Kilchoan Public School 1900

This wonderful photograph shows the pupils and staff of Kilchoan Public School in 1900. It is in the possession of its successor, Kilchoan Primary School, and is one of 200 pictures now uploaded onto the West Ardnamurchan Vintage Photograph group site on Flickr.

While the main purpose of the WAVP site is to make old photos of the area available to people across the world, another is to try to put names, dates and and other facts to the images. Little seems to be known of this one. We know from the School log books that the teacher in 1916 was George Fisher, and that he retired in 1921. We also know that he was succeeded by Margaret Blyth Fisher, his wife, who left in 1926. So it is possible that two of the adults are the Fishers.

We don't know the names of any of the children. It is, however, remarkable that so many are girls: the Diary can only identify for certain two that are boys, both in the front row. It's possible that the other boys were absent for a reason - in those days children often took days off to help on the croft, for example with lifting the potato harvest. All but one of the children are wearing 'tackety boots', heavy boots with steel-studded soles. Look closely - the one that isn't is barefoot.

We would love to know more about this photograph. Can anyone help?

The WAVP site is here.