WHAT FAMOUS PEOPLE HAVE VISITED.....?

[gerv]

[quote="Penny Tray"]Mitchy,

You seem to have a knowledge of Hunterston. I had it in my mind that ALEKSEI KOSYGIN, when he was at the height of his power as Premier of the USSR, visited there and then passed through the Three Towns en route to Troon where he lunched prior to attending the Kilmarnock versus Rangers match at Rugby Park? Google has proved that the Troon lunch/Kilmarnock football match aspects definitely occurred on 27 February 1967 but I haven't been able to confirm the Hunterston bit. Maybe I dreamt it. Any idea?[/quote]

I remember walking up from the old St. Johns school that day and standing outside pops in hayocks road waiting for him to go by, he was coming from the Ardrossan direction so he might have been at hunterston I was about eleven at the time.

Gerv

[rencpy]

I worked a spotlight in the old Kilmeny Hotel when Mrs Cameron's son ran it at a concert
by Tom and Jack. The audience loved it and Jack sold autographed books at the end while
Tom quaffed a rather large whisky
I was at a wedding reception in the Eglinton hotel and one of the guests was Johnnie Beattie.
Both of these were round about the mid to late seventies.

[Mitchy]

Mitchy,

You seem to have a knowledge of Hunterston. I had it in my mind that ALEKSEI KOSYGIN, when he was at the height of his power as Premier of the USSR, visited there and then passed through the Three Towns en route to Troon where he lunched prior to attending the Kilmarnock versus Rangers match at Rugby Park? Google has proved that the Troon lunch/Kilmarnock football match aspects definitely occurred on 27 February 1967 but I haven't been able to confirm the Hunterston bit. Maybe I dreamt it. Any idea?

I remember walking up from the old St. Johns school that day and standing outside pops in hayocks road waiting for him to go by, he was coming from the Ardrossan direction so he might have been at hunterston I was about eleven at the time.

Gerv

Gerv,

I do indeed have a knowledge of Hunterston. I commenced my apprencticeship there in 1978 under the old South of Scotland Electricity Board. Over 30 years later I'm still there, having since worked for Scottish Power, Scottish Nuclear, British Energy, and now Electricite de France (EDF). In fact it's lunchtime right now as I write this from my office!

You are correct that the Russian Premier visited the 'A' Station and he did also attend the game at Rugby Park that you mention, so I assume he passed through the Three Towns on the way.

Mitchy

[Penny Tray]

Mitchy,

Thanks for that. My recollection was seeing him driving along Eglinton Road, Ardrossan, obviously passing through Saltcoats and Stevenston thereafter en route to Troon.

I find all the contributions interesting but Queen Elizabeth II and Premier Kosygin must be the top two so far?

Have no Prime Ministers ever visited? Did Harold McMillan not have Arran connections?

[Mitchy]

Mitchy,

Thanks for that. My recollection was seeing him driving along Eglinton Road, Ardrossan, obviously passing through Saltcoats and Stevenston thereafter en route to Troon.

I find all the contributions interesting but Queen Elizabeth II and Premier Kosygin must be the top two so far?

Have no Prime Ministers ever visited? Did Harold McMillan not have Arran connections?

Penny Tray,

We've had no Prime Ministers that I can recall, although these days we do get quite a lot of MP's as the proposed Nuclear New Build Programme gathers pace.

Mitchy

[wellparkno9]

Hi Mitchy, One Prime Minister that we had in Saltcoats was Ramsey MacDonald.I remember my grandfather telling me that MacDonald addressed a public meeting on the Braes about 1922 or '23?? He ended up in my grandfathers house in Wellpark Rd after the meeting for a bite to eat. I think Bob Lambie and old Jimmy Reid were there too,them being in the I.L.P. at the time .Regards Sam.

[Penny Tray]

Wellparkno9,

In trying to find out about that I came across something else.

"Mr. Keir Hardie, MP, in a speech at Saltcoats, September 1906, said - "THE STRUGGLE MUST GO ON UNTIL THERE SHOULD BE BUT TWO PARTIES IN THE STATE, THE SOCIALIST AND THE ANTI-SOCIALIST. THE DAY WILL COME WHEN THERE WILL BE A LABOUR PARLIAMENT."

Prophetic - and maybe historic - depending upon where else he said it and when!

[John Donnelly]

Buffalo-Bill Hickock brought his Wild-West show to Saltcoats in the early 1900's. Jim Kelly's grandmother, Mrs. Patterson, saw him as a wee lassie. (Jim and Jean - where are you guys? Haven't heard from you in months).

There are photos of this event in the pub that used to be the LaScala.

JD

[Penny Tray]

JD,

Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show came to Britain in 1887 and, I think, several times in the 1890's and Saltcoats is indeed listed amongst the locations visited. Cody was born in Iowa in 1846, and as all we avid comic readers know, worked for the Pony Express and was a scout for the US Army in the Indian Wars.

I don't know whether Wild Bill Hickock was involved or whether the name of the show has introduced some confusion.

I'll tell you what though - BUFFALO BILL will dae for me!

[Penny Tray]

JD,

I see Wild Bill was murdered in DEADWOOD (and what comic reader or Doris Day fan hasn't heard of that town) in 1876.

[Meg]

I don't know whether Wild Bill Hickock was involved or whether the name of the show has introduced some confusion.

I'll tell you what though - BUFFALO BILL will dae for me!

My dad told me about seeing Wild Bill Hickock in Saltcoats when he was about 8, so that would have been 1918.

Meg

[Scott McCallum]

Someone told me that Jim Callaghan worked in Ardrossan during the war. I think he was in the Royal Navy.

Scott McCallum - Glasgow