'Laird' whose dad burned a Prime Minister on Lossiemouth's East Beach
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This old photo was sent to us by Janice Theis who nowadays lives in Bristol but grew up in Moray.
Taken during the 1890s it shows the boys of Drainie Parish School, which once stood near Lossiemouth.
One old boy of the school was Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour Prime Minister – but more about that later.
Unlike MacDonald, who was a good deal older, Janice's great grandfather is pictured in the photo.
James Souter is the blond haired boy right in the middle, dressed in a dark gansey.
Janice says: "Everyone apparently had a nickname in those days and my grandfather James, who was a fisherman, was known as 'Laird'.
"Anyway, he was teetotal, as was Ramsay MacDonald, and the two men became good friends.
"Neither of them drank so they didn't bother with the pub.
"Instead, they'd go to one another's houses to play cards – James lived in a house called 'Davaar' at 18 Lossiemouth High Street."
Although Janice's grandad got on well with the politician, this was in sharp contrast to the hatred felt by her great-grandfather.
The story goes that John Souter even went as far as burning an effigy of MacDonald on Lossiemouth's East Beach.
Janice states that John 'Baldi' Souter was known as a formidable character around the town.
Stern, quick to anger and standing at 6ft 4, John's nickname derived from his admiration for Giuseppe Garibaldi the 19th century general who unified Italy's states into one country.
John strongly disapproved of MacDonald's pacifism during World War One.
So much so that he rounded up a group of townsfolk who, together, marched down to the East Beach where they burned the effigy.
In August 1916 the Moray Golf Club in Lossiemouth passed a resolution declaring that MacDonald's anti-war activities "had endangered the character and interests of the club" and that he had forfeited his right to membership.
As the war dragged on and the casualties mounted the Labour man's public reputation recovered a little.
However, he still lost his seat in the 1918 election, which saw the Liberal David Lloyd George's coalition government win a large majority.
The election campaign focused heavily on MacDonald's opposition to the war, leading him to write after his defeat: "I have become a kind of mythological demon in the minds of the people".
MacDonald went on to become Prime Minister briefly in 1924, and again between 1929 and 1931.
If you have any photos – old or new – of Moray that you're happy to share, send them to newsdesk@northern-scot.co.uk
