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The thread about the vanished district of Society; battlefield of the 1908 Rectorial War

I started the morning with a little animated “Now and Then” image transition of an image in the National Galleries Scotland collection. So where are we this morning?

“Now and Then” animated image transition

We are on the Edinburgh street that was then called Lindsay Place, a southward extension of George IV Bridge in the neighbourhood of Society. Not heard that one before? Well it’s an extinct placename now, but at one time Society referred to the Fellowship and Society of Ale and Beer Brewers of the Burgh who were chartered in 1598 to have the supply monopoly for “good and sufficient ale” for the burgh. They were granted land on this site to do just that. Although The Society didn’t last particularly long, the placename did and we can see it below on an 1893 Town Plan of the city as a district name. If you move the slider you can compare the neighbourhood in 1893 with 1765. The major changes over that time is the new roads of Chambers Street running in from the right, the George IV bridge and Forrest Road running north-south and the demolition of much of the old City Walls here, which are the darker line in the 1765 map entering on the right, before turning downwards along the street marked Bristow (sic) Port.

Comparison of Edgar’s 1765 and OS 1893 Town Plans of Edinburgh. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

Water was supplied to The Society from the Boroughloch (or South Loch, now drained and landscaped as the Meadows park) from where it was pumped by a windmill to a water cistern at Society. The presence of the windmill is still marked by the names of a number of rather unremarkable-looking lanes opposite the Appleton Tower and we can see the water cistern in the below 1649 birds eye map of the city. Although The Society only lasted about 20 years (in which time they significantly lowered the level of the loch through abstraction), brewing carried on in this neighbourhood until the late 1960s.

The neighbourhood of Society in 1649, from Gordon of Rothiemay’s birds eye map of the city. The gate is the Bristo Port into the city and we can see the walls running in from the right. The large rectangular structure in the courtyard is the water cistern. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

We can see what some of the older buildings of the area looked like in the below 1856 photograph.

“The Old Buildings of The Society”, 1856 photograph by Thomas Keith. © Edinburgh City Libraries

The copper kettles of the Society were melted down in 1639 to be cast into artillery for the Covenanter Army during The Bishop’s War. The Scots at this time favoured curious, lightweight, copper cannons reinforced with outer layers of iron hoops, rope and leather. These were mounted on wheel-less frames and were inspired by their Swedish practice in the Thirty Years War in which many Scottish soldiers fought. It was found that these designs were suited to the local conditions where there were few roads passable by a gun carriage outside of the towns.

The streetline of Lindsay Place was built up in the 1840s after the formation of George IV Bridge but before the wide Victorian boulevard of Chambers Street was driven through the Georgian Brown and Argyle Squares from the direction of the Old College of the University. Stuart Harris suggests that the street was named for Thomas Lindsay, a shoemaker resident at the site.

1849 OS Town Plan of Edinburgh. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

By 1893, the Town Plan records that the Analytical Laboratory & School of Medicin was” on the site, handily located for the University medical school which had moved just down the road to Teviot Place in 1888. If we zoom right in on our photo from the National Gallery, we can see a sign corresponding to this:

EDINBURGH. SCHOOL of MEDICINE. CHEMICAL LABORATORY

The Post Office directory also records it as the Headquarters of the Scottish General Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps., R.A.M.C T.F. That abbreviation stands for the Royal Army Medical Corps Territorial Force, i.e. a military reserve medical force. Again we can see this sign in the photograph:

EDINBURGH. GENERAL HOSPITAL. RAMCTF. HEADQUARTERS

The photo has all the usual fascinating details of an Edinburgh gone by. And as usual, the obligatory Paw Broon characters in bunnets make an appearance. The pair are exchanging news and gossip outside the weel kent Edinburgh institution that was James Thin’s bookshop.

JAMES THIN BOOKSELLER

Lawrie’s Tobacco Store on the street has a stocktaking sale on. Tobacco and its advertising always seem to be super prominent in old photos of Edinburgh neighbourhoods, a consumer luxury that nearly all could afford.

Lawrie’s TOBACCO STORE

Next door at David Allan’s shop you can buy all the latest branded foodstuffs like Van Houten’s Cocoa, HP Sauce, Bovril and Splendo Margarine. Alongside tobacco, tea and chocolate usually occupy top spots for advertisements in these old photos. Again, little luxuries that could be bought for a few pence to take the edge off the fairly tough and frequently grinding living conditions in the city.

GROCER. DAVID ALLAN. PROVISIONS

At No. 7 is Donald Mackay’s Territorial Bar, one assumes taking its name from the military establishment above and the Queen’s Edinburgh Rifles volunteer drill hall over the road on Forrest Hill.

WINES. DONALD MACKAY. SPIRITS

The skyline is dominated by the usual ramshackle 17th and 18th century tenement rooflines and their arrays of chimneys of the Old Town. I’m not sure that the external chimney extension would be passed by a HETAS certified installer these days!

Quite the lum!

But that’s not what caught my eye about this photo or why I thought about sharing it in more depth. This photo has something far more intriguing – and rare – lurking in it, whether by design or by happy accident. Anyway, let’s zoom in a bit. Can you see what it is yet?

Can you see what it is yet?

How about now if we up the contrast?

How about now?

And what if we get the crayons out and highlight it a bit? Yes, that’s right, someone’s been up there on that parapet and daubed the building in rather cryptic graffiti!

OSL. VOTES FOR WOMAN.

I assume the perpetrators were wither cut off midway through the word “Suffrage” or ran out of paint.

VOTE FOR SUFF…

Let’s keep looking! It appears like like it was “Down with something”, and perhaps the word “Movement” above OSL FOREVER?

DOWN. OSLER FOR EV…

And all the way to the end, it’s definitely OSL(ER) FOR EVER!

OSL FOR EVER

You can take my word for it when I say that I’ve looked hard at lots and lots of photos of Edinburgh from this period, and this is the first time I’ve seen anything like this. Chalked graffiti, yes, but only a name or lovers’ initials here and there scratched into a doorway. Nothing on this scale, nothing this apparently political and nothing on a government building too. Although this photograph is part of a series in the neighbourhood, I do wonder if the graffiti was a particular attraction to the photographer?

Looking back, I now think what we’ve got is at least 2 layers of graffiti that may have been partially washed off and/or painted on top of each other .

OSL. VOTES FOR WOM. VOTE FOR OSL. VOTES FOR WOMAN

Don’t just take my word for these interpretations, you can zoom right in on the image on the National Galleries website here and look for yourself. What is more remarkable about this grafitti, and the paint that it was daubed in, is that it was still clearly legible 40 years later!

Lindsay Place, 1952. From The Scotsman Publications Limited, provided by Scran

And looking the other way, Capital Collections also has a picture and again we can see the graffiti, this time as late as 1958.

Lindsay Place, 1958. © Edinburgh City Libraries

I assumed that OSL might have been some sort of suffragette organisation until it became obvious it was the first three letters of OSLER. So I asked around and was quickly pointed me in the right direction OSLER was Sir William Osler, and the WO of WOMEN was actually his initials – W. O. – which somebody had altered. William Osler was a Canadian doctor, he created the first residency program for speciality training, was the first to bring medical students to the bedside for clinical training. He has been described as the Father of Modern Medicine and one of the greatest diagnosticians ever to wield a stethoscope“. Osler also just happened to be a rectorial candidate for the University shortly before this photograph was taken in 1908, having been invited to run by the medical students.

Osler campaign ephemera, from a presentation by the 33rd Annual Meeting of the American Osler Society, Edinburgh, 2003

You see it turns out that Lindsay Place was the HQ for the Conservative1 rectorial candidate that year, the Rt. Hon. George Wyndham. Osler stood against him an independent and on the subject of allowing women into the university was “not in favour of mixed classes… under existing conditions“. A rectorial war between the different candidates’ supporters followed, common enough high jinks for the time, but particularly hard fought on this occasion. Osler supporters ransacked the HQ of the Liberal Candidate (some guy named Winston Churchill, maybe you’ve heard of him) but they were unable to breach the defences of the Conservative HQ and the police resorted to protecting it. And so some brave Oslerites resorted to daubing graffiti all over the outside instead; what we were actually reading was “Down with Wyndham. Osler forever“.

At this time, the ancient Scottish universities had a number of parliamentary constituencies and elected two MPs, one from the pair of Edinburgh and St. Andrews and another from Glasgow and Aberdeen. For this reason, rectorial candidates were politically aligned. ↩︎

On the night of Saturday 10th October, the Liberals decided to attack the Wyndamists too. After a fundraising concert on Princes Street, a 100 strong contingent bearing torches marched to Lindsay Place, intent on pelting the building with paint powder “and other missiles” (which included rotten tomatoes). But it was a ruse, as here they met the Wyndhamists and the two forces momentarily put their differences aside and quickly moved to Drummond Street Court to jointly attacked instead the Oslerite HQ. This was in revenge for the graffiti and the ransacking of the Liberal HQ. The police were summoned but stood back, content to let the students fight it out and just keep the general public out of it. The Oslerites HQ was in the loft of a paper store, and the bales of paper were used as a makeshift wall to barricade themselves in. From the loft windows they rained down soot and water on their attackers, who somehow procured a telephone pole to use as a battering ram. The wooden doors of the building were breached, but the paper walls held firm. The fighting petered out after midnight after it became clear that the leader of the Oslertite defence had been injured by the battering ram.

On voting day, Saturday 24th October, in the Old College quadrangle the university authorities took the sensible precaution of boarding up the windows, colonnades and the central fountain. Sensible because a predictable pitched battle ensued in the quadrangle between the three rival campaigns:

…the battle of paint and soot raged most fiercely. The Liberal citadel was first of all attacked by the Oslerites, but very soon the non-political candidate’s supporters had their flag torn from its stick, while even the stick itself was eventually captured. The Wyndham contingent, with their blue flag, were last to arrive at the quadrangle. With a chorus of cheers, they formed up for a grand assault on the Liberal stronghold. The Oslerites, however, intercepted them on the way, and an extraordinary scramble ensued.
Powder, paint and soot were flung about in clouds and the marvel was that any man escaped with his sight. As may be imagined, the figures presented a most grotesque spectacle… Eventually the Wyndham and Osler parties seemed to join forces in an attempt to drive the Churchill men from their stronghold. Even then, however, the Liberals continued steadfast and the battle was raged with undiminished fury.
Edinburgh Evening News, Saturday 24th October 1908

The Oslerites were confident of victory but their man was trumped by Wyndham the Conservative, with that Winston Churchill fellow coming in second and Osler trailing in third. By that evening, all the differences had been set aside and a good natured fancy-dress pageant and torchlight parade took place from the Old College quadrangle to the Castle Esplanade.

Now understanding the sequence of events which took place, my final analysis of the layers of graffiti we can see is thus:

The Conservative HQ was daubed with pro-Osler, anti-Wyndham graffiti (Vote for Osler; Down with WO; Osler Forever)
An attempt was made to washed it off, but despite the best efforts it was still clearly legible.
To remedy this, some bright spark in the Conservative campaign takes a paintbrush themselves and alters the lettering to challenge William Osler (WO) for not being sufficiently vociferous in his anti-coeducation statement, enough by inserting a few extra letters. (Vote for Osler, Votes for Wom[e]n; Osler Votes for Suffrage)
It is probable that this attack and counter-response happens at least twice, which explains the overlapping of the words.

They certainly made long-lasting paint back in 1908 given it survived the next 50 years in the wet and windy elements and relentless air pollution of Auld Reekie.

If you have found this useful, informative or amusing and would like to help contribute towards the running costs of this site (including keeping it ad-free) or to the book-buying budget, why not consider supporting me on ko-fi.

#NowAndThen #Bristo #Edinburgh #October10 #October24 #Society #University

Osler campaign ephemera, from a presentation by the 33rd Annual Meeting of the American Osler Society, Edinburgh, 2003

The neighbourhood of Society in 1649, from Gordon of Rothiemay's birds eye map of the city. The gate is the Bristo Port into the city and we can see the walls running in from the right. The large rectangular structure in the courtyard is the water cistern. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

"The Old Buildings of The Society", 1856 photograph by Thomas Keith. © Edinburgh City Libraries

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PURPENDICULAR, Feat. IAN PAICE Of DEEP PURPLE, Set Release Date For New METALVILLE Album

https://bravewords.com/news/purpendicular-feat-ian-paice-of-deep-purple-set-release-date-for-new-metalville-album/

#Purpendicular #IanPaice #DeepPurple #Metalville #AlbumRelease #October10 #ClassicRock #News #StudioAlbum #InternationalRelease

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Sanguisugabogg Announce New Album ‘Hideous Aftermath’, “Abhorrent Contraception” Out Now
It's coming out on October 10. Sanguisugabogg Announce New Album ‘Hideous Aftermath’, “Abhorrent Contraception” Out Now .

https://www.metalsucks.net/2025/06/27/sanguisugabogg-announce-new-album-hideous-aftermath-abhorrent-contraception-out-now/

#Sanguisugabogg #HideousAftermath #AbhorrentContraception #CenturyMedia #DeathMetal #Ohio #Keenan #October10

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JOHN 5 Shares “Fiend” Guitar Playthrough Video

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#John5 #Fiend #GuitarPlaythrough #GhostAlbum #BarryPointer #HardRock #MusicNews #Video #October10

#auroraborealis #october10 #2024 #visibleallaroundeurope
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#northernlights, #october10, #dancinglights, #auroraborealis, #saskatchewan, #saskatoon

The aurora and the moon setting, 22:37 PDT.

It was really flashing for a while, like a spotlight being thrashed around on the sky. Quite impressive to just watch it dancing around.

#aurora #AuroraBorealis #NorthernLights #MoonSet #moon #FirstQuarter #October10 #pnw #RawTherapee #LumixG7 #MastodonOnly #CCBYNCND

A vertical photo of the moon low on the SouthWest horizon diffused by light clouds and the upper sky red and green from aurora. Outlines of hills and mountains and stars visible.

The sun setting, October 10, 2024. I didn't even notice when I took it that the contrails crossed right where the sun was.

#sunset #pnw #reflections #October10 #MastodonOnly #CCBYNCND

The sun setting behind the low point on the horizon between the mountain and hills reflecting off the water. There are two aircraft contrails crossing at low angles where the sun is. There are scattered high thin clouds in a generally faded blue sky. The hills and mountain and trees and shoreline are dark.

Another @ 19:55 PDT.

#aurora #AuroraBorealis #NorthernLights #October10 #RawTherapee #LumixG7 #MastodonOnly #CCBYNCND

A photo of the northern sky from +48 -120 region. It is red colored in the lower view from the Aurora Borealis. Parts of the Big Dipper, or Plough, are visible as part of the constellation Ursa Major. There are trees lit up from excessively bright lights in the neighborhood showing their green color with a 13 second exposure. Camera is a Lumix G7 with adapted 24mm manual Nikkor F2.8 lens.

Just some red showing. This was the brightest area and looking north @ 19:49 PDT / 02:49 UTC.

#aurora #AuroraBorealis #NorthernLights #October10 #RawTherapee #LumixG7 #MastodonOnly #CCBYNCND

The northern lights from the +48 -120 region of the rock. It's mostly red, not really any streaks, just a glow in an area low in the sky. Trees are silhouetted.

October 10

This day in history:

1918 – RMS Leinster is torpedoed and sunk by UB-123, killing 564, the largest loss of life on the Irish Sea.
1997 – Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 2553 crashes and explodes in Uruguay, killing 74.
1954 – The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Muscat, Neil Innes, sends a signal to the Sultanate's forces, accompanied with oil explorers, to penetrate Fahud, marking the beginning of Jebel Akhdar War.
19 – The Roman general Germanicus dies near Antioch. He was convinced that the mysterious illness that ended in his death was a result of poisoning by the Syrian governor Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, whom he had ordered to leave the province.

Births:

1983 – Nikos Spyropoulos, Greek footballer
1988 – Brown Ideye, Nigerian footballer
1885 – Walter Anderson, Belarusian-German ethnologist and academic (d. 1962)

Deaths:

1691 – Isaac de Benserade, French author and poet (b. 1613)
1974 – Joseph Wulf, German-Polish historian (b. 1912)
1976 – Silvana Armenulić, Bosnian singer and actress (b. 1939)

Holidays:

World Porridge Day
Finnish Literature Day (Finland)
Double Ten Day (The National Day of Republic of China), celebrates outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising in 1911 that led to founding of the Republic of China in 1912

Random Article of the day:

Alur, Bellary