Down Clydesdale’s Memory Lane

REME remembered: This wonderful group picture of the staff of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) at Lanark’s Winston Barracks comes courtesy of Gazette reader Gordon Lawrie. The picture was taken some time in the middle of the barrack’s surprisingly short history from 1940 to the late 1960s. Although Winston is best known as the ‘home’ of the famous Cameronians, the REME was a separate unit, understood to contain many locally-recruited civilian staff at its own compound on the Ravenstruther ‘cut’, one corrugated iron building of which survives to this very day. The same can be said of the REME itself as an active unit of the British Army.

50 YEARS AGO

n Carluke Primrose Flute Band members were making an all-out effort to raise funds in order to buy new instruments, costing £3000.

n There was an advert placed in the Gazette to see if men up to the age of 22 would be interested in joining the Cameronians. A mobile recruitment office was set up at The Crown in Lanark.

n There was a picture of children from Carluke Primary and Higher Grade Schools who were now settling into the new term.

n A prisoner from Lanark, who was baptised in jail, told fellow prisoners the Lord had shown him the way. The next day he was reported missing!

n There was a spate of car theft across Clydesdale.

n Carluke Rovers defeated Lanark United 3-2 in a West of Scotland Cup match at Loch Park.

100 YEARS AGO

n A large crowd gathered at Hyndford Bridge to witness the Carluke Cycle Club and its Motherwell counterpart’s 10 mile race.

n At the Burgh Police Court in Lanark, a woman pleaded guilty to being drunk and incapable in Lanark High Street. She was fined 10s.

n The third annual show of Forth Horticultural Society took place.

n Members of Carluke United YMCA had their last ramble of the season with a visit to St Oswald’s Chapel in Braidwood.