20th February, 7:30pm

Dunfermline Historical Society will hold it’s AGM at 7:30pm in the Abbey Church Halls, followed shortly by a talk presented by Prof. Ewen Cameron –

“Dunfermline: WW1 through to the 1918 Election”.

Prof Cameron studied History and Public Relations at the University of Aberdeen and then completed a PhD on Government policy in the Scottish Highlands (1880 to 1925), at the University of Glasgow. Following a spell as a teaching Fellow at the University of St Andrews, he was appointed to a lectureship in Scottish History at Edinburgh University in 1993. He has been there ever since and currently holds the Fraser Chair of Scottish History and Palaeography. He is also Head of the School of History, Classics & Archaeology. He has research interests in a number of areas: the history of the Scottish Highlands, including comparisons with Irish history, the general history of Scotland since 1880 on which he has authored a book, ‘Impaled Upon a Thistle,’ and currently, the position of Scotland within the Union, which has prompted his recent work on the history of Scottish Universities in the late 19^th and 20^th centuries.

16th January

Dunfermline Historical Society presents

Prof. Gerard Carruthers “Burns, Fakery and Forgery”

Professor Carruthers FRSE is Francis Hutcheson Professor of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow, General Editor of the Oxford University Press edition of the Collected Works of Robert Burns and Convenor of the ‘Burns Scotland’ partnership. He is author or editor of 18 books and over 160 academic essays.

7:30 pm at the Abbey Church Halls, all welcome.

Unfortunately, due to unexpected and unavoidable work commitments at Newcastle University, Dr Annie Tindley is unable to present her talk on Andrew Carnegie to the Dunfermline Historical Society as planned. Annie hopes to be able to re-arrange her talk to us for next season instead.

In the meantime, on 21st November 2019, Honorary President George Robertson will present a new talk on

“The Rolland Family, Ropemakers of Dunfermline – and other places .”

As usual, this will take place at 7:30 pm, in the Abbey Church Halls and all members and visitors will be welcome.

17th October 2019

Ian Scott, “James Watt”

7:30 pm in the Abbey Church Halls, Dunfermline.

2019 is the 200th Anniversary of the death of James Watt, one of the most influential of the pioneering engineers of the industrial revolution. Those of you who were on the DHS outing to Kinneil House in 2016 will remember the brief biography we were given then, by James Watt himself, apparently, so we are very lucky to have a historian from Falkirk visiting to tell us more about him.

Ian Scott was Assistant Principal at Falkirk College where he taught history for a number of years.  He has been both Director and national Chairman of the Saltire Society.  Ian’s main interest is the history of the Falkirk area and he has written several books on the subject including Falkirk: a History published in 2006.  He has written over 400 historical articles for the Falkirk Herald and was a founder member of Falkirk Local History Society in 1981.