Students at Faskally Forester Training School
The image is courtesy of Ewan Elger from Victoria, Australia, whose father William (Bill) Elger attended Faskally Forester Training School estimated at around 1953-55.
The image is a familiar one as it was used on a Forestry Commission publication possibly a Forestry Education booklet – can anyone confirm the name of the publication. The event is obviously staged for the photograph at a site with a view across the water to the Faskally House. The trainees are using callipers to measure diameter (not quite the correct height!) and there are marker labels fixed to the tree bark which may have been used with an instrument for height measurement. The man doing the booking is Bill Elger and one of the trio at the tree is Maxi Craig. Can anyone identify him and any of the others?
Bill was demobilised from the navy in 1947 but his son does not know where he did his practical forestry work before Faskally or where he was posted after training. He was based in Achnamara around 1967 after which the family moved to Strathyre 1967/68, to Kinloch Rannoch 1970/71 and then back to Strathyre in 1975 from where he retired in 1985. By this time the forest had been amalgamated into Aberfoyle Forest District. Bill worked for some time with Maxi Craig, Bill McGavin and also Tom Queen.
Any details of where Bill worked in his early years would be very welcome.
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Groups: Forester Training Schools and Universities, Forestry Areas, Groups of people