IN January 1974 a large collection of old photographic negatives was presented to Glasgow City Archives on behalf of the long-established Glasgow photographers, Ralston Ltd.

The negatives, which contained records of ships and traditional Clydeside industries, would now be preserved for posterity.

The handover was one of the last arrangements made by Stanley Mills before he retired as resident director of the firm.

Making the presentation was Miss Bea Gilmour, who was aged over 90 and had retired from Ralston’s in 1952 after 46 years’ loyal service. She was joined at the presentation by Mr Mills, James Mackintosh, who was succeeding him as manager of Ralston’s in Scotland, and Richard Dell, city archivist.

The photograph seen here, reproduced from an old carbon print in the Ralston collection, is a fine study of a dapper city gentleman reading an edition of the Glasgow Herald in 1901.

His glasses would have come in handy, given the rather unforgiving, densely packed columns of newsprint that newspapers favoured at the time. Major news stories that year included, in January, the death of Queen Victoria.

Stanley Mills himself had been a distinguished photographer. He spent Coronation Day, in 1953, on the roof of Buckingham Palace waiting for the Queen’s coach to pass in order to take one of the panoramic shots for which he was renowned.

Mr Mills also photographed such major engineering construction projects as the Forth Road Bridge and the Clyde Tunnel. He and his camera were present, too, during Billy Graham’s high-profile crusades at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall in the 1950s.

In 1955 he was awarded first place in the industrial section of the National Exhibition of Professional Photography, receiving the Award of Merit.

The Herald published one of his characteristic “before and after” shots of Loch Lomond when, in 1984-85 there was a dramatic change in the high-water and low-water mark.

Read more: Herald Diary