J.B. Fullarton

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J.B. Fullarton - What Do We Actually Know?

J.B. Fullarton - The Scottish photographer who populated ToCo’s pages with some of its most popular models throughout its golden years.

James Barclay Fullarton was born in Ardrossan in 1923 to John Adam and Margaretta Black Fullarton, which would have made him 100 years old if he were still alive today. Sadly, he got nowhere near to that milestone, passing away at just 55 years old on the 23rd of August 1978, in Saltcoats. His death certificate states that he was a shop proprietor.

J.B Fullarton lived most of his life at 14a Montgomerie Crescent, Saltcoats which was, in fact, his father’s house and had originally been called Rowallan: a lovely looking property that had uninterrupted views of the Firth of Clyde. We do know that he was married to Anna Milloy and that he had a son, David Barclay Fullarton, who was born at Kilwinning in 1957. David now lives in Oxfordshire and works as a dentist.

Fullarton’s published years in glamour photography were from 1956 up until the middle of the 1960’s, which would have put him in his late 30’s to early 40’s when he was photographing for ToCo.

Fullarton, as we know, lived in Saltcoats - one of the three towns situated on the coast of the Firth of Clyde, the other two being Ardrossan and Stevenston in Ayrshire. (Threetowners) The biggest employer in the area at the time was ICI, who produced explosives at their plant situated on the Ardeer Peninsula at Stevenston. (Nobel Enterprises) At its peak, the plant employed 13,000 people. A great many of these employees were drawn from the three towns which, at that time, had an approximate population of just 32,000. The plant extended right down to the sand dunes, where we know several of the popular shoots were taken. What we certainly also know is that many of the girls that Fullarton photographed worked at that explosives factory. See earlier post. (An Update from Saltcoats)

We also know that 1956 was a good year for Fullarton, with some of his first pictures being published by ToCo as well as other titles, including Fiesta. Maureen Quail was, we think, his first published ToCo picture, rather than Janet Neill who followed just 2 months later. We also saw the first of what we must assume were his cars, with him owning a Vauxhall Velox (HHH 322) in 1956.

Janet Neill went on to make numerous other appearances, featuring in four editions of Fiesta during 1956. What is interesting is that some of those pictures are credited to J.W. Boyd, who owned a local photographic shop in Saltcoats, and then separately to Fullarton, with them obviously using the same studio. See earlier post. (An Update from Saltcoats Part 2) We do now believe that the John Fullarton talked about in this earlier post is not the one we are interested in, as we now have the evidence of a death certificate which gives an address that ties in with the photographic evidence from the magazines.

Janet, of course, went on to do a number of duo sets with Vicki Campbell, wearing some very short skirts (real miniskirts). This was all 8 years before Mary Quant - often cited as the inventor of the miniskirt, though hers were worn with tights rather than fully fashioned stockings.

The following year (1957) saw Fullarton win several prizes for his photography. Carnival magazine gave him a first prize for Maureen Quail V3 No 5 and a second prize for Betty McBride V3 No 10. In addition to this, he also won £1-1s - equivalent to about £32 today - for a picture he sent in of Hazel Anne McNemeny to Can Can V1 No 11, which was taken in Boyd’s studio. These small successes, as you can image, would have spurred Fullarton on with his photographic exploits, possibly giving him more confidence to take the pictures that we all enjoy today of the girl next door showing her stockings and suspenders (and sometimes a little more!) ToCo was a perfect outlet for these pictures that he certainly enjoyed taking. And who wouldn’t have enjoyed taking them? You can image how things snowballed a little, with the girls talking at work, encouraging others to join them in showing their underwear for a bit of extra cash on the side. Can you image seeing your pictures published by ToCo and the local boys seeing them? - it must have been a lot of fun. One thing that has always struck me about the pictures in ToCo is that the girls nearly always look like they are having fun and enjoying themselves, especially when working in pairs, which of course makes them all that more alluring.

1958 saw Sadie Milligan and Joy Carlton make their first appearances. Janet Neill featured prominently throughout 1959. She was married on 30th March that year, with some of her wedding pictures appearing in Funfare No 23 (Nov 59). Some were certainly taken in Boyd’s studio, with Fullarton, I am sure, having taken the others.

Patricia McGregor and Norma Gordon were also seen in 1959, as was another Vauxhall Velox (NVA 106).

1960 saw Molly Fleming, Sandra McPherson, Nikki St. John, Helen Candlish, Maureen Smart and Julie Scott make their first appearances.

1961 saw Janette Goodman, Diane McCall, Mary Graham, Susan McKay and Nikki Merrill.

1962 was a very busy year with Jackie Leyton, Leila Scott, Margo Stevens, Sara Scott, Marion McGregor, Liz McGregor, Maria Imlah, Rita Lees, Verna Harvey and Margaret Murray appearing on our ToCo pages, and another new car - this time a Morris Minor (OAG 11) I think I would have stuck with the Vauxhall though!

Jean Dee was, we think, his last known model, appearing in a duo with Helen Candlish in 1971, although the shoot was likely done some years previously. Many of Fullarton’s models did emigrate to Australia after getting married in the early 1960’s. This emigration would, of course, have depleted his pool, as well as girls getting married - we certainly don’t know what some of their new husbands would have thought about all this!

Fullarton though certainly had quite a cottage industry on the go from such a small population, and we must question who made some of those very short skirts that we all loved so much. It’s interesting to think what Mrs Fullarton thought about of all this, or maybe she did not even know what sort of pictures her husband was taking.

Some might say that 14a Montgomerie Crescent ought to have a blue plaque placed on the wall to celebrate James Barclay Fullarton - a photographer who brought so much enjoyment to so many.

I would just like to thank David, Chris, and Robert for their continued effort in researching and digging out all this information. They have made this post possible, allowing me to share it, so that we can all enjoy it.

Who Was The Elusive J B Fullarton?

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An Update from Saltcoats - Part 2

This all starts with a picture of Janet Neill, used or taken for Pin-Up No 4 (July/August 1956). Many of the models who appeared in Pin-Up were also familiar faces in ToCo publications, and Janet Neill was no exception to this. The pictures used in Pin-Up frequently had the photographer details credited alongside the model’s name. In Pin-Up No 4, Janet is seen on pages 7, 8, and 9 and the photographer is credited as Jack W Boyd.

A search on Jack W Boyd found that in the late 1950s he owned the photographer’s shop in Saltcoats. Dockhead Street, Saltcoats, showing Jack W Boyd's photographer's shop at number 41. Mr Boyd was the tenant of the property from around 1957.

Further investigations led to the Threetowners website and their forum. A quick search on Janet Neill and Sadie Milligan quickly produced some interesting results; both had emigrated to Australia, with Sadie (Sarah) Milligan now living in Melbourne and being an active forum member.

Sadie (Sarah) Milligan - Far Right

Sarah Milligan, far right, taken in 1974. By my calculations that would make her 35 years old in this picture. ToCo were still publishing pictures of her from old sets in 1971.

Another picture shows the Stevenston Motor Cycle Club outing, circa 1956. Crouched down in the front row next to each other are Janet Neill and Sadie Milligan, so they obviously knew each other then. Sarah (Sadie) identified the people in the photo.

Another search of the forum for Fullarton found this request for family history information from a John Fullarton. Threetowners Forum

There are two key paragraphs – Posted below.

I have been working on my family tree for some four years and while I have many of the main branches back to 1690`s, I have data back to 1550 which I am trying to confirm, before entering into my family tree. I have over 1000 relatives on my database. So perhaps I can be of help to someone out there and you can help me either confirm or add to my family tree. I also have a large collection of school and local photographs from 1880 to 1960. In the 1950`s. I was a freelance photographer (as a hobby) and had pictures printed in both National and the Local paper, including the ICI paper and magazine.

My name is John Fullarton ( known in Scotland as Ian Fullarton). My family comprise of names such as, Sutherland, Boyd, Breckenridge, Dunlop, McCleland, McGrath, Orr, plus many more On my mothers side there are Brown, McMurray, Black, Ballantyne, McCulley, etc, all from Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston. I was born in Killwinning and lived in Stevenston until 1960. I attended Stevenston Higher Grade School till early 1950`s (I have a photograph of the Class of 1952), I then went to Ardrossan Academy until 1954. I served an Engineering Apprenticeship at ICI, Nobel Division, Ardeer from 1954 to 1959 finishing in the Power Station. I was in the Scouts (11th Ayrshire) at Stevenston, finishing up as Scoutmaster for a number of years, in the late 1950`s.

So, we have a freelance photographer named John Fullarton who worked at the power station at the explosive factory. As one of the surnames he was interested in was Boyd, he is almost certainly related to Jack W Boyd.

Armed with the vital information that he was born in Kilwinning, I did a search of Scotland’s People for the index entry for a John Fullarton born in Kilwinning in the 1930s. There was only one!

FULLARTON JOHN BOYD ORR M 1937 599/ 537 Kilwinning

So, if he only used the first two initials, he becomes J B Fullarton. Not using all your initials is not uncommon - if you have more than two you would possibly only use the first two.

A final surprise - a search on John Boyd Orr Fullarton found this obituary from 2019 in the Isle of Thanet News.

So, this possibly could be the elusive J B Fullarton. I'm curious as to when he stopped being a glamour photographer; was it when he got married in 1964 or did being a civil servant make continuing as a glamour photographer difficult. What we do know is that his involvement with ToCo came to an end around this time and it has been suggested that he may have died or just moved on to another chapter of his life.

We might never know the truth, but this is definitely a real possibility, and it certainly is great to hear a little more about Sadie Milligan and Janet Neill.

Many thanks to Robert for researching all this and making it available to me.

Janet Neill and Sadie Milligan

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An Update from Saltcoats

Janet Neill was born in 1937 in Kilwinning, just a couple of miles northeast of Saltcoats. She married George Fleming on 30th March 1959 at Barony Church in Ardrossan, which was recently sold and is now being redeveloped. At the time of her marriage to George, Janet was living at 4 Galloway Place - a small, terraced house not far from the sea front in Saltcoats - and was working as a Dental Nurse. What’s interesting to note on her marriage certificate is that Sadie Milligan is one of her witnesses.

Sadie (Sarah) Milligan was born in 1938 in Ardrossan. She married Patrick McAteer on 4th August 1962, and was married at the same church as Janet in Ardrossan. At the time of her marriage, she was living at 3 Caledonia Road Ardrossan - though it looks to me like the original house is now gone. Her profession is shown as an Explosives Process Worker; there was a large explosive factory in Ardeer just south of Saltcoats.

I often wonder, as I put things together and look at the local area, how they met and became friends. Janet was on the scene much earlier than Sadie, first appearing in May 1956. Sadie’s first pictures were not seen until June 1958, some 2 years later. Sadie, of course, was roughly 2 years younger than Janet, but both girls would have been about 19 or 20 years old for their first photo shoots. It certainly does make you think who else might have worked at the Explosives Factory, as it was such a large local employer. Julie Scott appeared in a couple of two-girl sets with Sadie, so perhaps she worked at the Explosives Factory as well.

You can just image the talk that went on during breaks about showing your stockings and knickers to a local photographer for some extra cash! I wonder if they are both still with us; Janet would be about 83 now and just full of great stories to tell us all.

The pictures of Janet are taken from Span No 54 February 1959 - just a month before she was married; what a lucky man George Fleming was!

The pictures of Sadie are from Spick No 105 and Beautiful Britons No 82, both published in August 1962 - the same month that Sadie was married. Oddly, both sets are of her in Directoire Knickers and in magazines published in the summer; not sure what that was saying to Patrick, her new husband!

Both girls though went on to appear in ToCo publications after they were married, so it was presumably something that their husbands approved of.

From Wikipedia

The Ardeer peninsula was the site of a massive dynamite manufacturing plant built by Alfred Bernhard Nobel. Having scoured the country for a remote location to establish his explosive factory, Nobel finally acquired 100 acres from the Earl of Eglinton, and established the British Dynamite Factory in 1871, and went on to create what was described then as the largest explosives factory in the world. The factory had its own jetty on the River Garnock in Irvine Harbour serving ships disposing of time expired explosives or importing materials for the works.

At its peak, the site employed almost 13,000 workers in a fairly remote location and had its own railway station. The station was used solely for workers and those special visitors with business in the ICI plant, and was never a regular passenger stop. Until the mid-1960s, there were two trains per day to transport workers. Although the line no longer exists, the abandoned platform remains, hidden beneath dense undergrowth.

Many thanks to David for researching this.