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Robert Douglas MA was born in North Queensferry in 1889. His father was the first carpenter on the Forth Bridge. The family moved away, but Robert returned in 1969, aged 80, and published this little pamphlet of his recollections of life in the Ferry.
There are 21 tales in the booklet.
Lilias Macdonald recorded eleven of them, with a short introduction.
Lilias MacDonald had a warm personality and was a great communicator of local history by means of audio recordings. Born on a farm at Lesmahagow in 1931, educated in Edinburgh, she married Kinnear MacDonald (Mac), a Broadcasting Engineer, and had three children, Angus, Suzanne and John Lindsay. Mac’s work took them to Nigeria, Botswana, Malawi and Malaysia, in all of which Lilias interviewed and recorded local people. Mac became Director of broadcasting at the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, and was awarded an OBE while serving in that position in 1972. Lilias served as secretary to The Society of Malawi (Historical and Scientific) until Mac retired in 1973.
They moved to live in North Queensferry in the 1980s. Lilias supported Rudolph Steiner homes, played with the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra, joined Fife Learning, recorded interviews with miners and other trades, did readings for Dunfermline Sounds, recorded stories and interviewed local people about their lives.
When she died in 2018, she left a collection of minidiscs and cassettes to NQHT and would be delighted to know that some of her work is now integrated into the NQHT web site for future generations to know “how it was then”.