Dundee Civic Week Pageant

Pageant type

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Performances

Place: Caird Hall (Dundee) (Dundee, Dundee City, Scotland)

Year: 1945

Indoors/outdoors: Indoors

Number of performances: 3

Notes

16, 17 and 18 May 1945, at 7pm

Name of pageant master and other named staff

  • Producer [Pageant Master]: Cuthbert, Walter R.
  • Assistant Producer: Kathleen M.V. Robbie
  • Musical Director: James Easson
  • Costumes: Angela Bradshaw
  • Stage Manager: D. Robertson
  • Electrician: A. Walker1

Names of executive committee or equivalent

Production Committee:

  • Convener: J.A. Greig (Script)
  • Secretary: David Watt
  • Other members: Walter R. Cuthbert (Pageant Producer); James Easson (Musical Director); John M. Purves (Stage décor); Andrew M. Black (Publicity); R.L. Mackie

Notes

The historian R.L. Mackie advised on the pageant’s episodes. The pageant was an initiative of the city’s Civic Week and there was a ‘Civic Week Council’ which had a membership made up of local politicians and other interested parties such as R.L. Mackie. It was convened by the Lord Provost, Sir Garnet Wilson.3

Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)

  • Greig, J.A.
  • Salmond, J.B.
  • Kemp, Andrew
  • Burns, Andrew
  • Angus, Marion
  • Dunbar, William
  • Scott, Walter

Notes

Writers were responsible for the following parts of the pageant:

  • J.A. Greig wrote the script.4
  • J.B. Salmond wrote the lyrics of the 'Weaving Chorus' (in Introduction).5
  • Andrew Kemp wrote lyrics for 'Give Thanks Unto the Lord our God' (Episode I).6
  • Robert Burns for words of ‘Scots Wha Hae’ (Episode II).7
  • Marion Angus. ‘Alas Poor Queen’ (Episode IV).8
  • William Dunbar wrote ‘Fair and Fairest of Every Fair’ (Episode IV).
  • Walter Scott for the words of ‘Bonnie Dundee’ (Episode V).9

Names of composers

  • Easson, James
  • Sumpsion, Corbett

The initials 'J. E.' given in the pageant programme are presumed to be those of James Easson who sat on the pageant committee. In the list of committee members, he is described as 'musical director'.10

Numbers of performers

500

Financial information

Credit balance of £24111

Object of any funds raised

The credit balance noted refers to the finances of the Civic Week overall. More detailed information specifically about the finances of the pageant have not been recovered.

Linked occasion

Dundee Civic Week

Audience information

  • Grandstand: No
  • Grandstand capacity: n/a
  • Total audience: 7500

Notes

In 2015, the Caird Hall in Dundee has the capability of seating 2150 spectators; 12 however, the seats in this establishment are moveable and it is possible that in 1945 more seats were provided even though it is equally likely that part of the auditorium was given over to providing a bigger stage. However arranged, there was almost certainly a near capacity audience at each performance: the local press reported that over 7500 people had attended the pageant over its three shows.13 In a letter to the press there was a complaint made that views were very restricted in the cheaper seats.14

Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest

3s. 6d.–1s.

3s. 6d; 2s. 6d.; 1s. 6d.; 1s15

Associated events

The Dundee Civic Week (Sunday 13 May–Saturday 19 May, 1945) included the following items:
  • A Local Government Exhibition ran in Dundee Art Galleries during Civic Week.
  • Lectures and film shows were delivered in Dundee Art Galleries during Civic Week.
  • Dundee Repertory Theatre staged a special production of Twelfth Night during Civic week.
  • A ‘Dedication’ service conducted by the Rev. Harry Andrew after which ‘Colours’ were presented to Dundee Sea Cadets by Captain W.F. Keay; there was then a march past in front of the Lord Provost of Dundee (Saturday 19 May).
  • Religious services and tree planting ceremonies ‘in the grounds of the city churches’ (Saturday 19 May).
  • A concert in the City Square (Saturday 19 May).
  • Dr Gavin Henderson gave a lecture on 'The Soldier Citizen' in the La Scala Cinema, Dundee (Sunday 13 May).

Pageant outline

Introduction

No details of any dramatic performance have been recovered. However, a selection of 'Scottish tunes for a military band' was played. The choir also sang a 'weaving chorus'.20

Episode I. The Naming of the City, 1192.

In the opening episode, David, Earl of Huntingdon (brother of William the Lion), was depicted landing in Tayside having been saved from a shipwreck during his return from the Crusades. In thanks for this, he 'vows to build a church' and went on to name the city. The Earl was played by G. Paterson Whyte and the dramatic action was accompanied by music and singing.

Episode II. Wallace, 1297

In this scene, Wallace, 'a schoolboy in Dundee', was seen striking 'the first blow for Scottish Independence'. The notion that William Wallace attended school in the city is based on legend. Few details of the drama have been recovered; however, it is noted in the programme that Ian Paterson played Wallace. During the episode the choir sang ‘Scots Wha Hae’ and the audience was asked to join in during verses two and three of this song.

Episode III. Lady Mary Fair, 1500

Precise details of what was enacted have not been recovered, but it is assumed that this episode depicted a scene at the local annual fair held during pre-Reformation times. The pageant programme states that it showed the fair in 1500 when the city was growing in prosperity.21 Press reports suggest that the episode included dancing.22

Episode IV. Mary Queen of Scots, 1564

In this episode, Mary Queen of Scots, played by Betty Whyte, was depicted during a visit to Dundee. The pageant programme states that this was the occasion when she handed over 'the Charter of the Howff'.23 The episode likely involved typical dramatic motifs of dramatisations of Mary's visits in which a child offers her flowers as welcome and a dance is performed. The flower girl named in the pageant programme was called Lily Cameron and brief details of the music include traditional renaissance court dances named as 'Pavane and Galliard'. The scene was accompanied by music and singing.

Episode V. Bonnie Dundee, 1689

This episode involved a mime to the song 'Bonnie Dundee', the words of which are usually attributed by Sir Walter Scott. Chris Cooper arranged the mime and pupils from Rockwell Primary school performed it.24

Episode VI. Camperdown, 1797

In this, the 'Spirit of Admiral Duncan revisits his native city'. The episode commemorates one of the city's most illustrious sons and the high point of his naval career, which was victory over the Dutch fleet at Camperdown in 1797. J.C. Lowe played the admiral and he was accompanied in the drama by 'his crew' played by local Sea cadets. Few details have been recovered but the programme suggests that there was a mixture of historical seamen and modern seamen on stage. The Sea Cadets and Sea Rangers also played the parts of 'Signallers'. The performance was accompanied by the playing of a Hornpipe: the musician was called Jean Pringle.

Episode VII. Yesterday, and To-day, and Tomorrow.

Essentially, this episode celebrated aspects of the city’s past, present and future. It is clear that some dramatic content was performed but details have not been recovered. It is likely that it involved some sort of procession of ordinary Dundonians; it also featured more famous individuals, including the poet Robert Fergusson (1750–1774) who had attended school in Dundee, and the famous missionary worker Mary Slessor. Dr Johnson and Boswell are also noted as appearing. Songs and bagpipe music accompanied the action. The episode ended with the choir singing the hymn ‘These Things Shall Be, a Loftier Race’. In the pageant programme it is indicated that the audience was encouraged to join in the singing.

Key historical figures mentioned

  • David, earl of Huntingdon and lord of Garioch (1152–1219) magnate
  • Wallace, Sir William (d. 1305) patriot and guardian of Scotland
  • Mary [Mary Stewart] (1542–1587) queen of Scots
  • Graham, John, first viscount of Dundee [known as Bonnie Dundee] (1648?–1689) Jacobite army officer
  • Duncan, Adam, Viscount Duncan (1731–1804) naval officer
  • Johnson, Samuel (1709–1784) author and lexicographer
  • Boswell, James (1740–1795) lawyer, diarist, and biographer of Samuel Johnson
  • Fergusson, Robert (1750–1774) poet
  • Slessor, Mary Mitchell (1848–1915) missionary

Musical production

The music was live throughout and included:
  • Choral singing by a massed choir;
  • Music provided by the Band of His Majesty’s Royal Dragoons, Conductors: A. A. Singer, LRAM, and Bandmaster, Arthur J. Millar;
  • Accompanists including: Isobel Archer, LRAM, E. Easson and Nortrie Blair (on accordions); John Robbie (effects);
  • A string quartet.
Pieces performed included:
  • Arrangement of introduction by 'J. E.', including 'Scottish Tunes for a Military Band'; 'Weaving Chorus'; and 'Give Thanks Unto the Lord our God'.
  • Episode I. 'Dies Irae' [plainsong by unknown composer and arranger]; 'Ave Maria' [described as a 'Medieval Italian Melody'.
  • Episode II. ‘Scots Wha Hae’ (lyrics Robert Burns).
  • Episode IV. ‘Fair and Fairest of Rvery Fair’ (lyrics William Dunbar, unknown composer); 'Pavan and Galliard’ (dance music by unknown composer).
  • Episode V. Arrangement by 'J. E.' of ‘Bonnie Dundee’ (lyrics Walter Scott).
  • Episode VI. A ‘Hornpipe’.
  • Episode VII. ‘Dear Land of Home’ (Corbett Sumpsion); ‘The Piper O' Dundee’ arranged by 'J.E.'; ‘Beauty’ (lyrics John Masefield) arranged by ‘J.E.’; the hymn ‘These Things Shall Be, a Loftier Race’.
Other poems (which were recited or possibly sung to either established or new arrangements) were included but no definitive details of writers or composers have been recovered. These include 'Our Cloth is Rich with that Story's Sheen' attributed to James Graham; and 'But Still We Go Weaving You and I' attributed to 'George Lowden.' Both these items were used in episode VII.
The hymn which closed the performance was ‘These Things Shall Be, a Loftier Race’. It was intended that the audience join the choir in singing three verses from this. In the pageant programme it is indicated that the version used was by ‘Warrington’.

Newspaper coverage of pageant

The Dundee Courier
The Dundee Evening Telegraph
The Scotsman
The Sunday Post

Book of words

n/a

A book of words was not published.

Other primary published materials

  • Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. Dundee, 1945.
  • The Pageant of Dundee by R.L. Mackie, Verse by J.B. Salmond, Heraldic Drawings by A.L. Russell. Dundee, 1945.

The booklet written by R.L. Mackie was published to accompany the pageant but did not contain the script. In the preface, Mackie stated that in the pageant 'artistic necessity must prevail over historical accuracy'; therefore, the book was meant to provide 'a short account of the true story of Dundee'. Mackie's account ran to 44 pages.34 The booklet cost 1s. and was described as ‘a first-rate introduction to the pageant’.35

References in secondary literature

n/a

No known references in secondary literature.

Archival holdings connected to pageant

  • Dundee Public Library: one copy of the Souvenir Programme. 150(3).
  • The National Library of Scotland: one copy of The Pageant of Dundee by R.L. Mackie, Verse by J.B. Salmond, Heraldic Drawings by A.L. Russell. Dundee, 1945. HP2.84.629.

Sources used in preparation of pageant

  • Blind Harry. The Wallace. Late 15th century.
  • Boece, Hector (or Boice). Historia Gentis Scotorum. Paris, 1527.36
  • The Pageant of Dundee by R.L. Mackie, Verse by J.B. Salmond, Heraldic Drawings by A.L. Russell. Dundee, 1945.

The well-known writer of Scottish history, R.L. Mackie, gave historical advice for the pageant. In his book which accompanied the event and provided a short history of Dundee, Mackie states that Episode I was based on a legend included in the work of Hector Boece, who was the first Principal of King's College in Aberdeen. Mackie makes it clear that there is likely no evidence to support the legend originally described by Boece.37 Mackie similarly dismisses the drama of Episode II in which William Wallace was depicted as a schoolboy in Dundee; he claims that this particular legend is derived from Blind Harry's famous narrative poem on the life of Wallace.38

Summary

Plans for a civic week in Dundee, which had a historical pageant as a central feature, were originally formed in March 1944; and it was anticipated that the week-long occasion would be held later that year.39 In the event, a full year passed before the civic week took place in May 1945, only a couple of weeks after VE Day. The escalation of war in spring 1944, followed by the promise of the conflict in Europe coming inexorably to a close, perhaps influenced the decision to wait until 1945. We can only speculate. However, wartime shortages certainly do seem to have played a part in the delay: by May 1944 it had become clear to the organizers that a pageant would present challenges since ‘materials were practically unprocurable’.40

When the city’s Lord Provost first proposed a civic week, he commented that he ‘had been frequently challenged upon what was described as Dundee’s lack of civic pride’.41 The planned event and the pageant in particular, were clearly intended as an antidote to this view. The Provost may have been being a little disingenuous, however, since anxiety about what would happen to Dundee, its industries, and its people after the war must also have been on the minds of local politicians, not to mention ordinary Dundonians. The city did not have a good reputation for either working conditions or housing. Moreover, the textile industry, which was its economic mainstay (alongside jam and journalism), had been facing increasing competition from more cheaply produced products from overseas for several decades before the outbreak of war.42 In some minds, the mass unemployment that faced so many returning soldiers after World War I would have been a living memory. A possible repetition of such a scenario doubtless occurred to a good many citizens. The civic week, therefore, may have been intended to raise morale at a time of mounting anxiety about the future. Certainly, it is notable that Dundee’s civic celebration did not contain an industrial exhibition as such; instead, the display put on in the city’s Art Galleries showcased the work of local government. It is possible that when the pageant was planned, the demands of wartime production meant that approaching local businesses to display their wares was not feasible. Yet a cynic might add that this was an augury for the overdependence on public sector employment that rapidly developed in post-war Scotland.

One singular feature of the exhibition was a display of the work done by the local government education department: this involved demonstration lessons being given in a variety of ‘lighter’ subjects such as art, music and handicrafts, and involving real pupils and school teachers.43 Members of the public were able to come along and watch the lessons in progress. Alongside this exhibition on local government enterprises, the pageant was the other main feature of the week. It was held on three separate evenings and was an indoor affair—a trend that would increase in Scotland for urban-based pageants from this time onwards. Pageant organisers were fortunate in having the grand facilities of the city’s Caird Hall at their disposal. Yet in other ways the Pageant of Dundee was typical of the genre’s traditions. It had seven episodes and the first of these was set in the early medieval period. It involved a multitude of different people of all ages drawn from a variety of local groups and including choirs, dramatic societies, schools and youth organisations. It had a classic central scene in the shape of Episode III, which depicted Dundee’s medieval fair—in pre-Reformation times held in the week of the Feast of the Assumption. It used a synthesis of real historical figures and legendary events, and it did not trouble too much over historical accuracy. In Scottish pageants, historical authenticity was much more associated with the provision of dramatic narratives that had an identifiable local touch, even if these narratives were entirely fictional. This meant telling tales about the past that would have been readily familiar to many in the audience; and for those not familiar, the clear aim was to educate local people about their own folklore. As one local paper put it, those in the audience did not need to fear ‘two hours of undiluted history in the school-book manner’.44

From the early days of planning, however, the pageant had an impressive advisor in the shape of R.L. Mackie, the then well-known and prolific writer on Scottish history. Mackie produced a booklet to accompany the pageant, although he was keen to stress that his work did not supply ‘a detailed description of individual episodes in the Pageant’; Mackie claimed instead that his history provided ‘the real pageant behind our stage Pageant’.45 There is an element of suppressed frustration in many such comments made by Mackie about what he seems to have thought was an overdependence on legend within the pageant—this at the expense of more accurate scholarship. He may have had a point. More than most pageants, that staged at Dundee rested heavily on legend, with the first two episodes being entirely based on myth. Episode I told the romantic story of the founding of Dundee by David, Earl of Huntingdon; and Episode II told a tale from the boyhood of William Wallace based on a version of events invented by Blind Harry in his epic poem, ‘The Wallace’. Scottish pageants often managed to shoehorn Wallace into their narratives somehow, and Dundee was no exception.

A further Scottish pageant favourite—Mary Queen of Scots—featured in Episode IV, and here Mary was presented in a happy context, in contrast to the tragic queen often depicted in pageants. R.L. Mackie had little to say on the epoch of Scottish history with which she was associated, but he did quip that ‘this queen of old romance’ was perhaps ‘the first person to take a serious and sensible interest in the public health of Dundee’.46 The episode commemorated Mary’s decree that the derelict Greyfriars Convent on the outskirts of Dundee should be used as the city’s graveyard in preference to burying the dead in the centre of the town. Although Mary did indeed visit Dundee and order this initiative, most of the episode’s drama was a vehicle for dance and singing. The latter was particularly important, since this pageant probably did not carry a great deal of dialogue. Most of the action was presented in mime accompanied by music; and much of this was derived from the traditional canon of Scottish folk tunes. This was particularly evident in Episode V which recalled the career of Graham of Claverhouse, made Viscount of Dundee by James II. Claverhouse was, of course, also the nemesis of many Covenanters and not always sympathetically treated in Scottish pageants, but he was a local hero and the protagonist of the famous folk song ‘Bonnie Dundee’. This was a traditional ballad, the words of which had been reworked by Walter Scott; it continues to be a very easily recognisable tune. It is fair to say that this scene was, again, mainly a vehicle for music, and its content owed more to the work of Scott in the nineteenth century than to the time of Claverhouse. Indeed, this episode was the only oblique reference made to the era of the Covenanting movement, or to its troublesome successor, the Jacobite cause. The absence of both of these historical subjects makes Dundee’s pageant somewhat unusual within the wider context of Scottish pageantry.

The final two episodes concentrated on famous personages associated with Dundee. The sixth episode was entitled ‘Camperdown’. Mackie commented that this place, situated in the ‘Lowlands of Holland’, had ‘properly had no place in the history of the burgh’.47 However, Admiral Duncan had been born in Dundee and, as a British naval hero and a favoured local son, he was granted a revisiting in spirit to the city of his birth. The final episode consisted of a procession of people associated with Dundee and was accompanied by songs which hoped to evoke a sense of place and the existence of a temporal continuity between the past, present and future. At some point in the episode a verse by John Masefield was sung to an original arrangement by the pageant’s musical director, James Easson, which included the lines:

Here in this house where we are singing thus,
Long generations will come after us;
Friends we shall never know will come to share
This life of ours wondering what we were.48

The city’s industrial history was likely alluded to in song, but not dealt with as an important part of its economic, social and cultural fabric. Perhaps the terrible working conditions and appalling housing were thought unsuitable by Mackie who seems to have taken the view that the pageant was more of an entertainment than a historical exploration.

Nonetheless, press reports indicate that the pageant and the Civic Week were a success; so much so, indeed, that further such events were talked about, the Civic week Council was not immediately disbanded, and the surplus made in 1945 was retained for the purpose of funding future civic ventures along these lines. At a meeting of the Council, the Lord Provost proposed that a civic week could be held every year and a pageant ‘every three or five years’.49 However, no agreement appears to have been reached: at the same meeting one Council member argued for ‘an industrial pageant’, while another said that such an event should also include the ‘social activities of the citizen’. Mackie, who was present, claimed that ‘it was difficult to produce industrial history in pageant form’ and he was also reported as saying that the ‘social history of the city was appalling’.50 Perhaps this was the problem; Dundee’s industrial conditions had attracted opprobrium and yet this part of it past, which predated nineteenth-century growth, was its lifeblood. At any rate, such damming advice and lack of agreement would appear to have put paid to any future such pageants in Dundee.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 4.
  2. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 4.
  3. ^ ‘Future City Pageant’, Dundee Courier, 12 September 1945, 2.
  4. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 4.
  5. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 2.
  6. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 2.
  7. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 2.
  8. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 3.
  9. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 3.
  10. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 4.
  11. ^ 'Future City Pageant', Dundee Courier, 12 September 1945, 2
  12. ^ See information on the history of Caird Hall at the Caird Hall website, accessed 15 October 2015, http://www.cairdhall.co.uk/caird.
  13. ^ ’30,000 See How Dundee is Run’, The Sunday Post, 20 May 1945, 13.
  14. ^ Letter entitled ‘Caird Hall Pageant’, Dundee Evening Telegraph, 17 May 1945, 2.
  15. ^ Advertisement, Dundee Evening Telegraph, 9 May 1945, 7 and elsewhere.
  16. ^ ‘A Scotsman’s Log’, The Scotsman, 13 May 1945, 4.
  17. ^ ‘Dundee Civic Week’, The Scotsman, 21 May 1945, 3; 'Dundee Civic Week', Dundee Courier, 12 May 1945, 2.
  18. ^ 'Dundee Civic Week', Dundee Courier, 12 May 1945, 2.
  19. ^ Advertisement, Arbroath Herald, 11 May 1945, 2.
  20. ^ Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations in synopses taken from Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945).
  21. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 2.
  22. ^ ‘Pageantry of 800 Years’, Dundee Courier, 12 May 1945, 2.
  23. ^ This Charter gave permission for a new burial ground in Dundee. See Friends of Dundee Archives website for information, accessed 12/10/2015, http://www.fdca.org.uk/Howff_History.html.
  24. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 3. Bonnie Dundee was Graham of Claverhouse, infamous as the foe of Covenanters in Scotland. Sir Walter Scott fictionalised this tale in Old Mortality (first published in 1816) as the second volume of the series, Tales of My Landlord. These tales were first published under the pseudonym, Jedediah Cleishbotham.
  25. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 4.
  26. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 2.
  27. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 2.
  28. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 2.
  29. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 3.
  30. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 3.
  31. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 3–4.
  32. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 3.
  33. ^ Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 4.
  34. ^ The Pageant of Dundee by R.L. Mackie, Verse by J.B. Salmond, Heraldic Drawings by A.L. Russell (Dundee, 1945), 5.
  35. ^ ‘Pageantry of 800 Years’, Dundee Courier, 12 May 1945, 2.
  36. ^ See Nicola Royan, ‘Boece, Hector (c. 1465–1536)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004), online edn, October 2008, accessed 12 October 2015, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2760.
  37. ^ The Pageant of Dundee by R.L. Mackie, 12–14.
  38. ^ Ibid., 18.
  39. ^ ‘Dundee to Hold Civic Week: Historical Pageant Suggested’, Dundee Courier, 1 April 1944, 2.
  40. ^ ‘Planning Dundee’s Civic Week’, Dundee Courier, 12 May 1944, 3.
  41. ^ ‘Dundee to Hold Civic Week: Historical Pageant Suggested’, Dundee Courier, 1 April 1944, 2.
  42. ^ The 3 Js—Jam, Jute and Journalism—is the infamous summary often made about Dundee’s claims to fame. Marmalade was manufactured there and the city has long been home to the publishers D.C. Thomson.
  43. ^ ‘Schools Part in Dundee Civic Week’, Dundee Evening Telegraph, 12 May 1945, 4.
  44. ^ ‘Pageantry of 800 Years’, Dundee Courier, 12 May 1945, 2.
  45. ^ The Pageant of Dundee by R.L. Mackie, 5.
  46. ^ Ibid., 29.
  47. ^ Ibid., 39.
  48. ^ Reproduced in the pageant programme, Programme for Dundee Civic Week Pageant 16th, 17th and 18th May 1945 at 7p.m., Price 3d. (Dundee, 1945), 4.
  49. ^ ‘Future City Pageant’, Dundee Courier, 12 September 1945, 2.
  50. ^ Discussion of the meeting reported in ‘Future City Pageant’, Dundee Courier, 12 September 1945, 2.

How to cite this entry

Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Dundee Civic Week Pageant’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1055/