THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

By putting together passages from several official documents and private letters lately captured in German trenches one can frame some idea of the careful economy practised in the German army at the front. A soldier writing from the trenches on June 23 writes: “Every day the food gets less; it makes one very depressed.” The green cardboard bread ticket for last April of a man of the 1st Guard Reserve Division shows one of the means taken to prevent waste of food: every man has half a loaf daily.

50 years ago

A four-and-a-half year courtship by letter across the thousands of miles separating Scotland and Hong Kong ended on Saturday with the marriage of Bill Soong (20), manager of the Tien Tsin Chinese Restaurant in Dunfermline. Bill came to Britain as a 16 year old with only a few words of English. During all the time he kept a steady correspondence with a girl called Yuk Tai Cheuk in Hong Kong and last year proposed to her by letter. Their wedding took place in Dunfermline Registry Office.

25 years ago

Restaurateur David Carson has a weighty problem on his hands – how to lose three stones for charity, whilst being surrounded by food for 12 hours every day. David (22), assistant manager at Littlejohn’s Restaurant in St Andrews, decided to go on a sponsored diet for Edinburgh Royal Hospital’s Sick Kids Appeal for which he hopes to raise £500. The 6 foot, 17 stone rugby player hopes to achieve his target weight loss in two months, with the help of his staff.

One year ago

One of the world’s leading chefs has turned the kitchen gardens at Andy Murray’s hotel into a source of organic produce, it emerged yesterday. Albert Roux wanted to ensure that cooks in the Chez Roux restaurant, at the five-star Cromlix Hotel in Perthshire use their own organic produce. Now, 12 months since the opening of the hotel, the first fruits of their labour are finding their way into the kitchen. More than 50 types of vegetables, fruits and herbs are planted in the green space.