The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Picture of the day
Sightseers enjoying the bloom of cherry blossoms at Sanjiang Town of Jinping County in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, south-west China’s Guizhou Province.
“I enjoyed reading John Milne’s recent account regarding all the various shops and businesses which once existed in the Kirkmichael and Strathardle area,” emails Willie Macfarlane of Wolfhill.
“So much so that I decided to send you a copy of a photograph I have in my file that shows Constable William Ferguson and his army of wartime Special Constables. Dated 1945, a number of the ‘specials’ appear to be the businessmen mentioned by John in his letter to the column.
“The village of Kirkmichael had a police presence from around 1839 until the final bobby, Dave Macdougall, was transferred away during the spring of 1974. In its time there were at least five buildings situated around the area that were formally recognised as being the police station. Additionally, at one time there was even a police presence as far north as Dalnaglar, where a constabulary station was located.
“John also makes mention of the Aldchlappie Hotel, Kirkmichael, and that, too, appears to once have had a police connection. During the middle part of the 19th Century, Blairgowrie Burgh was independent of the county constabulary and employed its own full-time police constable – Alexander ‘Post’ Reid.
“During an earlier chapter in his life while engaged as mine host at the Aldchlappie Hotel, ‘Post’ Reid became a well-kent figure in the glen, infamous to the point of notoriety, the excise men desperately striving to thwart the worthy’s affairs as he steered the trusty old mail gig between Bannerfield and Blair.
“And then suddenly, following his family’s
departure into the excitement of the New World, old Reid decided not to follow them but instead to pursue a career in the police.”