Troon and The Great War by Gordon Hunter

Keen amateur historian Gordon Hunter has published what he describes as 'a weekly account of Troon during WW1, with everything from the weekly casualty lists, the huge amount of voluntary work, launches at the shipyard and rationing. I have also added some golf, bowling and football scores..'

Gordon includes items of interest such as adverts for films and concerts which he has found during his research in the Troon Herald, Troon & Prestwick Advertiser and Ayrshire Post. He has also researched Troon Burgh Minutes, Troon Dean of Guild Records, Valuation Rolls and Admiralty Records to produce his record of his home town during The Great War.

The book is available in Kindle for £7.99. If you go to either Kindle or Amazon and search for Gordon Hunter - Troon in The Great War you will find it should you be interested. You can have a free preview read !

Mayflower talk by George English - Friday 12th March

KDHG member George English, who spoke to us in March 2020, will deliver a talk on Friday 12 March at 6pm on '1620 - The Mayflower Journey: Who went, where from, and why did they go?'

The European Society of Mayflower Descendants have organised this. Details can be found on the Research Through People Facebook page or click here to register for the event: http://bit.ly/2LVft6r.

Fund raising campaign

Thanks for opening this article.

One matter we discussed at our recent AGM was the fact that we have not collected any subscriptions this session and are therefore going to post a deficit for y/e 31 January 2021. However, we continue to incur unavoidable cost such as hosting the website, Zoom membership and payment of speakers. It was therefore agreed that we should, as a group, invite members and friends to consider making a donation to help mitigate our costs and reduce the amount of our reserve funds we require to spend just now. A Go Fund Me page has been set up by me for this purpose. This will ensure that anyone wishing to help out can donate securely and with confidence. 

The page can be found HERE

Any donations are gratefully received and will help ensure we can continue with our aims.

Notice of AGM - Tuesday 9th February 2021

Members will have received notification of  the AGM which was delayed in 2020. This will take place at 7.30pm on Tuesday 9th February via the Zoom platform.

Members who have not received a notification or who would like to dial in via telephone should contact us via info@kilmarnockhistory.co.uk 

Alexander Brown Robertson (1884-1939) - can you help?

 We have received the following e-mail;

Hello. I am an amateur historian based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

I’m looking for a photograph of Alexander Brown Robertson, a noted mechanical engineer, who was born in Kilmarnock on 29 December, 1884. His parents were Andrew Robertson and Isabella Elizabeth Macalister. He attended Kilmarnock Academy from 1889 to 1900. 

Any leads for advice would be most welcome. Thanks

 Best wishes,

Kevin Burke   kburke9@mac.com

Please contact Kevin directly if you can help him out - thanks.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all or members and friends.

It has been an interesting, challenging and extremely strange year. Hopefully everyone is in good health, good spirits and looking forward to a return to some sort of normality in 2021.

We will hold a series of lectures via the Zoom platform in 2021 and will keep you up to date on this.

Best wishes from all at KDHG !

🎄🎅

Virtual lectures - next one due 1st December 2020

Following on from our recent trial runs, we plan to have a presentation via Zoom on Tuesday 1st December when Bill Fitzpatrick will talk about the RNLI.

If members check their inbox there will now be an invite with joining details waiting there. We have had between 30 and 40 participants at the trials so it would be great to increase that number going forward.

It is hoped that we can extend invites to non-members in 2021.