4th March 2020
Talk by local author Gordon Douglas on HMS Mars. Launched in Chatham Dockyard on the 1st July 1848, HMS Mars was an 80-gun, four deck man-of-war. In the 1850s she was a supplier in the Crimean War (1855 – 1856), and later became a screw steamer commanded by Captain James Newburgh Strange R.N in 1859. On the 17th August 1869 HMS Mars was lent for use as a training ship and was moored in the River Tay at Woodhaven harbour, Fife.
2. Boys on board TS Mars (photograph) Dundee Central Library
1. Training Ship Mars (photograph) Dundee Central Library
The idea of HMS Mars as a training ship grew from the Ragged School Movement, whose aim was to provide an education to homeless or destitute children. Some of the boys were also sent because they were caught stealing; often foodstuffs such as bread or grapes. In September 1869 she was officially certified as an Industrial School Ship. Training Ship (TS) Mars -as she was then known – could accommodate 400 boys at any one time. When the boys entered the ship they were assigned a number, which is how they were referred to for the duration of their stay. Even the boys would address their peers by these numbers, rather than their names. Upon their admission to the Mars, the boys were washed and given haircuts as well as placed in a ‘watch’, which was a group of both juniors and seniors. The boys were normally admitted between 10 -11 years old – though there is a record of a 9-year-old on board – and they were discharged when they turned 16. As the only ship in Scotland to welcome Roman Catholics, many of the boys who lived on board TS Mars came from Glasgow and the surrounding areas.
The day started at 5.30am with deck scrubbing, breakfast and prayers, before attending school on board the ship. The Mars boys were taught English, Mathematics, and Geography and after lunch they studied practical subjects such as shoe repairing, tailoring, wood and metalwork, and seamanship. School finished at 5pm, after which the boys could enjoy leisure time until lights out at 9pm. The boys would sleep in hammocks down in the orlop deck, with one blanket in summer and two in winter. They had Sundays off and every summer the boys would spend time at a camp in Elie, Fife.
Music played a large part in the boys’ lives. There were three bands on board TS Mars: brass, pipe, and drums. Places in the bands were highly coveted as they travelled across Scotland and England to perform, attending various events such as openings, fetes, highland games and flower shows. Bands were also a great recruitment tool for TS Mars, with the boys marching through cities such as Edinburgh, Perth, and Aberdeen in their naval uniforms. Playing an instrument was a useful skill for the boys to learn as they could join army and navy bands after they left the ship.
The main goal of TS Mars was to have the boys admitted to the Royal and Merchant Navy, meaning the boys led a highly regimented life with the ship run on Admiralty lines and strict punishments. However, they were attended by doctors and dentists, and were comparatively well fed. Being on board also meant the boys were less likely to catch diseases and infections found in the streets. However, the demand for this type of training ship diminished after the First World War and the introduction of probation. In 1929, the Admiralty found TS Mars to be un-seaworthy and, on the 27th June the same year, the ship was towed to Thos W Ward Inverkeithing to be broken up. Between 1869 and 1929 TS Mars housed over 6,500 boys.
Todays talk included 3 songs depicting the life on board the Mars. The vote of thanks was given by David Winch.
Speakers Talks
Archive
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27th November 2019
Todays speaker was John Strigley who hails from NE England - brought north by his wife. After 39 years in the military ending at Leuchars he is now retired. His hobby is collecting militaria from the Home Guard. He also supports the Home Guard section of VERA (Victory in Europe Reenactment Association). The comprehensive collection brought along covered the period 1940 to 1944. After Dunkirk Churchill countered the invasion threat by forming the Home Guard to defend local areas relying on local knowledge. Within a week there were 250,000 volunteers. Issued kit included 24 hours rations, first aid kit, 1903 water bottle and WWI helmet. Uniform was green denim battledress and trousers, not warm enough for winter, but later changed to standard khaki too warm in summer. Because initially equipment was very scarce men were armed with pitchforks and shotguns they supplied themselves and there were only rifles for 1 in 6. Volunteers were not paid at first be later received a small payment. Weapons were brought over from America under lease lend comprising Ross or Springfield .300 calibre rifles known as P14 and later the .303 P17. .45 Tommy guns used by American gangsters in 1920s and Browning Automatic Rifles also came from US. John’s talk entertained with a wealth of knowledge of the time and demonstrations of a range of equipment ranging from grenades and personal items. The Home Guard was disbanded on 3rd December 1944. The vote of thanks was given by Jim Doig.
13th November 2019
Bob Valentine today's speaker worked for DC Thompson for 45 years but was fortunate that his employer supported sports and allowed him time off to take up his many prestigious international refereeing appointments. He is married to a school teacher and they have two sons. In the 19th century there was no referee in a football match. Matters were agreed between team captains in the case of disputes. There were few laws – no offside, no penalties, no hacking. But money changed this. For example the cost of attending the 1876 Scotland vs England match was £105, an enormous sum in those days. Consequently a gentleman “referee” was introduced, standing on the side line to add a casting vote if captains failed to agree. Two extra “umpires” were introduced later becoming touch judges and the referee moved onto and around the pitch with the play. Bob told many amusing anecdotes of his refereeing over 24 years in Scotland including 13 years internationally at Olympic Games, World Cups and many more. He has collected interesting mementos such as balls signed by Maradona and Pele who was a friend. A grateful FIFA unimaginatively kept giving him a watch for refereeing an important match so he now has 60 of them! Since retiring, Bob is concentrating on coaching young international referees. The Vote of Thanks for a very amusing, informative and entertaining talk was given by Sandy Douglas
30th October 2019
Alastair MacIntosh illustrated his talk entitled “Waterways of the Tsars” with slide sequences of pictures taken on a river cruise on the Volga from St Petersburg to Moscow. The 8 page form to apply for a visa takes 1½ hours to complete and is rejected if not correct but it is worth the effort. In St Petersburg the Cathedral where the Tsars were buried has solid gold decorations. The Hermitage Museum has 7 million visitors per year and among the works of art exhibited are paintings by Renoir, Rembrandt and others. 3,000 Scottish tradesmen worked on building it. In 1941 women in Airdrie and Coatbridge supported Russian women besieged in St Petersburg with embroidered gifts and messages smuggled in. A beautiful hand painted book was sent back in response and Alastair managed to get a privileged view of this during his visit. Alastair described the contrast between the mixture of old and new in rural areas and the wealth of young people in larger cities relative to the older generations. He described the friendliness of the people amid the rigidity of officialdom and reported attitudes of people he met towards their leaders over the past 50 years. In Moscow the area around the Kremlin consists of five palaces and four cathedrals and is a must to visit as is the underground with its high ornate vaulted arches decorated and painted in many styles and containing sculptures. Four million go through each day. An excellent vote of thanks for an excellent talk was given by Bruce Kennedy.
16th October 2019
Colin Moore from Cupar Probus Club made a welcome return to talk about “The Real Sherlock Holmes”.
The writer Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859. He witnessed the last public hanging in the Royal Mile aged 5 in 1864 leaving lasting memories. He passed into medical school at 18 to be taught anatomy, dissecting fresh cadavers in the days of Burke and Hare. He took a job writing up notes at the eccentric Dr Joseph Bell’s free weekly clinics attended by medical students who learned observation using all the senses to make diagnoses. Bell wore a deer stalker hat, used a magnifying glass and smoked a Meerschaum pipe. At this point Colin prevailed upon Dakers Fleming to help dramatize Bell’s impressive powers of deduction. Colin then went on to show how Arthur Conan Doyle based Sherlock Holmes on Dr Bell introducing Watson as a character to whom readers relate and whose narration provides plot development – a pattern copied ever since. After 56 short and 4 long stories Doyle tired of Holmes and tried to kill him in the story with Moriarty but the public outcry persuaded a revival. Colin described statues of Holmes round the world and the gravestone of Dr Joseph Bell at which the Sherlock Homes Society lays a wreath each year. The Vote of Thanks was given very elegantly by Brian Lawrenson who produced a brick certified to have come from the demolition of 221B Baker Street.
18th September 2019
The Guest Speaker at this meeting was Andy Honeyman whose working career was in the paper industry mainly with John Waddington, Valentine, Thames Case in Cumbernauld and Bowater in Milngavie as Commercial Manager. He retired 4 years ago and joined Abertay Probus Club. He had always had dogs and became a puppy walker for Guide Dogs by applying on line and passing the vetting process. Andy was accompanied by Nevis his Ambassador dog. The main types of guide dogs are: Retrievers, Labradors and crosses of these, and also German Shepard dogs. About 1400 dogs are bred each year in Leamington Spa and every 6-7 weeks trained drivers do a puppy run, using high spec vans, to distribute them to training centres like that at Forfar. For 12-14 months puppy walkers have them to be socialised for toilet training, noises, other dogs, buses etc. Then they are trained at the various centres before being matched for temperament with the people who need them. One in three is withdrawn for behaviour or health reasons and Nevis, who had a mild skin problem, was one such. Andy gave us a fascinating insight into the details of all this and Nevis demonstrated aspects of his training. Guide Dogs is funded entirely by donation with two thirds coming from people’s wills. It has an annual turnover of £60m. There are many fund raising schemes run by volunteers. During questions Andy advised us to talk to the person not the dog which, when wearing a working harness, should not be distracted. The vote of thanks was given by Hugh Cuthbert.
4th September 2019
Professor Nicholas J.Wade, FRSE received his BSC degree in psychology from University of Edinburgh and his PhD from Monash University, Australia. He is Emeritus Professor at Dundee University. His research interests are in the history of vision research, binocular and motion perception, and the interplay between visual science and art. Nick Wade illustrated his talk with still and moving images of optical illusions and explained different effects in terms of the way we perceive perspective and see images. Francesco Borromini's perspective colonnade in Palazo Spada Spain is less than 30 feet deep yet its sloped floor and converging arches produce the illusion of a long and majestic vaulted gallery receding into the distance. Nick showed a variety of paintings and photographs illustrating perspective and other illusions. Patrick Hughes’ pictures show internal relative motion when the work is tilted to and fro from side to side. Calum Colvin paints over 3D surfaces to produce images which only appear when seen from one particular point. Surrealism by Salvador Dali involves hiding an image within another. René Magritte produce paintings posing question - what do we see? That is, a painting is not the object depicted. Because our vision is slow, refreshing every 120ms, a fast moving dot becomes a continuous line. Nick ended his talk with videos of motion illusions. The vote of thanks was given by Graham Hepburn
24th July 2019
The guest speaker today was Jim Millar who was born in Dunfermline, started as an apprentice at Donibristle and worked as an engineer at Rosyth and Faslane. He has a Private Pilot’s Licence. He is a member of Glenrothes Probus Club and invited anyone to visit their Tuesday meetings. He gave a well researched, detailed and interesting talk entitled “Fife Airfields and Scottish Aviation History”. The earliest would be flyer in Scotland was John Damien who survived a jump, covered in feathers, from Stirling Castle. Most early attempts in balloons, gliders or powered flight were unsuccessful or even fatal. Harold Barnwell is credited with the first Scottish powered flight in 1909 by piloting a canard biplane which flew 80 yards before it crashed. He was killed testing a design in 1917. Captain Bertram Dickson suffered the first recorded mid air collision at the Milan Air Show in 1910. Jim traced the course of army navy and air forces including facts about the development of the Aircraft Carrier including a video clip of aircraft landing with arrester wires on HMS Argo. Jim then covered the history of the many Fife Airfields from Leuchars, Crail and Donibristle in WWI and many more including Woodhaven in WWII. He recommended visits to Crail, Montrose, Dundee Transport Museum and the National Museum of Flight for more information. The vote of thanks was given by Lindsay Johnson.
10thJuly 2019
An informal session of the Club was held as a Quiz event!
The Vice President divided the members present into three teams of 5 for the Quiz compiled by Al Horwood who was assisted by Dave Matthew. Al’s questions were searching but not impossible to answer and no team won full marks for any of the three rounds. Dave Matthew entertained and perplexed those with less recall of well known music played on the accordion he bought in Dundee with the help of Jimmy Shand who happened to be in the shop at the time studying the mechanisms of the accordion. The winning team was announced and a photo taken for the Newsletter. Reg Whittaker gave a vote of thanks and everyone agreed that Al and Dave had provided some good entertainment
26th June 2019
Our guest speaker was Brian Kelly who is the Development Officer for the Dundee Heritage Trust responsible for aspects of fund raising. The Trust operates the Verdant Works and Discovery museums which reflect Dundee’s heritage in jute and polar exploration. Brian traced the history of Dundee showing how jute helped expansion from 130 mills and 26,000 population in 1793 to 160,000 population in 1893 and many more mills. Women and children were paid less so were preferred employees. Boys could stay apprenticed to 18 but then were too costly so male unemployment was very high. Whereas workers’ housing was very poor there were more millionaires in large mansions in Broughty Ferry than in the rest of Europe in the 19th century. Eventually as wages rose in Dundee, machines were sent to India leading to a complete decline after WWII. In 1991 the Verdant factory came available and was installed with the full range of small jute machines, previously used by Dundee Technical College for training textile technicians. The museum is staffed by ex weavers who keep all machines running for display and education of the public. In 1986 RRS Discovery was brought to Dundee and is now in a dedicated dry dock next to its museum which is to have £½ m spent to provide a new education space. About 1/3 of regular funding comes from conferences and additional activities and only 3% comes from Dundee City Council. A long term project plans to upgrade the café, moving it for a view of the river, and also to provide visitor access to the views from the dome. The vote of thanks was given by Graham Hepburn
29th May 2019
The President introduced Dr. Charles W. Allison, who presented his subject entitled “The Gas Man Cometh”. Dr. Allison discussed the development of anaesthetics, together with a summary of his working life as an anaesthetist and drew parallels on the development of anaesthetics with the rise of golf during the 19th century, which reflected similar rapid development. Dr. Allison described the early discoveries of alcohol, opium and Mafiesan to alleviate pain before the 1800’s. He explained that Horace Wells, a Connecticut dentist, was the first to really investigate the use of pain suppressants in 1842 using nitrous oxide, having seen “laughing gas” as a musical hall entertainment. However, in 1846, it was William Morton, the true “father of anaesthetics”, who demonstrated ether successfully for surgery in Boston. Oliver Wendell Holmes suggested the Greek term ‘Anaesthesia’ to describe the loss of pain sensation by use of such drugs. In Edinburgh James Young Simpson first used chloroform for pain relief in childbirth in 1847. Dr. Allison then went on to describe modern anaesthetics and the development of halogenated hydrocarbon vapours such as Halothane. More recently Propofol, developed by Arran vet turned pharmacologist Ian Glen, and first used clinically at Ninewells Hospital, has become the foremost IV induction agent used worldwide. Dr. Allison explained the key to any anaesthetic was its use to suppress pain without any deleterious effect and not compromising lung and heart function. Two types of anaesthesia were described - general, where the patient is put to sleep, and regional, where only a local part of the body is anaesthetised. Following a description of the role of anaesthetists, Dr. Allison acknowledged that he owed a great debt of gratitude to Iain Gray, our member, who was his work time mentor throughout his career.
The vote of thanks was given by Reg Whittaker
15th May 2019
The President introduced Professor David Bradley an Engineer and expert of innovations in Naval History. A Trustee and volunteer to the Unicorn Preservation Society, Prof . Bradley illustrated his talk “The Life and Times of the Frigate Unicorn” with informative slides covering the history of the Unicorn in parallel with details of developments in Naval hull design, armaments, armour and propulsion. In 1782 the French ship Hébé was captured by HMS Rainbow and became HMS Hebe. French hull designs below the water were superior so Hebe’s shape was used for the Leda class of Frigate. 47 were built including the Unicorn, laid down in Chatham in 1822 and launched in 1824. Despite the first use of wrought iron for knees and diagonal bracing for the hull, one broadside from the Victory would have sunk her so she would not have stood in line of battle and was never rigged. The last exclusively sailing battle at Navarino Bay was in 1827. Unicorn was considered disposable in 1869 but was towed to Dundee in 1873 to serve as a drill ship, then RNVR HQ between the wars and in 1941, renamed Cressy and used as a WRNS Training School. She received the surrender of U2326 in 1945. She was moved from Earl Grey Dock to Camperdown Dock in 1962 becoming HMS Camperdown the RNR Tay Division HQ until 1968. Now, as Frigate Unicorn, she awaits outcomes of plans to be in a dry dock requiring active hydraulic rams to provide dynamic support as she dries out. The vote of thanks was given by Steve Lemon.
1st May 2019
Club member Jed Harbidge-Rose presented a concise and informative account of the Charge of the Light Brigade illustrated with slides of historical paintings. He was assisted by John Shrigley who moved models on an extensive layout as the charge progressed, adding visual aids to indicate smoke from the guns. Jed first explained the background in terms of the personalities and social customs. Commissions could be bought allowing junior officers to progress to senior rank. A cavalry Colonel needed to be wealthy enough to fit out his regiment with the best equipment and horses. Society military officers rarely sought active service whereas others went particularly to India to gain war experience but were generally ignored or sidelined when they offered opinions or advice based on real experience. After years of relative peace British generals and forces, untrained for war, went in full dress uniforms to defend the Crimea against the Russians. A long sea voyage to Gallipoli, and skirmishes through Bulgaria led to the Battle of Balaclava near Sebastopol. Due to miscommunication and personality clashes, Lord Cardigan led the Light Brigade down a valley to the wrong guns a distance of 1 ¼ miles - first at a walk, then a trot, then a gallop when only 250 yards from the guns. Finally, at 50 yards they broke into a charge. Throughout the 7 minutes overall they suffered heavy casualties to men and horses from guns on the hills on both sides and in front. They were trained to close up filling gaps left by casualties so stayed a dense target for the guns. Only about one third of the 600 survived including Cardigan who led the charge. The vote of thanks was given by Jim Doig
3rd April 2019
The President introduced Steve Finan who has worked for DC Thompson for nearly 40 years on most of the newspaper publications and in many of the different departments. Steve started in 1979, aged 16, as an Apprentice Compositor in the hot metal case room. Early advice was, “whatever you do, read your own newspaper” and Steve followed that keenly. Twice a week, he would sit with readers who were experts on correct English and learned a lot, which he has put into practice throughout his career. Steve also spent time researching the archives to become a world expert on the Sunday Post, a true family Sunday paper. Steve traced the history of the Sunday Post, founded in 1914 to report WW I in a positive, even jingoistic way, giving encouraging information people wanted to know. During the interwar period it began to lose its way but found its feet putting news important to readers on the front page, always zeroing in on Scottish things. During WWII news was again reported from the battle zones and the paper dealt effectively with propaganda. During the post war period, under Editor Bill Anderson, the paper became the best ever, talking to people at their level. He achieved this by letting the public contribute to the paper themselves, with pages for money, sport, TV, readers’ opinions and advice. Since the decline of circulation of all newspapers, due to effects of the internet, Steve has realised the potential of the Sunday Post archives by editing a series of books on different aspects of the subjects covered. The vote of thanks for this fascinating talk was given by Keith Christie.
20th March 2019
Today’s guest speaker was Robert Terras, who gave a talk entitled ‘Operation Manna’. Robert is a member of The Raith Probus Club of Kirkcaldy and his working career in the building industry as a Quantity Surveyor covered projects in Scotland, England and South Africa. Research for his talk started because his daughter, who is Professor of Digital Humanities at Edinburgh University, needed background information for Bomber Command, who were celebrating 70 years since the end of WWII. Robert’s daughter wanted information about her grandfather who had served with Bomber Command at St Athens in Wales. Starting with only very sketchy inherited diaries, Robert had been able to piece together anecdotes of his father’s work servicing Lancaster bombers and he painted a picture of the vast number of bombs and incendiaries dropped, the extremely short survival expectancy of Lancaster crews averaging only 3 flights, and his own experiences attending a memorial service in Lincoln Cathedral where there was a magnificent display of 40,000 bulbs, donated from Holland and planted to depict the dropping of food for 1 million Dutch, who were starving in 1944. Curiously, the Nazis had allowed a corridor for Bomber Command’s Operation Manna, which was joined by the US, who named their part in the air drop ‘Operation Chow Hound’. An excellent vote of thanks was given by Ray Moodie.
6th March 2019
The President introduced Colin Moore to give his talk entitled “Quote - Misquote”. Colin is a Past Chairman of Cupar Probus Club, the second oldest Club in Scotland. He was a Primary School Head Teacher and then worked as a Primary School Advisor for Newcastle on Tyne. In his retirement one of his many activities is Vice Chairman of Stratheden Hospital League of Friends. He introduced his talk as a collection of quotes and misquotes of retorts, gybes, slogans and catch phrases which were short, memorable, even wise and worth repeating. Timing of their use hits the spot. Quoting one of Julie Andrews songs he started “at the very beginning” with first lines of famous books all designed to capture attention and give the flavour of the book. Moving on through misquotes from the moon landing in 1969 “That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind” and from Apollo13 “we’ve had a problem” and not “Houston we have a problem” which became a catch phrase. Colin continued quoting actors, sportsmen, commentators, politicians, celebrities, old advertising slogans and more. Some misquotes were never said such as Captain Kirk “Beam me up Scottie” or Sherlock Holmes “Elementary my dear Watson”. Some from TV series were repeated every episode but the most memorable from Dad’s Army “Don’t tell him Pike” was only said once and went viral. Colin ended a most entertaining and well delivered talk with famous last lines of films. “That’s all Folks” from Bugs Bunny. A well deserved vote of thanks was given by Dakers Fleming
20th February 2019
The President introduced John Beaton MBE, who had addressed the club several years ago. Something both he and our president had in common was that they had both attended Ancrum Primary School in Dundee at roughly the same time. John began his distinguished career as a mechanical apprentice at Bonar Long, followed by National Service. He was awarded Dundee 'City of Discovery' Rosebowl Individual Award for National and International endeavours for City of Dundee 1990. John gave a well illustrated talk describing his life and work, starting by founding Kolfor Plant with capital of only £250, in order to service the oil industry. The company was bought out by Atlas Copco in 2004 and John is now a Venture Capitalist. He had helped bring the ship Discovery back to Dundee and this connection led to his work to twin it with NASA’s space shuttle Discovery. Using the Scottish connection John found influential executives at NASA who were willing to effect the twinning. Many NASA astronauts and engineers have since visited Dundee as a result and John has been given special access to help promote NASA in Scotland, including involvement in educational projects. John showed a fascinating set of slides of shuttles, training programmes and control rooms at Houston while reminiscing with his meetings with all levels of NASA personnel. Dave Matthews gave the vote of thanks
14th November 2018
Dakers Fleming's the past President gave a super talk entitled "Architecture on the Carpet," in which he discussed various construction toys and their link to the genesis of modern building. The presentation detailed the development of architecture through the prism of children's construction toys and it brought back some nostalgia to members, who perhaps had some of these toys, such as Meccano, invented by Frank Hornby of Hornby model railways and Dinky toys. Dakers also discussed the more exclusive range of Bayko building model construction sets, invented by Charles Plimpton in Liverpool between 1934 and 1967. The name derived from Bakelite, one of the world's first commercial plastics and Dakers’ presentation included an electronic copy of the 1950's poster advertising the building sets, although the plans and instructions for building could be quite difficult to follow! In addition, the content of the sets did not always reflect the pictures on the outside of the boxes, which could be a bit misleading. Dakers said that one of his hero's is Frank Lloyd Wright who trained as a Structural Engineer but then became a successful American Architect, designing more than 1000 structures throughout the world. He mentioned that many famous designers’ first efforts began with such toy kits. Tom Belcher gave the vote of thanks.
30 October 2018
Clare Reany, a Horticultural Technician with the Dundee Botanical Gardens, described the process of collecting plants in the Maritime Alps which required a myriad of legal permissions from a hierarchy of authorities from national to local level. A group of experts, each with specialist knowledge of particular plants, travelled last spring from Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh Botanical Gardens to search out and record locations of plants of interest. They returned in August to collect seeds to be stored or propagated having carefully recorded their provenance. The French part of the Mercantour National Park was chosen for language reasons. A flight to Nice then a motorway drive led to the twisting narrow roads over high limestone gorges where only locals dared overtake. By Lac de Villefort their first find was gentians only 20m from the car park but then the painstaking search began using maps and GPS to record finds up to 2000m, higher areas being out of bounds. Clare described seeing chamois, boustan goats and marmots which made a whistling sound. On the return trip they collected seeds of 61 species from 9 sites over a range of habitats. All had to be carefully cleaned to avoid importing unwanted pests. Propagation is proceeding well at the three Botanical Gardens. The vote of thanks was given by Roy Lindsay
17th October 2018
Martin Hepworth took us through the life and poetry of Robert Service, Canada’s national poet and the most published poet of the 20th century. Born in Preston in 1874, Robert, one of ten children, lived with his grandfather for a while in Kilwinning. In 1888 he took a job with Commercial Bank of Scotland then at age 21 he travelled to Vancouver Island with dreams of becoming a cowboy but drifted around western North America doing odd jobs until 1904 when he took a job with Canadian Bank of Commerce in Whitehorse in the Yukon. Here he heard stories of the gold rush and his subsequent poetry sold so well he became a millionaire. Martin read excerpts from “The Shooting of Dan McGraw” and “The Cremation of Sam McGee” among others. Martin described episodes in Robert’s life. He was a successful banker in Canada, a War Correspondent covering the Balkans War, a driver for US Ambulance Corp in France, lived a high social life in Paris for 15 years, was married to Parisienne Germaine Bourgoin and had two children.
During WWII he did script writing in America and acted a small part in a film with John Wayne. He wrote for those who would not be seen dead reading poetry. He was influenced by Keats and Kipling but not Robert Burns. The vote of thanks was given by Ray Moodie.
3rd October 2018
Malcolm Boyd, a Civil Engineer with BAM Construction, gave a talk, packed with technical detail, about the design and construction of the new V&A Museum in Dundee. Malcolm had been involved from tender stage right through to managing the building construction and discussed the challenges and techniques developed for this bespoke building, including the coffer dams, installation and removal of shuttering and heating and cooling by ground source heat pumps. Concrete for the “twisted fan like” walls had to be poured and supported until the shear and core walls, floor and roof were connected and, at all stages, engineers monitored the geometry of the shutters and connection points to a tolerance of 2 mm. The building consists of two parts, with one side comprising offices, workshops and plant with sufficient access to the exhibition area for artics to drive inside - the only museum in Scotland that allows this. Birds cannot roost as the cast concrete external panels are spaced narrower than the wing space needed to take off. Hawk kites can also be deployed and the roof has a system to give electric shocks if birds land. Vote of thanks was given by Adam Olejnik
19th September 2018
When Alan Rowan finished his shift at a national newspaper at midnight, he was too fired up on deadline adrenaline to attempt sleep. He also worried if he’d ever manage to complete his ambition to summit every Munro! He therefore decided on a simple solution - climb in the middle of the night, see the sunrise and then descend the mountain as everyone else was going up. At first, he’d drive to the start, sleep in the car and set out at dawn. Later, instead of waiting for dawn, he’d set out when he arrived, even though it was still dark. Full moons were a bonus and sometimes there were two in the same month, called blue moons. Now, after completing all Munros (3 times), writing two books “Moonwalker” and “A Mountain before Breakfast”, Alan plans to climb all the Corbetts. His talk gave an overview of both books, illustrated with photographs taken on his climbs, laced with tales of his experiences. One night, as he was approaching another climber, he realised it was his own reflected shadow on low cloud, waving back to him! Bruce Robertson gave the vote of thanks
5th September 2018
The guest speaker was Wendy Purvis who is an Operations Manager with National Trust Scotland. She worked with NT England and was for 17 years in Human Resources with Aviva and Royal Sun Alliance. Her talk gave an insight into the daily challenges of a Property Manager with NTS. The National Trust for Scotland looks after 254 paths, 76,000 hectares of countryside, 300,000 precious artefacts of which an inventory is in progress, 100,000 plant species, and 10,000 archaeological sites. Tasks of a Property Manager include management of paid and voluntary workers, conservation, budgeting, maintenance and education. Sites have to be interpreted to tell the stories of places and people. There are holiday lets, residential and agricultural tenancies to be managed as well as function suites and catering facilities to be run. The Property Manager is more a “jack of all trades” than an expert in any aspect of the work. You even have to clean toilets in and emergency. Important conservation and cleaning over the winter in unheated rooms requires warm layers, thermals, and fingerless gloves to work the computer in a cold office. Wendy gave examples of ancient garden walls falling in a storm, ceilings coming down unexpectedly requiring immediate action and planning to avoid consequential problems. Wendy’s account of the kind of situations which can arise in the wide variety of properties were descriptive and entertaining. The vote of thanks was given by Dakers Fleming.
1st August 2018
Richard McLaren is the founder of The Natural Energy Company based in Newport-on-Tay, a family business specialising in the installation of Daikin air source heat pump technology and solar photovoltaic panels across Scotland. Richard has a Masters Degree in Energy and Sustainable Development and his talk focussed on the UK’s energy characteristics, describing in detail the concept of energy density and explaining that renewable solutions require a lot of land. He defined power density and said that the National Grid only delivers a small portion of our energy, since around 85% of our consumption is used to move things around and most of that comes from fossil fuels. It would require three new National Grids to supply all the power needed for twenty five million electric cars. Heat pumps are used in all industries and give very high energy return for energy invested but only deal with heating and cooling. Richard described the technical aspects, as well as the pros and cons, of crop-based biomass, fossil fuels, nuclear fission and fusion, tidal power and energy imported in manufactured goods, with the best energy policy being to conserve energy, not use it and to resist the temptation to do more of something as efficiencies improve and costs fall. The vote of thanks was given by Dakers Fleming
18th July 2018
The Presdent introduced Dakers Fleming whose subject was “Porsche – the best in every way”. Dakers described, in glowing terms, the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart: it is bounded by a road and railway line and is within the factory. A smaller version of this impressive triangular spiral building, supported on three main legs, was a contender for the Dundee V&A building. Porsche is very green because 75% of its production is still on the road and in Canada 94% of vehicles built since 2000 are still running. Dakers talked about the yellow Lotus he owned. Lotus can stand for “lots of trouble, usually serious” as he found from several of incidents of breakdown and misadventure before acquiring his Porsche Boxter. Ferdinand Porsche designed the first electric car for Jacob Lohner & Co of Vienna in 1900. The drive system had an electric motor on each front wheel just like Tesla today. Dakers went on the describe with enthusiasm the progression of Porsche models up to 1993 when the Boxter, which saved the company, was designed with the help of Japanese engineers. Porsche also made 4 wheel drive Scout Cars for the German army, police cars and even tractors. The Museum sports a humidor lounge and an excellent restaurant. Questions developed into reminiscences of first cars, the merits of motor bikes and other topics. The vote of thanks was given by Roy Lindsay.
4th July 2018
The guest speaker was Dr Andrew Jeffrey former Naval Reservist and past 2nd Coxwain of the Broughty Ferry Lifeboat gained his PhD at St Andrews University and has worked in industry and the Civil Service. His talk was about ships featured in Phase II of the McManus Gallery Maritime Exhibition. His slides showed pictures of the models of the ships, mostly built in Dundee, and he told their stories highlighting incidents of interest and aspects of the different uses to which they were put. The Forfarshire was the first steel ferry, built with a shallow draught to get into Craig Harbour Tayport. It was unsuitable so was used in the lucrative pleasure steamer trade on the Tay between Dundee, Woodhaven and Newburgh where it was once reported that drunken passengers caused chaos and damage. For its last 20 years it was a ferry on the Forth. Andrew told of sailing clippers built to take up to 450 emigrants, not all of whom survived, to Australia and bring jute from India using the Trade wind route round the southern capes. He told stories of a 19th century sailing ship wreck, WWI and WWII armed cargo ship fights with submarines, convoy rescue ship heroism - all by ships whose models are in the McManus. Andrew is collaborating to create a virtual maritime museum for the McManus. There is an ambition to gain possession of a 12 foot model of the cargo liner Glen Earn from storage in Greenwich. She and her sister ship were converted to Assault ships and used at every major Allied landing in WWII. The vote of thanks was given by Tom Belcher
23rd May 2018
The President introduced Iain Macgowan who is a Scientist with Scottish Natural Heritage based in Perth.
Iain started his talk by explaining the difference between insects and spiders the latter having 8 legs where as insects have 6 legs. He pointed out that more than half of known species in the World are insects and that there are over 7000 species of flies. Common groups are butterflies, wasps and beetles.
His main interest is specialising in the conservation and management of some of our rarest woodland insects. When we think of flies and other insects we often think of those types which cause us irritation such as Midges, Mosquitoes and Wasps. But there is another side to the world of insects. His talk illustrated some of the more unusual species we have in Scotland and the often strange life cycles they have for example they spend 90% + of their time as larvae (maggots). Insects in the recycler category play a useful purpose in assisting forensic science to establish how long bodies have been dead.
It is now possible to get a midge forecast on your smart phone/internet which is useful for the likes of Forestry Workers as it is estimated that there is a lost of working hours of approx. 20% due to the dreaded midge. Statistics suggest that up to 40,000 midges can land on an arm in an hour. It is also thought to be a bumper year for daddy long legs. One major issue mentioned regarding venison farming is that flies flick their larve up the noses of deer where they thrive. Insects we wanted to conserve are found in Aspen trees such as hover flies. He pointed out that Scotland is leading the way in conservation work.
A vote of thanks was given by Keith Christie who asked if some of these insects could be used as food stuff for protein. He also thanked the speaker for impressive illustrations of the various insects.
9th May 2018
The President introduced Nigel Clark as a friend since they were at school together in Wormit Primary. Nigel retold two stories of local tragedies that he has researched to find new background material. On Sunday May 28th 1815 the pinnace Nelson sank attempting to take passengers across the Tay with the loss of 18 lives. A Dundee man wanted to cross the Tay to attend a sermon by Thomas Chalmers in Kilmany but was unable to get a place aboard. Subsequent correspondence with his cousin revealed a tragedy turning to farce and black comedy. John Spalding a balladeer turned ferry owner left Dundee towing a larger yawl in wild weather with apparently too much sail. The yawl cut itself free as the Nelson sank. The body of John Spalding was recovered and laid out under a white cloth. Onlookers were shocked and horrified when Spalding’s arm seemed to rise up as if alive but amazed when a large crab scuttled away to be caught by a woman who that evening had it cooked and dressed. In the second story Nigel speculated about the last hours of Jock Lyons a joiner with Steele and Brodie Wormit. He described Jock Lyons’ background and movements on the day he boarded the 7.38am train from Dundee to Wormit. Unaccountably the train stopped on the bridge short of the station whereupon Jock Lyons opened the carriage door and stepped out never to be seen again. Nigel’s speculations as to what happened and why were both entertaining and informative. The Vote of thanks was given by Maureen Brown President of Newport Ladies Probus who also thanked Probus Club of Newport on Tay for the invitation to join the meeting.
28th March 2018
Robert Law was our guest speaker he is the Visitor Assistant at the Mills Observatory in Dundee who has been interested in astronomy since he was 8 years old. He gave detailed and interesting talk about the History of the Mills Observatory. John Mills (1806–1889), a manufacturer of linen and twine in the city of Dundee, was a keen amateur astronomer with his own observatory. He left money to build an observatory but it took many years before it was built and opened in 1935 on Balgay Hill. It overlooks the estuary, is protected from wind and street lights by trees, and is accessible to the public The first Curator was Grant Bruce, an instrument-maker from Newport in Fife. The original telescope given by the Mills Trust was made by Parsons, in Newcastle. The dome is hand-operated, made of papier-mâché on a framework of steel and is still in use but needs much maintenance against damp. Robert gave details of all the curators and also the telescopes used over the years which were sometimes exchanged with St Andrews University. The present telescope built in 1881 is particularly good for fine photographs of planets and the moon using modern cameras. The observatory also has a number of smaller telescopes and has played an important part under its different curators in education and the work of the British Astronomical Association. The vote of thanks was given by Sandy Harper.
14th March 2018
The guest speaker was Marianne Donaldson who is a civil servant Station Executive Officer at Leuchars Army base and part of an eight strong team covering the governance of the non military part of the base. In 1911 Royal Engineers set up Leuchars later used for a RN flying school before in 1920 the RAF took over. During WWII it was used for training and Maritime Operations. On 31 March 2015 the transition to a mainly Army base started although the runways and air traffic control still operate 24/7 as a diversion airfield. There are now 912 serving personnel and 1751 dependants on the base which is about half the number in the days of RAF Leuchars. The MOD failed to invest in the site post-RAF so much of the infra structure is in a poor state. Historic Scotland is restricting renovation of the many historical buildings. The army has more single individuals than the RAF and they have more kit with them in the cramped accommodation. Marianne listed the various units using the base and described the workings of the Station Support Unit and how the Small Town Executive Board is involved with housing, welfare, education, childcare and similar matters. For the future we know about 15% cuts overall but Leuchars may expand as Fort George and other army facilities in Scotland are closed and personnel moved to Leuchars. Individuals are moved between units to get wider experience and to help them create careers after leaving the army. After Marianne had answered some searching questions Al Horwood gave a well deserved vote of thanks.Edit this text
28th February 2018
Ross Forster, married with four children is a 4th generation farmer. He described in full detail how the farm has developed from tenant farmers in 1926 to buying Peacehill Farm in 1989 and then buying Newton and Balmullo Farms before land prices rose. The original chicken sheds were built 35 years ago and in the 1980s Iceberg lettuce and outdoor sows were successful, selling to supermarkets. Now crops are broccoli, cauliflower, and potatoes and cereals mainly fed to the chickens. They employ about 50 European workers and last year struggled to find enough because of the effects of the fall in the pound and that UK workers pick a fraction of the European’s output. Ross described the rapid and exciting introduction of renewable energy starting with a Biomass plant 5 years ago which uses water to take heat to the chickens improving cost efficiency and the health of the birds. Banks were initially cautious about lending for this until Peacehill proved its viability. The next development has been construction of an anaerobic digester running 24/7 producing methane and CO2 which are split, and cleaned. The methane is compressed and pumped to the local gas grid after careful control of sulphur, calorific value and other parameters. The North Sea oil industry offers a possible market for the CO2 which can be used to blast off old paint without using grit. The vote of thanks for this excellent and informative talk was given by Bruce Robertson.
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6th December 2017
CHRISTMAS LUNCH - - HELD ON 6TH DECEMBER 2017 The annual Christmas lunch was held at Scotscraig Golf Club in Tayport and was very well attended, with everyone enjoying the full traditional fare, all of which was preceded by a complimentary glass of fortified refreshment (although the volunteer drivers unfortunately had to make do with something rather less fortified). After lunch, the raffle not only raised a few laughs but also injected some welcome additional revenue into PROBUS funds. Unlike the raffle, the following ‘open-mike’ joke session raised nothing for club funds, but did however manage to raise a few titters - especially amongst those members who’d managed to squeeze in an additional pre-meal fortified drink. Everyone was impressed by the number of people who not only knew so many terrible jokes - but also had the courage to air them in public!! Many jokes could trace their origins to the recently pulled Christmas crackers, and whereas a humorous tale from Keith Christie, relating to a Scotsman, Englishman and an Irishman facing imminent death from a fickle guillotine, may not have had everyone rolling about holding their sides, it did give rise to a few sympathetic groans and Keith has promised to try harder next year!! (copies of the joke are available upon request - - - if you’re brave enough)!!
22 November 2017
Jim Doig introduced Roy Lindsay as the day’s speaker - a “Scottish Yorkshireman born in St Andrews” -to tell us about “a Peruvian Adventure”. This was a 1976 expedition to the Cordillera Vilcabamba at the edge of the Peruvian Andes, overlooking the Amazon jungle. The four climbers had little Alpine experience, no experience of climbing at altitude, nor of expeditions, and very little information or maps of the region. Roy’s presentation, using flip chart maps and 35mm slides, showed in stark clarity the Peruvian Andes in the raw and something of what the four climbers had seen, endured, and achieved during their six week adventure. They arrived in Lima as the military junta governing Peru was overthrown. The populace was disgruntled by currency devaluation so railway strikes and road blocks hampered travel. They were helped by a Geordie who chaperoned them away from Lima and later by a missionary who drove them in his truck that part of the journey that should have been by train. It’s amazing that the intrepid four had any success; but they did, despite being robbed three times, suffering altitude sickness, making many mistakes on the way, and sometimes feeling that if it can go wrong it will. They made successful ascents of five previously virgin summits and lived to tell the tale. David Winch gave a vote of thanks.
8th November 2017
Martin Hepworth gave a detailed presentation on the assassination of President Garfield. Garfield was born on an impoverished farm and was only 2 when his father died. He left school at 16 but contracted malaria while working on canals. He restarted his education, becoming school janitor to pay for his fees and graduated from college in 1856 and entered politics as a Republican. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War, before returning to politics. He attended the 1880 Republican National Convention as campaign manager for John Sherman. When neither Sherman nor his rivals could get enough nomination votes, delegates chose Garfield as a compromise and was subsequently elected President on the 36th ballot. A few months later he was shot twice by Charles J Guiteau, a lawyer and writer with a grievance. The wounds were not fatal but one bullet entered his back and could not be located, despite probing by the unsterilized fingers and instruments of his physician. Joseph Lister’s pioneering work in antisepsis was known to doctors but not utilised by Garfield's physicians and the eventual cause of death was sepsis. Alexander Graham Bell had tried a metal detector to find the bullet, but only allowed to search the patient’s right side. The bullet however was near the spleen on the left, so not located. Garfield died on September 19th 1881. Guiteau was convicted & executed in June 1882. The vote of thanks was given by Antony Sutch
25th October 2017
This week’s speaker was Alan Herriot - a world renowned Scottish artist and sculptor, whose many works portray characters from history, literature and legend. Alan graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 1974, with his subsequent works being greatly influenced by the likes of Rodin, Eduard Lanteri and Alexander Carrick. Alan described how, one day, he’d been visited in his studio by Lt. General Derek Lang, who asked him to sculpt a piper for a memorial in Holland. That beginning re-kindled his interest in the military and Alan has since completed many memorial sculptures for the Highland Divisions of both World Wars. Alan illustrated his talk with slides of his finished works and described the many processes of making them. A model or maquette is made initially, followed by the full scale work in clay or other materials. Alan described the multi-stage processes using clay, polystyrene foam, silicon rubber, ceramic moulds, wax and other materials to complete the sculpture, with large works being made in pieces and then welded together. His Ancient Mariner sculpture is sited at the Maritime Museum, Somerset and Alan’s sculpture of a Highland Division Piper stands at the entrance to The House of Bruar in Perthshire. Alan’s bronze memorials to Bamse, the WWII Norwegian sea dog, Robert the Bruce and Sir Robertson Watson-Watt, the inventor of radar, can also be found in Montrose, Aberdeen & Brechin respectively. Al Horwood gave the vote of thanks.
11 October 2017
David and his wife Jan Winch presented "Connections with Norway" - a romantic story and one of adventure, describing the formartion,during World War 2, of 333 Squadron of the Royal Norwegian Air Force. The joint presentation detailed why the Newport area and particularly Woodhaven, became involved with escaped Norwegian pilots after the invasion of Norway by the Germans in April 1940. Key characters included Lauritz Humlen and 14 escapees who took 5 days to reach Lerwick by boat. Finn Lambrechts (the squadron's first commander), Hans Ronningen who came by air and Egil Johansen who tried unsuccessfully with a friend to reach Britain by canoe, finally arriving by fishing boat. The Tay estuary was chosen so these airmen could set-up a "flying boat" Squadron, for both delivering and retrieving spies to and from Norwegian waters. They also had great success sinking U-boats and helping Norwegian escapees reach Britain. The talk was completed by describing how Squadron connections have been maintained after the War and describing the many visits that members of 333 Squadron have made to Newport-on-Tay since. In June 2017 David and Jan were invited to the 75th anniversary of 333 Squadron in Andoy, Lofoten, Norway where David was presented with the "Norwegian Defence Medal" by the head of Norwegian Defence. David said he viewed the medal, not as his own, but for the whole community of Newport-on-Tay. Graham Hepburn delivered the vote of thanks.
Members Talks in 2021 Summary
These were all online sessions using the Zoom product
Summary of our online guest speakers talks given during 2021 using the ZOOM application:-
Date Speaker Topic
17th March 21 DIANA MAXWELL HMS Tarlair Research Station, Aberdour
31st March 21 IAN GILCHRIST A Lot of Hot Air (History of balloon flight)
14th April 21 ALICE SOPER Piper of Tobruk (Inspired by fathers heroism)
28th April 21 JIM BRAND Scottish Charity Air Ambulance
12th May 21 STEVE FINAN Defence of the English Language
26th May 21 MURRAY BROWN The Broughty Ferry Lifeboat
9th June 21 JIM BOYD Scraps propaganda leaflets dropped WW2
23rd June 21 RICHARD HYND Fake or Fortune (Interest in whether items genuine)
7th July 21 MARTIN HEPWORTH Our Canadian Adventure Early career GP in Canada
21st July 21 LEONIE BELL V & A Dundee Director
3rd Sep 21 RUTH WALNE Medical work done on the Mercy Ships
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THESE TALKS CAN BE FOUND IN OUR NEWSLETTERS Edit this text
27th September 2017
Dakers Fleming’s account of the building of the Forth Rail Bridge was elegantly illustrated with pictures from a book written by Wilhelm Westhofen, who had been the Supervising Engineer for the centre section. The North British Railway needed a bridge across the Forth to shorten journey times from London to Aberdeen and initially Thomas Bouch offered suspension bridge designs. However, when his Tay Bridge fell in a storm, this was abandoned and a cantilever design by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker was adopted and built by contractor Sir William Arrol between 1882 and 1890. The 5000 workers were well cared for with train services to site, lifeboats, a canteen and a compulsory welfare club which cared for the injured and widowed. In all 73 were killed during the project. Great efforts were made to provide good working conditions and high quality materials for construction - unlike Bouch’s Tay Bridge. Dakers explained the working of the caissons to construct the foundations on the river bed, the towers and the cantilever construction above the water, explaining that circular struts are always in compression while lattices are in tension. A very elegant bridge, made from Welsh and Scottish steel, it is now a World Heritage site, and is still the second longest cantilevered structure in the world. Since completion of the new paint system there is a visitor centre, viewing platform and a walkway between the trusses. Bruce Robertson gave the vote of thanks.
13 September 2017
Robert Oliver, past President of Cupar Probus Club, gave a talk on "The Eyemouth Fishing Disaster" Robert talked without the use of illustrations, asking the group to use only their imagination, as he described the disaster of 14th October 1881, which caused the loss of 129 Eyemouth men and boys, together with 70 men from nearby villages. Robert described, in graphic detail, the eerie calm before the storm, the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded in the UK, the devastation on land with 50,000 trees flattened and how some fishermen survived by fighting a way out to sea. These men earned their living by fishing and if one boat went out the tradition was for all boats to go out. An estimated 93 widows and 267 orphans, many of whom had watched helplessly from the cliffs as their menfolk were drowned in full sight, were left destitute. A huge fund was raised and widows of those actually lost at sea and who were registered with church or school, received 5/- per week. Robert described the boys' initiation as fishermen and also "the creeling," when a prospective wife had to catch her man as he carried a heavy creel, cut it from him and then carry it herself. This was considered more important than any words by the minister, who was an unpopular figure due to the tithes which had to be paid to him. Robert's talk was full of dramatic and cultural detail including that of 17 of his ancestors who were lost in the disaster. The vote of thanks was given by Al Horwood.
