Jimmy Fairlie in Fife, whose reminiscences on Holmston before and during the war were praised by
various reviewers, wrote to us again in October. He says he hasn't been in good health this year, or his "old pal Gabbitas"
(Dawson "JD" Gabbitas, in Queensland).
Jimmy's restarted his research on Captain John Smith, the mysterious
donor who left money in 1817 to set up Smith's Institution, later Holmston. He's sent us
photocopies of the registration of Smith's death, and newspaper articles about the will and the school.
I'll try to add these, and other historical material from FPs, to the History pages when there's time.
"I have 'kick-started' the Captain's trail again with a visit to the
National Archives in Register House and have booked a view at his Will, so will inform
you if anything of note turns up.
"I hope it will give some clue to his wife (A. Bryden) and their address
in Newton or 'Air'.
"Hope you are keeping well and that we can meet up some day, my regards to Sandy Murdoch."
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Norman Faulds wrote in November with pointers to his own Christmas web page - Norman's a retired minister -
"What ho, Alan! Happy St Andrew's Day!
Thought I'd send you a message on the anniversary of a
great night last year.
"Have been working on a simple page of my own for the benefit
of my colleagues who still have their shoulders to the wheel,
their eyes on the ball and their noses to the grindstone at
a time when most of the world is on holiday for a fortnight
- viz Christmas.
"Have taken the liberty of lifting a couple of .gif dividers
from your webpages and have included the logo of yuleloveit.com
as acknowledgement. If you can advise if you used other
sites I'd be grateful.
"My page may not be entirely suitable for pupil viewing.
You'd have to vet my second hyperlink - how the angel
came to be on the top of the tree to decide.
Everything else is OK. Click on the following:
Advent & Christmas Page.
"Have also attached a picture taken at Luffness Mill in East Lothian (left). It might do for a Christmas Caption Competition.
"For Auld Lang Syne,
Norman"
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There was mail from a couple of teachers too -
Joanne Knight, the Tasmanian teacher who featured in our last issue, wrote in October -
"...I have looked at the page from when I visited
your school. I am now back in Tasmania and at school. I had a wonderful
experience in Scotland.
"Regards
Joanne"
Mr Lawson, who showed us round Glasgow's Kelvinhaugh Primary during Scotland's "Doors Open" Day in
September, found our pages in November -
"Nice to see a bit about our school on your impressive site.
John Lawson, HT, Kelvinhaugh Primary."
It's been good to hear from all of you. All the best for Christmas and the New Year,
and hope we can continue to keep the Holmston web
community together!
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