10 YEARS AGO
Alistair Carmichael has set out reasons for the Liberal Democrats’ controversial support of air strikes in Syria this week, ahead of a marathon debate and House of Commons vote which ended in favour of the bombing campaign by 397 votes to 223.
The Isles MP insisted the decision by his party to back David Cameron’s motion to launch an offensive against so-called Islamic State forces, otherwise known as Da’esh, had not been taken lightly.
He said the party reached its decision after “lengthy discussion and deliberation”. But he, himself, was in support of the motion.
Fears are growing of a potentially serious accident on the road into Scalloway unless steps are quickly taken to improve an inadequate pavement.
Concerns have been raised that the footpath leading up Mill Brae from the East Voe junction is too narrow for people to use safely – particularly when large juggernauts are passing by heading in or out of the village.
The path is commonly used by children heading to and from the school, and parents who have been seeking improvements for years say they are growing increasingly “frustrated” with the lack of progress.
25 YEARS AGO
An investigation has been launched at Sandwick Junior High School after pupils used an internet site to launch a bullying campaign.
Police were called in this week after staff were forced to stop pupils getting access to a web site from school computers. The move came after a guestbook on the site was used by pupils to make verbal attacks on other children and staff at the school.
50 YEARS AGO
Labour peer and former Cabinet Minister Lord Shackleton is to head a team which will make an economic survey of the Falkland Islands in January, and his first thought on appointment was to visit Shetland where there are some similarities of circumstances.
He did so last weekend and also found himself “moved and touched” by meeting for the first time someone who had been present at the funeral of his father, Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton in South Georgia in 1922.
It was legend to Lord Shackleton that the pall-bearers at his father’s funeral had been Shetlanders, but his host, Mr R.H.W. Bruce of Sand Lodge, was able to tell him that this was fact and that one of them, Mr Magnus Leask, Setter, Gulberwick, was still hale and hearty.
75 YEARS AGO
Mr Walter Mowat, J.P., Scalloway, added one more appointment to his already large list on Friday, when he was sworn in as Honorary Sheriff Substitute by Sheriff Substitute R.J. Wallace in Lerwick Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Wallace was accompanied upon the bench by Hon. Sheriff Substitute R. Ollason. Mr Mowat accepted the commission offered by Sheriff T.B. Simpson, and has administered to him the oath of fidelity and the judicial oath before being invited to take his seat on the bench.
100 YEARS AGO
Fire at South Commercial Street – Shop Completely Gutted – At the Town Council meeting held on Tuesday evening Chief Constable MacWilliam submitted a very lengthy report on a fire which took place at the shop, 22 Commercial Street, occupied by Mr F. Irvine, painter and decorator, who resides at The Knowe, Lerwick.
When the shop was closed on Friday evening of last week, by Mr Andrew Irvine, father of the occupier, everything was apparently all right, but, according to the report, at 3.45 a.m. on Saturday, Magnus Johnson, 18, labourer, who resides with his parents in the house, 20 Commercial Street, which adjoins the shop, and from which a back door gives entry into Johnson’s house, was awakened by a strong smell of fire and a dense smoke in his bedroom. He immediately awakened the household, and his father and he, going out, discovered that Mr Irvine’s shop was on fire and burning fiercely. Young Johnson promptly gave the alarm, proceeding to Mr Irvine’s house.
The occupier of the shop is unwell and in bed, but his father hastened to the scene of the fire.
Johnson returned and knocked up three young men – Messrs James Brown, Chas. Paton and A. Nicolson, jun. – who reside in the vicinity, while the father, Mr Andrew Johnson, hurriedly called out several of the members of the Fire Brigade, who reside in the district, and also Constable Gray.
Meanwhile the three men already mentioned and Magnus Johnson, with the aid of buckets, did all they could to subdue the fire.
By this time, however, the flames, fanned by a very strong south-westerly wind, had got hold of the outer door and woodwork of the windows, and as a consequence of the heat, the men were unable to do much.
In a very short time, Constable Gray arrived with the cleansing department hose which is stored at Victoria Pier, and a strong pressure of water was directed on to the front portion of the shop, and soon he had the fire confined to the interior.
By this time the members of the Fire Brigade had arrived with the fire hose.
The back door of Mr Irvine’s shop leading into Mr Johnson’s house was then on fire and blazing fiercely, but by concentrating the hose on this door they were able to prevent the building from going on fire also, although the wallpaper in the passage was burned, windows were cracked, and the paint on the bedroom door was blistered by the heat, while curtains, etc., were ruined by the smoke.
By 4.30 the fire was under control, and by 5 it was completely subdued, although breaking out afresh in different parts of the shop roof several times.
The stock of the shop was of a very inflammable nature and was totally destroyed.
It was undoubtedly owing to the prompt measures taken by Mr Johnson and his son in seeking out the police, the members of the Fire Brigade and the three young men, Messrs Brown, Paton and Nicolson, and to the promptness of Constable Gray in getting the smaller hose to the scene of the fire and into working operation, that the fire was prevented from spreading to the adjoining buildings, and to the fact also, that at that time of the morning, there was a strong pressure of water.
The property and the stock were insured, but the loss is a serious one to Mr Irvine, who had just got in a large Christmas stock, including toys, in which he does an extensive business at this season of the year.
Mr Irvine’s ordinary stock of paper-hanging and painting materials, a large quantity of which he had on the shop, were also burned, and nothing is left of the premises but the four walls and the roof.
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