Steps are taken to ban dancing

Decision is taken for the duration of war

Members of the committee which ran Bannockburn Public Hall reacted angrily to a fresh request for dancing to resume there, the Observer of 100 years ago reported.

At the committee’s annual general meeting in 1917, dancing, apart from at marriage receptions, was banned because of the war.

Before the meeting, the committee received several complaints from people living near the hall about the behaviour of those attending dances there.

Some residents spoke of having their sleep disturbed by noisy revellers, and one told of being ‘molested’ one morning as he was going to work by some people who had been at an event at the hall.

Committee members discussed the complaints and were of the opinion it was not proper, during wartime, to be staging such functions.

It was, however, agreed to refer the matter to the annual general meeting and it was at that gathering some months earlier that a dancing ban for the duration of the war was imposed.

The move was agreed unanimously. Following the latest request regarding dancing, the chairman wanted to know what had changed in the months since the ban was imposed.

In a scathing verbal attack on those calling for dancing to resume, the chairman said he found it “astounding that with so many homes in their midst experiencing the bitter tragedy of this fearful war, and in view of the seriousness of the food question and grim, gaunt spectre of famine looming, anyone could have the temerity to come to a public meeting evidently for the avowed purpose of trying to organise public dancing”.

The chairman thought it regrettable that they had among them people “so far forgetful of the value of common decency as to overstep the limit in their keen search for pleasure”.

Committee members reaffirmed the decision taken at the previous agm.

The Observer said the dancing request had received a “merited snub” and applauded the chairman for his “lecture on patriotism”.

*** In other homefront news, the Observer reported that Dunblane Hydropathic (Dunblane Hydro) had been bought by the War Office and would no longer be open to the public.

Instead, it was to be converted to a hospital for a “certain class of military patient”. The 200-bedroom hotel, constructed 43 years earlier at a cost of £50,000, was renowned as one of the best equipped buildings of its type and had large dining and recreation rooms.