THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

The Education Department, in a circular to school managers and teachers, announce that a considerable quantity of grain is at present being used in certain industrial procedures which are essential to the prosecution of the war. In order to set this grain free for human consumption, experiments have been made to discover a substitute which could be used in the processes and this has been found in the horse chestnut. School children are to help harvest the horse chestnuts.

50 years ago

A giant pearl, almost as large as a man’s fingernail, has been found in the Tay. The pearl, weighing 28 grains, was found by Donald McGregor of Rattray, Blairgowrie. The new find comes only two weeks after a pearl measuring half an inch in diameter was found by Scotland’s only professional pearl fisher, 35-year-old Bill Abernethy of Coupar Angus. At the time the Abernethy Pearl, as it has since been named, was found, it was described as a “once in a lifetime find” by a Perth jeweller.

25 years ago

The thirteenth hole on Carnoustie’s Championship Golf Course will forever be regarded as lucky by two Tayside men after they achieved the impossible by striking holes-in-one while playing together. Douglas Pryde (31) of Monifieth and Iain Strachan (31) of Dundee achieved the amazing feat on the 140-yard par three while playing in a stableford competition with a friend. “When we got to the hole,” said Douglas, “my ball was clean in the hole and the other was wedged between lip and pin.”

One year ago

A Kirriemuir woman is one of three Scots on the GB team for the World University Rowing Championships. Robyn Hart-Winks will aim to build on the best season yet for Scottish rowing when she competes for team Britain at the championships in Poznan, Poland. The Edinburgh University graduate will compete in the lightweight women’s single scull, while Cameron Buchan competes in the men’s eight and Melissa Wilson is in the women’s single scull.