History at The Halls

Join local historian Joan Anderson as she talks about three inspirational Ballater teachers and citizens. George Beddie, a Balmoral gardener who ran away to war, and was later helped by a King to become the kind of teacher nobody ever forgets in two different communities, including Ballater, where his wartime classroom was the room where History at the Halls is set; William Austin, the best Provost-we-never-had (he turned it down twice) who utterly changed the prospects of poorer, non-academic Deeside children and opened up Craigendarroch Hill for locals and visitors alike, and Madame Duguid, who taught and mentored Royalty, rubbed shoulders with the great, but is rumoured to have secretly used her considerable skills to keep all of Ballater safe more than 100 years ago.