Rugby great whose family escaped the Nazi invasion

From our archives

5 years ago

A FORMER Scotland rugby star whose family fled Holland to escape the Nazis left more than £1 million after his death. Frans ten Bos, one of Scotland’s best-known rugby internationals of the late 1950s and early 60s, died aged 79 last year. Born in England to Dutch parents, his family had briefly returned to the Netherlands before being involved in a dramatic escape to the UK after the Nazi invasion of Holland. The family made their way to Scotland and ten Bos went on to attend Fettes College and Oxford University. His published will has revealed he left an estate worth £1,185,569 that will go to his wife Maria-teresa.

10 years ago

ISLAND life – with low crime, good community spirit and a pleasant environment – is closest to what most Scots want for themselves and their families, according to new measures of wellbeing calculated by a leading charity. Oxfam has ranked Scotland’s local councils according to a new Humankind Index, which it argues is a better measure of success than purely economic figures such as GDP. Under this measure, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles are the best places to live, while North Lanarkshire, Glasgow and East Ayrshire rank worst. The charity is now urging councils to prioritise more than simply economic success when setting policy.

25 years ago

A NEW portrayal of the story behind Scotland’s national flag, the oldest in Europe, was unfurled yesterday near the scene of one of the country’s bloodiest battles. The fresh insight into the origins, history and usage of the Saltire or St Andrew’s Cross – flown above an East Lothian battlefield in the year 832 to encourage the Picts and Scots to victory against the Saxons – comes as devolution and a Scottish Parliament feature high on the political agenda. The story is told in a new £90,000 Flag Heritage Centre set in a restored 400-year-old dovecot adjacent to Athelstaneford Church. Visitors, through an audio visual presentation, will see how the shape of the Saltire formed by clouds appeared in a blue sky as the Scots prayed for victory.

50 years ago

A DOG which loves chocolate buttons may well be the supreme champion at the big Kelvin Hall dog show, which takes place under the auspices of the Scottish Kennel Club next Friday and Saturday. This is the Dobermann, Champion Clanguard Cadet, which belongs to Mr and Mrs D Montgomery of Glasgow. It is one of the most famous dogs in this country and it has won 20 Kennel Club challenge certificates. A dog requires to win three certificates under three different judges to be termed a “champion”. I asked Mr Montgomery how he managed to get Cadet to stand so perfectly in front of a judge.

100 years ago

BY the provisions of the Boundaries Extension Act of 1912 the Corporation of Glasgow are under obligation to provide public halls, baths and washhouses, and libraries for the people residing in certain of the districts which were added to the city 10 years ago. In order to implement this statutory duty by the end of the current month, when assessments for the annexed areas will be placed on the same level as those imposed on residents within the old city boundaries, several projects for the benefit of these communities have recently received the approval of the Corporation. Two such proposals were agreed to in the committee yesterday.

On this day

1498: Vasco da Gama arrived at Calicut, southern India, after discovering a route via the tip of southern Africa.

1506: Christopher Columbus, Genoese explorer, died in Valladolid, Spain.

1799: Honore de Balzac, French novelist, who produced 85 novels in 20 years, was born at Tours. 1840: York Minster was badly damaged by fire.

1867: The foundation stone of the Royal Albert Hall was laid.

1903: Kew Bridge over the river Thames was opened by Edward VII. Its real name is Edward VII Bridge. 1932: Amelia Earhart became the first woman to make a solo air crossing of the Atlantic.

1941: Germany began an aerial invasion of Crete.

1956: America dropped its first hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

1991: In the USSR, the government passed a new law allowing Soviet citizens to leave the country of their own free will.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The Duke of Cambridge announced he’d received his first Covid jab, as the vaccine rollout across the country continued.