The next Antiquaries talk, on 3rd November, will be entitled ‘Tom Johnston in Kirkintilloch'. Don Martin, the Society's Secretary, will describe Tom Johnston’s remarkable spell on Kirkintilloch Town Council during the period 1913-1922, when at his suggestion the Council introduced an impressive range of new services, including municipal pictures (cinema), municipal kitchen, municipal restaurant, municipal shower baths, municipal bank, municipal farming, municipal piggery and a municipal goat-herd. Some of these were approved unanimously by the Council, but it is fair to state that some had a somewhat chequered history. Don will show how lessons learned by Johnston in Kirkintilloch during World War I were put to good use when he later served as Secretary of State for Scotland, during Wold War II.
