THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

A 15-year-old hallboy named Charles Haig betrayed his trust while in the service of Col. Skene of Pitlour. By means of a false key he opened a drawer of a writing-table in the study and abstracted £22 10s. He also helped himself to a suit of clothes. Then he left without warning and took a train from Ladybank for Newcastle, where he spent the money buying clothes and a camera and generally doing himself well. When he returned to Strathmiglo he was apprehended. He was put on probation for six months.

50 years ago

Jack Nicklaus walked in triumph over the green, green grass of the Old Course, St Andrews, last night after fulfilling a boyhood ambition to win the Open championship at the home of golf. But the thunderous applause from the 7,000 crowd contained as much sympathy for the man he beat, 36-year-old rugged Georgian Doug Sanders, who three-putted the last green on Saturday to let Nicklaus in for a play-off. One official said to him: “You have lost the championship, but you have won yourself an army of friends.”

25 years ago

Representatives from the Whitfield area of Dundee will be telling the world about the community’s regeneration at a conference in New York in September. Whitfield is the only Scottish winner and one of only two British communities chosen in a worldwide awards programme to mark the 50th birthday of the United Nations. The awards recognise a community’s efforts at building a sense of “common unity” at a local, regional or global level. The application was submitted by the late Lord Provost Tom McDonald in 1993.

One year ago

A recurring, large-scale music festival must be attracted to Perthshire to plug the gap left by T in the Park, it has been claimed. The once-loved weekend pop festival was officially laid to rest yesterday after three years in abeyance. At its height, it attracted nearly 70,000 revellers a day to Balado, near Kinross, and won a slew of awards. A move to Strathallan failed and the local economy is said to have taken a £3 million hit since the festival stopped. Director Geoff Ellis said the event had run its course.