Twentieth century policies affecting Gypsy/Traveller communities in Scotland: archival research
This independent report outlines the results of archival research into 20th-century policies affecting Gypsy/Traveller communities in Scotland. It was produced on behalf of the Scottish Government by the Third Generation Project at the University of St Andrews.
Footnotes
1 Note that ‘Tinker’ (or ‘tinkler’, in some historical texts) is a pejorative term historically used to describe Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland, derived from the historical association of Gypsy/Travellers with the metal-work trade. MacRitchie (1890: 173) wrote, when discussing the historical record of ‘Gypsies’ in Scotland: ‘But there is this to be considered, that genuine Gypsies have often been spoken of as “tinkers” (chaudronniers) on account of the occupation with which they have long been associated; and that although there is no known mention of “Gypsies” in the British Islands prior to the 15th century, there are many earlier references to “tinkers,” or “tinklers,” as they are called in Scotland. One cannot do better than quote Mr Crofton at this point. “It is at present by no means certain when the Gypsies made their first appearance in England…Tinkler can be traced back to about the year 1200. Tinker and Tinkler were not uncommon titles at that time.” See: MacRitchie, D., 1890. Scottish Gypsies under the Stewarts. Romani Studies, 2(3), p.173. His reference to the work of Crofton cn be found here: Crofton, H.T., 1880. The English Gipsies Under the Tudors. A. Ireland.
2 Please note that the Church of Scotland was specifically mentioned as a key stakeholder in the Scottish Government’s tender document, hence its specific mention here. This directed us to examine the work of the Church of Scotland, but we also ensured that we conducted searches and analysis of the role of other religious denominations, e.g. the Free Church and the Scottish Episcopal Church.
3 Scottish Government, Invitation to Tender - Provision of Archival Research to Explore 20th Century Policies Affecting the Gypsy/Traveller Communities’, Directorate for Housing and Social Justice document, page 3.
4 Ibid, page 14.
5 Industrial schools were institutions, ‘intended to help those children under 14 years old who were found to be homeless or begging but who had not as yet committed any serious crime. The idea was to remove the child from bad influences, give them an education and teach them a trade.’ See: National Archives capture of a historical "Report on a female teacher"
6 Note that ‘the media’ does not have a separate chapter devoted to it in this report, but will be referenced throughout, and is also mentioned in the ‘Recommendations’ section at the end of this report.
7 It should be remembered that Gypsy/Traveller communities in Scotland are not homogenous but rather constitute a diverse collection of communities each with their own history, culture and linguistic tradition. For further discussion see: McKinney, R., 2003. Views from the margins: Gypsy/Travellers and the ethnicity debate in the new Scotland. Scottish Affairs, 42(1), pp.13-31.
8 “The Scottish Office was a department of the United Kingdom Government from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland.” See: UK Government information about The Scottish Office
9 ’Ghettoisation’ is used here to describe a process whereby a marginalised group are placed in a particular locale because of oppression and discrimination.
10 See footnote 2.
11Given the language and the phrasing used in this quote (e.g. treating Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland as a ‘they’ and thus a homogenous community), there is need to contextualise its usage here. Written in 1967, it highlights that at the time, and whilst the ‘Tinker Experiments’ were underway, someone from the ‘settled’ (or ‘sedentary’) population in Scotland had known, and had reported to the public, that the use of the word ‘tinker’ was a pejorative. Moreover, the author highlighted the need for policy change, recognising that the ancient history of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland, and their marginalisation, had been a long-term term issue. This quote is significant but not unique to other testimonies recognising the harms being endured because of the Tinker Experiments.
12‘Invitation to Tender’, op cit, p. 10. See, for example: Matthews, J. (2021) ‘Gypsy travellers call for Scottish government to apologise for 'tinker experiment' that 'ripped families apart'’, Sky News, 15 April [Online]. Available at: Sky News article - "Gypsy travellers call for Scottish government to apologise for 'tinker experiment' that 'ripped families apart'"
13‘’Invitation to Tender’, op cit, Schedule 2 - Specification, point 2.
14 We were not able to ascertain when the term ‘Tinker Experiments’ was first used, or who used it, with any accuracy, but we would note the significant amount of archival evidence that was found referencing a variety of ‘experimental’ schemes used to manage Gypsy/Traveller lives in Scotland. The main body of the report will evidence some of these, and we would also note the frequent use of such terms in the news media. For example, building on the widespread narrative of a ‘Tinker Problem’, a number of publications chose to highlight potential assimilatory solutions through the use of the terms ‘experiment’ and ‘scheme’. The Broughty Ferry Guide and Advertiser, for example, on Saturday 3 July, 1937 reported: “Angus Public Health Committee on Monday dealt with the tinker problem. Dr Sinclair, medical officer of health (MOH), suggested that the Committee should ask proprietors of various grounds for the use of a little ground to erect a few houses for tinkers as an experiment.” This was followed by an article in the Brechin Advertiser on Tuesday 9 November, 1937 which reported on a meeting of the Angus Housing and Plans Committee of the County Council. The article noted the following: “[Dr Sinclair] told the Committee that he was concerned regarding the conditions under which tinker families were living in parts of the county. He suggested as an experiment that two wooden huts be erected near Craichie for tinkers whose families were attending that school. He would make regular visits to the huts. It was agreed that Dr Sinclair should get full details.”
15 The Race Relations Act 1976 has since been superseded in the UK by the Equality Act 2010. See: Equality Act 2010 legislation.
16 We would also note the October 2023 blog post communication by the Scottish Human RIghts Commission (SHRC) that ‘[a]t present, Gypsy Travellers in Scotland do not have recognised legal National Minority Status, this is despite the UK ratifying the framework convention in 1998. However, test cases such as K MacLennan v GTEIP in 2008 have established ethnic minority status for Gypsy Travellers in Scotland.’ In the written judgement to this case, Judge Hosie “arrived at the view that Scottish Gypsy-Travellers have "ethnic origins", with reference in particular, to Section 3(1) of the 1976 Act [Race Relations Act 1976] and that they therefore enjoy the protection of the Act". See: Scottish Human Rights Commission article: "Commission Hears the Human Rights Concerns of the Gypsy Traveller Community in Scotland."; REF case study on rights for Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland. Further information about the Scottish Human Rights Commission can be found at: Online information on the Scottish Human Rights Commission.
17 See: United Nations information on indigenous peoples
18 One of the most cited descriptions of ‘Indigenous people’ is attributed to Jose R. Martinez Cobo, the former Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. In his renowned ‘Study on the Problem of Discrimination against Indigenous Populations’ (1986), he remarks:
'Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system.
This historical continuity may consist of the continuation, for an extended period reaching into the present of one or more of the following factors: Occupation of ancestral lands, or at least of part of them; Common ancestry with the original occupants of these lands; Culture in general, or in specific manifestations (such as religion, living under a tribal system, membership of an indigenous community, dress, means of livelihood, lifestyle, etc.); Language (whether used as the only language, as mother-tongue, as the habitual means of communication at home or in the family, or as the main, preferred, habitual, general or normal language); Residence on certain parts of the country, or in certain regions of the world; and Other relevant factors.
On an individual basis, an indigenous person is one who belongs to these indigenous populations through self-identification as indigenous (group consciousness) and is recognized and accepted by these populations as one of its members (acceptance by the group)...This preserves for these communities the sovereign right and power to decide who belongs to them, without external interference’. See: Cobo JM. 1981. Study of the problem of discrimination against indigenous populations. Geneva (Switzerland): United Nations Economic and Social Council.
19 See, for example: Heaslip, V., Wilson, D. and Jackson, D., 2019. Are Gypsy Roma Traveller communities indigenous and would identification as such better address their public health needs?. Public health, 176, pp.43-49.
20 See, for example: Bakken, D., Branden, K. (2013). Skin Color and Blood Quantum: Getting the Red Out. In: Hall, R. (eds) The Melanin Millennium. Springer, Dordrecht. Link to article
21 Throughout this report, when we reference the ‘settled community’, the concept is meant to describe the vast majority of the population of Scotland who follow sedentary- and agrarian-based cultural and economic lifestyles, and whose political structures uphold and normalise these lifestyles. As others have pointed out, sedentarism, as something deeply rooted in Western thought, views nomadism as a threat to its existence. It is why Gypsy/Travellers, both in Scotland and elsewhere have historically been represented as ‘suspect and invasive’ as their culture inherently contravenes the sedentary culture and its desire to regulate the mobility of people. See Shubin, S. 2011. ‘“Where can a Gypsy stop?” Rethinking Mobility in Scotland.’ Antipode 43 (2): 498. We would also note that the term ’Traveller’ is still being reformulated to describe mobile groups, for example the term ’New Age Travellers’. As Fox (2014) notes: ” Sociologist Kevin Hetherington, in his book New Age Travellers (2000), holds that travellers ‘adopt an identity that brings together a series of disparate “ethnic” identities that share one thing in common: their marginalized and often oppressed status within society’. Traveller culture carries references to proto-socialist movements such as the English Civil War-era Diggers and Levellers. Travellers also adopted aspects of gypsy life, Rastafarianism and circus communities. Their identity evolved syncretically, a bricolage of values and styles.” This co-opting of the term ’Traveller’ in this way is one example of the problems surrounding that use in comparison to describing the ancient peoples whose experiences are the subject of this report.
22 Travellers Times (2020) ‘‘We are a minority within a minority’ - Indigenous Highland Travellers call out for recognition’, Travellers Times, 28 October 2020 [Online]. Available at Travellers Times article - "Indigenous Highland Travellers call out for recognition". Those identifying as Indigenous Highland Travellers may speak Beurla Reagaird (‘speech of metalworkers’), a Scottish Gaelic-based Cant that is almost extinct (See: Travellers and their language. Edited by John M. Kirk and Donall P. O Baoill, 2002. [Belfast Studies in Language, Culture and Politics 4]. Belfast: Queen's University Belfast/ Clo Ollscoil na Banriona. 196 pp. ISBN 0-85389-832-4. We would also highlight the work of Heaslip, Wilson and Jackson, who note that: “We argue that Gypsy Roma Traveller communities could be recognised as indigenous in terms of the internationally agreed principles of indigeneity and shared experiences of health inequity, colonisation and cultural genocide. Doing so would enable a more robust public health strategy and development of public health guidelines that take into account their cultural views and practices.” See: Heaslip, V., Wilson, D. and Jackson, D., 2019. Op Cit. Finally we would note that the 2011 Scottish Census was the first opportunity that Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland had the opportunity to self-identify as such.
23 We would also note that this is not a new realisation. As noted in the quote that precedes this report, in The Scotsman, on 30 December 1967, it ws noted that ‘the very word “tinker” is derogatory”. See: British Newspaper Archive webpage of aforementioned article.
24 Leading figures in archival research have similarly highlighted the need for archives to be contested, noting the many steps of decision-making that take place to store material in an archive, all of which involve active choices around the value of a certain item by those who collect, curate, and use archives. As Jimerson remarks: ‘Archives at once protect and preserve records; legitimise and sanctify certain documents while negating and destroying others; and provide access to selected sources while controlling the researchers and conditions under which they may examine the archival record.’ See, Jimerson, R., 2007. Archives for all: professional responsibility and social justice. The American Archivist, 70(2), pp.252-281. Nevertheless, official attempts to extend collecting to non-traditional depositors is often met with mixed results. The rise in 'community archiving' that has resulted is well-documented. See, for example: Stevens, M., Flinn, A. and Shepherd, E., 2013. New frameworks for community engagement in the archive sector: from handing over to handing on. In Heritage and Community Engagement (pp. 67-84). Routledge.
25 For a discussion of an alternative to this see: Flinn, Andrew, Mary Stevens, and Elizabeth Shepherd. "Whose memories, whose archives? Independent community archives, autonomy and the mainstream." Archival Science 9 (2009): 71-86.
26 We would note the presence of cultural archives such as those held at the Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen, and at the School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh, which hold a range of sound recordings that more accurately capture the lived experiences of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland. We sampled a small number of those recordings that were in Scots, and in the Doric dialect, but there was no wider provision for these types of archive in the original tender document and time and resources precluded further study at this time.
27 See, for example: Sowry, N., 2012. Silence, Accessibility, and Reading Against the Grain: Examining Voices of the Marginalized in the India Office Records. InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 8(2); Rizzo, M., 2017. Reading against the grain, finding the voices of the detained. Museums & Social Issues, 12(1), pp.26-32; Dávila-Freire, M., 2020. Reading the archive against the grain: Power relations, affective affinities and subjectivity in the documenta Archive. Art Libraries Journal, 45(3), pp.94-99.
28 Although please note the following works as important examples of autobiographical work by Gypsy/Traveller writers in Scotland: Smith, J., 2012. Way of the wanderers: The story of Travellers in Scotland. Birlinn; Williamson, D., 1994. The Horsieman: Memories of a Traveller 1928-58. Birlinn; Whyte, B., 2001. The Yellow on the Broom: The early days of a Traveller woman. Birlinn; Whyte, B., 1990. Red rowans and wild honey. Birlinn Ltd.
29 See Okely, J., 1983. The traveller-gypsies. Cambridge University Press; Prescott, Andrew, and Alison Wiggins, 'Introduction', in Andrew Prescott, and Alison Wiggins (eds), Archives: Power, Truth, and Fiction (2023; online edn, Oxford Academic, 18 Dec. 2023), Link to article.
30 Because the research team had to make deliberate choices on which items to capture, analyse, and include within this report, we recognise that our own positionality might have affected this decision process. Nevertheless we feel the the size and diversity of the research team (seven researchers and an editor) allowed us much more opportunity to critically evaluate the materials than had this been the work of one or two people. Our choices represented a multi-layered process of checking and double-checking within the team, alwaysstriving to ensure that the choices that we made considered the context of each piece, their wider implications on the report, and the relevance to the key themes that the analysis team focused upon. As we researched and analysed documents this process became more refined - becoming influenced by our growing knowledge and ability to connect documents with others across archives. However, we also understand that at times we may have missed connections and we may also have missed connections due to material that was impossible for us to access. The archives we accessed for this study were primarily governmental (national, regional, and local) archives, which usually store public records that are accessed without hurdles. However, we also used private archives which were more difficult to access as it was contingent on the cooperation and agreement of those facilities to be able to do so. These archives, and private documents within public archives, have more restrictions around the viewing and use of archival materials, which in some instances limited our ability to utilise these sources or to see them at all. Moreover, without the institutional status that the research team have as university-affiliated researchers many of these records would not have been accessible. We would also articulate that there were instances of documents missing when we went to access them in the archive. For example, there were four years of council minutes missing from the Wick archives, covering the period 1956-1958/9, which was a key period in that local authority’s engagement with Gypsy/Traveller communities. There were also some files where the chapter sequence jumped without any concomitant jump in catalogue page numbers, seeming to indicate missing materials at the time of cataloguing. In addition, in the National Records of Scotland, file HH55/240 (titled 'Tinkers') was listed in the catalogue but could not be located by archivists on multiple requests. Files coded 'HH' relate to the Home and Health Department of the Scottish Office. Other files under the HH55 classmark (of which we accessed 4) were very valuable, and so it is our assumption that HH55/240 would have also yielded valuable data.
31 See: Allen, R.B. and Sieczkiewicz, R., 2010. How historians use historical newspapers. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 47(1), pp.1-4, for an examination of the use of historical newspapers in additional to other forms of archival material.
32 ’Invitation to Tender‘ op cit. The tender document for this contract notes specifically that the ‘lived experiences’ contract “will run in parallel with the contract specified in this document. It is expected that there will be an exchange of key findings between the contractors undertaking these contracts.”
33 The establishment of the NCTR was an outcome of the eight-year Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which had an overall budget of 72 million Canadian Dollars (ca. 40 million pounds sterling) to investigate the impact of 130 residential schools that operated between 1831 and 1996 and had committed, as the TRC found, cultural genocide against Aboriginal communities across the country. In Scotland, the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) has now entered its ninth year and has incurred approximately £85 million in expenses so far.
34 Winter and Leighton (2001: 99) describe structural violence as occurring ‘whenever people are disadvantaged by political, legal, economic or cultural traditions’ with structural violence being ‘almost always invisible, embedded in ubiquitous social structures, normalized by stable institutions and regular experience. See: Winter, D. D., and Leighton, D. C. (2001), ‘Structural violence’, in D. J. Christie, R.V. Wagner, and D. D. Winter (Eds.), Peace, conflict, and violence: Peace psychology in the 21st century, New York: Prentice Hall. We would argue that this is a term that is relevant to the experiences of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland given, for example, evidence that [y]‘oung Gypsy/Travellers' educational outcomes are among the worst in Scottish education’ (See: Scottish Government information on educational outcomes for Gypsy/Traveller children); and that ‘Gypsy/Traveller communities are at higher risk of experiencing mental health problems’ (see: Scottish Government information on the Gypsy/Travellers Action Plan's Health actions).
35 See also the database accompanying this research.
36 In 1991 the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights defined the right to adequate housing as comprising legal security of tenure; availability of services and amenities; affordability; habitability; accessibility; proximity to employment, education, and services; and cultural adequacy. Within this report, we consider ‘substandard housing’ to exist where one or more of these components is unmet. See: Scottish Human Rights Commission (2024) Right to Housing [Online]. Available at Scottish Human Rights Commission information on their work on the right to housing.
37 To expand on our previous explanation, industrial schools were ‘intended to help those children under 14 years old who were found to be homeless or begging but who had not as yet committed any serious crime. The idea was to remove the child from bad influences, give them an education and teach them a trade.’ See: Hidden Lives Revealed (n.d.) Ragged Schools, Industrial Schools and Reformatories [Online]. Available at Link to article
38 Coghill, D. (1917) NRAS980/File 20/4 - Official correspondence, reports and memoranda etc., relating to conditions of tinkers; bibliography of books dealing with Scottish tinkers; printed official report of Departmental Committee on Employment of Boys and Girls from the Congested Districts in the Highlands of Scotland, 1909, Private archives of Katharine Marjory Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl, Blair Castle Archives, Blair Atholl. See also Gurr, B., 2024. Humanitarianism and Native America. In Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality (pp. 382-395). Edward Elgar Publishing. Referencing Indigenous communities Gurr highlights that humanitarian assistance, when designed and imposed from outside of communities (i.e. not by community members themselves) most often replicates and furthers the goals of assimilation (p. 382).
39 While not formally adopted by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the concept of cultural genocide alludes to an intended destruction of the cultural distinctiveness of a particular group. The policies and actions inspired by, and taken outwith these policies, are only a part of a much larger narrative that settled Scottish society has yet to reckon with in its historical and current treatment of Gypsy/Traveller communities in Scotland. See James R. Miller, Shingwauk’s Vision: A History of Native Residential Schools, University of Toronto Press (2012) for further commentary on the attributes of cultural genocide. See: Kavanagh, A.M., 2022. The attempted destruction of a collective identity: The case of Irish Travellers. Shuddhashar Free Voice, 31; and McVeigh, R., 2008. “The balance of cruelty”: Ireland, Britain and the logic of genocide. Journal of Genocide Research, 10(4), pp.541-561 for research conducted into the experiences of Gypsy/Travellers in Ireland.
40 In the Statistical Accounts of Scotland, 1791-1845, for example, the Reverend Alexander Gray describing Kincardine in Monteith (Vol. X, 1845, p. 1281) notes that: ‘One of the recent improvements, which have proved beneficial to the parish, is the establishment of a county police. Previous to their appointment, vagrants, tinkers, and gipsies from various quarters were numerous; but, by the vigilance of the police, they have been suppressed.” See: Link to article
41 The PTNH was enacted by then-Secretary of State for Scotland Bruce Millan in 1977, as outlined in Scottish Development Department Circular No. SW2/1977. Though intended to prevent forced relocation of ‘unauthorised’ encampments by the police in council areas without an official Traveller site, the policy was frequently weaponised against Traveller families. One example of this is recounted by McNaughton (1985: A large number of travellers camped on vacant ground at Kinning Park near the centre of Glasgow. Reaction from the local community was swift and fierce. Letters of complaint poured in [sic] local authority offices demanding that both Regional and District Councils remove them. Moreover, business in the locality organised a protest whereby District and Regional Chief Officers were bombarded with numerous letters and telemessages from their managing directors. However, in terms of the non-harassment policy the Regional Council (who owned part of the ground) could not evict the travellers. Nevertheless, the travellers were 'persuaded' to move after the police increased their presence in the area. The police had been inspecting the travellers' vehicles, licences, road fund tax and insurance and charged the travellers with a number of offences. Although not forcibly evicted from the site, the travellers were harassed by the police's abnormal interest in them.’ See: McNaughtan, J.H., 1985. Scotland's travelling people: An analysis of government policy. University of Glasgow (United Kingdom). The Policy was also discussed in subsequent documents as providing an incentive for council site creation so that Travellers could be moved onto these locations in an extension of forced sedentarisation. The Policy also exempted toleration for “large groups of travelling people, whose size, pattern and purpose of encampments are unrelated to established traveller movement”, giving authorities permission to forcibly relocate these ‘illegal’ encampments. See: Scottish Development Department (1980) ‘SDD Circular No. 13/1980 - Scotland’s Travelling People’, SR1/2 Box 49 - Provision of Sites for Travelling People - Report by Depute Chief Executive, Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow, pp. 7-9; Scottish Development Department (1984) ‘SDD Circular No. 34/1984’, Director of Housing File - Travelling People 1983 - 1992, Dundee City Council Archives, Dundee; Maud, R. (1991) SR1/2 Box 203 - Travelling People - Information Report, Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow, p. 2; Brown, P. (2015) Developing Successful Site Provision for Scotland’s Gypsy/Traveller Communities: A report for the Equality and Human Rights Commission [Online]. Available at: Equality & Human Rights Commission report on site provision for Scotland's Gypsy/Traveller communities.
Grampian Police's Policing Strategy for Gypsy/Traveller communities
42 See, for example: MacRitchie, D., 1894. Scottish Gypsies under the stewarts. David Douglas; McKinney, R., 2003. Views from the margins: Gypsy/Travellers and the ethnicity debate in the new Scotland. Scottish Affairs, 42(1), pp.13-31; Macafee, C., 2019. Gypsies, pedlars, beggars and other itinerants in the Scots dictionary record. Scottish Language, 38, pp.1-54.
43 See for example: Kenrick, D., 2007. Historical dictionary of the Gypsies (Romanies). Scarecrow Press.
44 See: McKinney, R., 2003. Views from the margins: Gypsy/Travellers and the ethnicity debate in the new Scotlnd. Scottish Affairs, 42(1), pp.13-31.
45 ‘Tinklers’ is a historical variant spelling of ‘tinkers’. It should be highlighted here that not all Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland have descendants who are tinsmiths, and so that word is not only a pejorative, but an inaccurate one. See: Smith, R., 2009. Looking back at Scottish travellers as nomadic entrepreneurs? Available from OpenAIR@RGU. [online]. Available from: http://openair.rgu.ac.uk.
46 Kenrick, D. and Clark, C., 1999. Moving on: the gypsies and travellers of Britain. University of Hertfordshire Press, p. 51.
47 McKinney, op cit.
48 McPhee, S. (2017) Gypsy Traveller history in Scotland [Online]. Available at: Link to article. In line with Tyson the word Gypsy - capitalised here and without quotation marks - ‘refers both to a legal category constructed by early modern authorities and to an ethnic group culturally and linguistically different from other Scots’. Tyson, T. M. (2024) ‘The Marginalisation of Gypsies in Scotland, 1573-c.1625’, in Kennedy, A. and Weston, S. (eds), Life at the Margins in Early Modern Scotland, Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, p. 50.
49 Tyson, T. M. (2024) Ibid, p. 50.
50 Privy Council of Scotland (1877-1970) Register of the privy Council of Scotland, series 1, vol. 2, Edinburgh, H.M. General Register House, p. 210.
51 Concerning the punishment of strong and idle beggars and provision for sustenance of the poor and impotent (1575) Available at: Link to article; For punishment of the strong and idle beggars and relief of the poor and impotent (1579) Available at: Link to article.
52 Act regarding beggars (1593) Available at: Link to article; Tyson, T. M. (2024) op. cit., p. 53
53 Act regarding Egyptians (1609) Available at: Link to article.
54 Macritchie, D., Op. cit, p. 94.
55 Tyson, T. M. (2024) op. cit., p. 54.
56 Notably the Witchcraft Act of 1563 entered legislation during the same session. In March 2022, the then First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, issued a formal apology to those accused, convicted, and executed under the Witchcraft Act of 1563, and recognized it as an ‘egregious historic injustice’. See: BBC News article on formal apology to those accused of witchcraft
57 Hume, D. (1797) Commentaries on the law of Scotland, respecting the description and punishment of crimes, vol. 2, Edinburgh, Bell and Bradfute, p. 348.
58 Macritchie, D. (1894), op. cit., p. 98.
59 Ibid., p. 99.
60 Ibid.
61 Lauder, J. (1848) Historical Notices of Scottish Affairs, vol. 1, Edinburgh, p. 188.
62 Agnes and Jean were tried with three others who were also found quilty of being Gypsies. Sentencing for Agnes and Jean was delayed because ‘they are at present with Child’, something which the Court confirmed. Their sentencing therefore did not take place until the 15th of November - after they both gave birth, when ‘The Lords Justice Clerk and Commissioners of Justiciary, having considered the [previous] verdict of assyse returned’ sentenced “the said Agnes McDonald and Jean Baillie to be taken to the Grass-mercat of Edinburgh, upon Wednesday the Twenty fourth day of November Instant, And there, betwixt the hours of two & four in the Afternoon, To be hanged by the necks upon a Gibbet until they be dead.” See: “A Gypsy trial of 1714 by David MacRitchie (Jan., 1895).
63 Mayall op cit. See also Hancock, Ian F., The pariah syndrome: an account of gypsy slavery and persecution, chapter XII.
64 Kenrick, op.cit. Hancock (1987: 89) examines the work of Walter Simson, and notes ”[q]uoting from Miller, 1775, he goes on to indicate that Gypsies employed as coal-bearers and salters in 18th century Scotland were ”in a state of slavery or bondage... for life, transferable with the collieries or salt works.” Hancock, I.F., 1987. The pariah syndrome: An account of Gypsy slavery and persecution. (No Title).
65 There is some narrative evidence of a decline in the Gypsy/Traveller population in Scotland in Walter Scott’s Guy Mannering, published in 1815. Scott talks of an account by Fletcher of Saltoun almost a century before where the latter noted: ‘in all times there have been about one hundred thousand of those vagabonds’. Scott then goes on to note that ‘the progress of time, and increase both of the means of life and of the power of the laws, gradually reduced this dreadful evil within more narrow bounds. The tribes of gypsies, jockies or cairds… became few in number, and many were entirely rooted out.’ We would also note too that. in the pages that follow, Scott talks of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland as ‘gipsy [sic] tribes’ who were “the pariahs of Scotland, living like wild Indians among European settlers, and, like them, judged of rather by their own customs, habits, and opinions, than as if they had been members of the civilised part of the community.’ p. 75, Scott, W., Auguste-Jean-Baptiste Defauconpret, 1767-1843 and Auguste-Jean-Baptiste Defauconpret, 1898. Guy mannering. Thomas Y. Crowell.
66 Including but not limited to the Reformatory and Industrial Schools Act (Scotland) of 1854 and the Trespass Act 1865, which is discussed in chapter 3 below.
67 Turner (2002) identified a common political habit of distinguishing 'authentic' Gypsies, or Roma, from other Travellers. This distinction is generally made to ‘draw a boundary’ between those nomadic groups who are seen as legitimate and thus deserving of protection, and those who are perceived simply as ‘drop-outs’. It is, in other words, a way of politically sanctioning discriminatory treatment. We would note that this distinction (as made by settled populations) is the foundation of assimilationist policy. See: Turner, R., 2002. Gypsies and British parliamentary language: An analysis. Romani Studies, 12(1), pp.1-34.
68 van Baar, H., 2021. The production of irregular citizenship through mobile governmentalities: racism against roma at the security-mobility nexus. Mobilities, 16(5), pp.809-823.
69 Whyte, K., L Talley, J., & D. Gibson, J. (2019). Indigenous mobility traditions, colonialism, and the anthropocene. Mobilities,14(3), 319–335. Link to article
70 See, for example, Stewart, G.T., 2023. Assimilation and Difference: A Māori Story. In Writing Philosophical Autoethnography (pp. 230-248). Routledge.
71 Keskitalo, P., 2019. Nomadic narratives of Sami people’s migration in historic and modern times. Human migration in the Arctic: The past, present, and future, pp.31-65.
72 See: Dillon, S. and Craig, C., 2021. Storylistening: Narrative evidence and public reasoning. Routledge.
73 This paragraph draws heavily on the very helpful outline provided on the National Records of Scotland website, which also referenced where materials regarding each of the administrative bodies could be found. This was available at: National Record of Scotland archived information on finding materials related to administrative bodies
74 See: Kelly, C., 2016. Continuity and change in the history of Scottish juvenile justice. Law, Crime & Hist., 6, p.59.; and Ralston, A.G., 1988. The development of reformatory and industrial schools in Scotland, 1832-1872. Scottish Economic and Social History, 8(1), pp.40-55.
75 See: Ralston, A. G. (2017) Opening Schools and Closing Prisons: Caring for destitute and delinquent children in Scotland 1812-1872, London, Routledge, pp. 113-115.
76 Ibid.
77 Note that industrial schools and reformatories were merged under the Approved Schools Act in 1933.
78 Moore, M., 2008. Social Control or Protection of the Child? The Debates on the Industrial Schools Acts 1857—1894. Journal of family history, 33(4), pp.359-387.
79 Gentleman, H. and Swift, S., op. cit., p. 25.
80 Ibid.
81 By then, the fear of identifying as a Gypsy/Traveller in Scotland was such that some members of Gypsy/Traveller communities denied their identity, because such identification might mean harsher punishment.
82 Parliament of the United Kingdom (1888) Reformatory And Industrial Schools—Legislation, House of Lords, vol. 326 [Online]. Available at: Link to Reformatory And Industrial Schools legislation.
83 United Kingdom. Parliament. Parliament of the United Kingdom (1865) Trespass (Scotland) Act 1865. Westminster, Parliament of the United Kingdom, 28 & 29 Vict. c. 56.
84 Ibid., p. 62.
85 Ibid., pp. 42, 53.
86 Ibid., p. 15
87 Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (1936) GD409/29/7 - Reports and correspondence by the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children's inspectors on the school attendance records of tinker children. Records of the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSSPCC)/Children 1st, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 8.
88 The Kilbrandon report was implemented in 1971 and is described as ‘one of the most influential policy statements on how a society should deal with children in trouble.’ There is no mention of Gypsy/Traveller children in the Kilbrandon Report. See: Link to the text of the Kilbrandon Report
89 United Kingdom. Parliament. House of Commons (1908) Children Act 1908, London, Parliament of the United Kingdom, 8 Edw. 7. c. 67, pp. 514-519.
90Ibid, pp. 507-508.
91Departmental Committee on Tinkers (Scotland) (1918), op. Cit, pp. 17-18.
92 Ibid.
93 Aberdeen Press and Journal (1912) ‘Problem of Tinkers’ Children’, Aberdeen Press and Journal, 26 April, p.5 [Online]. Available at: Link to article. Oakbank Industrial School was first founded in Aberdeen in 1879. See also oral testimonies around the 1908 Act on Tobar an Dualchais from the School of Scottish Studies Archives: Link to article
94 Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (1936), op. cit., p. 53.
95 See also the discussion in the next chapter.
97 See: ‘The Law Relating to Gypsies and Travellers’, by Chris Johnson, Angus Murdoch and Marc Willers available at: Link to article
98 If Gypsy/Travellers did not move on, they could either be prosecuted in terms of the enforcement notice procedure of the 1960 Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act or, if camped on the road, in terms of the 1887 Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act. See McNaughton, 1985, p. 58.
99 Ibid.
100 Departmental Committee on Habitual Offenders, Inebriates, Etc. (Scotland) (1895) Report from the Departmental Committee on Habitual Offenders, Vagrants, Beggars, Inebriates and Juvenile Delinquents, Edinburgh, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, p. 197.
101 Departmental Committee on Habitual Offenders, Inebriates, Etc. (Scotland) (1895) op. cit., p. xxxii.
102 Ibid.p. xxxiii. Turner (2000) identified a common political habit of distinguishing 'authentic' Gypsies, or Roma, from other Travellers. This distinction is generally made to draw a boundary between those nomadic groups who are seen as legitimate and thus deserving of protection, and those who are perceived simply to be dropouts. It is, in other words, a way of politically sanctioning discriminatory treatment.”
103 Departmental Committee on Habitual Offenders, Vagrants, Etc. (1896) op. cit., p. 607.
104 Boyd, J. (1905) Education (Scotland) Northern Division General Report for the Year 1904, London, His Majesty’s Stationery Office, p. 9.
105 Scottish Home and Health Department (c. 1896) ‘A Bill for Securing the Education of Tinker children in the Counties of Dumbarton, Perth, Ross and Sutherland, and other parts of Scotland’, HH55/236 - Habitual Offenders, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, pp. 17-19.
106 Taylor, B. (2008) A minority and the state Travellers in Britain in the 20th century, Manchester University Press, Manchester.
107 Ibid., p. 12.
108 Ibid., p. 17.
109 Ibid., p. 19.
110 Ibid., pp. 26-27
111 Ibid, p. 10.
112 Departmental Committee on Tinkers (Scotland) (1918), op. cit., p. 22. (accessed online at WorldCat). Note that there is evidence to the Departmental Committee (published as the ‘Blue Book’) in the archives of Children 1st in the National Records of Scotland but this doesn’t include the Report itself.
113 Ibid., pp. 22, 29.
114 Ibid., pp. 30-31.
115 Ibid., p. 23.
116 Aberdeen Evening Express (1918) ‘The Tinker Problem’ 20 April, p. 2 [Online]. Available at: Link to article
117 Department of Health for Scotland (1936) GD409/37/5 - Report of the Departmental Committee on Vagrancy in Scotland, Records of the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSSPCC)/Children 1st, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 41.
118 Ibid., p. 44.
119 Ibid., p. 41.
120 Ibid., p. 80.
121 United Kingdom. Parliament. House of Commons (1960) Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960. London, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 8 & 9 Eliz. 2. c. 62.
122 Much of this backlash (at least that which we have evidence of) centred on a 'three-pronged movement' in England that prompted the 1968 Act and that originated with Norman Dodds (MP from Kent), Ellen Wilmot-Ware (farmer from Gloucestershire), and Gratton Puxon (Traveller rights campaigner). See Hawkes, D. and Perez, B. (1996) The gypsy and the state: The ethnic cleansing of British society, 2nd edn., Bristol, The Policy Press, p. 21
123 Scottish Development Department (1974) DD12/4242 - Caravans and Second Homes Legislation. National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh; United Kingdom. Parliament. House of Commons (1968) Caravan Sites Act 1968. London, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1968 c. 52.
124 Scottish Development Department (1961) DD6/3161 - Caravans and Second Homes, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, pp. 44. Only parts of the 1968 Act applied to Scotland. These were Part 1, which was on residential occupation of licensed caravan sites, definitions of caravans (sections 13 and 16) and persecution of offences (section 14(1)). Part 2 which is on site provision for gypsies and control of unauthorised sites, does not apply to Scotland. Advisory Committees and the Gentleman and Swift report (op cit.) were set up to address this gap.
Additionally, 16(1) provided a definition for 'gypsies' that did initially apply to Scotland, however this has been removed from the Act.
125 Gentleman, H. and Swift, S. (1971) op. cit.
126 Ibid., pp. 94-108.
127 Ibid., p. 110.
128 Butler, R. F. (1971) ‘SDD Circular No. 9/1971 - Scotland’s Travelling People’, D66/3200 - Housing Needs, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh.
129 Central Region Planning Department (1978) ‘Travelling People in Central Region: The Provision of Permanent Sites, September 1978’, GB244/CRC/42/1 - Travellers Project reports, Stirling Council Archives, Stirling.
130 Scottish Development Department (1961) DD6/3161 - Caravans and Second Homes, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, pp. 41.
131 Parliament of the United Kingdom (1886) Education Department (Scotland)—Education Of Children Of Travelling Tinkers, House of Commons, vol. 304 [Online]. Available at: Text of Hansard information on this debate.
132 Parliament of the United Kingdom (1908) Education (Scotland) Bill, House of Lords, vol. 198 [Online]. Available at: Text of Hansard information on this debate.
133 Scottish Home and Health Department (1919) HH55/237 - Tinkers and Gypsies, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 63.
134 Parliament of the United Kingdom (1959) Housing Accommodation, Caithness, House of Commons, vol. 602 [Online]. Available at: Text of Hansard information on this debate.
135 Scottish Development Department (1961) op. cit.
136 Gentleman, H. and Swift, S. (1971), op. cit., p. 15
137 See, for example: Special Sub-Committee appointed to consider the ‘tinker’ problem in Perthshire (1965) CC1/H/A3 - Accommodation of Tinkers from Nov. 1945 to June 1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth.
138 The Local Government Board for Scotland was the body charged with overseeing local government, public health, housing and poor law from 1894 to 1919.
139 Blair Castle Archives, All Other Files part 1.pdf, pp 1. Maxwell also later discusses a possible crofting settlement in Caithness (p. 14-15). His remarks are worth quoting here in full because they demonstrate several aspects of the discussions that were taking place. ”Suggestions have also been made that the tinker problem could be solved by detailing the adults in a labour colony and keeping the children in an industrial school. But I do not agree in them. I am of opinion that before any definite decision is come to a full trial of the proposed crofting settlement should be made. The Local Government Board are keenly interested in this experiment which they hope will result in the recognition by the tinker of the great advantage of settled employment. It is thought that it may be the first step to their permanent settlement on the land and may ultimately lead to the voluntary separation of the families from one another and their absorption by the population in different parts of the country. I believe this separation of the families and absorption of the people to be the real solution of the problem of weaning the tinkers from the nomad existence which has an extremely strong hold on them.”
140 Blair Atholl Archives, All Other Files part 1.pdf, pp 5-10.
141 Depute County Clerk (1964) ’'Housing of Tinker Families’, CC1/H/3 - Accommodation of Tinkers from Nov. 1945 to June 1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth.
142 These came into operation on 1 April 1996 as per the provisions of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. Prior to that Scotland had seen several changes to its local authority boundaries, including during the period of time covered by this research. These include changes that resulted from the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929, the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947 and the Wheatley Commission (Royal Commission on Local Government in Scotland) of 1969, whose provisions were largely put into place in the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The latter resulted in a system of districts and regions that came into being in 1975 and remained in place until 31 March 1996.
143 Highland Archive Services consists of four archival centres throughout the Highlands. Those visited for this research were the Highland Archive Centre (Inverness), Lochaber Archive Centre (Fort William) and Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archives (Wick).
144 Angus Archives were contacted in May 2023 and visited in June 2023. Prior to visiting no documents were identified as being of particular interest, but as the Dundee City Archives held mentions of sites within the wider Tayside Region and within Angus it was thought best to make a trip to these archives. At the archives we were able to discuss the research with archivists on staff and discussed how future research might be conducted in these specific archives. However, since no documents specifically were identified and the information, we already gathered around Angus from the Dundee City Archives, the team decided it was best to dedicate resources elsewhere.
145 See Appendix 3 for discussion of selection of archival sites.
146 It is important to remember the role that local newspapers played, during much of the time under examination in this report, in terms of relaying local news. As O’Reilly notes (2023): ‘Local news was the communicative node of British towns and cities until the late 20th century… In this period, the provincial press was dominated by forensically detailed accounts of local council meetings. These provided an important tool for any historian hoping to understand local decision-making and democratic processes – and to assess levels of local accountability.’ See: Link to article
147 See, for example: Link to Doric Columns article on The Gordons Barracks, Link to Aberdeen Voice article on Castlehill.
148 Butler, R. F. (1969) ‘Traveller Census’, DD12/3564 - Caravans and Second Homes: Travellers, National of Records Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 38.
149 The evidence demonstrated that counter-narratives were in general less present in council materials (than say newspaper archives) however we have also referenced a couple of instances where there were statement that went against the prevailing (negative) narrative.
150 Nissen huts could be made of wood-asbestos or of corrugated asbestos sheeting, which was seen as being cheap and durable. There were also Nissen-type huts which were actually curved asbestos. There were large numbers of the latter type in the Fearn peninsula, and also evidence of other curved asbestos huts being used in Perthshire too. See: Highland Council notification of abestos in structure. We would note too that Nissen huts as a post-war housing option were recognised as substandard. Commenting on Nissen huts as a form of housing the MP for Ashford Bill Deedes noted in a statement to Parliament on 11 April, 1951 ‘defects and discomforts … are inseparable from such flimsy dwellings. The sewerage as I saw it is admittedly adequate. The rainwater drainage is nil and, as a result, every hut is surrounded by the water which lands on and flows off the roof. This is drawn up through the extremely thin foundations of the hut by the warmth inside, causing condensation and damp of a most serious character—probably the worst feature of these huts and the worst feature of such huts generally. As a result bedding, clothing, perambulators, childrens' clothing and so on are soaking wet, particularly at this time of the year. Further, these huts suffer from appalling draughts, with which anyone who occupied them during the war will be familiar.’ See: Text of Hansard information on this debate
151 Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland (1933) AF66/183 - Land Settlement, Highlands, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 15.
152 The site in question - St. Christopher in Tayock, Montrose - was opened in November 1980, one of many opened in the wake of post-1969 policy changes discussed below. See: Central Region Planning Department (1978) op. cit.; The Planning Exchange (c. 1983) ‘Travellers’ Sites Information Sheet’, Director of Housing File - Travelling People 1983 - 1992, Dundee City Archives, Dundee, pp. 38-41.
153 Taylor, B. (2013) A minority and the state, Manchester University Press, Manchester.
154 Report on Yeholm and Swinton (1917) NRAS980/File 20/5 - Memoranda and reports of, or submitted to, Departmental Committee of Tinkers - relates to visits, interviews, etc. in Aberdeenshire, the Borders, Perthshire, Dundee, Inverness and Wick. Information, etc., circulated to members of the Departmental Committee on Tinkers, Private archives of Katherine Majory-Stewart, Duchess of Atholl, Blair Castle Archives, Blair Atholl, pp. 20.
155 Ibid., pp. 7, 51
156 Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland (1933) op cit., p. 15.
157. See: Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland (1933) op. cit., p. 18.
158 In terms of the timing of these initiatives, we would highlight that the evidence suggests that there were discussions of experimental housing initiatives at a number of points, and especially between World War I and World War II, and in the aftermath of World War II. Indeed, both World Wars appeared to lead to discussions in many local authorities about dealing with the return of Gypsy/Traveller men who had fought, with local authorities sometimes expressing their hope that the experiences of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland who had seen wartime service would result in them being assimilated out of their nomadic lifestyles on their return. As was noted in The Scotsman when reporting on the Departmental Committee on Tinkers in 1917: ‘At present there were 308 tinkers serving in H.M. Forces and many of them were proving themselves capable and efficient soldiers. At the close of the war it was felt that something would need to be done for those men or they would soon drift into their old habits, and inducements to train them in an agricultural life would be the best possible way of adapting them.’ See: The Scotsman (1917) ‘The Tinker Problem’, The Scotsman, 5 November, p. 4 [Online]. Available at:
159 A similar sentiment was expressed in the Daily Record on Tuesday 27 February, 1945, when it was noted that “after 1918 too many tinkers went back to the road. It should be a point of public policy that this back-sliding does not recur.” See Daily Record (1945) ‘Settling Down’, Daily Record, 27 February [Online]. Available at: Link to article. A similar scheme took place during World War 1 when Separation Allowances provided to military families also led to Gypsy/Traveller families ‘settling’.
160 And we say ‘almost’ only because we know that it is impossible to know the full details of every housing arrangement involving a Gypsy/Traveller family in Scotland since 1895. Regarding the knowledge that we have as of now – through examination of archival materials including information regarding occupancy rates of individual houses - even purpose-built housing that was built later was potentially over-crowded.
161 Inverness County Council (1960) HCA/CI/3/1/100 - Inverness County Council Minutes and Committees, 1959-60, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, p. 658.
162 Accommodation of Tinkers (1965) CC1/H/A3 - Accommodation of Tinkers from Nov. 1945 to Jun. 1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth.
163 Ibid.
164 Inverness Courier (1949) Acute Shortage of Houses – Disappointment at Latest Allocation, 8 July [Online]. Available at Link to article.
165 While ‘tinker’ is used in other archival materials, the timeframe examined (1940s-1960s) demonstrated widespread use of the term ‘problem families’ for Gypsy/Travellers in Ross and Cromarty. The Lewis Problem Families Sub-Committee and the Mainland/Problem Families Committee of the County Council of the Country of Ross and Cromarty referred to families with very common Gypsy/Traveller surnames in their minutes.
166 Currently in Scotland, a house is considered substandard if it doesn't meet a tolerable standard, is in serious disrepair, or needs repair to prevent further damage. This definition is used in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, which allows local authorities to serve work notices to owners of substandard houses. The notice requires the owner to bring the house into a reasonable state of repair.
167 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1957) op. cit., p. 37. We should also note that in the analysis of materials from Perth and Kinross Archives, there was also a later mention of Muir of Ord. In a memorandum from the Perth and Kinross County Architect to the Perth and Kinross County Clerk dated 4 January, 1962 the County Architect states: ”On learning that houses for tinkers had been erected by the County Council of Ross and Cromarty, I wrote the County Architect there asking if any precautions had been taken to avoid damage by rough usage and regarding the experience gained. He replied that the Council’s Sanitary Inspectors had provided a number of old army huts near Muir of Ord for tinker families and the experiment appears to have been similar to that at Pitlochry.” The memorandum goes on to state that houses erected at Alness didnlt have special provision for rough usage but that ”once properly housed the tinker families better their position naturally.” The County Architect goes on to say that the Housing Committee [in Perth and Kinross] desire a type plan for houses for tinkers to be somewhat substandard.” See Perth and Kinross Archives: CC1/H/A3.
168 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1960) op. cit., p. 8.
169 Ibid.
170 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1965) HCA/CRC/3/1/85 - Ross and Cromarty County Council Minute Book, 1964-65, Highland Archive Services, Inverness, p. 2.
171 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1960) op. cit., p. 3.
172 Ibid., p. 10.
173 Ibid., p. 11
174 Ibid., p. 6
175 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1960) op. cit., p. 5
176 Ibid.
177 Ibid., p. 11.
178 Ross and Cromarty Council (1957) op. cit, p. 13.
179 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1959) HCA/CRC/3/1/79 - Ross and Cromarty County Council Minute Book, 1958-59, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, p. 2.
180 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1956) HCA/CRC/3/1/76 - Ross and Cromarty County Council Minute Book, 1955-56, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, pp. 8, 10; Ross and Cromarty County Council (1957) op. cit., pp. 9, 13, 24, 27, 31-32
181 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1957) op. cit., pp. 22, 26.
182 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1961), op. cit., p. 3; Ross and Cromarty County Council (1962) HCA/CRC/3/1/82 - Ross and Cromarty County Council Minute Book, 1961-62, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, p. 2. As stated earlier, ‘problem family’ was a euphemism commonly used to refer to Gypsy/Traveller families in a number of local authority areas.
183 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1963) HCA/CRC/3/1/83 - Ross and Cromarty County Council Minute Book, 1962-63, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, p. 9; Ross and Cromarty County Council (1965) op. cit., p. 3.
184 This was not the only local authority evidence that we discovered. We also found evidence of discriminatory housing policies across the Highlands including Skeabost Bridge, Skye, where there was discussion of Scottish Gypsy/Traveller families moved into substandard accommodation Inverness County Council (1963) HCA/CI/3/1/106 - Inverness County Council and Committees Minutes, 1962-63, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, p. 9; Inverness County Council (1964) HCA/CI/3/1/107 - Inverness County Council and Committees Minutes, 1963-64, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, p. 3. Tong Bridge on Lewis where there is discussion of the erection of a hut in 1957 and which continued to be discussed as a housing site into the 1960s. Ross and Cromarty County Council (1958). There is also anecdotal evidence that those who were living there were living in cramped conditions and doing so because of the need to settle for education purposes. HCA/CRC/3/1/78 - Ross and Cromarty County Council Minute Book, 1957-58, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, pp. 8, 15, 17; Ross and Cromarty County Council (1960), op. cit., p. 2; Ross and Cromarty County Council (1961) op. cit., p. 2; Ross and Cromarty County Council (1963) op. cit., pp. 2, 6. Finally, we see a report in the Sunday Mail on 21 June 1964 noting:
Caithness County Council and the Burghs of Wick and Thurso are now in the middle of a scheme to rehabilitate the tinkers. These three local authorities know that the tinkers must be re-educated to a new life under a roof in a new community. Their experiment is working, but it hasn’t been easy for either them or the tinkers…. Said Mr William C. Hogg, Town Clerk of Wick “We are re-educating the tinker families in Wick. When they leave their tents they start serving an apprenticeship as citizens in old, but re-decorated property. As soon as we judge them ready for final resettlement they get a new Council house.
185 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1960) HCA/CRC/3/1/80 - Ross and Cromarty County Council Minute Book, 1959-60, Highland Archive Services, Inverness, p. 4.
186 There was evidence of similar feelings elsewhere. At a 1960 meeting of the Lewis Problem Families Sub-Committee, for example, there was discussion of a possible housing site at Laxdale Road. Because it had been found that there was a ‘considerable flow of surface water over the site in bad weather in bad weather’ an alternative site had been selected near the Blackwater Bridge. The Housing Officer was opposed to the latter site, thinking it would be too close to the water and therefore of danger to children and suggested that instead of Laxdale the Council should consider building additional houses at another site at Tong where it was proposed that houses be built for ‘problem families’. In response, however, ‘The Sub-Committee adhered to the view previously expressed that the particular problem families involved should be kept separate from those to occupy the Tong houses and decided to proceed with arrangements to house two families at Laxdale.’ When no suitable other site was found at Laxdale, in a meeting in 12 October 1960: ‘The Sub-Committee were firmly of the opinion that the Laxdale families should be kept separate from the Tong community and approved the proposed site near the Blackwater Bridge.’
187 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1960) op. cit., p. 8. We should also note here that we uncovered evidence in Perth and Kinross Archives that Mrs Fraser-Mackenzie was also in contact with officials in Perth and Kinross about the issue of the ”Accommodation of Tinkers”. Specifically, a reply to Mrs Fraser-Mackenzie from the County Clerk in February 1957 notes: ”I am in receipt of your letter of 17 February. A few years ago as an experiment and to endeavour to provide permanent homes for some of the tinker class, Perth County Council erected four timber houses at Bobbin Mill, Pitlochry. The houses have been constantly occupied by tinker families ever since subject to very close supervision.... On the whole, however, the experiment cannot be regarded as a failure.” See: SS1/H/A3.
188 Note the use of the word ‘rehabilitate’ here which is in keeping with wider research, including that focusing upon the treatment of Gypsy/Travellers in Hampshire which highlights a ‘rehabilitation scheme’ that aimed to:’ reintegrate Gypsies and Travellers into mainstream society, rendering them indistinguishable from the wider population’. Jim Hinks, Becky Taylor, Hampshire’s Gypsy Rehabilitation Centres: Welfare and Assimilation in Mid-20th Century Britain, History Workshop Journal, Volume 94, Autumn 2022, p. 187.
189 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1960) op. cit., p. 8
190Appointed in November 1956 by the Ross and Cromarty Council’s Health Committee to address ‘the question of the provision of improved accommodation for tinker families in the Landward area of the Mainland of the County’. See: Ross and Cromarty County Council (1957) HCA/CRC/3/1/77 - Ross and Cromarty County Council Minute Book, 1956-57, Highland Archive Services, Inverness, p. 7.
191 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1961) op. cit., p. 3.
192 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1945) op. cit., p. 7; Ross and Cromarty County Council (1948) op. cit., p. 4; Ross and Cromarty County Council (1955) op. cit., p. 2; Ross and Cromarty County Council (1957) op. cit., pp. 12, 19, 27-28.
193 Ross and Cromarty County Council (1957) op. cit., p. 19.
194 Scottish Development Department (1956) DD6/2075 - Improvement under the Housing (Scotland) Act 1950: Local Authorities, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 5.
195 The Secretary of State was involved as part of a process of local authorities reporting back to central government.
196 Church of Scotland (1948) CH1/8/84 - Reports to the General Assembly with the Legislative Acts, 1948, Records of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 207.
197 Courland, M. (1943) ‘Letter to Dr. D.J. McLeish on Housing’, 3 December, CC1/LH/109 - Tinker Accommodation 1946-1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth; Courland, M. (1944) ‘Letter to Dr. D.J. McLeish on Permanent Tinkers’ Camping Grounds’, 29 February, CC1/LH/109 - Tinker Accommodation 1946-1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth; Perth Housing Committee (1944) ‘Housing Committee - 7th January, 1944’, CC1/LH/109 - Tinker Accommodation 1946-1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth.
198 The County Architect (1956) ‘Letter to The County Clerk’, 15 September, CC1/H/A3 - Accommodation of Tinker from Nov. 1945 to Jun 1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth; Special Sub-Committee appointed to consider the ‘tinker’ problem in Perthshire (1965) op. Cit.; County Clerk (1958) ‘Letter to Agnes Johnstone on Houses at Bobbin Mill, Pitlochry’, 26 July, CC1/H/A3 - Accommodation of Tinker from Nov. 1945 to Jun 1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth.
199 The County Architect (1956) op. cit.
200 The County Clerk (1964a) ‘Letter to A. D. Jackson on Housing of Tinkers’, 20 October, CC1/H/A3 - Accommodation of Tinker from Nov. 1945 to Jun 1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth; The County Clerk (1964b) ‘Letter to the Secretary, Scottish Development Department’, 16 June, CC1/H/A3 - Accommodation of Tinker from Nov. 1945 to Jun 1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth.
201 The County Factor (1956) ‘Letter to the County Clerk on Bobbin Mill, Pitlochry - Housing’, 24 August, CC1/H/A3 - Accommodation of Tinker from Nov. 1945 to Jun 1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth.
202 See: Accommodation of Tinkers (1965) op. cit.
203 The over-representation of Gypsy/Traveller children in child-welfare systems is an area examined by Allen and Hamnett (2022), who note that ”[o]ver the last five decades, there has been growing concern that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children are over-represented in Child Welfare Services (CWS) in Europe.” See: Allen, D. and Hamnett, V., 2022. Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children in child welfare services in England. British Journal of Social Work, 52(7), pp.3904-3922.
204 In minutes of its General Assembly, the Church of Scotland similarly notes that “the successful housing experiment at Pitlochry shows what can be done and what surely ought to be done to remedy matters.” See: Church of Scotland (1950) CH1/8/86 - Reports to the General Assembly with the Legislative Acts, 1950, Records of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 243; The County Clerk (1964b) op. cit.
205 The County Clerk (1957) ‘Letter to D.E. Fraser-Mackenzie on Accommodation of Tinkers’, CC1/H/A3 - Accommodation of Tinker from Nov. 1945 to Jun 1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth.
206 McPhee, S. (2021) ’The Uglier Side of Bonnie Scotland: The Tinker Housing Experiments’, International Journal of Roma Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 180-208 [Online]. DOI: 10.17583/ijrs.8588. Please note that this article was also referenced in the Scottish Government’s tender document.
207 Home Mission Committee (1934) op. cit., p. 652.
208 Scottish Development Department (1961) op. cit., p. 56; Accommodation of Tinkers (1965) op. cit.; Scottish Development Department (1965) DD6/3200 - Housing Needs, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 27; Proposed Caravan Site for Tinkers at Broxie, near Perth (1969) CC1/LH/206 - Tinker Accommodation, from October 1968 to December 1969, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth; Wright, J. G. L. (1977) ‘Letter to R. W. Williamson on Education of Travelling families in Tayside’, 15 August, DD6/5192 - Policy on Travelling People, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 6.
209 Fleming, M. (1968) ‘Letter to the County Clerk’, CC1/H/A3 - Accommodation of Tinkers from Nov. 1945 to June 1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth.
210 Stewart, L. (1978) ’Site near Perth for Travelling families’, ACC09/23/1/23A - Muirton Community Council records, 1977 - 1980, including Perth & Kinross District Council Policies on the settlement of travelling families, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth.
211 Picker, G., Greenfields, M. and Smith, D., 2015. Colonial refractions: the ‘Gypsy camp’as a spatio-racial political technology. City, 19(5), pp.741-752.
212 See, for example, Sibley, D., 1998. The racialisation of space in British cities. Soundings, London, Lawrence and Wishart, pp.119-127. Sibley sees Gypsy/Traveller camps as demonstrating how the state attempts to isolate and then transform a discrepant minority, discrepant in this case because of its ethnicity and nomadic tradition. The attempt to regulate the lives of gypsies on sites … is an instance of a “micro-form” of discipline, which is functional within a larger system.’
213 Calderwood, R. (1980) SR1/2 Box 49 - Provision of Sites for Travelling People - Report by the Chief Executive, Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow, p. 4; The Planning Exchange (c. 1983) op. cit., pp. 22-25; Maud, R. (1991) ‘Traveller Site Provision in Strathclyde - Progress Report’, SR1/2 Box 203 - Travelling People - Information Report, Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow, p. 5; Scottish Development Department (1991) ‘Number of Travellers Children Attending School Nearby to Sites - Results of survey carried out May - November 1989 (179 schools)’ DD6/5496 - Scotland’s Travelling People: Policy on Education of Travellers Children, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 11; Maud, R. (1992) SR1/2 Box 229 - Traveller Site Provision in Strathclyde - Monitoring Report No. 1, Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow, pp. 10-11, 34; Maud, R. (1993) SR1/2 Box 255 - Traveller Site Provision in Strathclyde - Monitoring Report No. 2, Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow pp. 6-7, 29; Maud, R. (1994) SR1/2 Box 285 - Traveller Site Provision in Strathclyde - Monitoring Report No. 3, Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow, pp. 7, 27.
214 Scottish Development Department (1961) op. cit., p. 13; Duncan, I. R. (1968) ‘Letter to V. C. Stewart and M. J. Morrison on Gipsies and Tinkers’, DD6/3161 - Caravans and Second Homes, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 13; Scottish Development Department (1971) SEP/53/1 - Caravan Sites, Gypsies and Tinkers, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, pp. 10, 13, 22; Scottish Development Department (1974) DD12/4246 - Birsay Committee on Scotland’s Travelling People, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, pp. 1, 3, 4, 26, 30; Central Region Planning Department (1978) op. cit., p. 26; Calderwood, R. (1980) op. cit., pp. 2, 4; The Planning Exchange (c. 1983) op. cit., pp. 30-33; Maud, R. (1991) op. cit., p. 6; Scottish Development Department (1991) op. cit., p. 13; Maud, R. (1992), op. cit., pp. 22, 34; Maud, R. (1993) op. cit., pp. 14-15, 29; Maud, R. (1994) op. cit., pp. 9, 27;
215 Central Region Planning Committee (1978) op. cit., p. 26; Strathclyde Regional Liaison Committee (1979) DD6/5192 - Policy on Travelling People, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, pp. 4, 10;Calderwood, R. (1980) op. cit., p. 2; The Planning Exchange (1980) Planning Exchange Forum Report - Scotland’s Travelling People: Second Report, Spring 1980, Dundee City Council Archives, Dundee, p. 13; The Planning Exchange (c. 1983) op. cit., pp. 14-17; Scottish Development Department (1991) op. cit., p. 11; Maud, R. (1991) op. cit., p. 5; Maud, R. (1992), op. cit., pp. 8-9, 34, 34; Maud, R. (1993) op. cit., pp. 5-6, 29; Maud, R. (1994) op. cit., pp. 6, 27.
216 The Planning Exchange (c. 1983) op. cit., pp. 34-37; Scottish Development Department (1991) op. cit., p. 13
217 Clare, L. (1984) ’SDD Circular 34/184 - Scotland’s Travelling People Site Provision and Toleration Policy’, Director of Housing File re travelling people, including minutes of meetings, correspondence, memoranda, maps, site information sheets, etc., Dundee City Archives, Dundee; City of Dundee District Council (1990) ’A Permanent Site for Travelling People’, Director of Housing File re travelling people, including minutes of meetings, correspondence, memoranda, maps, site information sheets, etc., Dundee City Archives, Dundee.
218 ibid.
219 In the report commissioned by the Secretary of Scotland in which this policy originates, the expressed goal of the report was "to provide a bridge between the settled community with a view to achieving greater tolerance and understanding of each other's point of view". See City of Dundee District Council (1990) op. cit., p. 2.
220 See: Equality & Human Rights Commission report on successful site provision in Scotland
221 In 'A Permanent Site for Travelling People’ part 1 (Dundee Council Archives), it notes in relation to Dundee District not meeting its pitch targets and other areas meeting theirs, that this risks other council areas moving illegal campers into Dundee District as the policy would no longer apply within their council.
222 Maud, R. (1986) SR1/2 Box 109 - Travelling People in Strathclyde - A Framework for Site Provision (Final Edition) 1986, Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow, p. 5.
223 Maud, R. (1984) SR1/2 Box 95 - Travelling People in Strathclyde Region - A Framework for Site Provision (Revised Edition), Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow, pp. 2, 17
224 Maud, R. (1986) op. cit. Note that the use of the word [districts’ is taken directly from the archives. In the case of Strathclyde Regional Council – which operated as a single entity and covered most of the Central Belt – it contacined many dub-divisions, which were referred to as districts.
225 Parliament of the United Kingdom (1969) Tinkers (West Midlands), House of Commons, vol. 784 [Online]. Available at: Text of Hansard information on debate.
226 City of Dundee District Council (1990) ‘A Permanent Site for Travelling People’, Director of Housing File - Travelling People 1982-1992, Dundee City Archives, Dundee, pp. 1, 7-8.
227 Ibid., pp. 7-8.
228 Inverness County Council (1962) HCA/CI/3/1/104 - Inverness County Council Minutes and Committees, 1961-62, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, p. 622.
229 Blair, R. T. (1961) ‘Letter to the Department of Health for Scotland on Housing of Tinkers’, 29 November, CC1/H/A3 - Accommodation of Tinkers from Nov. 1945 to Jun 1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth.
230 Picker, G., Greenfields, M. and Smith, D. (2015) 'Colonial refractions: the ’'Gypsy camp’ as a spatio-racial political technology’, City, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 741-752 [Online]. DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2015.1071123, p. 746
231 This includes some Council areas, like Inverclyde, having no official, or even unofficial campsites for Gypsy/Travellers(Link to article); some plans for new sites:
a set of existing sites where there is a desperate need for investment, see, for example:
Link to article. We would also highlight recent research that suggests that in terms of current local authority-managed Gypsy/Traveller sites across Scotland, England and Wales, 39% were sited within 50 metres of one or more major pollutants and 54% were sited within 100 metres of major pollution. See: Bloch, A. and Quarmby, K., 2024. Environmental racism, segregation and discrimination: Gypsy and Traveller sites in Great Britain. Critical Social Policy, p.02610183241229053.
232 This term was used widely in the 1940s and 50s in reference to post-WWII housing shortages. The context of the housing crisis was used by local authorities to legitimise the provision of sub-standard accommodation, such as military infrastructure, wooden huts, or disused buildings.
233 Within many of the minutes produced by Ross and Cromarty minutes, the term ‘squatters’ was used. In many cases it was used as a synonym for Scottish Gypsy/Traveller; in later years, when more specific mentions of ‘tinkers’ and ‘problem families’ arise, references to ‘squatters’ largely disappear. See:Ross and Cromarty County Council (1946) HCA/CRC/3/1/66 - Ross and Cromarty Council Minute Book, 1945-46, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, p. 103.
234 Inverness County Council (1955) HCA/CI/3/1/90 - Inverness County Council Minutes and Committees, 1954-55, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, pp. 8, 11; Inverness County Council (1956) HCA/CI/3/1/92 - Inverness County Council Minutes and Committees, 1955-56, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, p. 9; Inverness County Council (1958b) HCA/CI/3/1/97 - Inverness County Council Minutes and Committees, 1958, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, p. 10.
235 Inverness County Council (1956) op. cit., pp. 9, 11.
236 Inverness County Council (1958a) HCA/CI/3/1/96 - Inverness County Council Minutes and Committees, 1957-58, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, p. 3; Inverness County Council (1958b) op. cit., p. 10; Inverness County Council (1959) HCA/CI/3/1/98 - Inverness County Council Minutes and Committees, 1958-59, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, pp. 3-4.
237 Inverness County Council (1958b) op. cit., p. 10.
238 Inverness County Council (1955) op. cit., p. 7; Inverness County Council (1956) HCA/CI/3/1/93 - Inverness County Council Minutes and Committees, 1956, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, p. 3; Inverness County Council (1957) HCA/CI/3/1/94 - Inverness County Council Minutes and Committees, 1956-57, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, pp. 3-4, 6, 10, 12; Inverness County Council (1957) HCA/Ci/3/1/95 - Inverness County Council Minutes and Committees, 1957, Highland Archive Service, Inverness, pp. 3, 5; Inverness County Council (1958b) op. cit., pp. 8, 10.
239 In other words, the local authorities so-called ’problem families’ likely did not begin to exist only when the records stated the presence of such families. Rather their presence can most probably be seen ’between the lines’ of existing archival evidence of what are perceived as 'non-standard' housing arrangements, e.g. squatting.
240 Canmore (2024) Canmore - National Record of the Historic Environment [Online]. Available at: Link to article. Castlehill Barracks was also referred to in the Aberdeen Evening Express, 23 June, 1959 as a ’clearing centre for the housing department’ (Link to article).
241 Kelman, H. S. (1917) ‘Letter to Mr Smail’, NRAS980/File 20/5 - Memoranda and reports of, or submitted to, Departmental Committee of Tinkers - relates to visits, interviews, etc. in Aberdeenshire, the Borders, Perthshire, Dundee, Inverness and Wick. Information, etc., circulated to members of the Departmental Committee on Tinkers, Private archives of Katherine Majory-Stewart, Duchess of Atholl, Blair Castle Archives, Blair Atholl.
242 Scott, J. (1917) ‘Letter to R. Menzies Fergusson’, 22 October, NRAS980/File 20/4 - Official correspondence, reports and memoranda etc., relating to conditions of tinkers; bibliography of books dealing with Scottish tinkers; printed official report of Departmental Committee on Employment of Boys and Girls from the Congested Districts in the Highlands of Scotland, 1909, Private archive of Katharine Marjory Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl, Blair Castle Archives, Blair Atholl, p. 15.
243 Maitland, D. (1933) ‘Letter to the Duchess of Atholl on Tinkers in Perthshire’, 12 June, NRAS980/File 90/9 - Correspondence relating to Perthshire affairs, Private archives of Katharine Marjory Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl, Blair Castle Archives, Blair Atholl.
244 Departmental Committee on Tinkers (Scotland) (1918) op cit., p. 4.
245 We note that the Church of Scotland was the only religious institution mentioned in the original tender document by the Scottish Government. Scottish Government, Invitation to Tender - Provision of Archival Research to Explore 20th Century Policies Affecting the Gypsy/Traveller Communities’, p. 11.
246 As noted by the Scottish History Society: ‘[the] blueprint for what would become the Church, or Kirk, of Scotland, later known as the First Book of Discipline, was accepted in an act of secret council in January 1561, and aimed to bring about sweeping changes to the Scottish parish system.’ See: History article on the Scottish Reformation
247 We also saw narrative evidence of supervision earlier than this, when it is reported that in the Kirk Session records for Cluny in Aberdeenshire on 17 February 1765, that ”it met and appointed two men to act as constables for apprehending tinkers and others, and that on 3 March, the precentor [a layperson appointed by the Kirk Session to lead the congregation in singing] made, in presence of the congregation, the instructions to the constables.” See: Allardyce, John, Bygone Days in Aberdeenshire, The Central Press: Aberdeen, 1913: p.10.
248 Lindsay, J. (1936) ‘Letter to C. A. Cumming Forsyth on Census of School Attendance of Itinerant Children’, GD409/29/7 - Reports and correspondence by the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children's inspectors on the school attendance records of tinker children, Records of the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSSPCC)/Children 1st, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 5.
249 Methods adopted to settle down the Border Tinker-Gipsies (1917) NRAS980/File 20/5 - Memoranda and reports of, or submitted to, Departmental Committee of Tinkers - relates to visits, interviews, etc. in Aberdeenshire, the Borders, Perthshire, Dundee, Inverness and Wick. Information, etc., circulated to members of the Departmental Committee on Tinkers, Private archives of Katherine Majory-Stewart, Duchess of Atholl, Blair Castle Archives, Blair Atholl, pp. 22, 25.
250 Macritchie, D. (1894) op. cit., p. 6
251 Crabb (spelt as ’Crabbe’ in archival evidence) was the author of The Gipsies’ Advocate; or Observations on the Origin, Character, Manners, and Habits, of the English Gypsies (published 1832), as noted in the archives. See Methods adopted to settle down the Border Tinker-Gipsies (c. 1917), op. Cit., p. 24.
252 The term ’Minister of the High Church’ is what was stated in the archival evidence. Despite a period of research specifically on the use of this term, the research team could not say with certainty what this title refers to.
253 Methods adopted to settle down the Border Tinker-Gipsies (c. 1917), op. cit., p. 26. John Baird is somewhat more sympathetic in his Statistical Account from 1845, although he is still advocating acculturation, see pp.165-170.
254 Ibid., p. 28.
255 Ibid., p. 28.
256 Ibid., p. 33.
257 Ibid.
258 Lindsay, J. (1936) ‘Letter to C. A. Cumming Forsyth on Census of School Attendance of Itinerant Children’, GD409/29/7 - Reports and correspondence by the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children's inspectors on the school attendance records of tinker children, Records of the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSSPCC)/Children 1st, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 5.
259 See: Acts Church and Society Network (2011) A Report on the Churches’ attitude to the Travelling Community in Scotland [Online]. Available at: Church of Scotland report on Churches' attitudes towards the Travelling Community in Scotland.
260 Ibid.
261 Church of Scotland (1927) CH1/16/31 - Report by the Home Mission Committee to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Records of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 8.
262 Scottish Home and Health Department (191) op. cit., pp. 10-14; Scottish Development Department (1965) op. cit., pp. 36-37, 46, 55.
263 Dorothea Maitland (1934) ‘Letter to Duchess of Atholl on Tinkers in Perthshire’, 8 January, NRAS980/File 90/9 - Correspondence relating to Perthshire affairs, Private Archives of Katharine Marjory Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl, Blair Castle Archives, Blair Atholl, p. 48. We would also note an example from the Report of the Home Mission Committee 1932 which states: “where there are evils associated with the tinker’s mode of living, these cannot be prevented by the unsympathetic treatment which compels them to keep moving on”. The latter quote is also interesting in terms of recognising that there was indeed unsympathetic treatment that was taking place related to stopping places, which arguably reflects back to the legislation highlighted in Chapter 3.
264 Gentleman, H. and Swift, S. (1971), op. cit., p. 14.
265 Ibid.
266 The County Clerk (1957) op. cit.
267 Gentleman, H. and Swift, S. (1971), op. cit., p. 16
268 Gentleman, H. and Swift, S. (1971), op. cit., p. 15.
269 Ibid.
270 The use of education as a means of enforcing settlement into housing was also noted as a central goal of the 1936 Departmental Committee’s Report. See: Department of Health for Scotland (1936) op. Cit., p. 41,
271 Gentleman, H. and Swift, S. (1971), op. cit., p. 16.
272 Ibid. We should also note that narrative evidence was discovered related to an ’experiment’ by the Free Church in Campbeltown. As noted in the Edinburgh Evening News on 26 May, 1928: ”The Free Church experiment of setting up a tinker settlement in the Campbeltown district was referred to at last night’s sitting of the General assembly of the Church, held in Edinburgh. Speaking on the Work of the Committee for the Welfare of Tinkers, the Rev. John Calder, Campbeltown, said the tinkers had been enclosed in a little compound during the winter months and were still there. The result was that the tinker child could attend school regularly, and the remarkable thing was that not a single child in that encampment had failed to put in the full attendance.” See: Link to article
273 Home Mission Committee (1934) CH1/16/27 - Minutes, Records of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, pp. 737-738; Home Mission of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (1955) CH1/51/20 - Home Board minutes, Records of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 5842.
274 See: Gentleman, H. and Swift, S. (1971) op. cit., p. 24; The Scotsman (1933) ‘Scheme for Tinkers - Church Lends a Hand’, 4 February [Online]. Available at: Link to article; Maitland, D. (1933) ‘Letter to the Duchess of Atholl on Vagrancy in Perthshire & Kinross’, 10 March, NRAS980/90/9 - Correspondence relating to Perthshire Affairs, Private archives of Katharine Marjory Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl, Blair Castle Archives, Blair Atholl, p. 45; Department of Health for Scotland (1936) op.cit., p. 45.
275 See: Gentleman, H. and Swift, S. (1971) op. cit., p. 24; Department of Health for Scotland (1936) op. cit., p. 45.
276 Ibid.
277 Dundee Courier, Saturday 15 October, 1938: See: Link to article
278 The Scotsman, 15 October, 1938: Link to article
279 Brydon, R.S. (1938) ‘Letter to John M. Dawson on Special School’, 29 August, CC1/5/155/189 - Aldour School, Perth & Kinross Council Archive, Perth.
280 Brydon, R. S. (1938) CC1/5/155/189 - Aldour School, Perth & Kinross Archives, Perth.
281 Brown, F. (1941) CC1/5/7/7 - Aldour Special School log book 1938-1941, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth.
282 Ibid.
283 Ibid.
284 Dawson, J. M. (1938) ‘Letter to R. S. Brydon on Special School’, 30 August, CC1/5/155/189 - Aldour School, Perth & Kinross Council Archive, Perth.
285 Bates, R. M. (1940) ‘Letter to R. S. Brydon on Aldour School’, 6 November, CC1/5/155/189 - Aldour School, Perth & Kinross Council Archive, Perth. We would note too that this question of teaching children from Gypsy/Traveller families separately is seen in a range of archival materials. One Headteacher in Fife in 1982 suggests that a new scheme, in operation at that time, for ‘Education of Pupils with Learning Difficulties’ will cater admirably for such children with their problem of erratic attendance’ See: Fife Regional Council - Education Committee (1982) ‘Fife teachers surveys on Traveller children in schools’, FC/ED/2/1/1 - File on Education of Travellers’ Children in Fife, Fife Council Archives, Glenrothes, p.6.
286 The Scotsman (1940) ‘Tinker School at Pitlochry: Satisfactory Progress of Scheme’, 26 January, p. 12 [Onlne]. Available at: Link to article.
287 Particulars of a scheme for the welfare of tinkers in Perthshire, which the Home Mission Committee of the Church of Scotland is prepared to carry out (date unknown) NRAS980/90/9 - Correspondence relating to Perthshire Affairs, Private archives of Katharine Marjory Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl, Blair Castle Archives, Blair Atholl, p. 12.
288 Ibid.
289 See, for example, Campbeltown Courier, Saturday 4 May, 1946. See: Link to article The Inverness Courier reported later that year, on Friday 8 November 1946 that William Webb, ”Church of Scotland chaplain to the tinkers, arrived in Inverness this week to make a tour of Inverness-shire.... When interviewed, Mr Webb explained that there were approximately 500 families of Tinkers in the whole of Scotland, and the children of school age numbered a thousand. Many of them could neither read or write and the older generation had never been to school. However the police had now been authorised to demand from a tinker family a school ticket to prove that the children were attending school. Mr Webb declared that the Nissen huts which had been vacated by the military forces had been a great boon to the tinkers as they provided ideal homes for them. The younger generation of tinkers desired to get off the road and to rise in life.”
290 Perth and Kinross Archives, CC1/H/A3. The Church of Scotland also notes that there was very little oversight of his activities by the Home Mission Committee and the associated ‘tinkers’ sub-committee. Reports on the ‘principals’ on which he (and his female counterpart) were working were eventually requested and received in the mid-1950s, and it followed that a request had been made for Mr Webb’s activities to be overseen by the local minister and the Presbytery. William Webb resigned soon after.
291 Home Mission of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (1955), op. cit.
292 Perth and Kinross Joint County Council (1954) CC1/T&CP/54/553 - Travelling people’s encampment, Gothens Wood, Meikleour for Church of Scotland Home Mission, per William Webb, Benholm, New Rattray, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth.
293 Perth County Council (1965) ‘Accommodation of Tinkers - Record Note of Meeting with County Sanitary Inspector and The Rev. Mr. Sutherland, Tinkers’ Padre on 14th April 1965’, CC1/H/A3 - Accommodation of Tinker from Nov. 1945 to Jun 1966, Perth & Kinross Council Archives, Perth; Robertson, I. M. (1965) ‘Letter to Mr Daley and Mr Russell on Gypsies’, 11 March, DD6/3200 - Housing Needs, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh; Scottish Development Department (1961) op. cit, p. 56.
294 Roughly £256,924.70 today, as calculated by the Bank of England. See: Home Board of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (1970) CH1/8/105 - Reports to the General Assembly, Records of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 316.
295 Home Board of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (1971) CH1/8/106 - Reports to the General Assembly, Records of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p 304.
296 Home Board of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (1973) CH1/8/108 - Reports to the General Assembly, Records of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p 335.
297 Ibid.
298 Church of Scotland (1971) CH1/6/106 - Reports to the General Assembly with the Legislative Acts, Records of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 304.
299 Home Board of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (1974) CH1/8/109 - Reports to the General Assembly, Records of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 274.
300 Ibid.
301 Ibid.
302 Scottish Government, Invitation to Tender - Provision of Archival Research to Explore 20th Century Policies Affecting the Gypsy/Traveller Communities’, p. 11.
303 ’See: Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry Evidence Hub. We would note too that as a result of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry charities have already begun to address their role in the history of child welfare in Scotland. For example, Barnardo’s have made individual and collective apologies, and have cooperated with a number of Inquiries including multiple appearances at SCAI, and are also party to the Redress Scheme.
305 Please note that we are not providing links to specific testimonies in this report or naming witnesses where those are available. All are available online through the SCAI website which also provides additional research materials regarding the historic child welfare landscape in Scotland. See also endnote 307.
306 See, for example: Allen, D. and Adams, P., 2013. Social Work with gypsy Roma and traveller children; Allen, D., 2016. 'It's in their Culture': Working with automatic prejudice towards Gypsies, Roma and Travellers during care proceedings. Seen and Heard, 26(2), pp.40-52; Allen, D. and Hulmes, A., 2021. Aversive racism and child protection practice with gypsy, Roma and traveller children and families. Seen and Heard, 31(2).
307 One witness testimony noted a long history of Gypsy/Traveller children in Scotland being taken into care, some of whom were subsequently abused. As a research team we do not feel that it is the role of this report to repeat the testimonies already gathered by the SCAI without the permission of those who gave statements to the SCAI. Those who are interested in examining the current evidence further as it relates to Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland can perform a keyword search at: Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry website. We would note too that SCAI testimonies represent a snapshot in time, and that current SCAI testimonies may in future be augmented by additional testimonies from members of Gypsy/Traveller communities in Scotland which provide further context to the knowledge that currently exists. We would also point the reader to the experiences of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland in the child welfare system recounted in the podcast series The Cruelty – A Child Unclaimed hosted by Davie Donaldson for BBC Sounds, most notably Episode 4.
308 The Society gained Royal Charter in 1921 and became the Royal Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; from 1995 to the present it has been called Children 1st.
309 Kelly, C., 2019. Juvenile Justice in Victorian Scotland. Edinburgh University Press, p. 137.
310 Robinson, S. (2004) ‘“Children in good order”: A study of constructions of child protection’, unpublished Phd., University of Stirling, noted in Clapton, G., 2009. ‘Yesterday's Men’: The Inspectors of the Royal Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 1888–1968. British Journal of Social Work, 39(6), pp.1043-1062. Clapton, in his examination of the 1910s and 1920s notes : ‘’Many Inspectors seem to have been ex-police or ex-army men. Only two particular questions were asked relating to types of previous employment and these were ‘Have you been in the Navy/Army/Auxiliary Forces?’ and ‘Have you been in the Constabulary?’’ (2009: 1050).This may be relevant to the subject matter of this report because Gypsy/Traveller communities in Scotland may have been monitored at one point by the police, and then those same police later employed in a child welfare capacity. It may also mean that there were pre-existing links between RSSPCC inspectors and local police forces who then took on an RSSPCC Inspector role.
311 Hill, N. (1917) ‘Statement of evidence to be submitted by Mr. Ninian Hill, 3 Murrayfield Avenue, Edinburgh’, NRAS980/File 20/4 - Official correspondence, reports and memoranda etc., relating to conditions of tinkers; bibliography of books dealing with Scottish tinkers; printed official report of Departmental Committee on Employment of Boys and Girls from the Congested Districts in the Highlands of Scotland, 1909, Private archive of Katharine Marjory Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl, Blair Castle Archives, Blair Atholl, pp. 3-4.
312 Hill, N. (1917) op. cit.
313 Williamson, D., 2012. The Horsieman: Memories of a Traveller 1928-58. Birlinn, p. 13-14.
314 Royal Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (1936) op. cit., p. 53.
315 We should note too that prior to the Adoption of Children (Scotland) Act 1930 child removal didn’t need to be documented.
316 One example of this took place during the visit of Prof. Wolfgang Abel, Professor of Ethnology and Anthropology at the University of Berlin and a member, since earlier in the 1930s, of the Schutzstaffel (SS), the Nazi paramilitary. We found direct archival evidence in the RSSPCC archival materials which details an account, widely reported in the media at the time, of his 1938 visit to Caithness wich was widely reported in the Scottish media at the time. The Dundee Courier reporting on 18 August, 1938, under the headline ‘Measures Tinkers’ Heads’, that: Professor Wolfgang Abel, Berlin, who is making a study of Scottish tinkers, has now practically completed his work in Caithness where he visited almost every tinker encampment in the county. He has taken numerous photographs of these hardy nomads and also measurements of their heads, hands, arms and general physique. Our research discovered further evidence of this in a report written by RSSPCC Inspector G.H. Shennan giving an overview of the work that he (Shennan) had carried out during his time in the Highlands: One day the County Police phoned me to say that a German Professor, visiting Scotland, wanted information about Tinkers. They sent him to me. We met in the local museum. He produced his card, which bore the inscription: ‘Wolfgang Abel: Professor of Anthropology, University of Berlin.’ He said he would be very grateful if I could tell him where he might be able to meet gypsies, primitives and cave dwellers. As an Anthropologist he wanted to take certain head measurements - for scientific purposes. I could only think of the McPhees of Caithness, indicating from a map their most likely abodes and if in doubt to consult the Police in Wick or Thurso. Shennan then writes that at a later date he was approached by one of the McPhees at a fair in Inverness, who inquired: who yon man was that cam’ to wir tent and wanted to measure wirs heids. A asked him what for. He said he was a learned man and was wanting to fin oot wha wir the oldest fowl in the world - he said he was telt they lived in the Smoo Cave [located to the east of Durness in Caithness]. He said he was pay us if we was let him dae it. He gied a shullan for every heid he measured.[316] Shennan also noted that: “Time passed - then one day I read in a newspaper that somewhere off the American coast a foreign submarine was caught – and amongst the prisoners was Wolfgang Abel. I have often wondered if he was our Professor from Berlin - a Spy.”
See: ‘Measures Tinkers’ Heads’, Dundee Courier, 18 August, 1938, p. 7 [Online]. Available at: Link to article.; Shennan, G. H. (1965) GD409/29/14 - Report by Inspector G H Shennan [ Shennan] on his work with the Royal Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Records of the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSSPCC)/Children 1st, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, pp. 3-4.
317 We would note that this statement is made based on information contained within what is available online from the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (see: Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry website) rather than from information that we discovered within the archives of individual charitable institutions.
318 See: Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry case study into migration schemes
319 We recognise too that this limited the ability to make requests for specific records, and for archivists in turn to provide material relevant that would be relevant to such a request.
320 Gentleman, H. and Swift, S., op. cit.
321 See also: Bessant, J.C., 2013. History and Australian indigenous child welfare policies. Policy Studies, 34(3), pp.310-325.; Fallon, B., Lefebvre, R., Trocmé, N., Richard, K., Hélie, S., Montgomery, H.M., Bennett, M., Joh-Carnella, N., Saint-Girons, M., Filippelli, J. and MacLaurin, B., 2021. Denouncing the Continued Overrepresentation of First Nations Children in Canadian Child Welfare: Findings from the First Nations/Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect, 2019 [online] ; MacDonald, D.B., 2023. Aotearoa New Zealand, the Forcible Transfer of Tamariki and Rangatahi Māori, and the Royal Commission on Abuse in Care. Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal, 17(1), pp.1-22.; Crofoot, T.L. and Harris, M.S., 2012. An Indian child welfare perspective on disproportionality in child welfare. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(9), pp.1667-1674.
322 Departmental Committee on Habitual Offenders, Vagrants, Etc. (1896), op. cit., pp. 16-17.
323 Scottish Office Education Department (1929) ED15/179 - Mars Industrial School Ship (Newport, Fife), National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh.
324 See: Introduction to the Aberlour Archive
325 Aberlour Trust Archives, University of Stirling, Individual Records 1559-60.
326 Admission Register No. 2725.
327 Aberlour Trust Archives, University of Stirling, Schedule 2008.
328 See: Report on Barnado's Homes, made to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry
329 See: Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse at Barnado's
330 See: Little Immigrants website - profile of Gypsy Simon Smith
331 See: Quarriers website.
332 Magnusson, A., 2006. Quarriers Story: One Man's Vision That Gave 7,000 Children a New Life in Canada. Dundurn, p. 35.
333 See: Quarriers website.
334 Ibid.
335 Quarriers Narrative of Facts, 1902, 74, quoted in: Quarrier’s Homes Conservation Area Appraisal, Inverclyde Council, Austin-Smith:Lord LLP, August 2019, p. 89.
336 See: Quarriers website
337 Kevin, McKenna, Scottish Gypsy-Travellers: Dr Lynne Tammi-Connelly on Tinkers' trauma, The Herald, 27 January, 2024.
338 The make-up and roles of those who joined the police force also varied depending on geographic location. One-person police stations, for example, were found in rural areas of Scotland, often staffed with someone local and knowledgeable of local nuances (e.g. social relationships, Gaelic fluency), and whose power over localities became centralised in one individual. Depending on the region, the police of particular constabularies had histories of being perceived to have biases, whether as more-Protestant leaning in Glasgow or as protectors of landowners, evidenced by their involvement in the mid-19th century clearances of the Western Isles and the Crofters’ Wars of the 1880s.
339 On this latter point, the Gentleman and Swift report noted that ‘local authorities used the police as a source of information about the location of travellers. Op cit.
340 Departmental Committee on Tinkers (1918), op. cit., p. 23.
341 See, for example: Davidson, N., Fleming, L., Jackson, L., Smale, D. and Sparks, R., 2017. Police and community in 20th-century Scotland: The uses of social history. British Journal of Criminology, 57(1), pp.18-39.
342 Departmental Committee on Tinkers (1918), op. cit., p. 23.
343 Perth and Kinross Archives, CC1/H/A3.
344 Departmental Committee on Tinkers (1918) op. cit., pp. 343-345.
345 Ibid., p. 349.
346 Ibid., pp. 349-350.
347 Ibid., p. 353.
348 Ibid., pp. 353-354.
349 This also include evidence that we uncovered in Perth and Kinross where the Chief Constable of Perthshire and Kinross-shire Constabulary commented on the suitability of a ”Proposed Tinker Encampment at Gothens Wood in Meikleour” in 1954.” As the Chief Constable notes: ”The proposed site is close to the Perth-Blairgowrie public road and would appear to offer little privacy or shelter to the occupants, particularly during the winter months. The tinker fraternity are notoriously careless about the supervision of their children and animals and these would undoubtedly wander on to the public road with resulting danger to themselves and other road users.”
350 Under this category we would also include the monitoring of living conditions. As John Thomas Maxwell, Secretary to the Local Government Board for Scotland, notes in his 1917 evidence to the Departmental Committee on Tinkers (Blair Castle Archives, p. 3-4) when discussing the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, (Sections 118 and 119), ’[t]he former section gives the officers of a local authority power to enter and cleanse dirty houses at the expense of the occupier, if occupied, and of the owner, if unoccupied, while the latter section provides for a penalty for keeping a house dirty after notice to cleanse has been served by the local authority.”
351 The ‘toleration’ policy eventually ended because a grant scheme to provide campsites was discontinued.
352 McNaughtan, J.H., 1985. Scotland's travelling people: An analysis of government policy. University of Glasgow (United Kingdom), p. 147.
353 Scottish Development Department (1980) DD6/5192 - Policy on Travelling People, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh.
354 Ibid.
355 Equal Opportunities Committee’s “Inquiry into Gypsy Travellers and Public Policies” published on 27 June 2001. See www.bemis.org.uk.
356 Fife Regional Council (1989) ‘Travellers’ Meeting - 17th August, 1989’, FC/ED/2/1/1 - File on Education of Travellers’ Children in Fife, Fife Council Archives, Glenrothes.
357 Departmental Committee on Tinkers (Scotland) (1918), op. cit., p. 22
358Maiese, Michelle. "Dehumanization." Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Information Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: July 2003
359 There are also numerous examples in the life narratives of other marginalised peoples. See: Zlobina, A., Bettinsoli, M.L., Miranda, M.P. and Formanowicz, M., 2023. Back to basics: Human rights violations and dehumanization. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 51, p.101263. See also: Haslam, N., 2019. The many roles of dehumanization in genocide. Confronting humanity at its worst: Social psychological perspectives on genocide, pp.199-139. for an examination of the literature on the relationship between dehumanisation and genocide.
360 See for example, Crearie, R. S. (1958) ‘The Tinker Tribes of Scotland, The Scotsman, 6 October, p. 8 [Online].Available at:. Link to article
361 Dundee Courier (1938) ‘The Scottish Tinkers’, Dundee Courier, 18 August, p. 6 [Online]. Available at: Link to article
362 Departmental Committee on Tinkers (Scotland) (1918) HH61/77 - Departmental Committee on Tinkers (Scotland) Report, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK, p. 22.
363 As stated by William Mitchell - Vice-Chairman of the Glasgow School Board. See: Departmental Committee on Habitual Offenders, Vagrants, Etc. (1896) GD409/37/2 - Gipsy or Tinker Children in Scotland (extracts from evidence given to the Departmental Committee on Habitual Offenders, Vagrants, etc, 1894), Records of the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSSPCC)/Children 1st, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK, p. 13.
See: Travellers Times article on seeing past gypsies and travellers through non-gypsy eyes for a discussion.
365 Hitchcock, Robert K. ’Mobility, sedentism, and intensification: Organizational responses to environmental and social change among the San of southern Africa.’ in Processual Archaeology: Exploring Analytical Strategies, Frames of Reference, and Cultural Process. Edited by Amber L. Johnson. Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood, 2004
366 Drakakis-Smith, A. (2007) 'Nomadism a Moving Myth? Policies of Exclusion and the Gypsy/Traveller Response’, Mobilities, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 463-487 [Online]. DOI: 10.1080/17450100701597467; Powell, R. (2008) ’’Understanding the Stigmatization of Gypsies: Power and the Dialectics of (Dis)identification’, Housing, Theory and Society, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 87-109 [Online]. DOI: 10.1080/14036090701657462.
367 Departmental Committee on Tinkers (Scotland) (1918), op. cit., pp. 26-27
368 Ibid.
369 Departmental Committee on Tinkers (1918) NRAS980/File 20/2 - Transcripts of Oral Evidence given to the Departmental Committee on Tinkers - witnesses from Inverness, Dingwall, Golspie, Oban, Edinburgh, Thurso, Wick, Glasgow, Perth, Private Archives of Katharine Marjory Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl, Blair Castle Archives, Blair Atholl, p. 350.
370 Sam, David L., and John W. Berry. "Acculturation: When individuals and groups of different cultural backgrounds meet." Perspectives on psychological science 5.4 (2010): 472-481; As Pauls notes: ‘Attempts to compel minority groups to assimilate have occurred frequently in world history. The forced assimilation of indigenous peoples was particularly common in the European colonial empires of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. In North and South America, Australia, Africa, and Asia, colonial policies toward indigenous peoples frequently compelled their religious conversion, the removal of children from their families, the division of community property into salable, individually owned parcels of land, the undermining of local economies and gender roles by shifting responsibility for farming or other forms of production from women to men, and the elimination of access to indigenous foodstuffs. Forced assimilation is rarely successful, and it generally has enduring negative consequences for the recipient culture.’ See: Pauls, Elizabeth Prine. "assimilation". Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Jun. 2024.
371 Departmental Committee on Habitual Offenders, Vagrants, Etc. (1896) op. cit., pp. 29, 34
372 David B MacDonald & Graham Hudson, “The Genocide Question and Indian Residential Schools in Canada” (2012) 45:2 Can J Political Science 427 at 430-431
373 The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide responded to the systematic murder of over six million Jews, as well as Roma, Queer people, disabled people, Black people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Free Masons, by the Nazi regime on the basis of group identity and cultural practice. In the drafting of the convention, however, the crime of cultural genocide - or the intent to destroy a particular group’s culture as well as their ability to practice it - was largely omitted. It is only Article 2(e), or ‘the forced transfer of children from one group to another’, that locates how the destruction of a group of people can be realised in a way that can appear non-violent and even framed by them as ‘good intentions’. Cultural genocide has been increasingly discussed in recent years thanks to the advocacy of Indigenous peoples, from Australia to Canada to the US to Greenland, who had been forcibly placed in various child welfare systems designed to strip them of their culture. The Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CTRC, 2008-2015) and the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission (MWTRC, 2013-2015), for example, separately investigated claims by survivors of these systems that policies surrounding child welfare, housing, education, and health had been historically and systemically discriminatory against them, resulting in higher mortality rates and the loss of culture in their communities. In their concluding reports, both truth commissions demonstrated that Canadian and American institutions, entrusted with public welfare, were collectively complicit in assimilating Indigenous children into dominant Euro-centric American and Canadian cultures, and had therefore committed ‘cultural genocide’.
374 MacDonald & Hudson, op cit. supra note 7 at 430–31.
375 See, for example: Smith, D.M. and Greenfields, M., 2013. Gypsies and Travellers in housing: The decline of nomadism. Policy Press.
376 Cant is a language used by many Scottish Gypsy/Travellers for communication and expression. It is also a cryptolect, whose usage is intended as both a form of resistance to wider Scottish society and as a means of identifying fellow Gypsy/Travellers. See: McKean, T. A. (2021) ‘Multi-Layered Communication and Function in Scottish Traveller Cant’, Traditiones, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 95-121 [Online]. DOI: 10.3986/Traditio2021500206.
377 See, for example: Scottish Government, Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland: A Comprehensive Analysis of the 2011 Census, 2015.
378 See, for example: Parker, T. and Kelley, A., 2023. American Indian and Alaska Native life expectancy: writing a new narrative. JAMA.
379 Tinker, George E. Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide Minneapolis: Fortress Press, (1993), pg. 5
380 See, for example: Collins, B., McEvoy-Levy, S. and Watson, A., 2014. The Maine Wabanaki-state child welfare truth and reconciliation commission: perceptions and understandings. Indigenous peoples’ access to justice, including truth and reconciliation processes, pp.140-169; Collins, B. and Watson, A.M., 2015. Examining the Potential for an American Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs http://www. carnegiecouncil. org/publications/ethics_online/0102; Collins, B. and Watson, A., 2023. Refusing reconciliation with settler colonialism: wider lessons from the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The International Journal of Human Rights, 27(2), pp.380-402.
381 Please note that there is precedent for historic apologies to be made by the Scottish Government including: ”[o]n 22 March 2023, the then First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, issued a formal apology on behalf of the Scottish Government to those affected by historic adoption practices; On 8 March 2022, the then First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, issued a formal apology on behalf of the Scottish Government to those accused of witchcraft between the 16th and 18th centuries; on 1 December 2021, the then Deputy First Minister, John Swinney MSP, reiterated a formal apology on behalf of the Scottish Government to those who were abused as children in care.” See: Scottish Government Freedom of Information release
382 Please note that records exempt under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 cannot normally be made publicly available until the exemption ceases to protect confidentiality, although applications for access can still be made.
383 This is in keeping with research released last year, commissioned by the Scottish Government Directorate for Learning that finds that “[t]he absence of Gypsy/traveller culture in schools and the curriculum contributes to feelings of exclusion.” See: Finn, M., A review of the educational experiences of children and adults from the Gypsy/Traveller communities in Scotland., p. 6.
384 This would need to be informed by principles of archival theory on provenance of records.
385 There is already work being done in this area that could be considered to be approaching best practice, including that done by Aberdeenshire Libraries, and by the Gairloch Museum. For additional research on Scottish museums, see: Ramsay, R.E., 2021. Unsettling Nacken chaetrie: the absence and presence of Gypsy/Travellers in Scottish museums.
386 See also: Amnesty International, ‘Caught in the Headlines, Scottish media coverage of Scottish Gypsy Travellers’, 2012, available at: Amnesty International article on media coverage of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland For a perspective on the history of media engagement, see: Alston, D., 2024. Highland Gypsy Travellers in the News: A Note on Prejudices as Reflected in 19th-Century Newspapers in the Highlands. Northern Scotland, 15(2), pp.133-143.
387 See also Amnesty International’s 2012 Report, ’Caught in the Headlines’, available as a link from: Amnesty International article on media coverage of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland
388 Note that there is a useful example of this that took place in 2020. On December 22nd, 2020, the Kansas City Star published an apology from the Editor noting that “For 140 years… [the Kansas City Star} has been one of the most influential forces in shaping Kansas City and the region. And yet for much of its early history — through sins of both commission and omission — it disenfranchised, ignored and scorned generations of Black Kansas Citians. It reinforced Jim Crow laws and redlining. Decade after early decade it robbed an entire community of opportunity, dignity, justice and recognition…. We are sorry.“ See: Link to article