President Sandy Bannerman had the pleasant task of enrolling a new member to the Rotary Club last week when he was delighted to welcome Linden Warburton to the club. Club member Kerr Scott was the speaker and he related his early years which were unusual in the extreme. His father was an engineer on a tea plantation in the Assam region of India and it was there at 3 weeks old that Kerr sailed with his mother to join him. Growing up in a privileged state in India he was more familiar with his nanny and only saw his mother at breakfast and bedtime with the result that the language he knew was Hindu. He returned to Hawick when he was 5 years old and went to Drumlanrig Primary School but first had to learn English. He cannot remember much of his early years in India except for a flight to his home in Darjeeling in a Dakota propellor aircraft. He had snaps of his years in India and enthralled members with his account of his unusual, albeit exotic, start to life and President Sandy thanked him on behalf of the club.
The Rotary Club Literary Tea at Mansfield Clubrooms last Sunday was a huge success. It was part of the Reivers Festival and 100 persons attended and enjoyed a sumptious, traditional Scottish high tea after which Fiona Armstrong, TV presenter and writer gave a rousing and excellent talk on the Armstrong Clan and their problems with the other reiving Border families in the 1600's. It was fitting that one the elder members of the Armstrong clan, Bert gave an excellent rendition of the song "March, march, Ettrick and Teviotdale" to round off a successful and pleasant occasion.