Doubts over kirk celebrations

Craigie readers enjoyed a slice of cake and a cuppa at a special event at historic St Andrew’s Parish Church in Dundee recently.

Among those present at the city centre kirk was Frank Galloway and his wife Faye – with the Menzieshill dweller’s St Andrew’s association going back some eight decades.

He says: “On June 4 a celebration marked the 250th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of this once great church standing proudly at the top of St Andrew’s Street – a church held in great esteem in Dundee and many countries globally where members emigrated to but never cut links.

“At the same time as this celebration, a special cake was cut showing St Andrew’s and St Paul’s churches amalgamating into one Dundee church – not called the obvious title of ‘St Andrew’s and St Paul’s Church of Dundee’, but an obscure name of ‘Kingsgait Kirk Dundee’, voted as the best of a number of titles submitted for the joint church.

“You may wonder why I have such an interest in this new ‘Kingsgait Kirk’. Since birth in 1939 at 31 Wellgate – and being christened in St Andrew’s in 1940 – I was brought up with the church playing such a great part in my childhood and teenage years, both in Sunday school and even more so in my Boys’ Brigade membership for eight years before leaving school to take up a National Coal Board apprenticeship in Fife.

“Returning to Dundee, I resumed my connection as a church member and with the BB Former Members’ Association. When our daughter Wendy was born she was also christened in church, and joined the Girls’ Brigade before becoming a church member.

“Very tragically Wendy died at the age of 20 and the Rev Ian Petrie conducted a most poignant service before the burial at Balgay Cemetery. Our attendance at Sunday services became less and less frequent but St Andrew’s has remained a symbol of so much of our lives – especially mine, as early days are so vivid in the memory – and for the benefits I gained while growing up.

“Some may say what difference does a name make, but when 82 years of walking up the front entrance to St Andrew’s Parish Church has come to an end then in our opinion the name does still matter to us.”

John Stoa sent this photo of Dundee gardening apprentices David Miller, Eddie Eason, Henry Taylor and others at Kingsway Tech’s Duntrune Terrace demonstration garden, circa 1961, with tutors Walter Gilmore, shown back far left, and Davie Taylor at back far right.