Author Archives
Award-winning journalist and digital history specialist - creating historical content for the web.
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The Genesis of Geriatrics
One of the pleasures of history is going back to your original sources and finding something new. In this case it was an interview with Professor Jimmy Williamson way back in 2007. Jimmy’s earlier career as a tuberculosis (TB) physician… Read More ›
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An exceptional Irish nurse
Hannah “Nancy” O’Driscoll was remarkable in many ways but like most nurses from the last century she remains largely unknown. She was a nurse midwife with the Frontier Nursing Service in Kentucky which had been modelled on the Highlands and… Read More ›
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Dundee’s Pioneering Female Journalists
Not for nothing is it called the City of Discovery. Dundee was one of the earliest supporters of journalists reporting from overseas which gained prominence after William Russell made his name in 1854 with his Times despatches from the Crimean… Read More ›
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When a Great Dane was Top Dog
As the Second World War was reaching is destructive climax, the holy grail of medical research was finally found – in Gothenburg. Tuberculosis (TB) had wreaked havoc on humankind for millennia. Huge efforts were made to find a cure after… Read More ›
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Carnage at Paris Olympics (in 1924)
Rammies at rugby matches are relatively rare but the level of crowd violence for the Olympic Games final in Paris in 1924 effectively killed off rugby as an Olympic sport. The match at Colombes stadium ended in carnage with the… Read More ›
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Women and Edinburgh banks – a New Town daunder
You wouldn’t really know it was there. But it’s worth seeking out. Walk in to the RBS West End branch at 142 Princes Street and take a look at the two display panels on the right. They chronicle its launch… Read More ›
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Old Bill, Black Angels and Gertie and Jamini
Welcome to my first newsletter of 2024… it takes the theme of unheard voices and unsung heroes…. Old Bill Old Bill (left) and Thomas Rafferty (right) He was one of the best-known British characters from World War One. Artist Bruce… Read More ›
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The prisoners of war who made it back home
Think twice about throwing out that old book – the one you picked up yonks ago in a library sale. It can have its uses….in this case shedding light on the leader of the first Luftwaffe raid over Britain. The… Read More ›
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In search of the real Margaret Fairlie
Fresh research has cast new light on the identity of Margaret Fairlie, an orderly in the original Scottish Women’s Hospitals group which established a hospital at Royaumont Abbey in northern France in 1914. Like others, I had assumed this was… Read More ›
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Women’s golf 125 years ago
Gullane is currently hosting the 2022 Women’s Open. These are the competitors for the Ladies Open in 1897. They’re gathered outside the Old Clubhouse – since extended and now a very fine pub. Women’s golf was in the ascendancy then… Read More ›
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