The battle occurred when the government sent north an army to deal with Viscount Dundee and his newly formed Jacobite army in its Atholl heartland. However, at Killiecrankie the Jacobites delivered a crushing blow to the government troops under General Mackay, but at the loss of Dundee. Without Dundee's leadership, the uprising foundered after meeting strong resistance from Cameronians at Dunkeld. During the battle, one of Mackay's soldiers, a Donald MacBean, is said to have jumped 18ft across the River Garry to safety at what is now known as the "Soldier's Leap". _________________ FOA BOB -
29 July 1946 saw the birth of Bill Forsyth, Scottish film director and screenwriter.
Born in Whiteinch in 1946, the son of a plumber, Forsyth wrote the script of Gregory's Girl (1981) to showcase the talents of Glasgow Youth Theatre. Lack of funding prompted him to make That Sinking Feeling (1979) instead, the success of which led to him being given the go-ahead to make Gregory's Girl. The quirky and touching tale of teenage love became one of the true classics of Scottish cinema, and Forsyth received the British Academy Award for Best Screenplay. He further explored his distinctive style of gentle, character-driven humour in the internationally acclaimed Local Hero (1983).
On this day in 1567 King James VI was crowned at Stirling.
Regarded as "The Wisest Fool in Christendom", he succeeded to the English throne in 1603. He subsequently only revisited his northern kingdom once. One-year-old Charles James was crowned King James VI of Scotland in a Protestant ceremony in the Church of the Holy Rude, close to Stirling Castle; John Knox preached a sermon. It was exactly two years since Mary married Darnley. _________________ FOA BOB -
On 28 July 1683, Queen Anne Stuart married Prince George of Denmark.
Anne was the second daughter of the catholic King James II, Duke of York (1685-88), but was raised a protestant under the guidance of her uncle, King Charles II. Her marriage to George was devoted but politically unremarkable. Of her 18 pregnancies between 1683 and 1700, five children were born alive and only one, a son, outlived infancy, but he did not survive to take the throne, and she remained heirless.
On 28th July 1645 at Dunkeld, Perthshire, the Royalist Marquess of Montrose beat General Baillie in a skirmish which was part of the English Civil War.
For a war of positions the Highlanders had neither aptitude nor inclination, and at Dunkeld the greater part of them went home. _________________ FOA BOB -
On this day in 1547 the Protestants responsible for the murder of Cardinal David Beaton surrendered St Andrews Castle to French forces.
Beaton's execution in 1546 of the popular preacher, George Wishart, sparked a rebellion of Protestant lairds who seized the castle and killed Beaton. They held the castle for a year but were forced to surrender to the French army. John Knox, who had joined the Castilians, as they were known, served 19 months on French galleys, but eventually he and the other prisoners, except for one who died in captivity, regained their freedom through escape or release.
Upper Clyde Shipyards worker
Today in 1971 saw the beginning of the work-in at John Brown's Clydebank Shipbuilding Yard, organised by stalwart Socialist, Jimmy Reid.
This was in response to the Ted Heath Tory government's plans to liquidate the yard - Reid exposed these as unethical. As a result, Heath was forced to admit defeat and closure was delayed for a number of years. _________________ FOA BOB -
On this day in 1187, MacWilliam was beaten by William I of Scotland at Mamgarvia Moor, Moray.
William I faced revolts in Galloway where he had the royal castle of Dumfries constructed to help keep the peace, and in Ross where the Earls of Orkney were attempting to extend their influence. The rebellions in the north affected lands as far south as Perthshire, and William took several years to restore order. His Galloway campaign was hindered by the northern revolt, in 1181, of Donald MacWilliam, grandson of King Duncan II, who wanted William's kingship. Eventually Donald was killed in 1187 at Mamgarvia Moor by Roland of Galloway. _________________ FOA BOB -
On this day in 1724 Sir Patrick Hume, Lord Marchmont, the Scottish statesman, died.
Imprisoned for his opposition to James II's policies against Scottish Presbyterians, he later escaped to Europe where he became one of William of Orange's chief lieutenants. Following the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, he was appointed Lord Chancellor of Scotland, and played a vital role in securing William's rule in Scotland. _________________ FOA BOB -
Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 8:26 pm Post subject: Sunday August 2nd
On 2 August 1922 Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, died.
Although he is best known for this invention Bell was also well known for his work on deafness, including teaching a young Helen Keller.
His work in this field was a continuation of that which had been begun by his father, Alexander Melville Bell, who developed Visible Speech, a method of teaching speech to the deaf.
Bell also invented an air-cooling system, a way of desalinating sea-water and a sorting machine for punch-coded census cards.
Later in life he also became interested in aeronautics, inventing several large kites capable of carrying the weight of a human and producing a hydrofoil craft in 1919 that managed to reach the speed of 70 mph.
.
Today in 1910 Roger MacDougall, the Scottish playwright and film screenwriter, was born.
MacDougall was the author of the classic comedy play The Man in the White Coat, which he also wrote the film script for as an Ealing Comedy.
He also wrote the scripts for the Ealing comedies, A Touch of Larceny, and The Mouse That Roared.
His other plays include, Escapade and To Dorothy a Son, both adapted as films.
MacDougall also treated himself when diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, changing his diet and making a substantial recovery from the disease. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On this day 3 August in 1460, King James II was killed during the siege of Roxburgh Castle.
James was regarded as one of the better Scottish monarchs of the period, ending the feud between the Livingstons and Crichtons, and finally defeating the rebellious Douglases.
He also established many trade links on the continent and through his wife, Mary of Gueldres, and the marriages of his sisters obtained many valuable political alliances.
However, James took too close an interest in the new military invention, the cannon, and met his end, at the age of only thirty, when a Scottish cannon burst its casing killing the young king outright.
.
On 3 August 1855 inventor George Johnstone was born at West Linton near Edinburgh.
A son of the manse, he trained as an engineer and, in 1894, became the first Scottish motorist driving an imported Daimler.
By the following year he had invented his own car, "the Ghost Tram".
In 1896, he became the first person in Britain to be convicted of a motoring offence when police in Glasgow stopped him in St. Enoch's Square and he failed to convince the court that his car did not constitute a locomotive, and he incurred a fine. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On 4 August 1870 Sir Harry Lauder, Scottish music hall comedian, was born in Portobello.
The biggest Scottish entertainer of his age, his most popular songs included, I Love a Lassie and Roamin' in the Gloamin. Lauder was the first entertainer to perform for soldiers at the front line during the First World War and earned a knighthood in 1919 for this and for his work in recruiting Scots for the army, including paying for 100 pipers to march through Scotland as a recruitment drive. His signature tune was Keep Right on to the End of the Road, supposedly written after he lost his only son during the Great War.
On 5 August 1704, the Act of Security was passed by the Scottish Parliament.
The Act of Security, which allowed the Three Estates to choose another successor to Queen Anne than the choice made by the English Parliament, if Scottish conditions were not met, was approved by the Scottish Parliament.
The English responded with the Alien Act (1705) which demanded that if the Scots did not accept the Hanoverian succession, or begin proceedings on a union of parliaments, then Scottish imports to England would be banned and Scots living in England would be treated as aliens.
.
On 5 August 1923 Scottish broadcaster, Eileen Mitchell, was born.
Mitchell was the woman whose voice was known to millions through the phrase, "Are you sitting comfortably?
Then I'll begin".
She presented BBC Radio's daily children's series Listen with Mother, and also sang many of the nursery rhymes in the programme on which she appeared for about 15 years.
When the programme spawned BBC TV's Watch With Mother, she supplied one of the voices in The Woodentops.
.
1305 – William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution.
http://tinyurl.com/2klvcm _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On 6 August 1881 Sir Alexander Fleming, the Nobel prize-winning bacteriologist, was born.
Born near Darvel in rural Ayrshire, Fleming became a lecturer at St Mary's Medical School in London.
After seeing front line service in the Army Medical Corps throughout the Great War, he returned to St Mary's and began his research into anti-bacterial substances.
In 1928, whilst carrying out work on the influenza virus, he noticed that mould had accidentally developed on a staphylococcus culture plate and that the mould had created a bacteria-free circle around itself.
This discovery fired Fleming's work and he found that a mould culture prevented growth of staphylococci, even when diluted 800 times.
He named the active substance penicillin.
.
In 6 August 1796 Scottish artist, David Allan, died.
Allan was noted for his historical subjects and portraits and was nicknamed the "Scottish Hogarth".
In addition to his portraits, Allan provided illustrations for Allan Ramsay's The Gentle Shepherd and for some of the poems of Robert Burns, including engravings of Tam o'Shanter and The Cotter's Saturday Night. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On 7th August, 1914, Lord Kitchener, the war minister, began a mass recruiting campaign, three days after Britain declared war on Germany.
Kitchener's appeal called for men aged between 19 and 30 to join the British Army.
At first an average of 33,000 men were joining up each day but this was still not enough, and three weeks later Kitchener raised the recruiting age to 35.
By the middle of September over 500,000 men had volunteered their services.
By the end of 1915 some two million men had volunteered their services, including the entire Hearts first team squad who joined en masse leading supporters to the recruiting office.
By the war's end a total of 147,609 Scots had been killed, a fifth of Britain's dead from a country that made up only 10% of its population. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
Today in 1296 the Scottish Coronation Stone, the Stone of Destiny, was removed from Scone Abbey.
The stone was taken on the orders of King Edward I of England, and was transported to Westminster Abbey, where it was used to crown English monarchs until it was returned to Scotland in 1996.
The stone itself is a block of red sandstone, and was said to have been used by Jacob, father of the twelve tribes of Israel, as a pillow.
.
On 8 August 1503 King James IV of Scotland married Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England.
The wedding was christened the Marriage of the Thistle and the Rose, and was designed to creata stable relations between the two feuding kingdoms.
In the coming century it was also to form the basis from which the Stewarts made claim to the English crown.
_________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On 9th of August 1757 the famous engineer, Thomas Telford, was born in rural Dumfriesshire.
Telford went on to build many important works of engineering across Britain including the Menai Suspension Bridge and the Caledonian Canal.
He was also responsible for the building of much of the road network in the Highlands, earning himself the nickname "The Colossus of Roads."
.
On 9th of August 1913 Professor James Gordon, the Scottish industrial chemist and engineer, was born.
Gordon was a pioneer of materials science, which sought to explain the gap between chemistry and structural mechanics.
In 1968, he published his findings in the ground-breaking, The New Science of Strong Materials. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:08 am Post subject: 10th August 2009
On August 10, 1784 artist, Allan Ramsay Jnr died.
Son of the poet Allan Ramsay Snr., he was a leading portrait painter of his day.
Some of his subjects included King George III, historian Edward Gibbon, philosopher David Hume and Jacobite heroine Flora MacDonald.
However not all those who sat for him were overjoyed with the results as French philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau was reputed to be unimpressed by his portrait, although it did not prevent the two men from becoming friends.
.
On 10 August 1937, John Hodge, the Scottish Labour politician, died.
Hodge became the first Labour minister serving as Minister of Labour in the second coalition government during the First World War.
Hodge faced criticism from the left wing of the Labour Party for supporting the war, and for his harsh policies when dealing with striking workers during the war years. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On 11 August 1892 poet Christopher Murray Grieve was born in Langholm.
Grieve wrote under the pseudonym, Hugh MacDiarmid, and is considered the driving force behind Scottish Literary Renaissance which took shape during the 1920s.
MacDiarmind viewed his mission as rescuing Scottish culture and modernising it to reflect 20th Century Scotland.
He also tried to resurrect the Scots language as a vital part of maintaning an independent Scottish culture.
His masterpiece, A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle, reflects his abhorrence at the way Scottish culture had developed.
MacDiarmid remained a man of contradictions throughout his life being both a founder of the Naional Party of Scotland and a member of the Communist Party - although he was thrown out of both parties, but his influence as an artist can still be felt in today's Scottish writing.
.
On this day in 1919 Andrew Carnegie, the Dunfermline-born steel industrialist and philanthropist, died.
Throughout his later life Carnegie established a number of foundations for education and research such as the Carnegie Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Carnegie himself was devastated that his attempts to prevent global war had come to nothing.
In his essay, The Gospel of Wealth, he argued that after making their fortunes wealthy men should distribute the surplus for the general welfare; a practice he followed. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On 13 August 1907 Scottish architect, Sir Basil Spence, was born.
. Spence was actually born in India, but was educated and spent most of his adult life working in Edinburgh, initially working for Sir William Kininmonth at the practice of Rowand Anderson and Paul. With work ranging from private housing to commercial and public buildings Spenve became known as an architect who attracted controversy for his striking contemporary designs. Perhaps his best known works are the new Coventry Cathedral, and Knightsbridge barracks in London. _________________ FOA BOB -
On August 14, 1863 Colin Campbell, Field Marshal Lord Clyde, the noted Scottish soldier, died.
Campbell was born Colin MacIver in Glasgow, but was partly adopted by his uncle, Col John Campbell, and when recieving his commission in the army his name was registered as Campbell. It seems even that the young officer was advised to assume the name of Campbell as a means of advancement in his army career. Campbell fought in every major campaign the British army was involved in from the Napoleonic War to the Crimea, and rose quickly through the ranks. His crowning moment was as Commander-in-Chief of the British forces during the Indian Mutiny, 1857. He was fondly regarded by his troops, particularly by the Highlanders under his command and it was these soldiers who held the famous 'Thin Red Line' during the Battle of Balaclava. _________________ FOA BOB -
On this day 15th August 1057 Scottish monarch, MacBeth, was killed at Lumphanan.
MacBeth had siezed power by assassinating the incumbent king, Duncan, in August 1040.
Duncan's two infant sons fled, Malcolm to Cumberland, and Donal to the Western Isles.
MacBeth appears to have ruled the country well, and is regarded as one of the more successful Scottish kings, however there were always uprisings by the supporters of Duncan, and, when Malcolm secured the support of Edward the Confessor of England and secured victory over Macbeth at the Battle of Dunsinane, Macbeth's days were numbered.
.
On 15 August 1856 James Keir Hardie, the Labour statesman, was born.
One of the founders of the Labour Party, he was the first Labour Parliamentary MP.
Hardie stood as the Independent Labour MP for South West Ham between 1892 and 1895 and also as Labour MP for Merthyr between 1900 and 1915.
.
Today in 1771 Sir Walter Scott, poet and novelist, was born in Edinburgh.
Scott's first successes lay in the field of poetry, where his The Lay of the Last Minstrel brought him instant fame.
However a series of bad business decisions, including those of buying a stake in both his printer and publisher.
Both suffered during the crash of 1826 and Scott himself was bankrupted, and he died in 1832 having had to write furiously during the last years of his life to pay off his creditors. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On 16 August 1766 Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne, was born in Gask, Perthshire.
Although she remains little-known in Scotland today, Carolina Oliphant's songs are second only in popularity to Burns, writing such classics as Will Ye No Come Back Again, Charlie is my Darling and Wi 100 Pipers an' a'.
She was born into a staunchly Jacobite family and much of her songwriting reflects the political climate of the time.
_________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Join! (free) 
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
