Lecture and teaching notes taken down by Diana K. Hastings while at Dunfermline College of Physical Education (1967-1970)

Scope and Content

The collection is composed of 3 files of manuscript notes taken down during the period of study, 1967-1970. There are notes from practical lectures and notes for teaching practice.

Administrative / Biographical History

Carnegie Dunfermline College of Hygiene and Physical Training opened in Dunfermline on the 4th October 1905. The Andrew Carnegie Trust founded it as a training college for women students of Physical Education. In 1908 the college was opened to men and in 1909 it was recognised by the Scottish Education Department as a central institution for the purpose of the Education (Scotland) Act 1908. Between 1913-14 new accommodation were built, and the college was renamed Dunfermline College of Hygiene and Physical Education (DCHPE). From 1931 only women students were trained at DCHPE - the male students being transferred to Jordanhill College of Education in Glasgow.

Between 1939-46 the staff and students of the college were temporarily transferred to the Teachers Training Centre in Aberdeen, its buildings being commandeered by the navy during World War II. In 1950 the College transferred to Woolmanhill, Aberdeen, due to over-crowding problems at the other site. Hygiene was then dropped from the name of the college and the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust severed connections since the College was no longer based in Dunfermline.

A Board of Governors was established for the College in 1959, and in 1966 the College (now just DCPE) transferred to newly built specialist accommodation at Cramond, Edinburgh. In 1986 it was announced that the training of physical education teachers - male and female - would be centralised at Cramond. In 1987 DCPE merged with Moray House College of Education and the male students then at Jordanhill College transferred to the enlarged Moray House at the same time. The combined expertise provided the core of the Scottish Centre for Physical Education, Movement and Leisure Studies (SCOPEMALS) at Moray House, Cramond Campus.

In 1998 Moray House Institute of Education together with its Cramond Campus became the Faculty of Education of the University of Edinburgh. The University closed the Cramond Campus over the summer of 2001 and the students, staff and facilities relocated to the refurbished St Leonard's Land at Holyrood, part of The Moray House School of Education of the University.

During the period at Cramond, one of the students there in the late-1960s was Diana Kerr Hastings.

Diana Kerr Hastings was born in Argyll in 1949, and moved to Angus aged 6. Between 1967 and 1970 she studied at Dunfermline College of Physical Education (DCPE), Cramond. This was at a time when students were expected to take up in-house accommodation in their 1st year, could take approved lodgings in their 2nd year, and had the choice of being resident or non-resident (being 'in' or 'out') in their 3rd year . Some students too began to flat-share, but this had to be with other DCPE students and even then, as Mrs Hastings has noted 'even those pioneers of indepndent living were told they would not be allowed into sick bay if they were ill'.

During her three year course she represented the College in athletics, badminton, lacrosse, netball and orienteering. She was also the College netball secretary and she went on to serve as Liaison Officer for Scottish Netball when they played their Home International matches at Meadowbank, Edinburgh, in the 1970s. In 1970, she graduated from DCPE with the Diploma of Physical Education, with Merit in Professional Subjects.

Between 1970 and 1972 she taught in Kirriemuir, Angus, and later on moved back to Edinburgh and taught at St. Giles School for the Hearing Impaired until 1976. From 1992 she retrained in Paediatric Audiology working initially in Lothian Region schools, and then for the NHS until her retirement in June 2009.

In 2010, Diana Kerr Hastings attended a 40th Anniversary gathering of graduating students (from the 1967-1970 course).

Access Information

Open to bona fide researchers, but please contact repository for details in advance of any visit.Material (3 folders) has been screened, no DPA issues found.

Acquisition Information

Material acquired June 2010. Accession no: E2010.30

Archivist's Note

Compiled by Graeme D. Eddie, Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections.

Related Material

Also located within Special Collections, Edinburgh University Library is the collection (Coll-1169) Material relating to the period spent by Elsie Cunningham studying at Dunfermline College of Hygiene and Physical Education in the 1930s with shelfmark E2009.11. Also by appointment, University Archives, Edinburgh University Library, can provide access to papers relating to the Dunfermline College of Physical Education Old Students Association, but of course access to recent official records and records containing confidential information is restricted in accordance with University policies and relevant legislation.