Recollections

1.

Alison Murray

Fife

Thank you to Alison Murray for allowing me to reproduce this photo.

Alison wrote:

Leith Rovers

Trip to Austria

"I recently came across this photo of my late father, Iain Grant, He is on the left in this picture.  The photo was taken in Leith in the 1950s when the Rovers went on a trip to Austria. 

The Photograph

"I don't know who took the photo, but it was taken on my father's camera.  Years later, as a small child, I used to play with the camera.  It had a huge round metal flash attachment."

My Dad

Leither

"My dad, on the left in this photo, was a great 'Leither'.  He was proud of his Leith background.  He was born on the kitchen table in Coburg Street, so the story goes!  He went to Leith Academy and played rugby for Leith Accies."

Sport

"Dad would take my brother and me to Hawkhill most Saturdays in the season to watch Leith Accies.  We would end up in the clubhouse with a bottle of coke and a packet of quavers to keep us quiet, and we would be allowed to play on the one-armed bandit with sixpences.

At the end of the match the 'pink paper' would phone up for the results.  If I was standing near the phone, I was allowed to give them the score.  Archie McPherson often dropped in after he had been at Easter Road."

Work

"Dad started out as a Shipping Clerk.  He worked at the bottom of Constitution Street, then  studied mechanics at night school. Then he went to work for Belgrave Motors in Belgrave Mews,  Edinburgh. He worked hard and  eventually became a partner in the firm."

Death

"Dad died in 1999, at only 60 years old.  He is very much missed by a lot of folk.  The Leith Rovers had held a reunion in the late 1990s.  A lot of my dad's friend turned up at his funeral.  I had no idea who they were and had to ask.  It was lovely that they came along to pay their last respects."

You recently posted this picture of my dad's father, John Mitchell Grant, standing in Princes Street Gardens, holding the Grant Standard at the 'Gathering of the Clans' in the 1950s."

©

Alison Murray, Fife, Scotland:  November 10, 2009

 Recollections

2.

Donald Grant

Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland

Thank you to Donald Grant who wrote:

Leith Rover Scouts

Salamander Street

"It was interesting to see the photo that my niece, Alison Murray sent you of my brother in the Leith Rover Scouts.  The Rovers was a troop for young men who were too old to be in the boy scouts.

©

That particular photo looks to have been taken in Salamander Place in Leith.  The flat-roof building on the left looks like the, now demolished, Crawford's biscuit factory that was in Elbe Street and took up the whole block between Elbe Street and Salamander Place in Salamander Street.

Waverley Station

"There was a photo of the entire Rover troop taken at Waverley Station just before they boarded a train for the first leg of the journey to Austria."

Garages

Jimmy Wood's Garage

"Alison rightly said that Iain was a shipping clerk, but in between that job and his job at Belgrave Motors he worked for a number of years at Jimmy Wood's garage in Craighall Road.  That was a large old wooden structure on the opposite side of the road from the railway station and from memory specialised in Hillman cars.

They had the contract for repairs and service of the Sandemans Sherry lorry fleet."

Belgrave Motors

"Iain moved to Belgrave Motors who at the time were located in Belgrave Mews and was the first accredited Saab mechanic in Edinburgh. The business relocated to Westfield Road in the late 1960s and were in old farm buildings that had been occupied by Howard and Wyndham who used to own the Kings Theatre."

Donald Grant, Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland:  November 10, 2009

Leith

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