Glenshiel Forest - register of employed forest workers
The register was found in the old Forestry Office located at Jenkin’s Park, Fort Augustus some years ago. These rare documents seldom survived as they were maintained only within the individual forest offices. The registers were renewed and replaced as years passed and compiled in various formats. No forest worker lists or registers from times before WWII have so far been located. It appears that only the names of people currently working at the forest would be entered into any new register.
The page is a list of forest worker staff and clerical staff at this stage in the life of the forest circa 1950 to 1967. The forest staff would have been organised into squads under the charge of gangers but the grades of the forest workers are not included here. The accounting reference number for Glenshiel Forest is NS16 indicating that it was the 16th forest unit to be set up in North Scotland with Borgie Forst being NS01. The National Insurance numbers and dates of birth of the people have been redacted.
The names listed are:
Murdo MacRae
Donald Hugh Cameron
Alexander MacKenzie
Geoffrey W M Reid
Jenny Reid
Alexander M Mullholland
James Grant
J MacDonald
Donald J MacMillan
There are a couple of interesting points the first is that Geoffrey W M Reid who transferred to Guisachan in 1955 may have been gaining worker experience prior for entry into Forester Training School . Geoff Reid was eventually Chief Forester in the Black Isle in the 1980s. Jenny Reid his wife may have been taken on as clerical staff in the forest while they were stationed at Glenshiel.
Please see the large image link below for a full view of the page. Any details of the workers and their forestry story would be very welcome in the comments pages below. Picture No 5137 has another workers register from the Ratagan area. Note that Glenshiel Forest was amalgamated into Ratagan Forest in 1969/70.
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Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports, Groups of people