THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

A large company of the traders and business community of Aberdeen met last night to present Mr James Henderson, agent, North British Railway, with handsome gifts on the occasion of his leaving to take up the appointment of the stationmaster at Tay Bridge Station, Dundee. Lord Provost Taggart jocularly remarked that he could not understand why anyone would want to leave Aberdeen for Dundee, which could not hold a candle to Aberdeen for cleanliness and fine folk.

50 years ago

During the last two years the Government have paid £240m in cancellation charges for aircraft – more than was paid in the previous 13 years of Tory government. Sir Ian Orr-ewing said this when opening an Opposition attack on the Government’s aircraft policy in the Commons. Added to this figure there would be the cancellation charges for the 50 F111s, which he doubted would cost less than £50 million. All this money had been spent “without a single aircraft to show for it.”

25 years ago

One of the largest take-away orders in Scotland was ready for delivery at the Pizza Hut, Dundee, after staff worked throughout the night to prepare 600 pizzas in aid of charity. Starting at 10pm, kitchen assistant John Anderson, restaurant supervisor Stephen Macdonald, trainee manager Ian Coll and manager Chris Barnes spent 12 hours preparing the pizzas for a fund-raising campaign by staff at RAF Edzell. Money raised will go towards paying for food parcels for OAPS.

One year ago

NHS Tayside is facing a staffing “crisis”, it is claimed, after official figures revealed the number of local health workers is falling. ISD Scotland showed there are 85 fewer full-time employees, yearon-year, across Angus, Dundee and Perthshire, including a drop in the number of nurses and midwives. NHS Tayside put the dip down to “fluctuations” and Health Secretary Shona Robison – Dundee East MSP – said NHS staff numbers “have risen to record highs” under the SNP administration.