THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

Having failed to get nominated for East Fife, Mrs Hope of Luffness says she is going to head a revolution. Since she struck Cupar a week ago Mrs Hope has had a lively time. After addressing the farmers at Cupar Market on Tuesday she went on to Edinburgh and had what she described as “a glorious time hunting old Asquith”. She returned from Edinburgh in a taxi, having left at one o’clock in the morning and journeying via Stirling. Cupar was not reached until eleven o’clock in the forenoon.

50 years ago

A 13-year-old girl came near to death yesterday morning while on her way to Blairgowrie High School in near darkness. Alice Gunn, a shepherd’s daughter, of High Rannagulzion Farm, near Bridge of Cally, was cycling two miles down a farm track to the main road when her cycle overshot an unrailed bridge and she fell 10 feet into a fast-flowing burn. The cycle landed on top of her. Alice was treated for a broken collar bone, bruising and shock at Blairgowrie Cottage Hospital.

25 years ago

Twenty-year-old Fraser Walker from Dunfermline completed a memorable year in competitive swimming when he became only the second Scot to win a world championship medal. In Palma, Majorca, he bettered his own British and Scottish records with a time of 1 minute 58.35 seconds. He follows Olympic gold medallist David Wilkie who won the 100 metres breaststroke in 1973 followed by a double success at the 1975 championships in Cali, Colombia.

One year ago

A number of declining rare breeding birds are becoming increasingly vulnerable to extinction in the UK as a result of climate change, according to a new report. Species such as dotterel, whimbrel, common scoter and Slavonian grebe are all said to be in danger, based on projections around the impact of global warming. The Scottish crossbill, found only in Scotland, is at risk of becoming extinct altogether, experts fear. By contrast, however, some other birds were found to have thrived.