New Website for Kilmarnock & District History Group

Look out for the new website of KDHG which goes live tomorrow (1st. September).  It has several new features which, we hope, are an improvement on the previous site.  Have a look at it from tomorrow and share your thoughts about it with us.  We look forward to your comments positive or negative.

Waterloo Street, Kilmarnock around 1900.

Fleming - Boyd Orr Conference Saturday 24th. September 2011

I'm delighted to say that there has been an excellent uptake of places at the forthcoming Alexander Fleming/John Boyd Orr Conference in Kilmarnock Academy on Saturday 24th. September.
Although the conference is free, it is essential for administrative reasons and to enable catering to be organised that you register in advance at:-

flemingboydorr@gmail.com

Lost Royal Navy Submarines Found - 93 Years On

It was a “battle” that involved no enemy contact whatsoever, that left two submarines sunk, 270 British submariners dead and which the Royal Navy kept secret for as long as it could. But now new evidence has emerged that sheds fresh light on the “Battle of the Isle of May”.

Marine surveyors mapping the sea bed off the Fife coast have uncovered the exact resting places of the two Royal Navy submarines lost in one of the most unfortunate, but also little known, self-inflicted calamities in British naval history.

Full story at:
http://heritage.caledonianmercury.com/2011/08/16/windfarm-surveyors-find-royal-navy-submarines-93-years-on/002973

KDHG on BBC Radio Scotland !

KDHG President Stuart Wilson talks about Kilmarnock Academy's unique place in history as Scotland's only school to have two Nobel Prize winners in it's alumni.

Click the link below before 11 July and scroll forward to 1hr 14 mins into the programme if you missed the broadcast.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01294h1/MacAulay_and_Co_04_07_2011/

Lecture Programme for Session 2011 - 2012

Graham Boyd has just finished putting together our syllabus for next year and it looks really interesting, covering a wide range of historical areas.  There is something in it to please everyone with an interest in history.

Kilmarnock & District History Group

Syllabus     2011-2012

2011

4 October                  Barbara Graham          The 1715 Jacobite Uprising  

18 October                David Craig                 World War II - The Russian Convoys

           

1 November              Charlotte Rostek         Dumfries House

15 November            Colin Barbour             From von Braun to the Moon Landings

29 November            John Steele                  Finally Revealed – The Hidden Scandals

                                                                      of  HMS Dasher

13 December            George Watson           Victoria to Viagra

2012

10 January                Professor Danny Gorman       The History of London Buses

24 January                John Burnett                           Crowds in 19^th Century Ayrshire       

7 February                Professor  Dauvit Broun         New Light on Wallace &

                                                                                  The Declaration of Arbroath

.

21 February              Dr Ian Mathieson                    The Turning Point – Napoleon’s

                                                                                   Invasion of Russia 1812

                                                         

6 March                    Dr June Neilson                      The Romans In Scotland

20 March                  Bill Fitzpatrick                        The Titanic – The Beloved, The Damned      

                                                                                  & The Forgotten

Mystery Photograph

Can anyone shed some light on the location in the background of this photograph?  It might be in the Kilmarnock area and was probably taken around 1910.  Any help or suggestions welcomed.  It comes from Patrick Hutton in Edinburgh.  He can be contacted at:-

member@6brc.freeserve.co.uk

History of Glasgow Police.

Another excellent turn out of 80 members last night (Tuesday 22 March) for our final meeting of the History Group's winter programme.  Retired Inspector Alastair Dinsmor from the Glasgow Police Museum in Bell Street, Glasgow spoke about the history of the police force in Glasgow.
The UK's first Police Act was the Glasgow Police Act of 30 June 1800 which led to the establishment of the Glasgow Force.  Another eleven Scottish cities and burghs established police forces under further individual police Acts of Parliament before Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Force  was established in London in 1829.
Alastair covered many major events in the development of the force from its inception in 1800 until its merger in 1975 with several other county forces in the west of Scotland to form Strathclyde Police.
Further details of the Glasgow Police Museum can be found at

http://www.policemuseum.org.uk/

River Clyde Police