Silverburn Flax Mill - Fiona Young

Kirkcaldy Probus                      05.11.25

The meeting opened with a eulogy to recently deceased member, John Methven, delivered by Ian Gilchrist. President Mike Birkett then passed on the sad news of the passing of Barbara Stevenson, wife of Vice-President Mike. Both funeral arrangements will be circulated once details are available.

President Mike then looked at the topical subject of Autumn colours, and why plants change from green to some of the fabulous colours we see in Autumn.

Our Christmas lunch will cost £30.00 for two courses, and treasurer Robert Main would appreciate payment asap, please. Our visit to the Black Watch Museum was very successful, with an excellent knowledgeable guide. Our next trip is to the rugby club, which is well in hand. Since winter is approaching, our visits thereafter will not commence until about March.

Prizes were presented to Joe Hughes, for his success in the bowls single-hand competition, and to Tom Craigie in the pairs. The other pairs winner, Alan Court, was not in attendance. Looking at the weather for Friday, our walking group will meet at the Merchant’s House to decide on plans for the day. The Thursday walking group will walk from Heatherhall Woods to Ladybank on Thursday 11th, meeting at our usual car park at 10.00.

Fiona Young is the Flax Mill Activities Co-ordinator at Silverburn Park, and she was our speaker for the day. Silverburn Flax Mill was constructed in 1856, and flax was soon grown locally because the Crimean War interrupted supplies from abroad. Fiona showed many photos and diagrams, and using one photo she described how various parts of the flax mill had been used. The mill fell into disuse in the 1880’s as cotton grew in popularity, but it was resurrected during both world wars for different purposes. It was eventually donated to Leven Town Council (now Fife Council) with a stipulation it should be used as a quiet park with nature, for reflection, and for camping.

This remit will be fulfilled when the refurbished building reopens in Spring/Summer 2026. It will host a café, a shop, studios, activity spaces and accommodation aimed at walkers on the Fife Coastal Path.

Fiona ended her talk with a comprehensive demonstration of the processes involved in harvesting and preparing flax for later spinning and weaving. The difference between the raw product and the fine material that is available at the end of the process was very revealing.

Roderick Henderson gave the vote of thanks on behalf of the members.

Our next meeting is on November 19th when Ross Paterson will talk on “40 years in the RAF – it went by in a flash!”

Kirkcaldy Probus          2025-10-15

We were having a musical entertainment today, so President Mike Birkett moved straight into the formal business. Almoner Roy Urquhart had four members to report on this week. Our visit to the rugby club is organised for the 29th of November and on the 29th of October we will be visiting the Black Watch Museum in Perth, at 11.00. We will enjoy a guided tour then lunch. For transport arrangements, contact Mike Birkett. The trip to Anstruther to visit the RNLI Station has been postponed while building works continue. Our Christmas lunch will be on Wednesday 17th December. Details from Robert Main, who will receive payment, preferably by BACS.

The summer sporting season has come to an end, with no reports from either club golf or from Fife Probus golf. The bowls have also finished, with a fine end-of-season lunch at Marino’s. The walks continue, with this Friday’s Walk still to be decided on. Next Thursday we will walk at Kinross, meeting first at our usual car park.

Our entertainment was provided by After 8 Mince, a group of local players who do not play for fees but collect for charity. Interestingly, there were three Probus Clubs represented in their line-up. They have been playing together for over twenty years, having met at Dalgety Bay Folk Club. There are three singers in the group: Kirsty Holmes, who also plays percussion; and Alex Smart and Bill Ewing, both guitar players. Steve Touhey also plays guitar, along with bouzouki and spoons. The bass player is Alastair McCabe, with Dave Yates on bodhran, and on the mixing desk. They may be non-professional, but all are accomplished musicians, and provided great entertainment.

Although they met at a folk club, their music stretched the definition sometimes. They played modern folk, and also some sixties classics. Bill had written new lyrics to a couple of well-known songs, and his lyrics to “The Wreck of the Old 97” introduced us to the band. By contrast, “Super Cupar” was a rewrite of the Abba classic. They also performed an original piece about Fife by Bill. Two famous Fife poems were set to music, ending the show fittingly with that great lyric about Kirkcaldy – “The Boy on the Train”.

President Mike thanked the group for their excellent performance.

At our next meeting, on November 5th, our speaker Fiona Young will tell us about the flax mill at Silverburn.

Lynda Colston

President Mike Birkett had to suffer tech gremlins before he could give us his short talk on the history of Maserati cars and the famous trident logo. While we were waiting for tech guru Stuart Rennie to fix the problem, we heard from the treasurer that our accounts would be published on the website later this month. Our almoner reported on the health of four members before we heard of two proposed trips, to the RNLI Station in Anstruther then the Black Watch Museum in Perth. Both visits will take place before the onset of Winter.

Our club golf has finished for the season, though the lunch has still to be organised. The Probus Golf season has also ended, finishing at Thornton on the 19th of September. There were six teams in the competition with three players per team, and Mike Simpson led the winning team. Thanks were expressed to Ron Wylie for his organisational skills throughout the Fife Probus Golf season. Another activity which has finished for the season is the Bowling Section, and they will have their lunch at Marino’s restaurant in St Clair Street on Monday 13th October at 12.30. Walks will continue over the whole year, and the walk next Thursday is from Findattie at Loch Leven.

Our speaker for the day was Lynda Colston, who gave us an uplifting insight into the life and personality of David Speed, “Fife’s violin maker”. Dave made over 200 violins, but only a few were given to special people. The rest of his violins hung round the walls of his house, which doubled as his workshop.

When Dave left the army after World War Two, he became a joiner for Mitchell’s in Leslie. One day, a young girl came in, crying, because the violin she had been given at school had been handed to a more promising pupil. Dave, with no carpentry background, and no knowledge of, or skills in, music, decided to make a violin. He only took a fortnight, but thereafter he had the bug. Surprisingly, Dave never learned how to play the violin, but his violins were played

Without his knowledge, a violin was sent to London, and from that, he was visited by Noel Edmunds. Later that day, he went to Burntisland Parish Church for a children’s concert, but instead he was greeted by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, in full tails and gowns, and was treated to a recital, only to be told afterwards that all of the violins the orchestra were playing were his own,

After he died, the violins were gifted to the Big Noise project in Raploch, then the other five Big Noise orchestras in Scotland, fulfilling Dave’s wishes that the violins be used to help children progress in music.

The talk was illustrated with pictures and newspaper cuttings which were passed around. Also passed round was a violin Dave had presented to Lynda, made from wood from Lynda’s grandmother’s old piano. Most moving of all, on video we saw Dave with Noel Edmunds, and his reaction to the concert.

Bill O’Donnell thanked Lynda for sharing her knowledge, on behalf of the members.

On 15th October we will be entertained by a musical performance from “After 8 Mince”. Intrigued? Come and join us.

Dave Burke

President Mike Birkett opened the meeting by looking at one of the memorable poems from his childhood – William Blake’s “The Tyger”. He then announced that once the responses to our last meeting’s questionnaire had been collated, we now had a strong list of potential visits to consider for the future. Our visit to the RNLI station at Anstruther is on the cards for October and we are going to Kirkcaldy Rugby Club for the match on November 29th. The meeting of December 3rd will be our annual quiz with the Christmas lunch on the 17th. Like Rachel Reeves, our treasurer gave us an “Autumn Statement”, with the good news that finances are in line with predictions.

We finished the club golfing last Thursday, with Ian Anderson winning the Stableford competition. The final Fife Probus golf competition is on Friday 19th, where six teams of three will tee off at Thornton. Weather prevented us playing our round-robin pairs bowling competition, but we still have two weeks left to try again. Arrangements for the walk this Friday, will be decided at the Merchant’s House, while the walk on Thursday 25th will be at Leven.

Our speaker, Dave Burke, was an electrician with the British Antarctic Survey 44 years ago, and he spoke about “My Life in the Antarctic”. There are bases of other nations throughout the Antarctic, but there is no politics, no military and they share data. The British Base is Farraday base, with several buildings, including a “balloon shed”, from where balloons are sent up to collect meteorological data, which, like other data, is transferred to Cambridge University. Another building is the generator shed, which houses three generators - one working, one on standby, and one undergoing maintenance. There is time for relaxation, indoor and outdoor, and in Dave’s time the films they watched were reel-to-reel and they had to watch the same movies several times till a new ship arrived and they could make an exchange.

These ships only came in the summer months, when they could break through the “brash ice”. David showed us a picture of digging out Wardie House, which was covered in snow in Winter. They drank desalinated water in Summer, but in Winter they thawed ice blocks.

The talk was illustrated with many pictures of Dave’s living and working environment, but he also had many photos he had taken of the local wildlife. There were a lot of close-ups, as the birds and animals knew no fear of humans.

Ron Wylie gave a whole-hearted vote of thanks to Dave on behalf of the members. Our next meeting will be on October 1st, when Lynda Colson will tell us about “David Speed, violin maker”.

Jack Dempsey

President Mike Birkett began the meeting by distributing forms with possible future visits printed on them. We were given the opportunity to indicate our thoughts about these visits and whether we might like to undertake them.

Our almoner reported on the health of one absent member. Our webmaster reminded us that our website provides a link to Probus Global Organisation.

Our next club golf outing is on Thursday 11th September at Burntisland and the next Fife Probus Golf competition is on Friday 19th. The latter will be followed by lunch and prize-giving. Returns to Bob Hutchison, please. Both Fife Probus competitions at Strathtyrum last Wednesday were won by Kirkcaldy members.  Ian Anderson won the Handicap and Bob Hutchison won the Scratch competition. Another winner was Joe Hughes, who won the Langtoun singles trophy at St Clair Bowling Club. The Thursday walking group visited Lochore Meadows last week and will walk part of the Fife Coastal Path from North Queensferry Station next week. Details to follow. Details also to follow for the next walk of the Friday walking group, who visited North Queensferry two weeks ago and Ravenscraig last week.

The speaker this week was our own Jack Dempsey, who spoke about “The Global Energy Supply”. He started with the historical situation, telling us that over the last 750,000 years there have been seven ice ages, the last one lasting 80,000 years, when Scotland was under two miles of ice. We are currently in an inter-glacial period. We hear a lot of bad publicity about greenhouse gases, but we were reminded that the greenhouse effect protects us from freezing.

There is also an ongoing debate about the energy mix, where we need to consider energy security, energy affordability and energy sustainability. In security, the UK currently imports 10% of our needs, with connectivity to six other countries. Thinking of affordability, 10% of households are in fuel poverty. Fossil fuels will run out in 200 years, so we have to think about sustainability. Solar power does not work 24/7 while the wind does not always blow. Nuclear power, on the other hand, runs 96% of the time (the other 4% is maintenance time.) We also need to bear in mind the possibility of grid blackouts. Examples of mass blackouts happened in Spain and Portugal recently, and also in the east of the USA, where some power stations remained out of use for two weeks.

Hugh MacKenzie thanked Jack on behalf of the members.

Our next meeting, in the Dean Park Hotel at 10.00 for 10.30, will be preceded by a committee meeting at 9.15. Our speaker will be David Burke, whose talk is entitled “My Life in the Antarctic”.

Arthur Lloyd

President Mike Birkett’s opening observations were on the subject “A Brief History of the Aircraft Firm, Supermarine”. This was illustrated with pictures of some of their aircraft – mainly seaplanes in the early days – including the famous Spitfire. The company started in 1913 but was discontinued in the 1960’s.

For a change from his usual jokes, our almoner gave us the derivation of several common words and phrases and surprised us with their origins. Our website is still attracting 2500 page views per month. The planned visits to Anstruther and to Kirkcaldy Rugby Club are in hand.

The Stableford competition on 8th August was enjoyed by all club members participating and was won by Bob Hutchison. The Race to Balwearie – best four scores from five games – was won by Mike Stevenson. Jim Browning won the knockout Plate competition. The next competition is the Steak Pie on Thursday September 11th. The Fife Probus Golf series continues on Wednesday 28th August at Strathtyrum. The final of the singles competition is now ready to be played at St Clair Bowling Club, with all other players taking part in our usual bounce game. The Friday walks are progressing apace, with recent visits to Mapsie Den and Birnie Loch. The Thursday walking group will visit Lochore Meadows next week.

Arthur Lloyd has visited us several times and given us entertaining talks, and his new talk – “Eleven States in Eleven Days” was no exception. In all, he travelled 2987 miles, and visited eleven states. He flew into Chicago in Illinois, and ventured north to Wisconsin, then south to Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. The rest of his journey took him through Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, then back to Illinois. This seems like a long journey, but Arthus is an early riser and had plenty of time to visit points of interest in every state. With many of these points of interest most of us could recognise the name and appreciated the new information.

The talk was well illustrated with pictures of the most interesting points, and some videos, but there was also a very nostalgic dip into the music associated with many of his stops. The songs were famous ones from days gone by, and several times the members were singing old but not forgotten words along with the soundtrack.

On behalf of the members, Graeme Cockburn thanked Arthur for his entertaining and thought-provoking talk.

Our next meeting is on September 3rd, when our own Jack Dempsey will talk about “The World Energy Situation”.

Grant Wallace

President Mike Birkett began the meeting by showing us a photograph of himself as a choir boy at St Ninian’s Church in Perth. He was resplendent in a full-length cassock and a white surplice in the black and white photo. The stories of his early years there were very enlightening.

Our almoner, Roy Urquhart, reported on the health of one absent member, then entertained us in his usual way with a selection of short jokes. Details will follow regarding our visit to the RNLI station in Anstruther in October. Those wishing to join the group attending the rugby lunch and game on Saturday 29th November should give their names to Euan Fraser. We received a letter from the Golden Jubilee Hospital thanking us for our donation. Speakers’ convener Jim Browning informed us we have a full card for this year, but he is always happy to receive suggestions for future speakers.

On Thursday 7th the club golfers will contest the Balwearie Cup, and the winner of “The Race to Balwearie” will also be decided. Ian Anderson won the Club Quaich at our last club outing. The next Fife Probus Golf, competition is at Strathtyrum and entries should be in by August 16th. We have reached the stage of the singles’ final in the bowling section, and both walking groups are enjoying good weather and therefore enjoyable walks. One group walks on the Friday of our regular meeting and also takes advantage of good weather on some other Fridays. The other group walks on the Thursday of the week when we do not have a meeting.

Grant Wallace, our speaker, works for Salos Sunesis and they train workers in the oil industry with an aim to eliminate human error from procedures and make the industry as safe as possible. He used a simple visual test to illustrate how easily we can miss errors if some other information distracts us. He fooled most of us.

To demonstrate how things can go wrong, he used a dramatized video showing events leading up to the Kegworth air crash (that’s the one where a British Midland plane came down on the M1). The pilots were not used to the new, unfamiliar plane and thus began a catalogue of errors, involving other crew and passengers, that could have averted the disaster.

Unlike the pilots in an aircraft, far more people are involved in drilling on an oil rig, so the potential for error is greater. Grant told us of many other reasons we can make mistakes, and it is he and his team who train operators and workers to make oil rigs safer.

Jack Dempsey thanked Grant on behalf of the members for a very interesting talk.

Arthur Lloyd is our next speaker, and he will talk about “Eleven States in Eleven Days”. This will be on August 20th, and visitors are welcome to join us at 10.00 in the Dean Park Hotel for a good morning out.

David Browning

President Mike Birkett opened our 1175th meeting by looking at the club’s Christmas song sheet. Many of the songs are “traditional” Scottish, and Mike educated and surprised us with the origins of some of these well-known songs.

Our treasurer is reassuringly happy with the current situation in the club’s affairs, and our almoner reported on the health of two absent members. Our visit to Anstruther has been moved back to early October, for reasons of ease of parking. The rugby club visit will be in early November.

The golf outing to Scoonie was played in perfect conditions, with Euan Fraser the worthy winner. Several competitions will conclude at our next outing, on August 6th. Details will follow regarding the next Fife Probus golf competition, which is on August 27th. The ties are now underway in the bowling section; and the two walking groups are still enjoying ideal weather. The Friday walkers had a good outing to Aberdour and their next visit will be Lochore Meadows. The walkers next Thursday will visit Townhill Loch.

Artificial Intelligence is a subject that gathers mixed publicity at the moment, but David Browning was with us to tell us that “Artificial Intelligence is Not Just for the Grandkids.” David asked, “What is AI?” and gave us a definition and a glimpse into history. Basically, AI is machines simulating human intelligence, and while the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence may amaze us at the moment, there is a lot more to come.

David showed how far AI has already come by demonstrating some of the progress so far. He started by looking at Text. He took a few facts about Kirkcaldy Probus and asked Google to create a 100-word paragraph on the Probus, which it achieved almost instantly. Next, he looked at how Images can be generated by just typing in a command. Thirdly he looked at Music, entered a few prompts and produced two heavy metal songs about the Probus, then a jazz number. All lyrics very clever and appropriate.  His final example was in Video, where he took an image of Donald Trump then had the image extol the virtues of the Probus, voice and all.

David continued by reminding us of how many ways we already encounter AI. He demonstrated a translation app and reminded us of how adverts on the computer or recommendations on You Tube are targeted at us based on personal history. We also use smart phones, smart home devices and online tools, like “Search”, on a regular basis.

Jack Dempsey was very impressed and expressed this on behalf of the members.

Our next talk will be “Safer Teams in the Oil Industry” from Grant Wallace, and this will be on August 6th.

Claire Paton

President Mike Birkett welcomed 24 members to the 1174th meeting of Kirkcaldy Probus Club held in the Dean Park Hotel on Wednesday 2nd July.

Apologies for absence had been received from quite a few members, hence the low turnout. 

President indicated a diary date for the outing to Kirkcaldy Rugby Club had been fixed for the 24th of November, names to Euan Fraser. 

Mike then went on to his usual ramble on unrelated subjects in the name of education.  This time it was on dinosaurs and the lack of true facts in the “Jurassic Park” film and then followed up with a poem on said dinosaurs. 

Reports from conveners were then asked for, with no reports from Secretary, Web Master, Treasurer(abs), Almoner(abs), Talks(abs), Friday Walking(abs), Thursday Walking Group will meet next week, 10th July at Riverside Park 10am.  Bowling will meet as usual on Mondays at 2pm all welcome.  Next club golf will be at Scoonie G.C. members have been informed of start times.  Fife golf took place at Dunnikier GC last week between Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline, all prize money was donated to the Maggies Centre.

This week’s talk was entitled “What Lies Beyond the Gate” and Mike introduced Claire Paton who owns Lethangie House and farm on the outskirts of Kinross and adjacent to Loch Leven. Claire’s talk was based on the history and working of the Lethangie House Estate.  She was educated in Edinburgh and worked in the Lord Provosts office for seven years.  She has numerous grandchildren to keep her busy as well as being Chair of the Tayside Arts Society and is a board member of the Kinross Agricultural Society.  The estate and house were bought by the Paton family in 1858.  The family were at that time owners of Paton’s of Tillicoultry, weavers of tartan and other textiles.  In 1936 the house was devasted by fire in the middle of winter.  One thing saved from the fire was a stained-glass window depicting Lord Darnley. 

The original kitchen has been retained as a living time capsule with all the original fixtures and fittings still in place.  One quirky part of the house is a lead lined turret which is a bath and shower.  An extensive garden contains out buildings including heated carriage shed and stables, ice house, heather hut which has been recently renovated, dovecot with 360 stone nesting boxes and a curling pond.  Claires hobby is bee keeping and she has 14 colonies kept in the walled garden. Among the artefacts she brought along was a beehive shaped stilton

cheese cover. The members were quizzed as to the value if this cover and the closest to the value was given a pot of prize-winning honey from the Royal Highland Show. The winner was Ron McLeod.  On finishing the talk Ron proposed a vote of thanks to Claire for her magnificent talk.

Anne McIntyre

President Mike Birkett opened the meeting with a short biography of a remarkable lady, Beatrice Shilling. Born in 1909, her ambition – unusual for a lady of the time – was to become an engineer. She graduated as an engineer in 1932, joined the RAF four years later, and invented a way to make British fighter planes more battle-worthy during World War Two.

Our almoner reported on the sad passing of Past President Ian Smith, and a minute’s silence was held. Ian’s funeral will be on Wednesday, July 2nd, at 12.45 at Kirkcaldy Crematorium.

Our website is proving popular, with about 2000 visits per month. The visit to Newtongrange Mining Museum Scotland proved very instructive to all, with a great appreciation of the equipment and the journey through a Health-and-Safety-assured underground. In September, we hope to visit the RNLI station at Anstruther, along with the Fisheries Museum. Our next rugby outing will be in October, on Saturday 25th Drinks, a meal, and seats will be provided for the match against Howe of Fife.

Mike Stevenson won the Probus Crystal Award in the last club golf outing at Canmore. Mike also organised an overnight trip to Spey Valley Course in Aviemore, and over two games in two days, the group managed to compete in five competitions. Scoonie is the next venue, on Thursday 10th of July, and entries should be in by the 7th. Twenty-eight competitors will take part in the next Fife Probus Golf competition, on Wednesday 25th of June.

The draw has been made for the singles competition in Bowls. The Friday walking group will take advantage of the weather to visit the seaside, and next Thursday the walkers will visit Pittencrieff Park in Dunfermline.

We all thought we knew everything about the Links Market, but our speaker, Anne McIntyre, proved us wrong. She used numerous photographs, taken over the years, to illustrate the changes to the Market. Of course, she could not show pictures from 1305 – the year the annual market started, which was just one year after the weekly market began. This original market was in the widest part of Links Street, and was still there for traders, when the children’s rides and entertainment stalls were moved to Sands Road (now the Esplanade), in 1884. At first, roundabouts were turned by children from poorer families, but ponies were used at the turn of the century, then steam power, and eventually electricity. Traders moved to Sands Road in 1903 when trams arrived in Links Street.

In 2004, there were 225 attractions, but Anne’s illustrations showed that the Market used to stretch much further in both directions, and so that number has dropped. As well as providing illustrations and the historic photographs, Anne finished her talk with two interesting videos. The second was from 2004, but the first was from 1962, and some of the rides at the Market looked quite different, but were nostalgic for someone my age, who haunted the Market in the early sixties.

Anderson Lindsay had his own memories as he proposed the vote of thanks.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 2nd July, when Claire Paton will tell us “What Lies Beyond the Gate”,

Neil Robertson and Alison Gray

President Mike Birkett opened our meeting with a look at the topic “Oh! Deer!” He covered the four species of deer found in Scotland, concentrating on the one most likely to be found around Kirkcaldy, the Roe deer.

Our secretary reported that the new club booklet should be ready for the next meeting, and thanked George Warner for his assistance in the printing. The weather on the visit to the Isle of May was somewhat blustery, but the visit was enjoyed as was the pre-sail visit to the RNLI station. Our next visit is to Newtongrange mining museum on the 11th of June, meeting at Kirkcaldy railway station at 10.00.

The next speaker is Anne McIntyre, president of Kirkcaldy Civic Society, who will be talking about the Links Market. If any members have ideas for future speakers, could you please contact Jim Browning with the information.

Names for the next club golf outing should be with George Warner by Sunday the 8th of June, and entries for the next Fife Probus Golf competition, which is on the 25th of June, should be with Ron Wylie by the 12th. Our weekly bowling games are every Monday at 2pm at St Clair bowling club. For details of this Friday’s walk, please contact Ian Gilchrist. The walk on Thursday 12th will start from Nether Street, car park at 10.00.

We had two speakers this week, on the subject of “My Transplant Journey”. First up was Neil Robertson who shared a very moving story with the group. Neil was on holiday in New Zealand when he was informed his daughter Louise had fallen on a Munro in Winter snow. With his wife Jane, he hurried home to be with his daughter. Tragically his daughter died but Neil and his wife were in time to agree that her organs could be donated to others who were in need. Her liver and kidneys were donated to people in the

UK, but she had a rare blood group, and, at that time, there was no-one appropriate to receive her heart and her lungs in the whole of Europe. They have since been contacted by all three, now healthy, recipients of the organs.

Alison Gray spoke next, and her story recounted how she needed and received a new heart. Her brother had had a heart transplant in January 1988, but Alson had no problems till the summer of 2006, when, after a couple of misdiagnoses, she was diagnosed with cardio myopathy, and had an internal defibrillator fitted in February 2008. This was not needed till years later, but after contracting covid, Alison needed to return to the Golden Jubilee hospital, where she was kept in, to wait for a transplant. Fortunately, the wait was not too long, and she had her transplant in February 2022. After three weeks in hospital, she was released home, and with only one setback, she now leads a full, active and sporting life. Incredibly, she will soon represent team GB in the world transplant games in Dresden.

At the end of her talk, Alison encouraged us all to spread the news about transplants, and to consider the wonderful benefits they can bring for recipients.

Alan Court spoke about the many “Journeys” we had heard about, and how different and uplifting this one was.

Our next meeting will be on June 18th.

Alan Court

President Mike Birkett took the chair and began by looking at the origins of the Ferrari logo. The prancing horse was from the coat of arms of Francesco Baracca, Italy’s foremost pilot in World War 1, and when Enzo Ferrari started Scuderia Ferrari (Ferrari stables) he adopted the logo.

Our trip to the Isle of May, preceded by a visit to the RNLI station, is on Monday 26th: details to follow. Our next visit is to Newtongrange mining museum on Wednesday June 11th. We had perfect weather and a perfect course for our club golf outing to Cowdenbeath for a Stableford competition, and Jim Browning won the Senga trophy. We had a chilly day for last Monday’s bowls, but two rinks of hardy souls were in use. The Friday walkers have enjoyed the good weather, and also the bacon rolls which seem to be becoming part of their walks. The Thursday walkers are also enjoying the good weather, and the walk next Thursday will be round Ravenscraig Park, meeting at the Nether Street car park.

Before the president introduced our speaker, our own Alan Court, the speakers’ convener thanked Alan for stepping in at short notice when our original speaker couldn’t make it. Alan’s subject was the Mighty Hunter - Nimrod – Britain’s new weapons system since 1970, on which he already worked and on which he continued to work after he came to Marconi in Fife in 1968.

Alan began his talk with a history of aviation, from the Wright Brothers three second flight in 1905, to the deployment of planes during World War 1 just nine years later, to Coastal Command during World War 11, when part of the job was to intercept U-boats. There was a change of threat after the Cold War started, as the Soviets designed nuclear subs which did not have to keep resurfacing as U-boats had. We used adapted Lancasters and Lincolns at first, then designed the Shackleton, which was much more useful as it could fly as low as 100 feet above the sea.

The Nimrod was based on the first effective jet-propelled airliner, and Alan used diagrams to show how the plane was operated. There were two pilots and an engineer on the flight deck, and nine other crew further back in charge of the other essential systems. As well as reconnaissance, the Nimrod carried varied weapons systems for attacking submarines detected, if in times of war. We also saw diagrams of the flight simulation hanger, as training was highly expensive and pilots and crew could learn on the simulator.

The vote of thanks was proposed by Bob Hutchison on behalf of the members.

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 4th June, when we will hear about transplants.

David Holdsworth

After a gap of three weeks due to the vagaries of the calendar, over 30 members attended the 1170th meeting of Kirkcaldy Probus Club held at the Dean Park Hotel on the 7th May.   The meeting was jointly chaired by President Mike Birkett, ably assisted by Vice Chair Mike Stevenson.

President Mike opened the meeting with what is now becoming his normal “poems from days of yore” and the interesting stories behind them, today’s subject being the well-known Mabel Lucy Atwell poem  - “Never Leave the Bathroom Wet”

The business meeting included the reports from the various convenors including the normal Almoner’s report, updates from the walking, bowling groups on their recent outings and upcoming events.   On Social events, members had enjoyed a recent outing by train to see the Great Scottish Tapestry in Galashiels.   The upcoming trip out to see the Puffins is now fully subscribed but a reserve list is open just in case anyone drops out.    The club also have a proposed trip to the Scottish Mining Museum in Newtongrange on Wednesday 11th June when again train travel will be ideal.   Members were reminded that our social outings were open to friends and families.

Our golf convenors reported on the first outings of the season.   The recent club outing to Falkland saw Ken McCreadie as the overall winner, with Ron Wylie taking the Derek Bethune Claret Jug home. Eight members represented Kirkcaldy Probus Club at the Fife Probus Golf outing which was won by our VP - Mike Stevenson.

Vice President Mike introduced our guest speaker for the day, David Holdsworth, who entertained and educated everyone with his story telling about sailing from Burntisland to the Solent and back, to participate in the Cowes annual regatta, all to raise money for Alzheimer Scotland.   David’s boat “Grey Goose”, a 26ft catamaran, had originally been recovered by him from the sea bed after being sunk (remember Michael Fish’s “no hurricane” in 1987) and subsequently reinstated and equipped with modern equipment by David himself – a well-known and extremely experienced and competent sailor.   His skills and tenacity were all tested to their limits on the journey south, only to find out that the race had to be abandoned that year due to severe storms and wild seas.   Of the 1400 boats due to compete, only 634 actually started, and only 132 managed to finish.   And so the journey back to Burntisland started, and seemed no less eventful than the traumatic journey South.   Intrepid David however is planning to do it all again (with many lessons learnt), and this time will be raising funds for the Knights Templar Charity which supports our servicemen and veterans.

After a number of questions from the floor, a vote of thanks was proposed by Bill O’Donnell for a very entertaining and well-illustrated talk, warmly applauded by all in attendance.

Vice President Mike closed the meeting, reminded all that the next meeting would be held on 21st May, and wished everyone a safe journey home.

Dave Parnham

President Mike Birkett began the meeting with a poem about a “Wise Old Owl”, then debunked the notion that the owl is a particularly wise bird. Owls have big eyes, which allow a lot of light in during the hours of darkness, enabling them to hunt at night, but big eyes are not a sign of super intelligence.

We were asked by our webmaster to ensure the details we hold are correct so that everyone can keep up with our latest news. Our visit to the Great Tapestry is on Tuesday 22nd April, meeting at Kirkcaldy Station for the 9.47 train. Remember, if you are joining us on our visit to the May Isle, you need to book your own tickets. We are also going to Newtongrange Mining Museum in June, and you should give your names to Stuart Rennie for this visit. Our first club golf outing is to Falkland, and arrangements are well in hand, as is the programme for Fife Probus Golf. Our bowling group will continue each Monday at St Clair’s Bowling Club at 2pm. At our first meeting, last Monday, we managed to play, despite the forecast. We have had two successful walks on the last two Fridays. Contact Ian Gilchrist for details of this week’s walk. The walk next Thursday will be from Findattie to Lochend Farm.

Our speaker this week was Dave Parnham, formerly of the Roslin Institute, whose subject was “Understanding Animal Research.” The first point is that researchers really care for the animals in their charge: they want them to be as calm and content as possible so that any experiments they carry out give as accurate results as possible. To enable this contentment, the researchers are specially trained, and vets must always be available. Animals are accustomed to the researchers, as they are handled regularly so they feel no fear. The researchers practise “environmental enrichment”: animals are kept in family groups where appropriate and use natural nesting materials. Units are air-conditioned and kept at the appropriate temperatures and humility.

Animals are bred, again to remove the possibility of outside variants, and traditionally there has been no alternative, and the law demands it.  Nowadays, there can sometimes be viable alternatives.  Medicines are tested so that when they come on the market there are no dangers to the patient, and doctors know what is the appropriate dosage in different circumstances.

Roddy McLean gave the vote of thanks to Dave for his very informative talk.

Our next meeting is on 7th May, when David Holdsworth will tell us about “Burntisland to the Solent and Back by Catamaran”, and the following meeting, on the 21st, will be preceded by a committee meeting.

George Laidlaw

New president Mike Birkett opened the meeting by looking at the history of Probus clubs since their inception. The first club started in 1965, when a need became obvious that older men wanted an activity to fill part of their time. The name “Probus” was coined in May 1966. Its name translates as honest and trustworthy, and its aim was “The promotion of good fellowship.” There are now 1700 clubs in Britain and many more around the world, each with its own rules in the movement’s spirit of informality.

Our almoner reported that the previous week had been the sixtieth anniversary of Derek Bethune’s wedding. Our congratulations go to Derek and Lin. The games afternoon went well, with so many activities we had no time for the anticipated domino tournament. Our trip to the Great Tapestry of Scotland in Galashiels is on April 22nd and the visit will cost £25.00 which includes entry, a light lunch and an introductory talk. For the May Isle visit, you will have to book your own ticket. We are sailing on the 10.15 boat on Monday 26th May, and may also fit in a visit to the RNLI station. There is also a proposed visit to the National Mining Museum at Newtongrange, cost £7.50, on Wednesday 11th of June.

The Fife Probus golf begins on 30th April and those interested should send their replies in as soon as possible. The bowling season is almost upon us, and, weather permitting, we will begin on Monday 14th April at 2.00pm at St Clair’s Bowling Club. New players are welcome. Friday’s walk will be to Balmerino to see the daffodils and next Thursday’s walk will be to Heather Hall Wood, walking to Ladybank.

Our speaker for the day was George Laidlaw, who has an amazing store of football memories and knowledge and seems to have attended matches for many of the teams in Scotland. George was representing Football Memories – United – Dundee. This is an organisation that holds three meetings in different Dundee locations per month for those suffering with various forms of dementia; and uses football memories to prompt them to reminisce with their own memories. Does it succeed? As one delighted partner said, “I drive here with this sad parson with dementia, and I take home my husband.” George brought along many cards, books, programmes and pictures, as well as projections, to illustrate the sort of ways the 5-person team stimulate the memories of the groups. He also had a short sports quiz, three alternative answers per question, for the members and handed round a version of “Spot The Ball” after which, he revealed the picture behind the spots was of Paul McStay missing a certain penalty in the 1994 League Cup Final. George was one of those “Dancing in the Streets of Raith” that night.

Jim Husband gave the vote of thanks on behalf of the members.

Our next meeting is on 16th April, when Dave Parnham will answer the question, “Where Do Medicines Come From?”

James More

Before our AGM, President Euan Fraser thanked Stuart Rennie for his marvellous work in producing our annual reports booklet, which can be found on our club website. At the end of the AGM, Euan handed the reins over to Mike Birkett, our new president, whose first task was to introduce our speaker for the day, James More, past HT of Balwearie High School. James’ topic was “The Earth in Space”, giving a full perspective on where Earth sits in the universe.

He started with quotes from three songs, notably “Twinkle, twinkle little star”, and the information that stars do not in fact twinkle, it is the Earth’s atmosphere that causes that effect. If we see footage from the Hubble telescope or other space telescopes, the stars do not twinkle.

James gave us a few facts on each of the planets in turn before giving us an idea of relative distances. The Earth is 100 million miles from the sun, yet the sun’s light reaches us in just eight minutes. It takes four hours for that light to reach Pluto, the farthest planet, and thirteen hours to reach the end of our solar system. The light from our closest constellation takes four years to reach us, and giant telescopes can detect light from thirteen billion years ago. How insignificant our small planet seems when we read these facts!

Stars are not all the same size, and if Betelgeuse, the brightest star in the Orion constellation, was to replace our sun, it would swallow up our first five planets, so big is it. Stars also have life cycles, and we heard of the Orion nebula – below the “belt” of Orion – which is one place where stars appear to be “born”, and of some stars which are in their death throes.

John Stewart expressed his amazement at, and gratitude for, the presentation on behalf of the members.

We were reminded of three events: the games afternoon at St Clair’s bowling club on Thursday 27th at 2.00; the visit to the Great Tapestry of Scotland, where we can hire a guide if the group is large enough; and the trip to the May Isle, for which we were encouraged to book asap. Our next meeting is on 2nd April, when George Laidlaw will talk on his “Football Memories United”.

Frank Hay and Len Saunders

President Euan Fraser opened our 1166th meeting by thanking members for the strong turnouts of Probus members for the funerals of Walter Simpson and Kate Johnston. Most subs are in and our Treasurer thanked members for this. Our dinner at the academy was most successful therefore is likely to be repeated; and members had an excellent outing to the rugby club, though unfortunately did not see our local team win. Two other trips are in the offing; one to Galashiels by train to visit the Great Tapestry of Scotland, on Tuesday 22nd April; the other to the May Isle on Monday 26th May. We will also run a games afternoon at St Clair Bowling Club on Monday 27th March. Our club golf starts on April 17th at Falkland, and fixtures for the season have been issued; Fife Probus golf begins on Wednesday 30th April at Scoonie. Our walk for Friday has still to be decided and next Thursday’s walk will be round Riverside Park in Glenrothes.

We were blessed with four speakers for the day, representatives from “The Briggers” group, who were here to tell us about “The Briggers, The Men and Boys Who Built the Forth Bridge”. This was a most appropriate day for the talk, as the 4th of March was the 135th anniversary of the Forth Bridge opening. We started with two alternating speakers – Alan Sutherland and John McEwan – who gave us the history of the world’s first steel bridge, now a Unesco World Heritage Site since 2015.

The Briggers group are from South Queensferry, and when a memorial was proposed for the 57 men and boys who died in the construction of the bridge, the group volunteered to take on the research task. They searched the papers, the records of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and local records, as well as accounts from the “Sick and Accident Club” a welfare organisation, way before its time, created to look after the health and wellbeing of workers and their families. Two memorials were erected: one in South Queensferry, the other in the North.

The talk was helpfully illustrated; one illustration highlighting the lack of health and safety concerns during the 1880s, contrasting with a well-protected worker on the bridge today.

Frank Hay and Len Saunders answered the many questions fully and expertly. More information can be had from The Briggers website.

Roy Urquhart gave the vote of thanks to all four speakers on behalf of the members.

Our next meeting will be our AGM on 19th March, and this will be followed by a talk by James More entitled “The Earth in Space”.