Second Lieutenant Robert Leonard Grahame Skinner was a pilot with RAF 46 Squadron attached to 1st/2nd Battalion, Black Watch (Royal Highlanders). Robert Skinner was the son of the Rev. Henry Leonard Skinner and Susanna Maria Skinner, of The Rectory, Callander. Perthshire. Most of this personal information below was researched by […]
Fireman James Summers was involved in two major events of the Second World War, his ship was sunk by the German Pocket Battleship Admiral Graf Spee and he was being held as a prisoner the sequel event, the freeing of prisoners by the Royal Navy from the Graf Spee’s supply […]
Ian Dermid Campbell was born 12 October 1898 to John Stuart Campbell, South African Merchant, and Mary Ann Campbell. Ian’s birth certificate states that he was born at 13 Lonsdale Terrace, Edinburgh, but his birth was registered in the parish of Dunning, the family home being, Innerdunning House. Ian was […]
Flying Officer Hermone Alexander Innes DFC, RAF 149 Squadron was the son of Colonel Sydney Armitage and Mrs (nee Blain) Innes, Fairmount, Barnhill, Perth. Hermone was educated at Rugby and then joined the staff of the General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation as a trainee at the Perth Head […]
William Davidson Bissett was born on 7 August 1893 at Bauchland, St. Martin’s near Balbeggie. He was the eldest son of John (Plumber) and Helen Bissett, 18 Strathmore Street, Bridgend, Perth. Cadet William Davidson Bissett was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders on 19 December […]
George Thomson, VC: George Thomson was born 23 October 1920 at Borestone Cottage, Trinity Gask, about 12 miles west of Perth. At the age of 15, after schooling at Portmoak Public School and Kinross Higher Grades School, Thomson began an apprenticeship with a Kinross grocer. During the Second World War, […]
During the Second World War, escaping from enemy capture was a remarkable achievement. Lieutenant Alastair Lorimer Cram MC, once referred to as the ‘Harry Houdini’ of WWII managed to achieve this feat 21 times, finally succeeding in April 1945. During the war, he was imprisoned in ten Prisoner of War […]
Flying Officer Ronald Scott Baillie was the son of Major and Mrs James Baillie of 23 Barossa Place, Perth. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in December 1945. His citation describes Ronald as possessing “fine fighting spirit and outstanding efficiency.” Flying Officer Baillie of RAF 61 Squadron was […]
William Ballantine (b. 1905) was due to stand in the 1932 council elections in Perth for the Independent Labour Party (ILP), which had split from the Labour Party a short time earlier. He stood outside ILP policy in doing this and received criticism for his actions. Born into a rural […]
On Monday 5 September 1905 quite an amazing one-day-only event took place on Perth’s South Inch. Custer’s Last Stand at the Battle of the Little Bighorn was faithfully re-enacted at the much-anticipated spectacular event of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Performances were at 2pm and again that same night at […]
