Interesting ancestors

“I read with interest the article by Keith Walker on the land known as Wills Braes,” emails Harry Wills. “This stirred my interest to look back at what was known about my family. There was a William Wills who owned a draper and tailor’s business in Dunfermline and Edinburgh. I still have his signet ring.

“My grandfather, Harry Wills, was a conscientious objector at the beginning of the First World War. It was a serious offence, particularly as his reasons were political. His saving grace was that he was a lithographic printer at a time when there were very few in Scotland who could manage the technology.

“This came to the attention of Colonel Valentine, whose company, as well as printing postcards, also had a contract for printing detailed military maps to which the lithographic process was particularly suited.

“Colonel Valentine offered my grandfather a protected occupation in the Home Guard if he would join his company in Dundee. My grandfather refused. Apparently, Col. Valentine was so persistent that he decided to approach my grandmother and his Rolls-royce, with his chauffeur, was seen outside the family home in Lochee.

“Col. Valentine was so persuasive that he got a new recruit for his Home Guard as well as a skilled lithographic printer.

“My father, also Harry Wills, was in the printing industry. Born in Blinshaw Street, Dundee, he was enlisted into the Argyll and Southern Highlanders, for whom he also boxed, prior to being involved in the Battle of El Alamein.”

John Gregory of Coupar Angus took this photograph and says: “These swans were coming in to land on the River Isla at Coupar Angus.”