Place, Aberdeen, to Doris Helen Adams, younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Adams, 2 t Short Loanings, Aberdeen.

Arnaud (1929-36).—At Christchurch, Chelsea, on 1 April 1950, FREDERICK COOPER ARNAUD,* eldest son of the late Mr. Stanley W. Arnaud, Colinton, Edinburgh, and of Mrs. Arnaud, 1 Kepplestone Avenue, Aberdeen, to Anne Dorothy Calder, only daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Charles Calder, London.

Brown (t929-30).—At St. George's Church, Penang, Malaya, on to December 1949, ALAN GORDON BROWN, second son of Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Brown, Penang, and Fernbank, Gower Terrace, Glasgow, to Sheila Stewart Irvine, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Irvine, Craigmont, Newark Drive, Pollokshields, Glasgow, formerly of Burma.

Clark (1932-43).—At St. Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow, on 4 March 1950, ALLAN ALEXANDER CLARK,* son of Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Clark, 26 Albyn Grove, Aberdeen, to Winifred Wrightson, daughter of Mr. T. Wrightson and of the late Mrs. Wrightson, Tursdale, Co. Durham.

Forbes (z929-42).--At St. Machar's Cathedral, Old Aberdeen, on 29 April 1950, CHARLES SIMPSON FORBES, S011 of the late CHARLES FORBES (1884-86), O.B.E., M.B., Ch.B., and of Mrs. Forbes, 9 Albyn Terrace, Aberdeen, to Betty Crichton, daughter of the late Mr. J. L. Crichton and of Mrs. Crichton, 46 Dec Street, Aberdeen.

Galloway (19o8-18).—At Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen, on 28 April 195o, ERIC JAMES GALLOWAY,* youngest son of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Galloway, Gordondale House, Aberdeen, to Mary Lyall Horn, younger daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. William Horn, Coniston Drive, Edinburgh.

Gill (1928-42).—At Banchory West Church, on 23 February 1950, ALFRED JAMES GILL, only son of Mr. William J. Gill, Corsec House, Banchory, to Aileen Margaret M'Intosh, elder daughter of the late Provost C. R. F. M'Intosh, Banchory, and of Mrs. M'Intosh, Ncw Banchory, Banchory.

Gray (1932-35).—At St. Andrew's Scots Kirk, Colombo, Ceylon, on 29 April 1950, ROBERT ISIRAY ALEXANDER GRAY,* son of Mr. and Mrs. Alex. Gray, 123 Forest Avenue, Aberdeen, to Sarah Harriet Broadbent, daughter of Mrs. E. B. Broadbent and of the late Ericsson Broadbent, Waterbury, Connecticut, U.S.A. Hall (I933-40).—At the West Church of St. Andrew, Aberdeen, on 16 May 195o, JoHN DEWAR HALL, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Hall, Travancore, India, to Ada Sherwood, younger daughter of the late Mr. G. W. Sherwood and of Mrs. Sherwood, Aberdeen.

Harper (1935-37).—At St. James's Church, Aberdeen, on 27 April I95o, LEWIS JAMES HARPER, only son of the late Mr. L. J. Harper and of Mrs. Harper, Fernbank, Insch, to Ens Farquharson, second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Farquharson, 38 Ashley Gardens, Aberdeen.

Mackay (I926-37).--At King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, on 27 March 1950, JOHN ROBERT MACKAY,* M.A., LL.B., son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Mackay, 14 Rubislaw Den North, Aberdeen, to Patricia Fallowfield, M.A., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Fallowfield, 107 Queen Street, Peterhead.

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Mackie (r927-37).—At Kensington Registry Office, London, on z2 May 195o, NIN1AN MACKIE,* M.A., younger son of the late Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Mackie,

20 Ashley Road, Aberdeen, to Herta Michel, 192 Cromwell Road, London, S.W.5.

Macpherson (1935-4o).—At the West Church of St. Andrew, Aberdeen, on zr December 1949, COLIN ROBERTSON MACPHERSON, M.B., Ch.B., only son of Mr. and Mrs. D. J. R. Macpherson, 48 Foothill Road, Aberdeen, to Margaret E. Mitchell, elder daughter of GEORGE ANGus MITC HELL* (1902-13), T.D., F.R.I.B A., and of Mrs. Mitchell, 3r Albert Terrace, Aberdeen.

Marr (1930-42).—At Maracaibo, Venezuela, on 8 April 195o, DENNIS TREVOR LLEWELLYN MARE,* elder son Of EDWARD GEORGE MARK* (1899-190I) and of Mrs. Marr, Brading, Isle of Wight, formerly of Aberdeen, to Betty Eileen Thomas, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Thomas, Cheam, Surrey, formerly of Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire.

Mitchell (1942-45)At Ruthrieston South Church, Aberdeen, on 5 June 195o, IAN M'RAE MITCHELL,* only son of the late Rev. Archibald Mitchell, B.D., and of Mrs. Mitchell, 19 Duthie Place, Aberdeen, to Isobel Stuart Fraser Proctor, younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Proctor, to Justice Street, Aberdeen.

Nutten (1929-4o).—At King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, on 29 March 1950, HORACE EDWARD NUTTEN,* son of Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Nutter, 6 Granville Place, Aberdeen, to Yvonne Simpson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George H. Simpson, 104 Desswood Place, Aberdeen.

Phimister (1931-4o).—At Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika, on z6 December 1949, GEORGE EUSTACE SLATER PHIMISTER, second son of Commander and Mrs. R. D. Phimister, E.A.R. and H., Nairobi, to Violet M. Hunt, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. E. A. Hunt, Southampton, Hants.

Selbie (1935-39).—At Registrar's Office, Aberdeen, on 7 December 1949, FRANCIS MILLER SELB1E, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Selbie, Inverurie, to Jean Chalmers Kennedy, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D. Kennedy, Aberdeen.

Shepherd (1922-33).—At Harrow Registry Office, Harrow, Middlesex, on 27 August 1949, WILLIAM BLACK SHEPHERD,* C.A., son of the late Mr. Robert Shepherd and of Mrs. Martha Shepherd, formerly of 3o Seafield Drive East, Aberdeen, to Pamela Joy Hill, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Hill, 12 Boleyn Drive, Eastcote, Middlesex.

Sleigh (I936-40).—At Meldrum Parish Church, Old Meldrum, Aberdeenshire, on 22 March 195o, JOHN ANDERSON SLEIGH, West Fingask, Old Meldrum, eldest son of JOHN LEE SLEIGH* (1913-16) and of the late Mrs. Sleigh, Newseat of Tolquhon, Tarves, to Mary Isabel Manson, daughter of Captain and Mrs. Alexander Manson, Kilblean, Old Meldrum.

Stephen (I937-4o).—At Westbourne Methodist Church, Bournemouth, on 20 December 1949, ROY CAMERON STEPHEN, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Stephen, 40 Sycamore Place, Aberdeen, to Joan Heather Dean, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Dean, Poole.

Stuart (1928-37).—At Aberdeen, on 8 March 195o, FORBES STUART, eldest son of the late Mr. Forbes Stuart and of Mrs. A. L. Stuart, 36 Victoria Street, Aberdeen, to Hilda Petrie, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Petrie, z 1 Seaton Drive, Aberdeen.

Tait (1936-44).—At King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen, on 31 March 1950, JOHN BARCLAY TAIT, B.A. (Oxon.), son of the late Mr. and Mrs. M. W. Tait, 5 Rubislaw Den North, Aberdeen, to Dorothy Findlay Scroggie, M.A., youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. Scroggie, 43 Wallfield Crescent, Aberdeen.

Williamson (7928-36).—At St. Cuthbert's Parish Church, Edinburgh, on, June 1950, RONALD ALEXANDER WILLIAMSON, son of Mr. and Mrs. M. H. Williamson, 22 Bayvicw Road, Aberdeen, to Betty Stewart Scott, daughter of Mr. Adam Scott, O.B.E., and of Mrs. Scott, 36a Gordon Road, London, W.5.

Willox (1925-35).—At St. Mary's Chapel, Aberdeen, on 3 April 1950, HUGH ANDREW WILLOX,* son of Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Willox, Kuala, Cults, Aberdeenshire, to Helen Walker, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. Walker, Bridgefoot, Kinellar, Aberdeenshire.

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Obituary John Forbes Anderson (1894-97), who was Dux of the School in 1897, died in a nursing home in Glasgow on 29 April 195o, aged seventy. He graduated at the University of Aberdeen with double honours in 1902 and also won a Fullerton scholarship in Philosophy. For thc next two years he was assistant to thc late Professor W. L. Davidson of the Chair of Logic at Aberdeen, and in 1904 he became senior Classics and English Master at Keith Grammar School. In 1906 he received the same appointment in Stonelaw Higher Grade School, Ruthcrglen (later Rutherglen Academy) and he remained there until 1939 when he retired.

Latterly he was also Second Master at the Academy. He was the eldest son of the late Dr. Alexander Thomas Anderson, H.M. Medical Officer, West Falkland Islands, and was born at Huntly.

George Haddon Bower* (1877-87), C.B., T.D., M.A., advocate in Aberdeen, died at his home, Pitmurchie, Torphins, Aberdeenshire, on 8 February 195o, aged seventy-eight. He was the second son of the late Mr. James Haddon Bower of Pitmurchie and the last survivor of five brothers who all attended the School.

After graduating M.A. at the University of Aberdeen in 1891, he served his law apprenticeship with Mr. Thomas Wilsone, solicitor, and thereafter was for four years an assistant in the Solicitor's department of the Caledonian Railway in Glasgow.

He returned to Aberdeen in 1899, being admitted to the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen in that year, and was in partnership with the late Mr. Kenneth M. Simpson, solicitor, for eleven years. From 191o to 1917 he was in practice on his own account, and in the latter year he entered into partnership with the late Mr. Edward Gibb, solicitor, in the firm of Messrs. G. H. Bower & Gibb. Mr. Gibb died in 1939, but Mr. Bower continued in practice until his death. In 1947 he assumed as a partner JOHN SCOTT MACLACHLAN* (1922-32), M.A., LL.B., advocate in Aberdeen, Secretary of the F.P. Club. From 1944 until 1947 Mr. Bower was treasurer of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen.

For fifty years he was connected with Volunteers and Territorials, having enlisted as a Private in 1889. Two years later he received a commission in the 5th (later the 7th) Volunteer Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders, and in the first world war he commanded the 7th Battalion in France until he was invalided home in December 1915. From January 1917 to August 1918 he commanded the 2/7th Battalion of the Black Watch. For ten years he was chairman of the Territorial Army Association for the County of Kincardine, and in 1939 he was awarded the C.B. His eldest brother, HADDON ANDERSON BOWER (1877-84), of Messrs. Bower & Florence, granite merchants, Aberdeen, died at Aberdeen in 1927 ; EDWARD WILKIE BOWER (1881-90) died in 1895 ; HERBERT HADDON BOWER (1881-92), C.A., of Messrs. Bower & Smith, chartered accountants, Aberdeen, died at Aberdeen in 1940; and JAMES ANDERSON BOWER (1882-95)1 who was formerly manager of a tea estate in Assam, died in London in 1946.

WILLIAM MITCHELL SMITH* (1881-91), C.A., writes:— George Bower was a great and loyal friend and a splendid companion. I have the happiest of memories of the delightful holidays we spent together in our earlier years. We usually went abroad and at various times visited most of the.

Continental countries, but it was our visit to Russia before the Kaiser's war that stood out most vividly in our memories. St. Petersburg, as it was in those days, held a great fascination for us. The huge Hotel de France, a vast caravanserai, where we stayed, the grandeur of the three-mile long Nevski Prospect with its cosmopolitan crowds, the great Cathedral of St. Isaac with the famous equestrian statue of Peter the reat in front of it, the Winter Palace—everything built upon a massive scale. Our only regret was that we did not go on to Moscow, when we were so near—only a short night in the train.

We had many shooting jaunts together and the " Twelfth " always provided the greatest interest of the Seasons. We had generally good bags and George contributed largely to the results. He was a keen shot and was always very elegant in his hunting tartan kilt.

George was initiated a mason in Saint Andrew Lodge in 1900. His promotion was rapid and he was installed Right Worshipful Master in 1909. He was an excellent postprandial speaker and spoke without notes of any sort, always introducing a few pleasantries. He was much beloved by all the members of the

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Lodge for his kindly and noble nature. His many friends will remember him with affection and high regard.

Much sympathy is felt for his wife, who tended him so carefully and devotedly in his illness. She is a sister of Miss Mary Garden, not only a famous international operatic star but a great actress.

Herbert Arthur Bremner (1893-95), son of the late Rev. Alexander Bremner, Schoolhouse, Fyvie, died at Sydney, Australia, on 3 December 1949, aged seventyone. He served his apprenticeship as a marine engineer with the Fairfield Engineering Company, Glasgow, and attended the University of Glasgow for two years.

Thereafter he was at sea for five years, after which he entered the service of the British Oxygen Company Limited, London. Some time later he went to Australia as a member of the staff of Messrs. Fyvie and Stewart, the Australian agents for the British Oxygen Company, and as a member of their staff, he supervised the erection of many engineering plants, including an oxygen plant at Alexandria, New South Wales. In June 1913 he entered the service of Commonwealth Oxygen and Accessories Limited as works manager, and in the ensuing years he supervised the erection of oxygen and acetylene plant and buildings at Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Port Kembla, Tasmania, Adelaide and Perth. In January 1935 he became chief engineer of The Commonwealth Industrial Gases Limited, following its incorporation, and he retired from that' position in April 1944 on his sixty-sixth birthday. He was retained by the Company, however, as a consultant.

He had travelled widely and in x911 there was printed in the Magazine a letter which he had written to the Editor from Melbourne. In this letter he said " North and South America, Mexico, Peru and now Australia-1 have tramped weary and sore-footed in them all ". For some time after 1925 he was F.P. Club Consul for New South Wales.

John Grant Bruce (188z-85), C.A., died in a nursing home in Johannesburg on 14 February 595o, aged seventy-nine. He was the eldest son of the late Rev. William R. Bruce (1849-53). M.A., D.D., Newmachar, and one of a large family, of whom seven eventually settled in South Africa. After leaving the School he became articled to and qualified with an Edinburgh firm of chartered accountants, and later he decided to take up medicine as a career but had to give this up on account of a breakdown in health. He emigrated to South Africa in the late '9os, and on the outbreak of the Boer War he joined the Natal Volunteer Ambulance Corps, which was attached to General Buller's forces. He saw much of the fighting on the way to relieve Ladysmith. On demobilisation he became a member of the Stock Exchange in Johannesburg and was a partner in the firm of Jones and Bruce until he retired in 1948. In that year also he resigned from the Society of Accountants in Aberdeen which he had joined in 1893 and of which he was in 1948 the senior member.

In Johannesburg, where he lived for over fifty years, he led a bachelor life at the New Club.

Two of his brothers also attended the School: GEORGE HERBERT BRUCE (i890-?), who was an accountant in a mercantile office in Johannesburg, died in 1940, and THOMAS CRUICKSIIANK BRUCE (1889-92), M.A. engaged in gold mining in the Transvaal until 1932 and thereafter in farming in Cape Colony. He too died in Johannesburg, in 1944.

His nephew, IAN LESLIE BRUCE (1922-26), writes:— Throughout his long life he was loved and respected for his kindness and generosity by relatives and friends alike and seldom was an appeal made to him in vain for funds in support of any humanitarian cause. He was a keen student of politics and economics, and the universal chaos and strife of the post-war years weighed heavily on his sensitive mind and hastened his departure from this life.

Many South African charitable and youth organisations benefited under his will but he did not fail to remember the poor of his native parish of Newmachar.

Ernest Clark (1891-1900), elder son of the late Mr. John T. Clark, coachbuilder, Aberdeen, died suddenly in London on 17 February 195o, aged sixty-four.

After serving his apprenticeship as a coachbuilder, he was employed as a body designer in London, Ashford and Glasgow from 1905 to 1908, and in the following year he became works manager of J. T. Clark & Company Limited, coachbuilders and motor body builders, Aberdeen. Later he was for a time manager of the body building department of T. C. Smith & Company Limited, electrical and

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automobile engineers, Aberdeen, and in November 1919 he joined the Invicta Works, North Finchley, London, which specialised in the building of G.P.O. vans. In 1926 the concern was incorporated under the name of W. Harold Perry Limited, and Mr. Clark was a director of the company from the date of its incorporation until October 1940, when he resigned. During the 1914-18 war he held the rank of Sergeant and was attached to the Ministry of Munitions in London.

He is survived by his wife and daughter.

James Cook* (1877-79), of John Cook & Son Limited, ship insurance and passage brokers, Aberdeen, died suddenly in his office on II April 1950. He was aged eighty-five and lived at Enfield, Pitfodels, Aberdeen. For over sixty-two years he was actively engaged in the business which was founded by his father, the late Mr. John Cook, in 1847, and he had been Danish Vice-Consul in Aberdeen since 1896. For his services in this capacity he was created a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog by the King of Denmark in 5929. For a long period he was a member of the Aberdeen 1-Iarbour Board.

He was one of four brothers who attended the School: GEORGE MILNE COOK (1864-69), who was Swedish and Norwegian Vice-Consul in Aberdeen, died in 1932; JOHN CooK (1872-76) engaged in farming in New Zealand and died in 1940; and ROBERT HALDANE CooK (1877-82), M.D., formerly resident medical superintendent of a hospital at Winchmore Hill, London, now lives in retirement at Blockley, Gloucestershire.

James Dickson Davidson (1888), who was for forty-nine years in the service of the North of Scotland Bank Limited, died suddenly at Dundee on 18 January 1950. He entered the Bank as an apprentice in the George Street branch, Aberdeen, in 189o, became first teller at that branch in 1897 and accountant two years later.

In 1904 he was transferred to the Edinburgh office as accountant and he remained there till 1912, when he was brought back to Head Office to be an inspector of branches. From 192o until 1939, when he retired under the Bank's pension scheme, he was agent at the High Street branch, Dundee. He was a Member of the Institute of Bankers in Scotland. He was unmarried and spent the whole of his retirement in Dundee.

Alexander Duncan (1887-91), M.A., who retired from the charge of St. Margaret's Church, Lochmaben, in July 1944, died at his home in Auchtermuchty, Fifeshire, on 24 December 1949, aged seventy-five. He was Dux of the School in 1891 and at the University of Aberdeen, where he graduated M.A. in 1895, he had a distinguished career, taking honours in Classics and winning a Lumsden and Sachs scholarship. His first charge, after being two years an assistant in Huntly, was ar the United Free Church, Mortlach, Duffiown, where he ministered for ten years, and from 1914 to 1932 he was minister of the West Church, Haddington.

In the latter year he was called to St. Margaret's, Lochmaben, where for over eleven years he carried on a most successful and fruitful ministry. He was a well-known figure in the town and district, and by his kindly disposition he won many friends outwith his own congregation. When he was forced to retire on account of failing health, he received several presentations. His chief interest outside his work was music and he had a fine baritone voice.

Robert Ian McKay Finlayson (1908-II), eldest son of the late Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Finlayson, Aberdeen, died at Liverpool as the result of an accident on 6 May i 95o, aged forty-nine. Ile served his apprenticeship as an engineer with McKinnon & Company Limited, Aberdeen, and became an engineer-assistant on the Sealkotee Tea Estate, Chabua, Upper Assam, in 1922. Returning to England in 193o, he held various posts, and after the beginning of the 1939-45 war he joined Imperial Chemical Industries Limited at Widnes, Lancashire. In 1940 he received a post with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in Liverpool and later became their chief superintendent. After the end of the war he specialised in Safety Engineering and for a time was with Messrs. Read & Company, Orrel Park, Liverpool. Last year he became safety engineer with Meccano Limited, Liverpool. During the war he formed the first company of the Home Guard at Hunts Cross, Liverpool, and when his duties with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation kept him more and more tied to the airport at Liverpool, he formed a Home Guard company with the staff there. I lis hobby was gardening and he loved nature in all its branches.

John Flett (1897-5903), chief engineer, Elkrman Lines, London, second son of the late Mr. John K. Flett, for many years a baker in Aberdeen, died suddenly

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at Dundee on 3o January 195o, aged sixty-two. He served his apprenticeship with William McKinnon & Company Limited, Aberdeen, and thereafter joined the Ellerman Lines. He served in many vessels, sailing to all parts of the world during a period of forty years, thirty of which were served as a chief engineer.

In both wars he served in auxiliary ships of the Royal Navy, and in the recent war, after taking part in the evacuation at Dunkirk, he was engaged in convoy duties in home; Mediterranean and Far Eastern waters.

He was predeceased by his two brothers, who also attended the School: WILLIAM FLErr (1896-19oo) was on the staff of the London & Lancashire Indemnity Company of America in New York, and ALEXANDER MILNE FLETT (1897-104), an apprentice engineer with William McKinnon & Company Limited, Aberdeen, was drowned at Aberdeen in 1907. His son, IAN STARK FLETT* (1925-37), M.A., Ed.B., is educational psychologist to the county borough of Sunderland.

David Lyall Grant (1879-81), son of the late Mr. John Lyall Grant of Richmondhill House, Aberdeen, died at Montreal, Canada, on zo February 195o, aged eightyfour. He was in business as a tea merchant in Aberdeen, London and Edinburgh for a few years before going to Canada about isioo ; there he was engaged in the tea business of Messrs. Grace & Company in Montreal until he retired soon after 1930. He was an elder and session clerk in a congregation of the United Church of Canada.

He was a half-brother of three other F.P.s : Sir ROBERT WILLIAM LYALL GRANT* (1884-91), T.D., M.A., LL.B., formerly Chief Justice of Jamaica, now lives at Northrepps, Cromer; CHARLES LYALL GRANT (1887-94), M.A., B.Sc., died in the West Indies in 19ot ; and HENRY FREDERICK LYALL GRANT* (1888-95), D.S.O., M.A., Colonel, Royal Artillery (retired), now lives at Budleigh Salterton, Devon.

A FORMER MODERATOR James Harvey* (187o-75), M.A., D.D., one of the Church of Scotland's best known and best loved ministers, died at Edinburgh on 15 February 195o, in his ninety-first year. He was senior minister of Lady Glenorchy's North Church, Edinburgh. A former Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Free Church of Scotland before the Union of the Churches, and thereafter Joint Principal Clerk to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, he was a minister for almost sixty-five years and gave distinguished and devoted service to the Church.

A son of the late Mr. George Thompson Harvey, merchant in Aberdeen, he went to the University of Aberdeen and graduated there in 1879. He then attended the Free Church College, Aberdeen, and completed his training for the ministry at the Universities of Gottingen and Strasbourg. His first charge was the Free Church, Duntocher, Dunbartonshire, to which he was ordained in 1885, and five years later he was called to Lady Glenorchy's North Church, Edinburgh, where be remained as minister and senior minister for sixty years.

For five years before the Union of the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church in 1900, Dr. Harvey was Clerk of the Free Church Presbytery. In 1907 he became Joint Clerk of the Edinburgh United Free Church Presbytery, and in 1916 he was appointed Junior Principal Clerk of the United Free Church Assembly.

Three years later he became Senior Principal Clerk, and in 1925 his services to the Church in many spheres were recognised by his appointment as Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Free Church. He was the first student of the United Free Church College, Aberdeen, to become Moderator.

After the Union with the Church of Scotland in 1929, he held the principal clerkship of the united Church jointly with the late Rev. Dr. J. T. Cox until he retired in 1939 at the age of eighty. In a tribute in Life and [Pork at that time it was said of Dr. Harvey:— Benign, gracious, always encouraging and hopeful, full of the charity that thinketh no evil and is not easily provoked, he yet carried with it all a business-like shrewdness, knowledge of practice and procedure, and unflagging efficiency which made him a truly devoted and acceptable servant of the Church.

In a tribute published in the April 195o issue of Life and W'ork, the Very Rev. Dr. R. J. Drummond wrote:— With his passing a great breach is made in a wide circle of attached friends who prized most highly his friendship, his great gifts and even more his graces. He

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had a warm, kindly heart, full of sympathy and good will. His tact and courtesy were unfailing. He had an appreciation of humour that relieved many an awkward situation and entitled him to a place among those blessed as the peace-makers.

JAMES GRAY KYD* (1891-98), C.B.E., F.R.S.E., writes:— My contact with Dr. Harvey was only in the later years of his life. I had very little personal knowledge of his ministry, but I had a fairly intimate knowledge of him during the last ten years of his life as he was a member of the University Club, Edinburgh, and was a frequent companion of mine at lunch. I always felt that Dr. Harvey combined to an almost unique degree the dignity and sincerity of the Christian Ministry with a sane attitude to the ordinary affairs of life. He was a man whose conversation 1 always enjoyed and whose friendship I greatly valued.

Up to about seven years ago he, Dr. Fiddes, another F.P., and Dr. Martin were a trinity of saints who met weekly at the Club; first Fiddes went and then Martin, and Harvey always struck me as being a bit lonely after that.

I went to his funeral service, and it was obvious what a high degree of affection he must have had among the members of his congregation. The church was absolutely packed, not only by members of his own congregation, but by the leading members of practically all the professions in the Capital.

Alexander Fraser Innes (1881-83), M.A. (Edin.), died at West Park, Dufftown, on x May 1950, aged seventy-seven. His first teaching post after graduating with honours at the University of Edinburgh was as assistant master at Wallace Hall Academy, Dumfries, where he remained for four years, and from 1897 until he retired in 1932, he was Science Master at the Grove Academy, Broughty Ferry.

Science was his subject, but he fostered and maintained throughout a busy life a deep interest in Greek and Latin literature and also in the great French and English writers. According to an obituary notice in The Brought). Guide and Carnoastie Gazette, he could generally throw a fresh light on any literary question, and his own compositions, known but to a few friends, were of considerable merit. He was an enthusiastic member of the Broughty Ferry Bowling Club, and was the convener and mainspring of the committee which raised over L1,40° for the erection of a new pavilion. On his retirement he went to live in Dufftown and had the pleasure of buying the house in which he had spent half of his boyhood fifty years earlier, when his father was supervisor of Excise in the district. During his retirement he maintained his interest in curling, bowling and golf, and was a town councillor and a magistrate for a term. He also maintained his great interest in I.atin and Greek, and was a member of the Homeric Club of Dundee.

Norman Walter Mackworth (1892-96), M.B., Ch.B., F.R.C.S.E., Lieut.-Colonel, LM.S. (retired), died suddenly at his home, Greystones, Dyce, Aberdeenshire, on 9 May 1950, aged seventy. After graduating at the University of Aberdeen in 1901, he was commissioned in the I.M.S. in the following year and promoted Captain in 1905 and Major in 1914. During the 1914-18 war he served in France, Mesopotamia and India and in 1922 he was promoted Lieut.-Colonel. He retired in 1924.

His two sons, both F.P.s, also entered the medical profession: ExArr DIODE London, and MACKWORTH (1923-27), M.D., M.R.C.P., is in consulting practice in Ph.D. (Cantab.), NORMAN HUMPHREY MACKWORTH (1923-34), M.B., Ch.B. (Aberd.), is Assistant Director of the Medical Research Council's Applied Psychology Research Unit in the Psychological Laboratory at Cambridge.

Eric William Masson* (1938-42), son of Mr. William Masson, 126 Scafield Road, Aberdeen, died suddenly at Calcutta on I May 1950, aged twenty-three.

On leaving the School he joined the staff of the London and Lancashire Insurance Company Limited in Aberdeen, and in November of last year he went to Calcutta being to join the Company's office there. In 1945 he joined the Fleet Air Arm,Honglater transferred to the Royal Marines, with whom he served at home and in kong. He was a member of the F.P. Cricket Section and played in the Grade XI which won promotion last season from Grade II to Grade I. His brother, JAMES Hall, Russell & CAMERON MAssoN* (1938-46), is an apprentice engineer with Company Limited, Aberdeen.

ALEXANDER JAMES GRAY* (1931-44) writes:— The news of the untimely and tragic death of Eric Masson at the age of twentythree, after a short illness in Calcutta, came to many of us as a grievous shock.

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My friendship with Eric sprung up at School, where we were classmates, but reached its zenith in H.M. Forces. Another classmate, Alex. F. Calder, Eric and I served together for a considerable period in the Royal Marines, moving, from unit to unit and sharing the ups and downs of Service life together. Surely it is true that in the general give and take of the Service existence one becomes rapidly aware of the best anli the worst, together with all the individual weaknesses, in one's fellow men. Here indeed the best was quickly shown in Eric. His ready laugh, his dry humour and his extreme good nature, even under the most trying circumstances, endeared him to one and all, making him many friends who now mourn his passing from our midst.

Fate is indeed cruel that she should have allowed Eric to serve a strenuous period of duty with No. 3 Commando Brigade in Hongkong without a day's illness and then, four years later, snatch away that same young life soon after he landed on Indian soil.

Many readers will remember Eric as a classmate, keen cricketer or fellow sportsman. Many will wish only to call him friend. My own evergreen memories of him, however, will be those of the time I knew him best, clad in khaki, happygo-lucky, laughing his way through his tragically short life. Surely Eric Masson typified every quality for which our old School has become so famous in the past.

ALEXANDER HENRY INNES* (1933-45) writes:— Eric's school-fellows will remember him for his pleasant nature and his willingness to help others. I always found that his cheery smile seemed to make life a lot easier and more pleasant. I-Ie was a carefree chap who never seemed to worry about anything.

When Eric returned from the Services, he rejoined the F.P. Cricket Section, where he showed great promise as a batsman in the season before he went abroad.

His batting, backed up by his sure fielding and his cheery disposition, helped to win many a game. The Cricket Section have lost a good sportsman who always gave of his best.

William Harry Melvin (1894-95), M.A., solicitor, Town Clerk of Keith, Banffshire, died at Keith on 4 March 195o, aged seventy-two. A son of the late Mr. W. F. Melvin, a former Provost of Montrose, he served his law apprenticeship with Mr. D. S. Campbell, solicitor, Montrose, graduated M.A. at the University of Aberdeen in 1899, and qualified as a law agent in 1906. From 1906 to 1915 he worked as a qualified assistant in legal offices in Edinburgh, and in 1915 he commenced practice as a solicitor in Keith, becoming Town Clerk Depute in the same year. In 1921 he was assumed as a partner in the firm of Thurbum & Fleming, W.S., and in 1925 he became sole partner. He was also appointed Town Clerk in that year. He was an honorary sheriff substitute for Banffshire, Clerk to the Lieutenancy of Banffshire, Deputy Clerk to the Justices of the Peace, and Clerk to the Upper Banffshire District Licensing Court.

His brother, KENNETH STEWART MELVIN (1895-96), M.B., Ch.B., who was formerly in medical practice at Blagdon, near Bristol, is now in practice at Compton House, Chirk, Wrexham.

Henry Maurice Michie (1901-02), O.B.E., son of the late Mr. John Michie, M.V.O., of Balmoral, died at his home, Blagdon House, Seaton Burn, Northumberland, on 2 December 1949, aged sixty-four. After a year in the Balmoral Estates Office and seven years in the Strickler' Estates Office, he became assistant factor at Raith to Viscount Novar, and then factor successively on the Logan Estates, Wigtonshire, and the Rosehaugh Estates, Ross-shire. In 1921 he was appointed assistant factor to Viscount Ridley and afterwards factor, in which post he remained until his death. In the 1914-18 war he was commissioned in the Scottish Horse (T.F.) and was later attached to the R.A.S.C. (T.F.). He served at Gallipoli and in Egypt and the Balkans and in 1919 he was awarded the O.B.E. for services in Salonika. He did a great deal of good work for various public bodies in the County of Northumberland and was highly respected for his quick brain, integrity, good humour and common sense.

In a tribute which appeared in The Neweastk Journal Viscountess Ridley wrote:— One cannot but recall the grave courtesy of his language and the intense individuality of his use of words and feel that only in such a vein could a tribute to his unique personality and rare gifts be adequately framed. Ile was a man of great

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integrity and great loyalty—loyalty to a tradition of selfless obligation and unfailing consideration to all other people, which was an inspiration and example to all who knew him. . . . During his last illness his courage and pertinacity often reminded me of a remark he once made to mc: " I like a sycamore ", he said; " it is a tree that grows into the wind ". Henry Michie was of the same calibre. By his death we who knew him well have lost a friend whose strength and wisdom never failed us: and whose warm heart and wonderful sense of humour gave him that quality of friendship which " redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in halves ".

James Patterson* (1906-12), M.A., LL.B., advocate in Aberdeen, died on 31 January 1950, aged fifty-four. He graduated in Law at the University of Aberdeen in t9zo, winning the Edmond Prize for the most distinguished graduate of his year in Law, and was admitted to the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen in 1920. After being assistant to the late Mr. George D. Massie, advocate, from 192o to 1924, he was in partnership with the late Mr. William M. Sellar, advocate, from 1924 to 1936. After Mr. Sellar's death he became sole partner and the firm was amalgamated with the firm of Watt & Cumine, of which the sole partner was HERBERT JOHN EDWARDS* (1905-17), M.A., LL.B., advocate in Aberdeen. Mr. Patterson was for a time secretary of the Aberdeen Lads' Club, secretary of the Aberdeen Master Bakers' Association, a former member of the F.P. Club Executive and a former director of the School Boarding House Company. During the 1914-18 war he served with the 7th Gordon Highlanders in France, where he was wounded, and later he served with the King's African Rifles and the East African Mechanical Transport Corps in British and German East Africa. His son, DOUGLAS GORDON PArrERSON* (1929-36), B.L., advocate in Aberdeen, has now been assumed as'a partner in the firm of Watt & Cumine ; his brother, DOUGLAS DAVID JOHN PArrEasoN (1909-15), was killed in action in 1918 while serving with the Seaforth Highlanders.

HERBERT J. EDWARDS writes:— The tragically sudden and untimely passing of " Jimmy" Patterson came as a real shock to his countless friends : to me, holidaying in Madeira, it was indeed as a bolt from the blue. We had been close and intimate friends for over thirty years, and business associates for about half of that time. I had seen him just before leaving, when he seemed well on the way towards recovery, and with that kindliness and consideration so characteristic of him, he would not hear of my suggestion that 1 should cancel my long-anticipated trip. Little either of us dreamed that we should never meet again.

To all of us, he was " Jimmy "—perhaps a more eloquent tribute than a eulogy of many words to the regard, esteem and affection in which he was universally held. His untimely passing leaves a blank which can never be filled, for he was one who can aptly be included in that indefinable term " one of Nature's gentlemen ".

To know the real " Jimmy ", one had to see him at home with his family, in his garden, or perhaps in the country with gun or rod. He was a home-lover, and it was a delight to see him in the surroundings of his happy home.

Had he not gone in for Law, I feel sure he would have been one of our leading farmers, for there lay his real interest. In fact, I always had a feeling that he would one day " retire " to a small farm, and there he would indeed have been in his clement. But that was not to be.

His quiet, genial and kindly disposition endeared him to his friends. In business, his clients were indeed his friends, as is borne out by the countless written and spoken tributes I have received, and he will long be affectionately remembered as one who loved his fellow men.

Frank Miller Rorie (1905-07 and 1910-12), M.B., Ch.B., son of the late Dr. David Rorie, died at Aberdeen on 16 December 1949, aged fifty-four. During the 1914-18 war he served in the R.A.M.C. (S.R.) in France, Belgium, Mesopotamia and Persia, and after the war he held a commission for a short time as a Surgeon Lieutenant in the Royal Navy. In 1923 he returned to Aberdeen and he was in general practice there for twenty-six years; in 1926 he was appointed medical officer for Craiginches Prison, Aberdeen. He had been in ill-health for some time before his death.

John Taylor Simpson (1884-89 and 1893-95), advocate in Aberdeen, died in hospital at Stornoway on 31 March 195o, aged seventy-one. He served his law apprenticeship with Messrs. Davidson & Garden, advocates, Aberdeen, and was

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thereafter a legal assistant successively with Messrs. Davidson & Garden, Messrs.

William M. Sellar & Sinclair, Mr. Archibald MacEwan, Lochgilphead, and Mr. William M. Sellar. From 1921 to 1926 he was in partnership with Mr. Joseph Johnston, advocate, and from 1926 to 1942 he was in practice on his own account in Aberdeen. He took over the business of Messrs. Anderson, MacArthur & Company, Stornoway, in 1942 and was in practice there until his death. He was secretary to the Hebridean Spinners' Advisory Committee, Lewis Island Crofters Limited, and the Stornoway Electric Supply Company Limited, and factor and law agent of Barves Estate Limited, Carloway Estate Limited, the Lewis Castle Trust and the Stornoway Trust.

Charles William Sleigh* (1874-79), C.B.E., M.A., LL.D., of Strichen Mains, Strichen, Aberdeenshire, died, as briefly reported in the last issue of the Magazine, on 8 December 1949, as the result of a street accident in Aberdeen. He was aged eighty-six. He had what was perhaps a unique record of public service extending over fifty-one years; he was a former Convener of the County of Aberdeen and one of the leading authorities on education in Scotland. In 1945, when he retired from the Convenership of the County on doctor's orders, he was a member of eighty-one committees and sub-committees and, within a year of his death, he was still a member of twenty-three committees.

He was Gold Medallist at the School in I879—in the days when the first Latin prizeman was adjudged Dux of the School while the Gold Medal was given to the pupil who obtained the highest aggregate of marks in all class subjects—and thereafter he attended the University of Aberdeen, where he graduated M.A. with first class honours in Natural Science in 1884. (At his death he was still secretary of the 188o-84 Arts Class.) He spent some years in architects' and surveyors' offices in Aberdeen and gained further experience on the Haddo and Strichen Estates before becoming factor on the Blackwood Estates, Lanarkshire, in 1894, and after seventeen years in the South he returned to assist his father, the late Mr. John Sleigh, who was factor and estate agent at Strichen and on other estates for over sixty years. In 1918 he succeeded his father as factor of the Strichen Estates. He was the founder of the Scottish Estate Factors' Society and for twenty-one years he was secretary and editor of the Society's magazine.

His public service commenced with his election to the Lesmahagow Parish Council in 1898 and later he was elected to the School Board and the Lanarkshire Secondary Education Committee. In 1918 he was elected to Aberdeen County Council and he served on it for twenty-seven years, being Vice-Convener from 1928 to 1942 and Convener from 1942 to 1945. At one time he was convener of three County Council Committees—finance, public health and education.

It was in education that he was particularly interested. He was appointed chairman of the Aberdeenshire Education Authority at its inception in 1919, and on its reconstitution he continued as chairman of the Education Committee until 1942. For twenty-five years he was chairman of the Aberdeen Provincial Committee for the Training of Teachers, and from 1944 until his death he was chairman of the National Committee. Latterly, as chairman of the Central Selection Board for Scotland, he was concerned with the recruitment of students from the forces and industry for training as teachers.

In December 1945, after he had resigned from the Convenership of the County, he was presented with his portrait by members of the County Council and other friends in recognition of his long and outstanding public service. The portrait is hung in County Hall, Aberdeen. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by his Alma Mater in 1931 and he received the C.B.E. in 1939.

Three of his brothers also attended the School: JOHN P. SLEIGH (1885-86), farmer at Fyvie, died in 1945; GEORGE BAIRD SLEIGH (1885-89), M.A., M.B., Ch.B., has retired from medical practice and lives in Aberdeen; and HENRY PATERSON SLEIGH (1887-91), M.B., Ch.B., died at Ipswich in 1930. He is survived by three sons, two of whom are F.P.s: JOHN MANSON SLEIGH* (1914-16), B.Sc. (Eng.) (Glasg.), M.Inst.C.E., is a senior executive engineer in the Colonial Civil Service in West Africa and FREDERICK ROBERTS SLEIGH* (1914-17), M.B., Ch.B., is in medical practice at Biggar.

George Reid Sleigh* (1902-05), son of the late Mr. Charles Sleigh, M.A., for many years Mathematics Master at the School, died at Aberdeen on 29 December 1949, aged sixty-one. After leaving the School he joined the staff of the British

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Linen Bank in Aberdeen and in 19/o he entered the service of Messrs. Harrisons & Crosfield at Colombo. During the 1914-18 war he held a commission in the 4th Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders, and served in France. He was invalided out of the Army and was for a short time employed in the Ministry of Labour in London but illness, which was a legacy of his war service, precluded his obtaining permanent employment. He returned to Tarves, of which his mother was a native, and bred prize fowls and won many prizes for his dogs.

CHARLES DAVIDSON* (5882-86), who was a close friend of the Sleigh family and who, when he was a pupil at the School, lived for a time with Mr. Charles Sleigh in King Street, writes that George Sleigh was also much interested in flowers and gardening and did fine work among the youths of Tarves, by whom he was beloved. Latterly Mr. Sleigh lived at 4 Wel'brae Terrace, Aberdeen, but had to sell his house on account of ill-health. He intended to go to live with his only surviving sister, who lives in Kent.

His two brothers Were also F.P.s: JOHN LUMSDENT SLEIGH (1886-94) WaS manager of a branch of Messrs. Boots The Chemists, and latterly had a business in Berwick, where he died in 1948, and CHARLES SLEIGH (1887-97) was manager of a bank in Montevideo, and died there in 1938.

William Norman Wallace* (1933-35) died at Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland, on zo February 195o, after a long illness. He was aged thirty-two. 'While at the School he lived at the Boarding House, and on leaving in 1936 he became an apprentice electrical engineer with the General Electric Company Limited in Birmingham. His long illness was a result of long working hours under the strain of heavy " blitzing " in industrial Birmingham during the early years of the war.

DOUGLAS KNOX CAMERON* (193z-35), L.D.S., R.C.S. (Edin.), one of his closest friends and a contemporary at the Boarding House, writes:— Many F.P.s, particularly ex-Boarding House boys, will learn with deep regret of the passing of " Bill " Wallace after a long and tedious illness, borne with great courage and fortitude.

Entering the School from Peterhead Academy, where he was an accomplished footballer, he showed great promise at Rugger, and played as a wing-threcquarter in the famous School side of season 1934-35. An all-round sportsman, he also represented School both in swimming and athletics, and was a sound cricketer and tennis player. His quiet and unassuming manner made him very popular.

His time at the School was one when Boarding House boys contributed very largely to the School's sporting activities. Among his contemporaries there were Jimmie and Leslie Dumo, Arthur Spark, Daily Allardice, Harry Shand and Arthur Walker.

Andrew Stewart Wilson (2896-97), M.B., Ch.B., a native of Keith, died at Hambleden, near Henley-on-Thames, on 9 May 195o, aged seventy. He came to the School from Elgin Academy, and after graduating at the University of Aberdeen in 19oz, he continued his studies in Vienna and Berlin. He was an assistant in medical practices in Dumfries and Bristol from 1905 to 1907, and he was in practice at Hambleden from 1908 to 1938. After the outbreak of war in the following year he resumed work and practised again until 1945. After finally retiring he interested himself in keeping a small herd of T.T. pedigree Jersey cattle and in poultry farming. * * * As the Magazine goes to press, the deaths of five more F.P.s have been announced. They are; GEORGE OGG GATILD* (1886-91), M.B., Ch.B., Nottingham; GEORGE ELDER LEVIE* (1884-88), C.A., Bromley, Kent; ARTHUR WILLIAM PATERSON (1883-87), M.B., C.M., Ipswich; JAMES LYON JOHNSTON Ross* (191z-15), Aberdeen; and DOUGLAS HERBERT WALKER WILLIAMSON* (1894-1902), M.A., L.D.S., Major, R.A.D.C. (retired), Hastings. Obituary notices will be included in our next issue. *

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In the last issue of the Magazine it was stated that the late CHARLES EDWARD 13oGGIE (1884-86) was a grandson of the late Mr. James Manson, Cromlethill, Old Mcldrum, Aberdeenshire. We have been asked to correct this statement: he was in fact a grand-nephew of the late Mr. Manson.

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SCHOOL SECTION Changes in the School Staff Departures Both the Grammar School and 'Shire have reason to lament the honour gained by Mr. McCrea when, as 1949 drew to a close, he was appointed to the English Headship in Perth Academy; and neither will dispute the fact that the Perth equivalents of A.G.S. and 'Shire have secured the services of one who knows all the answers in both fields. Mr. McCrea was a pre-war addition to the English and History sides of the School, and had just managed to dig himself in when he answered the call to arms and soldiered with the London Scottish till demobilisation. Not only did he show a careful and well-balanced approach to the problems of the classroom, but he could always be relied upon to furnish a judicially cool opinion in any discussion. Grammar boys, however, were most his worshippers watching his long-legged acceleration to the bowler's end as he sent them down " good and proper ", or the crisp ease with which he performed at the batsman's crease. His quiet-voiced coaching at the nets has heartened many a cricket-novice to grasp the mysteries of footwork and spin. This season's County Cricket reports have already noised his Perthshire fame abroad; indeed, June 3 is still a painful memory at Mannoficld I We trust that he will enjoy a well-deserved meed of success and popularity, both in work and play.

MR. ALBERT J. JOHNSTONE, M.A. For fully three years the School profited by the impact upon it of Mr. Johnstone's breezy personality.

After his arrival in September 1946, we felt grievously unfriended if " Old Mother Riley " failed to deliver the goods at A.G.S. of a morning, and were greatly cheered and comforted when he arrived in time for the classroom, having made town by the more sedate Alexander's.

He brought with him the fresh outlook and the plain speech of the country places. To him a spade was a spade, and would-be-smart mathematicians, speedily realising the fact, decided it behoved them to get down at once to fundamentals. His clear tenor gave added zest and body to morning praise in the Hall, and to hear and see him Taking a Pair of Sparkling Eyes was delight indeed. As a colleague, the staff found him forthright and clear in voicing opinion, most helpful in emergency, and well-versed in the true meaning of friendship. He has the School's best wishes for happiness and success as Mathematics Head in Fraserburgh.

MR. THOMAS H. MCCREA, M.A.

Arrivals MR. EWEN MCDONALD, M.A., proclaims by his name his Northern origin. An early family migration to the South gave him his schooling at Allan Glen's, Glasgow, whence he proceeded to Glasgow University. His studies, broken by war service as a pilot in the R.A.F., led ultimately to graduation with English Honours in 1947. He comes to the English and History departments of the Grammar

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MR. JOHN A. FLErr, M.A., who succeeds Mr. Johnstone in the department of Mathematics, is a native of Findochty on the Moray Firth. He was educated at that welling fountain of scholarship, Fordyce Academy, from which he came up to Aberdeen University, where, after interruptions to his studenthood due to work of national importance, he graduated in 1946 with honours in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. By his two-and-a-half years' teaching service in Fraserburgh Academy, he is well equipped as a recruit to the School staff.

MR. WILLIAM F. TAYLOR, M.A., is Broch born and bred. From Fraserburgh Academy he came to Aberdeen University in 1941, but three months later left for military, duties. He served with the Royal Corps of Signals for four yearn, campaigning in French North Africa, Egypt, Italy, Palestine and Cyprus. Demobilised in 1946, he resumed his studies at the University, graduating with English honours in July 1949. As he did much of his teacher-training in the Grammar, his was a " kent face" when he was appointed recently to a per, manent place in the English department. He is interested in many forms of sport, with a special liking for cricket, tennis and badminton.

To these three junior masters the School extends a warm and hearty welcome, and hopes they will find great pleasure and keen satisfaction in their work in our midst.

Sydney to Cape Town After the collapse of Singapore in February 1942, our family had been living for several months in Manly, a popular seaside resort bordering on Sydney Bay. There we occupied a small granite-built bungalow flat surrounded by Temple flowers, pink hydrangeas and green lawns and situated on an elevated position overlooking the grand bay. From our picture windows we looked out to see liners and gliding yachts sailing across the wide blue expanse of water to the imposing bridge beyond. Our home was very pleasant and comfortable, and to us life would have been sweet in Australia, had it not been for the worry of my father's disappearance for eight months and the ever-threatening danger of war. At last news came.

My father had travelled to South Africa and he now asked us to join him there.

The period of preparation soon passed until the day, a miserable rainy day, for our departure arrived. The bay was so stormy that all the ferries were cancelled and, as the taxi failed to appear, we again resorted to the impossible by jumping in beside the driver of the luggage van. We set off through the driving rain, sometimes clinging to our cases, at others holding up the battered window which sheltered us from the rain. The drive over the bridge, the customary toll,

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the city, and then we drew up on the quayside, two hours late and only just in time for the sailing. Later the next day, as we made our way through the gigantic cliff entrance from the harbour, I stood on the soaking deck, drenched to the skin, a pitiful figure of eight waving a tearful farewell to the sunny land I knew so well.

Out of the harbour, we were soon forging our way South through the rolling Tasmanian Sea, through the calmer waters of the Bass Strait into Melbourne. In our first port of call we stayed for one week, during which time we visited friends, saw the important sights and motored out to the large zoo. The next stage of the voyage, crossing the Great Australian Bight, proved uneventful until we reached Fremantle, from where we journeyed half an hour inland to see Perth, one of the most lovely cities in the world.

Leaving the docks of Fremantle, we steamed out through the waters of an elongated bay, seeing Australia for the last time, and began a hazardous crossing of the mighty Indian Ocean, which was to take over three weeks. Never exceeding eight knots, our old French steamer, the only ship available, led us through frightening experiences, from diverting her course southwards through the treacherous Roaring Forties to passing an empty lifeboat which contained tragic signs of war. Anxiety prevented sleep; refuse accumulating on the decks caused discomfort; the crew distressed us by shooting the albatross. It was with great relief that we arrived at last in the peaceful waters of South Africa at Durban, where we disembarked on z8 November 1942, in a happy land unmarred by war.

In this new country our first impressions were very favourable, for after driving through the sun-drenched avenues to Durban's best hotel, my father's company gave us an enthusiastic welcome and arranged accommodation on the express to Cape Town that night.

So with a brief glimpse of Durban we set off on another quite different journey, which was to take three days, crossing over a thousand miles of veldt.

Leaving the city at six in the evening, by next morning we were in Ladysmith, a small town which was to be the beginning of the next day's climb over the towering Drakensburg Mountains. We were still passing through mountainous scenery when the evening of the second night fell, during which we passed through Bloemfontein and reached the Orange River. In two nights and a day in our double-berthed compartment we had passed through Natal and the Transvaal. Now we were in Cape Province and, looking out from the windows of the dining saloon, I saw the barren wastes of the Great Karoo and at every wayside station bare-skinned piccaninnies appeared to welcome us. The last night brought us through the vine region around Worcester. Then with the dawning of the last day we found ourselves gently cruising across the Cape flats. There, standing in the glorious summer sunshine, serene and noble as ever, was the majestic outline of Table Mountain, offset by the sparkling waters of Table Bay. We had arrived at our destination six weeks after leaving Sydney.

JAMES G. CRUICKSHANK (Middle IIIA).

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My Birthday I opened my eyes and saw—blue. Clear blue! No clouds! I turned over quickly and shook Gordon. " The cloud has gone, man ", I said. " Let's get going. What's the time ? " " Half-past-six ", he groaned.

We wriggled out of our sleeping bags, took off some clothes, packed a rucksack and strode to the edge of the plateau. The scene which lay before us was one I shall never forget. As always the hills had given us our reward. We now felt that what at times had seemed rather a mad escapade was justified.

This was the glorious finish to a week's climbing on Lochnagar.

At exactly midnight we had set off from our camp at Spittal of Muick with the intention of seeing the sunrise from the summit. With the aid of a small hand-torch we groped our way across the glen and through the wood in which we lost the path and did not find it again until we reached the other side. From there the path climbs and leads one high above a deep ravine.

Picking our way carefully, straining to see in the cloud, we suddenly heard a deep rumble like thunder in the distance. We stopped, fearing that it was the sound of rocks rolling. After a minute we realised that it was only a herd of deer which we had disturbed.

Stumbling, scraping, crawling, cursing, and all the time straining to see, we struggled on toward the Foxes' Well. Sweating in spite of the cold and wet, we had a short rest and then set off up the Ladder.

The torch was now useless ; so we just crawled up, losing the path and then finding it again. On reaching the top we wandered on, always keeping an eye open for the cliffs, taking our direction by compass bearings we had previously worked out.

Just when we thought that we must be approaching the second highest part of the plateau, we suddenly saw what appeared to be the edge of the cliffs straight ahead of us. We turned left—more cliffs. Something was wrong! We could not possibly be where we thought we were. The best plan seemed to be to stay right where we were until daylight, and thus at half-past-four we snuggled down into our sleeping bags with the cloud wafting eerily about us. Dawn was at half-past-five, but the cloud was still thick.

At half-past-six, as I said before, it was clear, and we could now see that what had appeared to be cliffs were merely sharp dips in the plateau. We were actually just fifteen yards from the cairn on the second highest point. The clouds had sunk down now and we were just in time to see the sun breaking over this cloud-bank. Standing on the summit of the mountain in a world of our own, gazing in wonder at the marvellous colours, we could also see through breaks in the clouds into the dark, gloomy glens. Saying nothing, we felt detached and very, very far away from the life of those glens.

We had to return home that day, however, and we reluctantly turned our backs on the glory of that first light of the same day of the year as when I first saw light, and descended silently, thoughtfully.

R. H. THOMSON (Upper VI).

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Our Hockey Internationalist The news that Eric Douglas Watt, a member of Lower VI and Captain of the School hockey and cricket teams, had been " capped " to play hockey for Scotland against Wales on 18 March 1950, was received with jubilation by all connected with the School, and his subsequent selection to play for Scotland against Ireland and England on i and zz April respectively likewise gave us the greatest satisfaction.

He is the youngest player ever to be chosen to play hockey for Scotland, and our heartiest congratulations are extended to him. .

After the final trial the hockey correspondent of. The Scotsman referred to Eric Watt as one of the most promising youngsters Scotland has produced for many a long year, and after the match against Wales the same correspondent stated that Scotland's left back had thoroughly justified the confidence placed in him and should be seen in Scottish colours for many years to come.

Three Grammar F.P.s have previously received Scottish hockey " caps ", but they all received this honour after they had left the School. ADAM ALEXANDER RITCHIE* (1903-08), M.A., B.Sc., who played in all three international matches in 1914, when he was a student at the University of Aberdeen, was the first F.P. to be " capped "; ROBERT FORGAN (1898-1908), M.A., M.D., then a member of the F.P. hockey team, played against Ireland in 19z1; and HENRY JAMES STRACHAN* (1917-24 M.A., who at that time was playing for Gala, was selected for Scotland against England and against Ireland in 5934.

The following note is extracted from the report on School Hockey for this issue of the Magazine :— Eric Watt's succcss was achieved the hard way ; for he played in every trial

match right on from the local trial. This itself was a great ordeal for a boy, but he went from strength to strength. For him and for us all the climax was his appearance in the game against England played at King's College, Aberdeen, on 22 April. On a beautiful day the spectators were treated to a marvellous exhibition of how the game should be played on a first-class pitch, and, without being partisan, we can quite fairly say that Eric was not excelled in performance by any other Scottish player. In his preparation for these games he never spared himself, and the pleasure of the rest of the School side was reflected in the sendoff deputations at the station when he left for Paisley and Belfast.

All through the season he was an inspiration to the School team, by his play and by his critical watch on the run of every game. He leaves School now, and his is the greatest single loss School hockey has yet sustained : for his example and keenness have made things very easy for the rest of us.

Annual School Service The Annual Grammar School Church Service is to be held in Rubislaw Church, Aberdeen, on Sunday, to September 1950, at 6 p.m. The Service will be conducted by the School Chaplain, the Rev. P. D. Lawrence (1909-16), M.A., and the Rector will also take part. F.P.s, pupils, members of the Staff, parents and all others interested are invited to attend.

Our Hockey Internationalist

ERIC D. WATT

GAVIN E. FALCONER, A.R.C.O., A.R.C.M.

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Mr. Gavin E. Falconer Mr. Gavin Falconer, A.R.C.O., A.R.C.M., A.T.S.C., Music Master in the Grammar School for twenty-seven years, was taken suddenly ill on Sunday, 3o April 1950, while seated at his beloved organ in Rubislaw Church, and died shortly afterwards within the kirk precincts. The news of his death came as a profound shock to his many friends, and particularly to his colleagues and pupils in the School; for during the previous week he had been his usual modest and pleasant self, delighting in the fresh-won successes of his Leaving Certificate pupils, planning the details of the coming School concert, and discussing with rare insight and authority the old tunes of the Scottish psalter.

His pupils will long respect and remember him as a capable and inspiring music master, whose firm class discipline was in tone with the exacting standards he set himself in training both orchestra and choir. His methods of attack and development were untiring and thorough. As he knocked his raw material into shape, his manner was always encouraging, if sometimes grimly so; and in practice he steadily insisted on the highest and best, yet still kept something in reserve for the public occasion.

His well-groomed, slightly stooping figure ever inspired fresh confidence in the young—and the not so young—as he gathered them under his baton for the piece in hand; and at the finale his grateful glance and fleeting smile of personal appreciation were rich and ample reward to the performers.

His golfing prowess was attained by the steady application of these same principles; nothing but the highest and best would do, no matter what the occasion. Many a plodding duffer, ruefully replacing the divots, has had his game improved by timely hints from Gavin, easily and gently bestowed in the course of the game.

Most of all we shall miss his artistry at the organ in Hall at morning assembly., where he used to play with ardour and vigour, seeking, as was his wont, to get the utmost from the voices at his command, and at the same time gracing the hymn tunes with his personal touches, so that they still " vibrate in the memory ". Deep sympathy is felt by us all for Mrs. Falconer in her grievous loss—which is also ours.

A. M. AN F.P. TRIBUTE. To those of us whose knowledge of Gavin Falconer was not confined to the classroom, his untimely death came as an even sadder surprise than it was to the test of his ex-pupils. One could not be expected to gain a full acquaintance with his personality in the meagre allocation of forty minutes in each week which was evidently all the time which in the opinion of those elusive " authorities" could be spared for the teaching of music, and we who knew him more intimately are indeed fortunate, and can consider ourselves the richer for the experience. His enthusiasm for his art was unlimited, whether directed towards his everyday teaching, his church work, or those special occasions such as School concerts which he organised so well. With his private pupils he was patient and quietly efficient, encouraging when it seemed that the intricacies of the task in hand were well-nigh insuperable, but never hesitating to criticise when one's performance fell below par. There can be few teachers who have succeeded in creating in

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their pupils such an excellent grasp of the full significance and breadth of the world of music.

He was a fine golfer, being an outstanding example of that very rare denizen of the links, the good left-hander, and he had been a well-known figure at the Deeside Club's course at Bieldside for many years. It may be of interest to record that he was also a first-class clubmaker—a hobby which he used to the benefit of many of his golfing friends, who could testify to that same high standard of workmanship as was apparent in everything he did.

A. S. F. A SCHOOL TRIBUTE At a time when our School has been undergoing great change, in Staff as much as in other respects, it was particularly sad to hear of the death of Mr. Falconer, who has for so long had control of our Music department. He was indeed one of our best known and best loved masters, whose personality and talent had become deeply familiar, especially to those of us whose association with him had begun in a small room buried in the now unfamiliar depths of the Lower School and continued through weekly pilgrimages across to the then mysterious grandeurs of the Upper.

It has always been a pity that the time allowed us for music by the educational demi-gods is so short, and thus only a master of exceptional force of character could make himself distinctively familiar to his boys. Mr. Falconer certainly did this, for not only did he make interesting a subject notoriously difficult to teach in school conditions; he also persuaded some of us into giving trial to the Scottish Orchestra concerts by a genial compound of blackmail and cajolery. It was thus that many of us who otherwise might never have tried the delights of classical music became regular attenders at season after season of " Scottish " concerts.

But it would be misleading to write of Mr. Falconer only as a teacher of music and an enthusiast on that subject. He was an indefatigable golfer who regularly captained the Masters in the annual match with the Boys, and for many years lent his powerful expertly-controlled talent to the top couple in the Masters' team.

Thus in more ways than one Mr. Falconer was an active and lovable Grammar figure, and in more ways than one he will be remembered by Grammarians. He was one of those masters whose sayings and methods and attitudes and idiosyncrasies became part of the typical property of the School; he was one of those masters who succeed in making themselves as loved and familiar as close relatives to the boys they teach.

A. G. S. •

Aberdeen University Bursary Competition The School has done particularly well in this year's Entrance Bursary Competition at the University of Aberdeen. The results, which were announced on 14 June 1950, show that there is a School representative in the highest grade of all three sections of the Competition, and there are altogether eight Grammar names in the list of awards. In the Arts section Alan S. Hall, John F. McClellan, James P. Morris and Edwin Grieve have been awarded bursarics of £70, £6o, £31 sos. and £zo respectively; in the Science sectiog Alastair M. North has been awarded the only £70 bursary and Alexander S. James has won a special bursary of £40 ; and in the Medicine section Stephen McPherson has been awarded one of the two £30 bursaries and John H. Wyllie one of the three £as bursaries.

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

Summer Dream in Prospect Sometimes on sunny days A vision comes to me Vague in the noon-hot haze, A dream of summer sea, Not with bright sun ablaze But shimmering quietly.

I walk by idle ways For no man wanders there Along the stretching dunes Where grass like young girl's hair Sleeps through a thousand noons.

Not with a dead despair I wander on at peace, But melancholy dreams Drift down the misty sky Across the tidal streams.

There shall be no release While Summer wanders by.

Sometimes slow mist will lean— No, not so much—a grey Attenuated veil Will slide across the scene And soften out the day.

Sleek winds will also blow Among dream-visioned isles Where eddying tides are slow— Idle with warmth that whiles A thousand hours away And creeps across the sea With shadow-haunted smiles.

And they remain for me, These softest of soft things— This melancholy sun, This half-imagined haze, And all the hidden streams That drift across the days In unbegotten dreams— They shall be mist to me Hiding the hollow ways That thread the yellow whin.

Astir upon the breeze A salt scent drifting in Across the summer sand Blows back from empty seas.

DAVID M. CRAIG (Upper VI).

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School and Random Notes If the reader—we beg his pardon—the gentle reader, should find two care-worn, woosie-eyed, decrepit, down-at-heel wrecks of manhood wandering like lost souls somewhere between Skene Street and the " Capitol ", he is asked to lead them gently across a convenient Belisha crossing and hand them in at the Prefects' Room, Aberdeen Grammar School, or, failing that, at xz Bon-Accord Crescent, or the nearest police station. They used to be School Editors—barely human, but recognisable as such by zoologists or close friends.

Their present state of decrepitude and near-idiocy has been induced by the writing of the present edition of School and Random Notes.

The Editor disclaims all responsibility for debts, marriage contracts, suicide pacts, or similar entanglements incurred during the past financial year. Both unwell: no flowers by request. * * * Masters have been leaving and coming with such rapidity and in such numbers that a stranger might well be forgiven for thinking that this was a hotel, not a school. Amid these arrivals of newcomers and departures of notabilities our dazed mind fixes for a moment on the gravely cultured countenance of Mr. Thomas McCrea (" Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look ") and the broadly grinning features of Mr. Albert Johnston (Bertie to you), and we wish them, above the hubbub, a happy retirement—sorry, a slip of the tongue—a happy sojourn in, respectively, Perth and Fraserburgh. We hope we shall see Mr. McCrea sometime at Mannofield (although, as usual, he will not see us).. .

While our editorial back is turned, Miss Ledingham slips out unobtrusively after two terms of brisk activity as a temporary teacher in the English department. . . . But this note looks like being rather long; . . . so we had better have some asterisks now. * * * Like that. Thank you . . . and there, by a curious coincidence, is Mr. MacDonald, also of the English department, arriving, not departing, with, we believe, a war record spectacular rather than scholarly. And with him comes Mr. Flett, to teach us of Mathematics, of Euclid and the kindred mysteries. We hope that VI will be nice to him. . . .

A little later but none the less welcome enters Mr. William Taylor, yet another aspirant to interest the Grammar boy in the pentameters of Pope and the machinations of Malvolio—but Mr. Taylor has already moved as a student among us and knows what to expect. . . .

But a few more asterisks clamour for admission lest this chronicle of arrival and departure assumes the appearance of a railway timetable; so we will just return for forty words to Mr. McCrea and Mr. Johnston.

They, if anyone, are surely deserving of our thanks for vigorous service, our gratitude for pleasant memories, our solicitations for the future, our congratulations on having escaped in one piece, and the valedictory cheers of the School.

Aberdeen Grammar Schaal Magazine 1 53 The memorial to those who were killed in the 1939-45 war was unveiled by Lord Alness on Friday, 19 May. This roll of honour, together with that in respect of the last war, now covers one entire wall of the Hall, and is a proud but sad reminder of the School's great sacrifice. * * * We hate to inflict on Eric Watt the notoriety of yet another mention in print—his feat of being selected for Scotland's international hockey team is dealt with formally in another part of the Magazine and the local Press has already glutted itself on the latest North-East prodigy—but we must congratulate him warmly on a jolly good show (to coin a phrase), and on his equanimity in face of a phenomenal demand for autographs. . . . * * * It is fitting also in these notes to mention Mr. I. M. Park, who has charge of School hockey. No one can have been more pleased than he at Eric's success, for he coaches School hockey players indefatigably and enthusiastically—and rewardingly, for our Hockey XI have an impressive record against Senior as well as School clubs.

We are indebted in yet another way to Mr. Park, for he has presented the School with a cup which will be the Inter-House Hockey Trophy.

This is a generous act and one which gives hockey the public recognition which is deserved by one of the School's least feted but most flourishing games. * * * The injury to Mr. W. D. Allardice, which we mentioned in the last issue of the Magazine, mended itself in time for him to play with great and much-praised distinction for A.G.S.F.P.s ist XV and also for their exceptionally successful " Sevens " team. But the fact that Mr. Allardice had had no part in the international season was apparently enough to prevent his inclusion in the British Rugby Union touring team at present in New Zealand. So we must again extend to " Dally ' the School's sympathy on his cruel luck, for we feel sure that otherwise he would have had the honour of representing Britain as well as Scotland. We must also extend sympathy to Dr. D. W. C. Smith who, by fine play in four internationals, earned himself selection for the British team, only to be kept out of the matches so far on account of a fractured arm. * * * F.P.s may not believe this, but it is, nevertheless, unimpeachable incontrovertible red-hot Press & Journal truth—there have been signs of Keenness in School lately. We hope it will not happen again.

It is regrettable that certain rigorous physical antics should have become so popular (Monday is the Day, they tell us) seeing that Aristophanes expressly inveighed against them, orvov T' C177EXOt Kai yvi.hvaataiv Kai Tall' IDAWV dvo4rwv —Roughly, for the benefit of those who have neither achieved Greek nor had it thrust Happily upon them Abstain from wine and gymnastics and the other follies.

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Mr. Percy Cradock, President of the Cambridge University Union, amusingly backs up the classical authority by saying that proof that P.T. " does you good" lies in the fact that " you feel better when you stop it"! Surely Cambridge and Aristophanes cannot both be wrong.

Far be it from us to denigrate a weekly perspiration period being toiled through per curriculum, but when it comes to ruddy gymnasts indulging in voluntary self-immolation once a week on Mondays . . . still, they had plagues in Ancient Egypt too. * * * The S.S.C.-Scottish Skittleball Club—is flourishing as well.

The Happy Chums, as they like to call themselves, are missing Mr. McCrea, who has Passed On (see supra), but we hear that, under the guidance of two F.P.s- friends rather than mentors—the discipline is as good as ever. . . . * * * A grim lesson on the folly of divorcing practical Science from the Classics was delivered in a recent translation by an Upper VI Latin student. Faced with the words . . . inque humeros cervix conlapsa rccumbit, in defiance of all accepted biological data he construed, albeit with some emotion, " and with his brains resting upon his elbow. . . ".

We feel—along with the Happy One—that there was little excuse for this: unless, of course, the student in question had been making a study of Mr. Park. * * * After years of pursuit and hardship Upper VI have at last found and captured a hendiadys. It was sent to the Zoological Gardens in Edinburgh for official identification, and has been labelled as the only specimen of hendiadys hendiadys classicus extant in Scotland. We thought you would like to know. * * * While the School's older Clubs prosper, one of our younger groups has Passed Away (Received the Call, as they say, in the Church of Scotland). With the end of the well-known subterranean salon, to use a little-known French word, has come the end (?) of the S—rs' Union, " qui fixo pectore furnant", as our favourite poet has it (T. S. Eliot, fathead!).

The salon is being filled in by some British Workmen, but it seemed at one time a well-nigh hopeless task and, as we watched the rubble level rising (with the rabble level looking on), we were reminded at once (which is an arrant lie) of the famous unfillable Lacus Curtius in the forum of ancient Rome. It was a quicksand, to be exact, which could only be scotched—if you scotch quicksands—by the sacrifice of one of Rome's finest young warriors, fully armed, in its depths.

Perhaps Mr. Alan " Bishop" Hall, as he is affectionately known, complete with School blazer and badge (the Prefect's one, not the Peanut Club), would care to oblige? . . . * * * Several senior Grammarians were press-ganged into attending the

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

15 5 Conference held by the C.E.W.C. on the influence of the B.B.C. and the Press on Public Opinion. We resigned ourselves to spending a Friday and Saturday in comparative boredom, but instead were delighted by five comprehensive, gripping and fluent speeches. The discussion groups were interesting, and unanimous in their disapproval of the local Press. But it was the guest speakers who held our attention and interest, for periods of about an hour. Professor MacKinnon's speech entitled " Beyond Opinion " was a fine climax to the Conference, and took us further and more seeingly along the road of inquiry. * * * In view of the remarks we made in the December issue about Debating Society attendances, it was particularly gratifying to find such astonishing changes in the numbers who went to the weekly meetings. The heathen uninitiated (it seems as good an excuse as any for bringing in the phrase) might have thought then that our intention was to encourage more people to come to the Society's meetings. (Pause for sardonic laughter.) They, poor Philistines, were unversed in the subtleties of our prose style—a delicate mixture of Oscar Wilde and Beachcomber. That we were bent on keeping people away is proved by the fact that the Society's attendances promptly dropped by something like z5o per cent. Can they have been afraid of the President? (He isn't really like that when you get to know him.) . . . or possibly the tall dark boy (we have never been able to find out his name) who wrote non-stop throughout even the most exciting debates? We hope his book will be a success. . . . * * * Novices not yet intimate with the lay-out of this Magazine may have imagined that its enchanting flow of wit and entertainment peters dismally out among accounts of hilarious F.P. reunions in Upper Tibet and notes on riotous F.P. dinners in Slough and Wolverhampton. Not so. Persevere, and you will come upon perhaps the most humorous item in the whole galaxy, what is quaintly known as " List of Boarders ". (What they board we have never been able to discover, but apparently they are celebrated for their boarding.) The whole thing bubbles with droll humour—here a mention of " Montmorency Fitzfortescue, s. of Brigadier-general Gerald Fitzfortescue, i5th Lancers, Poona ", there of " Theodosius Vespasian Bloggs and William Henry Bloggs, ss. (whatever ss. are) of Jeremiah Bloggs, Kara-mhangai, Gobi Desert, Lower Tibet", and again of " James McTavish, s. of James McTavish, Bog Farm, Clarty Hillock, Auchtermuchty, Fife ". . . . Yes, the whole thing brims with colour and romance and well repays a visit, as they say in the guide-books. So for that matter does 8 Queen's Road— colour and romance, what ?—but we have promised to keep mum about that (much need!), and we are a man of strict honour. * * * It will be no surprise to people who attended the last three or so Athletic Sports at Rubislaw to learn that this year's meeting was a monument of efficiency. Ever since the Silver Age of Grammar

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Sport (the early 1940's) the time taken to run the actual events has grown a little longer and, funnily enough, the duration of the actual meetings has become considerably shorter. It would not surprise us, therefore, to hear next year that the Sports had finished before they were begun—we believe this is known as travelling faster than thought. So we have to congratulate the organisers on a piece of sterling work—dashed fine show—what matter if the javelin is thrown a bare half of the man Hall's stupendous record as long as we make a profit on the teas? Why worry about the paucity of real hurdlers and the immovable tardiness of sprinters when we can show a record entry (we hope they all enjoyed themselves!) and the standard of the march past goes up and up? Ah well, we suppose it is all in keeping with the modern tradition of bureaucracy. * * * We have reason to believe that there is a twink in School. What it is we do not know. " Is it", as Kingsley asks so reasonably, " weed or fish or floating hair? " (but we feel it can scarcely be any of those). Is it, perhaps, a strange species of assistant janitor? or a new type of blackboard? or maybe even supernatural, a mysterious denizen of the upper recesses of the tower? Occasionally we hear a swift scamper of tiny feet and we look round, half expecting to see a twink regarding us round a corner, the large ears flapping and a look of mute inquiry in the soft animal eyes. . . . But no, there is nothing there. And the mystery remains. And no one will tell us. * * * Some weeks ago (this is a true story—well, almost) as we were sitting in the Editorial Chair with the Editorial Mind its usual comfortable blank, there flashed across our brain, moving fast on such a poor surface, the cryptic word GALCA DOR in letters of fire. After laborious research we discovered that it was the name of a horse running in some event called the " Derby ". It was then that a miniature Mephistopheles in the Vlth year and a loud check approached us with insidious counsels, rubbed together his soft hands and whispered mellifluously in our ear, " Five bob each way ". He went on to explain how he could help us to win unlimited fortunes to the great profit of both himself and us. (His reasoning was a little difficult to follow here.)

In the end, however, nothing came of it, because we had a bad attack of our occupational disease (woosieness) and forgot to put on any money at all. We are not greatly worried though. The wretched horse probably didn't win anyway. . . . (This story is not meant to be funny—it is merely related for sociological interest in the light it casts on the activities of a certain member of Upper School.) * * * Large parts of the walls of the Prefects' Room are decomposing and only about six chairs remain, of which two are round the bend; but all this was compensated the other month by the arrival of a towel rail. It is a very nice towel rail, with clean bold lines; and if we had a towel to go with it we could have had great fun. It came as a bit of a shock to the Prefecture. Those in the Room when it arrived

157 Aberdeen Grammar School Magatine swung weary legs off the table and opened tired eyes and shut Spanish grammars and gaped. But the Senior Prefect told us that was what came of being good boys; and despite that we have grown to love it, like the broken mirror and the umbrella stand in the corner (or is it a spittoon?). Someone pinched a towel for it and in this we have clothed it with housewifely pride. We welcome it as the herald of great things to come, and in the meantime we find it very useful for batting practice. * * * For the information of new boys who have not yet mastered the bizarre technicalities of Grammar life (and of older ones who have weak eyes), we are publishing some exclusive and hitherto unrevealed information about the Funny Black Thing on the lectern in the School Hall. The Funny Black Thing, to be quite frank, is a Bible.

It is not an ordinary Bible and the School should be proud to own it.

Its premature retirement from active service is not due, as some people have suggested, to the inability of the Prefects to lift the front cover. Ultimately, doubtless, some hardy soul will dare to disturb the dust of ages and peer into the scriptural murk of its archaic interior.

In the meantime it forms a very fine platform for our little book of " two-minute readings " (how mean! how rationed! how twentieth century!), save when some Quixote illuminates the morning gloom with the wild glories of Zephaniah or the antique splendour of Lamentations. "An Anthology of Two-Minute Readings "—the root part of " anthology " comes from the Greek word for " flower ", and are we to blame if some of them have wilted sadly through too much handling down the years? . . . Yes. * * * J. B. Priestley (the author, not the politician) has a telling passage in one of his recent books—" skits and burlesques and general funny work, written from the grimly determined humorous standpoint of the school magazine. . . ". We looked at ourself and we stared at the dread words and we wondered where on earth Priestley could have got hold of a copy of the latest Grammar Mag. . . .

But we were not discouraged. We are both much better now, thanks, and resolved to go through with the thing and then relapse into slippered retirement, re-emerging occasionally to write to Gaudie about the filthy behaviour of medical students in the Union bar or to pen an article for Alma Mater on " A Biochemical Approach to Graham Greene ". But we will be big boys then.

In the meantime it is School which draws our fallen arches with the morbid hypnotism of its baronial architecture. When we are " old and grey and full of sleep " and have just graduated M.A., we will be able to look back on our schooldays in a more unimpassioned spirit. So, if some should complain that proximity has distorted our focus on Grammar life and that our record of the School is thus warped (even, perhaps, a little too roseate?), we fall back on Wilde and quote our second favourite epigram, " Nothing that actually happens is of the slightest importance ". And that, dear reader, is why we have made it all up. It is our only defence,

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Who's Who among the Prefects When in the chronicle of wasted time I see descriptions of the fairest wights. . . .

Alan S. Hall. A confirmed bachelor. Used to be able to speak English quite well when he was small. A wolf in sheep's clothing who wields a rod of iron within a velvet glove, tempers mercy with justice, never suffers grass gladly or lets fools grow under his feet, and always puts all his bridges in one basket and crosses his eggs before he comes to them.

It takes all sorts to make a world.—Ar.ut S. HALL. * * *

John F. McClellan. Uncharitable rumour suggests that John was rather a wild type in his younger days but he has settled down now to a domestic middle age. (He is no relation of the notorious Forrest McClellan who was so well known in the Aberdeen of the late r94os.) Recently refused an offer to make a film of the morbid Russian tragedy " The Inspector General " by Goghoul. Frequently gets concussion, which seems to have had a deep influence on his political opinions.

Sic Helene doleat desertaque coniuge ploret.—OvrD. Men are we, and must grieve. . . .—WORDSWORTH.

* * * David M. Craig. Not particularly tall, unless his hair is standing on end. A sturdy, rosy-checked youth—fond of all sorts of healthy outdoor games, eighteenth century poetry, and Oscar Wilde. Is a right wing Liberal—so he says; very interested in politics; for which reason, so he says, he is very much in favour of Citizenship Conferences and Inter-School Debates.

And that which really made his life exceptionally rotten Was the fact that very often he forgot what he'd forgotten.—Guy Bons. * * *

Charles D. Mowat. When not engaged as Mr. Henry Paterson's Acting Unpaid Muscleman, Charlie holds up one wall of the Gym or gives jam sessions in Hall (assisted by James Reith). Has been engaged to redecorate the Prefects' Room during the summer holidays (under supervision by the Purity League). Used to be able to play rugby but has given that up in favour of keeping wicket.

In scquent toil all forwards do contend—SHAKESPEARE. (By gracious permission of J. S. M. Eddison.) * * *

A. M. M. Steven. Dear efficient untiring Aaandrew! Is very keen on sport and sporting chatter and just chatter. Has a wild reckless way with him that comes out in his batting. Runs half miles stolidly and rather well, but is generally quite successful in concealing the fact that he is both good cricketer and athlete.

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, Though its answer little meaning, little relevancy bore. . . .—E. A. POE.

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Eric D. Watt. Our celebrated internationalist, who takes it all very modestly and patiently. Plays cricket too—and other games.

No longer wears loud ties, but makes pilgrimages to the Cowdray Hall on Saturday night instead.

For sothe he was a worthy man with-alle.—QuiucER. * * * W. D. Brooker—Bill to his bosom friends—is one of our rugged mountaineers. Never really happy unless he's hanging on to a ridge of Ben Macdhui with his eyebrows or toe-nails. When dragged back from the mountains and shackled somewhat awkwardly to his desk, he displays a flair for asking intelligent questions. Very keen on Geography.

The solemn slope of mighty limbs asleep.—SwINBuaNE.

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David Jack. Ringleader of the Boarding House " Vice-Squad " and C.S.M. of the School's New Model Army (the successor in this office to Moncur and P. G. Innes, which accounts for the slightly apologetic look). Comes from Buchan but should succeed in outgrowing this. Is haunted by nightmares of Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up an' down again !

There's no discharge in the wad—KIPLING.

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Charles K. Mackay. Charlie was once a Sunday School teacher, but he seems to be quite better now; has taken up photography recently and let down his hair about five years ago. Enjoys any game of skill and plays wholeheartedly. Uses the Prefects' Room as often as he can.

One should never put on one's best trousers to go out to battle for freedom and truth.—IasEN.

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Alastair M. North. A bright boy at Science, and ballroom dancing. Performs enthusiastically and unscrupulously in the middle of the front row in winter; has a deceptive air of innocence, a reckless streak of impudence, and unbounded deference for the Senior Prefect.

Not many wise, rich, noble, or profound In science, win one inch of heavenly ground.—CowPEa.

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John J. Rae. Our tame expert on anatomy, biology (extracurricular!), gunnery, warfare, insanity and tortures. Reached the peak of his ambition as an S.S. man in " The Moon is Down ".

Reads modern novels as entertainment, but so far has found them rather disappointing (as entertainment).

Meet it is I set it down, That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.—SHAKESPEARE.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

Gordon S. Cowie. One of the " wily" brigade from the Vth year. At one time faced with sitting Lower Greek but luckily Mr. McLeod's teaching improved just in time. Has been described in print as " fast and keen " but, as far as we know, this refers to his hockey, not his private life . . . as far as we know. (For further details see McAndrew.) . . . a mighty man is he, With large and sinewy hands.—LONGFELLOW.

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A. Stewart Fraser. A blue-eyed boy with fair hair, immaculately waved. Full of efficiency, energy and scnse of duty. Let others dodge classes and skip games, Stewart positively laps up work, play, and even School societies with painstaking enthusiasm. Has every prospect of ending up in Hollywood or as Clerk to the Deacons' Court.

Souninge in moral vertu was his speche, And gladly wolde he Icrne, and gladly tcche.—CHAUCER.

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Denys H. Henderson. A great sportsman, a master of English prose style, and a practiser of all sorts of mild and unoriginal sin.

His infant toddles were probably quicksteps; definitely a precocious youth.

Handsome and passionate both, and fond of sport, Eager for fun, quickwitted in retort.—MASEFIELD.

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Gordon M. McAndrew. Distinguished by being one of the members of the Rambling and Mountaineering Club who have not yet broken a leg. Startled everybody by being az-poxm-iron (this is our Greek word) selected to represent School at athletics. Sits examinations for fun but in all other ways is one of our more moral members. (For further details see Cowie.) . . . thine outlandish garb, thy figure spare, Thy dark vague eyes, and soft abstracted air.—MATTHEW ARNOLD.

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John H. Wyllie. A bizarre mixture of Hamlet and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Should do well at 'Varsity, where they like that sort of thing. Combines a flair for English with an unsavoury prowess at Science, and revels in speed and self-expression on a quaint machine he made himself. (He is on view in the Prefects' Room from 9 till 4 on weekdays—tickets on application.)

Uneasy was the man who wandered brooding, His face a little whiter than the dusk.—SIEGFRIED SASSOON.

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161

Lower School Notes Work continues in and around the Lower School, with adult workmen still to the fore. One stage of their work is completed, and their activities are now confined to outside the Lower School building. The hot water installation is much appreciated, and the wash-hand basins arc in frequent use. The effect of this is noticed on exercise books, particularly after the lunch break. The old wallshelter in the Lower School playground has disappeared, and already in its place the new Lower School cycle-shed begins to take shape. * * * proud possessor of a new edition of the The Lower School is now the " Children's Encyclopedia" and a set of magnificent nature-pictures purchased from prize-money awarded to the School because of the success of Kenneth Hall, Lower IVs, in a Quiz Competition organised by the C.N. Kenneth was second in the competition for his age-group, a most praiseworthy performance. * * * Congratulations arc also due to Stephen Pacitti, Lower Vs, who was awarded the competitive bursary open to all entrants to next session's Middle I. * * * An innovation this past half-year has been the arrangements made for those boys who have lunch in School. A reading-room and a games-room, both wellstocked, were opened and full use made of these facilities. Our thanks are due to the members of the Lower School Staff and the School Prefects for their supervisory duties. * * * Next session will see another change—this time in the arrangement of the senior classes. Sorry as we shall be to lose our invaluable " spare " room, the provision of an extra class in Lower V will be welcomed by all. * * * The display of work and puppetry performances at our annual Parents' Day exhibition were once again a success, and reflect great credit on the boys and the Art department. We are grateful to the members of the Technical department for their work with the boys of the senior classes, and to Mr. Barron particularly for the magnificent new Puppet Theatre which he built for us. Puppetry continues to be a major activity in the Loivcr School, and once again new ground has been broken. Shadow puppets have been introduced and the scope of the work increased to give all classes the opportunity of manipulating puppets and learning much thereby. * * * On the athletic side, football is now a thing of the past for this session and the Swimming Gala but a memory, with belated congratulations being offered to this year's winner of the Lower School Swimming Medal—Melville Watson, Lower VA. Athletics and cricket are now in full swing, with the Annual Sports also a thing of the past. The Lower School Cricket XI have had fixtures with other primary school sides.

D. M. A.

Arts Club Notes The Arts Club has met regularly throughout the year on Friday evenings in the Art Rooms. Members have completed a lively session and—when they had recovered from the excesses of the Christmas Party—settled down to finish group projects. These include models of a Roman camp and the Circus Maxentius, which will be presented to the museum of classical antiquities now almost permanently housed in the " Huts ".

Two films have been produced with the help of members. One is about the School Dramatic Society's " The Government Inspector ", and the other illustrates a visit to the Duke of Bedford's collection of pictures which was shown in the Art Gallery in the spring of this year.

J. H. WYLLIE, Secretary.

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House Notes Byron House The following were elected as House officials for the summer term: Cricket Captain, Stephen McPherson; Vice-Captain, George Murray; Athletics Captain, William Brooker; Vice-Captain, Robin Donald.

The House were unsuccessful in sports during the winter, both rugby and hockey teams losing all their matches and we gained only third placc at the swimming gala. The rugby team, however, played very well against Keith and were indeed the only team to cross their line. With several Byron players in the ist XI, we start the cricket season with high hopes, in spite of a reverse at the hands of a very strong Dun team. The number of younger boys in the XI indicates a bright future for the House in cricket.

Mr. Lynch continues his good work at the head of the House and we owe him and his fellow Byron masters our warmest thanks and support.

WILLIAM D. BROOKER, HMI Vies-Captain.

Dun House Colours were awarded to the following boys for the session 1949-50: Rugby, 1st XV Cap—R. T. Hamilton; Full Colours—A. W. Milligan; FlaIf Colours— A. S. Noble. Hockey, zst XI Full Colours—E. D. Watt and J. H. Duncan (reawards); Half Colours—R. Beattie and K. Gilbert.

Although finishing third in the inter-House rugby matches, our team can take credit for courageous displays against older and heavier players. Their performance augurs well for the future.

At a meeting held early in the summer term the following officials were elected: Cricket Captain, E. D. Watt ; Vice-Captain, D. H. Henderson ; Athletics Captain, D. H. Henderson ; Vice-Captain, A. W. Milligan.

The cricket XI have started the season well with a convincing win over Byron and, as the team includes three School ist XI players, hopes run high for a successful season.

For the fourth successive year the House have won the swimming trophy; our sincere thanks are due to all who participated and special congratulations to K. A. Grassick for winning the Middle School Medal.

In the hockey sphere the House had the satisfaction of being the first to win the Cup presented by our own House Master, Mr. I. M. Park, to whom, as always, we owe a debt of gratitude for all the work he has undertaken on our behalf.

ERIC D. WArr, Howe Captain.

Keith House Keith had a very large share of the rugby awards in 1949-50 I A. G. Watt and H. B. Paterson received Caps; A. M. North, D. S. McKay and A. S. Fraser got Full Colours; and I. K. Robb and J. A. S. Bett got Half Colours. Hockey Full Colours went to A. Cromar, J. Milne and G. Robertson.

The following are the House officials for the summer term: Captain of Athletics, A. G. Watt; and Captain of Cricket, A. M. M. Steven.

The House won both the senior and junior Rugby Cups. This is a comparatively rare achievement for any House and of itself would make the year a very successful one for the House. In the swimming gala Keith did very well and were second to Dun in a very close finish. Congratulations go to R. C. Shand and R. G. Gauld, whose fine swimming brought the House many points. The latter won the Rector's Cup. The House cricket XI, although not a conspicuously brilliant team on paper, did extremely well against the formidable Melvin XI and actually lost fewer wickets than the winning side.

Mr. Wilson has done good service as our House Master and for this we thank him. So far this year the House have done very well and there is every prospect of this high standard being maintained in the future.

JOHN F. MCCLELLAN, Howe Captain.

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Melvin House In the past winter session the following Melvin boys obtained sports awards in the various teams: C. D. Mowat (Rugby Cap, re-award); S. Monro (Rugby Cap); J. N. Kemsley and R. H. W. Cradock (Rugby Half Colours); A. A. B. Philip (Hockey Full Colours); T. M. Arnott and J. Buchan (Hockey I lalf Colours).

Fairly late in the session, a meeting was held for the purpose of electing summer term officials and the following appointments resulted: Cricket Captain, Stanley Monro; Vice-Captain, J. Neil Kemsley ; Athletics Captain, Kenneth Courts; ViceCaptain, Charles D. Mowat.

This year Melvin again finished the rugby season as runners-up to Keith, who beat us in the first inter-House game; we won the other games comfortably, however, having a particularly enjoyable game with Dun. On the hockey field our XI, who did well to beat Keith in the first game, were championship runnersup also, this time to Dun, to whom they lost in a very close game, but at the annual swimming gala Melvin did not do too well, a lack of keenness being evident.

With only one gamc played so far, little can be said about cricket prospects, but hopes are high. As expected, the Keith game was won comfortably by six runs, with ten minutes to spare in a one-hour time-match, although Keith batted unexpectedly well against excellent bowling. The House congratulate their four members in the School 1st XI, particularly S. Monro for his excellent displays.

It is right that, at the end of the year, the House should extend their thanks for the hard work put in on our behalf by our House Master, Mr. Cunningham, whose enthusiasm and diligence are known to us all.

CHARLES D. MOWAT, HOWL Captain.

Rambling and Mountaineering Club There has been a big revival of interest in the Club this term. Membership cards were printed for the first time and about sixty of these were issued. A programme of nine excursions was arranged, most of these being well attended by members. Details of excursions held so far are as follows:13 April. MORVEN (2862 feet). Starting from Ballater and walking along the main road, the party of nine used the path from Milton of Tullich into Glen Colston. Although the weather was very warm in the valley, there was a light covering of snow above 15oo feet and deep snow was found on the summit.

29 April. BENNACHIE. A party of twenty-two climbed Oxen Craig (1733 feet), the highest point, from Oyne. Some scrambling was done on the tors. The party was then divided, a few going direct to the Mither Tap, while the main body proceeded to Watch Craig. A return was made to the Mither Tap, five hardy individuals first visiting Hermit Seat. There was some snow on the ridge and considerable drifts in places. It was windy and rather cold on the tops, but the weather remained dry throughout.

6 May. CLACHNABEN (1900 feet). A party of twenty-three attended this excursion on the occasion of the Club's thirteenth anniversary. The weather, however, was not in festive mood, rain and mist being encountered above the Aven. Some rock-climbing was attempted, but the wet rock was unpleasant. One member of the party slipped while scrambling and unfortunately broke his leg. He was carried on a rope stretcher down to Glen Dye, where the party was met by the President with an ambulance from Banchory. Members of the party arc to be congratulated on their expediency in carrying out the " rescue ".

13 May. TAP 0' Norm (1851 feet). Starting from Gartly Station, the party of seventeen first climbed Hill of Noth, and then continued to the main summit, where some time was spent. A section of the party descended to the burn to bathe. The main party's subsequent activities are shrouded in mystery, as the secretary is unable to extract information from those who were present.

20 May. The excursion planned for this day was to Carnferg by the Fungle, across the Duchery group to the Fir Mounth Road and down to Dinnet by Glen Tanner. Due to the mist and heavy rain, however, the party of seven left the bus at the Ballogie fork, walked to the Bucket Mill and came back to the Feughside Inn. GORDON M. MCANDREW, Secretary.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

Literary and Debating Society In spite of numerous changes in the syllabus, the Society has again managed to complete a full programme for the year, and smaller attendances at the final meetings have been compensated for by better speaking and, more important still, the appearance of new speakers.

The debate with the High School was well attended by both Societies and, with some aggressive encouragement from the chair, it developed into a keen argument on the merits of a Personal Religion as opposed to Organised Church Worship. Miss Stephenson of the High School and Mr. David Craig of Grammar succeeded in having the former approved. They were opposed by Mr. John Brand (Grammar) and Miss Day (High).

The Record Afternoon held immediately before Christmas was a revival in expanded form of one of the Society's most popular meetings. Messrs. C. D. Mowat and James Reith, with the assistance of gramophone records, held a " disputation on the merits of modern and classical music. For this purpose the Society was allowed to use the School gramophone and a large audience was delighted by music which, though differing greatly in character—and merit, too, according to the speakers—was equally pleasing to the unsophisticated ear. Mr. Morris expressed the Society's warm thanks to the two experts.

The cancellation of the yearly debate with Central School, though unavoidable, made an unfortunate gap in the syllabus after Christmas, and an even greater loss was the news of Mr. G. S. Fraser's impending departure from the country which made it impossible for him to address the Society as arranged.

At the first meeting of the Easter term, three members of Staff, Miss Ledingham, Mr. Cook and Mr. Cooper judged the entries to this year's Short Story Competition.

First prize was awarded to David Craig (VI) for his " Lobster Mayonnaise ', and both second and third prizes went to John Wyllie (V) for " Shades of Montmartre " and " The Mink Coat ".

With customary ritual, in front of an audience of over zoo, the Society's officials carried through the trial of " that notorious criminal ", Ronald McLeod, M.A., on serious charges of physical and mental cruelty. The prisoner, ably supported

by Mr. J. P. Morris and as ably vilified by Mr. J. F. McClellan, defended himself with great urbanity and his usual wit. However, the unanimous verdict of the jury—did someone say " packed "?—left Mr. Justice Hall no other choice but to impose the sentence of " flotillation ", i.e. playing the flute, which was duly carried out.

Two inter-school debates followed closely. The first, with the recentlyrevived Society in Albyn School, produced a lively, if rather flippant, discussion on the motion " That an Intellectual Education is to be preferred to a Practical Education ". Both Grammar speakers, Messrs. Cowie and Wyllie, spoke well and our Society's contribution to the speaking was fortunately much greater than it was to the attendance. The following week saw the second debate of the year with Gordon's College Society, when Mr. Cunningham (R.G.C.) and Mr. Coates (A.G.S.) opposed Mr. Hall (A.G.S.) and Mr. Grant (R.G.C.) on the question of the value of Monarchy to the modern State. None of the verbal fireworks customary at these meetings appeared during a rather stuffy debate which closed with a decisive vote in favour of Monarchy.

Because of the early date set for the General Election our political debate was brought forward by over a month. It proved the most invigorating of the year's discussions. The Society gathered in parties under a Speaker and the motion for debate was framed in terms which allowed the widest possible interpretation, namely, the benefits or otherwise of the Welfare State. For the Conservative Party Mr. Morris delivered an eloquent attack on " the Socialist failure ", which was comprehensively answered by Mr. E. Grieve (VI). The after-speaking followed the expected pattern of charge and counter-charge and never flagged in energy.

In summing-up Messrs. Craig and McClellan achieved wonders of compression in the short time at their disposal. The motion deprecating the Welfare State was carried.

An improvement in speaking appears regularly at the very end of the Society's yearly programme. This year was no exception and at a debate on Germany's position in Western Europe the faithful few heard some of the Society's younger

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members argue succinctly and convincingly amid the excitement of General Election results—a considerable feat! A Balloon Debate gave scope for grave, gay and particularly irrelevant remarks on anything and everything. The balloonists, a bookmaker (Mr. Wood, H), a film star (Mr. Baird, HI), a dictator (Mr. Christie, II) and a mathematician (Mr. Wilkie, IV), defended their professions eloquently, but only the dictator survived the practical temper of the Society.

For the second year the season was brought to a close by a combined schools' debate, which it is to be hoped has now become a permanency. This year five schools met in Gordon's College to debate the motion " That Religious Education should be Abolished". Mr. Alan Hall (A.G.S.) and Miss Eleanor May (High School) supported the affirmative, with Mr. Ernest Sangster (Gordon's College) and Miss Palit (Central School) leading for the negative. The subject proved too wide for detailed argument, but the debate was keen and the speaking of a high standard throughout. In the end the negative motion secured an overwhelming vote and Mr. James Morris wound up a very successful evening by expressing the thanks of the other Societies to our hosts.

ALAN S. HALL, Secretary.

Dramatic Society Our President has, on four consecutive nights, spoken graceful words of thanks to our many benefactors and the programme note to our production of " The Government Inspector" added the authority of print to the weight of rhetoric. The function of this note, then, is not to express gratitude to the " skilful experts and generous givers ", nor is it to belittle our year's production, for the present Society is possessed of no modesty, either false or genuine. " The Government Inspector" was a success, dramatically, if we are to believe the dramatic critic of the Press and Journal, and financially, if we are to believe our honorary treasurer. The players too, gaining confidence as the " run" went on, felt that they were making a real success of a complicated production. If we have to disapprove (and who are we to depart from the practice of Brown and Hobson?), we should say that the cast was apt to alternate indecisively between farce and comedy, but the plot seems to indicate that Gogol himself was none too sure of the mode of his play.

What was important about this production, however, was its scale. In costume, in decor and in number of performances, it was the biggest production the Society has attempted for many years. A box set of some elaborateness was built and painted for us; costumes (" mainly as designed by Topolski for the Old Vic production") were hired from Nathan of London and proved first class in quality and brilliant in detail ; and finally, the play was presented for three nights in the School Hall and for a fourth time at the Royal Mental Hospital on Dr. Wyllic's invitation. This fourth performance was well received, the smaller stage was admirably set with scenery of the hospital's own making and the company could not have been more hospitably entertained.

The annual production, then, has taken on large dimensions. By its period and its nature the play called for a prodigious amount of labour in the stage manager's department. The setting was intricate compared with the austere grandeur of " Murder in the Cathedral ", and the number of scenes, five, meant all the more need for detailed organisation backstage. The fact that this plethora of " staff work " ran so smoothly suggests that a large scale annual production has come to stay. The fact that a comedy (in contrast to the plays of the last two years) was well received was particularly encouraging, as this type of play is all too easily botched by inexperienced amateurs.

If our producer and honorary president, Mr. A. B. Russell, is given next year the enthusiastic support which he could call upon during the production of " The Government Inspector", he will easily maintain the high standard which he has set himself and the Society.

DAVID M. CRAIG, Ste/Wag.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

Combined Cadet Force Notes The annual inspection of the Contingent took place on Thursday, is May. The inspecting officers were Major-General C. K. Arbuthnott, G.O.C. Highland District, and Group Captain Sommerville, H.Q. 66 Group, R.A.F. A very good report was given by the officers on a smart turn-out and the general efficiency in training of the Contingent.

The Cert. " A " exams have not yet taken place, but we hope to have a large number of passes on as June. A field day has been arranged for t5 June and the Contingent will proceed to Black Dog rifle ranges, where there will be an opportunity to obtain some practice in fieldcraft and map-reading.

As regards training, the cadets have been limited to strict Cert. " A " routine ; so everyone is looking ahead to a happy, yet profitable week at Barry in July, where the Army and Basic Sections will attend camp. The R.A.F. Section hold their camp at Cranwell. We have been very fortunate in obtaining the services of P.S.I.s from the 4/7th Gordons, and C.S.M. Kynoch from University S.T.C. We appreciate their services to the Contingent.

M.R. shooting has been limited to the Empire Test, but a team was entered for the Strathcona Cup and they acquitted themselves well. We must also congratulate the team, consisting of C.Q.M.S. Thomson, Sergeant Fraser, Corporal Anderson and Corporal Maclntyre, who shot well in the Cadet Wapinschaw to gain third place.

DAVID JACK, C.S.M.

R.A.F. Sr.crtoN We are to start on a very much more concise syllabus next session ; this has been found necessary for all R.A.F. Sections of C.C.F. units—once again the " time factor " I During the year we have bad a varied programme of flying in the 66 Group Ansons. In addition, three cadets, Corporal Emmanuel Kelbie, Cadet Brian Donald and Cadet Paul Sorensen, have had gliding instruction at No. 5 Gliding School, Dyce, and have made creditable passes for their certificates. In the near future two " field days " are to be spent at Dyce.

The Section have again had the benefit of instruction from Mr. Trevor Smith, one of the Lower School Masters.

J. B.

Pipes and Drums At long last the School Pipes and Drums have made their first post-war public appearances, firstly, at the Annual Inspection of the School Contingent, C.C.F., and secondly, at the School Sports. Under P1M Kenneth Courts, they gave very creditable performances and gained great confidence from their reception on both occasions. The composition at present is six pipers and five drummers, and it is hoped that by the end of next session these numbers will be increased. We are deeply indebted to Major R. N. Christie, Secretary of the local Territorial and Auxiliary Forces Association, Lieut.-Colonel A. M. Milne, Commanding Officer of the 4/7th Gordons and their respective staffs for their ready assistance in lending the necessary dress—hut how much better it would be if we had our ownl To the young pipers who have not yet reached the necessary standard to allow them to make a public performance, we offer our congratulations on their progress, and are sure that by the end of another session they will have made the grade.

Unfortunately, their drummer counterparts appear to have lost their initial enthusiasm, and have dwindled in numbers. To Messrs. Couper and Rennie, our very able instructors, we once again offer our sincere thanks.

An invitation to join the classes next session is extended to all boys of the Middle and Upper Schools.

D. M. A.

Aberdeen Grammar School Alagafzine

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Scout Notes 1st Troop Our annual Easter camp was held as usual at Clinterty, Kinellar, and was attended by twenty-eight scouts. The weather for once was reasonably kind, and even stayed dry on visitors' day.

We were able to welcome back to the Troop, after service in the R.A.F., A.S.M.s R. Walker and P. S. Brown. The latter will be in charge of the summer camp.

The preparations for the camp arc well under way. An excellent site has been fixed at Finzean, Kincardineshire, on the banks of the Fcugh, which offers good swimming and pioneering facilities, while the hills around should give opportunities for some good climbing.

The cubs again have broken forth in a new venture by holding a long weekend camp for sixers and seconds at Clinterty. The camp was excellently arranged and organised by our Cubmaster, Miss I. J. R. Mackintosh, and attended by myself and A.S.M. E. Watt. A most enjoyable time was had in perfect weather.

J. K. BLAIR, Scoutmaster.

9th Troop The 9th Troop and Pack have had a very full and record-breaking year. Both Café and Concert were successes, and we obtained the record sum of £4zo. To the convener, Mrs. Milne, and all her enthusiastic helpers, to the concert artists and compire, to Councillor Carry, and to other parents and friends who helped to achieve this result, are due our grateful thanks for their splendid work.

In February, by winning the relay race from the 41st Troop by half a head, we shared first place with them at the Scout Swimming Gala and, because we had won the relay race, we were awarded the cup. Our senior team in five-a-side football were beaten during May by the i7th after two extensions of time, but this loss was made up for by our junior team, who beat the i7th to win the Junior Shield.

There have been a number of promotions since September: to P.L.s, P. Littlejohn, J. McBain and B. Grassick; to Seconds, K. Grassick, J. Milligan and J. Watt, Ian Esslemont has left us temporarily to train for an A.S.M. Warrant.

We are still in search of a new Scoutmaster. Tom Watson had to give up Troop work in October through pressure of studies and he resigned as Scoutmaster at the end of the year. The Troop owe him a debt of gratitude, and the renovation of the hut will serve as a reminder of his good work. Mr. Egel Anderson, who left at the same time, has also earned our thanks. Ian Donald's announcement that he also was to retire was not taken too seriously, and at this year's camp he is again to act as principal Q.M. Since Easter we have had valuable help from Mr. Campbell Connon, a former A.S.M. of the 9th, and Mr. A. Chalmers, Mr. A. Milne and Mr. Sven Jacobson continue to help. None of them, unfortunately, is able to undertake the duties of Scoutmaster after summer when I reluctantly give up. The need for a new Scoutmaster is thus very urgent, and we appeal to F.P.s through these notes to volunteer for this position, and to get into touch with Mr. J. C. Esslemont at 16 Westfield Terrace to offer their services.

We look forward to the Annual Camp in Glen Clova this year, under the charge of our former Scoutmaster, H. Gavin Alexander.

R. TENNANT, Acting Scoutmaster.

i7th Troop During the summer term roughly half our meetings have been held out-ofdoors, and half in our Salisbury Lane H.Q. Attendances have been slowly increasing, but we are still keen to recruit boys aged twelve and over—particularly for our summer camp. Any boys interested should contact the Scoutmaster at 7 Norfolk Road.

Camp dates this year are from 19 to 31 July, and the site is at Castle Forbes, near Alford.

The Troop have undertaken to produce a Camp Concert in the local Parish Hall. Rehearsals are proving more amusing than most of us expected. We arc just a little apprehensive whether the audience will be equally amused I RONALD W. HEPBURN, Se01601/4.11er.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

School Sporting Activities Rugby Season 1949-50 proved to be the most successful of post-war years. Throughout the School the standard of play has vastly improved, and this has helped the players to attain the confidence so essential to team games. As usual, our unpredictable Scottish weather proved to be a great handicap and, unfortunately, a considerable number of games—particularly of those arranged for the younger teams—had to be cancelled. Such was the enthusiasm, however, that despite hard ground Rubislaw was always well patronised by boys doing extra training.

The 1st XV, under the captaincy of C. D. Mowat, played remarkably well and their encounters in Edinburgh and Glasgow greatly enhanced their reputation.

We were fortunate in having a first-rate and XV and the problem of selecting players for the 1st XV was often a complicated one. The same difficulty was experienced in the other teams and there should be great competition for higher honours in season 1950-51.

Outings to the two Murrayfield Internationals were organised and these were very well supported by the boys.

Thanks are due to all members of Staff and other referees who have given so much of their time and energy in the interests of rugby throughout the School.

IST XV INTER-SCHOOL RESULTS

1949 . . . 8-it Lost.

Dec. 3. v. Strathallan School at Strathallan .

1 950 . . . 23- 3 Won. Feb. 4. v. Dundee High School at Rubislaw . „ 1 i. v. George Heriot's School at Edinburgh • . . o- 6 Lost. . . 8-to Lost. „ 18. v. Gordon's College at Rubislaw 5- o Won. 25. v. Paisley Grammar School at Rubislaw . .

Mar. 4. v. Glasgow High School at Glasgow . . . . 6- 3 Won. „ 25. v. Morgan Academy at Dundee . . .

5- 8 Lost. .

Apr. 1. v. Royal High School at Edinburgh . . . . 6- 6 Drawn.

The matches arranged with Glasgow Academy at Rubislaw on to December and with Glenalmond at Glenalmond on 2.8 January were both cancelled due to weather conditions.

1ST XV INTER-SCHOOL RECORD

Played 15; Won 9; Drawn 1; Lost 5; Points for, ia6; Points against, 80.

EDWIN HUNTER, Games Mailer.

WHO'S WHO IN THE IST XV

C. D. Mowat. 6 ft. If in.; 13 st. 2 lb. Captain and front-row forward.

A very fine captain and, by unstinted example in every phase of forward play, an outstanding forward leader. Excellent in dribbling and the line-outs, he has the ability and power to do very well in senior rugby.

H. B. Paterson. 5 ft. 9i in.; to st. Vice-Captain and centre three-quarter.

Quickly settling down in a new position, he soon proved a maker rather than a taker of chances. He has a very reliable tackle and a determined cut-through, but prefers " feeding " his winger to going through on his own. With an improved kick could do exceedingly well in after-school rugby.

R. T. Hamilton. 5 ft. 9 in.; It st. 8 lb. Full hack. Moved from his normal position, he proved more than a stop-gap full back, due to his safe handling and accurate kicking. His tackling improved as the season progressed but was little called upon. Cool and unruffled under pressure.

• I. K. Robb. 5 ft. 6 in.; 9 st. 5 lb. Right wing three-quarter. A determined little winger with an excellent tackle and ability to see openings, which he can exploit with a good burst of speed. Although defence was his strongest point, should be a good all-round back in next year's team.

S. Monro. 5 ft. xoj in.; it st. 3 lb. Centre three-quarter. A strongrunning Centre with a good kick, a strong hand-off and a sure tackle. Scored and contributed towards many fine tries and could safely be called upon for goalkicking. Should try to cultivate a little more speed.

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A. G. Watt. 5 ft. 9i in.; xx st. 4 lb. Left wing three-quarter. The season's leading try-scorer. A fast, forceful and at times brilliant winger, with a strong hand-off. Always puts everything into his touchline dashes and is very safe in defence. Formed a perfect partnership with his Centre and, apart from a weakish cross-kick, was almost the perfect winger.

J. N. Kemsley. 5 ft. 8-1 in.; i x st. 2 lb. Stand-off half. A very fine ballplayer, with a clever dummy. Dangerous in attack and has a good place-, dropand touch-kick, but weak in defence and inclined to be lackadaisical. He has excellent potentialities, but must apply himself.

R. H. W. Cradock. 5 ft. 5f in.; to st. 1z lb. Scrum-half. Tough and with plenty of verve, he soon struck up a good understanding with his forwards.

Always ready to break away and never flinching in attack or defence. He should, however, concentrate on lengthening his service. A solid and reliable player.

J. A. S. Bett. 6 ft. oi in.; 12 st. 5 lb. Front-row forward. A silent, tireless worker who is always on the ball and useful in line-outs. Not really outstanding, but, nevertheless, more than good in most aspects of forward play. A good scrummager who played steadily hard all season.

A. M. North. 5 ft. 8 in.; to st. Hooker. A keen and accomplished specialist hooker, who is often seen backing up and who puts everything into his game. A hard, tough player with a good burst of speed, he never gives up and plays best when roused.

A. W. Milligan. 6 ft. z in.; x3 st. Second-row forward. A big but slow, hard-working forward, whose strong point is his line-out work. Plays a fine, forcing game and revels in really hard scrum-work. A fine, experienced forward for next year's team.

X. L. F. Smith. 5 ft. x 1 in.; 13 st. Second-row forward. When kept going can play a good, hard game, but inclined to slacken off. A valuable, intelligent " loose' player, whose power in breaking through, coupled with more experience, should also be an asset to next year's team.

D. S. McKay. 6 ft. I in.; 1 z st. 9 lb. Wing forward. A speedy, keen and intelligent wing forward whose backing-up and dribbling were sometimes outstanding when he scored tries. His fiery displays were marred only by a tendency to stay out of the loose.

A. S. Noble. 5 ft. x x in.; x t st. 6 lb. Lock. The year's most improved player. His determination, speed and all-round knowledge of the game made him a very capable lock. A hard player, who should develop into a first-class forward.

A. S. Fraser. 5 ft. 1 x in.; xx st. Wing forward. A fast and hard player, who is always on the ball and prefers an open game. Handles and anticipates well, but could develop a harder tackle. Should do well next year.

Swimming Interest in swimming has been well sustained and various classes of instruction have been well attended. Mr. Allardice, in particular, is to be congratulated on the success of his life-saving class. The following gained bronze medallions of the Royal Life Saving Society: A. Dewar, A. H. Duthie, C. K. Mackay, A. Smith, B. D. M. Grassick, K. A. Grassick, L. Williamson, F. Smith, B. Donald, J. Cheync, D. McDonald, R. Bowie, 1. Moir and L. Morrison.

The Gala was characterised as usual by Mr. Hunter's smooth organisation.

The Rector's Cup was won by R. Gauld (Keith), with A. Duthie (Melvin) runnerup. K. Grassick (Dun) won the Middle School Medal, with E. Anderson (Byron) runner-up. The Lower School Medal went to M. Watson (Keith), J. Hay (Byron) and A. Hamilton (Dun) tying for second place.

Opportunities of outside competition are few, but meetings with Gordon's College, the Boys' Brigade and possibly the University are anticipated before the end of term. The relay team (R. C. Shand, A.. Duthie, K. A. Grassick and B. D.. M. Grassick) beat Central and were beaten by Gordon's by about 15 yards.

Captain of swimming for the year was R. C. Shand and Vice-Captain R. G. Gauld.

R. W.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine Hockey

The Easter holidays brought to an end a red-letter season for the hockey XI. A most successful playing season for the side itself finished in triumph with the selection of its Captain, Eric Watt, to play at left back for Scotland in all three internationals. This was a very great feat. (See page 148.)

Next season will see the complete rebuilding of a side, for it seems we are to lose no fewer than eight of the team. With all due respect to the others, the greatest losses—after, of course, Eric Watt—are Sandy Cromar, Hamish Duncan, Jimmy Milne and Andrew Philip. These lads have cultivated the team spirit to the highest degree. No one could wish for a more loyal player than Cromar, who was a most stylish half-back. The other three are forwards: Hamish Duncan, a first-rate outside-right; Jimmy Milne, our centre-forward, who at one time was a great goal-keeper but found there too few people to argue with; and Andrew Philip, who had no rival for the difficult position of outside-left. The others leaving are the backs, stylish Gordon Robertson and the canny Jimmy Buchan, and the tireless Ronald Beattie at half-back.

Bright spots are the probable return of our goal-keeper, Tom Arnott, K. Gilbert, D. Nelson and G. Cowie at inside forward, and Ian Stewart at half-back.

Without going into details, the Spring term was one of very good results.

The team won most of their matches and finished with a thrilling game against the University in which, though the team lost, every player in the side played above himself and nearly brought off a surprise.

In taking leave of those whose schooldays are over, may we express the hope that these very promising players will not let themselves be lost to the game in which they have performed so well? Far too many boys in all branches of sport simply disappear from active games, a tendency which causes great disappointment to those with the interest of games and young people at heart.

Cricket The 1950 cricket season opened in rather drab fashion, three weeks being lost through bad weather. E. D. Watt was elected Captain and D. H. Henderson Vice-Captain, and with a nucleus of last year's team a strong 1st XI was formed.

A disappointing feature was the abandoning of all the Glenalmond games.

Our younger teams have been playing very well and their enthusiasm and keenness should serve them in good stead in all their games.

As always, I am grateful to all members of Staff who have assisted with games and to Mr. Tyson, whose unfailing interest in cricket is so valuable to the School.

1ST XI MATCHP:S 29 April 1950—v. A.G.S.F.P.s at Rubislaw.

School—x32. (Henderson, 29; Hamilton, 28.) A.G.S.F.P.s-41. (Watt, 3 for 15; Henderson, 5 for 23.)

6 May 1950—v. Aboyne, at Aboyne.

Aboyne-9z. (Henderson, 4 for 23.)

School-96 for 9. (Murray, 29 not out; Monro, 24; Cradock, zo.) ro May 1950—v. Gordon's College, at Seafield.

School lost the toss and Gordon's elected to bat first. Scoring was slow against the bowling of Monro and Henderson. Henderson claimed two wickets in quick succession, but Cockburn and Pirie managed to raise the score to over 5o. Murray bowled well and succeeded in getting two wickets. School fielded for an hour after the tea-interval and eventually the Gordon's innings closed with a total of 11s for 9.

School were left 1 hour 5o minutes to get the runs. The first three batsmen scored only 5 runs. Monro and Watt came in and the score was raised into the 6os. The standard was not maintained and a hat-trick accounted for Stephen, Murray and Cradock. School continued to play for a draw, but with the dismissal of Henderson, the game was ended five minutes from time.

The fielding throughout the game was woefully weak and slack. x3 May 1950-v. Inverness Academy, at Rubislaw.

School won the toss and put Inverness in to bat. Mont() and Watt bowled

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well and soon ; wickets had fallen for 23 runs. The high standard of bowling was maintained and the Academy were dismissed for 66 runs.

The School batting opened promisingly, but although, as in previous games, a collapse ensued, the partnership of Hamilton (44 not out) and Munro (29 not out) brought the necessary runs.

27 May 1950—v. Perth Academy, at Rubislaw.

Perth won the toss and School batted first. Hamilton again played a sterling innings, hut support was slow in coming forth. Watt and Henderson, however, played forceful cricket and eventually School declared at 214 for 6. (Henderson, 39; Hamilton, 34; Watt, 17.)

School proved unequal to the task of dismissing Perth in the 2 hour 3o minutes at their disposal. Bowling was good, but slackness in fielding was again in evidence. (Murray 2 for ff.) The match was drawn.

EDWIN HINTER, Games Master.

Athletics At the Annual Meeting Kenneth Coutts was elected Captain of Athletics and Alexander G. Watt, Vice-Captain.

The popular triangular contest between School, University and Emergency Physical Training Centre resulted in a convincing win for us. The points were: School-83 4; E.P.T.C.-67; 'Varsity-65 4.

The Annual Sports, held on 9 and io June, were most successful. Fine weather favoured us each day and large crowds watched a high standard of athletics.

A. G. Watt won the open championship with the grand total cf 23 points, K. Coutts being the runner-up with 13 points. Keith won the House Championship, with Melvin a close second.

Three records, two Open and one Group II, were broken this year. Denys H. Henderson ran the half-mile in 2 minutes 3.9 seconds, to beat the previous record of 2 minutes 7.5 seconds; Kenneth Coutts lowered his own mile record from 4 minutes 41.5 seconds to 4 minutes 37.5 seconds; Thomas Graham of Group II raised the shot putt record from 4o feet 4 inches to 44 feet 7 inches.

For the successful organisation of athletics, and particularly the Annual Sports, we must congratulate the Sports Staff, and especially Mr. James C. Hunter. *

*

*

K. Courts, Captain.

A large team of nineteen boys represented the School at the Scottish Schools' Athletic Championships held at Westerlands, Glasgow on Saturday, 17 June 195o.

All members gave creditable performances but only five contested the finals of their events, and two only won Championship medals. Kenneth Coutts was first in the Open One Mile, establishing a new Scottish Schools' record of 4 minutes 33.8 seconds, and Robin Donald was placed second equal in the Under i6 Years Half-Mile.

At the close of the Championships Kenneth Coutts was awarded the Eric Liddell Memorial Trophy, which is presented annually to the competitor with the most meritorious performance at the Championships.

Congratulations to Kenneth, an able Captain, and one of the most enthusiastic and skilled athletes the School has ever produced.

J. C. HUNTER.

Scottish Schoolboys' Club Owing to the dual strain imposed on the Club officials by the " flighers" and Mr. McCrea's departure, it must be confessed that there have been extremely few meetings this term. The Club, however, must thank John Sutherland and Herbert Lonriore for giving up so much time to assist at the meetings.

Once again the Easter Rugby Tour proved a great success, thanks mainly to Messrs. Frame, Sutherland and Paterson, who organised the trip.

It is to be hoped that many Grammarians will attend Summer Camp, for it is there that they will gain valuable experience which will better enable them to run the Club in future years.

DENTS H. HENDERSON, Srbool Representative.

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172

School Office-Bearers 1949-50 Prefects A. S. HALL (Senior Prefect) W. D. BROOKER D. JACK C. K. MACKAY A. M. NORTH J. J. RAE

J. F. MCCLELLAN D. M. CRAIG C. D. MOWAT A. M. M. STEVEN E. D. WATT

G. S. CowIE A. S. FRASER D. H. HENDERSON G. M. MCANDREW J. H. WyL.LrE

House Captains Byron D. M. CRAIG

Keith J. F. MCCLELLAN

Dun E. D. WATT

Melvin C. D. MOWAT

Rugby Football

Captain

.

• C. D. MOWAT

Vice-Captain

Captain

.

.

E. D. WATT

Vice-Captain

Captain

.

. E. D. WATT

Vice-Captain

Captain

.

.

K. Courts

Captain

.

.

R. C. SHAND

. H. B. PATERSON

Cricket

. D. H. HENDERSON

Hockey

. A. CROMAR

Athletics

Vice-Captain

.

A. G. WATT

Swimming

Vice-Captain

. R. G. GAULD

Rambling and Mountaineering Club .

• . D. A. GRAHAM . D. WILKINSON • • . G. M. MCANDREW .

.

President Vice-President Secretary .

•

•

•

•

Literary and Debating Society .

President . . . J. P. MORRIS • . .

• Vice-President . D. M. CRAIG . A. S. HALL . . . .

Secretary Dramatic Society

President Vice-President Secretary .

School

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

• •

A. S. HALL J. F. MCCLELLAN D. M. CRAIG

School Editors of the Magazine D. M. CRAIG .

Sports J. F. MCCLELLAN

. A. M. M. STEVEN

• {

•

Scottish Schoolboys' Club . . . D. H. HENDERSON

School Representative .

Library Committee

• Convener

.

.

. J. P. MORRIS

Secretary .

.

.

D. M. CRAIG

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

173

The Former Pupils' Club Founded 1893

Annual General Meeting of the Club The forty-eighth Annual General Meeting of the F.P. Club was held in the Caledonian Hotel, Aberdeen, on 8 March 1950. Mr. Alexander Gray, VicePresident of the Club and Chairman of the Executive, was in the chair and there was an attendance of about forty members.

EXECUTIVE'S REPORT FOR THE YEAR

The Secretary first read the Report by the Executive for the year 1949 from which the following arc excerpts :— MEMBERSHIP AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

The following is an analysis of the membership of the Club as at 28 February 195o, with comparable figures at 28 February 1949:—

28!2/49

28 /2 /50

Lite Membership Fully Partially Paid Paid 106 1, 084 t,060 124

— 24

+18 —

Ordinary 1,068 1,0f9

—9

Honorary 12

-

Staff

Total

t3

39 10

2,309 2,266

•4- I

—291.

— 43

The membership of the Club, whilst satisfactory, still leaves room for improvement. From the records available a list is being compiled of names of individuals who have attended the School since 1920 and who are not members of the Club.

It is hoped in the near future to issue a circular to all these individuals inviting them to take up membership. The number of boys joining the Club on leaving School continues to be satisfactory.

LossEs BY DEATH During the year the deaths of forty-one F.P.s, of whom sixteen were members of the Club, have been reported. Dr. George Duncan, advocate in Aberdeen, also died. He was an honorary member of the Club and always a loyal friend of the School.

THE CLUB AND THE SCHOOL

At the Prize-giving in July 1949 the Club presented Silver Medals as usual for Geography, German and Spanish. The winner of the Club's All-Round Trophy and the John No Dawson Prize was Eric H. Cruickshank.

In terms of te new Constitution of the Club, adopted at the Annual General Meeting in 1949, the Rector of the School is now ex officio a member of the Executive.

It is felt that the addition of the Rector to the Executive of the Club will be of mutual benefit to both School and Club.

Under the new Constitution, Staff Membership was introduced and male members of the Staff of the School arc now eligible for membership of the Club.

Several of the Staff have taken up membership, but it is hoped that more will do so in the near future. Close relationship between the Staff and the Club can be of mutual benefit.

THE MAGAZINE

The Magazine continues to be published twice yearly. The Executive are mindful of the increased cost of production which is a heavy drain on Club finances and the matter will receive further consideration when Club finances generally are t Before the passing of the new Constitution, male members of the School Staff were all regarded as Extraordinary Members of the Club. Now they are eligible for Staff Membership.

ABERDEEN GRAMMAR SCHOOL Abstract of Revenue and Expenditure Account REVENUE . .

£111 9 6 143 4 6 9 4 0

. . .

. . .

•

•

£'263 18 0 78 18 9 92 3 10 226 19 4 224 3 5

Ordinary Subscriptions received prior to January 1949 .

• Ordinary Subscriptions received in 1949 . . . . .

Arrears recovered in 1949

•

•

•

•

•

•

. . . .

Revenue from Investments . . .

Surplus from Entertainments Account .

Interest at 4 per cent. on Life Member Capital Fund . . .

Deficit for year .

. . .

•

•

•

0

£886 3

4

Balance Sheet as CAPITAL AND LIABILITIES I. GENERAL CAPITAL FUND .

II. LIFE MEMBER CAPITAL FUND— £5,403 17 .

Amount at credit at 31 December 1948 270 7 Life Members' Subscriptions received in 1949 •

•

•

•

•

£5,674 Less—Transferred to Revenue and Expenditure . . . . . .

Account

.

£235 18 149 15 150 11 907 6 71 0 37 11

•

• • •

6

5,447

4 11

4 3

226 19

•

0

3 0

4

III. ENTERTAINMENTS SUSPENSE ACCOUNT— . .

• • Amount at credit at 31 December 1948 IV. CLUB DEVELOPMENT RESERVE AccouNT—Amount at credit .

V. ORDINARY SUBSCRIPTIONS PAID IN ADVANCEBalance of Subscriptions received prior to 31 £85 7 6 December 1948, applicable to future years Subscriptions received in 1949 applicable to 87 0 6 . . . future years .

VI. MEMORIAL SCHEMES— . . .

(1) "Roll of Honour ". . .

(2) Theodore Watt Portrait .

(3) W. P. Stewart Memorial Fund (4) To be allocated by Executive . paid for (5) Copies of "Roll of Honour" Add—Interest on Savings Account

£549

25 0 0 10 0 0

172

8 0

1,552 4

2 7 3 8

6 8 2 0 0 3

VII. FUNDS OF CLUB SECTION IN ABEYANCE-MOtOT Section VIII. GIFTS AND LEGACIES£10 0 0 10 Shares in Boarding House Co. Ltd. .

100 0 0 . .

Legacy from Miss Alice Lamb 100 0 0 .

Legacy from Miss I. A. Anderson .

•

•

•

•

IX. MAGAZINE— • Advertisements prepaid X. HONORARIA— Amount due to Sec. and Treas. and Editor of Magazine . .

XI. POSTS—Amount due to Secretary and Treasurer .

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

210

0

0

2 17 6 100 20

0 0 0 0

£8,092 17

2

FORMER PUPILS' CLUB for year ending 31 December 1949 EXPENDITURE Working Expenses . . . . . . . . .

Magazine—Cost for year, less revenue from advertisements and sales Miscellaneous Expenses . . . . . . . .

£126 13 4 628 3 1 131 6 11

£886 3 4

at 31 December 1949 ASSETS

I. CASH IN HAND AND IN INVESTED FUNDS

. £7,086 0 8

I I. MEMORIAL SCHEMES— Disbursements incurred to date

380 19 8

III. CAPITATION GRANT—

Grant for 1950 paid in advance to London Centre

•

20 0 0

IV. ADVANCE TO LONDON CENTRE—

Loan granted and to be repaid annually by instalments of £5 • V. GENERAL REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT— Deficit in Revenue and Expenditure Account for year ending 31 December 1947 . . . £217 19 10 Deficit in Revenue and Expenditure Account for year ending 31 December 1948 . . .

143 13 7 Add—DEFICIT in Revenue and Expenditure Account for year ending 31 December 1949

20 0 0

361 13 5 224 3 5 585 16 10

ABERDEEN, 25 January 1950.—We have examined the foregoing Revenue and Expenditure Account for the year ending 31 December 1949 and relative Balance Sheet as at 31 December 1949, compared the figures with the vouchers, and found the Accounts correct. We are of the opinion that the above Balance Sheet correctly states the position of the Club as at 31 December 1949. We have had exhibited to us the various Securities supporting the Funds at the close of the Accounts. The Securities are all entered in the Balance Sheet at cost prices.

(Signed) BOWER & SMITH, C.A., Honorary Auditors,

245 UNION STREET, ABERDEEN.

£8,092 17 2

176

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

reviewed. It does appear, however, that the general feeling is that the standard of the Magazine should not be lowered in any way.

CLUB CENTRES The six Centres of the Club in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Yorkshire, Bengal and Assam, and Malaya all continue to flourish. Successful reunions have been held in all Centres. When writing to Aberdeen, the Secretaries of these Centres always stress the fact that they will be glad to welcome any member of the Club who is visiting their areas.

CLUB CONSULS Particulars of changes in Club Consuls arc notified in the Magazine. Letters from individual members of the Club indicate that the Club Consul system continues to he of benefit. Many Consuls, however, would welcome more work, as they report that they have very few callers from the School in the course of a year.

FINANCE It was again found necessary to raise subscription rates, and the new rates have been introduced with effect from 1 January 195o. Rising costs generally have, unfortunately, produced deficits in the Club Accounts for the last few years.

This matter is receiving the serious consideration of the Executive. Methods of increasing Club revenue arc to be considered, and it is hoped that the drive for new members, previously referred to, will help in this connection.

SOCIAL The Annual Dinner was held in the Caledonian Hotel on Friday, 28 October 1949, when 145 members and friends were present. The function was of the usual standard, and Dr. W. Clark Souter, President of the Club, was in the chair.

The Annual Ball was held in the Music Hall on 23 December 1949 and was attended by 388 members and guests. Dr. W. Clark Souter and Mrs. Soutcr received the company. The general consensus of opinion appeared to be that the Ball was highly successful.

REPORTS ON ATSILETIC SECTIONS Brief reports were submitted by the Secretaries of the various Athletic Sections.

Mr. N. I. W. Meldrum stated that the membership of the Rugby Section was seventy-five, the largest for many years, and that it was very gratifying that all the rugby-playing boys who left School last year had joined the Section. Ile stressed the financial difficulties of the Section and deplored the apathy of the general body of members of the Club towards the activities of the Athletic Sections.

Mr. R. P. Wishart reported that the Hockey Section had fielded three teams and had had very successful results. In particular he mentioned a 7-o win over Perth, whom F.P.s had not previously beaten since before the war. He congratulated Eric Watt on gaining his Scottish " cap" and Mr. Ian Park of the School Staff on his excellent coaching. A report on the Golf Section's six outings during 1949 was submitted by Mr. G. A. C. Walker. The membership of the Section, he said, was sixty-six and the; accounts showed a credit balance. (Applause.)

The Secretary of the Club read a report from Mr. J. W. Cradock of the Cricket Section stating that the Strathmore Union XI had had a mediocre season, but that the Grade XI had won promotion to Grade I. TREASURER'S REPORT The Treasurer submitted the Accounts of the Club for the year. He stated that there had again been a deficit—k224 3s. 5d.—in the Revenue and Expenditure Account and that the position was thoroughly unsatisfactory but that there should he an improvement when the effect of the new subscription rates was felt during 195o. (A summary of the Accounts is given on pages 174-5.)

OFFICE-BEARERS FOR 1950-51 The Rector, Mr. J. J. Robertson, was re-elected Honorary President and the retiring President, Dr. W. Clark Souter, was elected an Honorary Vice-President.

The Chairman expressed the Club's gratitude to Dr. Souter for his services during

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

177

the year and pointed out that he had taken a very keen and active interest in all Club activities throughout his term of office.

The Chairman then moved that Mr. James G. Kyd be elected President for the year 195o-5x and after Mr. Charles Davidson had enthusiastically seconded and Dr. Souter had invoked the support of Horace, the motion was unanimously passed. Messrs. Alexander Gray, Ian G. McPherson, J. Scott MacLachlan and Alan C. R. Watt were re-elected to their respective offices. Messrs. Maurice Cramb, A. J. M. Edwards and J. S. Sutherland were elected to fill three vacancies in the Executive. (The full list of office-bearers is given on pages 19o and 191.)

Considerable discussion ensued regarding the venue of the Annual Club Ball and the relative merits and de-merits of the Northern Hotel, the Music Hall and the Beach Dance Hall were considered, with special reference to the price of tickets and the numbers to be accommodated. The matter was eventually remitted to the Executive, as were suggestions for improving the state of the Club's finances.

Edinburgh Centre The Annual Dinner of the Edinburgh Centre was held in the George Hotel, Edinburgh, on 31 March 195o, when the President of the Centre, Sheriff J. A. LILLIE, occupied the chair for the first time. The principal guest was Sir ANDREW CLOW, himself a distinguished F.P. and a newcomer to the Edinburgh Centre.

After a distinguished career in the Indian Civil Service which culminated in his being Governor of Assam from 194z to 1947, Sir Andrew is now chairman of the Scottish Gas Board and resident in the Capital. Others at the top table included Lord MACKAY, past President of the Edinburgh Centre, Mr. J. G. KYD, the newlyelected President of the Club, Mr. J. J. ROBERTSON, Rector of the School, Mr. J. SCOTT MACLACHLAN, Secretary of the Club and Mr. H. G. EDWARDS, President of the Glasgow Centre. " THE SCHOOL AND THE CLUB "

.

Mr. JAstEs R. FIDDES, advocate, proposing this toast, spoke of the tradition of the School. It was one of the oldest in the country and, although, like every human institution, it was not without a fault or blemish, it preserved all the best features of the Scottish grammar school tradition. Best of all, and particularly important at the present day, it provided a genuinely Scottish education, which had a native vitality of its own and did not depend for its inspiration upon models south of the border. It was fortunate, too, especially in the higher classes, in possessing the more modern virtue of fostering genuine friendship between masters and pupils. It was a happy school to belong to.

Turning to the Club, Mr. Fiddes said that the need for it was greater to-day than at any previous time. Every year saw further restrictions placed upon private individuals and private institutions and it was a paradox of our time that the more the State tried to do for its citizens, the more ordinary people came to regard it as an enemy rather than as a friend. Faced with ever-increasing Government control, individuals and institutions alike looked elsewhere for their friends and allies and the School could have no better friend than a body of its own former pupils, dispersed through all the world and including men of all ages and in all walks of life. whose interest in it depended not on its being one more unit to be administered but upon lasting ties of memory and affection.

Replying for the School, the RECTOR expressed his particular pleasure at meeting the new President of the Edinburgh Centre who, he said, " has shown many signs of his attachment to the School and of his goodwill to myself". It was also a very great pleasure, he went on, to have this cohtact with the new President of the Club, " one who has most happily united with a cool brain and statistical impeccability a warm heart that is served by quite another type of arithmetic when it comes to reckoning up the merits of his friends or the worth of old memories ". " I am not going to speak", Mr. Robertson continued, " on the general problems raised for the School by recent policy. My views about the abolition of fees remain unchanged, namely that it is something which is theoretically easy to defend but which was untimely in its application and has proved on balance adverse in its effects. It was not something which came to clear up an intolerable situation: it was rather a Fiving expression to that desire for equality of opportunity which was once an ideal but which has now become almost an obsession.

178

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

Of course our former arrangements fell some way short of absolute justice, but there was no serious complaint and they had the characteristic British merit that they worked—one proof of that I see around me I " There is one thing, however, which has fretted me a good deal in the last year. I refer to the fact that the Education Authority have chosen to view the boundaries of the city so rigorously as to exclude from the School the sons of professional and business people living on its perimeter from Bucksbum round to Cults and Bieldside. These people arc in every sense accepted as forming part of the city. They work in the city, they enrich the city, and in many cases they are substantial ratepayers. This had long been recognised, but the unhappy position now is that there is no provision of full secondary education for their sons nearer than Banchory on the one hand and Inverurie and Ellon on the other. I cannot but regret that, even if the Authority felt it necessary to close the door against those living further afield, they should have failed to see that the exclusion of those sons of sons of the city is a policy detrimental to the School itself and one which effects no saving comparable with the hardship it inflicts."

He went on to say, however, that he was not there to indulge in lamentation; he thought that we had much to be thankful for and suggested that there were three considerations to be kept in mind in regard to the changes that have come over the School. " The first is the need to preserve historical scale. When we contrast the role now assigned to the School with what we ourselves have known and cared for, we must remember that we are contrasting it with what is just a tiny segment of a great span which reaches right back over the modem world and links us with the early middle ages, and it would be a reckless assertion to say that what awaits the School in future will have no affinity with any one of the many stages of that immense past of which we are so justly proud. " The second is that, without abating our loyalties or silencing protest, we must remember, even in the most heated moments, that the same forces of change that arc upsetting our little corner of the world are operative and transforming life everywhere. ' And lastly, this: even if great changes do come over our School—and I believe they will—our judgment should still be that though much is taken much abides. " When memory takes you back over the years, feeling and recollection dwell surprisingly little on the particular conditions of your schooling; they are busy above all with those who were young when you were young. What you are really calling back to life is the companionship of your own kind, in that morn of youth when both heart and foot were light, and all the day was before you. " Now, whatever changes come, that will remain. School will always be a shared experience, capable of providing a strong bond and engendering a sentiment which, long after we are gone, will still find natural expression in such reunions as we have part in to-night. " I think it is good to keep these things in mind, because they will save us from what is the most unprofitable of all tempers—that bitterness of spirit which in the last resort is impotent to undo the past, largely powerless to influence the future and yet wonderfully successful in spoiling the present, if men are foolish enough to surrender to it."

Mr. J. G. KYD replied on behalf of the Club, mainly in humorous vein and with much acceptance. He referred to the fact that all the members of the Club were looking forward to 1956, when they would be celebrating the Tooth anniversary of the foundation of the School. " THE GUESTS "

In proposing the toast of " The Guests ", the Chairman, after welcoming the personal guests of members, the semi-official guests and the guests from sister Clubs and the Glasgow Centre of the F.P. Club, extended a special welcome to the principal guest of the evening, Sir Andrew Clow. He outlined Sir Andrew's career from the days when his father was minister of the Free South Church in Aberdeen, when the Clows and the Lillies lived in adjacent houses in Westfield Terrace, and made special reference to his distinguished career in the Indian Civil Service between 1914 and 1947. He recalled that in 1939 Sir Andrew became Communications Member of the Government of India and that in 1942 he was

Aberdeen Grammar School Magaine

179

appointed Governor of Assam at the time of the attempted invasion of India by the Japanese. Ile then proceeded:— " These proofs of high talent and character invite us to reflect. Thcy arc not merely inevitable from the fortunate accidents of birth and breeding, though I fed sure that these have in his case contributed. Sir Andrew is no isolated case.

It is a fact that of Grammar School boys born during the years 1885 and 1892, no fewer than seven in the eight years from 1939 to 1947 received knighthoods for high administrative and executive services. Of these our guest was the earliest recipient. Like him, two of the others were great servants of the King in India.

I refer to Sir Arthur Lothian in the diplomatic sphere, and particularly in relations with the Indian States, and Sir William Tennant as Deputy Auditor-General in India. The other four are Sir Wilson Jameson, Chief Medical Officer to the Ministries of Health and Education, Sir Hubert Henderson, Economic Adviser to the Treasury from 1939 to 1944 and now Professor of Economics at Oxford, Sir William Peters, Senior United Kingdom Trade Commissioner in South Africa since 1935, and Sir Patrick Ashley Cooper, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company and a Director of the Bank of England.

The exceptional talent for high administrative achievement so strikingly underlined in these seven contemporary and contemporaneous cases is, I think, no fortuitous coincidence. Objectively, that is proved by a wider enquiry, which I have not time to report. A mere contemporary record shows generals, admirals, a bishop, a moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and other categories. I therefore say it is proved objectively to be no fortuitous coincidence. " If we look within for an explanation, I think it is no accident either. The ethos of the School, as I knew it, had as its dominant note effort, its purpose selfdevelopment and its motive service : that was how we were taught to think of education—not the absorption of a medley of knowledge spoon-fed to us by teachers, but the education that is the development of the thews and sinews of our minds. " And what were the instruments relied on to achieve the habit and capacity for mental effort? They were Mathematics and the Classics. Other subjects ranked much lower as instruments for our purposes. Well I remember William Brownie—we called him ' Puggie '—that great inspirer of boys in school, setting the class impromptu a difficult piece of Latin to English translation, without dictionaries to help us, and saying, ' It teaches you to try to see through a stone wall'. Impromptu problems in Euclid and Mathematics were frequent; we thus learned to move with some ease in the realm of the abstract and acquired a well-grounded familiarity with the idiom of two ancient and mature civilisations and so a detachment, a background and a perspective on the world around and beyond us—the test of an educated man. " I think also that these studies developed in us a preference for thought and action over speech and discussion and I suggest it is no accident to find so many Grammar boys in the difficult job of Government and practically none in Parliament. That is a striking fact. I can remember in my time only two Grammar boys in Parliament—the present Solicitor-General for Scotland and Lord Alness, both, so to speak, incidentally to their profession. The argumentum ad boarinem and the loose generalisation, perhaps unavoidable for the politician, are rather distasteful to the disciplined mind. That is perhaps the reason for the apparent disregard of Parliamentary service in this generation by Grammar boys. " I commend these reflections to the consideration of our educationists in dealing with what the Rector has called a somewhat foolish and disordered world."

SIR ANDREW CLOW'S REPLY

The toast was replied to by Sir ANDREW CLOW and Mr. H. G. EDWARDS. In the course of his speech Sir Andrew said:— " I sin very much struck by Aberdeen, more than by any city I have ever seen in the world. It combines immortality with novelty. It is unchangeable and yet perpetually fresh. " When I re-visited the Grammar School a fortnight ago, I found it difficult to believe that it had not been erected last year or the year before. I am sure that

i 8o

Aberdeen Grammar School Magav'ne

those who erected it must have remembered that it had stood for 6oo years on another site and that they felt they had better build for another 6oo years. It was also a great pleasure to meet the Rector and find that, while he is carrying on the great tradition of the School, he has also a grasp of the wider sphere of education throughout the world. " You made some passing reference, Mr. Chairman, to the fact that a number of Aberdonians have preferred administration and that most of them have taken up what I might call the dull work of the Civil Service, rather than enter the sphere of Parliamentary work. I think I agree with that and I should say that to a very large extent it is due to the education we got in Aberdeen. It was an education of breadth. I think a good many Aberdonians have kept all their lives what I might almost call that thirst for seeing round things and seeing the breadth of things, and one effect of this is that they cannot stand up on a soap-box and say they are absolutely sure that one party consists entirely of wise men and saints and that any other party is nothing of the kind. In consequence, they are not the type of men who are going to appeal to the party whip. " Another possible explanation is that a great many Aberdonians—and that includes Scotsmen as a whole and even those like myself who tried to get training in England—think in a different way from Englishmen. I think they tend to think largely as the Frenchman thinks—in a logical and analytical way, whereas English thought seems to be more intuitive and empirical in action—a valuable effect and one which we might learn from the Englishman. It teaches one not to interfere too often or any sooner than one can help, gives one a remarkable dislike of surveying one's bridges before one comes to them and a remarkable gift for dealing suddenly and promptly with emergencies. This has its advantages, but it also has its disadvantages in that it rather tends to bring about too many emergencies and to leave one rather a short time in which to deal with them. " Looking back on India, I am not disquieted at what we did, but I think we could have done even better, if we had been allowed to follow Scottish principles —those of looking ahead and looking longer ahead—and had been given time to deal with difficulties, instead of having to do our best to deal with difficulties at the moment they arose."

The toast of " The Chairman" was proposed by the Acting Secretary of the Centre, Mr. Allan C. Frazer, who congratulated Sheriff Lillie on occupying the chair at an Edinburgh Centre Dinner for the first time. Sheriff Lillie replied and thereafter Mr. J. G. Kyd proposed the health of Mr. Frazer. *

*

*

The following F.P.s were present at the Dinner, the list being arranged in order of seniority based on date of entry to the School:1882. Lord Mackay (1882-91).

1891. J. G. Kyd (1891-98).

1893. J. A. Lillie (1893-1903).

1896. Sir Andrew Clow (1896-98), R. A. Lillie (1896-1905).

1902. H. J. Jones (I 90 Z-07).

1 905. H. G. Edwards (1905-14).

1920. E. Ros Birkctt (1920-22), R. W. Catto (1920-32), J. W. NI. Sutherland (192o1924 and 1928-29).

1922. James Craig (1922-32), A. B. Donald (1922-28), H. D. Jamieson (1922-34), J. Scott NlacLachlan (1922-32).

1923. William Cumming (1923-24)1924. J. R. Fiddes (1924-37), Douglas Reith (19 24-35)• 1925. A. C. Frazer (1925-3o), N. A. Ross (1925-31).

1926. 1). M. C. Donald (1926-32).

1927. A. R. Taylor (1927-34).

1928. William Sutherland (1928-34).

1932. D. K. Cameron (1932-35).

1937. J. P. Milne (1937-42).

Honorary Member. J. J. Robertson (Rector).

School Prefects-1949-So

S1•ackan

Standing—G. S. Cowie, G. M. McAndrew, J. H. Wylie, C. K. Mackay, A. S. Fraser, D. H. Hendersor. J. j. Rae, D. Jack, A. M. North.

Sitting—A. M. M. Steven, C. D. Mowat, A. S. Hall (Senior Prefect), Mr. J. J. Robertson (RR.-tor), J. F. Mc(Jkllan, E. D. Watt, W. D. Brooker.

Inset—D. /CI. Craig.

F.P. Reunion in Singapore

31,4laya 1 rsbune

Left to Right-- A. M. Scrimgeour, James Trail, R. W. I. Band, R. D. Bruce, Sir Patrick A. B. McKerron (Chairman), W. F. Mayor, J. M. Fraser, J. P. Mowat.

Aberdeen Grammar School Mago%ine

181

Malayan Centre Conditions in Malaya have made an F.P. function on a pan-Malayan basis impossible, but at the end of last year the Secretary of the Malayan Centre decided that it would be a good idea to rally the F.P.s in Singapore. Accordingly, a " tiffin" was arranged in the Cathay Restaurant (Singapore's air-conditioned skyscraper) on 22 December 1949, when the following F.P.s were present:— P. A. B. (now Sir Patrick) McKerron (1904-10) (Chairman), R. W. I. Band (1924-26), R. D. Bruce (1913-22), J. M. Fraser (7918-20), W. F. Mayor (7923-30), J. P. Mowat (1908-11), A. M. Scrimgcour (1921-27) and James Trail (1919-28).

The official report reads:— " Practically one hundred per cent. turn-out. Most enjoyable. A great chat about the School with ' C.D. probably the favourite subject. There was only one toast, but that a worthy one—' The School', proposed by His Excellency the acting Governor of Singapore, P. A. B. McKerron."

Ten days later the members of the Centre were delighted to learn that their chairman had been given a well-deserved knighthood in the Ncw Year Honours.

London Centre •

The Centre's Annual Dinner was held in the Chez Auguste Restaurant, W.1, on 73 December 1949, when the President, The Right Hon. Lord Alness, was in the chair. The Centre welcomed as their principal guest the President of the parent Club, Dr. W. Clark Souter, from Aberdeen, and the other guests included representatives from the Aberdeen University Club, London, The London Gordonians, and the Mackie Academy F.P. Association.

The time-honoured principal toast of " The School and the Club" was proposed by Mr. J. I. C. (now Sir James) Crombie, who said that the School could be very proud of its turnout of distinguished scholars. The imprint of such men as Munson, McLeod, Middleton and Mackie could always be traced in their scholars, and he himself readily acknowledged that it was the excellence of the teaching he received at the School that had been his greatest asset.

He suggested that the whole of a school's curriculum should be knitted together so as to produce boys of character. In this respect the North-East of Scotland certainly did not fail and, provided the School continued to pay attention to this aspect of its functions and turn out boys with character and a sense of responsibility, all would be well with it. He referred to present-day appeals for more productivity and said that to make appeals for new processes was beside the point; what was really required was a high-level conscience in the individual, with a full sense of responsibility. He looked forward to the School's continuing to produce this type of man.

In replying, Dr. W. Clark Souter said how delighted he was to have travelled five hundred miles for a lovely dinner! He reported that the School was in good heart and, referring to Mr. Crombie's remarks, he said that he thought that it was turning out the right kind of boy.

The toast of " The Guests " was proposed by Mr. D. S. S. Marr, who extended a hearty welcome to the various guests, and said how much they regretted that the Rector of the School was unable to be present. Dr. W. A. Milligan, President of the Aberdeen University Club, London, and himself an F.P., replied to the toast.

Mr. J. Ross Esson offered the company's thanks to the chairman and said that in Lord Alness they had a man of wisdom and charm, whose living interest in the Club and the Centre was of inestimable value to both. Lord Alness in replying stated that the Club had his complete loyalty and he would always be willing to render it any service in his power.

Jonsrr DANCE WITH A.H.S.F.P. CLUB, LONDON BRANCH decision to hold a joint dance with the London Branch of the Aberdeen The High School F.P. Club was only taken after some hesitation: after all, it was a new development in the history of both Clubs—and it might not pay; but, armed with the favourable results of a ballot census, which revealed a large number of members and friends as potential supporters, the Committee appointed Messrs.

r 8z

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

D. S. S. Mart and C. W. France to concert all necessary measures with plenipotentiaries nominated by the " High ", Miss Crone and Miss Gillespie.

On 24 February 1950 the results of their joint consultation became public property. The Paviours' Arms in Page Street is a modern restaurant, pleasantly appointed. It also has a good dance floor, and the band and the buffet on the night of the dance were in keeping with these other attractive qualities.

There were present 15o-odd members and guests from both Clubs, and they enjoyed themselves thoroughly. The evening was undoubtedly a social success, and not even the Election results could disturb its friendly calm.

Such, in brief, is the story of the new " venture ", and. it is the best tribute that can be paid to the organisers. They created overnight, as it were, a good precedent and that, we know, is worth many statutes. The Clubs will undoubtedly want another dance next season and this may be only the beginning of a long series of such functions.

NEXT SEASON'S ACTIVITIES

12 October 1950. Annual General Meeting in the Albert Tavern, Victoria Street, S.W. 1.

14 December 1950. Annual Dinner in Brown's Hotel, Dover Street, W. x.

February 1951. Second Annual Joint Dance with A.H.S.F.P. Club, London Branch. * * * The following F.P.s were present at the Dinner, the list being arranged in order of seniority based on date of entry to the School:1882.

1884.

1887.

1893.

1896.

1898.

1899.

1903.

1904.

1906.

1908.

1909.

191o.

1911.

1912.

1913.

1914.

1915.

1917.

1919.

1920.

1921.

1922.

1923.

1925.

1927.

1928.

1929.

1932.

1941.

F. P. Morton (1882-94).

Lord Alness (1884-85), Robert Inkster (1884-88).

W. A. Milligan (1887-88).

J. Ross Esson (1893-97), W. Clark Souter (1893-98).

T. J. Wilson (1896-1903).

J. C. O. Lawrence (1898-99).

A. Landsborough Thomson (1899-1908).

A. R. Murray (1903-13).

T. D. Macintosh (1904-10.

D. S. Stewart (1906-18).

J. I. C. Crombie (1908-21), A. G. Esskmont (1908-2o), C. S. McLeod (1908-2o).

F. S. Anderson (1909-12).

W. M. MacKenzie (1910-18), G. T. Simpson (191o-zo), E. S. Willox (1910-17).

A. A. Barnet (1911-19).

J. W. Bennie (191z-19), A. W. Grafton (1912-22).

V. N. Dean (1913-20), J. D. L. Gammie (1913-21), Thomas Robertson (1913-19), P. C. B. Shirreffs (1913-16).

C. M. M. Murray (1914-26), C. G. Walker (1914-22).

L. Don Robertson (1915-16), W. Russell Scott (1915-26).

Alexander Chalmers (1917-26).

J. H. L. Innes (1919-23), D. S. S. Marr (1919-32).

J. L. S. Thomson (1920-27).

D. G. E. Benzie (1921-24).

A. S. Durno (1922-3o), C. W. France (1922-31).

E. D. Mackworth (1923-27), N. H. Mackworth (1923-34), D. A. Milne (1923-35), A. H. K. Slater (1923-35).

W. H. P. Minto (1925-27 and 1928-36).

D. J. Calder (1927-31).

K. M. Bell (1928-34).

D. P. Bruce (1929-35).

W. M. Ewen (1932-44), B. H. Smith (1932-35).

J. S. Stewart (1941-44).

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

183

Glasgow Centre The Annual Dinner of the Glasgow Centre was held in the Grosvenor Restaurant, Glasgow, on 27 January 195o, when there was an attendance of twentyseven members and guests. Mr. HENRY G. Eownans, President of the Centre, was in the chair and the principal guests were Mr. JAMES G. Km, formerly Registrar-General for Scotland, who also represented the Edinburgh Centre, Mr. J. J. ROBERTSON, Rector of the School, Bailie Edwin J. Donaldson, Convener of of the Education Committee of Glasgow Town Council and Dr. H. Stewart Mackintosh, Director of Education, Glasgow. The others at the top table were Mr. ALAN C. R. WATT, Editor of the Alagine, and Mr. R. Baxter Taylor, Secretary of the Glasgow Centre of The Gordonian Association.

During the evening a telegram of good wishes for the success of the function was received from the Centre's first president and oldest member, Mr. JAMES LEDINGHAM (1885-88), J.P. Mr. Ledingham continues to take a great interest in the activities of the Centre and his message was much appreciated by the company.

"THE SCHOOL AND THE CLUB"

The principal toast of the evening was proposed by Bailie Edwin J. Donaldson, a former pupil of Glasgow High School, who said that in that capacity it was usually his privilege on such occasions to be able to acclaim himself a pupil of the oldest school there represented. On this r•ssion, however, Glasgow High School F.P.s had to yield pride of place to F.P.s of the Aberdeen Grammar School.

He went on to say that he was an unrepentant believer in the Old School Tie —not as a sign of snobbery, but on account of what it stands for in regard to good fellowship and comradeship and in the building up of character and citizenship, and also on account of all that it has meant to hundreds of thousands all over the world who look back to the days when they assembled together in their school.

There they formed friendships that had stood by them throughout their lives and there they gained something that they just could not get elsewhere or in any other way. It would be a sad day for this country of ours if ever the time comes when we have become so formally democratic and so puffed up with the new way of doing things that the Old School Tie ceases to matter to us.

In introducing the Rector, who replied to the toast on behalf of the School, the chairman said that it was a source of great satisfaction to F.P.s, particularly those exiled from Aberdeen, to see the Rector of their old School making educational history and putting up so magnificent a fight for the recognition of the importance of education. ' We should like Mr. Robertson to know ", he said, " that we appreciate how much he has done for the School and that we are proud that the School has a man of such pre-eminence as its Rector."

In the course of his speech Mr. ROBERTSON said that he wished to dwell on just one or two aspects of the problem of how to reconcile the admitted good and the unanswerable claims of our ancient schools with certain movements and tendencies of our time. " First of all ", he said, " remember that this will be a long struggle, oft renewed under varying aspects. " I hope that we shall not be provoked by the foolishness of certain innovators into adopting indefensible attitudes. I hope that we shall never take the view that what has been for long must not in any circumstances be changed. To expect that, in a world which is being rapidly and profoundly transformed, some particular thing must remain completely unaltered, is unreasonable. What we may fairly ask is this: that before any man approaches an ancient institution of proved worth and status with intention to change it, he should have a very clear idea what he proposes to do with it. We are entitled to expect that under the changed conditions he will find for it a function as distinguished, worthy and significant as the function which it so splendidly performed in earlier days and under other conditions. " Again, I hope that we shall not be trapped into a contemptuous attitude towards the urge for equality. I mean not, of course, the absurdity which claims that the endowment of all men is equal, but the quite defensible and indeed

184

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

inherently noble idea that our human status postulates for all men a reasonable equality of treatment in an enlightened society. " But here again ", he continued, " having conceded that this is a noble and proper aim in our public life, we are entitled to give the innovators two very necessary reminders. First, that although equality of treatment is a very good and desirable thing, it is not the only good. There is also freedom and diversity; and we must remember that with our human imperfections, we have no guarantee that we can always have all three. We must ask our friends to weigh this question—whether it is better for us to be content with ninety-five per cent. equality, preserving at the same time that freedom which is the very condition under which all the other virtues flourish, and the colour and diversity which are the very life-signs of all normal human activity, or whether we are to press fanatically for one hundred per cent. equality of treatment, even if it means that we kill liberty and reduce all colourful variety to a dull uniformity. " Secondly, we must remind them that equality of opportunity is something that it is not within our power to give so easily. You may give equality of treatment ; but life is against you, and only a community which had long enjoyed a very large measure of equality in its inheritance, in its nurture, and in its social and economic provisions could possibly give this much wanted equality of educational opportunity. " We are entitled ", he went on, " to say to our reforming friends—without questioning their motives or their good intentions—that we know the weaknesses and faults of these old schools, but that generation after generation they have turned out men who under the most diverse conditions have shown courage, cheerfulness and ' gumption ', to the great benefit of their fellows; and that these same schools have produced in their sons a feeling of indebtedness—it is unfashionable nowadays to feel indebtedl—and a deep, lasting attachment. Until, therefore, you have shown us that the new schools will produce the same good sons, we shall take leave to keep our unregenerate love for the old schools that bred us."

Mr. J. G. KYD replied to the toast on behalf of the Club, and delighted the company with a succession of humorous reminiscences and witty anecdotes culled mainly from experiences during his period of office as Registrar-General for Scotland.

Dr. K. R. T. MATTHEW proposed the toast of " The Gucsts", and Mr. R. Baxter Taylor, Secretary of the Glasgow Centre of The Gordonian Association, in the course of his reply suggested that joint functions might be arranged for F.P.s and Gordonians resident in Glasgow.

No Dinner of the Glasgow Centre would be complete without a speech from Mr. D. M. WRIGHT, and in proposing the toast of " The Chairman ", he fully lived up to the reputation he has gained for himself as an unrivalled raconteur. *

*

*

The following F.P.s were present at the Dinner, the list being arranged in order of seniority based on date of entry to the School:189x. J. G. Kyd (1891-98).

1895. C. S. Buyers (1895-98).

1901. George Lawrence (1901-03).

1904. D. M. Wright (1904-1o).

1905. H. G. Edwards (190 5-14).

1909. A. A. Rae Smith (1909-16).

1910. E. F. Paul (1910-18) (from Johannesburg).

1911. James Stirrat (1911-21).

1912. K. R. T. Matthew (1912-2 4).

1919. Albert Christie (1919-29).

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

1926. J. G. M. Birss (1926-38).

1927. J. A. N. Watt (1927-39).

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

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

1935. I. M. Watt (1935-43).

Honorary Member. J. J. Robertson (Rector).

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

185

F.P. Club Consuls AFRICA (1906-20), C/O Northern Assurance Company Limited, St. Mark's Building, P.O. Box 1695, Alexandria.

Gold Coast—EDGAR REUBEN GAULD (1917-23), M.B., Ch.B., M.R.C.P., Medical Specialist, Sekondi I lospital, Sekondi, Gold Coast, B.W.A. Kenya—GRAENIE GEORGE SUTHERLAND (1903.09), P.O. Box 1002, Nairobi, Kenya Colony.

Nigeria (Northern Provinces)—Captain CAMPBELL GRANT Mc KENZIE (1910-12), 7 The Secretary, N.P,, Kaduna, Nigeria, N.P. co Portuguese East Africa—MARSHALL KEITH DUGUID (1919-29), CifO Duguid & Anderson Limited, P.O. Box 4zz, Beira, Portuguese East Africa.

Sierra Leone—EDWARD WILLIAM MURRAY WATT (1918-31), M.A., CIO The Secretariat, Freetown, Sierra Leone.

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

Tanganyika—GEORGE ALEXANDER WILSON (1920-23), M.B., Ch.B., Medic3I Specialist, Labour Department, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika Territory.

Egypt-ALEXANDER GEORGE WALKER

Union of South Africa Cape Province—Professor WILLIAM SOUTAR MACKIE (1895-1901), " DITIMORk 2 ', Greenfield Road, Kenilworth, Cape Town, Cape Province.

JAMES MELVIN ( I 904-ro), C.B.E., M.C., T.D., AB., Ch.B., 44 Queen Street,

Cambridge, East London, Cape Province.

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

Natal.

Transvaal—JonN EWAN HENDERSON (1884-87), P.O. Box 4466, Johannesburg, Transvaal.

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

Alberta.

British Columbia—Wrwiai ERNEST MILNE (1881-90), c/o Milne & Middleton,

347 Water Street, Vancouver, B.C.

The Canadian Bank of Commerce, Personal Loan Department, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

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

Quebec—NoRMAN MACKINNON (1907-16), B.Sc.(For.), 161o Sherbrooke West, Montreal, Quebec.

Manitoba— JOHN: DUGUID CRUICKSHANK (1899-1904),

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

Mexico PATRICK JOHN MILROY WALKER (1914-20), C.A., Apartado 12 Bis., Mexico, D.F.

South America Brazil—JOHN BLAKE LYON (1900-04), c/o San Paulo Gas Company, Caixa Postal

1911, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

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

Calle 9 del y Carrera Eugenio Macias, Barranquilla, Colombia.

186

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine United States of America

Illinois—JAMES BRUCE SMITH (1918-25), The Bruce Smith Insurance Agency,

208 South I *cane Street, Chicago, Illinois.

West Indies British West Indies—KENNETH REID (1901-04), King's Bay, Tobago, British West Indies.

Dutch West Indies—GEORGE FERGUSON RITCHIE (1917-24), Lago Oil & Transport Company Limited, Marine Department, P.O. Box 643, Aruba, Dutch West Indies.

AUSTRALIA New South Wales—ALAN REID (1911-14), 3 Iona Avenue, West Pymble, Sydney,

New South Wales.

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

Western Australia.

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

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

Helsinki, Finland.

Switzerland (Geneva).-JAMES LAWSON MOWAT (1915-16), M.A., Ph.D., c/o Bureau International du Travail, Geneva, Switzerland.

Switzerland (Zurich)—RosERT ALEXANDER ESSLEMONT MENNIE (1924-36), M.A., B.P. Benzin and Petroleum A.G., Handelshof, Uraniastrasse, Zurich, Switzerland.

FAR EAST Hongkong—FRANK CHARLES BRISCOE BLACK (1914-17), c/o Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, Hongkong.

Malaya (Negri Sembilan)—GRAHAM HENDERSON (1906-12), Sua I3etong

Estate, Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan, Malaya.

Singapore—WILLIAM FERRIER MAYOR (1923-3o), M.A., c/o Customs House,

Maxwell Road, Singapore.

INDIA and CEYLON India (Bombay)—BENJAMIN BOOTH (1935-39), ClO Mackinnon, Mackenzie &

Company, Ballard Estate, Bombay.

India (Madras)—IAN CummiNG (1907-14), c/o Vernon & Company, 36 Second

Line Beach, Post Box 79, Madras.

India (West Bengal)—HERBERT BREBNER SCOTT (1905-08), C.B.E., M.C., The Royal Insurance Company Limited, 5-7 Netaji Subhas Road, Calcutta.

Ceylon—CHARLES JAMES STRACHAN (1917-21), Anglo-Ceylon General Estates Company, P.O. Box 13, Colombo, Ceylon.

IRAQ ERNEs-r STRACHAN (1923-24 and 1926-36), Squadron Leader, Air Headquarters Iraq, Royal Air Force, flabbaniya, British Forces in Iraq.

NEW ZEALAND ANDREW ALEXANDER MARR DUCAT (1924-28 and 1929-34), 5 Seaforth Terrace,

Karori, Wellington, New Zealand.

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

187

F.P. Rugby Section Since the last issue of the Magazine the F.P. Rugby Section have fared in much the same manlier as during the first half of the season. 1 regret that I must report that the season as a whole has been a comparatively disappointing one. The miserable record of the 1st XV has, however, been compensated to a certain extent by the great success in the seven-a-side tournaments. On successive Saturdays the F.P. Seven won at Inverness, Aberdeen and Elgin.

It is difficult to explain why the ist XV had such a disappointing season. On occasion they produced play of a high order, but defensive lapses were numerous and at times there was a complete lack of will to win. There were one or two good results, the best being the victory over Royal High School F.P.s at Edinburgh, and from time to time it appeared that a general improvement was imminent but this never quite came to pass. In fairness it should be mentioned that injuries were prevalent and that the same XV never turned out on two successive Saturdays, but many clubs in the country suffered in the same manner.

I have already referred to the seven-a-side tournaments, but I think the various results are worthy of being recorded in detail:— INVERNESS First Round v. Edinburgh Wanderers . . . 11-0 Second Round v. Inverness Academy F.P.s • 19-5 ' Semi-Final v. Gordonians . . . .

9-3 Final v. Ross and Sutherland . .

• 18-8 First Round v. Aberdeen Wanderers ABERDEEN . . . 13-5 Second Round v. Highland . . . .

• 16-5 Semi-Final v. Morgan Academy F.P.s . .

13-3 Final v. Gordonians . . . .

• 13-5 First Round Bye ELGIN Second Round v. Wanderers " B " XV . . . 14-0 Semi-Final v. Royal Engineers . . .

• 21-0 Final v. Wanderers . .

• • . 12-0 The team was as follows at Inverness and Aberdeen: E. H. Cruickshank, E. Craig, R. F. Buthlay, W. D. Allardice, J. H. Warrack and D. N. Georgeson (Captain). At Elgin J. S. Sutherland played in place of E. H. Cruickshank, who was injured.

Colour awards for season 1949-5o were as follows:—

Full—W. D. Allardice, E. Buthlay, W. L. Connon, E. Craig, E. H. Cruickshank,

D. N. Georgeson, E. Hunter, K. W. Hunter, A. H. Tawse.

Half.—R. F. Buthlay, A. D. Lyall, T. G. Smith, J. S. Sutherland.

At the Annual General Meeting held at Rubislaw on Friday, 28 April 193o, the following appointments were made for next season:— Hon. President—Dr. J. S. Walker; Captain—D. N. Georgeson; Vire-Captain-E. Craig; Hon. Secretary—N. I. W. Meldrum, 15 Golden Square, Aberdeen; Team Secretary—E. Craig; Hon. Treasurer—W. C. Connon, 1 East Craibstone Street, Aberdeen.

The Section arc at present going through the " change-over " period which all clubs must suffer from time to time. Several of the prominent members of the past few seasons are on the brink of retirement and their places are being taken by younger players. I accordingly appeal to the boys who are leaving School this year to join the Section. We can offer them the most attractive fixture lists of any of the clubs in town and, unless the normal support of the boys leaving School is obtained, the Section will find it hard to face such a strenuous programme.

The complete records of the Section teams for last season were as follows:— ist XV . and XV 3rd XV

. .

P. 28 18 17

W.

L.

12

16

13 6

4 to

D. Pts. for Pts. against 306 325 I 246 146 I 170 212

-

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

18 8

sat XV Results 1 949

Dec. 24.

SW

3 1 .

v. Glasgow Academicals at Anniesland . v. Aberdccnshire at Rubislaw .

. .

. .

150 Jan 9 . 2.

7. „ „ 14.

28.

Feb. 4. „ i s. „ i8.

. . r. Aberdeen Wanderers at Hazlehead . v. Royal High School F.P.s at Jock's Lodge . . v. R.N.A.S., Lossiemouth, at Rubislaw . . v. Aberdeen University at Rubislaw . v. Hutcheson's Grammar School F.P.s at Auldhouse . . . . v. Gordonians at Rubislaw . v. Glasgow High School F.P.s at Rubislaw . . .

25. v. Aberdeenshire at Rubislaw . . .

Mar. 4. v. St. Andrews University at Rubislaw • • • • • ,,,, 1 i• v. Gala at Rubislaw >, 17. v. Royal Corps of Signals, Cattcrick, at Rubislaw . . . „ 25. v. Musselburgh at Musselburgh 91

. 11-17 . 35- 8

Lost.

Won.

9 . 19. 24- 6 14- 3 . 8- 6 5- 6 .

• 6-zo 5-24 . 34- o i 1- 3 3- 9 .

3- 6 .

5-16

Won. Won. Won. Won. Lost.

Lost.

Lost.

Won. Won. Lost.

Lost.

Lost.

. 11-14

Lost.

2nd XV Results 1949

Dec. 17.

150 Jan 9 . 28.

Feb. 4.

11.

Mar. 4. „ is. ,, 25.

v. School sat XV at Rubislaw .

.

.

.

v. Aberdeen University and XV at King's College v. Perthshire Academicals and XV at Rubislaw . . . v. Centralians 1st XV at Rubislaw . . . v. Gordonians and XV at Rubislaw . . . . . v. Moray sat XV at Elgin . v. Harris Academy F.P.s 1st XV at Rubislaw

. i x- 6 Won. . z4- 6 Won. . 14- 9 Won. . 9- 6 Won. • 6- 6 Drawn. . i i- x 7 Lost.

3rd XV Results 1949

Dec. 17.

2 4.

31.

1950 Jan. 14.

Feb. 5.

19.

Mar. 26.

v. Aberdeen Wanderers znd XV at Rubislaw . v. Aberdeenshire and XV at Hazlehead . v. Centralians 1st XV at Rubislaw . . . v. School and XV at Rubislaw . . . v. E.P.T.C. sst XV at Rubislaw . . v. Centralians 1st XV at Seaton v. Aberdeen Wanderers znd XV at Hazlehead

. . .

• •

•

• .

•

0-18 s 1-15 o- 6

Lost.

Lost.

Lost.

. 8-zo . 10-47 • 6-25 • 13-11

Lost.

Lost.

Lost.

Won.

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

F.P. Golf Section The Section continues to flourish and an average of over forty members and guests attended outings at Ballatcr and Aboyne, where some excellent scores were returned and rewarded by golf ball prizes. The results were as follows:— BALLATER. Scratch Prize—H. G. Stephen, 69. Handicaps i-9—Dr. M. G. Gibb, 71 — 2 = 69; G. N. Henderson, 78 — 8 =7o. Handicaps io and over— J. I. Scott, 8z — 18 = 64; R. J. Armstrong, 84 — 18 = 66; N. R. Wishart, 85 - 18 = 67.

Asomm. Scratch Prize—Dr. M. G. Gibb, 71. Handicaps 1-9—G. N. Henderson, 75 — 6 = 69; E. Buthlay, 78 — 9 = 69. Handicaps to and over—I. Flockhart, 76 — so = 66; R. J. Bain, 82 - 16 = 66; Dr. J. R. S. Innes, 8o — 13 = 67.

The Knock-out Handicap Competition for the Gibb-Thow Trophy has produced some very well-fought matches, of which, no doubt, more will be heard at the end-of-season dinner.

Future outings have been arranged for Bieldside and Peterhead, and there will be return visits to Aboyne and Ballater. The Committee will be delighted to welcome to these outings any visiting F.P.s from overseas.

H. G. STEPHEN, Hon. Secretary.

Winners of Three " Sevens " Cups

Strachan

Standing—J. S. Sutherland, E. Craig, E. II. Cruickshank, R. F. Buthlay, W. D. Allardice.

Sitting—W. L. Cannon, D. N. Gcorgcson (Captain), J. H. Warrack.

F.P. Club Hockey Section 1st XI- Season 1949-5o

Standing—R. P. Wishart (Hon. Secretary), I. K. Shaw, M. Innes, W. Dick, I. A. Middleton, C. G. Masson, C. M. Grubb.

Sitting—G. S. Williams, A. J. Peters, T. I. Morrison (Captain), R. E. Wetherly, P. E. G. Mitchell.

In front—S. Cruden, I. M. Mitchell.

nithan .

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

189

F.P. Hockey Section During season 1949-3o the Hockey Section have kept up their reputation of having one of the best sides in the district. Although numerically weaker than in the previous season, due principally to the fact that many of the boys coming to us from School have very often to do their period of national service within a week or two of joining, we have, with the help—very willingly given—of Mr. Park in obtaining for us some School players, consistently fielded three teams.

To Mr. Park and to the schoolboys concerned, we would express our thanks for all they have done.

For the statistically minded, the following are the details of the games played by the 1st XI, and the side have played well to show a percentage of 6o per cent.:— Goals Percentage Against For Lost Drawn Won Played 6o 86 66 15 9 7 51 Although the forwards failed to score in only two of the above games, it was in defence that the main strength of the team lay, and it is to them that he side owe their many fine performances.

The Section again went on tour to Glasgow at Easter, and this year the trip was voted by all the best ever. Results were very heartening, when it was remembered that the team was very much below strength owing to late withdrawals.

Details of the tour were as follows:— . 1-I Drawn .

Fri. April 7. v. Glasgow Western .

I Won Sat. „ 8. v. Anchor (Paisley) . 1-3 Lost Sun. „ 9. v. I.C.I. (Grangemouth) . 4-6 Lost .

Mon. „ to. v. Cartha •

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As well as acting as hockey ambassadors, the Section have acted as hosts to visiting teams from as far south as the Edinburgh and Glasgow districts, and at the time of writing it is hoped that in the early autumn Glasgow Western will pay us a visit.

Congratulations must go to T. I. Morrison, P. E. G. Mitchell and I. A. Middleton for being consistently invited to play in representative games during the season, to E. D. Watt, the triple internationalist, who we hope will be with us next season when he has left School, and to R. P. Wishart, our esteemed secretary and treasurer for being elected Vice-President of the Northern District of the S.H.A. Further, all members would join in congratulating Mr. J. A. Sutherland, one of our VicePresidents, in being elected President of the S.H.A. and a member of the international selection committee.

The financial position of the Club gives no cause for anxiety despite heavy expenditure this season, as plans are well in hand to make good the deficit incurred.

At the A.G.M. of the Section held at Rubislaw on Sunday, 3o April, the following office-bearers were elected for season 1930-51 :President—The Rector ; Vice-Presidents—I. M. Park, Dr. A. G. Gibb, W. Malcolm, C. A. Forbes, J. A. Sutherland and W. D. Andrews ; Captain ist X/—D. Johnstone; Vice-Captain ist XI-T. I. Morrison ; Captain and XI—I. K. Shaw ; Matcb Secretary and Vice-Captain and XI—G. S. Williams ; Secretary and Treautrer—R. P. Wishart.

The following awards were made for season 1949-3o:— tit XI Frill Colours—T. I. Morrison t, A. J. Peters t, R. E. Wetherly t, I. A. Middleton and P. E. G. Mitchell. t Re-award.

In conclusion, with a view to increasing the membership of the Section next season, it is hoped that all schoolboys leaving this year will continue to play the game with F.P.s. Everyone who has played at all at School will be made very welcome, whether or not he has played for the School ist or and XIs. As usual, the Section are very much indebted to the groundsman, Mr. L. E. Tyson, for keeping the pitch in such grand condition all season. Rubislaw will for many years be one of the finest playing pitches in the North.

T. I. MORRISON, Captain.

190

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine

F.P. Cricket Section

At the Annual General Meeting held in March, D. Stuart was elected Captain of the Strathmore Union XI and J. S. Manley, Vice-Captain; R. E. Wetherly was elected Captain of the Aberdeenshire Association and T. I. Morrison, ViceCaptain; G. B. Nicolson was appointed HonoraryXI, Match Secretary and T. M. Allan, Honorary Club Secretary; and Mr. C. H. Webster was reappointed Honorary Treasurer.

The main event of season 1949 was our gaining promotion Aberdeenshire Association, and the progress of the Grade XI to Grade I of the this year is being closely watched. Both Grade matches played so far, against Peterhead and North, having ended in a draw, and Peterhead having been defeated the Aberdeenshire Cup, the side arc meantime holding their in the first round of own.

The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of Strathmore Union XI, which at present has only 5 points out of a possible 12.theThis has been, to some extent, due to unfitness or inability to travel on the part of some of the players, but several points have been lost by a lack of concentration and and by the dropping of easy catches, for the most partdetermination in batting, directly in front of, and directly behind, the wicket.

By all accounts, however, fielding is also the weakest part of the Grade XI's equipment, and new young blood may be what is needed To all boys leaving School this month the Committee extendto leaven both lumps. a very cordial invitation to join the Section.

The death in Calcutta of Eric Masson cast a shadow over season. Eric had been a popular and enthusiastic member the early days of the since leaving School, and his going abroad had been a serious loss to the Section. To his parents, his brother and his fiancée our deepest sympathy goes out in their bereavement.

T. M. ALLAN, Hon. Secretary.

F.P. Club Office-Bearers, x950-51 Honorary President : JAMES J. ROBERTSON, O.B.E., M.A., B.D.,

F.R.S.E., F.E.I.S.

(Rector since 1942) Honorary Vice-Presidents :

The Right Honble. Lord ALNESS (188485), P.C., G.B.E., LL.D. President, 1928-29.

Sir ANDREW GOURLAY CLOV7 (1896-98), K.C.S.I., C.I.E. Sir PATRICK ASHLEY COOPER (18961901), B.A., LL.B.

President, 1937-38.

CHARLES DAVIDSON (1882-86), M.A.

President, 1947-48.

Colonel ARCHER IRVINE-FORTESCUE (1892-97), D.S.O., M.B., Ch.B.

President, 1939-46.

Sir ROBERT LYALL GRANT (1884-91), T.D., M.A., LL.B. Sir HUBERT DOUGLAS HENDERSON (T905-04), M.B.E., M.A., LL.D., F.B.A. Sir (WILLIAM) WILSON JAMESON (18921902), G.B.E., K.C.B., M.D., LL.D., D.Sc., K.H.P. Sir ARTHUR LOTHIAN (1892-94 and

r898-t9o4), K.C.I.E., C.S.I. President, 1948-49-

The Honblc. Lord MACKAY (ALEXANDER

MORRICE MACKAY) (1882-91), K.C., M.A., LL.D. President, 1931-32.

The Right Honbk. Lord MESTON (1901-02).

DOUGLAS GORDON MILLER, M.A.

Rector, 1921-24.

Sir WILLIAM PETERS (19oo-o6), C.M.G., M.A. Lt.-Col. ALEXANDER GEORGE NIcoL SMITH (1880-88), D.S.O. President, 1926-27.

WILLIAM CLARK SOUTER (1893-98), M.D., D.O.

President, 1949-50.

Sir WILLIAM ROBERT TENNANT (1904TO), C.I.E., M.A. Sir JOHN MACKAY THOMSON, C.B., M.A., F.R.S.E. Rector, 1920-21.

GEORGE WATSON (1873-77).

President, 1934-35.

Lt.-Col. EDWARD WILLIAM WATT (188394), T.D., M.A., LL.D., D.L. President, 1936-37.

When you want really reliable Sports Equipment, for yourself or someone else, you will find quality and selection combined at

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

Aberdeen Grammar School F.P. Club Boarding House Co. Ltd. GRAMMAR SCHOOL HOUSE SENIOR HOUSE

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The Houses are conveniently situated in the west end of the town, and arc equidistant from the School and the Playing Fields.

The Senior House, which can accommodate 45 Boarders, is specially designed and fitted for the purpose, having large common rooms, modern dormitories, bathrooms, changing rooms, etc.

The Junior House, which has accommodation for about 18 Boarders, is available for boys up to 11 years of age.

The Company have their own Hard Tennis Courts (3) and large Playground adjacent to both Houses.

Fees, £1S9 per annum.

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Miss HELEN OGILVIE

MISS M. C. Y. HUDSON

For Application Forms and further particulars apply to the Secretary of the Company, Mr. JAMES C. DUFFUS, Advocate, 7 Golden Square, Aberdeen.

Aberdeen Grammar School Magaine

195

President : JAMES GRAY KYD (1892-98), C.B.E., F.F.A., F.R.S.E. Vice-President of Club and Chairman of Executive : ALEXANDER GRAY (1910-22), M.A., LL.B. Secretary and Treasurer : JOHN SCOTT MACLACHLAN (1922-32), M.A., LL.B., 220 Union Street, Aberdeen.

Editor of Magazine : ALAN CROMBIE ROBERTSON WATT (1925-37), M.A., LL.B., 12 Bon-Accord Crescent, Aberdeen.

Secretaries of Centres : Bengal and Assam—H. B. Scorr (1905-08), C.B.E., M.C., The Royal Insurance Company Limited, 5-7 Netaji Subhas Road, Calcutta.

Edinburgh—ALLAN CAMERON FRAZER (1925-30), M.A., W.S., to Athol! Crescent, Edinburgh, 3. (Acting.)

Glasgow—B. D. D. EMSLIE (2929-35), 13 Lochaber Road, Killermont, Bearsden, Dunbartonshire.

London—A. H. K. SLATER (2922-35). M.A., 2 Newton Grove, London, W. 4.

Malaya—W. F. MAVOR (1923-30), M.A., c/o Customs House, Maxwell Road, Singapore.

Yorkshire—W. F. DuNNErr (1919-22), B.A., C.A., 212 Oakwood Lane Roundhay, Leeds, 8.

Secretaries of Sections : Cricket—T. M. ALLAN (1930-36), M.B., Ch.B., 5z Craigie Park, Aberdeen.

Golf—H. G. STEPHEN (1920-30), 252 Union Street, Aberdeen.

Hockey—R. P. WISHART (1919-31), 21 John Street, Aberdeen.

Rugby—N. I. W. MELDRUM (2925-37), M.A., LL.B., 15 Golden Square, Aberdeen.

Tennis—A. H. INNES (1933-45), 74 Burns Road, Aberdeen.

Executive Committee : The Vice-President of the Club, Chairman.

IAN G. MCPHERSON (1910-17), Vice-Chairman.

The Secretary and Treasurer, and Editor of Magazine, ex offitii.r.

WILLIAM L. CONNON (1930-40), B.L. MAURICE CRAMS (1916-29), M.A., LL.B. CHARLES R. CRUICKSHANK (1925-39).

ALFRED J. M. EDWARDS (1908-21), M.A., B.Com. MAXWELL G. GIBB (1913-22), M.B., Cb.B. ROBERT MATYLAND (1912-18), O.B.E. NEIL I. W. MELDRUM (1925-37), M.A., LLB. ALAN J. PETERS (1920-30), C.A.

J. LENNOX RIDDELL (1907-16).

MITCHELL C. Ross (1914-21), B.Sc. M.P.S., Ph.C. IAN L. SMITH (1918-30), B.Sc..

A.M.I.C.E. JOHN S. SUTHERLAND (1935-48).

WILLIAM G. THOW (1911-22), L.D.S. GEORGE A. C. WALKER (1917-23).

One representative from each of the Sections.

Hon. Auditors : Messrs. BOWER and SMITH, C.A.

192

Aberdeen Grammar School Maga--<ine

New Members of the Club i December 1949-31 May 195o LIFE MEMBERS Alexander, James (1919-28), Macdonnell Hostel, 48 Macdonnell Road, Hongkong.

Bell, John Hamilton (1908-14), S5 Wood Street, Walthamstow, London, E.17.

Clark, Gordon Fraser (1916-2o), 82 Angusfield Avenue, Aberdeen.

Cran, Newell Burnett (59,0-11), Y.O. Box 81, Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia.

Doughty, Edward Henry Marcus (1924-31), 15 Addiscombe Road, Wells Road, Bristol.

Duguid, Ian McIver (1938-43), M.S., Ch.B., White House, Newburgh, Aberdeenshire.

Gray, Alexander (1910-22), M.A., LL.B., S4 Rubislaw Den South, Aberdeen.

Hopkins, Ivor Llewellyn Bowman (1925-33), as Albert Terrace, Aberdeen.

McLaren, Ian Hastings (192o-23), 14 Lansdowne Road, Wimbledon, London, S.W. zo.

Philip, Cecil Sleigh (1958-21), M.B., Bispham Road, Hoohill, Blackpool.

Smith, Bernard Hooper (1932-35), ,Ch.B., M.R.C.P., 26 Harcourt Terrace, London, S.W.Io. Stott, Eric Henderson Manthei (5921-24), 39 Carlton Place, Aberdeen.

LIFE MEMBERS (Paying by Instalments) Fearby, George Edward (1937-45), ,Killgoen, Bieldside, Aberdeenshire.

Fraser, Henry James (1918-22), 73 Duthie Terrace, Aberdeen.

Irvine, Neil Cullen (1929-34), 9 Rubislaw Den North, Aberdeen.

Lobban, Alfred William Clark (1925-35), M.B., Ch.B., The Poplars, Gamlingay, Sandy, Bedfordshire.

Smith, Alexander Albert Rae (1909-16), B.Sc., A.I.Mech.E., 36 Leicester Avenue, Kelvinside, Glasgow, W.2.

Walker, George (1920-27), z8 Osborne Place, Aberdeen.

Watson, Alexander Lindsay (1 933-43), Carrefour, 69 Barras Lane, Coventry.

Weldhen, Norman Herbert Fenwick (1934-39), High Green, The Oval, Harrogate, Yorkshire.

West, David Alexander (1949-44), M.A., i6z Victoria Road, Aberdeen.

ORDINARY MEMBERS Brittain, David Antony (1943-49), McLean, Norman (1943-48), Seafield Gordon House, Cuminestown.

House, is Mayfield Gardens, AberDavie, William Alexander James (1937deen.

Milligan, Wyndham Anstruthcr (188749), 8o Queen's Road, Aberdeen.

Findlay, George Alexander John Reid 88), M.A., M.D., F.R.C.S., Flat 7, 9 North Audley Street, London, W.1.

(1942-49), 17 Elmfield Terrace, Aberdeen.

Ritchie, Donald Allan (1943-49), 33 Fraser, George Leslie (1936-49), 117 Hilton Drive, Aberdeen.

King's Gate, Aberdeen.

Simpson, William Alexander (1945-47), Gibb, Robert Mitchell (1920-32), Hill- • 5 New Cottages, Malcolm Road, view, Newtonhill, Kincardineshire.

Peterculter, Aberdeenshire.

Leiper, John Robertson Wood (1939- Sorley, John Tower (1904-57), M.A., M.B., Ch.B., 72 Beaconsfield Place, 48), 78 Queen's Road, Aberdeen.

Lynch, Frederick Passmore (1936-49), Aberdeen.

9 Stanley Street, Aberdeen.

Club Subscription Rates ORDINARY MEMBERSHIP. 10S. per annum (5s. for those under 21 years of age on 1 January).

Any Former Pupil under zi years of age has the option of paying the sum of £1 is. to cover membership for five years, provided he joins the Club not later than 31 December immediately after leaving School.

LIFE MEMBERSHIP. £8, or eight consecutive annual payments of £1 is.

Moderns of tbe olb scbool

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CORPORATION

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ABERDEEN

GRAMMAR SCHOOL

(FOUNDED BE FORE

RECTOR .

I216'5

JAMES J. ROBERTSON, O.B.E., M.A., B.D., F.R.S.E. Primary

HE GRAMMAR SCHOOL provides a complete course of Tand Secondary Education for Boys. is organised as follows :—Nurscry Class (4-5), Kinder-

The School garten (5-7), Lower School (7-12), Middle School (12-15), Upper School (15-18).

Tile School, which occupies an extensive site in the West End of the City, has, in addition to ample classroom accommodation, an Assembly Hall with Stage, a spacious Library and Reading Room, five well-equipped Laboratories, three Art Rooms, two Music Rooms, three Workshops, two Gymnasia, a Dining Hall, a Museum, and a Botanical Garden.

While the School has a Classical tradition, it offers considerable variety of courses, the subjects of the Secondary Department being (in addition to Religous Education, Music, Physical Exercises and Games), English, History, Geography, Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Art and Crafts, Technical Subjects, and Commercial Subjects.

Boys are prepared for the Universities, the Civil Service, the Professions, Commerce and Industry. The Examinations normally taken are the Senior Leaving Certificate of the Scottish Education Department and the Bursaries Competitions of the Scottish Universities.

The School has spacious Playing Fields at Rubislaw, the games played being Rugby Football, Cricket, Hockey, and Tennis.

There are two Boarding Houses run in conjunction with the G ammar School.

ABERDEEN HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS (ALBYN PLACE) .

HEAD MISTRESS . MISS B. M. ROSE, M.A. (OXON.) for

HIGH SCHOOL provides a complete course of education T HE girls between the ages of 5 and 18 years. It is organised in three Primary and Secondary. There is, in addition, a

Departments—Infants, Nursery Class. The girls in the Secondary Department are prepared for the Leaving Certificate of the Scottish Education Department and the Bursary Competition and the Preliminary Examination of the University : and those pupils who take Music, for the Examinations of the Associated Board. The subjects studied comprise Scripture, Physical Training, Class Singing, English, History, Geography, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Latin, Greek, German, French, Music, Art and Craft, Needlework, Cookery and Laundry. There is considerable variety possible in the choice of subjects and courses.

At least one afternoon a week and Saturday mornings are set aside for organised games at the School Playing Field of eleven acres situated at Hazlehead.

Information as to Scholarships, Courses of Study, etc., at the Grammar School and the High School for Girls is given in the School Prospectuses, which may be had free on application to the Director of Education, Education Offices, Municipal Buildings, Castle Street, or to the Rector or Head Mistress respectively.

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