Readers’ letters

Soldier mystery

Dear Ed, – I write in response to your article regarding Private Ian Campbell Jardine born in Lesmahagow circa 1918.

I have checked the Scotland’s People Website but could find no birth for for the aforementied name.

As Ian often is substitued for John in Scotland I ran a check on John Jardine born in Lesmahagow Parish.

Only one John Jardine was found, born in Lesmahagow Parish between 1915 and 1920, a John Jardine born 1919.

As 100 years has not yet passed I was denied access to the original Birth register. (A copy of the Certificate can be purchased but this would take perhaps a week to arrive).

Assuming that the said John born 1919 was the John in question, I checked an original copy of a School Census, dated 1924, relating to the various Schools in Lesmahagow Parish. The Census gives the dates of birth of children from birth to 13 years and ages of children or youths from 14 to 17 years.

The said John born 1919 would be aged five years at the taking of the Census. Two Jardine families were found in the Census, that of Mr Michael Jardine a miner and his two sons George and Thomas, living at Park Street, Kirkmuirhill, the other a Mr Peter Jardine a miner, also his four daughters under the age of 13 years and three sons 14 years and over. No John Jardine or Ian Jardine is recorded with these families.

There are two reasons why John/Ian is not recorded:

1. He may have lived in Crossford, Hazelbank or Kirkfieldbank. Schools in the Clyde Valley which would be part of the Lanark School catchment area, thus not recorded in the Lesmahagow Parish School Census.

2. The Jardine family may have moved from the Lesmahagow Schools catchment area prior to 1924 to destinations unknown.

I have also checked the War Memorial at Lesmahagow Cemetery but no Jardine is recorded. I’m sorry my research is rather negative, but I trust it may be of some interest to your enquirer. – Yours etc.,

ROBERT S. McLEISH,

Archivist,

Lesmahagow Parish

Historical Association.

Wallpaper woes

Dear Ed, – What is it that makes some people tick? Do they think through their actions and consider the consequences? In the case I am bringing to your attention, probably not.

We were having an evening walk with our dogs down to the Blue Bridge over the confluence of the Glentaggart and Glespin Burns on Sunday evening when we spotted a couple of black bags thrown into the burn.

Our grandson, 13, was horrified at this and went into the burn to get them out. Fifteen minutes later we had recovered 16 black bags and piled them up on the roadside. On further investigation we discovered that they all contained wallpaper – pink, blue and cream – that had been stripped during someone’s redecorating session.

Now, either some unscrupulous builder or DIY person has thought that on a Sunday that no-one would be around to see them dump this stuff here at this local beauty spot rather than make the 30 minute journey to the civic amenity site in Carluke.

If they didn’t want to make all that effort they could have booked a special uplift, free of charge, and the council would have picked up this refuse from their house.

What do they think would have happened to these bags? Would they just disappear or would someone go into the burn to tidy them up after them? Why dump them in the burn? What damage could this have done to the living organisms in the burn? I am sure they don’t care but we do. – Yours etc.,

TONY BURLEY,

Andershaw Farm Cottage,

Glespin.

Help for Heroes

Dear Ed, – Help for Heroes is appealing to volunteers and supporters to help our heroes. Are you free over the August bank holiday weekend? Do you want to do your bit by collecting for Help for Heroes?

Come and help run our amazing challenge with Asda. So far 100 wonderful people have offered to be Day Co-ordinators (DC) but we need more volunteers!

Over the three days from Friday, August 26, to Sunday, August 28, we need DCs at each of the participating 320 Asda stores across England, Scotland and Wales. As Day Co-ordinators you will help rally the volunteers, act as the store point of contact and bank the money collected! More details can be found on our website.

The volunteering days form part of the Help for Heroes One Hour for Heroes (1H4H) appeal which launched in April, where everyone, from politicians, companies, sportsmen, actors and celebrities to the millions of generous and decent people across the country are giving One Hour.

At Help For Heroes we rely heavily on our wonderful volunteers to help keep our overheads low and ensure more money goes to wounded servicemen and women.

Help for Heroes wouldn’t be what it is without the support of the decent people that do their bit and we’d love for as many people as possible to support us during these days at Asda.

Please visit the Help for Heroes website at www.helpforheroes.org.uk/asda and sign up today. – Yours etc.,

JESS BAKER,

PR Manager,

Help For Heroes,

14 Parker’s Close,

Downton Business Centre,

Salisbury.

Please don’t cull

Dear Ed, – The coalition government has announced that it will sanction a pilot badger cull starting in the spring of 2012, which may be implemented more widely from 2013.

The unpopular announcement was issued to coincide with the end of the Parliamentary session and while the phone hacking scandal continues to dominate the news.

The government plans to license farmers to shoot badgers at night as they run free. Vaccination has been ruled out as being too expensive. The effectiveness of ‘controlled shooting’, as it is known, has never been evaluated and could even increase the incidence of TB, as infected badgers fleeing from the shooting could take the disease with them. Under current government plans, ‘perturbation’ will not even be monitored.

Shooting free-running badgers will be a welfare disaster. In defence of fox hunting, many Tory MPs argued that hunting foxes was humane while shooting them as they ran for their lives was cruel. But in order to suit its own agenda, the government has now argued the exact opposite in relation to badgers.

Culling badgers is a Conservative flagship policy and its announcement comes as no surprise, even though the public overwhelmingly opposes a cull and it is not supported by sound science. While the Labour Welsh government has recently rejected a badger cull on scientific grounds, the English government remains committed to appeasing farmers, no matter the cost.

Instead of improving welfare conditions for dairy cows, and thereby reducing bovine TB incidence, farmers choose to scapegoat badgers. The government is complicit by continuing to support the increasing intensification of the dairy industry. – Yours etc.,

KATE FOWLER,

Head of Campaigns,

Animal Aid,

The Old Chapel,

Bradford Street, Tonbridge.