Oor Wullie - the gen.

[Scarlet Pimple]

http://rampantscotland.com/tall_tales/tam_tales_wullie_collectible.htm

 

So Oor Wullie was born in 1940 and it did play a big part in my early days since I was born in 1938.

 

Every Sunday , I think, he appeared in the Sunday Post along with The Broons , both obligatory and fascinating  reading for a person of my age at that time.

 

Are they still appearing in the Sunday Post and is that  newspaper still being published?

[IBM]

I think they are Scarlet although I have not bought the Sunday Post for years as it was not only the Broons & Oor Wullie stories that were recycled others were a well.  Remember most would start with A Sunday Post Man overheard....................  It was good as a youngster though!  It was launched 100 years ago to report on the war and continued on from then although it changed over the years.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Right up there,  IBM, with Dick Barton , Special Agent, on the BBC.....

[Ten4]

Yes SP, the SP is still going strong with Oor Wullie n Jeemy the moose included !

[+bughtmaster]

Scarlet , I understand PC 49 is on the case and Paul Temple is waiting in the wings Dada da dadadadadadah.

[+roarer]

Which reminds me of one of the greatest books ever written in Scotland. An autobiography written many years ago by conjoined twins from Dundee.

[+roarer]

They were joined from the waist down but had separate chests and obviously separate heads. They both married different women and had large families.

[+roarer]

The title of course was oor wullie.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Good Lord-What have I started?

 

Bughtmaster your slip(age) is showing. I can barely remember PC49. 

Can you remember Childrens' hour on the  Home service from Glesca  with Kathleen Garscadden?

 

Can you remember Spread Eagle on Children's Hour?   

 

How about Tommy Handley ?  And/or Wilfred Pickles?  Or even Alvar Ladell the BBC announcer with the posh and melifluent tones?

 

Can you remember Victory Day in the second World war? --I do since I fell off my bike onto my nose in the rain whilst celebrating?

[+bughtmaster]

Childrens' hour not really............Tommy Handley, Wilfred Pickles yes + the Goons,  Workers' playtime, all on the bbc light programme as was!!

 

V day yes and the previous day my sister and I , living up in Thurso at the time, were out in the town centre waving flags until we were told off by some Warden who chased us off home for jumping the gun with our Celebrations.

 

Also before then tuning in through crackles and whistles on short wave to the LEIPZIG Station on the wireless to listen to what Lord Haw Haw had to say.

 

I also remember that when the 'air raid'  siren sounded whilst at school we had to crawl under our desks and stay there till the 'All clear' siren went. Often thought we didn't stand much chance if a bomb ever hit the school.

 

Any more pre war memories Oldies ? Ration books  etc.

 

Oh dear strayed off topic again................what is the topic here anyway..............I've forgotten  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[Scarlet Pimple]

Apparently others as well.
 
 So I will  just say this:  that if you can remember listening to Lord Haw Haw then are you sure you are younger than me? 'Cos at that age I didn't know about him. Was your mother making sure that you knew yer onions before you grew up? And I never heard an air raid siren ever. Apparently my generation must have led a charmed existence completely unaware of a war going on and it started one year after I was born.
 
My Dad did  remark that a German plane flew over Inverness once.

[+bughtmaster]

A bomb fell on or near Wick, only one I can remember.......wonder if it was from the same plane that flew over Inverness  lol... thought Wick was more important!!!!! 

[Charles Bannerman]

A bomb fell on or near Wick, only one I can remember.......wonder if it was from the same plane that flew over Inverness  lol... thought Wick was more important!!!!! 

Wick actually had two serious air raids with civilian casualties including children. The first, in July 1940, was the first air raid on mainland Britain. The reason was that the aerodrome at Wick was the base for fighter cover for the Fleet at Scapa Flow and that was what they were looking for although they didn't actually find it. The strategic significance of Wick was therefore quite large. My mother remembers both air raids and my grandfather was involved in getting children to safety when the Luftwaffe strafed the streets.

Inverness had no such strategic or industrial importance so escaped. However all the standard firewatching arrangements were in place. For instance a janitor and/or senior pupils used to ocupy the bell tower at Inverness Royal Academy at night, just in case Fatty Goering's lads paid a visit.

[tm4tj]

Them Fokkers, they bombed our chip shops

[+bughtmaster]

The Fokkersl  well I could just spit fire...............Still  but the hurricanes blew them away in the end I am happy to say.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Charles --where was the entrance to the Bell tower at the Academy? Can't remember it at all?

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Personally these were my favourites and also reminded me of the old Jaggie front line.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Waiting for your answer Charles? Thanking you most kindly in advance.

[Charles Bannerman]

Charles --where was the entrance to the Bell tower at the Academy? Can't remember it at all?

I can't either, but i think it may have been a hatch in the ceiling of the upper transverse corridor.

 

By the way, firewatching was not instituted at the Royal Academy until the relatively late stage of March 1941 by which time the London Blitz was into its last couple of months. The Rector, Mr Crampton Smith, instructed that: "There will be on duty every night from 6pm until 7:30am, from Saturday at 12 noon and all day on Sunday either the janitor (or groundsman), a male member of staff and two girls over 16 years of age, or, the janitor, two female members of staff and three boys over 16 years of age. Light refreshments to be supplied."

Edited December 23, 2014 by Charles Bannerman

[Charles Bannerman]

Personally these were my favourites and also reminded me of the old Jaggie front line.

There seem to be six of them so maybe the one on the upper right is Jimmy Calder sitting on the crossbar.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

The Bell Tower was via a door at the bottom of the corridor where the Rectums office was. I tried to steal it once.

[Charles Bannerman]

The Bell Tower was via a door at the bottom of the corridor where the Rectums office was. I tried to steal it once.

So was it the Bell Tower, the door, the corridor or the "Rectum's office" that you tried to steal?

 

The outline of that tale is actually also the combination of two incidents involving the same pupil in the mid-50s. Robbie Ewan was the school's rugby captain and on a visit to Gordonstoun, where the hospitality wasn't great, Ewan decided to make a protest by stealing the handbell which sat on a table within Gordonstoun School.

On another occasion Ewan, who seems to have had some kind of campanological fixation, got into the Royal Academy bell tower and wrapped a rugby shirt round the bell clapper, hence silencing it. For that he was stripped of the rugby captaincy.

 

The Gordonstoun Bell, which is still at the Royal Academy, had an interesting history following its liberation from the Moray establishment. It was used to call to order IRA RFC meetings and a plinth was built for it for that purpose, inscribed in Latin "Robertus Me Liberavit" "Robbie 'liberated' me". It was also used as the bell to mark one lap to go in races at the school sports.

When the Royal Academy celebrated its bicentenary in 1992, the bell was included in an historical exhibition mounted in the library. During the celebrations, there was a royal visit from former Gordonstoun pupil Prince Andrew who asked the Rector about ther bell when he passed it on the way round, leaving the Rector with the problem of having to explain how it got there.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Cor blimey!

[JockWatt]

Charles, you said "Inverness had no such strategic or industrial importance" !

 

But did it not have a seaplane base ?