Fancy a Friday Foto Fling?

"What a handsome hill!" I hear you cry.

"I should like to climb it immediately. Where is it?"

The answer readers is we do not know. Upon looking for an elusive Tom Kent copy, I stumbled upon a folder of his photographs entitled simply '?'.

Within is a few photos, like the one above, for which we have no information. Some have guesses on the back such as 'meteorite?' for a photo of a crumbly old stone or 'Egilsay? Octocentenary?' for this one:

Again, there is a guess of Egilsay for this photo of an escapee from some manner of procession:

Other images include what looks like an open-air church meeting, the skeleton of what may be an otter still in the grip of a steel trap, and this:

What is this.


WHAT IS THIS? Best answer receives a Unison stress pig and an item of Orkney Library and Archive merchandise.

The Mystery of the Blue Jacket Boy....Solved!!

And here he is, our Blue Jacket Boy:

A message to everyone from Mary, grandaughter of David John Phillips I wish to forward my everlasting gratitude to the lady who delivered my grandfather’s letter to the Orkney Library and Archive and to all the researchers who found the identity of the ‘Bluejacket Boy’, my grandfather, David John Phillips. ‘Dai’ married my wonderful Orcadian grandmother, Catherine Isabella Coghill Johnston on 11th April 1919 at the Congregational Manse, Kirkwall. David returned home to Llanelli with his new bride ‘Bella’ where they opened a greengrocer’s shop and had two children, my mother Minnie and my aunt Jean. David and Bella lived with us throughout my formative years so were my ‘grand’ parents in every sense. They were an inspiring and loving couple. I still miss them both terribly. I am truly grateful to you all as without you,and the Orkney Library Archive, this precious letter would have remained a mystery forever. Thank you to everybody from my heart.

David J Phillips and Catherine Johnston














For the story from the beginning in Oct 2013 see here and an update in Jan 2014 here.