Entries by admin
Greystone Rovers Football Club
Greystone Rovers began in 1938 at Huntingdon Park, a now lost playing field between Huntingdon Avenue and Carnegie Street in Dumfries, which at this time was “fitba daft” in the words of James Hutcheon.[1] Founding members of the club included neighbourhood youths Jimmy Scott, Bluff Murray, Bryce Johnstone and his brother Billl, as well as […]
Weddings & Women
An aspect of Norwegian life in Dumfries that was critical to the town’s continued Norwegian story was of course romantic in nature. Depending on circumstances this might have been a celebrated or sensitive topic, but either way a fair number of relationships between Norwegians and Doonhamers resulted in marriage and children, ensuring that a living […]
The Norwegian Scottish Association
The Norwegian Scottish Association, although some 40 years in existence, owes its origins to a much older friendly society, one rooted in the shared experience of Norwegians and Scots during the Second World War. Founded in Dumfries in 1941, the Scottish Norwegian Society brought Scots and Norwegians together in difficult times. Having escaped the German […]
Scottish Norwegian Society
Very quickly with the arrival of so many Norwegians in Dumfries during 1940, a mutual effort between their own officers and Doonhamers ensured they would be made to feel welcome in the town. Prominent citizens such as the Reverend Harold Cockburn, Town Clerk James Hutcheon, and businessman Noёl Dinwiddie worked with Major Olaus Myrseth to […]
The Royal Visit
When Germany invaded and installed a puppet government under Quisling the Norwegian Royal family fled to Britain, where King Haakon headed a government-in-exile from London. Yet with their Norwegian Brigade based at Dumfries from 1940-45, the town has received several royal visits both during the war and in the decades since. As Giancarlo Rinaldi put […]
The Story about Newlands House
Newlands was built in 1911 to replace a previous house, possibly on the site of “a castle, or fortlet, of great strength” according to one 1820s account, although the wartime owner Walter Duncan was unable to find evidence of that.[1] He was convinced by a relative and a Norwegian whaling captain to let the house […]