Latest news with #GallopingFarmers
Daily Record
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Boswell Book Festival returns this weekend
A range of events are being hosted at Dumfries House from Friday to Saturday. The Boswell Book Festival opens the doors to Dumfries House this Friday, May 9, with a stellar line-up of celebrities and some of the best biographers around. From bagpipes (Richard McLauchlan) to Buddism (Gelong Thubten) and Beethoven (John Suchet) as well as ballet (Wayne Sleep) there will also be laughs a-plenty with Pam Ayres, Helen Lederer and Dom Jolly. As ever the festival brings writers who give insight to matters that matter - Nick Wallis on the Post Office scandal, John Sweeney on the death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and tech expert Dr Tom Chatfield on how technology and AI will affect our future. In a world where so much unrest unfolds on an almost daily basis, previous wars are on the agenda – World War 1 with local stories from the Sanquhar Boys and Boswell's Galloping Farmers; two sides of World War 2 - A War of Empire: Japan and Hitler's People and the Korean War discussed with Robert Lyman's Korea:War Without End. Families are welcome with a full programme of events for children of all ages, including the Outdoor Classroom set in the glorious gardens of Dumfries House. Festival Director, Caroline Knox, said: 'The months of planning, phoning and scheduling all our events are all worthwhile when we see the queues building for the various events. 'Our audiences are always keen to participate and we are looking forward to lively interaction and interesting questions. 'Fingers crossed that the sun shines on our beautiful venue where we welcome so many great writers each year.' Inspired by Ayrshire writer James Boswell, the Boswell Book Festival is the world's only festival dedicated to memoir and biography. For further details and to book tickets, visit:
Daily Record
22-04-2025
- General
- Daily Record
Story of Ayrshire farmers who served in First World War told in new book
Boswell's Galloping Farmers, the nickname for the Ayrshire Yeomanry, served in one of deadliest battles in the First World War. Exactly 110 years ago in the early part of First World War the battle of Gallipoli was the first amphibious operation in modern warfare. In an effort to take Turkey out of the war and open up access to Russia troops from the British Empire (most notably Australia and New Zealand) and France landed on the peninsula in the Dardanelles Straits with disastrous consequences for the Allies. Amongst those sent out were Boswell's Galloping Farmers, the nickname for the Ayrshire (Earl of Carrick's own) Yeomanry, a volunteer cavalry regiment who retrained as grenadier infantry. These men quite literally had to learn on the job, and did so with honour and distinction. A book with the accounts from four of these men has been published by the Ayrshire Archaeological and Natural History Society and the editor, Rob Close, will be taking part in the Boswell Book Festival on Friday, May 9. This book allows the men to speak in their own voices as they recount what they experienced and their own opinions on both the war and this one campaign during which so many of the colleagues on the battlefield died. In the lead up to his appearance, Rob said: 'I am particularly interested in ensuring that voices from the past in all spheres are made more accessible. 'Another recent publication by the society, The Diaries of Thomas McClelland, was an annotated transcription of diaries from the 1790s, with some otherwise unknowable details of life in Ayr at that time. 'Making material such as that produced by Sandy Barclay and the other farmers as well as that of McClelland is, I think, hugely important. "I am looking forward to appearing at the Boswell Book Festival's first event alongside Gillian Hope, granddaughter of one of the Sanquhar Boys who joined the Seaforth Highlands to fight in the war.'
