It is the centenary of the Royal Scots Club this year. To celebrate they invited their patron, The Princess Royal, to pay them a visit and they have launched a book.
Author and journalist, Roddy Martine was commissioned to write the history of the club in a book billed as so much more than just the inspiring story of a military club which has adapted to modern times.
It is a lively history of the establishment featuring some of the great characters who have lived in Edinburgh as well as club members. A copy will be given to each and every member of the club which is also available for sale to the general public.
The book was officially launched by The Princess Royal who visited the club on 11 March 2019, a hundred years to the day since the then Princess Royal, Princess Mary, declared the club open.
We spoke to Roddy Martine after the visit. He said : “This was a tremendous gathering, a good turnout and a great bit of history! A hundred years of an amazing club started 100 years ago to the day when the Princess Royal’s aunt came to visit as one of the founders. It is brilliant that she has carried on the tradition.”
It took Roddy about two or three years to research but he admitted to having ‘an amazing amount of help’. He said : “I think a lot of tribute should go to John Lloyd who was chairman of the club committee and he approached me to write the book originally. He was going to work with me and then unfortunately he died. After that Colonel Robert Watson and General Strudwick stepped into the breach and everyone has been so enthusiastic and helpful so it was a lovely thing to do.”
The title of the book is taken from The Declaration of Arbroath and it features on the Royal Scots monument in Princes Street Gardens. It was also used by the Princess Royal when she was opening the club in 1919 as a tribute to the club. This is an all ranks club, a kind of memorial so ‘Not for glory nor riches’ but as a membership club for the regiment initially and now for members from all different walks of life.
Roddy said : “This is what I love to do, researching people and history. I suppose I am a latent historian. I was always good at history at school but I love particularly that the history of a club like this is the history of Edinburgh and it is the Edinburgh of my childhood and my parents’ childhood. My father was born in Great King Street and my mother on Northumberland Street. I went to Edinburgh Academy and grew up in this part of Edinburgh. The characters in the book and members of this club are all the great characters of the last 100 years.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
