History on the Web

Next Tuesday's meeting (8 February) will give members the opportunity to see for themselves a little of the huge amount of information available on the internet to people interested in any aspect of history.  Members of the group will provide information about some of the very useful websites which can be easily accessed by historians as well as giving an introduction to our very own website and blog, which can be viewed at


Kilmarnock &; District History Group Forum

and

Kilmarnock & District History Group Website

Zulu Wars

We had a near-capacity audience last night (Tuesday 25 January) to listen to Dr. Tony Pollard speak about his battlefield archeology fieldwork at the site of the famous battle in the Zulu War at Isandlwana and at Rorke's Drift. Dr. Pollard is the Director of the Centre for Battlefield Archeology at the University of Glasgow.  As always, Dr Pollard provided the audience with a graphic account of the battle and of his use of modern techniques to uncover present day evidence of the battle. He provided an insight into Zulu culture and military tactics, backed up by many artefacts from the site, uncovered during his excavations in 1999.  A thoroughly enthralling talk.

Glasgow Botanic Gardens

We had a super talk about Glasgow Botanic Gardens on Tuesday 11 January 2011, given by Ewen Donaldson the General Manager of the Gardens. Ewen explained the history of the Gardens, which were founded in 1817. They were founded on an 8-acre site at the West End of Sauchiehall Street at Sandyford. This was through the initiative of Thomas Hopkirk of Dalbeth who gave his own plant collection to form the nucleus of the new garden.
Mr Donaldson then covered in some detail the recent renovation of the magnificent Kibble Palace.
Finally Ewen

dealt with the plant collections, illustrating his comments with some superb photographs. An excellent start to the 2011 lecture programme.

The KDHG PROGRAMME for January to March 2011

Here is the list of speakers and topics for our 6 meetings between January and March 2011.

11 January Ewen Donaldson - Glasgow Botanic Gardens

25 January Dr Tony Pollard - Rorke’s Drift

8 February KDHG Members - History on the Web

22 February Mrs Sandra Liquorish Fairlie House- It’s Architects and Inhabitants

8 March Graham Boyd - Konigsberg or Kaliningrad??

22 March Alastair Dinsmore - AGM + The History of Glasgow Police

A Royal Engagement

Please note the change of venue and starting time for this Tuesday's(16 Nov)meeting. We will be hearing from Bruce Morgan, Linda Fairlie and their colleagues about their latest exhibition entitled, "A Royal Engagement". We will also be given an opportunity to see behind the scenes into some of the storage areas of the museum. A bit like an iceberg, there's a lot more below the surface than is actually on view. Don't miss this great opportunity.
We meet in the Dick Institute at 7pm on Tuesday 16th November.

Aviation in Scotland

Another excellent talk last night on the history of aviation in Scotland by Dugald Cameron. Dugald, who was Principal of Glasgow School of Art before his retiral in 1999, is an aviation artist and historian.

The meeting was attended by over 80 members, who were treated to a first class presentation on Scotland's contribution to the development on heavier than air machines.

First Meeting of the Session

Last night KDHG held its first meeting of the 2010 - 2011 session. It was attended by over 90 members. Almost a full house!
The audience heard a wonderful talk by John Millar on the history of the Lithuanians in Scotland. John himself was born in Scotland in the 1920s to Lithuanian parents and he gave an excellent account of why people from the Baltic state had chosen to come to Scotland and of how they were treated by the native Scots, which was often, sadly, not very well. Interestingly, he quoted from a speech delivered in Irvine by Keir Hardie, which was, at best, xenophobic. Not the picture of Hardie, the socialist idealogue, that is frequently portrayed.
A great start to what looks like a first class programme for the year.