Virtute Parta

Virtute Parta

Saturday 5 June 2010

Dave Halliday of Queen of the South F.C.

Dave Halliday (1901-1970) was one of the most prolific scorers in British football. A native of Dumfries,the 6ft,12st 4lb centre forward was well equipped physically for the position. He played for his hometown team,Queen of the South,Dundee and St Mirren before moving on to play in England for Sunderland, Arsenal, and Manchester City. He scored 375 goals and is among the very few group of players of less than 30 to have scored over 200 goals in English top divisions. As a manager only Halliday and Sir Alex Ferguson have guided Aberdeen to be Scottish champions. He would be a worthy addition to the Scottish Football Hall of Fame. Dave Halliday also had two brothers Billy and John who played for Queen of the South,and Billy went on to be manager of Newcastle United.  

Sunday 16 May 2010

Lt Gen Sir Lewis Stratford Tollemache Halliday V.C.

From time to time I will add biographies of famous Hallidays. Where better than to start with our only Victoria Cross holder.Lt Gen Sir Lewis Halliday 14/5/1870-9/3/1966 became Adjutant General of the Royal Marines and Honorary Colonel Commandant. He was awarded the V.C. as a Captain in the Boxer Rebellion. He was descended from John Halliday of Castlemains in Kirkcudbright and Antigua.


Citation: On the 24th June, 1900, the enemy, consisting of Boxers and Imperial troops, made a fierce attack on the west wall of the British Legation [at Peking], setting fire to the West Gate of the south stable quarters, and taking cover in the buildings which adjoined the wall.


The fire, which spread to part of the stables, and through which and the smoke a galling fire was kept up by the Imperial troops, was with difficulty extinguished, and as the presence of the enemy in the adjoining buildings was a grave danger to the Legation, a sortie was organized to drive them out. A hole was made in the Legation Wall, and Captain Halliday, in command of twenty Marines, led the way into the buildings and almost immediately engaged a party of the enemy.

Before he could use his revolver, however, he was shot through the left shoulder, at point blank range, the bullet fracturing the shoulder and carrying away part of the lung. Nothwithstanding the extremely severe nature of his wound, Captain Halliday killed three of his assailants, and telling his men to "carry on and not mind him," walked back unaided to the hospital, refusing escort and aid so as not to diminish the number of men engaged in the sortie.



(London Gazette Issue 27262 dated 1 Jan 1901, published 1 Jan 1901.)

Saturday 24 April 2010

Thursday 8 April 2010

The Devil's Beef Tub

Here at the head of Annandale in Dumfriesshire and where the River Annan rises, is the natural glacial feature known as the Devil's Beef Tub. Close to here is the farm of Corehead where Tom Halliday met his uncle, William Wallace. Together with a small band of followers they captured Lochmaben Castle from the English. This incident is recorded by "Blind Harry" about 1477 in the famous poem written in Scots, "The Wallace". The deeds of Tom Halliday and his famous uncle took place about 1296 and thus Tom Halliday is the earliest recorded Halliday in Scotland. "The Wallace" contains many historical errors and records events which never happened. Was Tom Halliday a real person or a fictitious character in "Harry's " composition?

Sunday 4 April 2010

John Holliday,A Forthright Man - OnLine

A full copy of Clarence Halliday's book is available on line at

http://www.magma.ca/~leprecha/john_halliday_forward.html


Enjoy.

Saturday 3 April 2010

Books Refering to Halliday History

There are very few books about Halliday history in Scotland. The pioneer in this field was Clarence Halliday from Canada who came over to Scotland in the 1960's. He wrote two books:
Halliday,C.(1962)  John Holliday;A Forthright Man. Coburg,Ontario
Halliday,C.(1963) A Halliday Family Tree .Coburg Ontario

These give an introduction to the family roots in Annandale and exceptional research for those descended from this John Halliday from Berryscaur,Hutton Parish whose family moved to Canada and spread all over North America.

Halliday, C.A.T. Col (1980) Hallidays  Portia Press Ltd,Hampshire
This book covers the early history and follows those descended from John Halliday of Kirkcudbright and Antigua,who made his money from slavery and Plantations. They sold their estate in Scotland and returned to England where they married well and changed their name to Tollemache.

Both books have errors but encouraged me to research our history and expand on the knowledge both these writers took the time to compile.

Friday 2 April 2010

Welcome to the Halliday of Scotland Blog

Hi fellow clansmen and women

I hope this blog will become an interactive site for Hallidays with roots in Scotland to exchange family history information and learn more about the role members of the family played in Scottish and world history. I have been researching the name for almost forty years and think blogging is a great way to get the information out there. The name also occurs in England especially Cumberland,Yorkshire and Gloucestershire but the evidence so far is although they share the same surname they are not connected to the Hallidays of Scotland.
Please enjoy and contribute to this your family history blog.
Many thanks

Chris Halliday