FROM OUR ARCHIVES
5 YEARS AGO
More than two million shares in Rangers Football Club were traded yesterday as manoeuvres were made to gather influence at the club. Speculation was rife last night as to who had shed the 3% stake and who had made the investment in the club following the £840,000 purchase. Kieran Prior, the former Goldman Sachs trader, was among those touted to have bought the stake through his Pri Arc investment company. Mr Prior, who already owns 1.4% of the club, said last month he wanted to take his stake up to 5% or 10% in the near future.
10 YEARS AGO
Glasgow Airport was last night said to be on the brink of a sell-off. The Herald understands Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial is looking at plans to put the airport on the market in a bid to avoid a full-scale break-up of the company being imposed by UK watchdogs. Any sale would effectively smash Ferrovial’s near monopoly in Scotland: the company’s subsidiary BAA, the former British Airports Authority, owns Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports and controls more than three-quarters of the Scottish market.
25 YEARS AGO
Labour MP George Foulkes, pictured, was yesterday charged with assaulting a police officer and being drunk and disorderly after an incident last month outside the House of Commons. The issue could threaten his future on the front bench. Mr Foulkes was bailed by police to appear before Bow Street magistrates on September 9. The MP for Carrick, Cumnock, and Doon Valley arrived at Charing Cross police station on a motor cycle. He was arrested on July 21 after attending a reception held by the Scotch Whisky Association.
50 YEARS AGO
Dr J Dickson Mabon, Minister of State, Scottish Office, yesterday confirmed that Scott’s Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock, will remain on the approved list as builders of warships “for some time”. He also spoke strongly in favour of a merger of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders and the Scott-lithgow Group on the lower reaches of the river. Dr Mabon said: “We on the Clyde would be the largest group in Britain if there was a merger. You could diversify, cut costs, save money, and bring greater prosperity.”
100 YEARS AGO
Fifty tons of bombs were dropped by our airmen on August 11 and the following night. The two chief objectives, both by day and by night, were the Somme crossings and certain railway junctions of military importance. Courtrai station and sidings were heavily bombed by some of our squadrons in daylight from a low height without loss to us. Many direct hits were observed. At night Peronne and Cambrai stations were attacked with good effect. All our night bombing machines safely returned. Enemy aircraft were active on the battle front.