FROM OUR ARCHIVES
5 YEARS AGO
The Duke of Cambridge, pictured, has proven Indian ancestry, according to new DNA analysis. Scientists testing saliva samples from Prince William’s relatives discovered a direct link between the future king and a woman who was part-indian. The connection traces back just eight generations, with the woman, Eliza Kewark, being the Duke’s great, great, great, great, great grandmother. She was housekeeper to his fifth greatgrandfather Theodore Forbes, born in 1788, a Scottish merchant who worked for the East India Company in Surat, a port north of Bombay. The research was carried out by Britainsdna, a Scots-based genetic ancestry testing company, which used a mixture of traditional genealogy and cutting-edge science to come up with the findings.
10 YEARS AGO
The international success of Scotland’s oldest university is boosted by its refusal to discriminate in favour of state school pupils from deprived backgrounds, its departing principal said yesterday. Dr Brian Lang believes that the rise of St Andrews up the international league table of universities under his tenure is because it has “not compromised on excellence” while trying to make the student population more diverse. In an interview with
The Herald, Dr Lang, who stands down from his position in December, also said he believed student debt was “a price worth paying” for an improved financial position that would last a lifetime.
25 YEARS AGO
Terry Venables was ousted as chief executive of Tottenham Hotspur yesterday after losing the first leg of his battle with chairman Alan Sugar for control of the club. News of his defeat was greeted with fury by hundreds of the club’s fans outside court and there was a warning that as many as 12 players would ask for transfers. Although his failure to win an injunction preventing his dismissal means Spurs will start next season without Mr Venables at the helm, he could still regain control if his bid to buy out Mr Sugar is successful.
100 YEARS AGO Arrangements have now been made for the award of torpedo badges to masters and seamen who have served on the articles of any British merchant or fishing vessel considered by the Board of Trade to have been sunk or damaged by torpedo or mine at any time during the present war and who have afterwards engaged for and completed a further voyage on the articles of a British vessel. In addition, a bar will be awarded to masters and seamen each time they are again torpedoed or mined, and when five bars have been won they can be surrendered to the Board of Trade in exchange for a five-pointed star.