NON-FOOTBALL STORIES 1937
While looking through old documents, it is almost inevitable that the
reader's attention will be drawn from the intended target to other articles.
The reports below were found in old Scotsman newspapers. Although they
have no football content, they may be of interest.
PRISON FOR NEGLECTING WIFE AND FAMILY
A former shipyard labourer, pleaded guilty at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court
yesterday to having between 13 February 1927 and 29 December 1936, at the
dwelling-house at 6 Hill Street, Ardrossan, neglected his wife and two children
whereby they became chargeable to the County of Ayr.
He was sentenced to three months imprisonment.
Mr D Harvey, solicitor, Kilmarnock, who prosecuted on behalf of the
Inspector of Poor, said the accused left Ardrossan for America in July 1923.
He obtained work in America and sent remittances to his wife until March
1927. The remittances ceased then
and the last communication his wife had from him was in September 1928.
The accused turned up in Ardrossan just before Christmas and stated that
he had returned from America in March 1936.
His brother in London had sent his passage money.
The accused had got work in London on several occasions since but he had
sent no communication or money to his wife.
The total cost to the Public Assistance Authority in keeping his wife and
children was £590. The accused said
that he sent money to his wife when he was working.
He had been unemployed in America and through walking the streets there,
he became ill. He was no subject to
fits and was under medical treatment.
The Scotsman, 6 January 1937
DEATH – ROSSIE BROWN
At 2
Murrayfield Avenue, Edinburgh, on 5 January 1938, Mary J Fullarton, widow of the
Reverend W Rossie Brown, Parish Minister of Ardrossan.
Funeral on Friday, 8 January.
Service to Murrayfield Parish Church at 11am to which all friends are invited,
thereafter to Ardrossan Cemetery arriving at 2pm.
The Scotsman, 7 January 1937
SCOTS INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC – MANY
CHILDREN ILL
Reports received from various districts of Scotland
yesterday indicated that as yet, there is no sign of a lessening of the
influenza epidemic. The district
most seriously affected appears to be that around Dunfermline where about twenty
deaths form influenza complications were notified.
Five people have died from influenza in Kirkcaldy in the past eight days.
In Bo’ness, not fewer than five hundred children are absent from school
as a result of the epidemic. In
Ardrossan and Saltcoats, four hundred and sixty children are affected.
At a meeting of the local School Management Committee at Ardrossan
yesterday, it was reported that in four of the schools in Ardrossan and
Saltcoats, four hundred and sixty children were affected by the epidemic.
One of the county medical staff is to visit the schools in the area, from
Skelmorlie to Stevenston, on Monday with a view to reporting on the desirability
of closing schools.
The Scotsman, 9 January 1937
WEST AMATEUR SNOOKER TITLE
Illness again prevented as player from fulfilling an engagement in the first
round of the West of Scotland Amateur Snooker Championship at the Nile Rooms,
Glasgow, last night. Influenza
caused E McLeod, Elderslie, to scratch and J Cunningham, Ardrossan, thus goes
forward to the second round.
The Scotsman, 13 January 1937
WEST AMATEUR SNOOKER
The last
of the second round ties in the West of Scotland Amateur Snooker Championship,
played at the Nile Rooms, Glasgow, last night, produced surprise results, J
Cunningham, Ardrossan, and P Spence, Cambuslang, beating A McDougall, Glasgow,
and W Gilluley, Motherwell, respectively.
The details were – Cunningham 42-73, 65-51, 64-19 and Spence 48-39,
51-38.
The Scotsman, 19 January 1937
AYRSHIRE POLICE CHANGES
Inspector Thomas Hardie of the Ayrshire Constabulary who has been stationed at
Troon for the past fourteen years, retired from the service on Sunday and is
succeeded by Inspector Archibald Thomson, Ardrossan, promoted from the rank of
sergeant. Inspector Hardie has
served in the police for thirty-seven years, three of these being spent in the
County of Peebles. Inspector Thomson
joined the Ayrshire Constabulary about seventeen years ago and was promoted to
the rank of sergeant in 1931.
The Scotsman, 16 February 1937
DEATH
McCALL – At Mavisbank,
Aberfeldy, on 15 February 1937, Elizabeth Buchanan, elder daughter of the late
Reverend John D McCall, New Ardrossan Parish Church.
Friends meet cortege at Ardrossan Cemetery gate at 2pm today, Thursday.
The Scotsman, 18 February 1937
DANISH HONOUR FOR ARDROSSAN MAN
Mr George Alpine of Messrs R L Alpine and Company, shipbrokers and colliery
agents, Ardrossan, has been appointed by the King of Denmark a Knight of the
Royal Order of the Danneborg in recognition of his services as Danish
Vice-Consul at Ardrossan for the past twenty-one years.
The Scotsman, 26 February 1937
ARDROSSAN RAILWAY FATALITY
While John Robertson, aged 51, surface foreman, was engaged clearing the points
outside Ardrossan railway station on Saturday (13 March 1937), he was run over
and instantaneously killed the engine of a passenger train,
He was a widower with a family of four and resided care of Donaldson, 165
Glasgow Street, Ardrossan.
The Scotsman, 15 March 1937
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Mr William Tannock, whose death occurred at Ardrossan yesterday at the age
of overy eighty, served on Ardrossan Parish Council from its inception until
1930, a period aof about thirty-five years.
He was Chairman for four terms.
The Scotsman, 7 April 1937
FIFTY YEARS OF SERVICE IN ARDROSSAN
TOWN COUNCIL
Mr John Adams, Joint High Chamberlain, Ardrossan, who died
yesterday at the age of eighty-six, was for almost fifty years in the service of
Ardrossan Town Council was for forty-six years clerk to Ardrossan and Saltcoats
Hospital.
The Scotsman, 8 April 1937
AWARDS AT ARDROSSAN
The annual
cattle show of Ardrossan and West Kilbride Farmers’ Society was held at
Ardrossan on Saturday (8 May 1937).
The championship awards were: Ayrshire Cattle – Thomas Chalmers, Holms of Coaf,
Dalry; Clydesdale Horses – William Kean, Chapelton, West Kilbride; Border
Leicester sheep – William Dalziel, Crofthead, Fairlie; Blackfaced Sheep –
Alexander Taylor, Woodhead, West Kilbride.
The Scotsman, 10 May 1937
CORONATION OF KING GEORGE VI AND QUEEN ELIZABETH
Ardrossan
was lavishly beflagged and the celebrations were carried through with much
enthusiasm. The programme included
divine service, parades, cinema entertainment and gala for the children with
presentations of gifts, dinner to the old folks and bonfires.
Street teas were given to the children by the inhabitants of four
working-class streets, the young people being entertained to tea at the tables
set on the streets and toasting in lemonade the health of Their Majesties.
The Scotsman, 13 May 1937
As a result of a strike at Ardrossan harbour,
the port is idle, except at the Belfast steamer berth.
Dockers, cranemen et cetera are all out.
Several ships have left for other ports and some have been diverted.
Mr Joseph Houghton, Docks Group Secretary of the Transport and General
Workers’ Union, who addressed a meeting of the men yesterday, stated that the
men have come out principally on what is known as the Lanarkshire iron ore
demand in schedule rates. The men
unanimoulsy decided to remain on strike pending Mr Houghton’s return from London
on Friday when he will submit a report to a further meeting and the whole
position will be considered.
The Scotsman, 19 May 1937
Thirteen ships with cargoes have been diverted from Ardrossan as the
result of the strike of local dockers, it was stated yesterday.
The number of men affected by the dispute is about a hundred and eighty.
The Scotsman, 20 May 1937
No settlement of the Ardrossan dockers’
strike was reached yesterday. The
joint meeting lasted from 11.30am till nearly 9.30pm.
A report was submitted to a meeting of the men later and they decided to
hold a mass meeting tomorrow morning.
The Scotsman, 25 May 1937
At a sitting of the County of
Ayr Licensing Appeal Court for Ayr, Kilmarnock, Northern and Carrick districts,
held in Ayr yesterday, confirmation was granted to Johnston E Kilgour C A, 141
Bath Street, Glasgow, of an inn and hotel licence granted by the Northern Court
for Glenfoot (shown below in 2003), a mansion house near Ardrossan which is to
be run as a hotel.
The Scotsman, 2 June 1937
ARDROSSAN CASTLE RUINS - £500
PRESERVATION SCHEME PROPOSED – TOWN COUNCIL’S ATTITUDE
It was intimated
to Ardrossan Town Council last night that His Majesty’s Office of Works could
not accept guardianship of Ardrossan Castle ruins but that they suggested a
scheme of preservation which would cost the Council about £500.
Police Judge Harvey thought that if the building was in a dangerous
condition and could not be made safe for less than £500, they should seriously
consider razing it to the ground.
The Council agreed that an expenditure of £500 was not justified ant it was
remitted to a committee to consider alternative plans.
Ardrossan Castle, which was acquired by the Montgomeries about 1376, was
according to tradition, the scene of one of Wallace’s exploits.
Cromwell is said to have demolished it and only a small part of the
original structure remains standing.
The Scotsman, 21 September 1937