1935
East Fife Orchestral Association, at a meeting in the reading-room of Cellardyke Town Hall, decided to resume practices, with Mr Alex. Reid as conductor.
FORMER COXSWAIN OF CELLARDYKE LIFEBOAT Death of Mr Wm. S. Sutherland
The death took place suddenly at his residence, 4 Harbour Head, Cellardyke, last night of Mr William S. Sutherland, who was a well-known and highly respected figure in the burgh. A native of Cellardyke, he was 67 years of age. In January, 1915, he joined the Royal Naval Reserve, and left the service in 1919. During the war he was chief skipper. He was skipper of the steam drifter Fifeness until his retiral in 1932. On 15th May, 1905, received a bronze medal from the Royal Humane Society for saving life from drowning, when he dived from the point of the east pier and rescued a boy. He was first coxswain of the local lifeboat for 30 years, from 1903 – 1933. When the present lifeboat’ was christened in 1933 he received certificate of service from the Duke of Montrose He was an enthusiastic member of the local British Legion Committee and also of the Royal Arch Chapter. He had no family, and is survived by his widow.
Excessive speed – Charged with driving a heavy lorry at a speed of 27mph on Dysart road on Tuesday 15th Oct, Thomas Murray, a Cellardyke motor driver, was fined 7s 6d by Bailie Collyer at the Police Court on Monday.
EXCITING DAYS IN EAST FIFE
Fierce Party Rivalry Marked Earlier Election Campaigns By MRS A. R. ROWLANDS,
The General Election next week will have a significance unique in the annals of the Scottish East Coast fishing towns. For the first time each absent fisherman and fish-worker will have an opportunity of recording his or her vote on polling day. Scarcely had the date of the General Election been fixed ere steps were taken to safeguard the franchise of those voters at present engaged in the fishing industry at East Anglian ports. From the voters’ roll of each Scottish fishing town a list of absentees has been carefully compiled and respective English postal addresses noted. To each of those voters will be posted by the election agent for the district a ballot paper containing all necessary information, with instructions to fill up and return the paper to the polling station named on the paper.
Attention on the Fleet
At present the impending election is not causing much excitement. Attention is focussed on the fishing fleet at Yarmouth, and fishing bulletins issued by the B.B.C. have more interested audiences than the harangues of politicians. There no danger of slackness in polling, however, for the women folk vote conscientiously. Yet with the absence of men, zest is lacking from the campaign. Speakers have all their own way, for the sturdy hecklers are hauling nets somewhere in the North Sea. “Aye! it’s no like lang syne, when I was a laddie! Yon were the days!” The group of listeners sigh in unison and shake their heads reminiscently. There was a time when party feeling ran high and arguments terminated in a bout of fisticuffs to the huge delight of the laddies, who themselves voiced the opinions of their elders with more zeal than knowledge.
Sharp Division
The electorate was then sharply divided into two factions—Conservatives and Liberals. To be Liberal or Conservative then was to be a red-hot partisan of the candidate representing that particular party. While the electoral fight was raging bosom friends became bitter enemies, and next door neighbours saluted each other with violent vituperation. Even the bairns in the playground or the street advocated the causes of the rival candidates with the lusty rendering of election rhymes. ” Hurray, hurray, hurray, vote for Major Gray! Vote, vote, vote for the Major!” yelled the supporters of Major Anstruther Gray. ” We’ll have a little gun, and we’ll make the Tories run, And you’ll never see a Tory any more!” chanted their Liberal opponents. How the children enjoyed election times in those good old days !
Flour and Bad Eggs
He was a brave man who stood as Parliamentary candidate for the East Fife Burghs of 50 years ago. He might be conveyed from his ” carriage and pair ” to the entrance of the Town Hall under the escort of a strong body of police, but he was lucky if he escaped shower of flour or volley of rotten eggs from the hostile section of the bystanders. With loud war-cries, the candidates’ supporters would turn upon their opponents, and for a time the air would be thick with clouds of flour and peasemeal. Election time was then considered a great “ploy” by the lads who entered with hearty goodwill into all the fun and frolic. Many a band of lassies going “wast” to Anster has been chased up a close by figures so disguised with soot, flour and peasemeal as to be unrecognisable. Strong were the denials next day to the lassies’ accusations. ” Me! I wisna near East Green last nicht.” ” Aye, it wis jist you. I kent your tongue !” And the unwary youth who had broken the pact of silence was forced to “own up.”
The Bonfire
All the “auld claes” were “hauled oot” during the election, and these, torn and bedaubed, helped the bonfire on election night. The late H. T. Anstruther, so long member of Parliament for St Andrews and East Fife Burghs, was one of those charming personalities who command the liking and esteem of friend and foe alike. Whether it was because he was an Anstruther—and therefore ” ane o’ their ain folk,” we do not know; but ” Harry Anster ” always received an uproarious welcome whenever he visited his constituency. It is still recalled with pleasure at many a fireside how ” Harry’s ” small son mounted upon a diminutive pony, and bearing a placard ” Vote for Daddy,” smiled his way through the narrow cobbled streets of the fishing burghs to be greeted by many a kindly wife with that characteristic Dyker endearment, “Eh ma bonny duggie.” (“Duggie” is term of endearment applied to little boys.) The close of the poll witnessed many stirring scenes in older Cellardyke. The effigies of candidates and their principal supporters were carried in procession by the opposing factions ” through the toon “; and, unless the parties met and the effigies suffered in the ensuing conflict, these were burned before the doors of the persons whom the figures represented.
Official Ban One never-to-be-forgotten election day ended with the customary burning of effigies before Cellardyke Town but as the ” funeral pyre ” blazed up into the evening sky its flames caught the door of a nearby dwelling-house, and but for the prompt and efficient intervention of the bystanders, tragedy might have followed comedy, and a night’s riotous fun ended in disaster. Since that night effigy-burning has been strictly prohibited in the Royal Burghs, and the fervour and enthusiasm of election time has gradually subsided into a decorous and dignified recording of votes at the polling station. The only stir in ” the toon ” now is the hurrying to and fro of the many cars placed at the disposal of the voters, and the sole excitement is a drive one of these cars to the Town Hall. There is no longer that tedious waiting at the Town Hall until the votes are counted and the result of the poll is announced; we do not now receive the announcement until the following day. Instead of the loud ” hurrahs ” and prolonged ” booing ” which then followed “the reading out of the votes,” the women listeners now only gather their shawls a little closer round their throats, and as they face the biting winds which eddy round the corners of the steep, cobbled wynds, murmur to their companions, ” Ah, weel! he’s gotten in, and he’s said plenty. I hope he does weel, an’ keeps a’ his promises.” And so say we all.
1938
Town Planning Meeting Cupar
……………………. Mr Dow added that In Cellardyke, Anstruther Town Council demolished a number of old buildings and provided rockeries on the site. That was a form of town planning, and if that had not been done, Cellardyke would have had ruinous properties scattered all over the town……………….. SPECIAL HOUSES FOR FISHERMEN. Provost Carstairs, Anstruther, said that economically, geographically, and historically, the burghs along the coast formed a unit by itself. In his opinion, there was no likelihood a change taking place in the character of Anstruther with the exception of the fishing industry. Owing to the coming into operation of the Herring Fishing Act, under which new types of fishing vessels would be available, he looked forward to revival the activity of Anstruther as a fishing community. Owing to the special requirements of the fishing industry, a special type of house was required for fishermen, and, consequence, a special town planning scheme was necessary. Wives had to assist with the gear, and the houses had to be so constructed. to permit of the women attending to the ordinary housework and the fishermen’s gear. In reply to Mr Mitchell, Provost Carstairs said they had had no detailed scheme prepared for the five coastal burghs before them, although the question had been accepted on principle. He did not agree that the miners of West Fife would require specially constructed houses in the same way as the fishermen in East Fife.
1939
20-YEAR-OLD FIFE GIRL ELECTROCUTED IN HOUSE FOUND BY EMPLOYER HAD BEEN CARRYING ELECTRIC FIRE AND LAMP A 20-year-old Cellardyke girl, Miss Isabella M. Watson, daughter of Mr and Mrs David Watson, 30 Fowler Street, Cellardyke, was fatally electrocuted last night. She was service with Mrs Mackintosh, wife of Mr Hugh C. Mackintosh, solicitor, town clerk of Pittenweem and St Monance, at their residence at Chesterhill, West Anstruther. She had been in the dining-room preparing supper. When Mrs Mackintosh came downstairs she found the girl lying on the floor with an electric lamp in one hand and an electric fire the other. When Mrs Mackintosh bent down beside the girl, she sustained a- shock, her hand coming into contact with the girl. She immediately summoned Mackintosh, who kicked the electric fire aside and telephoned for Dr J. J. Wilson. Dr Wilson and Dr Mackay applied artificial respiration for two and a half hours and also administered injections to the heart, but the girl failed to rally. Miss Watson was well known in Anstruther, where she was highly popular. She had been the service of Mr and Mrs Mackintosh for about a year with a short break, which she had worked in Edinburgh, returning to her former position at Anstruther about two months ago
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