Jump to content

Inverness Boy's Brigade films - 1950, 1953, 1960


Recommended Posts

Three short, silent films of BB activities in days gone by. They were on a videotape which belonged to my late father, John (Jock) Smith of the 5th company, and which I have recently digitised.  I hope that they will be of interest to some of you here.

 

Inverness Battalion Camp - Carrbridge, 1950 - 11 minutes.  The only person that I recognise is my father, ducking his head at 09:34-09:35 as the camera sweeps along the line of people.

 

Inverness Battalion Camp - Carrbridge, 1953 - 6.5 minutes.

  • 01:16 - Lamont Graham - Scoobs - walking backwards, directing the litter pickers
  • 02:13 - line-up of officers includes Scoobs, Herb MacDonald?, George Fraser, Ian (Flash) Reid and Jimmy Robertson
  • 06:14 - Scoobs again, watching the cricket

 

Inverness Battalion 50th Anniversary - New Colours and Church Parade - 04 & 05 June 1960 - 5 minutes

Ironically, the most recent film has the worst quality of the three. It looks like there was a parade to and display at the Northern Meeting Park, followed next day by a march past at the Town House and a service in the Methodist church on Union Street. I don't recognise anyone in it.

 

I don't have any more films like this.  I have many large boxes of still photographs which I intend to digitise over the coming months (years, probably), so if I find anything which may be of interest I'll post it here.

Garry Smith

 

 

  • Agree 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Scoobies - who was Billy Urquhart's father in law - was a BB legend. As Battalion Adjutant he was responsible for getting parades into order at Washington Court (roughly where Markies' male fitting rooms are now, but upstairs.) Scoobs had a regular admonition to fidgets - "Stop gu'ereen!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

 

Snorbens

Just stumbled across this page, brought back a lot of vague memories, recognised a few faces but not the names in the '53 film apart from one Sandy Coote of the eighth   and further on Bill MacDonald at the back where you thought Herb MacDonald may #have been.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bill MacDonald was captain of the 8th Coy in the 60s and possibly before and after as well. I think he lived in Dochfour Drive and married a doctor late in life. Herb MacDonald, I seem to recollect, was Captain of the 6th. He may have been the successor of Teetums (bad eyesight) - not to confused with Feetums who was Ian Reid, an officer in the 2nd Coy who had an uncomfortable gait.

Feetums, Teetums, Scoobies.... the Inverness BB of old was some institution!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

That would appear to be the Sea Cadets rather than the Boys' Brigade, although the Life Boys did have similar hats. What's the date? Early 50s maybe judging b the clothes? IBM may be able to date the cars. That would also be consistent with the presence of MacKay's Bookshop which had its own lending library. It became John Menzies and then WH Smiths. The Fifty Shilling Tailors later became John Collier's and there is a BB connection there since Peter MacGregor, Captain of the 1st Company in the early 60s, was the manager of that shop. It has now become The Smelly Shop... you know the one I mean that honks a horrible perfumey pong right along the High Street.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is the Sea Cadets you can tell as they are all marching out of step :lol: the parked car is a Wolseley 4/50 and the other one is a Humber Supersnipe with ribbons on, both in production from late 40's to early 50's.  It could be a guard of honour for someone in the Sea Cadets who got married!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
37 minutes ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Carrbridge

BB Camp Carrbridge.jpg

Could this possibly be a company rather than a battalion camp at Carrbridge? It's just that, unless there's another one and extra distance out of shot to the left, there only seem to be the three tents. The people have that sort of late 50s/early 60s look but it also seems that the tall guy with the glasses watching the volleyball has a military style uniform, as may the guy (person - not rope!) outside the let hand tent.

Can't say I especially enjoyed BB camp. I can sort of smell the foosty canvas as I write, it was often bloody cold in the tents and I could never work out why people wanted to sleep in one when they had a perfectly good house to live in!

Edited by Charles Bannerman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. : Terms of Use : Guidelines : Privacy Policy