APPLEGROVE Primary School is getting ready to celebrate its 50th anniversary in May this year.

AN old photograph which appeared in the "Forres Gazette" last year brought a whole lot of memories to the surface for a local man.

WERE YOU around when the new Forres Academy was opened in 1969? If so, the present academy staff and pupils would like to hear from you.

TWO sisters have paid a nostalgic trip to Forres and RAF Kinloss where they found out about their family history and were able to lay a few ghosts to rest.

DO you remember when the new Forres Academy was built? Were you one of the first students to attend the new school?

A VOCAL artist who retired to Rafford a few years ago to be near her family, recently enjoyed a small celebration to commemorate her 90th birthday and was able to look back on an incredible career.

THE family of a former Forres man who was honoured by both the Irish Government and UK horticultural organisations for his work on a garden island in Bantry Bay, County Cork, say they are delighted to have presented some of the special awards that he received to the Irish government for a permanent display.

THE 1st Forres Scout Group recently celebrated their centenary and the group are very proud that the local organisation is still as strong today as it ever was, with youngsters enjoying a variety of activities and achievements organised with the group.

RAFFORD Women's Rural Institute, like so many around Scotland, has been in existence since the 1920s, but continues to attract ladies who are interested in bringing modern thinking to rural living.

THE Highland Classic Motorcycle Club, which has at least a dozen members from the Forres area, is hoping for a good turnout to a fundraising effort planned for the end of this month.

THE Findhorn Women's Rural Institute celebrated its 76th birthday earlier this year, and is still going as strong as it did when it started nearly 80 years ago.

TO mark 90 years of the Royal Air Force, which was celebrated last Tuesday, RAF Kinloss recreated a picture from November 1918, this time in the Gulf, to show the RAF then and today.

WORK is continuing on a project being undertaken by St Laurence Parish Church to set up and establish a Memorial Remembrance Book containing the names of all the men listed on the two memorial tablets in the church vestibule.

FORRES Townswomen's Guild has been in existence for 72 years, and although when it started back in 1936 it had distinct political and social connotations, it has mellowed with age.

THE Falconer Museum threw open its doors last Friday to celebrate the birth of its founding father, Hugh Falconer, who was born 200 years ago on February 29.

WHERE were you on May 5, 1960? If you were in Forres Town Hall watching The Beatles, the author of a book about the supergroup would like to hear from you.

THE 200th anniversary of the birth of the man who gave his name to the Falconer Museum at Forres is to be celebrated by a special event organised by Moray Council's museums service.

CALLING all former members of 120 Squadron! The squadron is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year at a reunion weekend to be held from June 13-15 at RAF Kinloss, and your attendance is requested.

THE Findhorn Foundation and Community celebrated its 45th anniversary in traditional style last week with a dinner and social in the centre which is at the heart of the community. A special gathering was also held at the Universal Hall afterwards.

A CZECH national who spent time in Forres at the end of World War II, serving with the Polish Intelligence Service, returned to Moray last month to re-visit the town where he spent three months after being smuggled out of France in a submarine and brought to Britain.

IT WAS back in 1978 that the Royal Burgh first reeled to the sound of the Forres Accordion and Fiddle Club.

THIS weekend, at thousands of war memorials around the United Kingdom and at countless church services, people will pay their respects to the memory of the men and women who died serving their country in two world wars, and in many other lesser conflicts in the years since.

A REUNION between friends who all used to live around the Bogton Road area in the early post-war years, has been voted a roaring success.

A SPECIAL reunion event planned for next month will be filled with tears and laughter if a group of ladies who have known each other since before the war have anything to do with it.

BACK in 1946, following the end of World War II, a 19-year-old German prisoner of war arrived in Scotland.

A FORRES man has just returned from a poignant visit to a Dutch village where he watched the final piece of a jigsaw about his family life being put in place.

BELGIUM: it might be beautiful now, but who knew how much destruction had taken place there during the war?

APPLEGROVE Primary School in Forres is the venue on Friday for a very special illustrated talk about Hugh Falconer whose life’s work with fossils is the cornerstone of the collection at the town’s Falconer Museum.

AN OLD wooden kist which has been in St Michael's Church, Dallas, longer than anyone can remember yielded a bit of parish history last week.

A SPORTING medal won in a tug-of-war competition back in the 1920s has left a Roseisle man scratching his head, trying to work out how it came to be in his late father's possession.

ONE of the most popular features appearing in the pages of the 'Forres Gazette' every week is 'The Way We Were', which retells the stories which made the news 100, 50 and 25 years ago, and also carries a photograph from days gone by.