In terms of the age of this planet, a century is a geological eyeblink, but in human terms a century especially the past 100 years can bring staggering change. A casual leafing through newspapers, periodicals and almanacs for 1911 provides an eyebrow-raising glimpse into a forgotten world in its twilight years before the first world war.
For a start, only some Scottish cities and towns had phone systems. And they were local a national network was in its infancy. The phones operated from 8am to 8pm daily, but never on Sundays. It might distract the faithful from going to church. In 1911, central Edinburgh had fewer than 1000 subscribers the highest phone number listed in one directory was 662.
Then, the Royal Bank of Scotland was in a minor league, dwarfed by the now long-forgotten British Linen Bank, Commercial Bank, National Bank and Union Bank. Many today must wish things had stayed that way.
You could stay overnight at one of Edinburgh’s better hotels with lift and electric lights no less for two-and-sixpence (12p). Many hotels in those days were temperance and boldly advertised the fact. But there were still plenty of establishments where a gill of whisky or gin (that’s the equivalent of six pub measures today) could be had for considerably less than a shilling (5p).
Edinburgh in those days had nearly three dozen railway stations and umpteen miles of tramlines that the city fathers must now bitterly regret they ever uplifted. The Dundee area, too, had a fair raft of stations Tay Bridge, Dundee West, Dundee East, Broughty Ferry, West Ferry, Barnhill, Magdalene Green, Menzieshill, Lochee and others and tramlines spread out from the city centre like spaghetti.
The postal service was at its height. A letter up to four ounces (113 grams) cost one penny (1d, or a 240th of a pound) to anywhere in the UK, borne on the wings of speed. Letters and parcels posted (admittedly from London) were advertised as reaching most west European cities within a day. Such facts will make painful reading for Dundee East residents. Admittedly, posting things to further afield took longer. There was no air mail then, so it took 30-plus days to Hong Kong, 36 to Australia.ArmyThen as now, Scots were making an impact at Westminster. Among Scotland’s 72 MPs in 1911 was Prime Minister Herbert Asquith (East Fife), who modestly listed his London address as 10 Downing Street. Inverness-shire’s MP was Sir John Dewar, the whisky magnate, Kilmarnock had William G Gladstone, son of the famous Victorian Prime Minister, and Lanarkshire (Partick) had Sir Robert Balfour, son of the Tory Opposition leader Arthur James Balfour, who resigned late that year due to ill health and was replaced by Canadian-born Glasgow businessman Andrew Bonar Law.
Dundee had two MPs, one a certain Winston Spencer Churchill, then a Liberal and also Home Secretary, but reviled in many quarters for sending in the army to quell riots and strikes in Llanelli and Liverpool, where many rioters were shot dead. Perhaps for that reason, he was shifted to be First Lord of the Admiralty in October.
Plenty else happened in 1911 George V was crowned king in London in June and Emperor of India in New Delhi in December. France and Germany almost went to war over Morocco, the Titanic was sent for fitting out, Ramsay MacDonald was elected Labour Party leader, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in Paris and Britain suffered an August heatwave that killed nearly 1000 people. Perhaps global warming has been around a lot longer than some people think…