The Forget-Me-Not was a 48.5 feet fishing boat owned by David Ballingall with the registration KY 2011. In the above photograph, it is shown returning into Largo Harbour in the days when wooden fenders were in place as a protective measure against collisions against the main pier structure. The highest fending on the pier are what were known as “branders”. These were put in place to protect the paddle steamers from damage by the stonework of the Pier.

By their very nature, the most important and vulnerable parts of a paddle steamer are the two sets of paddle wheels. When lying alongside, the whole weight of a paddle steamer is being taken along the paddle box, the only part of the vessel actually touching the harbour wall. As such, the branders ensured that the paddle wheels were always well away from the stonework of the Pier which, in the case of Largo Pier, was very uneven. The branders were of such a height that the paddles were still protected when lying alongside at high water, spring tides.

Seven years later, on 9 February 1889 there was a close call when the Forget-Me-Not got into difficulty at the entrance to the new harbour at Dunbar. The Dundee Courier of 11 February below describes how the vessel hit the rocks and began to sink before being blown into the harbour mouth. Fortunately, the crew were rescued and the stricken boat moved to safety. 
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The story continues in the 22 February Fifeshire Advertiser (below). The boat was refloated and towed by a Leith tug to Pittenweem. Back at Fulton's boat yard, where she had been built seven years previously, the Forget-Me-Not was extensively repaired. This came at considerable cost to David Ballingall, as the boat was not insured at the time of the incident.
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After repairs were completed, the Forget-Me-Not was back in business and able to once again join other Largo vessels at the herring fishing. The piece below from the 13 July 1893 Fifeshire Journal reports that she joined Thomas Lawrie's 'Sultan' and other local boats on a trip up to Peterhead and Aberdeen.
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The Forget-Me-Not has been captured on camera more than once and even featured prominently on a Largo postcard (below). In the this image, a large crowd, including several women and children, has gathered on the pier end. Could this have been family gathering to see off the crew as they departed on one of their longer and further flung fishing engagements?  

Thomas Lawrie was born around 1853 to James Lawrie and Isabella Sime. The 1861 census records the family, headed by James aged 34 who was described as a 'Seaman (Merchant Service)', with wife and five children including Thomas aged 7. Four years later, in December 1865, James was sailing from New Brunswick Canada back to the Clyde on board the Alfaretta of Miramichi with a cargo of timber, on what was turn out to be an ill-fated voyage.

On Christmas Day, James along with another man, were lost off the topsailyard of the brand new 627 ton vessel. Experiencing heavy gales from early on in their journey, which began on 2 December, a "heavy gale capsized the ship on her beam ends" late on Christmas Eve and all were left clinging to the hull. After two hours, the ship righted and it was apparent that two were missing. The survivors suffered from exposure, thirst and hunger before being picked up on 2 January by the Peerless. The Alfaretta was ultimately found wrecked some way off the island of Barra.

The article below from the 4 January Glasgow Herald reported the loss of James Lawrie (although incorrectly named the vessel). James had been born in Wemyss Parish around 1827 to William Lawrie and Sophia Neish before the family moved to Largo, where James married Isabella Sime.

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So by the time of the 1871 census, James's widow Isabella was head of the family household and was described as a washerwoman. Thomas, now 17 years old, was already a fisherman and was living with his mother and two younger siblings. Thomas was married in 1877 to Isabella Clunie (daughter of fisherman John Clunie) and in 1881 census they had two children - James (2) and Isabella (4 months) and were living in Drummochie. 

In 1891, another tragedy at sea hit the Lawrie family when Thomas's brother David died. He fell overboard the steamer British Queen while returning from the Elbe. The Fifeshire Journal of 29 January below described the event. In the census of the same year, Thomas and his wife continued to live in Largo, now with five children (John, Mary and Maggie having been born since the previous census).
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In 1893, Thomas and Isabella's sixth child, David was born. Sadly they lost their 14-year-old daughter Mary in 1901 from tuberculosis. The 1901 census shows four children at home, including son James, a line fisherman and son John, an apprentice golf club maker. Ten years later, the family were at Main Street Lower Largo with the two youngest children still at home and Thomas aged 58 described as a line fisherman. In 1912 Thomas's mother Isabella Sime died aged 87 years.

1934 saw the death of Thomas's wife Isabella Clunie aged 84 at their home Westerlea, Defoe Place in Lower Largo. Thomas remained active and as he reached 70 years active involvement in fishing, attracted the attention of the newspapers. He appeared in the 13 November 1934 Leven Advertiser under the headline "Largo's Ever-Youthful Fishermen: Aged 82 and Still at Work". The piece (extract below) tells of how, although Thomas no longer made the trips to Yarmouth and other deep-sea fishing grounds, he made a daily appearance at Largo Harbour to help the younger fishermen ready their boats and nets.
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The piece goes on to describe how Thomas once had two boats of his own. One of those was the Sultan (incorrectly noted as the Saughton in the above newspaper report) which was at one time the largest boat in Largo. At 45 feet long Thomas had the Sultan (registration KY 240) for 32 years before it moved on to Leith. As well as the loss of his father and brother at sea, Thomas had acutely felt the loss of his fellow Largo fishermen when the Brothers went down in 1886. He explained that his own narrowest escape had taken place when he and six mates were caught in a sudden storm at Yarmouth and "had to work like grim death to keep their course". Mr Lawrie's seven decades in fishing had seen the peak days of fishing at Largo when 20 boats left the harbour for Yarmouth to a staged decline until no boats made the journey any more. The feature ended with the words "the baldies may have gone from Largo but Skipper Tom Lawrie is still there, hale and hearty."
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The above image (from the Dundee Courier of 21 May 1935) shows Thomas with some drying fishing gear by the old salt girnel or net house on the Drummochy side of Largo harbour. Thomas lived until the ripe old age of 98. He passed away on 22 January 1951 at Westerlea. At the time he was Largo's oldest inhabitant. The Leven Mail of 31 January reported that his death was deeply regretted by fisher folk all around the East Neuk and that he was "well-known and respected by everyone for miles around". Always a familiar figure around the pier, Thomas loved to talk about the old days and was the only man in the village to remember the building of the railway viaduct. He was survived by two sons and two daughters.
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A bleaching green is an open outdoor space, upon which cloth was spread to dry and by whitened by sunlight. They were especially common in areas where textiles were produced. Linen weaving became the major industry in rural Scotland from the 1750s and in the Largo villages, linen hand loom weaving became a common occupation. The above image shows the bleaching green at the Temple (now a car park). The image shows a small amount of cloth spread out to dry in the corner of the green. The Old Statistical Account (1792) for Largo Parish describes weaving as "the principal manufacture" with "linen and checks" being most common. According to the book "Flax and Linen in Fife through the Centuries' by P.K. Livingstone, linen was "a fabric of plain weave, made from the stem fibres of flax" and check was "a pattern of cross lines forming small squares, as in a chess board". Some flax was grown locally but most was imported. 

Note that the above states that "almost every weaver, and a good number of others, have their bleaching ground, where they prepare linen". Hand looms weavers worked at home, in a room or outbuilding containing a large loom. Some may have used their own outside space for bleaching but others made use of communal bleaching greens. These common greens were leased to the feuars of surrounding properties under long-term arrangements. The linen manufacturing process involved many stages and was not complete until the cloth had spent time outdoors to bleach.

According to the 1932 'Largo Village Book', "up to 1850 there was a loom in every house in Lower Largo, Drummochy and Lundin, and much linen was made." In fact weaving was not limited to those places but also took place in Kirkton of Largo, along at the Temple and of course at Emsdorf. It may even be that the village of Emsdorf was feued from 1802 with weaving in mind. The majority of houses built there had deliberately low ceilings so that loom heads could be fixed to them yet could be easily reached by the weaver. 'Linen HLW' was by far the predominant occupation in Lundinmill (particularly around Emsdorf) in the 1841 census (see example page below).
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Some of the known communal bleaching greens around the Parish are shown on the map below. These are: 

1. Pump Green in Emsdorf
2. Green to the West of Drum Lodge (close to Joiner's Workshop)
3. Temple Green
4. The foot of the Serpentine (known as Tam's Den)
5. The Grove - Upper Largo

All of those of close to a water source - either a burn or a well or water pump, as the linen was sprinkled with water during the bleaching process.
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Woven linen was naturally a tan colour, so bleaching was essential. The linens were laid out on grass for several days. The cloth became whiter by the day until reaching an optimum level of whiteness. It was a slow process but one that was effective and did not result in any weakening of the fabric. However, having the product of your labours lying outdoors came with some risks. High winds, wandering animals and thieving hands could all be a problem.

The newspaper archives are full of reports of thefts from bleaching greens. A couple of examples are shown below. The story from Crail is from the 2 September 1824 Fife Herald and tells of the theft of a "web of cloth" (the web is the result of weaving the weft threads over warp threads) from the village bleaching green, the two women involved being "drummed through the town" as a punishment. The same newspaper on 20 October 1831 cautions readers in Cupar of a series of thefts from bleaching greens there. In 1839, two men were jailed for 40 days for stealing clothes from a bleaching green in St Monance.

The 'Largo Village Book' tells of how owners of the bleaching linen at Tam's Den near the Serpentine in Largo used to "sit on the banks all night in summer to see that no one stole the cloth". No doubt this type of supervision of the wares was a fairly common practice. 

The bleaching green in Emsdorf was known then as 'Pump Green', owing to the water pump sited there. The green covered a much larger area than the remnant left today would suggest.  As Esther Menzies wrote in her 1974 memoires, the green there was... 

"surrounded by a high stone wall following the line of the posts and chain there at present but protruding in an arc for several yards at the south end.  There was a gap of about four yards with an iron pump with a turning knob....The washing was laid out to bleach in the curved end and we did not play on the green if the washing was there.  At other times it was a playground.  The grass patch beyond was near oblong.  It was crossed by paths - one leading round by the curved wall to Emsdorf Place Houses, another at the east edge in front of their doors and another from Woodlands Road cutting through to meet the one passing alongside the Pump Green wall and leading up to the HIllhead."

One of the Emsdorf Place houses was for many decades named 'Green House' owing to its position adjacent to the green but the name was lost as the former use of the space faded from collective memories. Handloom weaving also vanished from the villages as power loom factories took over the manufacture of textiles. The bleaching of clothes became an indoor process thanks to the development of bleaching powders. However, traces of former bleaching greens and surviving weavers cottages still contribute to the character of the villages in Largo and many other towns and villages. Below is an evocative photograph of a green in Pittenweem being well-used in days gone-by.  If you know of other bleaching greens around Largo Parish, please leave a comment.
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The previous post told of the early life of John Ripley V.C., up to the point of his being decorated with the Victoria Cross on 12 July 1915 by King George V. The photograph above shows him being congratulated while leaving the Palace. John returned to St Andrews on Friday 16 July  His return to the town had been eagerly anticipated and there had been a few false alarms before his actual arrival by train. Now a hero and well-known name, john was "accorded a right royal welcome, the citizens turning out en masse to show their admiration of the hero for his gallant deed which had won for him the premier military decoration".

Several buildings, including the station and the town hall had been decorated with bunting. Exploding fog signals had been laid on the railway track for the arrival of his train. ​[Learn more about fog signals here and see and hear them in action here.] "Deafening cheers resounded from those waiting on the platform and the waiting crowd of thousands outside. Then there was the rush to shake hands by all who could get near enough". Sergeant Ripley was conveyed by carriage to the town hall. In a gesture of admiration, soldiers had unyoked the horses, so that they could pull the carriage along themselves. Spectators crowded the whole route.

Film footage of this return home was captured, as the above advert from the 22 July East of Fife Record promoted a "splendid picture" presented by The East of Fife Electric Cinema Company Limited being shown in Anstruther Town Hall of his arrival back in St Andrews. Meanwhile, of course the Great War raged on. John had been appointed acting Sergeant and undertook recruiting duties in Edinburgh. The image below featured in the 17 August 1915 Daily Record. Further below is a photograph of John giving a recruiting speech to supporters at a match between Hibernian and Queen's Park (23 August 1915 Daily Record). 

Above is a picture of John signing autograph cards in Aberdeen while accompanying the Caledonian hospital train (15 September Daily Record). From 1914, trains were ordered by the War Office from UK Railway Companies. These were painted khaki colour and had large red and white Geneva crosses on the sides.

On 30 October 1915, John was honoured in St Andrews with a presentation from the citizens of the town at the Council Chambers. Provost Cheape presided and members of the town council were present. John was accompanied by his brother Joseph of the Scottish Horse. The photograph above shows from left to right, John Ripley's brother Joseph, Bailie Hall and John (1 November 1915 Daily Record). John was presented with an inscribed silver casket, containing a war loan scrip and a purse of sovereigns. 

Only three weeks later, on 14 August 1933 John Ripley died in an accident. He fell from a ladder while testing pipes and drains at Castlecliffe House, The Scores, St Andrews and died later the same day from his injuries at St Andrews Cottage Hospital. He was 66 years of age. John's funeral with military honours took place on 17 August, from St Andrews Cottage Hospital to Upper Largo cemetery where his wife was buried. A carrying party of six sergeants, three pipers and a bugler came from the Black Watch depot at Perth.

The oak casket was covered by a Union Jack and there were a large number of beautiful wreaths. The St Andrews route was lined with sympathetic spectators (see image below). All the ex-servicemen in the procession were wearing their medals and decorations and there was a V.C. in the procession. At West Port mourners entered buses and motor cars for the journey to Upper Largo. On arrival there, the procession was reformed. The pipers played a lament as they made their way up the road leading to the cemetery. Six sergeants bore the coffin from the entrance to the graveside. After the casket had been lowered, the pipers played a lament and the bugler sounded the Last Post and then Reveille. 

The headstone at John's final resting place can be seen below. His wife, her parents and her sisters are also buried there. An inscription relating to John's V.C. was added at the base of the stone in 2001 featuring the Black Watch crest. John was survived by his son Alexander who had emigrated to the United States after the war. John Ripley was much missed in St Andrews and by his many friends scattered far and wide. He was immortalised in a Great War series of cigarette cards (see below). One of the "bravest of the brave" he remained down-to-earth and gracious. 
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