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Whose Town? Charles Boog Watson

Whose Town? Charles Boog Watson
Whose Town? Charles Boog Watson
Whose Town? was an educational resource built on the heritage collections of the City of Edinburgh. It was developed by Edinburgh City Libraries in partnership with Edinburgh Museums and Galleries and Edinburgh City Archives. The resource was launched in 2011 and unfortunately is no longer available in its original format, however, we have created exhibitions here on Capital Collections to provide schools with access to even more material and to allow a wider audience access to the fascinating stories told in Whose Town?

We are also working on recreating the life stories as digital trails on Our Town Stories.

Whose Town? looks at Edinburgh from 1850 - 1959 to discover the city's past through the lives of the people who lived there. We have used people who lived in Victorian times, at the beginning of the twentieth century, during the Second World War and in the Fifties. There are fourteen lives to discover as well as exhibitions about each of the four eras.

Charles Boog Watson was 81 years old when he signed up to become an ARP Warden. During this time he kept a detailed log book and his exhibition gives a snapshot of ARP duties and an insight into Edinburgh at war. He had retired from his job as an engineer in 1908 aged 50 and worked without pay for the City Council for 30 years collating the vast amounts of records from Edinburgh City Chambers. He donated the resulting 15 volumes of indexed notes to the City Libraries. He was very knowledgeable about the history of the city and gathered a wealth of material together on the subject.

The exhibition also contains images from the collections of the Museum of Fire of Winston Churchill and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth inspecting Civil Defence troops at Edinburgh Castle.

Find out more about life in Edinburgh during the Second World War.

Whose town? was supported by funding from The Heritage Lottery Fund.