Reminders of home far away

Messages from loved ones overseas brought much-needed reassurance during the Second World War eight decades past – while also, it would seem, raising mirth.

In his exhaustive compendium Forfar On This Day, the late scholar David W Potter highlights one such communication that was sent by a native of the town to his closest relatives in central Angus.

A missive from Robert Scott had completed its journey all the way from South Asia to the birthplace of the bridie on March 25 1943 – while his mother had also received a separate letter from her other son, Jimmy, who was at the time interned in Germany.

As Mr Potter points out, it seems that the former of the two messages had helped to spark a wave of nostalgia among the town’s residents of the day.

The author wrote: “Today’s Forfar Dispatch contains a heart-warming story about Forfar folk far from home.

“Mrs Scott, manageress of the Pavilion (the Gaffie) cinema received a letter from her son Robert ‘somewhere in India’ – censorship didn’t allow him to say more than that – who was sitting in a cafe one night when someone tapped him on the shoulder and asked him if he was Bob Scott.

“It turned out that it was a chap called Mckay who was ‘marriet oan a Low’ – as the Forfar idiom put it – and whose sister-in-law was currently working in the pay-box along with Mrs Scott at the Gaffie.

“Not only that, but there was someone else with him who was a nephew of Davie Guild, whose aphorisms included, ‘Come oan noo, you leds, behave! It’s no outside ye’re in!’

“He told everyone that he worked there ‘one nicht every nicht and twa nichts on Seturday!’ So, much was the reminiscing about Forfar and ‘the Gaffie’, including the old one ‘Fut’s oan the Gaffie the nicht?’...’ The Roof ’.”

After taking a deeper dive into the contents of the local newspapers on his home patch on this date 81 years ago – and in particular the classified section – Mr Potter added: “They might have been interested in the far fields of India to know that what was really on at the Gaffie tonight was a film called Man Power starring Edward G Robinson, George Raft and Marlene Dietrich.”

It turns out that there were also a few reassuring details contained in the latest missive that had turned up at the family’s home courtesy of their other son.

Mr Potter concluded: “Mrs Scott had also received another letter from her son Jimmy who was in a POW camp in Germany, but was healthy and well along with some Australians! And they were able to play cricket!”