Hardback book ‘Aids to Anatomy and Physiology – a complete textbook for the nurse’, 1948, belonging to Ishbel MacDonald of the MacDonald/MacCorquodale/MacLean family of Kenovay. Like many others from Tiree, Ishbel became a nurse at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow.
Book ‘The Hebrides at War’ by Mike Hughes, 1998. An illustrated account of the men and women who served and lived in Oban and the Hebrides during World War II. From the belongings of the MacDonald/MacCorquodale/MacLean family of Kenovay.
Collection of articles, poems, photographs and illustrations by Alistair MacNeill of Hynish (b. 1940). Alistair recollects his experiences competing in the County Sports, Skerryvore Lighthouse, the Great China Tea Race of 1866, rock fishing with a bamboo rod, ‘The Wembly Wizards’ Scottish football team of 1928, gathering tangles (seaweed) for the kelp industry, Ben Nevis, a puffer coal boat at Hynish pier. Includes two covering letters with further information.
Two coloured charts mapping the sea bed around (1) Tiree and Coll, and (2) Barra Head and Skerryvore. They were produced by the German authorities during WWII to enable their U-boats to navigate in these areas.
Detailed copy of the original hand-drawn weather chart created by the Meteorological Office of the Air Ministry in London for the morning of Monday 5th June 1944. It includes isobars, windspeeds and weather systems in the north Atlantic and notes on general inference and outlook. On the reverse are rows of data collected in various areas, including Tiree, from which the chart was drawn. These data were used to forecast the break in the weather that enabled the D-Day landings on the 6th June 1944.
Photograph and sample of gutta-percha from a bale found embedded in the machair shore at Sandaig (NL 936 436) by visitor Jennie Hynd in September 2022. The extent of the lichen and vegetation on the bale suggests that it had been there for some time.
Gutta-percha is a stretchy, rubbery material, derived from the latex of the Palaquium gutta tree in Malaysia. During the second half of the 19th century, gutta-percha was imported into Britain in vast quanities and used as insulation for underwater electrical cables, golf balls, chewing gum and root canal treatment. Synthetic materials have since largely replaced it.
Bales of gutta-percha have been washed up on the beaches of western Europe for over 100 years, with many likely to have come from ships wrecked during WWI such as the Japanese liner Miyazaki Maru, which was sunk by a German U-boat off the Scilly Isles in 1917.
Two original monochrome postcards showing Scarinish Harbour and Island House. These are originals of digital copies already held in the collection. See 2000.230.4 and 2013.33.2, respectively.
Scanned copies of photographs of HMS Tiree in Malta in 1957, members of Polish 304 Squadron beside their Wellington XIV and one signed by one of the aircrew, a pilot and navigator in a cockpit, a Warwick aircraft and Warwick ‘ghost’ aircraft with descriptive text. Includes the reverse sides of each photograph. *Copyright restrictions apply*
Click here to view images 2022.13.5
Copy of a typed ‘Starting and Running Procedure for Hercules XVI Engine. Halifax III. A/C’ for use by pilots flying Halifax aircraft out of RAF Tiree during WWII. 518 Squadron Meteorological Observers used these aircraft.
Click here to view 2022.13.4
Black and white photograph of a Halifax III aircraft flying overhead. Halifaxes were flown by 518 Squadron Meteorological Observers based at RAF Tiree during WWII.
