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guides not only in Edinburgh and Glasgow but throughout Scotland. I further pointed out that apart from the very small number of trained guides in Glasgow it was clearly evident that there was little employment for Guides in Glasgow and that, as a Board, we could not support the promotion of classes in which the majority of those attending were there simply to increase their local knowledge. This was accepted. In the course of the discussion it was evident that Glasgow wanted to promote its own classes and they accepted my point that the promotion of such classes could only be financed in Glasgow.’
Nicholson said since the meeting he had received a letter from William Davies advising him that it had been decided to set up an organisation to be known as the Scottish Tourist Guides Association (Glasgow branch) with Davies as chairman and the Lord Provost of Glasgow as Honorary President.
Nicholson said, as a result of the creation of the new Association in Glasgow, that in future the Board should only be responsible for a Register of qualified guides who have sat and passed the examination of the board and for the issue of such Badges as are required to those who qualify.
He also said that a change may have to be made in respect of the Edinburgh end of the Association in that there should be an Edinburgh Branch responsible for its own activities and entirely responsible for the financing of these activities.
In addition any new branch formed anywhere in Scotland should, like Edinburgh or Glasgow, be responsible for its own administration and finances.
He said such a re-organisation would lessen the administrative work being undertaken by Alice Finlayson and this would necessitate employing her in some other branch of the board’s work.
Three days later Russell sent in his resignation as chairman of the executive committee of the Scottish Tourist Guides Association saying he did not wish to be associated with any plan such as outlined in Nicholson’s letter.
In October that year the STB approached the STGA committee with a suggestion that members’ subscription should be increased to five guineas per annum from 1st January 1968, and from this a contribution would be paid to the STB to help pay for the service given by them to the STGA.
On December 12, 1967, a stormy Extraordinary General Meeting took place to discuss the future of the association and it was decided that the STGA would break away from the STB and form their own committee with a new constitution. The subscription remained as it was. The classes were organised by the committee with Ian Anderson as chairman, Mr Kenneth Robertson, secretary and Mr William Montgomery treasurer. They held these positions until 1971. The Glasgow branch formed a separate branch in the same year.
In May 1967 the STGA had 127 members including 64 Edinburgh guides, 28 of them working full time. There were also 19 Glasgow guides, eight of them full time. It also had one full time member in Inverness and another in London.
An additional 35 members were employees of Edinburgh Corporation Transport, five worked for Scottish Omnibuses Ltd and four were employees of St Cuthberts Co-operative Association Transport department. 87 of the guides were males and 40 were females.
But by 1968 the STB was once again organising the classes and there is nothing in the annals to explain why.
Michael Glen had replaced Douglas Russell as head of STB’s Information Department when he retired that year.
‘Douglas who was a man of the old school,’ he said. ‘It was a hard act to follow.
I was 27 or thereabout and he was 60 something and had been responsible for managing but not doing the training of the tourists guides. I was not particularly close to the STGA. My job amongst myriad things was to co-ordinate the classes that were run first of all by Dr Barclay and latterly by Basil Skinner.
‘I can’t remember how much organising I did. I must have liaised with the guides who at that time were split into an Edinburgh group which was the biggest group and a Glasgow group but I am not sure they conversed very greatly at that point. They were 45 miles away from
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