Not that Courier!

“I read the recent story of the Perth man who thought he had found The Courier in Stettin in Poland recently; I thought I had found it in France in 1948,” writes a Craigie regular.

“The Polish ‘Courier’ was actually a Stettin newspaper called the ‘Kurier’. Mine turned out to be the French for mail – ‘courrier.’

“I was a 17 year old on a school exchange visit to Orleans from Dundee and, when I asked about letters from home, the mother of the family used to say: ‘Non, pas de courrier aujourd’hui.’

“I wondered at first why she was telling me the ‘Courier’ had not been delivered, then it clicked – she was saying there had been no mail for me that day.

“Yes, the Courier’ – or ‘le courrier’ goes everywhere in France!”

He went on to open shops in the Pillars 17-19 Reform Street before 1900.

In 1900 he was the first tenant in Whitehall Crescent.

In 1918 Keith took over Fergusons, the two-window tailor in the Murraygate, employing fout tailors, three tailoresses and a cutter.

In 1923 he took over the adjoining menswear shop Rowbottom, and intalled an elevator and a cash tube system.

He sold the building off in 1936 but meanwhile the Overgate shop had taken three adjoining shops in the 1920s, employing a resident joiner and shop fitter to do altering and odd jobs in the shops.

The Overgate shop took over Kirk & Coutts next door when it closed during the Second World War. Only the windows were used for display until after the war because of restrictions. The shop was taken over by the town in 1966 and only the shop in Whitehall Crescent was left.

Keith was very keen on advertising and at one time was the sole advertiser on the city tramways. Every glass ventilator on the trams had Keith Scott’s name on it.

He had a double stand at the Highland Show when it was in Dundee showing Highland outfits and tartan goods, which he specialised in.

Keith had three sons: Keith, Tom and Fred. Tom and Fred entered the business, but Tom died in the war. Fred was a major in the Territorials and was called up. He was taken prisoner at Tobruk and returned to the business after the war.

Keith Scott died in 1948, and Fred died in 1972 when the business was taken over by Guy Wilson, formerly of GL Wilson’s Dundee.

One of his first jobs was a complete refit inside, in keeping with the traditional menswear image.

In 1979 the adjoining shop, Farquharsons, was acquired allowing the continued growth of the Highland wear department and also the opening of a successful kilt and dress hire section.

Paul Easton of Dundee has sent today’s charming picture. He says: “While out for a wander near Forfar recently I came upon this deer feeding in what I think is a field of peas.”