Angus couple’s Gretna jaunt had tongues wagging in town

Nuptials would appear to have been very much to the fore in Forfar’s news agenda exactly 86 years ago today.

In his excellent compendium of highlights pertaining to the town over the past 200plus years, Forfar On This Day, author David Potter includes a yarn from 1936 that tells of how a young couple became a talking point in the home of bridies by completing a surprise 340-mile round journey to Dumfries and Galloway and back that November 17 in order to tie the knot.

Mr Potter writes: “The Lowson family are seldom out of the news, and there is always a certain amount of eccentricity about them as well. Today, however, Alexander Dickson Lowson, the third son of the late Dr Lowson, one-time provost of this time, lived up to the family reputation by getting married at Gretna Green!

“His bride was Olga Valentine Mitchell, daughter of Mr and Mrs Mitchell, of Hillside, Montrose. It is not clear to what extent this was planned in advance but it appears that the couple left the town by car late on the night of Monday November 16, along with a friend, William Small, of Queen Street.

“Apparently Alex phoned his widowed mother to tell her his intentions and Olga phoned her parents as well. What the parental reaction was is not clear, but there was little that could be done in any case, and the wedding party drove all the way to Gretna throughout the night in the incessant November rain.

“They reached there very early in the morning, woke the blacksmith up, persuaded him to perform the ceremony

and then had a cup of tea with him! The happy couple then drove all the way back to Forfar – it is not clear whether Mr Small came with them or returned on his own by train lest he be seen to play ‘gooseberry’ – and by evening they reported back to Mrs Lowson senior and Mr and Mrs Mitchell as man and wife.”

David ends: “Naturally this bizarre event was the talk of the town, with reactions varying from ‘an awfa wey tae treat his

mither’ to ‘well done, Eck!’ – but the deed was done and the couple were married.”

Forfar’s John Crichton took his wife Sheila on a short trip and says: “Just outside our usual stomping ground we were impressed by the surroundings of Ballater Church.”

Passengers crowd the platform at the former Forfar Station as the last train to ever stop at the town pulls in back in September 1967.