A Fishy Tale From Newlands Primary School
PARKHEAD SCHOOL’S FISHY PRESENT!
Former Pupil Sends On Unique Gift
Rare Specimen For Museum; Interesting Early Memories
Most boys and girls who leave school this month feel that they want to forget about it as soon as possible; but it is likely when they grow older that they will recall their school days with affection.
A Rare Specimen
Happy proof of this has been given to Mr T Turnbull, Headmaster of Newlands Public School, Parkhead, who has received from a Newlands former pupil, now resident in Miami, Florida, America, a seven-feet sailfish for the school museum.
The fish, a member of the swordfish type, has the wonderfully delicate colouring typical of warm climates. It is over seven feet long and never more than a foot in diameter. Its sword is about two feet long, and what gives it its name is a two-feet “sail” of thin skin and muscle on its back, used for guiding.
There must be very few, if any, such fish in museums in Glasgow, and its rarity gives it a high value, as Mr Turnbull found when he met the Customs Officer. It now hangs in the school hall, almost constantly surrounded by admiring boys and girls.
In an interesting letter to the Headmaster, Mr George Orr, reveals that when Newlands School was first opened he, with his younger brothers, was one of the pupils taken from Camlachie School. He writes: “As we grow older we look back, with pleasant recollections, on days when all the care and responsibility lay with our elders. “Among those elders and pleasant associations of my school days, I remember the Headmaster, Mr Powell, who, although never sparing the rod when it was necessary, always inspired us with the idea that, while he always appreciated the best of us, he was still proud of the worst of us. There was a Miss Cooper, whom I have always remembered with respect and affection; and a Miss Tyre, who, I believe, took care of nearly all of our numerous family in the first steps towards reading, writing and arithmetic. There were others, to all of whom I tender my respectful regards.”
Mr Orr writes that in those days there was a school museum, to which he would like to make his contribution, a rare sailfish caught in the Gulf Stream.
Mr Orr (to whom a copy of this issue of the Standard is being sent) and other old Newlands pupils will be interested to hear some further details of the teachers mentioned.
Mr James Powell, the Headmaster, passed away, when over eighty years of age, at his home in Bearsden only three months ago. Miss Tyre who was Infant Mistress at Camlachie before coming to Newlands, is now enjoying her fifteenth year of retirement; and Miss Jeanie Cooper is now senior woman assistant at the new Riverside School, Springfield Road, to which she was transferred when it opened two years ago. A peculiar coincidence is that the wife of the Newlands Headmaster was a college student with Miss Cooper.
Prosperous Ex-Pupils
The brothers John and George Orr, who are now established in a prosperous business as building contractors in Miami, were numbers seven and eight on the school roll when it was opened in 1895.
The thanks of teachers and pupils are most warmly extended to the generous donor of the fish.
Taken from the Eastern Standard
29 June 1935