THE ARRAN BANNER 20 YEARS AGO

Saturday May 10, 1997

New memorial

Around 100 people attended a memorial service at Lochranza where a new memorial stone has been completed to mark the sinking of HMS Vandal.

Admiral Perowne gave an address and then Larry Gaines, now over 70, very alert and living in Perth, took the Union Jack from the marble cairn. The names of all those who died were read out by others who had served in submarines and, after the last post, wreaths were laid around the cairn.

Standing off Lochranza was a modern nuclear submarine, HMS Triumph, and when the party of old sailors returned on the Claonaig ferry, HMS Triumph stopped at the spot where HMS Vandal had gone down and a wreath was thrown into the sea.

Written off

A sum of £12,761 has been written off by North Ayrshire Council which it deems it could not easily recover from three householders in The Row, Catacol.

Following improvement work which involved moving the occupants out for a period, several of the owners were not satis- fied with the work. After several attempts to satisfy these owners all but three paid the outstanding debts. The three that did not, repeatedly advised the council of further complaints from ingress of water owing to the poor quality of the work.

At its support services committee on Tuesday the council felt that it had done all it could to satisfy the owners and the only way to recover the money was to pursue legal action. Insofar as it could be costly and not necessarily successful, it was decided to cancel the charges.

Fèis ceilidh

A ceilidh, held last Friday evening in Brodick Hall, was to raise funds for the second Fèis Arainn. The festival of Gaelic culture and music, with expert tutors from all over Scotland, runs workshops for pupils and holds a concert at the end of the festival. The ceilidh raised more than £450 and the fèis committee also received a £2,000 cheque from the Scottish Co-op.

The Arran High School Ceilidh Band performed at the ceilidh and a high standard of fiddle, accordion, step dancing, singing and clarsach was enjoyed by the audience, who will, undoubtedly, look forward to attending the actual fèis.

B18twe04 Last Friday night a team of Royal Marine reservists were dropped off near Loch Tanna where they conducted a night exercise before abseiling down a cliff and departing at first light.

B18twe02 Last week, being National Spring Clean Week, the Arran Crusaders and Lamlash Cubs joined together to clean up over 21 bags of rubbish from the Whitehouse woods in Lamlash.

B18twe03 More than 20 ladies gathered at Lochranza tearoom last Friday to celebrate the 80th birthday of their painting class instructor, Agnes Lynch, who has lived and tutored in Lochranza for 22 years.

B18twe01 A party of ex- service personnel and family members disembark from the Claonaig ferry last Saturday to attend the memorial service at Lochranza for the loss of the submariners of HMS Vandal.

B18twe05 Mary Crawford throws the first jack at the Lamlash Bowling and Tennis Club which celebrated its centenary on Saturday when a new flag was also unveiled.