ONE day in January, 1960, in Glasgow’s Hyndland Road, six men bundled A.E. Pickard, the millionaire entertainments entrepreneur, into a waiting car, which took off at high speed. Pickard was informed that as actor Kenneth More, a previous kidnap victim, had paid £50 for his release, then he ought to be worth more. He demurred, and began a spirited debate with his kidnappers.
Many and varied were the fundraising methods used during Glasgow Students’ Charities Week. Actor Duncan Macrae (above) was raised shoulder-high by students in George Square and “invited” to sing. He obliged but then found himself at the centre of a seething mob, and finally found himself seated on a wall at the side of the City Chambers. The final day - Saturday, a day of snow and sleet - saw a student from the art school’s climbing club being lowered from a tower above Central Station until, carrying a ragged umbrella, he dangled 40ft above Hope Street, swinging like a pendulum. Railway police were summoned. On the street, a student equipped with a toy machine-gun sought donations from passers-by.
The city centre witnessed a procession of 50 lorries and thousands of “fantastically dressed” students. Female students performed a pleasant set dance of indeterminate lineage. One student was dressed as an Egyptian mummy, but his bandages began to unwind, leaving him embarrassingly exposed.
The entire week raised at least £14,200.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here