THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

For the past seven days the work of the Royal Flying Corps upon the western front has bulked largely in the official communiqués and the week in question has been marked by the hardest and most continuous aerial fighting since the war began. There were 42 enemy planes brought down, three shot down by our guns and 43 driven down out of control. The number of our machines missing is the same period is 31. This illustrates the average measure of our aerial supremacy over the Germans.

50 years ago

Mr Robert S. Walker, the chairman, said at the half-yearly meeting of Dundee Savings Bank yesterday that they seemed to have escaped the worst effects of the “squeeze”, the high Bank rate earlier in the year and other factors which had been operating against the success of banks. They had an increase of £151,000 in funds, while many of the other savings banks were well down on their 1966 figures. Small savings agencies were making steady progress.

25 years ago

A major investigation has been launched after Lothian and Borders police chiefs confirmed that their Edinburgh headquarters were burgled at the weekend and Animal Liberation Front slogans sprayed in the premises. Scottish Crime Squad documents and equipment were stolen from the ground floor of the Fettes Avenue building. The break-in was confirmed in a statement issued by Deputy Chief Constable Hector Clark. He declined to reveal the contents of the stolen documents.

One year ago

A call has been made to tackle the menace of giant hogweed in Tayside after an eight-year-old girl was left needing years of treatment for wounds suffered after touching the plant. Ellie Gallagher from Invergowrie was left with painful blisters which could flare up in sunlight in the future. Her mother Gillian Connarty said: “It will take five months for the burns to totally heal properly. For the next six years after that, she won’t be able to venture outside without covering the affected areas.”