Throughout the Winter of 1902 and into Springtime 1903, Dr William Grant of Blantyre had been conducting Ambulance classes in Auchinraith Public School. We would today know such a course, as being in First Aid.

To mark the success of the course and noting the many people who had benefited from this learning, a social meeting was held in the School on the evening of Wednesday 18th March 1903. Mr William Izett, the secretary of the Ambulance Association presided and besides Dr Grant there were also present Dr Brand, Mr John Menzies and Inspector JD Gracie.

During the evening, the chairman on behalf of the ambulance class presented Dr Grant with a beautiful gold bangle, set with opals and diamonds to give to Mrs Grant. Dr Grant gave a small speech acknowledging it had been a particular pleasure for him to conduct the classes (thought to have been offered to the public for free) and he complimented all the members on their newly acquired knowledge, hoping it could help in some emergency situations in future. Mr Menzies and Mr Gracie then spoke further of the merits of being armed with basic medical knowledge in such circumstances.

Remarkably, I’ve been able to suitably illustrate this article, by combining 3 photos I had. One of the Auchinraith Public School in all its shiny new glory, along with separate photos I had of Dr William Grant and his second wife, Margaret Seller, whom I’m sure would have been pretty happy to receive such a wonderful pice of jewellery attained on the efforts of her loving husband. Hopefully my photos bring this simple report into some context and adds some dimension to the event.