All Sundays were long days in the Isles...

"There is a proverb in the isles which says ‘As long as a Communion Sunday’. And all Sundays were long days in the isles when there was little or nothing to do except attend the services. In my youth around the turn of the [last] century, it was a day of worship, when the influence of the church was very strong and one dared not do otherwise even if one felt like it. Today [c1950s] it is more or less a day of rest and some people are daring to do small jobs on the Lord’s Day."

- Kenneth MacDonald, Peat Fire Memories: Life in Lewis in the Early Twentieth Century. Tuckwell Press, 2003. Ch.9, pp.46-50, The Sabbath Day.

Kenneth MacDonald, the socialist teacher from Sandwick mentioned in a previous post, goes on to describe what such a day was like for a child - not much fun. One permitted, indeed prescribed occupation was rote-learning the Shorter Catechism (107 Qs&As).

"I don’t know if there is a longer Catechism but the Short one felt long enough!"

Dating from the 1640s,
this was also taught in primary school
until at least the 1950s and '60s.

Reassuringly, by no means all were cowed into piety and submission:

There were times, however, when we managed to slip away from the rigours of the Sabbath and played away from prying eyes on the sands… It was a sin to chastise or punish on the Sabbath [but retribution might well follow on Monday if transgressions were observed and reported] … Everybody stayed indoors on Sunday and read the Bible or [in Gaelic] The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Macdonald supplies a classic example of the absurd lengths to which strict interpretations of the 'law' could lead, with the story of a teacher who cycled to her lodgings in Stornoway from her home in the country on Sunday evening to be ready for work the next day, and was threatened with being thrown out by her landlady for breaking the Sabbath. When she pointed out that the minister drove to church she was told that was not the same at all: on her bike she was 'working' her legs, not like a driver in a car.

Many Stornowegians will share the memory, evoked in the most recent stramash about the opening of businesses or recreational centres – in this case a small specialised shop – on the Isle of Lewis on Sunday, of the melancholy sight of chained-up swings, including “baby-chairs”. Perhaps the toddlers’ little legs, or the arms of parents pushing them, would have worked so hard as to give offence to the Almighty.

A minister said a request was made to a businesswoman to close her shop on Sundays in a bid to encourage people to "enjoy the peace of the Sabbath".

... Mr Flett, who like The Rev MacDonald was born and brought up on Lewis, said he could remember [a] time when play park swings were chained up at dusk on Saturdays for the Sabbath.

Post Second World War, the Stornoway Free Church minister who was the main public face of opposition to any mitigation of such rigours was, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, not a native if the island, but came from Dingwall and began his Sabbath-preserving activism on the Isle of Skye, as recorded in the biographical material published with his 'Diary' (Diary of Kenneth A MacRae, edited with additional material by Iain H Murray. Edinburgh, Banner of Truth, 1980).

... An unexpected issue arose which, as it required his presence in Skye, [temporarily] closed the question of his accepting a call away from the Island. Early in 1929 news was circulated that the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company was planning railway excursions from Inverness to Kyle on Sundays, so that trippers could cross to Skye. Immediately MacRae circulated petition forms against this proposal... When, in June 1929, it became clear that they intended to proceed with the plans for excursions, MacRae originated a 'Skye Sabbath Defence League'... the action in view being a boycott of the L.M.S. [...]
  He found it a hard battle to raise the support which was necessary... The truth is that he did not relish controversy... (pp.222-3)

- from 'The Call to Stornoway' in Diary of Kenneth A MacRae. 

The minister evidently relished victory in controversy, however. When a letter in October 1930 informed MacRae that 'Sabbath excursions would not be run next summer to Kyle if our agitation in the Island would end' he was jubilant: 'This is the doing of the Lord and wondrous in our eyes!' His editor considers that a result of this episode was that companies were restrained for many years from trying to implement similar changes. 'When, for example, air services to the Outer Hebrides were being discussed in June 1933 it was at once realised that there would be no Sunday flights.'

The preoccupation was not a new one for MacRae, and not newly controversial, as shown in earlier diary extracts from when he was based in Lochgilphead, Argyllshire:

1n 1917 - 10-8 A letter from home states that a very bitter letter has appeared in the local paper against me in reference to what I said in respect of visitors and the Sabbath; and 22-8 Another letter appeared in the local paper criticising my preaching, and since the tone is in no wise improved with the change of editorship I sent down to the newsagent cancelling my order.

The following year: 7-6 An Arran woman told him how 'one of the old divines had said the time would come when people profaning the Sabbath would be as numerous on the hills as were the sheep then'; and a month later, 6-7  When I was having supper with Miss Scott on Thursday she told me that she asked Mr Livingstone at the time when the letters were appearing in the local paper condemning myself, as to why none of the other ministers said a word in my defence. '"Oh we don't like controversy" was the reply.'

He remained vigilant after accepting the 'call' to Stornoway:

3-4-1934 Had meeting of Presbytery today. Strongly protested against the new regulations which give the Pope and his nuncios naval salutes, and also agreed to approach Woolworth's in connection with the opening of their establishment in Stornoway, with a view to the prevention of any risk of Sabbath work, as has happened under similar circumstances elsewhere. It is high time that strong action was taken against the secret Roman propaganda presently going on in governmental departments.

The perceived excesses of the 'Continental' Sunday were naturally the more deplored for their association with Roman Catholicism. (At this point fans of Hancock's Half Hour may recall the Sunday afternoon episode where the lad waxes lyrical about how different it is in other countries, everyone getting together, happy and laughing, enjoying themselves: "Not over 'ere, though!")

In the following month, May 1934, Murray tells us, he clashed once more with the LMS Railway Company when it announced its intention to run two Sunday excursions to Skye in the summer. MacRae wrote to the Glasgow Herald protesting against this, which led to him being contacted by reporters from two other papers. He got an article published in the Daily Express, but for the next several months he was out of action due to illness. Presumably the excursions went ahead.

The changed circumstances of another world war unsurprisingly failed to modify his stance:, and he was in a position to expect his views to be heeded:

10-12-40... I have been appointed Officiating Chaplain to the local R.A.F. Squadron. Received the information with rather mixed feelings. I don't know how it is going to work.

Problems did indeed arise:
28-4-41 Yesterday, for the first time in its history, Stornoway witnessed a game of football on the Lord's Day. The offenders were naval men. Today... I interviewed the Commanding Officer at the base... He told me that these men had broken the regulations and must have smuggled the football on shore, and that he would signal from the Base at once that there must be no more such offence. He undertook also to notify the commanders of all the vessels that there must be no more football on the Sabbath.

23-7-41 Was told today that the R.A.F. were playing football on Sabbath on the Melbost pitch. Wrote the Commanding Officer regarding the matter and asked him to act as the naval authorities have done in prohibiting games on the Sabbath. Perhaps the defence of the Sabbath furnishes another reason for my remaining in Stornoway. In Glasgow the Sabbath is gone in any case. Here it is in the balance. [He was 'under call' to Duke Street Free Church at the time].

28-7-41 The Commanding Officer, after plying the usual pretext that the arduous duties of the men allow them no other day free for recreation, has promised that there will be no more ‘Sunday games’… I suggested that the men might more profitably use up their surplus energies by walking in to the church services in Stornoway, and assured him that I would be delighted to see them.

Later in life, he wrote often with regret for the good old days:
“Fifty years ago [c1900s] the Sabbath was universally observed throughout Scotland, and whatever desecration there might have been was furtive and shame-faced. This being so, church-going was the order everywhere…” (Quoted on p.8).

That the balance has shifted further in the past half-century is clear enough. It can no longer be argued with any plausibility that public opinion is overwhelmingly in favour of the 'old ways' - and there were always dissidents. Some more recent signs:

 New row about Sunday openings on Isle of Lewis

 An Lanntair in Stornoway will not open on Sundays

 Lewis leisure centre campaigners continue Sunday opening fight

Dietary Study in the Island of Lewis: MRC Report, 1940

"You'll get porridge and brose for your breakfast in the madainn

It will make you a braw Hieland laddie!"

Notes and comments from:
Studies in Nutrition. An inquiry into the diet of families in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Medical Research Council. Special Reports Series. no. 242.) 1940 37pp. By Prof. Edward Provan Cathcart (Glasgow), (Mrs.) Annabel Mary Tough Murray, J. B. Beveridge. 

(This may be found in the National Archives, reference FD 4/242, although not a public record as such).


The rate of publication and range of coverage of the MRC's "Green Books" was impressive

Among the many subjects addressed by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) in its long-running and wide-ranging Special Reports Series (SRS, known as the Green Books, from their covers) that of nutrition occurred early and repeatedly: for example, SRS 13, published in 1918, was “An enquiry into the composition of dietaries, with special reference to the dietaries of munition workers”. It was more unusual for biomedical researchers to turn their attention to the far north and west of the country, but this did happen in time for the results of the study looked at here to be published early in the Second World War. Previous studies, SRS 151 1931 (St. Andrews) and SRS 165 1932 (Cardiff, Reading) had focused on different places. Nutrition was of course a key area of government concern during the war, and it may be inferred that some of the findings in these reports may well have influenced policy.

The authors’ method was to select a number of families in the Scottish Highlands on the mainland, and on the Isle of Lewis, and to record their food intake during one week. This was done first in summer, then some of the studies were duplicated in winter. The average intake was standardised as that for an adult male, deduced by formula. They pointed out (Introduction, p.5) that while much information was available about urban settings, the task of obtaining data on the Highlands presented some difficulty. Referring to the Department of Health (Scotland) Committee on Scottish Health Services, 1936, they noted how witnesses deplored the passing of old staple foods – porridge, salt herring and potatoes – and the use of more shop bread, tinned goods, tea, sweets etc. bought from shops and traders’ vans. Deficiencies in diet they reckoned were probably due to economic circumstances, as in the “dismal picture” painted by the Dewar Committee in 1912 (which had led to the setting up of the Highlands & Islands Medical Service). Now, however, they found doctors saying most families were reasonably well fed.

Comments turned up in a historical survey comparing the current situation with the past included:

• Diet may lack variety; less oatmeal; but “very sound… and I doubt that there is a great difference from that of our forefathers.” 
• More tea, shop bread, but plenty oatmeal, milk. 
• More meat, fruits, veg. 

A minority of health professionals apparently believed diet was on a down-grade, but the authors query whether the conditions in the past were so very bright, going into an diverting digression about the 18^th century and the controversial introduction of potatoes (denounced by some as “foolish roots”, whilst in one case compulsorily planted on pain of imprisonment).

The Highland subjects comprised (p.11) 58 families, living in the counties of Ross-shire (Ross & Cromarty), Sutherland, and Inverness-shire. Most were occupied in crofting, many with additional work such as fishing or labouring. It was found impossible to obtain much trustworthy information for the majority as to their economic status, in terms of income, but this was felt to be no great loss to the study. A total of 349 people were included, 118 of them under 12 years of age. As noted, the original studies were done in spring or early summer; seasonal variations were not in practice thought to be a major factor (44 families agreed to a re-study in autumn/winter). Children made up 36.4% of the summer, 37.5% of the winter samples.

Among the findings were that some items would be prepared in larger amounts than immediately required, to allow for leftovers to be given to hens and so on, “the actual waste of edible calories by the various households [being] very small”.  Compared with previous studies, a slight but definite increase was observed in the percentage of calories derived from protein, less came from fat, intake of carbohydrate substantially higher (Lewis was different – see below) and it was concluded that (p.16): “It is clear that, so far as gross quantities are concerned, these rural Highland diets are superior to the earlier urban ones.” 50% of the protein consumed was rated “first class”.  No definite increase in food intake was observed (as might have been expected) in winter, a possible explanation being that energy expenditure was less, because of weather conditions hampering activity. Intakes of vitamins A, B, C might “be seen as adequate”. Food common to all included butter, white bread, potatoes, and “tea” bread (which from the context probably means baked bannocks, oatcakes, scones and similar items eaten at tea-time). Eggs were scarce in winter. Beef, ham, bacon, cheese, and root veg were common to about ¾ of the sample (Further statistical details of the comparison are given in a Table). More fresh than tinned fruit was eaten, and consumption of fresh fish, perhaps surprisingly, not high. Brown bread was not appreciated by everyone, eating it “almost indicative of social standing”; green leafy veg was similarly undervalued, and it was suggested that the Women’s Rural Institute (WRI) could be mobilised to educate people (housewives) as to its benefits, favourable reference being made here to a similar initiative in the USSR.

Section III, beginning on p. 29, is specifically on the Dietary Study in the Island of Lewis. “Just as the dietary study of the highland families was drawing to a close,” the authors tell us, “we undertook, at the suggestion of Sir Edward Mellanby [then Secretary of the MRC, special interest nutrition with particular reference to vitamin deficiency] an investigation of a small group of families living in an isolated area in the Island of Lewis.” These too were engaged mainly in crofting, most men having in addition other, often seasonal work especially fishing. This study was done in summer.

A Lewis family, transitional between rural and town life.
(Slightly earlier than the date of the study),

Compared with Wester Ross (19 families), thought to be the closest and most useful comparitor set, the 23 Lewis families’ percentage of total calories derived from protein and fat was very definitely higher, and the percentage of protein rated first-class about 10% more. Their intake of 3 minerals (calcium, phosphorus, iron) was definitely above, plus slightly more lime and more vitamin A, but less B & C; oatmeal figured largely in the diet. Marked differences were noted in actual foodstuffs: on Lewis more mutton than beef was consumed, and all ate fresh fish, especially fatty varieties (herring, mackerel); they got more cheese/crowdie (fine-grained creamy ‘cottage’ cheese). No leaf veg was eaten, but 74% ate root veg. along with slightly more fresh fruit, and less sugar, jam, eggs, and whole milk. Dental condition in relation to diet is mentioned on p.32, referencing SRS 241 (see below).

Overall, the Report’s Conclusions (p.34) were favourable:

“It may be noted that both in Lewis and in the Highlands generally the standard of maternal efficiency is remarkably high... We have included a summary (Table XX) which suggests that the children both on the island and on the mainland are well up to standard in both height and weight.”

The phrase “maternal efficiency”, given inverted commas at one point in the Report (a raised eyebrow on the part of the female author, perhaps?), was evidently current usage among pundits of the time. Although deployed in commendation here, albeit with a tinge of patronising surprise, it carries the judgmental assumption that a mother should be able to raise healthy children in whatever conditions prevailed. Acknowledgements, after the practitioners and district nurses among others who helped, wind up “... and finally to the many long-suffering housewives who so graciously permitted us to investigate their household economy.”

The preceding Special Report, No.241, had also looked at the Isle of Lewis
(and drawn some similar conclusions about health benefits versus lack of variety of the rural diet).

A later generation of island housewives, being encouraged to cater for tourists.

Update on Pamphlets: one new, two expanded and a translation

Now available, A5 pamphlets:

NEW this summer

Mary Wollstonecraft and the Doctors  (July 2017 edition), 16pp. Price marked £1.50
(Text also available in different format on this blog.)

IMPROVED this autumn

Women in the Spanish Revolution (author's 2010 text) and article 'Personalities and Power in Spain, 1936-39: Dolores Ibárruri and Federica Montseny', 20pp. Price marked £1.50.

Invergordon 1931. Shipshape and Mutiny Fashion: How they Fought the Pay Cuts. Now with additional material. 16pp. Suggested price £1.00.

TRANSLATION into Portuguese

STILL AVAILABLE: What is Libertarian History? (2011) 12pp. 90p 

Copies of most SmothPubs pamphlets may be purchased through  AK Press and Distribution, Some may appear at RaHN events or in Housmans bookshop

The new editions may also be on sale (for the first time) at one or two stalls at the London Anarchist Book Fair on Saturday 28^th October.


UPDATE (Spring 2018): The Portuguese translation as above is now available as a pdf online via http://www.anarquista.net/ - virtual anarchist library.

Three Mile Island: Nuclear power a dangerous business (Review)

Earlier this year it was announced that the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant would shut down in 2019, 40 years after the accident that made it notorious, until overshadowed by worse events.

In the annals of nuclear accident, the name of Three Mile Island has, thankfully, nowhere like the same doom-laden resonance as Chernobyl or Fukushima. At the time, though, it was serious and worrying enough to shake many people’s confidence in the presumed and much-vaunted – in the teeth of other incidents – safety of nuclear power production, and also of course to reinforce the objections and determination of those opposed to its expansion. This review (hitherto unpublished as far as is known) was written not long after the event, the official report having been produced with some rapidity, no doubt in the hope of propagating what reassurance was available.

Review (slightly edited)

The Report of the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island: The Need for Change. Kemeny Report. Pergamon 1979.

Not one for the average bookshelf or library, perhaps, this weighty and pricey volume, but useful enough for the anti-nuclear activist seeking information.

Although the tone of the report is not actually mealy-mouthed and reassuring, its final recommendations are not drastic enough to prevent it being used in precisely the way it warns against: as an excuse for "business as usual" with some modifications and lots of lip-service to safety. Spokesmen for the nuclear industry were able cynically to ignore or side-step its stronger criticisms, amounting to "a damning indictment of official attitudes", and to assert that they were already implementing sufficient improvements. Their reaction is described in Nature, 8-11-79, which provides a supreme example of the way the public is deliberately conned and manipulated - an advertisement claiming the accident had shown nuclear reactors to be "even safer than we had thought" and that the only victim of TMI was the guy who had a heart attack through strenuously defending the nuclear industry against its critics. Nature pointed out that the ad was paid for by the same firm that had built the valve which caused the accident, by getting stuck open... Clearly it will take more than a Report, however prestigious, to put a stop to this sort of thing.

Some members of the Commission themselves contributed supplementary views, showing that it had come close to taking a stronger line. Two resolutions, urging a moratorium on further nuclear power plant construction and the need to choose sites remote from concentrations of population, were defeated by only one vote. In the best of the Supplementaries, Commissioner Peterson points out that a minority had resisted any recommendation that might delay further construction. In his view, the Commission and its staff were not free from the "mindset" that nuclear energy is adequately safe - the mindset for which they had criticised the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and nuclear industry. He deplores the failure to consult any expert from the anti-nuclear lobby who would have made a more rigorous critique, and the decision not to investigate waste disposal when, as he says, the accident had effectively converted TMI-2 into a re- processing plant. Finally he comes out against the nuclear power programme.

Unillusioned libertarians and activists would, of course, expect little better - possibly rather worse - than this report from a President's Commission, composed largely of Professors and other official experts (there is one token, female, Resident), and may be less interested in the proposed "fundamental changes" - not, needless to say, fundamental enough to challenge the social order - than in collecting data on the iniquities of the existing set-up. There is plenty of ammunition in this story of incompetent management, ruthless commercialism and exploitation to use against advocates of nuclear power, and lots of questions to hurl at complacent pundits. The description of what happened, how, why, and what was said about it is not so technical as to obscure the many and varied sources of potential disaster. The control room springs to mind – where it was quite common for dozens of alarms to go off simultaneously with no indication of their relative seriousness.

The fact that what happened was indeed serious is emphasised, and it is pointed out that with only one or two more things going wrong it could have been an actual rather than a “potential” disaster. All the relevant authorities and order-givers are exposed to criticism, but it will be no surprise to learn that the only remedies envisaged involve “better”, stronger, more efficient rather than less authority.

Next to the obvious lesson of how dangerous the whole business is, especially as administered by state and industrial hierarchies, there are also inferences to be drawn about the dehumanising tendency of modern capitalism in one of its most pernicious forms. Because the major factor in turning what should have been a minor incident – a valve temporarily stuck open – into a near-disastrous accident, was human error, stemming from the failure of planners, regulators and managers to take the “human factor” adequately into account. There was no shortage of rules and regulations, but they all tended to be overwhelmingly equipment oriented Take care of the hardware, it was assumed, and the operators will take care of themselves as adjuncts to the machines, working together for good.

This is the attitude Kemeny hopes to change, and it must be a vain hope within exploitative society. In any case it is doubtful whether anything but a more sensitive and subtle man-machine is desired. The contradiction here is basic to [Solidarity’s] politics: the need for a docile, passive, thing-like workforce, which is also needed to be able to think and act intelligently in order to keep the system going.

Dehumanisation was manifested in ways other than the failure to train operators properly: checks were not kept on the total exposure of workers to radiation including non-work sources; plants were sited in hopelessly tiny “low population” zones (two miles in the case of TMI), leaving a broad periphery liable to massive radiation doses in the event of an accident; lessons of earlier incidents were not applied; and so on. Some of the many chronicled sins of omission and careless performance may, as a result of TMI and Kemeny, be committed not quite so often in the future. At least there was a shock-effect sufficient to hold up the construction of new nuclear power plants, for a time, and to induce nearly 13% of those living within 5 miles of TMI to become anti-nuclear campaigners – a proportion which we may surmise could increase, with reports of rumoured birth defects and other consequences showing up from time to time.

Since, however, we cannot expect government and industry to care about people, we will not be concerned with this Report as a means to help “them” solve their problems and maintain their system, but rather with any help it can give in people’s on-going campaign to care of ourselves in spite of them. It may provide some such help.

The Kemeny Commission Report 

Another reference: 

Kasperson R.E., Gray A. (1982) Societal Response to Three Mile Island and the Kemeny Commission Report. In: Kunreuther H.C., Ley E.V. (eds) The Risk Analysis Controversy. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

In 1981 (and for another five years until Chernobyl) TMI was still the main reference point for nuclear accident risk, as in this book, Power Corrupts, which includes details of the 1979 events and quotes from the Report.

Meanwhile our own Dounreay continues on its merry decommissioning way, with frequent upbeat PR from the overseers and almost weekly - it has sometimes seemed - news stories about the manifold problems and hazards...

Fuel stuck in famous Dounreay reactor to be removed 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-41245375

Work ongoing inside Dounreay's dome

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-39003107

National archive for nuclear industry opens in Wick

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-38855127

Contract awarded to demolish Scotland's oldest reactor - BBC News

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-46566038

[14-12-2018] - The Dounreay Materials Test Reactor near Thurso

was Scotland's first operational nuclear reactor.

Previously on this blog:

BOOK REVIEW: Sellafield Stories: Life with Britain’s first nuclear plant

http://smothpubs.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/how-to-be-happy-though-radioactive.html

Before Chernobyl: Kyshtym, USSR, 1958

http://smothpubs.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/before-chernobyl-kyshtym-ussr-1958.html

So Proud he registered her twice?

The arrival of Marjorie Flett as a toddler in North America in May 1916 as recorded in one of her mother's letters has already been referred to on this blog.

... We bought a nice small American pram which was most useful - you should have seen Joe pushing it down 5th Avenue ...
Joe (well over 6' tall) pushing the "small American pram" down 5th Avenue must indeed have been a sight to see. His pride in his first-born daughter is further documented when the family reach their destination in Newfoundland:

Joe is quite balmy about Marjorie - I found that everyone in the place had seen her photo & knew her name, age & weight & one kid had a doll called after her.

Although the spelling 'Marjorie' is consistently preferred by her mother, in the family she was usually 'Marjory' (except on the occasion of her marriage in 1946, when 'Marjorie' appears). It was as 'Marjory Joan Flett' that the baby's birth on 5th February 1915 was registered - twice.

[From Scotland's People]

Surname   Forename           Gender      Year         Ref                        R[egistration] D[istrict] 

FLETT MARJORY JOAN   F              1915       168/3 140             Rubislaw              

FLETT  MARJORY JOAN  F              1915       126/ 10                 Bellie

Images from the double search result (below) confirm that the same birth is recorded in each case.

How and why this came about remains something of a puzzle. The details supplied by her father match exactly, so that at first sight it looks as though he may have assumed she needed to be registered in her place of residence as well as her birthplace and done so on his own initiative. At the time non-home births were the exception, still more so if occurring away from the family's home parish, and it is not known why the nursing home in Aberdeen was chosen - possibly there were fears for the mother's health, or Joe may simply have wanted what seemed to be the best care for her since, then, he could afford it.

A closer look, however, shows that far from being unaware of the duplication, the Registrar for Bellie transcribed the entry himself (or just possibly herself?), presumably from the original certificate issued in Aberdeen. This appears to be an unusual proceeding, and it would be interesting to know of any similar examples. Could the Registrar have been new to the job, replacing someone who had joined up, since this is a few months into the First World War, and unfamiliar with this sort of circumstance?

Nowadays it would no doubt be illegal, whether or not it was then, because of the potential it suggests for fraud, e.g. claiming benefits in different places, or identity theft - not the sort of thing that would have occurred to Marjory of course!

Middle record on this page: Marjory's birth in a nursing home in Aberdeen

Top record here: Marjory's birth also registered in home parish, Bellie:
"Transcribed at Fochabers" by the Registrar.
Marginal note: Dist. of birth: Rubislaw (Aberdeen)

(As it happens, this item has been posted on the 124th anniversary of Marjory's mother's birth.)

Prelude to 1968? - Lake Como, Italy, summer 1967

The anarchist summer camp that took place in Italy 50 years ago this summer seems to have virtually disappeared from the historical record, at least as far as online sources are concerned, despite the fact that the following year, around the time of the May Events, it briefly acquired an aura of notoriety when it emerged that Daniel Cohn-Bendit and his brother had been among those attending. Had it been, as alleged, an occasion for international conspiring or even a training-ground to foment unrest, leading to riot and revolution?

Well, no, or no more so than the more optimistic anarchists might normally hope to make it, although no doubt lively discussions took place and useful contacts may have been made.

This small set of tattered photographs is a reminder that it did happen, even if it didn't look much like the popular idea of revolutionary anarchists a-plotting, and that a good time was had by many.

Lakeside

A peaceful setting

"The boat of the camping".
(Advance publicity claimed it would be possible to cross to Como by boat)

Not even a nudist orgy

A family-friendly cafe.
Useful Italian phrase: Due panini con burro.

Or of course communal cooking, even if it sometimes took a while...

... to the occasional despair of famished campers, as in
"Je ne crois plus aux frites!"

The local population remained largely unimpressed.

An Attempt to Subvert the US Military, December 1966

A further document relating to the history of Aberdeen YCND (mid-1960s vintage) has come to light in the form of the leaflet transcribed here. Current world events suggest that, although the base at Edzell is no more, some at least of the leaflet's content may be only too relevant today. 

TO U.S. PERSONNEL (EDZELL)

This weekend while we are fasting in protest against your Government’s policy in Vietnam, and while you are celebrating Christmas with your families, there is occurring a truce of two days duration in that war-torn country. After the truce is over the war will be resumed with ever greater ferocity. More civilians will be accidentally killed by American troops, more members of the N.L.F. have their flesh seared by Napalm and their crops poisoned by the chemicals which are in daily use in Vietnam.

All over the world people are crying out in protest against the crimes being perpetrated in Vietnam by the American Government, in the names of freedom and humanity. We have come here to add our voices to this protest. To appeal not to those of you who are so blind and so unassailable in your bigotry, so hate-filled that you would gladly kill us as well as slaughter the Vietnamese, but to those of you who have misgivings about the war. The war being waged in your name, the war that is CRUEL, ILLEGAL and IMMORAL.

There are many amongst you who see through the lies put out by your Government, who know that the people of South Vietnam are not heroically resisting Communist aggression but are fighting a foreign invader from 5,000 miles across the sea. Who would agree with former President Eisenhower when he said, “I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indo-Chinese affairs who didn’t agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting, possible 80% OF THE POPULATION WOULD HAVE VOTED FOR THE COMMUNIST HO CHI MINH” (White House Years, 1953-6, p.372). But who do not draw his conclusions, namely that they should not be allowed to take such a course as it would prejudice America’s access to supplies of certain minerals and raw materials in South East Asia. The Vietnamese are suffering not because they are being invaded by Communists, but because of the GREED of certain sections of American society, who are finding war “GOOD BUSINESS”. But war is not good business for the young Americans who through their daily contact with the horror that is Vietnam lose all regard and respect for human life. They are becoming hardened to cutting people down like cloth dummies as they flee, frantic, helpless. ALREADY VIETNAM IS A SCAR ON THE AMERICAN CONSCIENCE THAT CAN NEVER HEAL.

During the days we are here you will see us fasting. Many of you will manage to shrug your shoulders and call us commies but others will know this is not so, you will be unable to ignore us and disregard our leaflets.

We in Britain can only do two things. The first is to stop our Government supporting America in Vietnam. This is difficult because, as Dean Rusk puts it, “AMERICA SUPPORTS THE POUND AND BRITAIN SUPPORTS THE AMERICANS IN VIETNAM”. The second thing we can do, and what we have in fact come here to do is to ask you to DISENGAGE YOURSELF FROM THE AMERICAN MILITARY MACHINE of which you are a part, TO PUT ASIDE ALL CONSIDERATIONS OF JOB AND FAMILY – TO DESERT.

This is a difficult step to take, requiring courage, but as the great Pacifist thinker Tolstoy said, “Not billions of roubles, not millions of soldiers, no institutions or wars have so much power as the simple declaration of a free man that he considers something to be  right or wrong.” WE ASK YOU TO MAKE THIS DECLARATION.

The war continues, the war ESCALATES, WE GIVE YOU A WARNING. This conflict will lead to World War III unless stopped soon. In this you and your families will CERTAINLY DIE, and the attack which Edzell base will draw upon itself will kill by fire and fallout a large number of the population in Dundee and Aberdeen. By leaving the American forces you would be helping in some measure to avert this terrible prospect and also to bring about a lasting peace in VIETNAM.

CHRISTMAS 1966

THIS FAST IS SUPPORTED BY THE FOLLOWING ORGANISATIONS –

[All supplied with Aberdeen addresses]

YOUTH FOR PEACE IN VIETNAM

Y.C.N.D.

COMMITTEE OF 100

“MEGATON” GROUP

Further information:-

http://www.ivycom.com/edzell/site/ - for background on the base.

https://lenathehyena.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/scotlands-radical-youth-1960s-scotland-ban-the-bomb-and-anti-vietnam-movement-in-aberdeen/ - background on the protestors.

Captured American tank on display to tourists in Vietnam, summer 2017