MUSIC makers, champion drummers and 21 years of a Helensburgh nursing home all feature in our latest look back at the Advertiser's news headlines from years gone by.
All of this week's archive stories and pictures first appeared in our pages on September 11, 2008. Which faces can you recognise 15 years on?
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A Garelochhead schoolgirl was the toast of world drumming after scooping five prestigious awards.
Drum major Iona Burns was crowned Champion of Champions for her sensational wins in the Scottish, World, Cowal and British Championships.
The 14-year-old Hermitage Academy pupil, pictured showing off her competition mace with mum Roseanne, said: “It was amazing to win the awards and then be crowned champion of champions at the Cowal Games. Everyone was crying and I felt on top of the world.”
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When Nan Wood died alone in Canada in 2003, all she asked was that her ashes be scattered in her childhood home in Helensburgh.
And 59 years after leaving the town she loved, her solicitor Joe Martin and his wife Linda stopped off in Scotland on their way to see their student daughter in Poland and carried out Nan’s last wish with the Rev Adam Plenderleith of Helensburgh Baptist Churchand congregation member Brian Titchner.
Nan - Agnes Jeffrey McRae Wood - had no brothers and sisters and no children, and did not marry until later in life - though by a remarkable coincidence her late husband, David was also from Helensburgh, though the couple did not meet until they had both begun making new lives in Canada.
David was born in 1902 in Helensburgh and died aged 86 in 1989, while Nan, born in 1917, moved to Ottawa in 1949 and worked as a civil servant.
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Morar Lodge Nursing Home in Helensburgh celebrated 21 years of caring for older people, and a country and western themed celebration was organised to show the home was “the best in the west”.
Manager Sandra Sallie is pictured with Lauren and Antonia Rae.
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A garden party in Helensburgh raised £700 for charity.
The event was held in the Adelaide Street garden of the Rev Tim Huc, of the United Reformed Church, and his wife Sally.
The charities chosen to benefit from the occasion were Enable Helensburgh and Down’s Syndrome Scotland.
Mr and Mrs Huc are pictured at the event with Helensburgh councillor Vivien Dance.
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We caught up with the members of the Lomond and Clyde Community Orchestra at their first rehearsal of the new season in Helensburgh.
The orchestra, still going strong in 2023, was under the baton of John Grant, former principal flute of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and music services co-ordinator for Argyll and Bute Council.
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Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Ross Finnie was the guest of honour at a garden party held by the party’s Helensburgh branch.
Local members were also joined by the party’s European election candidate George Lyon and by Argyll and Bute MP Alan Reid.
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