Organisations

A KEY figure in the early days of scouting is buried in the old part of the graveyard at Rosneath Parish Church.

Major Frederick Maurice Crum, who died after a colourful life on October 8 1955 at his home at Kenmuir, Rosneath, at the age of 82 from heart disease, is remembered for his service to the movement in Scotland.

A CLYNDER author, publisher and businessman is best known as a major benefactor of the Scouting movement.

William Frederick de Bois Maclaren bought and presented the Gilwell Park estate near the Epping Forest to his friend Robert Baden-Powell, founder and first Chief Scout of the Boy Scouts Association, for use as a scouting centre.

HELENSBURGH Art Club’s annual Art Show in the Victoria Hall in 2018 paid a special tribute to six talented members who died in the previous year.

The show included a poignant display of works by Mary Batchelor, Muriel Borland, Fay Marshall, Eddie McConnell, James Murdoch and Burns Shearer.

THE OLD saying that if you go down to the woods today you are sure of a big surprise certainly rings true for a very successful Helensburgh and district group of enthusiasts about the area’s heritage.

Actually members of the burgh-based North Clyde Archaeological Society more of than not go up to the woods and indeed the summits of local hills in their quest for relics of days long gone by.

MEMBERS, past members and friends of the 1st Helensburgh Boys Brigade had plenty to celebrate on Tuesday October 25 2016 — the centenary of the formation of the company.

It was not the district’s first company, but it has certainly been the longest lasting.

THE FIRST Girl Guide company in Helensburgh formally came into existence 100 years ago — and an account of its early days came to light recently.

Margaret Morrison, chairperson of the local Friends of Guiding, made the discovery.

ONE of Helensburgh and district’s best known service organisations, the Lions Club, had plenty to roar about in 2014.

It was the 50^th anniversary of the formation of the club, and it is now the longest serving Lions Club in Scotland.

AN ORANGE Walk took place in Helensburgh on Saturday June 28 2014 despite much opposition beforehand from the people of the town.

The aim of Orange Walks is to celebrate the victory of the Protestant King William III — also known as William of Orange — over the Roman Catholic King James VII of Scotland and II of England at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland in 1690.

A HELENSBURGH organisation set up in 1916 to help the First World War effort by growing herbs lasted for four successful years before it was wound up.

MEMBERS of the Helensburgh Naturalist and Antiquarian Society at the end of the 19th century would surely be absolute pillars of virtue.

But were they all? The so-called ‘Controversy on the Clyde’ in which they were involved is about forgeries, and remains a whodunnit to this day.

SIR James Colquhoun of Luss registered the Colquhoun tartan with the Highland Society of London in 1817.

Sir James was born in Edinburgh on September 28 1774. It is recorded that he raised a company of volunteers in his father’s territory — the glens of south-western Loch Lomondside — and was appointed their captain “at a young age”.

2002—2003

ONE day in 2002 while sitting in Arrochar Church reading the Pews News, I saw that our minister, who covers Luss as well as Arrochar, was asking the congregation to look out their old photos and articles so that they could be displayed in the new Pilgrimage centre in Luss.

Being absolutely ‘planted’ in the soil of Arrochar, Tarbet and Ardlui I was horrified — something else disappearing from our villages. So by the time the sermon had finished I had made up my mind that I would need to do something.