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 ›
gems from the archive
Speaking the Unspeakable
It struck on October 23, 1942.There was no warning. For families across Britain it was like any other Friday night settling around a cosy coal fire listening to the BBC Home Service with its cheery wartime distractions: a concert from… Read More ›
Coughs and Sneezes
Whoever thought it up deserves a medal. Few catchphrases last a century and still resonate with the public. “Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases” originated in the 1918 influenza pandemic to support a US Public Health Service campaign. It was tagged… Read More ›
Call the Midwife Christmas Special (2)
Part one of this quiz was about nurses. This is part two aimed more at film and TV buffs. CtM was really well filmed – something new for the Hebrides? Nope. Two of the greatest cinematographers cut the their teeth… Read More ›
Flight of the Condor over the Forth
It was the moment the Spanish Civil War came to Scotland – eight months after it had ended in Spain. October 16, 1939 saw the first Nazi air raid over Britain to bomb ships in the Firth of Forth. Many… Read More ›
The night the world ended
Few reporters make the ranks of poets. My namesake Hugh Christopher Holme was one of them. As a Reuters correspondent he brought the horror of the bombing of Gernika (Guernica) to the world’s attention. His dispatches triggered an enormous international response, immortalised in… Read More ›
The benefits of frontier-free science
It’s hard to pin down what we actually lose if the free movement of people and ideas diminishes or dies. Scotland’s historic close links with Europe help explain its overwhelming vote to stay in the EU. Free exchange in the… Read More ›
Viva Aviva Archiva
The history of insurance may seem an ideal cure for insomnia – but not in the hands of enterprising archivists. Aviva has recently launched its new archive website and it’s a real treat – a very good example of what… Read More ›
Nurses and TB in 1950
What was it like to start out as a nurse in 1950? All tickety boo, according to this short film (9 mins) from the NLS Moving Image Archive. Click on the image to see it. It’s a public information/propaganda film… Read More ›
Motorcycling nurses
Meet district nurse Elizabeth McPhee with her rather splendid BSA motorcycle in 1926. She is the headline image in a stunning online collection at the US National Library of Medicine. The exhibition, curated by Julia Hallam, of Liverpool University, who talks… Read More ›
The History Company 