Author Archives

Award-winning journalist and digital history specialist - creating historical content for the web.

• Henry Dundas – lofty hero or lowlife crook?

  By chris holme on August 2, 2014 • ( 26 )

  

  He’s the man I walk past every day but never get to see up close. That’s because he’s 140 feet up in St Andrew Square – easily the tallest statue in Edinburgh. Far, far above His Royal Highness (William IV)… Read More ›

• Scotland goes tapestry bonkers (3)

  By chris holme on July 27, 2014 • ( 0 )

  

  Number three of the great tapestries to come out of Prestonpans is the one stitched by the Scottish communities across the world. As such, the Diaspora Tapestry  offers a very different historical perspective than the previous two – for the… Read More ›

• War, whisky and well being

  By chris holme on February 26, 2014 • ( 0 )

  

  Man walks into jewellers and writes cheque for £100,000. Leaves with nothing and is very happy. This was the unlikely beginning of the Usher Hall in Edinburgh in 1896. The man was whisky distiller Andrew Usher and the jeweller was… Read More ›

• The legacy of Elsie Inglis – Edinburgh’s shame

  By chris holme on February 6, 2014 • ( 19 )

  

  Recent controversies over the centenary of World War One sometimes overlook a key factor – how the survivors wanted it to be remembered by future generations. In the case of Dr Elsie Inglis, this was quite simple – build maternity… Read More ›

• Dustbin of history – a brief Hogmanay rant

  By chris holme on December 30, 2013 • ( 0 )

  What did history do to merit the dustbin tag? You don’t hear about things being consigned to the cesspit of chemistry, morass of mathematics or sewer of sociology. But “dustbin of history” is now in common usage. Mark Liberman has… Read More ›

• Scotland goes tapestry bonkers (part two)

  By chris holme on November 21, 2013 • ( 0 )

  

  The Scottish Parliament has never seen anything like it – more than 30,000 people queuing up outside and desperate to get in. Over three weeks they waited patiently for an hour or more just to see the Great Tapestry of… Read More ›

• Polish women soldiers in Gullane

  By chris holme on October 23, 2013 • ( 18 )

  

    One of the great pleasures of wasting an idle hour looking at archive film is the electric jolt of surprise that causes you to fall off your chair. In my case it was this clip of around 100 female… Read More ›

• Archie Cochrane, father of evidence based medicine

  By chris holme on October 9, 2013 • ( 7 )

  

  This wee gem from Cardiff University shows Archie Cochrane, the father of evidence-based medicine, in his prime. He is the narrator so you see him from the start in a 1970s-style pullover.  Then it cuts to scenes from the 1950s… Read More ›

• How the Chest was Won

  By chris holme on August 4, 2013 • ( 2 )

  

  Professor  Jimmy Williamson, who died in June, was the last surviving member of the Edinburgh group which found the first 100% cure for tuberculosis. In 1954 he was the last consultant to join Sir John Crofton’s team in Edinburgh. As… Read More ›

• Health, the Highlands and Tony Benn’s dad

  By chris holme on July 26, 2013 • ( 3 )

  

  1913 was anything but a quiet halcyon year, a point well illustrated in Michael Portillo’s recent Radio Four series Two important Scottish centenaries also came out of it. On August 15, royal assent was given to bill setting up the… Read More ›