War
Captain Gilbert Rae
During the Second World War, the newly formed BOAC continued flying civilian services to several countries, including neutral Portugal and Sweden. These flights could be of great importance to the war effort and of course, could be very hazardous. In “Captain Gilbert Rae, OBE“, George Beattie discusses this little known aspect of the war and gives us a short biography of one of the brave pilots involved in these dangerous times. Captain Rae was the grandson of Gilbert Rae who founded the well-known lemonade manufacturer in Dunfermline.
Routes to Flodden
This month’s video lecture, “Ways to Flodden, 1513” was given by Dr David Caldwell at the Archaeological Research in Progress Conference, 2016 in Galashiels. His talk puts the battle into it’s military context and is mainly concerned with the build-up. It answers many fascinating questions such as, how many men were involved? How did they get there from all across Scotland? How did they get the cannons over the Lammermuirs? and it ends with a thought -provoking re-assessment of the whole campaign.
Dr Caldwell is an archaeologist who worked in the National Museum of Scotland for 38 years and was until recently President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. He is an expert on medieval Scotland, and directed major excavations at Finlaggan on Islay, the centre of the Lordship of the Isles. He is due to speak to us in person in our next season, dates, of course, still to be confirmed.
The Volunteer Bazaar
In the mid 19th century, Volunteer Rifle Corps were being formed for defence against a perceived threat from France. The Dunfermline unit needed additional funding, so an ambitious event was organised. In “The Dunfermline Volunteers Bazaar” Sue Mowat tells the story of the hard-working ladies who ran it and gives us a vivid insight into the life of the town 150 years ago.
Lassodie War Memorial
In response to George Robertson’s article on Lassodie, we received an interesting email from David Allan, whose grandmother was born in Lassodie. He sent us this article concerning two of the men commemorated on the war memorial.