Annette French

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Waiting For Spring

Spring seemed to be late this year to ANNETTE FRENCH.

She wanted to wear something light and flimsy, something she'd bought from her local boutique in Glasgow, something all primrose yellow.

But it was chilly enough to nip even the most insensitive ear, so Annette wore a warm coat and everything. However, it was supposed to be spring, so she gambolled about. She had to, to keep warm.

She may not have been in something light and flimsy, and primrose yellow, but she still looked ever so dishy.

Wait till the summer comes.

Then she'll put on something divinely brief.

Don't get toothache waiting, fellers. Just compose yourselves and dig up the garden.

Spick No 211 - June 1971

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.

Gloria Worth

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Lilting Look

Quite different from the look which will keep you in the acceptable trouser suit category, is the very acceptable lilting look of the Welsh charmer we found in Flintshire.

Her name is GLORIA WORTH.

All the Welsh girls have a lilting effect. It's the way they speak. Fascinating.

Gloria has been trained in ballet and modelling and how to captivate taxi-drivers without really trying. You know how taxis can pass you by when it's raining. They all stop for Gloria in sunshine or rain.

"Where to, gorgeous?"

"Station, please."

"That'll cost you three bob."

"Will you take stamps?"

"Oh, I've got a right one here. Only stop looking at me or I'll take jam jars as well."

Beautiful Britons - No 137 April 1967

Diane Clarke

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It's No Joke - She Means It

Beauty queen DIANE CLARKE isn't kidding you with her Long Johns. She means it. She likes them. They remind her of the bygone days of the 1920's, her favourite historical era, when the young people first thought up all the mad things to do. Diane is a Middlesex girl and likes to feel warm in winter.

Spick and Span Extra No 35 - Summer 1970

Linda White

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What's New?

What's New?

Nothing really. Everything is merely an improvement on the old. Irrelevantly, we'd like to mention that

LINDA WHITE is the most photogenic hair stylist we know.

Beautiful Britons No 122 - January 1966

Jill Millward

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Quite A Change

When the good old Windmill closed its doors and its nonstop revue disappeared into the pages of exotic history, one of its youngest girls decided she wasn't going to queue up at the agencies to find similar work.

Not a bit of it. JILL MILLWARD decided on a complete change of occupation. Know what she is now? A children's nurse. Gad, those lucky children. Wonder if they realise how good life is to them?

Span No 167 - July 1968

Mugdock Reservoir

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Location Update – Mugdock Reservoir

Susanne Kent’s set from Span No 144 was most certainly shot on the intake to Mugdock Reservoir.

The set was taken in 1966, with the final picture showing the location much as it is now. The trees have grown a lot over the years, but it is quite obviously the same place.

Thanks goes to David for researching this.

Thorn Park Tennis Club, Bearsden

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Location Update – Thorn Park Tennis Club, Bearsden

The Kent sisters, Susanne and Madeline, did a photo shoot here in 1965. These pictures, though, never appeared in a magazine, as far as I am aware. Louise Crawford was also a regular visitor at the tennis club. The final picture of this set shows the clubhouse as it is now; still the original building with its distinctive double pitch roof. It is reasonably well overlooked, but I suppose you would have had to look quite hard to notice from a distance that the girls had shorts on with their stockings and suspenders on show.

Thanks again to David for his research.

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.