The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Friends reunited after 50 years
John and Ian back together, thanks to The Courier
The Courier has brought two old friends back together, more than half a century after they last saw each other.
John McNaughton and Ian Cruickshanks finally found one another through the paper’s Craigie Column in March.
The pair, who first met in their teenage years, worked as telegram boys in Dundee during the 1950s and ’60s.
Following a six-year campaign by Mr McNaughton to try to track down his old workmate, their paths have crossed once more, more than 50 years after Mr Cruickshanks left his job.
The incredible story came to light when Mr Cruickshanks saw a note in The Courier from March 4, in which Mr McNaughton issued a plea to help locate his old friend.
It read: “I would also like to contact Ian Cruickshanks whom I have not heard of, or seen, since 1965. Ian left the GPO and none of our group has any news of him either, so I appeal to Craigie readers if they know of his whereabouts.”
It was not until this month that the message finally reached Mr Cruickshanks, who now lives in Lanarkshire, through an online edition of The Courier. This week they caught up with each other over the phone for a chat that lasted well over an hour.
Mr McNaughton said: “I’ve been looking for him for the past six years.
“Ian was one of the original four telegram boys. We were 15 at the time.”
The pair now have plans to meet for a proper catch-up when Mr Cruickshanks next visits the city.
He is the last of a group of four telegram boys, who all joined the service at the same time, to be reunited.