THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

The House of Lords voted in favour of women’s suffrage by 134 votes to 71. The division was brought about by an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill proposed by Lord Loreburn, the object of which was to exclude women from the Parliamentary vote. In the course of the debate in committee, the Lord Chancellor said the subject of women’s suffrage came up very late in the sittings of the Speaker’s Conference. The result was arrived at by only a narrow majority.

50 years ago

The generosity of officers on board the Dutch liner Tegelberg enabled two Scottish girls to disembark for a visit to South Africa. Isabel Turner, 22, from Kilmarnock and Sandra Youngson, 24, of Newtyle, feared they would have to forego the South African leg of their round-the-world trip when immigration officials at Cape Town would not allow them to disembark. They did not have the 200 rand (£116 13s 6d) each to get visitors’ permits. The ship’s officers collected the money for them.

25 years ago

While other eight-year-olds are content to watch TV, Siobhan Anton is learning the ropes at Dundee Steeple Church. The city’s youngest bell-ringer, Siobhan is so small she needs to climb up on to a platform to reach the bell pulls. That’s after she has climbed the 232 stone steps to the bell tower’s ringing room high up on the Old Steeple. A pupil at Springfield Primary School, Cupar, Siobhan took up bell ringing just a few months ago. Her father Ken is one of the regular ringers.

One year ago

Thousands of Angus households will be hit by council tax increases of up to £482 this year – even if the authority freezes bills again. A new study also reveals which parts of Dundee will bear the brunt of the reforms, which impose a greater burden on those living in more expensive homes. Nearly 12,000 homes in Angus are affected by those changes, which come into force in April. The area that will be hardest hit will be Monifieth and Sidlaw, where 3,095 properties will be affected by the hikes.