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A REPUTATION FOR EXCELLENCE
A History of the Aberdeen and Northern Counties Printing
Industry
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Northern Counties - Forfar
In the search - an unsuccessful one - to find when printing was
first introduced to Forfar, it was of interest to learn that a library
was founded in the town around 1795. Presumably it was a fee-paying
one, as Forfar Free Library was not established until 1871. David
Adam in his centenary booklet on Forfar Free Library quotes from
the preface of an album of the time that the earlier Library was
there ‘to catch the fugitive idea as it passes and to give
it a form which may reflect its merits or defects to the minds of
others’. Adam’s publication was printed by Oliver McPherson
Ltd. a name which will figure promi-nently in this chapter.
The history of printing in Forfar, as in other north-ern towns,
is dependent on information sourced mainly from newspaper records,
few of which are complete. The earliest are of The Forfar Herald
and Kirriemuir Advertiser, which was first published in 1877, price
one penny. It was first printed by Bowman & Ross but a few years
later it was being produced by Christie & Nicolson at 13 Castle
Street. There was another change of printer in April 1905 when J.
& A. McDougal took over. Details of the paper’s early ownership
history are scanty but it is known that in the early 1890s George
S. Nicolson was the sole proprietor. According to the 1923-24 Valuation
Roll, David Buchan, a native of Arbroath, was listed as the owner.
He had as a partner John Clark, who hailed from the Borders.
Following the First World War, the newspaper’s title changed
to The Forfar Herald and County Advertiser and was printed and published
at Osnaburg Street, Forfar. In 1926, when most news-papers closed
down because of the National Strike, the proprietors of The Forfar
Herald and County Advertiser and The Forfar Review and Strathmore
Advertiser joined forces and were able to produce a local paper.
As is mentioned later in this chapter, the Herald and the Review
amalgamated shortly after the strike as The Forfar Herald. In 1930
the Herald ceased publication but it continued with commercial printing
until 1958.
The first issue of The Forfar Reformer and Kirriemuir and Alyth
Mercury appeared on Saturday 24 February 1883; it was published
monthly. In 1884 an advertisement in the first issue of The Forfar
Dispatch invited subscribers to the Reformer to forward their subscription
of one shilling and six-pence for the twelve numbers commencing
March 1884. The Reformer, however, which was printed and published
by Alexander Lowson, proprietor, Lamond’s Square, Forfar, failed
to establish itself and closed down in 1885.
The Forfar Dispatch and Local Advertiser first appeared on Friday
15 February 1884 with a sub-heading ‘Guaranteed Circulation
3000 Copies’. Initially it consisted of four pages, measuring
eleven inches by eight inches, and was issued gratis. The first
page was largely taken up by a leading article with a little local
news. The remaining three pages were entirely devoted to advertisements.
Behind the enterprise was Oliver McPherson from Perth, whose first
newspaper was ‘hand-written, hand-set, hand printed and hand
delivered’. The firm, which also undertook commercial printing,
was located in rented property at 76 East High Street, but in May
1899 it moved across the street to 85 East High Street. The premises,
through the Canton Close, were on three floors. In the basement
was the poster department, the machine-room occupied the middle
floor, and the top level housed the composing-room.
Oliver McPherson had a family of thirteen, four daughters and nine
sons. Many of the sons learned the printing trade, and when the
father met with a fatal accident in 1892 the editorship of the newspaper
passed to his second son, also Oliver. Sadly, this was for the briefest
of periods, as Oliver, jun., died during what had been planned as
a recuperative trip to Australia after illness.
The eldest son, John McPherson, then took over, heralding the start
of a long and distinguished stewardship of the Dispatch which was
to last nearly sixty years. He was a man of many talents, but perhaps
his most outstanding contribution to the newspaper was his regular
‘Drummer’ articles which showed him to be a gifted writer
with a keen sense of humour. Two brothers, Will and Dave, assisted
in the business, while another two brothers, Alec and Car, emigrated
to South Africa. The former became managing director of the East
London Daily Representative, and the latter headed a highly successful
commercial printing firm.
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Volume 3 published 1996
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