My mother, who died a couple of years ago just short of her ninetieth birthday would sometimes mention Basque refugees.

This always seemed unlikely, as she was living in Montrose in Scotland, far away from the civil war in Spain. However, as my grandmother was C M Grieve’s ( aka Hugh McDermid’s) landlady at the time I’m sure she would have known what was happening.

Now, I just happened to be looking for photographs of the old nineteenth century wooden train station in Montrose – the North British railway station, not the Caledonian one. (I always thought the old wooden station should have been heritage listed, but it has since been replaced in the late eighties with a minamalist modern one.)

Anyway I came across a site recording the history of Basque refugee children, which included a picture of them arriving at Montrose station in 1937, and yes there was indeed a Basque refugee children’s colony in Mall Park house in Montrose …