DOWN MEMORY LANE
Sarah McFadzean was fascinated to read in last Friday’s Courier about the Kintyre buses of old. Ms McFadzean said that her grandfather Johnny Sinclair, no relation that she is aware of to the Dr Sinclair who published the book, drove buses himself and she sent the Courier his photo. Ms McFadzean said he bought the nursery in Glenbarr and brought up his family there, two sons Peter and Iain. In more recent times Glenbarr Nurseries was sold and the new owners discovered an old bus driver’s badge under the floorboards which belonged to Johnny Sinclair.
Display
Ms McFadzean said she has heard that Glenbarr Stores, Cafe and Garden plan to display the badge in the shop along with her photo. Firefighters attacking the blaze at Machrihanish Golf Club the week before Christmas managed to save virtually all of the most valuable artefacts. These included an architect’s plan drawn up more than 38 years ago on June 12 1980, for proposed alterations and additions to the building. It shows the ground floor plan section and elevation. Although the plan is scorched and had been left out to dry from the fire hoses water it is one of many remarkable documents which would have been work-a-day when produced. Last week the Courier featured four pages on the HMY Iolaire commemorations at Stornoway on Hogmanay (see also pages 20 and 21). The Iolaire sank within sight of Stornoway harbour when it hit submerged rocks, named the Beasts of Holm, on Hogmanay 1918.
Perished
Last week’s Courier leader column put the dead at 270, that was the number on the boat, in fact 204 servicemen returning from the First World war perished. Poppy Scotland commissioned a special poppy pin to mark the occasion and all proceeds are to be shared by projects on the Isle of Lewis.