Spring Road Trip Drive To Bo'ness Central Lowlands Scotland

Tour Scotland Spring travel video of a road trip drive, with Scottish bagpipes and drums music, on visit to Borrowstounness, commonly known as Bo'ness, a town and former burgh and seaport on the south bank of the Firth of Forth in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Historically part of the county of West Lothian, it is now within the Falkirk council area, 16.9 miles North West of Edinburgh and 6.7 miles East of Falkirk.

Henry Mareus " Harcus " Strachan was born on 7 November 1884 in Bo'ness, and attended the Royal High School, Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh before emigrating to Canada in 1905. He homesteaded a farm in the Chauvin district, near Wainwright, Alberta. Strachan was 33 years of age, and serving in the First World War with the Canadian Cavalry Brigade as a lieutenant in The Fort Garry Horse, when he performed the action for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for valour in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. It has become traditional for the Garrys to hold a Regimental dinner every year on the anniversary of Strachan's unlikely cavalry exploit. After the war, he returned to his farm in the Chauvin district, Alberta. He went into banking. By 1930, he had moved to Calgary. In the 1930s he married Betsy Stirling and they had a daughter Jean. Strachan later commanded the 1st Battalion, Edmonton Fusiliers during the Second World War. After the war he retired and moved to Vancouver. Strachan eventually attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. Strachan died on 1 May 1982, at the age of 97 years and 175 days, the record longest lived recipient of the Victoria Cross. Strachan's ashes were scattered near the Rose Garden Columbarium at Boal Chapel Memorial Gardens in North Vancouver, BC on 5 May. In September 2013 a lake in Manitoba was named " Harcus Strachan Lake " to commemorate his award of the Victoria Cross.

James Brunton Stephens, Scottish born Australian poet, was born on 17 June 1835 in Bo'ness, the son of John Stephens, the parish schoolmaster, and his wife Jane, née Brunton. Stephens was educated at his father's school, then at a free boarding school and at the University of Edinburgh from 1849 to 1854 without obtaining a degree. For three years he was a travelling tutor on the continent, and from 1859 became a school teacher in Scotland. Stephens migrated to Queensland, Australia, in 1866, possibly for health reasons. He was a tutor with the Barker family of squatters at Tamrookum station for some time and in 1870 entered the Queensland Education Department. He had experience as a teacher at Stanthorpe and was afterwards in charge of the school at Ashgrove, near Brisbane. On 10 November 1876 Stephens had married Rosalie Mary Donaldson, born 1846, died 1932, and they had five children, Jessie Mary, born 1877, died 1945, Mary, born 1879, died 1961, Hubert born 1881, Rachael Catherine, born 1883, died 1967, and Georgina, born 1886, died 1961. James Brunton Stephens was suffering for some time from angina pectoris before his death on 29 June 1902.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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