1957 The Duncans at Anderson Church
1957 this time. Photographed at the back of the Anderson Church, Stonefield Road, is my mum Janet Duncan (the wee girl on the right), and her brothers and sisters. From left Archie Duncan, Nancy Duncan (MacFarlane), John Duncan, Margaret Duncan (Glen). This was Nancy’s wedding although the groom Ronnie MacFarlane is not in the picture.
John passed away in 1997 and mum in 2009, far too early at only 62 years old.
Archie Duncan and I were in the Anderson Scouts (4th Blantyre) as was his big brother, John and my big brother Niel. Margaret was “Bagira” in the Anderson Church cubs. (Can’t remember “Akala’s” name at thje moment but it will come to me) We had a very successful cub pack in those days winning the district competition in the year before I moved on to the scout troop. The MacFarlane’s were also very much into scouting with Ronnie’s father, Bob, being the District Commissioner for many years. Pity those scouting days had to come to an end. Iain Liddell (of Liddell and Weir) was skipper of the Anderson Scouts at the time I moved up. Iain dedicated one week of his annual holidays to take the troop to various camps across the UK: St Andrews; Sky; Kingussie; Doncaster; Girvan; Bournemouth to name a few. Sadly the benefits I derived from scouting were lost to future generations by the narrow mindedness of a few Unco Guid who can’t differentiate between serving the community and abusing it.