The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
THE ARCHIVES
100 years ago
The Boy Scout movement is booming in Dundee and an army hut, the new headquarters of the 12th (Maryfield) Troop in Lynnefield Place was opened by Lieut Colonel H. K. Smith, County Commissioner. Rev J. Miller Graham presided. Colonel Smith said a great deal of happiness was to be gained by those associated with the movement in keeping in close touch with the boys generally and the help that was given by the public in developing the movement was greatly appreciated.
50 years ago
A firm of salvage experts is seeking valuable metals on the seabed around the Bell Rock. It has acquired the salvage rights on the Royal Navy cruiser Argyll, which ran on to the Bell Rock and sank in 1915. Most of the cruiser’s guns were removed from the wreck a few years after the end of the Great War. The salvage team from Peterhead, led by Skipper T. W. Browning, set off from Dundee Harbour yesterday on board the Minto of Aberdeen, a small salvage vessel. Two divers are included in the four man crew.
25 years ago
The bells of St Mary’s and St Paul’s rang out over Dundee last night thanks to the combined efforts of local and American bell-ringers. A group of 18 bell-ringers – 15 girls and three chaperones – from the National Cathedral School, Washington, stopped in the city on a two week tour of Great Britain. They were hosted at a reception at the City Chambers and afterwards they climbed over 100 steps up the spiral staircase of St Mary’s Tower. Bell-ringing is a minority interest in America with only 250 people taking part.
One year ago
Nearly 12,000 previously exempt households with pensioners aged 75 and over in Perth and Kinross will be forced to pay for a TV licence next year, new analysis shows. Anger over the BBC’s decision to link the perk to Pension Credit from June 2020 is growing across the region and calls for a U-turn have been stepped up amid fears many elderly people will miss out or face prosecution for being unable to pay the £154.50 fee. The BBC said the current system is “ultimately untenable.”