Series 3 > Court book of the Burgh of Kirkintilloch 1658-1694

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to pay his subscription. 19 new members have joined.
The membership, including 166 libraries, stood at the close
of the year at 448.
An Abstract of the Accounts as audited is appended.
In presenting the Annual Report, Dr. Balfour-Melville
referred to the further loss suffered by the Society by the
death on 5th December 1958, of the Hon. Treasurer, J.
Douglas H. Dickson. O.B.E., W.S., Mus. Doc. Dr. Dickson
became Treasurer in December 1939 and during the twenty
years in which he held that office watched over the finances
of the Society with unremitting care and conspicuous
ability. It was owing to his enterprise that the Society
enjoyed for some years the privilege of covenanted sub¬
scriptions. In spite of failing health, he courageously
devoted himself to its affairs up to a few days before his
death. Professor W. Croft Dickinson seconded the Report
and Accounts, which were adopted.
Dr. Balfour-Melville then moved the election of Sir David
Lindsay Keir, LL.D., Master of Balliol College, Oxford, as
President of the Society for the ensuing four years.
Professor J. D. Mackie seconded this proposal and Sir David
was unanimously elected.
The President then took the chair and delivered an
address entitled “ A Hundred Years Since ”. He referred
to past presidents whom he remembered as personal
friends—John Buchan, R. K. Hannay and R. S. Rait.
None of these had any use for those whom Hannay
dismissed as “ greetin’ patriots Scottish history was no
dreary catalogue of frustration, wrong and grievance—it
was a continuous experience of which each stage was
relevant to the making of modern Scotland. It did not stop
in 1707 or 1745, or indeed at all.