THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

In connection with the honour done by St Andrews University to their venerable headmaster Mr George Clark, MA, in conferring on him the degree of LL.D, the former pupils of the West End Academy gathered within Lamb’s Hotel, Dundee, and signed a message of congratulations and remembrance. There was a very large attendance presided over by Mr Joseph Philip. The message testified to the pride and pleasure experienced by those who cherish memories of the old school.

50 years ago

Three men, two of them brothers, were in a car which somersaulted for 130 yards down Dundee’s Kingsway West. One man was catapulted clear and the other two were trapped in tangled wreckage when their Riley saloon came to a halt on its roof on a grass verge. Passers-by tore at metal with their bare hands to free the men. David Mollison, 26, James Mollison, 22, and Harold Doogan, 21, were taken by ambulance to Dundee Royal Infirmary. No other vehicle was involved in the incident.

25 years ago

The search for something to occupy her mind while she was immobile following surgery has paid dividends for Dundee girl Rosina Martin. Rosina, 12, who attends St John’s High School, had always been interested in reading and writing and, when she was off her feet after an operation on her spine, she started attending the creative writing classes at Dundee Arts Centre. Now she is looking forward to October when one of her poems appears in an anthology of new writing by young people.

One year ago

Oscar Pistorius has been sentenced to six years in prison for the murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The judge called the doubleamputee Olympian a “fallen hero.” South Africa’s minimum sentence for murder is 15 years but the judge said “substantial and compelling circumstances” existed to give Pistorius a lesser sentence for shooting Reeva Steenkamp at his home in 2013. Judge Thokozile Masipa described Pistorius as a “good candidate for rehabilitation”.