Can you help identify these school pictures?

AMintlaw woman is appealing to P&J readers to help find out more about some mystery school photos she has inherited.

Valerie Scroggie, 68, discovered the photos in her late sister Eileen’s possessions after she died.

Of the six photos, two are clearly captioned Rora School, but the other four are a mystery.

One has a special Coronation emblem, which dates it to the Queen’s Coronation in 1953.

For Mrs Scroggie, one of the most intriguing things is that although Eileen and her two brothers, Alistair and Stanley (Walker), attended Rora school, none of the photos are from their time there.

Mrs Scroggie said: “There’s an 11-year gap between myself and my siblings, and I never went to Rora school.

“But none of them are in those photos, so it’s a real mystery why my sister had them.”

She added that although the assumption would be that the photos are all of Rora, it’s not certain.

“I don’t even know where the picnic one was taken,” she said.

Mrs Scroggie attended Longside school from P1 to S3, so has no association with Rora.

She hopes an appeal in the P&J will bring forward someone with a connection to the photos, and who might like to keep them.

“After I’m gone, my sons will just tear them up,” she said with a laugh.

Rora Primary opened in 1874 and was closed in 1970.

The matter was debated at Westminster, with local MP Patrick Wolrige-Gordon objecting in strong terms to the lack of consultation over the closure, including the ignoring of a peti tion sent to the Scottish Secretary.

“There was no consultation; not even adequate information,” Mr Wolrige-Gordon, clearly aggrieved, told the House.

He went on to challenge the reason for the closurecited as “finance and educational advantage” but met no sympathy from

Edward Taylor, undersecretary of state for health and education.

Mr Taylor said: “Last session Rora school was a one-teacher school with a total roll of 23 pupils. The authority takes the view – I emphasise that it is the authority’s view – that it is extremely difficult to provide the quality and breadth of a modern primary education in a one-teacher school and that alternative arrangements should be made when this can be done without imposing unreasonable difficulty and distress on pupils and parents.”

MYSTERY: P&J reader Valerie Scroggie would like help in finding out some more about these school photographs she inherited from her sister.

The location of this picnic is a mystery.