THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

In those days when the cry is loud for economy, citizens of Perth are indulging in the thought that the War Office might do a little pruning in the Fair City. Within the past few months, military police or, as they were called in the old war days “red caps” have become familiar figures on the streets. But why they are there and what they are doing is a matter of extreme difficulty for the ordinary individual to understand. In the early days of the war, when Perth was to some extent a military centre, a “red cap” was unknown.

50 years ago

Venice City Council is to build a platform in the lagoon to help research into how to stop the city from sinking into the sea. The five-by-five-yard platform will be fixed to the lagoon bed on Sunday and will house instrument for studying the flow of the water and atmospheric conditions. Some information is destined for a computer which is being fed with information on winds, soil composition, damage to buildings and air and water pollution. The computer will help construct a mathematical model of Venice.

25 years ago

A brave Dunfermline boy yesterday jumped from the roof of his house to escape a serious early morning fire. Gary Horstmann (9) dropped about 20 feet, then crawled along the street to try to find help not realising his leg was broken. He eventually collapsed at the door of a neighbour, unaware that his mother Pamela and her boy friend Alan Nicol had also managed to get out alive. They had jumped from their top-floor bedroom window as the blaze raged below. The couple were found on arrival by firemen.

One year ago

Tayside’s tourism industry is basking in the promised V&A effect with visitor numbers to some attractions increasing dramatically. Discovery Point and Verdant Works in Dundee saw the numbers through their doors soaring by 42% and 21% respectively between 2017 and 2018, when the V&A was opened. Centres throughout Angus reported rises of up to nearly 30%. By contrast, Scotland as a whole rose only 0.1%.