“Farm servants of South East Scotland between 1750 and 1914”
2026-02-21 14:30 - 17:00 (Europe/London) | East Lothian
David McLean will give a talk on the farm servants of South East Scotland between 1750 and 1914. This will describe the lives of thousands of farm servants and bondagers who worked on the improved farms of Berwickshire, Roxburghshire and East Lothian through the years of the great agricultural revolution.

The Society is delighted to present this talk by David McLean at 2.30 PM, Saturday, 21st February, 2026.

Please note that the venue will be at Holy Trinity Church, Church Street, Haddington, EH41 3EX

David McLean

After graduating in history at Edinburgh University, our speaker began a professional career in education which eventually spanned 38 years, teaching history and modern studies. Posts included principal teacher of History at Berwickshire High School and depute headteacher at Earlston High School. After retirement in 2010, he found more time for deeper historical research into both Scottish and American history which has led on to giving a variety of talks to various clubs and societies across the Borders. In more recent years, he has added a new project: researching the stories of the old Duns houses and the families who lived in them, work which has not been done before.

Talk summary

The talk will look at the lives of those thousands of farm-servants and bondagers who worked on the improved farms of Berwickshire, Roxburghshire and East Lothian through the years of the great agricultural revolution. It will explain the rural hierarchy from ploughmen downwards, the main tasks of the farming year, how farm-servants were paid, their living conditions and relationships with employers. Attempts to promote trade unionism in the countryside will be explored before reaching the watershed of the Great War.

Members can expect a moving historical journey into past agricultural times.

For any enquiries contact: info@eastlothianantiquarians.org.uk

Non members welcome with a modest cash donation appreciated

Church parking is limited to Blue Badge holders plus otherwise mobility compromised

Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation No: SC052295

Lord Kelvin Talk Postponed to a later date
2026-03-21 14:30 - 17:00 | Holy Trinity Church, Haddington, 6A Church Street, Haddington EH41 3EX ·
The Society is delighted to present this talk by Professor Javier Martin-Torres at 2.30 PM, Saturday, 21st March, 2026.

Please note that the venue will be at Holy Trinity Church, Church Street, Haddington, EH41 3EX

Professor Javier Martin-Torres, Chair Professor of Planetary Sciences and Astrobiology, Northumbria University

Professor Martín-Torres is a NASA award-winning theoretical physicist with interdisciplinary research interests, including astrobiology, planetary sciences, the emergence of life, as well as space and weather hardware development. He has 25 years of experience working on space missions. He is the Principal Investigator of the HABIT instrument to produce liquid water on Mars and co-Investigator of the Curiosity and ExoMars missions. He boasts an extensive international career, including NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the California Institute of Technology and the Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Talk summary

Nearly 202 years after his birth on 26 June 1824, William Thomson, aka Lord Kelvin, remains one of the most luminous figures in the history of science. The talk will trace his extraordinary journey from a ten-year-old university student in Glasgow to the Second Wrangler at Cambridge, and ultimately to the Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, which he held for an astonishing 53 years. Kelvin’s revolutionary contributions to thermodynamics, the dissipation of energy, vortex motion, and countless other fields fundamentally reshaped our understanding of the physical world and laid the foundations of modern physics and engineering.

At the heart of the story lies his profound, lifelong relationship with the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE). Elected as a Fellow in 1847 and subsequently serving three terms as President, Kelvin used the Society as his primary platform for presenting seminal papers: from his 1849 exposition of Carnot’s theory to groundbreaking work on heat (establishing the Kelvin scale), capillary action, and spherical harmonics. Additionally he greatly elevated the RSE’s standing in areas of government liaison, publication standards and public engagement.

Knighted in 1866 and elevated to the peerage in 1892, Lord Kelvin’s influence extended far beyond academia. After his death in 1907, the Society’s enduring gratitude was and still is remembered.

Through archival insights, rare images, and personal anecdotes, this talk celebrates the perfect symbiosis of individual genius and institutional prestige – showing how one man’s brilliance and one Society’s support together advanced science and humanity for generations to come.

Members can expect a remarkable story of a remarkable man.

For any enquiries contact: info@eastlothianantiquarians.org.uk

Non members welcome with a modest cash donation appreciated

Church parking is limited to Blue Badge holders plus otherwise mobility compromised

Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation No: SC052295
