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In the early part of 1965, some 12 candidates were successful in passing the tests in Edinburgh but two later left the Association.
Four were employees of Edinburgh Corporation Transport Department and out of the remaining six, only one was available as a full-time guide. The Executive Committee was obviously unhappy about this.
“These figures seem to us to point to the desirability of admitting to the classes, in both cities, only candidates who are able and willing to serve as guides when called upon, exception being made only for those with language qualifications,”it said.
Another significant milestone for the STGA was when Basil Skinner took over from John Barclay as Director of Extra Mural Studies at the University of Edinburgh in 1966.
Although Dr Barclay continued to lecture, Skinner also played a major role in honing the skills of guides.
Skinner was born in Edinburgh in 1923 and attended school at Edinburgh Academy where he won the Aitken Prize in Classics.
He went on to study at Edinburgh University. But the Second World War intervened, and he served with the East Riding of Yorkshire Infantry in Normandy, later moving to the Intelligence Corps.
Returning to Edinburgh University he graduated in History and won the Cousin Prize in Fine Art. In 1951 he became librarian at the Glasgow School of Art.
He had a remarkable career becoming Assistant Keeper of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery when he was just 31.
Among the successful exhibitions he staged were ‘Scots in Italy in the 18th Century’, in 1963; ‘Shakespeare in Scottish Art’, 1964; and the Sir Walter Scott Bicentenary Exhibition, held in Parliament Hall, Edinburgh, in 1971.
He also wrote a book about Scots in Italy in the 18th Century which was published in 1966.
His great passion was local history and one story of his research studies was related by the former Scottish MP Tam Dalyell in his obituary of Basil Skinner in The Independent.
Skinner led a team who were studying the old turnpike roads in the city, and particularly a stretch of hilly roads in the Pentland Hills. A horse- drawn coach was used for this purpose, and the students had to get out of the coach and help push it up hills. This exercise brought home to students the difficulties of travel in the 1700s.
Skinner also helped to stop a five-mile section of the Union Canal in Stirlingshire from being filled in, in his role as convenor of an Edinburgh University Conference on the future of the Union Canal.
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