FAMILY members from Australia will be special guests at tonight's opening of an exhibition on the history of Paisley's Kibble centre.
FAMILY members from Australia will be special guests at tonight's opening of an exhibition on the history of Paisley's Kibble centre.
The education and care resource celebrates its 150th anniversary this year and three generations from Melbourne w
ill be here to enjoy the party.
Judith Parsons will be flying in with her son Graeme and grandson Kieran after discovering her late father George McPhail was a Kibble pupil in 1910 at age 15.
Preparing to make the journey to Paisley, Judith (82) said: "Dad led a long and rich life, but rarely talked about his childhood in Scotland.
"After he died, I realised I hardly knew anything about his early years."
Opening to the public tomorrow, Kibble: a lasting legacy features photographs, artefacts and records, including the first register.
It is the culmination of a year's effort by project co-ordinator, Elaine Harris, who said the centre's history was a "fascinating subject to research".
She told The Extra: "It was particularly rewarding to record and share the living memories of pupils and staff — past and present — which preserve the history of one of Paisley's best-known institutions for future generations."
Farming was one of the skills Kibble boys were taught in the early 1900s.
And three years after George McPhail came to the school, he emigrated to south Australia where agricultural skills were in high demand.
Shortly after arriving he joined up and saw action during World War One in the trenches on the Western Front with the Australian infantry, and was later promoted sergeant.
Afterwards, George began a lifetime working with agriculture and engineering businesses in Australia.
George's family heard about his Kibble connection from an Australian historian researching the immigration of young men from Scotland to Australia.
Kibble was founded in 1859 from a charitable bequest left in the will of Miss Elizabeth Kibble to "found and endow in Paisley an institution for the purpose of reclaiming youthful offenders against the laws".
Today, Kibble is now the largest multi-service centre in the UK specialising in work with young people at risk.
