History of Dundee
Encyclopedia
Dundee
is the fourth-largest city
in Scotland
. Its history begins with the Picts
in the Iron Age
. During the Medieval Era, it was the site of many battles. Throughout the Industrial Revolution
, the local jute
industry caused the city to grow rapidly. In this period, Dundee also gained prominence due to its marmalade industry and its journalism, giving Dundee its epithet as the city of "jute, jam and journalism".
and in Brythonic languages
such as Pictish. The remainder of the name is less obvious. One possibility is that it comes from the Gaelic 'Dèagh', meaning 'fire'. Another is that it derives from 'Tay', and it is in this form, 'Duntay' that the town is seen in Timothy Pont
's map (c.1583-1596). Another suggestion is that it is a personal name, referring to an otherwise unknown local ruler named 'Daigh'.
Folk etymology, repeated by Boece, claims that the town's name was originally Allectum, and it was renamed Dei Donum 'Gift from God', following David, 8th Earl of Huntingdon
's arrival there on his return from the Holy Land.
. A kitchen midden
of that date was unearthed during work on the harbour in 1879, and yielded flints, charcoal and a stone axe.
A Neolithic
cursus
, with associated barrows
has been identified at the north-western end of the city and nearby lies the Balgarthno stone circle
. A lack of stratigraphy around the stone circle has left it difficult to determine a precise age, but it is thought to date from around the late Neolithic
/early Bronze age
. The circle has been subject to vandalism in the past and has recently been fenced off to protect it. Bronze Age finds are fairly abundant in Dundee and the surrounding area, particularly in the form of short cist
burials.
From the Iron age
, perhaps the most prominent remains are of the Law Hill Fort, although domestic remains are also well represented. Near to Dundee can be found the well-characterised souterrain
s at Carlungie and Ardestie, which date from around the 2nd century AD. Several broch
s are also found in the area, including the ruins at Laws Hill near Monifieth
, at Craighill and at Hurley Hawkin, near Liff.
. An area roughly equivalent to the current urban area of Dundee is likely to have formed a demesne
, centred on Dundee castle.
Boece
records the ancient name of the settlement as Alectum. While there is evidence this name was being used to refer to the town in the 18th century, its early attribution should be treated with caution as Boece's reliability as a source is questionable.
The Chronicle of Huntingdon (c1290) records a battle on the 20th July 834 AD between the Scots
, led by Alpin (father of Kenneth MacAlpin), and the Picts
, which supposedly took place at the former village of Pitalpin (NO 370 329). The battle was allegedly a decisive victory for the Picts, and Alpin is said to have been executed by beheading. This account, while perhaps appealing, should be treated with caution as the battle's historical authenticity is in doubt.
, Dunedin.
Dundee history as a major town dates to the charter in which King William
granted the earldom of Dundee to his younger brother, David (later Earl of Huntingdon) in 1179-1182. Earl David is thought to have built Dundee Castle, which formerly occupied the site now occupied by St Pauls Cathedral.
Dundee's position on the Tay, with its natural harbour between St Nicholas Craig and Stannergate (now obscured by development) made it an ideal location for a trading port, which led to a period of major growth in the town as Earl David promoted the town as a burgh.
On David's death in 1219, the burgh passed first to his son, John. John died without issue in 1237 and the burgh was divided evenly between his three sisters, with the castle becoming the property of the eldest, Margaret and, subsequently, to her youngest daughter, Dervorguilla
. Dervorguilla's portion of the burgh later passed to her eldest surviving son, John Balliol
, and the town became a Royal Burgh
on the coronation of John as king in 1292.
At the outbreak of the First War of Independence
in 1296, Edward I
installed an English garrison at Dundee Castle. The castle retaken by siege by the forces of William Wallace
in 1297, immediately prior to the Battle of Stirling Bridge
.
Dundee's burghal status renewed with a charter from Robert the Bruce in 1327.
Dundee became a walled city in 1545, owing to a period of hostilities known as the rough wooing. In July 1547, much of the city was destroyed by an English naval bombardment. In 1645, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Dundee was again besieged, this time by the Royalist Marquess of Montrose
.
In 1651 during the Third English Civil War
, the city was attacked by Oliver Cromwell
's Parliamentarian forces, led by George Monk. Much of the city was destroyed and many of its inhabitants killed. Dundee was later the site of an early Jacobite
uprising when John Graham of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee raised the Stuart
standard on Dundee Law
in support of James VII (James II of England) following his overthrow, earning him the nickname Bonnie Dundee
.
claimed authority over Scotland, the English
King twice visited Scotland with hostile intent. Edward (the 'Hammer of the Scots') revoked Dundee's royal charter, removing the town's people the right to control local government
and the judiciary. He occupied the Castle at Dundee in 1296, but was removed by William Wallace
in 1297.
From 1303 to 1312 the city was again occupied. Edward's removal resulted in the complete destruction of the Castle by Robert the Bruce, who had been proclaimed King of Scots at nearby Scone in 1306. In 1327, the Bruce granted the royal burgh
a new charter. Later in the 14th century, during the conflict between England
and France
known as the Hundred Years' War
, the French invoked the Auld Alliance
, drawing Scotland
into the hostilities. Richard II
subsequently marched northward and razed Edinburgh
, Perth
and Dundee.
Dundee became a walled city in 1545 during a period of English hostilities known as the rough wooing (Henry VIII
's attempt to extend his Protestant ambitions north by marrying his youngest son Edward, Duke of Cornwall
to Mary, Queen of Scots). The Wishart Arch was believed to be the only remaining part of the wall though a piece behind St Paul's Cathedral may have a survived, though this remains unconfirmed prior to further investigation. Mary maintained the alliance with the French, who captured Protestant opponents, including John Knox
, at St Andrews Castle
, in nearby east Fife, in July 1547. That year, following victory at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh
, the English occupied Edinburgh and went on to destroy much of Dundee by naval bombardment. The Howff
Burial Ground, granted to the people of Dundee in 1546, was a gift from Mary.
was reconfirmed (in The Great Charter of Charles I
, dated 14 September 1641). However, with the outbreak of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in 1644, Dundee began to suffer at the hands of nobles loyal to the King. The Royalist
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
besieged Dundee in April 1645.
On 1 September 1651, during the Third English Civil War
), the English Parliamentarians invaded Scotland. General Monck, commander of Cromwell's
forces in Scotland, captured Dundee. His troops pillaged the royal burgh, destroying much of it and killing up to 2,000 of the 12,000 inhabitants.
John Graham, 1st Viscount Dundee raised the Stuart
standard
on Dundee Law
in 1689. For this early contribution to the Jacobite uprising
, Graham quickly earned the name Bonnie Dundee
.
mainly because of the burgeoning British Empire trade, flax and then latterly the jute
industry. By the end of the 19th century, a majority of the city's workers were employed in its many jute mills and in related industries. Dundee's location on a major estuary allowed for the easy importation of jute from the Indian subcontinent
as well as whale oil
—needed for the processing of the jute—from the city's large whaling
industry. A substantial coastal marine trade also developed, with inshore shipping working between the city of Dundee and the port of London. The industry began to decline in the 20th century as it became cheaper to process the cloth on the Indian subcontinent. The city's last jute mill closed in the 1970s.
In addition to jute the city is also known for jam and journalism
. The "jam" association refers to marmalade
, which was purportedly invented in the city by Janet Keiller in 1797 (although in reality, recipes for marmalade have been found dating back to the 16th century). Keiller's marmalade
became a famous brand because of its mass production and its worldwide export. The industry was never a major employer compared with the jute trade. Marmalade has since become the "preserve" of larger businesses, but jars of Keiller's marmalade are still widely available. "Journalism" refers to the publishing firm DC Thomson & Co.
, which was founded in the city in 1905 and remains the largest employer after the health and leisure industries. The firm publishes a variety of newspapers, children's comics and magazines, including The Sunday Post
, The Courier
, Shout and children's publications, The Beano
and The Dandy
.
Dundee also developed a major maritime and shipbuilding industry in the 19th century. 2,000 ships were built in Dundee between 1871 and 1881, including the Antarctic research ship used by Robert Falcon Scott
, the RRS Discovery
. This ship is now on display at Discovery Point in the city, and the Victorian steel-framed works in which Discovery's engine was built is now home to the city's largest book shop. The need of the local jute industry for whale oil
also supported a large whaling
industry. Dundee Island
in the Antarctic takes its name from the Dundee whaling expedition
, which discovered it in 1892. Whaling ceased in 1912 and shipbuilding ceased in 1981. The estuary was the location of the first Tay rail bridge
, built by Thomas Bouch
and opened in 1879. At the time it was the longest railway bridge in the world.
The bridge fell down in a storm less than a year later under the weight of a train full of passengers in what is known as the Tay Bridge disaster
. None of the passengers survived.
ended military hostilities, Dundee was able to redevelop its harbour and established itself as an industrial and trading centre. Dundee's industrial heritage is traditionally summarised as "the three Js": jute, jam and journalism. East-central Scotland became too heavily dependent on linens, hemp, and jute. Despite Indian competition and the cyclical nature of the trade which periodically ru i ned weaker companies, profits held up well in the 19th century. Typical firms were family affairs, even after the introduction of limited liability in the 1890s. The profits, either taken from the firms or left on interest, helped make the city an important source of overseas investment, especially in North America. The profits were seldom invested locally, apart from the linen trade, because low wages limited local consumption, and because there were no important natural resources, the region offered little opportunity for profitable industrial diversification.
was imported from the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea
for the production of linen
. The trade supported 36 spinning mills by 1835, but various conflicts, including the Crimean war
put a stop to the trade. Textiles thus formed an important part of the economy long before the introduction of jute, but it was jute for rope-making and rough fabrics that helped put Dundee on the map of world trade.
The Dundee firm Baxter Brothers, which owned and operated the large Dens Works complex, was the world's largest linen
manufacturer from around 1840 until 1890. The firm began in 1822 when William Baxter and his son Edward built a mill on the Dens Burn. In 1825 Edward left the company and two younger brothers joined as partners, the firm being renamed Baxter Brothers and Co. Baxter Brothers became part of the Low and Bonar Group in 1924 and traded as an entity within that company until 1978. The company's extensive archives, including highly detailed plans of Dens Works, are now held by Archive Services, University of Dundee
.
Jute
is a rough fiber from India used to make sacking, burlap, twine and canvass. By the 1830s, it was discovered that treatment with whale oil
, a byproduct of Dundee's whaling
industry, made the spinning of the jute fibre possible, which led to the development of a substantial jute industry
in the city which created jobs for rural migrants. The industry was also notable for employing a high proportion of women. In 1901 25,000 women were employed in the jute industry, with women accounting for more than 70% of the industry’s workers in Dundee. By 1911 the percentage of persons employed in Dundee's jute industry who were women had risen to 75%. Dundee's jute industry was also notable in that a relatively high number of those employed in it were married women, which was unusual for the time. In 1911 a total of 31,500 were employed in the jute industry in Dundee, which accounted for 40.4% of all of the city's workers.
Dundee had several large jute works, with Camperdown Works in Lochee
being the world's largest jute works. It was owned by Cox Brothers and was constructed from 1850 onwards. By 1878 it had its own railway branch and employed 4,500 workers, a total which had risen to 5,000 by 1900. Like several of Dundee's jute works Cox Brothers was taken over by Jute Industries Ltd in 1920. J Ernest Cox, the grandson of one of the founders of the firm, became chairman of Jute Industries in 1920 and would hold this position until 1948. Camperdown works closed in 1981.
By the end of the 19th century the majority of Dundee's working population were employed in jute manufacture, but the industry began to decline in 1914, when it became cheaper to rely on imports of the finished product from India
. (Dundee's 'jute barons' had invested heavily in Indian factories). By 1951 only 18.5% of Dundee's workforce was employed in the jute industry, with the total number of female workers employed in the industry declining by 62%. In 1942, the Ashton Works were requisitioned by the Government and taken over by "Briggs Motor Bodies Ltd" for the production of jerrycan
s. Ten million were produced by the time of derequisition in 1946. The Cragie works closed for economic reasons at the end of 1954 when a study found that it was not viable to modernised equipment; production was subsequently moved to Ashton works. Commercial jute production in Dundee ceased in the 1970s, particularly after the cessation of jute control on April 30, 1969. Some manufacturers successfully diversified to produce synthetic fibres
and linoleum
for a short time. The last of the jute spinners closed in 1999. From a peak of over 130 mills, many have since been demolished, although around sixty have been redeveloped for residential or other commercial use.
An award-winning museum, based in the old Verdant Works
, commemorates the city's manufacturing heritage and operates a small jute-processing facility. Archive Services at the University of Dundee
hold a wide range of collections relating to the textile industry in Dundee, including the records of many of the major jute works.
. Mrs. Keiller allegedly devised the recipe in order to make use of a cargo-load of bitter Seville
orange
s acquired from a Spanish ship by her husband. This account is most likely apocryphal, as recipes for marmalade have been found dating back to the 16th century, with the Keillers likely to have developed their marmalade by modifying an existing recipe for quince marmalade
. Nevertheless marmalade became a famed Dundee export after Alex Keiller, James' son, industrialised the production process during the 19th century.
The Keillers originally started selling their produce from a small sweet shop in the Seagate area of the city which specialised in selling locall y preserved fruit and jams. In 1845, Alex Keiller moved the business from the Seagate and into a new larger premises on Castle Street. Later, he also later bought premises in Guernsey
to take advantage of the lack of sugar duties. The Guernsey premises accounted for a third of the firm's output but still carried the Dundee logo. The Guernsey plant was closed in 1879 due to lack of profitability and was moved to North Woolwich
where it was brought back under the control of the Dundee branch. Though iconic to the city, jam was never a major sector of the city's industry, employing approximately 300 people at its peak compared to the thousands who worked in the Jute industry at the same time. Today traditional marmalade production has become the preserve of larger businesses, but distinctive white jars of Keiller's marmalade
can still be bought. For many years, these were made by the Maling pottery
of Newcastle upon Tyne
.
. Founded in 1905 by David Coupar Thomson
and still owned and managed by the Thomson family, the firm publishes a variety of newspapers, children's comics and magazines, including The Sunday Post
, The Courier
, Shout and children's publications, The Beano
and The Dandy
. Journalism is the only "J" still existing in the city and, with the company's headquarters on Albert Square and extensive premises at Kingsway East, D.C. Thomson remains one of the city's largest employers after local government and the health service
, employing nearly 2000 people.
port (since 1753) and in shipbuilding. In 1857, the whaling ship Tay was the first in the world to be fitted with steam engine
s. By 1872 Dundee had become the premier whaling port of the British Isles
, partly due to the local jute industry's demand for whale oil for use in the processing of its cloth. Over 2,000 ships were built in the city between 1871 and 1881. The last whaling ship to be built at Dundee was the Terra Nova
in 1884. The whaling industry ended around 1912.
In December 1883, a whale
was caught in the Tay and was later publicly dissected by Professor John Struthers
of the University of Aberdeen
. The incident was popular with the public and extra rail journeys were organised to assist those from surrounding areas who wished to see the whale. The creature became known as the Tay Whale, and the event was also celebrated in a poem by William McGonagall.
The Dundee Perth and London Shipping Company (DPLC) ran steamships down the Tay from Perth
and on to Hull
and London
. The firm still exists, but is now a travel agency. However, shipbuilding
shrank with the closure of the five berths at the former Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company
in 1981, and came to an end altogether in 1987 when the Kestrel Marine yard was closed with the loss of 750 jobs.
, the ship taken to the Antarctic by Robert Falcon Scott
and the last wooden three-masted ship to be built in the British Isles, was built in Dundee in 1901. It returned to Dundee in April 1986 and is moored next to a purpose-built visitors' centre. The oldest wooden British warship still afloat, the , is moored nearby, although it was not built in Dundee. Dundee was also the home port of the Antarctic Dundee whaling expedition
of 1892 which discovered Dundee Island
, named after the expedition's home port.
washed down the Tay
which formed sandbanks in the harbour, thus blocking it. In 1815 a Habour Act was passed which moved control of the harbour from the Town Council to a Board of Harbour Commissioners. Under their guidance the harbour was greatly expanded from the 1820s with the addition of King William IV Dock, Earl Grey Dock, Victoria Dock and Camperdown Dock. In 1844 a triumphal arch made of timber was erected at the enterance of the harbour to mark the arrival, by sea, of Queen Victoria on her way to her first holiday in Aberdeenshire
. In 1849 a competition was held to design a replacement permenant structure. The competition was won by a design submitted by James Thomas Rochead. The resulting Royal Arch quickly became one of Dundee's most iconic symbols. King William IV Dock and the Early Grey Dock were filled in in the 1960s during the construction of the Tay Road Bridge
and its approach roads and the Royal Arch was demolished at the same time. The Arch is the subject of a famous photograph by the photojournalist Michael Peto
.
Dundee still has several wharf
s. The most prominent wharfs are King George V, Caledon West, Princess Alexandra, Eastern and Caledon East. The Victoria Dock was built in the 19th century to serve the loading of major imports of jute. Activity ceased in the 1960s and the wharf was out of service for forty years. It has since been redeveloped into a shopping wharf known as City Quay. The Quay has a 500 yard Millennium Bridge spanning its eastern quay which swings round to allow ships in. Camperdown docklands is also being redeveloped in a manner similar to Canary Wharf
in London and is scheduled for completion in 2008. The last wharf to be built in Dundee was at Stannergate for the shipbuilders Kestrel Marine. It was formally opened by Charles, Prince of Wales
on July 17, 1979 and named after him.
.
In 1878 a new railway bridge over the Tay
was opened, connecting the rail network at Dundee to Fife
and Edinburgh
. Its completion was commemorated in verse by William McGonagall. About two years after completion, the bridge collapsed under the weight of a full train of passengers during a fierce storm. All on board the train were lost and some bodies were never recovered. McGonagall's The Tay Bridge Disaster
recounts the tragedy
in verse. perhaps one of his best known poems. The public inquiry of the Tay Bridge disaster
in 1880 found that the bridge had been
"badly designed, badly built and badly maintained"
and Sir Thomas Bouch
was blamed for the catastrophe. He had under-designed the structure and used brittle cast iron
for critical components, especially the lugs which held tensioned tie bar
s in the towers. It was these lugs which fractured first and destabilised the towers in the high girders section. The bolt holes in the lugs were cast, and had a conical section, so all the load was concentrated at a sharp outer edge. Such conical bolt
holes were used for critical horizontal strut
lugs as well, and weakened the structure substantially. The towers of the high girder section were heavily loaded and were very top heavy, making then susceptible to toppling. The towers failed during the storm as the train was travelling over, and a chain reaction followed as each of the towers in the high girders section collapsed. In 1887 the bridge was replaced by William Henry Barlow
with a much more substantial bridge, which was at that time the longest railway bridge in Europe
, at just over 2 miles (3.2 km) long (Europe's longest bridge today is the Oresund Bridge
).
All routes came under direct municipal control in 1893, which allowed the city to adopt overhead electric lines to power the trams. Between 1899 and 1902 the tramways were fully electrified. The first electric tram in Dundee started on July 12, 1900. The route ran from High Street to Ninewells in the West via Nethergate and Perth Road with a later route running to Dryburgh in the North. The peak of the tram network was in 1932, when 79 lines operated in the city. By 1951, many of the trams had not been updated. At least a third of the stock was over 50 years old. A study led by the Belfast transport consultant, Colonel R McCreary showed that the cost of trams compared with bus service was 26.700 and 21.204 pence per mile, respectively. He advocated abandoning the tramway system in 1952. In October 1956, the last trams were quietly taken out of service. On the evening of October 20, 1956 the last tram (#25) went to Maryfield Depot. Over 5,000 people witnessed the tram leaving the depot at 12:31 am to go to the Lochee
depot. All remaining cars were reduced to scrap by burning.
es in Scotland were introduced along Clepington Road in Dundee during 1912-1914. However, motor buses
were gradually introduced from 1921 to supplement the tram system, and double-decker bus
es appeared ten years later. Electric-powered operated by "Dundee Corporation Electricity Works" were still used in parts of the city until 1961. In 1975, Dundee Corporation Transport became part of the new Tayside
Regional Council. Tayside adopted a new dark blue, white and light blue livery for its buses, replacing the former dark green. The Volvo Ailsa double deck bus became standard in the Tayside fleet during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1986, following bus deregulation, Tayside Buses was formed as a separate company. It was later privatised and bought out by the National Express
Group and now trades as National Express Dundee.
Dundee (and the surrounding countryside) was also served by buses of Walter Alexander
(part of the state-owned Scottish Transport Group), which was rebranded as Northern Scottish
in the early 1960s. In the 1980s the Tayside operation of Northern Scottish became a separate company, Strathtay Scottish
. The company was privatised in the late 1980s.
Company which was formed in 1826 and was the first railway to be built in the North of Scotland. The railway linking Dundee with Newtyle
opened in 1832 and was eventually part of the Caledonian Railway
.
Dundee formerly had commuter train services linking Dundee (Tay Bridge) station
with Wormit
and Newport-on-Tay
. These ceased following the opening of the Tay Road Bridge
. Other commuter train services to Invergowrie
, Balmossie
, Broughty Ferry
and Monifieth
have been substantially reduced since the 1980s. Dundee East and Dundee West stations both closed in the 1960s, with all traffic being diverted to Tay Bridge station (now simply known as Dundee station).
. Popularly known in Dundee as "the Fifie", the service was withdrawn in August 1966, being replaced by the newly-opened Tay Road Bridge
.
Three vessels latterly operated the service - the Paddle Steamer
B. L. Nairn (of 1929) and the two more modern ferries Abercraig and Scotscraig, which were both equipped with Voith Schneider Propellers.
is a pot of 3 silver lilies on a blue shield supported by two green dragons. Above the shield is a single lily and above that a scroll with the motto Dei Donum, gift of God.
The blue colour of the shield is said to represent the cloak of the Virgin Mary while the silver (white) lilies are also closely associated with her. There is an early carving in the city’s Old Steeple, showing a similar coat of arms with Mary, protecting her child with a shield from dragons. Following an Act of Parliament passed in 1672, Dundee’s ‘new’ coat of arms was matriculated in the office of the Lord Lyon King of Arms
on 30 July 1673. However by this time Scotland had become a Presbyterian
nation, and any such idolatry of the Virgin Mary would have been frowned upon, leading to the more subtle symbolism that appears today. There are different theories as to why Dragons came to be used as supporters. One is that on the earlier arms they represent the violent sea that the Virgin Mary protected David from. Another is that they relate to the local legend of the Strathmartine Dragon.
Over the years small changes crept in until in 1932 the City Council decided to ask the Lord Lyon King of Arms about the correct form. Amongst other differences he pointed out that the dragons on the coat of arms were actually wyverns. (Although closely related wyverns have only two legs while dragons have four.) The coat of arms above the Eastern Cemetery
gateway shows wyverns instead of dragons and three lilies above the shield instead of one. It was decided to go back to the original form with dragon supporters and one lily and to add a second motto ‘Prudentia et Candore’ – Wisdom and Truth.
The coat of arms was slightly modified in 1975 when the City of Dundee District Council was created under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973
. A coronet, with thistle heads, was incorporated; this emblem being common to the coats of arms of all Scottish district councils. A further modification took place in 1996, when the District Council was replaced by the current Dundee City Council; the design of the coronet was revised to the present format.
, at that time a member of the (Coalition) Liberal Party
. He had won the seat at a by-election on May 8, 1908 and was initially popular, especially as he was the President of the Board of Trade and, later, senior Cabinet minister. However, his frequent absence from Dundee on cabinet business, combined with the local bitterness and disillusionment that was caused by the Great War
strained this relationship. In the build up to the 1922 general election
, even the local newspapers contained vitriolic rhetoric with regards to his political status in the city. At a one meeting he was only able to speak for 40 minutes when he was barracked by a section of the audience. Prevented from campaigning in the final days of his reelection campaign by appendicitis
, his wife Clementine was even spat on for wearing pearls. Churchill was ousted by the Scottish Prohibitionist
Edwin Scrymgeour
- Scrymgeour's sixth election attempt - and indeed came only fourth in the poll. Churchill would later write that he left Dundee "short of an appendix, seat and party". In 1943 he was offered Freedom of the City
— by 16 votes to 15 — but refused to accept. On being asked by the Council to expand on his reasons, he simply wrote: "I have nothing to add to the reply which has already been sent".
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
is the fourth-largest city
City status in the United Kingdom
City status in the United Kingdom is granted by the British monarch to a select group of communities. The holding of city status gives a settlement no special rights other than that of calling itself a "city". Nonetheless, this appellation carries its own prestige and, consequently, competitions...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. Its history begins with the Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
in the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
. During the Medieval Era, it was the site of many battles. Throughout the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, the local jute
Jute
Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from plants in the genus Corchorus, which has been classified in the family Tiliaceae, or more recently in Malvaceae....
industry caused the city to grow rapidly. In this period, Dundee also gained prominence due to its marmalade industry and its journalism, giving Dundee its epithet as the city of "jute, jam and journalism".
Toponymy
The name "Dundee" is of uncertain etymology. It incorporates the place-name element dùn, fort, present in both GaelicScottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
and in Brythonic languages
Brythonic languages
The Brythonic or Brittonic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael...
such as Pictish. The remainder of the name is less obvious. One possibility is that it comes from the Gaelic 'Dèagh', meaning 'fire'. Another is that it derives from 'Tay', and it is in this form, 'Duntay' that the town is seen in Timothy Pont
Timothy Pont
Timothy Pont was a Scottish topographer, the first to produce a detailed map of Scotland. Pont's maps are among the earliest surviving to show a European country in minute detail, from an actual survey.-Life:...
's map (c.1583-1596). Another suggestion is that it is a personal name, referring to an otherwise unknown local ruler named 'Daigh'.
Folk etymology, repeated by Boece, claims that the town's name was originally Allectum, and it was renamed Dei Donum 'Gift from God', following David, 8th Earl of Huntingdon
David of Scotland, 8th Earl of Huntingdon
David of Scotland was a Scottish prince and Earl of Huntingdon. He was a claimant to the Scottish throne.-Life:He was the youngest surviving son of Henry of Scotland, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon and Ada de Warenne, a daughter of William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey, and Elizabeth of Vermandois. His...
's arrival there on his return from the Holy Land.
Early history
Dundee and its surrounding area have been continuously occupied since the MesolithicMesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....
. A kitchen midden
Midden
A midden, is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, vermin, shells, sherds, lithics , and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human occupation...
of that date was unearthed during work on the harbour in 1879, and yielded flints, charcoal and a stone axe.
A Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
cursus
Cursus
thumb|right|250px|[[Stonehenge Cursus]], Wiltshirethumb|right|250px|[[Dorset Cursus]] terminal on Thickthorn Down, DorsetCursus was a name given by early British archaeologists such as William Stukeley to the large parallel lengths of banks with external ditches which they thought were early Roman...
, with associated barrows
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
has been identified at the north-western end of the city and nearby lies the Balgarthno stone circle
Stone circle
A stone circle is a monument of standing stones arranged in a circle. Such monuments have been constructed across the world throughout history for many different reasons....
. A lack of stratigraphy around the stone circle has left it difficult to determine a precise age, but it is thought to date from around the late Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
/early Bronze age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
. The circle has been subject to vandalism in the past and has recently been fenced off to protect it. Bronze Age finds are fairly abundant in Dundee and the surrounding area, particularly in the form of short cist
Cist
A cist from ) is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle East....
burials.
From the Iron age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
, perhaps the most prominent remains are of the Law Hill Fort, although domestic remains are also well represented. Near to Dundee can be found the well-characterised souterrain
Souterrain
Souterrain is a name given by archaeologists to a type of underground structure associated mainly with the Atlantic Iron Age. These structures appear to have been brought northwards from Gaul during the late Iron Age. Regional names include earth houses, fogous and Pictish houses...
s at Carlungie and Ardestie, which date from around the 2nd century AD. Several broch
Broch
A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s....
s are also found in the area, including the ruins at Laws Hill near Monifieth
Monifieth
Monifieth is a town and former police burgh in the council area of Angus, Scotland. It is situated on the North bank of the Firth of Tay on the East Coast...
, at Craighill and at Hurley Hawkin, near Liff.
Early Middle Ages
The early medieval history of the town relies heavily on tradition. In Pictish times, the part of Dundee that was later expanded into the Burghal town in the twelfth/13th centuries was a minor settlement in the kingdom of Circinn, later known as AngusAngus
Angus is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross and Dundee City...
. An area roughly equivalent to the current urban area of Dundee is likely to have formed a demesne
Demesne
In the feudal system the demesne was all the land, not necessarily all contiguous to the manor house, which was retained by a lord of the manor for his own use and support, under his own management, as distinguished from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants...
, centred on Dundee castle.
Boece
Hector Boece
Hector Boece , known in Latin as Hector Boecius or Boethius, was a Scottish philosopher and first Principal of King's College in Aberdeen, a predecessor of the University of Aberdeen.-Biography:He was born in Dundee where he attended school...
records the ancient name of the settlement as Alectum. While there is evidence this name was being used to refer to the town in the 18th century, its early attribution should be treated with caution as Boece's reliability as a source is questionable.
The Chronicle of Huntingdon (c1290) records a battle on the 20th July 834 AD between the Scots
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
, led by Alpin (father of Kenneth MacAlpin), and the Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
, which supposedly took place at the former village of Pitalpin (NO 370 329). The battle was allegedly a decisive victory for the Picts, and Alpin is said to have been executed by beheading. This account, while perhaps appealing, should be treated with caution as the battle's historical authenticity is in doubt.
High Middle Ages
Tradition names Dundee as the location of a court palace of the House of Dunkeld. However, no physical trace of such a residence remains, and such notions are likely to have been due to a misinterpretation of the ancient name of EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Dunedin.
Dundee history as a major town dates to the charter in which King William
William I of Scotland
William the Lion , sometimes styled William I, also known by the nickname Garbh, "the Rough", reigned as King of the Scots from 1165 to 1214...
granted the earldom of Dundee to his younger brother, David (later Earl of Huntingdon) in 1179-1182. Earl David is thought to have built Dundee Castle, which formerly occupied the site now occupied by St Pauls Cathedral.
Dundee's position on the Tay, with its natural harbour between St Nicholas Craig and Stannergate (now obscured by development) made it an ideal location for a trading port, which led to a period of major growth in the town as Earl David promoted the town as a burgh.
On David's death in 1219, the burgh passed first to his son, John. John died without issue in 1237 and the burgh was divided evenly between his three sisters, with the castle becoming the property of the eldest, Margaret and, subsequently, to her youngest daughter, Dervorguilla
Dervorguilla of Galloway
Dervorguilla of Galloway was a 'lady of substance' during the 13th century, wife from 1223 of John, 5th Baron de Balliol, and mother of the future king John I of Scotland. The name Dervorguilla or Devorgilla was a Latinization of the Gaelic Dearbhfhorghaill...
. Dervorguilla's portion of the burgh later passed to her eldest surviving son, John Balliol
John of Scotland
John Balliol , known to the Scots as Toom Tabard , was King of Scots from 1292 to 1296.-Early life:Little of John's early life is known. He was born between 1248 and 1250 at an unknown location, possibilities include Galloway, Picardy and Barnard Castle, County Durham...
, and the town became a Royal Burgh
Royal burgh
A royal burgh was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished in 1975, the term is still used in many of the former burghs....
on the coronation of John as king in 1292.
At the outbreak of the First War of Independence
First War of Scottish Independence
The First War of Scottish Independence lasted from the invasion by England in 1296 until the de jure restoration of Scottish independence with the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328...
in 1296, Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
installed an English garrison at Dundee Castle. The castle retaken by siege by the forces of William Wallace
William Wallace
Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence....
in 1297, immediately prior to the Battle of Stirling Bridge
Battle of Stirling Bridge
The Battle of Stirling Bridge was a battle of the First War of Scottish Independence. On 11 September 1297, the forces of Andrew Moray and William Wallace defeated the combined English forces of John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey and Hugh de Cressingham near Stirling, on the River Forth.-The main...
.
Dundee's burghal status renewed with a charter from Robert the Bruce in 1327.
Early Modern Era
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish nobleman and soldier, who initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed...
.
In 1651 during the Third English Civil War
Third English Civil War
The Third English Civil War was the last of the English Civil Wars , a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists....
, the city was attacked by Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
's Parliamentarian forces, led by George Monk. Much of the city was destroyed and many of its inhabitants killed. Dundee was later the site of an early Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
uprising when John Graham of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee raised the Stuart
House of Stuart
The House of Stuart is a European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of Great Britain and Ireland...
standard on Dundee Law
Law, Dundee
Law, Dundee is an area located in the centre of Dundee, Scotland. Its predominant feature is an extinct volcano which gives it its name.-Geology:...
in support of James VII (James II of England) following his overthrow, earning him the nickname Bonnie Dundee
Bonnie Dundee
Bonnie Dundee is a poem and a song about John Graham, 7th Laird of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee who was known by this nickname. The song has been used as a regimental march by several Scottish regiments in the British Army and was adapted by Confederate troops in the American Civil...
.
Medieval defence and destruction
Dundee experienced periods of occupation and destruction in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Following John Balliol's renunciation (1295) of Edward I'sEdward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
claimed authority over Scotland, the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
King twice visited Scotland with hostile intent. Edward (the 'Hammer of the Scots') revoked Dundee's royal charter, removing the town's people the right to control local government
Local government of Scotland
Local government in Scotland is organised through 32 unitary authorities designated as Councils which consist of councillors elected every four years by registered voters in each of the council areas....
and the judiciary. He occupied the Castle at Dundee in 1296, but was removed by William Wallace
William Wallace
Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence....
in 1297.
From 1303 to 1312 the city was again occupied. Edward's removal resulted in the complete destruction of the Castle by Robert the Bruce, who had been proclaimed King of Scots at nearby Scone in 1306. In 1327, the Bruce granted the royal burgh
Royal burgh
A royal burgh was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished in 1975, the term is still used in many of the former burghs....
a new charter. Later in the 14th century, during the conflict between England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
known as the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...
, the French invoked the Auld Alliance
Auld Alliance
The Auld Alliance was an alliance between the kingdoms of Scotland and France. It played a significant role in the relations between Scotland, France and England from its beginning in 1295 until the 1560 Treaty of Edinburgh. The alliance was renewed by all the French and Scottish monarchs of that...
, drawing Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
into the hostilities. Richard II
Richard II of England
Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...
subsequently marched northward and razed Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Perth
Perth, Scotland
Perth is a town and former city and royal burgh in central Scotland. Located on the banks of the River Tay, it is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire...
and Dundee.
Dundee became a walled city in 1545 during a period of English hostilities known as the rough wooing (Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
's attempt to extend his Protestant ambitions north by marrying his youngest son Edward, Duke of Cornwall
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...
to Mary, Queen of Scots). The Wishart Arch was believed to be the only remaining part of the wall though a piece behind St Paul's Cathedral may have a survived, though this remains unconfirmed prior to further investigation. Mary maintained the alliance with the French, who captured Protestant opponents, including John Knox
John Knox
John Knox was a Scottish clergyman and a leader of the Protestant Reformation who brought reformation to the church in Scotland. He was educated at the University of St Andrews or possibly the University of Glasgow and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1536...
, at St Andrews Castle
St Andrews Castle
St Andrew's Castle is a picturesque ruin located in the coastal Royal Burgh of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland. The castle sits on a rocky promontory overlooking a small beach called Castle Sands and the adjoining North Sea. There has been a castle standing at the site since the times of Bishop Roger...
, in nearby east Fife, in July 1547. That year, following victory at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh
Battle of Pinkie Cleugh
The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, on the banks of the River Esk near Musselburgh, Scotland on 10 September 1547, was part of the War of the Rough Wooing. It was the last pitched battle between Scottish and English armies, and is seen as the first modern battle in the British Isles...
, the English occupied Edinburgh and went on to destroy much of Dundee by naval bombardment. The Howff
The Howff
The Howff is a burial ground in the city of Dundee, Scotland. Established in 1564, it has one of the most important collections of tombstones in Scotland, and is protected as a category A listed building.-History:...
Burial Ground, granted to the people of Dundee in 1546, was a gift from Mary.
Civil Wars
During a period of relative peace between Scotland and England, the status of Dundee as a royal burghRoyal burgh
A royal burgh was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished in 1975, the term is still used in many of the former burghs....
was reconfirmed (in The Great Charter of Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
, dated 14 September 1641). However, with the outbreak of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in 1644, Dundee began to suffer at the hands of nobles loyal to the King. The Royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish nobleman and soldier, who initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed...
besieged Dundee in April 1645.
On 1 September 1651, during the Third English Civil War
Third English Civil War
The Third English Civil War was the last of the English Civil Wars , a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists....
), the English Parliamentarians invaded Scotland. General Monck, commander of Cromwell's
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
forces in Scotland, captured Dundee. His troops pillaged the royal burgh, destroying much of it and killing up to 2,000 of the 12,000 inhabitants.
John Graham, 1st Viscount Dundee raised the Stuart
House of Stuart
The House of Stuart is a European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of Great Britain and Ireland...
standard
Flag
A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is usually rectangular and used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or decoration. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed by a flag, or to its depiction in another medium.The first flags were used to assist...
on Dundee Law
Law, Dundee
Law, Dundee is an area located in the centre of Dundee, Scotland. Its predominant feature is an extinct volcano which gives it its name.-Geology:...
in 1689. For this early contribution to the Jacobite uprising
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
, Graham quickly earned the name Bonnie Dundee
Bonnie Dundee
Bonnie Dundee is a poem and a song about John Graham, 7th Laird of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee who was known by this nickname. The song has been used as a regimental march by several Scottish regiments in the British Army and was adapted by Confederate troops in the American Civil...
.
Modern era
Dundee greatly expanded in size during the Industrial RevolutionIndustrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
mainly because of the burgeoning British Empire trade, flax and then latterly the jute
Jute
Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from plants in the genus Corchorus, which has been classified in the family Tiliaceae, or more recently in Malvaceae....
industry. By the end of the 19th century, a majority of the city's workers were employed in its many jute mills and in related industries. Dundee's location on a major estuary allowed for the easy importation of jute from the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
as well as whale oil
Whale oil
Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of right whale and the bowhead whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale...
—needed for the processing of the jute—from the city's large whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
industry. A substantial coastal marine trade also developed, with inshore shipping working between the city of Dundee and the port of London. The industry began to decline in the 20th century as it became cheaper to process the cloth on the Indian subcontinent. The city's last jute mill closed in the 1970s.
In addition to jute the city is also known for jam and journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
. The "jam" association refers to marmalade
Marmalade
Marmalade is a fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits, boiled with sugar and water. The benchmark citrus fruit for marmalade production in Britain is the "Seville orange" from Spain, Citrus aurantium var...
, which was purportedly invented in the city by Janet Keiller in 1797 (although in reality, recipes for marmalade have been found dating back to the 16th century). Keiller's marmalade
Keiller's marmalade
Keiller's marmalade, named after its creator Janet Keiller, is believed to have been the first commercial brand of marmalade, produced in Dundee, Scotland....
became a famous brand because of its mass production and its worldwide export. The industry was never a major employer compared with the jute trade. Marmalade has since become the "preserve" of larger businesses, but jars of Keiller's marmalade are still widely available. "Journalism" refers to the publishing firm DC Thomson & Co.
D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd
D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd, is a publishing company based in Dundee, Scotland, best known for producing The Dundee Courier, The Evening Telegraph, The Sunday Post, Oor Wullie, The Broons, The Beano, The Dandy and Commando comics...
, which was founded in the city in 1905 and remains the largest employer after the health and leisure industries. The firm publishes a variety of newspapers, children's comics and magazines, including The Sunday Post
The Sunday Post
The Sunday Post is a weekly newspaper published in Dundee, Scotland by DC Thomson, and characterised by a 'folksy' mix of news, sentimental stories and short features...
, The Courier
The Courier
The Courier & Advertiser, more commonly known as simply The Courier, is a broadsheet newspaper published by DC Thomson in Dundee, Scotland...
, Shout and children's publications, The Beano
The Beano
The Beano is a British children's comic, published by D.C. Thomson & Co and is arguably their most successful.The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly. During the Second World War,The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink...
and The Dandy
The Dandy
The Dandy is a long running children's comic published in the United Kingdom by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. The first issue was printed in 1937 and it is the world's third longest running comic, after Detective Comics and Il Giornalino...
.
Dundee also developed a major maritime and shipbuilding industry in the 19th century. 2,000 ships were built in Dundee between 1871 and 1881, including the Antarctic research ship used by Robert Falcon Scott
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...
, the RRS Discovery
RRS Discovery
The RRS Discovery was the last traditional wooden three-masted ship to be built in Britain. Designed for Antarctic research, she was launched in 1901. Her first mission was the British National Antarctic Expedition, carrying Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first, successful...
. This ship is now on display at Discovery Point in the city, and the Victorian steel-framed works in which Discovery's engine was built is now home to the city's largest book shop. The need of the local jute industry for whale oil
Whale oil
Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of right whale and the bowhead whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale...
also supported a large whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
industry. Dundee Island
Dundee Island
Dundee Island is an ice-covered island lying east of the northeastern tip of Antarctic Peninsula and south of Joinville Island.On January 8, 1893, during the Dundee Whaling Expedition, the island was named by Captain Thomas Robertson of the Active and named for the home port, Dundee, Scotland,...
in the Antarctic takes its name from the Dundee whaling expedition
Dundee Whaling Expedition
The Dundee Whaling Expedition began on 6 September 1892, when a Dundee, Scotland whaling company, due to dwindling arctic whaling resources, decided to gamble and sent four steam-powered whaling ships, the Balaena, Active, Diana and Polar Star, to the Weddell Sea in search of Right Whales...
, which discovered it in 1892. Whaling ceased in 1912 and shipbuilding ceased in 1981. The estuary was the location of the first Tay rail bridge
Tay Rail Bridge
The Tay Bridge is a railway bridge approximately two and a quarter miles long that spans the Firth of Tay in Scotland, between the city of Dundee and the suburb of Wormit in Fife ....
, built by Thomas Bouch
Thomas Bouch
Sir Thomas Bouch was a British railway engineer in Victorian Britain.He was born in Thursby, near Carlisle, Cumberland, England and lived in Edinburgh. He helped develop the caisson and the roll-on/roll-off train ferry. He worked initially for the North British Railway and helped design parts of...
and opened in 1879. At the time it was the longest railway bridge in the world.
The bridge fell down in a storm less than a year later under the weight of a train full of passengers in what is known as the Tay Bridge disaster
Tay Bridge disaster
The Tay Bridge disaster occurred on 28 December 1879, when the first Tay Rail Bridge, which crossed the Firth of Tay between Dundee and Wormit in Scotland, collapsed during a violent storm while a train was passing over it. The bridge was designed by the noted railway engineer Sir Thomas Bouch,...
. None of the passengers survived.
Industrial revolution
After the Union with EnglandKingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
ended military hostilities, Dundee was able to redevelop its harbour and established itself as an industrial and trading centre. Dundee's industrial heritage is traditionally summarised as "the three Js": jute, jam and journalism. East-central Scotland became too heavily dependent on linens, hemp, and jute. Despite Indian competition and the cyclical nature of the trade which periodically ru i ned weaker companies, profits held up well in the 19th century. Typical firms were family affairs, even after the introduction of limited liability in the 1890s. The profits, either taken from the firms or left on interest, helped make the city an important source of overseas investment, especially in North America. The profits were seldom invested locally, apart from the linen trade, because low wages limited local consumption, and because there were no important natural resources, the region offered little opportunity for profitable industrial diversification.
Linen
Linen formed the basis for the growth of the textile industry in Dundee. During the 18th and 19th Centuries, flaxFlax
Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...
was imported from the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
for the production of linen
Linen
Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
. The trade supported 36 spinning mills by 1835, but various conflicts, including the Crimean war
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
put a stop to the trade. Textiles thus formed an important part of the economy long before the introduction of jute, but it was jute for rope-making and rough fabrics that helped put Dundee on the map of world trade.
The Dundee firm Baxter Brothers, which owned and operated the large Dens Works complex, was the world's largest linen
Linen
Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
manufacturer from around 1840 until 1890. The firm began in 1822 when William Baxter and his son Edward built a mill on the Dens Burn. In 1825 Edward left the company and two younger brothers joined as partners, the firm being renamed Baxter Brothers and Co. Baxter Brothers became part of the Low and Bonar Group in 1924 and traded as an entity within that company until 1978. The company's extensive archives, including highly detailed plans of Dens Works, are now held by Archive Services, University of Dundee
University of Dundee
The University of Dundee is a university based in the city and Royal burgh of Dundee on eastern coast of the central Lowlands of Scotland and with a small number of institutions elsewhere....
.
Jute
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1801 | 2,472 |
| 1831 | 4,135 |
| 1841 | 55,338 |
| 1851 | 64,704 |
| 1921 | 168,784 |
Jute
Jute
Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from plants in the genus Corchorus, which has been classified in the family Tiliaceae, or more recently in Malvaceae....
is a rough fiber from India used to make sacking, burlap, twine and canvass. By the 1830s, it was discovered that treatment with whale oil
Whale oil
Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of right whale and the bowhead whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale...
, a byproduct of Dundee's whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
industry, made the spinning of the jute fibre possible, which led to the development of a substantial jute industry
Jute trade
The Jute trade is currently centered around the Indian subcontinent. The major producing countries of Jute are: Bangladesh, India, China, Thailand, Myanmar. Bangladesh is the largest exporter of raw jute, and India is the largest producer as well as largest consumer of jute products in the world....
in the city which created jobs for rural migrants. The industry was also notable for employing a high proportion of women. In 1901 25,000 women were employed in the jute industry, with women accounting for more than 70% of the industry’s workers in Dundee. By 1911 the percentage of persons employed in Dundee's jute industry who were women had risen to 75%. Dundee's jute industry was also notable in that a relatively high number of those employed in it were married women, which was unusual for the time. In 1911 a total of 31,500 were employed in the jute industry in Dundee, which accounted for 40.4% of all of the city's workers.
Dundee had several large jute works, with Camperdown Works in Lochee
Lochee
Lochee is an area in the west of Dundee, Scotland. Until the 19th century, it was a separate town, but was eventually surrounded by the expanding Dundee...
being the world's largest jute works. It was owned by Cox Brothers and was constructed from 1850 onwards. By 1878 it had its own railway branch and employed 4,500 workers, a total which had risen to 5,000 by 1900. Like several of Dundee's jute works Cox Brothers was taken over by Jute Industries Ltd in 1920. J Ernest Cox, the grandson of one of the founders of the firm, became chairman of Jute Industries in 1920 and would hold this position until 1948. Camperdown works closed in 1981.
By the end of the 19th century the majority of Dundee's working population were employed in jute manufacture, but the industry began to decline in 1914, when it became cheaper to rely on imports of the finished product from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. (Dundee's 'jute barons' had invested heavily in Indian factories). By 1951 only 18.5% of Dundee's workforce was employed in the jute industry, with the total number of female workers employed in the industry declining by 62%. In 1942, the Ashton Works were requisitioned by the Government and taken over by "Briggs Motor Bodies Ltd" for the production of jerrycan
Jerrycan
A jerrycan is a robust fuel container originally made from pressed steel. It was designed in Germany in the 1930s for military use to hold 20 litres of fuel. The development of the Jerrycan was a huge improvement on earlier designs, which required tools and funnels to use.-Uses:Today similar...
s. Ten million were produced by the time of derequisition in 1946. The Cragie works closed for economic reasons at the end of 1954 when a study found that it was not viable to modernised equipment; production was subsequently moved to Ashton works. Commercial jute production in Dundee ceased in the 1970s, particularly after the cessation of jute control on April 30, 1969. Some manufacturers successfully diversified to produce synthetic fibres
Synthetic fiber
Synthetic fibers are the result of extensive research by scientists to improve on naturally occurring animal and plant fibers. In general, synthetic fibers are created by forcing, usually through extrusion, fiber forming materials through holes into the air, forming a thread...
and linoleum
Linoleum
Linoleum is a floor covering made from renewable materials such as solidified linseed oil , pine rosin, ground cork dust, wood flour, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a burlap or canvas backing; pigments are often added to the materials.The finest linoleum floors,...
for a short time. The last of the jute spinners closed in 1999. From a peak of over 130 mills, many have since been demolished, although around sixty have been redeveloped for residential or other commercial use.
An award-winning museum, based in the old Verdant Works
Verdant Works
Verdant Works is a former jute mill in the Blackness area of Dundee, Scotland. It was purchased in 1991 by the Dundee Heritage Trust. The Trust restored the buildings and opened them in 1996 as a museum dedicated to textile industry, an industry that once dominated the city's economy.-Historic...
, commemorates the city's manufacturing heritage and operates a small jute-processing facility. Archive Services at the University of Dundee
University of Dundee
The University of Dundee is a university based in the city and Royal burgh of Dundee on eastern coast of the central Lowlands of Scotland and with a small number of institutions elsewhere....
hold a wide range of collections relating to the textile industry in Dundee, including the records of many of the major jute works.
Jam
Dundee's association with jam stems from Janet Keiller's 1797 'invention' of marmaladeMarmalade
Marmalade is a fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits, boiled with sugar and water. The benchmark citrus fruit for marmalade production in Britain is the "Seville orange" from Spain, Citrus aurantium var...
. Mrs. Keiller allegedly devised the recipe in order to make use of a cargo-load of bitter Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
orange
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
s acquired from a Spanish ship by her husband. This account is most likely apocryphal, as recipes for marmalade have been found dating back to the 16th century, with the Keillers likely to have developed their marmalade by modifying an existing recipe for quince marmalade
Quince cheese
Quince cheese is a sweet, thick, quince jelly or quince candy.The recipe is probably of ancient origin; the Roman cookbook of Apicius, a collection of Roman cookery recipes compiled in the late 4th or early 5th century AD, gives recipes for stewing quince with honey.Historically marmalade was made...
. Nevertheless marmalade became a famed Dundee export after Alex Keiller, James' son, industrialised the production process during the 19th century.
The Keillers originally started selling their produce from a small sweet shop in the Seagate area of the city which specialised in selling locall y preserved fruit and jams. In 1845, Alex Keiller moved the business from the Seagate and into a new larger premises on Castle Street. Later, he also later bought premises in Guernsey
Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
to take advantage of the lack of sugar duties. The Guernsey premises accounted for a third of the firm's output but still carried the Dundee logo. The Guernsey plant was closed in 1879 due to lack of profitability and was moved to North Woolwich
Woolwich
Woolwich is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.Woolwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created...
where it was brought back under the control of the Dundee branch. Though iconic to the city, jam was never a major sector of the city's industry, employing approximately 300 people at its peak compared to the thousands who worked in the Jute industry at the same time. Today traditional marmalade production has become the preserve of larger businesses, but distinctive white jars of Keiller's marmalade
Keiller's marmalade
Keiller's marmalade, named after its creator Janet Keiller, is believed to have been the first commercial brand of marmalade, produced in Dundee, Scotland....
can still be bought. For many years, these were made by the Maling pottery
Maling pottery
Maling pottery was produced in the north east of England for just over two centuries. The name of the pottery derives from the French surname of Malin. The family were Protestant Huguenots who fled their native land in the sixteenth century to escape the threat of religious persecution...
of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
.
Journalism
Journalism in Dundee generally refers to the publishing company of D. C. Thomson & Co. LtdD. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd
D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd, is a publishing company based in Dundee, Scotland, best known for producing The Dundee Courier, The Evening Telegraph, The Sunday Post, Oor Wullie, The Broons, The Beano, The Dandy and Commando comics...
. Founded in 1905 by David Coupar Thomson
David Coupar Thomson
David Coupar Thomson was the proprietor of the newspaper and publishing company D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.-Early life:...
and still owned and managed by the Thomson family, the firm publishes a variety of newspapers, children's comics and magazines, including The Sunday Post
The Sunday Post
The Sunday Post is a weekly newspaper published in Dundee, Scotland by DC Thomson, and characterised by a 'folksy' mix of news, sentimental stories and short features...
, The Courier
The Courier
The Courier & Advertiser, more commonly known as simply The Courier, is a broadsheet newspaper published by DC Thomson in Dundee, Scotland...
, Shout and children's publications, The Beano
The Beano
The Beano is a British children's comic, published by D.C. Thomson & Co and is arguably their most successful.The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly. During the Second World War,The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink...
and The Dandy
The Dandy
The Dandy is a long running children's comic published in the United Kingdom by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. The first issue was printed in 1937 and it is the world's third longest running comic, after Detective Comics and Il Giornalino...
. Journalism is the only "J" still existing in the city and, with the company's headquarters on Albert Square and extensive premises at Kingsway East, D.C. Thomson remains one of the city's largest employers after local government and the health service
NHS Scotland
NHS Scotland is the publicly funded healthcare system of Scotland. Although they are separate bodies the organisational separation between NHS Scotland and the other three healthcare organisations each commonly called the National Health Service in the United Kingdom tends to be hidden from its...
, employing nearly 2000 people.
Maritime industry
As Dundee is located on a major estuary, it developed a maritime industry both as a whalingWhaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
port (since 1753) and in shipbuilding. In 1857, the whaling ship Tay was the first in the world to be fitted with steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
s. By 1872 Dundee had become the premier whaling port of the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
, partly due to the local jute industry's demand for whale oil for use in the processing of its cloth. Over 2,000 ships were built in the city between 1871 and 1881. The last whaling ship to be built at Dundee was the Terra Nova
Terra Nova (ship)
The Terra Nova was built in 1884 for the Dundee whaling and sealing fleet. She worked for 10 years in the annual seal fishery in the Labrador Sea, proving her worth for many years before she was called upon for expedition work.Terra Nova was ideally suited to the polar regions...
in 1884. The whaling industry ended around 1912.
In December 1883, a whale
Whale
Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
was caught in the Tay and was later publicly dissected by Professor John Struthers
John Struthers (anatomist)
Sir John Struthers, LRCSE, MD, LLD, FRCSE, FRSE was Professor of Anatomy at the University of Aberdeen....
of the University of Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
. The incident was popular with the public and extra rail journeys were organised to assist those from surrounding areas who wished to see the whale. The creature became known as the Tay Whale, and the event was also celebrated in a poem by William McGonagall.
The Dundee Perth and London Shipping Company (DPLC) ran steamships down the Tay from Perth
Perth, Scotland
Perth is a town and former city and royal burgh in central Scotland. Located on the banks of the River Tay, it is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire...
and on to Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The firm still exists, but is now a travel agency. However, shipbuilding
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
shrank with the closure of the five berths at the former Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company
Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company
The Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Limited was a British shipbuilding company based in Dundee on the east coast of Scotland.-History:...
in 1981, and came to an end altogether in 1987 when the Kestrel Marine yard was closed with the loss of 750 jobs.
, the ship taken to the Antarctic by Robert Falcon Scott
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...
and the last wooden three-masted ship to be built in the British Isles, was built in Dundee in 1901. It returned to Dundee in April 1986 and is moored next to a purpose-built visitors' centre. The oldest wooden British warship still afloat, the , is moored nearby, although it was not built in Dundee. Dundee was also the home port of the Antarctic Dundee whaling expedition
Dundee Whaling Expedition
The Dundee Whaling Expedition began on 6 September 1892, when a Dundee, Scotland whaling company, due to dwindling arctic whaling resources, decided to gamble and sent four steam-powered whaling ships, the Balaena, Active, Diana and Polar Star, to the Weddell Sea in search of Right Whales...
of 1892 which discovered Dundee Island
Dundee Island
Dundee Island is an ice-covered island lying east of the northeastern tip of Antarctic Peninsula and south of Joinville Island.On January 8, 1893, during the Dundee Whaling Expedition, the island was named by Captain Thomas Robertson of the Active and named for the home port, Dundee, Scotland,...
, named after the expedition's home port.
Harbour and Wharfs
A coastal city with a major maritime industry, Dundee's harbour has long been of importance. In 1770 the harbour was remodelled by John Smeaton, who introduced water tunnels to tackle the perennial problems caused by the vast quantities of siltSilt
Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...
washed down the Tay
Tay
-People:* Warren Tay, British ophthalmologist** Tay-Sachs disease, named after Warren Tay* Tay, nickname of the basketball player Tayshaun Prince* Tay Zonday, singer* Tay people, an ethnic group in Vietnam* Arturo Tay Mexican Filmmaker-Places:...
which formed sandbanks in the harbour, thus blocking it. In 1815 a Habour Act was passed which moved control of the harbour from the Town Council to a Board of Harbour Commissioners. Under their guidance the harbour was greatly expanded from the 1820s with the addition of King William IV Dock, Earl Grey Dock, Victoria Dock and Camperdown Dock. In 1844 a triumphal arch made of timber was erected at the enterance of the harbour to mark the arrival, by sea, of Queen Victoria on her way to her first holiday in Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area.The present day Aberdeenshire council area does not include the City of Aberdeen, now a separate council area, from which its name derives. Together, the modern council area and the city formed historic...
. In 1849 a competition was held to design a replacement permenant structure. The competition was won by a design submitted by James Thomas Rochead. The resulting Royal Arch quickly became one of Dundee's most iconic symbols. King William IV Dock and the Early Grey Dock were filled in in the 1960s during the construction of the Tay Road Bridge
Tay Road Bridge
The Tay Road Bridge is a bridge across the Firth of Tay from Newport-on-Tay in Fife to Dundee in Scotland. At around , it is one of the longest road bridges in Europe, and slopes gradually downward towards Dundee...
and its approach roads and the Royal Arch was demolished at the same time. The Arch is the subject of a famous photograph by the photojournalist Michael Peto
Michael Peto
Michael Peto was an internationally recognized Hungarian-British photojournalist of the twentieth century. Emigrating to London before World War II through business, in the postwar years he became one of a generation of Hungarian artists working abroad. During the war, he worked for the British...
.
Dundee still has several wharf
Wharf
A wharf or quay is a structure on the shore of a harbor where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers.Such a structure includes one or more berths , and may also include piers, warehouses, or other facilities necessary for handling the ships.A wharf commonly comprises a fixed...
s. The most prominent wharfs are King George V, Caledon West, Princess Alexandra, Eastern and Caledon East. The Victoria Dock was built in the 19th century to serve the loading of major imports of jute. Activity ceased in the 1960s and the wharf was out of service for forty years. It has since been redeveloped into a shopping wharf known as City Quay. The Quay has a 500 yard Millennium Bridge spanning its eastern quay which swings round to allow ships in. Camperdown docklands is also being redeveloped in a manner similar to Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf is a major business district located in London, United Kingdom. It is one of London's two main financial centres, alongside the traditional City of London, and contains many of the UK's tallest buildings, including the second-tallest , One Canada Square...
in London and is scheduled for completion in 2008. The last wharf to be built in Dundee was at Stannergate for the shipbuilders Kestrel Marine. It was formally opened by Charles, Prince of Wales
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
on July 17, 1979 and named after him.
The Tay Bridge Disaster
In 1878 a new railway bridge over the Tay
Tay Rail Bridge
The Tay Bridge is a railway bridge approximately two and a quarter miles long that spans the Firth of Tay in Scotland, between the city of Dundee and the suburb of Wormit in Fife ....
was opened, connecting the rail network at Dundee to Fife
Fife
Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. Its completion was commemorated in verse by William McGonagall. About two years after completion, the bridge collapsed under the weight of a full train of passengers during a fierce storm. All on board the train were lost and some bodies were never recovered. McGonagall's The Tay Bridge Disaster
The Tay Bridge Disaster
The Tay Bridge Disaster is a poem written in 1880 by the Scottish poet William McGonagall, who has been widely acclaimed as the worst poet in British history...
recounts the tragedy
Tragedy (event)
A tragedy is an event in which one or more losses, usually of human life, occurs that is viewed as mournful. Such an event is said to be tragic....
in verse. perhaps one of his best known poems. The public inquiry of the Tay Bridge disaster
Tay Bridge disaster
The Tay Bridge disaster occurred on 28 December 1879, when the first Tay Rail Bridge, which crossed the Firth of Tay between Dundee and Wormit in Scotland, collapsed during a violent storm while a train was passing over it. The bridge was designed by the noted railway engineer Sir Thomas Bouch,...
in 1880 found that the bridge had been
"badly designed, badly built and badly maintained"
and Sir Thomas Bouch
Thomas Bouch
Sir Thomas Bouch was a British railway engineer in Victorian Britain.He was born in Thursby, near Carlisle, Cumberland, England and lived in Edinburgh. He helped develop the caisson and the roll-on/roll-off train ferry. He worked initially for the North British Railway and helped design parts of...
was blamed for the catastrophe. He had under-designed the structure and used brittle cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
for critical components, especially the lugs which held tensioned tie bar
Tie bar
There have been many forms of tie-control devised since the 19th century, when ties first became a regular part of fashion. Clips, chains, pins have all been used to do one simple thing: to keep a tie from flapping, falling or otherwise presenting anything other than a neat appearance...
s in the towers. It was these lugs which fractured first and destabilised the towers in the high girders section. The bolt holes in the lugs were cast, and had a conical section, so all the load was concentrated at a sharp outer edge. Such conical bolt
Screw
A screw, or bolt, is a type of fastener characterized by a helical ridge, known as an external thread or just thread, wrapped around a cylinder. Some screw threads are designed to mate with a complementary thread, known as an internal thread, often in the form of a nut or an object that has the...
holes were used for critical horizontal strut
Strut
A strut is a structural component designed to resist longitudinal compression. Struts provide outwards-facing support in their lengthwise direction, which can be used to keep two other components separate, performing the opposite function of a tie...
lugs as well, and weakened the structure substantially. The towers of the high girder section were heavily loaded and were very top heavy, making then susceptible to toppling. The towers failed during the storm as the train was travelling over, and a chain reaction followed as each of the towers in the high girders section collapsed. In 1887 the bridge was replaced by William Henry Barlow
William Henry Barlow
On 28 December 1879, the central section of the North British Railway's bridge across the River Tay near Dundee collapsed in the Tay Bridge disaster as an express train crossed it in a heavy storm. All 75 passengers and crew on the train were killed...
with a much more substantial bridge, which was at that time the longest railway bridge in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, at just over 2 miles (3.2 km) long (Europe's longest bridge today is the Oresund Bridge
Oresund Bridge
The Øresund or Öresund Bridge is a combined twin-track railway and dual carriageway bridge-tunnel across the Øresund strait.The bridge connects Sweden and Denmark, and it is the longest road and rail bridge in Europe. The Øresund Bridge also connects two major Metropolitan Areas: those of the...
).
Trams
The first municipal public transport in Dundee was operated by "Dundee & District Tramways Co Ltd". From 1877, these were generally horse-drawn, but by June 1885 steam cars with green and white livery were introduced. Unusually, the tram lines were publicly built and owned, although initially leased by police commissionaires to private companies.All routes came under direct municipal control in 1893, which allowed the city to adopt overhead electric lines to power the trams. Between 1899 and 1902 the tramways were fully electrified. The first electric tram in Dundee started on July 12, 1900. The route ran from High Street to Ninewells in the West via Nethergate and Perth Road with a later route running to Dryburgh in the North. The peak of the tram network was in 1932, when 79 lines operated in the city. By 1951, many of the trams had not been updated. At least a third of the stock was over 50 years old. A study led by the Belfast transport consultant, Colonel R McCreary showed that the cost of trams compared with bus service was 26.700 and 21.204 pence per mile, respectively. He advocated abandoning the tramway system in 1952. In October 1956, the last trams were quietly taken out of service. On the evening of October 20, 1956 the last tram (#25) went to Maryfield Depot. Over 5,000 people witnessed the tram leaving the depot at 12:31 am to go to the Lochee
Lochee
Lochee is an area in the west of Dundee, Scotland. Until the 19th century, it was a separate town, but was eventually surrounded by the expanding Dundee...
depot. All remaining cars were reduced to scrap by burning.
Buses
The first trolleybusTrolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
es in Scotland were introduced along Clepington Road in Dundee during 1912-1914. However, motor buses
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
were gradually introduced from 1921 to supplement the tram system, and double-decker bus
Double-decker bus
A double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or 'decks'. Global usage of this type of bus is more common in outer touring than in its intra-urban transportion role. Double-decker buses are also commonly found in certain parts of Europe, Asia, and former British colonies and protectorates...
es appeared ten years later. Electric-powered operated by "Dundee Corporation Electricity Works" were still used in parts of the city until 1961. In 1975, Dundee Corporation Transport became part of the new Tayside
Tayside
Tayside Region was a local government region of Scotland from 15 May 1975 to 31 March 1996. It was created by the 1973 Act following recommendations made by the 1969 Wheatley Report which attempted to replace the mishmash of counties, cities, burghs and districts, with a uniform two-tier system...
Regional Council. Tayside adopted a new dark blue, white and light blue livery for its buses, replacing the former dark green. The Volvo Ailsa double deck bus became standard in the Tayside fleet during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1986, following bus deregulation, Tayside Buses was formed as a separate company. It was later privatised and bought out by the National Express
National Express
National Express Coaches, more commonly known as National Express, is a brand and company, owned by the National Express Group, under which the majority of long distance bus and coach services in Great Britain are operated,...
Group and now trades as National Express Dundee.
Dundee (and the surrounding countryside) was also served by buses of Walter Alexander
Walter Alexander Coachbuilders
Walter Alexander Coachbuilders was a Scottish bus coachbuilder and operater based in Falkirk.-History:Walter Alexander, notice a lack expasion by the Falkirk and District Tramways Company's especially in to Grangemouth which never hdd a tram line. In 1913 Alexander's Motor Service was created to...
(part of the state-owned Scottish Transport Group), which was rebranded as Northern Scottish
Northern Scottish
Northern Scottish Omnibuses Ltd, in Scotland, was a bus operating subsidiary of the Scottish Transport Group formed in June 1985 from Walter Alexander & Sons Ltd and operated until 1992, when it became Bluebird Buses Ltd...
in the early 1960s. In the 1980s the Tayside operation of Northern Scottish became a separate company, Strathtay Scottish
Strathtay Scottish
Stagecoach Strathtay is a Scottish bus operating company which covers the Dundee and Angus areas, and parts of Grampian. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, which bought Strathtay Scottish Omnibuses Ltd from Traction Group in 2005...
. The company was privatised in the late 1980s.
Rail
Rail transport in Dundee began with the Dundee and Newtyle RailwayDundee and Newtyle Railway
The Dundee and Newtyle Railway opened in 1831 and was the first railway in the north of Scotland. It was built to carry goods from Strathmore to the port of Dundee and was chartered with an Act of Parliament that received royal assent in 26 May 1826 and opened in 1831. The railway originally ran...
Company which was formed in 1826 and was the first railway to be built in the North of Scotland. The railway linking Dundee with Newtyle
Newtyle
Newtyle is a village in the west of Angus, Scotland.It lies 11 miles to the north of Dundee in the south west of Strathmore, between Hatton Hill and Newtyle in the Sidlaws. The village sits on gently sloping ground with a northwest aspect. The main communication link is the B954 road...
opened in 1832 and was eventually part of the Caledonian Railway
Caledonian Railway
The Caledonian Railway was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century and it was absorbed almost a century later into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, in the 1923 railway grouping, by means of the Railways Act 1921...
.
Dundee formerly had commuter train services linking Dundee (Tay Bridge) station
Dundee railway station
Dundee railway station serves the city of Dundee on the east coast of Scotland. The station has two through platforms and two terminal platforms...
with Wormit
Wormit
Wormit is a small town located on the banks of the Firth of Tay in north east Fife, Scotland. It is most famous for its location at the southern end of the Tay Rail Bridge. Its railway station was on a closed branch line which left the main line railway immediately at the south end of the Bridge...
and Newport-on-Tay
Newport-on-Tay East railway station
Newport-on-Tay East railway station formerly served the town of Newport-on-Tay, Fife, Scotland. The station closed in 1969.- Tayport branch :...
. These ceased following the opening of the Tay Road Bridge
Tay Road Bridge
The Tay Road Bridge is a bridge across the Firth of Tay from Newport-on-Tay in Fife to Dundee in Scotland. At around , it is one of the longest road bridges in Europe, and slopes gradually downward towards Dundee...
. Other commuter train services to Invergowrie
Invergowrie railway station
Invergowrie railway station is an unstaffed halt which serves the village of Invergowrie west of the city of Dundee, Scotland on the north bank of the Firth of Tay.-See also:...
, Balmossie
Balmossie railway station
Balmossie railway station is a railway station in Dundee, Scotland which serves the east of Broughty Ferry. The station was originally opened on 18 June 1962 as Balmossie Halt by British Rail Scottish Region and renamed as Balmossie on 16 May 1983....
, Broughty Ferry
Broughty Ferry railway station
Broughty Ferry railway station serves the suburb of Broughty Ferry in Dundee, Scotland. The station was opened on 6 October 1838 on the Dundee and Arbroath Railway...
and Monifieth
Monifieth railway station
Monifieth railway station serves the town of Monifieth near Dundee, Scotland. The station was opened on 6 October 1838 on the Dundee and Arbroath Railway...
have been substantially reduced since the 1980s. Dundee East and Dundee West stations both closed in the 1960s, with all traffic being diverted to Tay Bridge station (now simply known as Dundee station).
Tay Ferry
A passenger and vehicle ferry service across the River Tay operated from Craigie Pier, Dundee, to Newport-on-TayNewport-on-Tay
Newport-on-Tay is a small town in the north east of Fife in Scotland, acting as a commuter suburb for Dundee. The Fife Coastal Path passes through Newport.-History:...
. Popularly known in Dundee as "the Fifie", the service was withdrawn in August 1966, being replaced by the newly-opened Tay Road Bridge
Tay Road Bridge
The Tay Road Bridge is a bridge across the Firth of Tay from Newport-on-Tay in Fife to Dundee in Scotland. At around , it is one of the longest road bridges in Europe, and slopes gradually downward towards Dundee...
.
Three vessels latterly operated the service - the Paddle Steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
B. L. Nairn (of 1929) and the two more modern ferries Abercraig and Scotscraig, which were both equipped with Voith Schneider Propellers.
Coat of arms
The city’s coat of armsCoat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
is a pot of 3 silver lilies on a blue shield supported by two green dragons. Above the shield is a single lily and above that a scroll with the motto Dei Donum, gift of God.
The blue colour of the shield is said to represent the cloak of the Virgin Mary while the silver (white) lilies are also closely associated with her. There is an early carving in the city’s Old Steeple, showing a similar coat of arms with Mary, protecting her child with a shield from dragons. Following an Act of Parliament passed in 1672, Dundee’s ‘new’ coat of arms was matriculated in the office of the Lord Lyon King of Arms
Lord Lyon King of Arms
The Lord Lyon King of Arms, the head of Lyon Court, is the most junior of the Great Officers of State in Scotland and is the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry in that country, issuing new grants of arms, and serving as the judge of the Court of the Lord Lyon, the oldest...
on 30 July 1673. However by this time Scotland had become a Presbyterian
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
nation, and any such idolatry of the Virgin Mary would have been frowned upon, leading to the more subtle symbolism that appears today. There are different theories as to why Dragons came to be used as supporters. One is that on the earlier arms they represent the violent sea that the Virgin Mary protected David from. Another is that they relate to the local legend of the Strathmartine Dragon.
Over the years small changes crept in until in 1932 the City Council decided to ask the Lord Lyon King of Arms about the correct form. Amongst other differences he pointed out that the dragons on the coat of arms were actually wyverns. (Although closely related wyverns have only two legs while dragons have four.) The coat of arms above the Eastern Cemetery
Eastern Cemetery
The Eastern Cemetery is an historic cemetery at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Congress Street in the East Bayside neighborhood of Portland, Maine. Located at the base of Munjoy Hill, the Eastern Cemetery is the oldest major cemetery in Portland. Established in 1668, with the earliest...
gateway shows wyverns instead of dragons and three lilies above the shield instead of one. It was decided to go back to the original form with dragon supporters and one lily and to add a second motto ‘Prudentia et Candore’ – Wisdom and Truth.
The coat of arms was slightly modified in 1975 when the City of Dundee District Council was created under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973
The Local Government Act 1973 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, that reformed local government in Scotland, on May 16, 1975....
. A coronet, with thistle heads, was incorporated; this emblem being common to the coats of arms of all Scottish district councils. A further modification took place in 1996, when the District Council was replaced by the current Dundee City Council; the design of the coronet was revised to the present format.
Winston Churchill
Between 1908 and 1922, one of the city's MP was Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, at that time a member of the (Coalition) Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
. He had won the seat at a by-election on May 8, 1908 and was initially popular, especially as he was the President of the Board of Trade and, later, senior Cabinet minister. However, his frequent absence from Dundee on cabinet business, combined with the local bitterness and disillusionment that was caused by the Great War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
strained this relationship. In the build up to the 1922 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1922
The United Kingdom general election of 1922 was held on 15 November 1922. It was the first election held after most of the Irish counties left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by Andrew Bonar Law's Conservatives, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by John...
, even the local newspapers contained vitriolic rhetoric with regards to his political status in the city. At a one meeting he was only able to speak for 40 minutes when he was barracked by a section of the audience. Prevented from campaigning in the final days of his reelection campaign by appendicitis
Appendicitis
Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...
, his wife Clementine was even spat on for wearing pearls. Churchill was ousted by the Scottish Prohibitionist
Scottish Prohibition Party
The Scottish Prohibition Party was a minor Scottish political party which advocated alcohol prohibition.The party was founded in 1901. In its early years, Bob Stewart acted as the party's full-time organiser...
Edwin Scrymgeour
Edwin Scrymgeour
Edwin Scrymgeour , was a Member of Parliament for Dundee, Scotland. He is the only person ever elected to the House of Commons on a prohibitionist ticket as the candidate of the Scottish Prohibition Party....
- Scrymgeour's sixth election attempt - and indeed came only fourth in the poll. Churchill would later write that he left Dundee "short of an appendix, seat and party". In 1943 he was offered Freedom of the City
Freedom of the City
Freedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Rhodesia to esteemed members of its community and to organisations to be honoured, often for service to the community;...
— by 16 votes to 15 — but refused to accept. On being asked by the Council to expand on his reasons, he simply wrote: "I have nothing to add to the reply which has already been sent".
Notable Dundonians
- Hector BoeceHector BoeceHector Boece , known in Latin as Hector Boecius or Boethius, was a Scottish philosopher and first Principal of King's College in Aberdeen, a predecessor of the University of Aberdeen.-Biography:He was born in Dundee where he attended school...
- Scottish philosopher - James Key CairdJames Key CairdSir James Key Caird, 1st Baronet was a Scottish jute baron and mathematician. He was one of the city's most successful entrepreneurs, who used the latest technology in his Ashton and Craigie Mills. James Caird was born in Dundee, and was the son of Edward Caird who had founded the firm of Caird ...
- JuteJuteJute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from plants in the genus Corchorus, which has been classified in the family Tiliaceae, or more recently in Malvaceae....
baron and philanthropistPhilanthropistA philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes... - Brian Cox - Actor
- William Alexander Craigie – philologistPhilologyPhilology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
and lexicographer - John Dair - TV Actor
- Thomas DickThomas DickReverend Thomas Dick , was a Scottish church minister, science teacher and writer, known for his works on astronomy and practical philosophy, combining science and Christianity, and defusing the tension between the two.-Early life:Thomas was brought up in the strict tenets of the presbyterian...
- Scottish writer - James Alfred EwingJames Alfred EwingSir James Alfred Ewing KCB FRS FRSE MInstitCE was a Scottish physicist and engineer, best known for his work on the magnetic properties of metals and, in particular, for his discovery of, and coinage of the word, hysteresis.It was said of Ewing that he was 'Careful at all times of his appearance,...
- physicistPhysicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
and engineerEngineerAn engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,... - Margaret FairlieMargaret FairlieMargaret Fairlie was a Scottish academic and gynaecologist. Fairlie spent most of her career working at Dundee Royal Infirmary and teaching at the medical school at University College, Dundee...
- gynaecologist; First woman to hold professorial chair in Scotland - Thomas James HendersonThomas James HendersonThomas James Alan Henderson was a Scottish astronomer noted for being the first person to measure the distance to Alpha Centauri, the major component of the nearest stellar system to Earth, and for being the first Astronomer Royal for Scotland.-Early life:Born in Dundee, Scotland, he was educated...
- astronomerAstronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using... - Florence HorsbrughFlorence Horsbrugh, Baroness HorsbrughFlorence Gertrude Horsbrugh, Baroness Horsbrugh, GBE, PC was a Scottish Unionist Party and Conservative Party politician....
- Dundee's only female and ConservativeConservative Party (UK)The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
M.P. and later the first female ConservativeConservative Party (UK)The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Cabinet MinisterMinister (government)A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet.... - James IvoryJames Ivory (mathematician)Sir James Ivory was a Scottish mathematician.Ivory was born in Dundee and attended Dundee Grammar School. In 1779 he entered the University of St Andrews, distinguishing himself especially in mathematics...
- mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change.... - Joseph LeeJoseph Lee (poet)Joseph Johnston Lee was a Scottish journalist, artist and poet, who chronicled life in the trenches and as a prisoner of war during World War I. He is also remembered for his fight with then poet laureate Robert Bridges over the literary value of Robert Burns' work...
- PoetPoetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, artistArtistAn artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and journalistJournalistA journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A... - William McGonagall - Poet
- William Lyon MackenzieWilliam Lyon MackenzieWilliam Lyon Mackenzie was a Scottish born American and Canadian journalist, politician, and rebellion leader. He served as the first mayor of Toronto, Upper Canada and was an important leader during the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion.-Background and early years in Scotland, 1795–1820:Mackenzie was...
- first Mayor of Toronto - Edwin ScrymgeourEdwin ScrymgeourEdwin Scrymgeour , was a Member of Parliament for Dundee, Scotland. He is the only person ever elected to the House of Commons on a prohibitionist ticket as the candidate of the Scottish Prohibition Party....
- Britain's first (and only) ProhibitionistScottish Prohibition PartyThe Scottish Prohibition Party was a minor Scottish political party which advocated alcohol prohibition.The party was founded in 1901. In its early years, Bob Stewart acted as the party's full-time organiser...
M.P. - David Stewart Littlejohn - solicitorSolicitorSolicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
- Bob Stewart - CominternCominternThe Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
agent - Robert Stirling NewallRobert Stirling NewallRobert Stirling Newall FRS was a Scottish engineer and astronomer.Born in Dundee, he was befriended by civil engineer L.D.B. Gordon. In 1838, whilst studying at the Freiburg School of Mines, Germany, Gordon visited the mines at Clausthal, and met Wilhelm Albert...
- engineerEngineerAn engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
and astronomerAstronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using... - Alexander WilkieAlexander WilkieAlexander Wilkie was a Labour Party politician in Scotland, best known for his service as a Member of Parliament for Dundee. Along with the Dundonian George Nicoll Barnes Wilkie was one of the first two Labour Members elected in Scotland.-Biography:Alexander Wilkie was born in Fife in 1850 and...
- Scotland's first LabourLabour Party (UK)The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
M.P. - Gordon WilsonGordon Wilson (Scottish politician)Gordon Wilson is a former leader of the Scottish National Party and current leading figure in the campaign to ban same-sex marriage in Scotland...
- former leader of the Scottish National PartyScottish National PartyThe Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
and M.P. for Dundee EastDundee East (UK Parliament constituency)-Elections in the 2000s:-Elections in the 1990s:-Elections in the 1980s:-Elections in the 1970s:-Elections in the 1950s:...
1974-1987 - Fanny WrightFrances WrightFrances Wright also widely known as Fanny Wright, was a Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, abolitionist, and social reformer, who became a U. S. citizen in 1825...
- leading US feminist
Innovation
- James Bowman LindsayJames Bowman LindsayJames Bowman Lindsay was a Scottish inventor and author. He is credited with early developments in several fields, such as incandescent lighting and telegraphy.- Life and work :...
demonstrated his invention of a prototype electric light bulbIncandescent light bulbThe incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe makes light by heating a metal filament wire to a high temperature until it glows. The hot filament is protected from air by a glass bulb that is filled with inert gas or evacuated. In a halogen lamp, a chemical process...
at a public meeting in 1835. - The adhesive postage stampPostage stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
was invented in Dundee by James Chalmers. His tombstone in the city's Howff burial ground reads: "Originator of the adhesive postage stamp which saved the Uniform Penny Post scheme of 1840 from collapse rendering it an unqualified success and which has since been adopted throughout the postal systems of the world."