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
Please contact Kevin directly if you can help him out - thanks.
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 !
🎄🎅
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.
Ayrshire Magazine are working on a piece for the next issue of the magazine - deadline October 21- on Kilmarnock's industrial past. They are looking, ideally, to speak with people who perhaps remember those days - 1960's probably to the mid 1980's and would be delighted to hear from anyone who has a tale to tell.
If you can help, please contact Sergio Burns at AM directly;
Telephone: 07711846258
Email: sergio@ayrshiremagazine.com
The committee met last week to discuss the next steps for the Group, particularly with the lecture season due to kick off in October.
You will be aware that the Government announced tighter rules around social gatherings recently which, together with Ayrshire College's restrictions on use of their facilities at present, means that it is difficult to see when we can meet up for lectures in the foreseeable future. We also accept that many of our members may be uneasy at attending social gatherings should restrictions relax in the next few weeks.
In order to ensure we can deliver talks in some way we are investigating an appropriate means to enable this. Many of us have become familiar with Zoom and similar platforms over the past few months and it is probable that we will need to consider a style of virtual delivery option, certainly for most of this season. We also must liaise with our speakers to establish those who are comfortable with this idea. It may be that we can take some kind of blended approach after New Year whereby we have virtual and actual lectures. We are looking into all options.
With this piece of work being carried out in the background I will keep you updated as matters progress and hope to deliver a trial talk or two before Christmas. I appreciate that not everyone is comfortable with the idea of a virtual talk – please but be assured we are looking at the best possible options to deliver something of a lecture season. Hopefully social restrictions are relaxed to an extent whereby small groups of members can, should they wish, meet up to enjoy the virtual talks within the guidelines in place at any given time.
Hopefully this makes sense as an approach. The committee and I would welcome any thoughts you may have.
Turning to other matters – The AGM remains outstanding. We will
hold this as soon as it is practical. Regards annual subscriptions, there is no
plan to collect these at the moment although, should we be able to deliver a lecture
programme, we will set a fee which reflects the circumstances we find ourselves
in at that time. We do have ongoing overheads, but we can use reserves to absorb
those in the short term.
I hope to be in a position to update you further in the near future.
Although the vast majority of the membership use e-mail, there are a few who
don’t. Please update those you know aren’t on e-mail if you can.
Best wishes
Gary Torbett, President KDHG
With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic we are not yet in a position to announce details of our Lecture Programme for 2020-21.
We do have a full programme in place, but with lecture spaces being restricted at present we cannot formally put anything in place. Although the Ayrshire College is open is some capacity, this does not extend to our hiring of the Open Space facility for the timebeing.
The committee will meet in the next few weeks to make a decision on how to take matters forward for the forthcoming session. Members will be advised by e-mail and we will post an update on here and our Social Media platforms.
