"When Provost David Guthrie the Second, of happy memory, died in 1854 the Town Council, wisely as it proved, decided that as Brechin had already enjoyed two David Guthries as Chief Magistrates the royal and ancient burgh could not do better than try a third.

"Accordingly, Dean of Guild David Guthrie, already a seasoned Councillor of some 17 years' experience, was appointed to the chair, and held it very worthily for the next ten years.

"The third provost David, know as Colonel Guthrie to distinguish him from his uncle and grand-uncle, was a nephew of the second, who had no family.

"He was a son of Bailie John Guthrie, who was a partner in the banking firm of David Guthrie & Sons founded by his father, the first Provost David. As a lad the third David got his business training in the family bank at the Neuk (at that time it was a branch of the Dundee Union Bank) and then became a partner in the East Mill Flax Spinning Company (Guthrie & Hood, manufacturers).

"In 1854 when the second Provost David died his nephew, James Guthrie, a son of Dr Thomas Guthrie, who had come from Edinburgh to serve his apprenticeship with his uncle, was proposed for the agency to keep up the old family connection, but James at that time was but a lad in his teens, and it was agreed that his cousin, the third David, be associated with him in the Bank agency until he became of age.

"David Guthrie had thus a variety of business responsibilities, but like other members of the family he was a man of great energy which he expended in many different directions for the benefit of the community. Besides his Council work (he became a Councillor as a young man of twenty-four) he was an able speaker and a valued leader of numerous committees.

"In 1868 ex-Provost Guthrie (he had retired from the Council four years before) was appointed factor to Fox Maule, Earl of Dalhousie (with whom he had long been on intimate terms), and for 15 years and under three Earls gave valuable service to the Panmure Estates. He made his home at Carlogie, near Carnoustie.

"Brechin thus lost one of her most gifted and popular personalities. Few people were better known in the city and district than the Provost, and he made friends whereever he went. He was hail-fellow-well-met with everyone, and made himself equally at home with Earls and labourers.

"The Provost had pluck and stamina too. The following story reminds us of the tale told about his uncle David II and the tinker. The incident occurred while he was Chief Magistrate. One day in an outlying street he came upon two men. One of them, a big bullying fellow, was about to fight the other, who looked quite unequal to the task.

"The Provost ordered them off whereupon the bully turned his attention to the man who intervened, and was about to give him what peacemakers sometimes get for their pains. He had mistaken his man, however, for the Provost threw off his hat and topcoat, and went at him "like one to the manner born."

"It was a treat to those who saw it, we are told. When the bully recovered and discovered who had given him such a licking he admitted he had never before believed there was such power in the arm of Magistrate.

"The ten years of the third Guthrie provostship was like the years which went before - a period of change and development.

"When it opened, the Crimean war was raging and Colonel Lauderdale Maule, son of Lord Panmure, and other Brechin lads were victims either of the fighting or of the cholera plague which caused as many casualties.

"Brechin gave generously to the Patriotic Fund to help the widows and children of the fallen. Later a gun from the Crimea was to be set up in the newly opened Cemetery to commemorate the slain. (In 1940 this gun was given up to be re-cast for munitions in the present war).

"The outstanding administrative change of the decade was the adoption (after prolonged local opposition) of the Police Act in 1857. The feuing of the Caldhame lands beside the railway begun in 1855 by Fox Maule transformed the east side of the city, which became a pleasant suburb.

"The Parochial Board acquired ground from the lands for a much-needed cemetery and a bridge was erected over the Den Nursery to give access to it.

"A notable landmark made it's appearance in the same neighbourhood in 1857-the East Free Church (now St Columba's) which had the distinction which it has never lost of having the tallest spire in Brechin. The Provost was a member of the congregation, and gifted the Communion plate for the new church when the removal from City Road was made.

"Swan Street, too, was widened at this time and some fine new buildings erected, including the Guthries' own Bank at the corner of Clerk Street. Swan Street kept its old name but a number of other streets were re-named just then - and there was considerable disgruntlement, among the older citizens especially, who objected to the old names being superceded by new ones which might be more "elegant" but had so much less meaning and atmosphere about them.

"Some enlargement was done at the Town Hall in the High Street where, of course, the Council were still holding their monthly sederunts. The Tenements (now Andover) School was built in 1857. A new era in the city's industrial progress was opening with the setting up of power looms at Denburn and Caldhame Works.

"Local institutions which date back to this period are the Ladies' Coal Fund and the Bowling Club (though Brechiners at this were keener on cricket, we are told).

"It was in 1855 that the annual holiday at the end of July was established and it must have seemed as if the good old laborious days were passing away when the masons decided to take a Saturday half-day, and even hitherto hard-working writers began to close their offices at 7pm instead of 8 and to take Saturday afternoon off as well.

"In his banking days the Provost would know all about late hours, for the banks had to remain open until it pleased the shopkeepers to deposit their day's takings and that was after the shops shut at 9pm or so."