Govan High School Archive
The principal subject matter of the archive is Govan High School’s history, but it also encompasses material about Govan, which was an ancient independent Burgh, only becoming part of Glasgow in 1912.
The school itself was established in 1910 and the archive holds information and photos about the school and the community from 1910 onwards. The material also covers noteworthy former pupils (e.g Sir Alex Ferguson, WWII fighter ace Wallace Cunningham and author Jenny Chaplin) and former pupils killed in World War One and World War Two. There is a very active Former Pupils network (over a fourteen hundred members ) with a closed Facebook page with which the Archive works to share information, memories and photos.
Material includes box files (one or more for each decade depending upon amount of material). Each of these has sub-divisions with newspaper articles, completed enquiries, school memorabilia, etc. There are approximately twenty audio interviews (also transcribed) with famous former pupils, such as multi-award winning songwriter Bill Martin . Two filing cabinets of photographs include original photos plus digital ones in CD/DVD format , plus a “datalocker” of digital images with more recent photos (estimated total 50,000). School magazines from 1913 (approx. fifty -all in printed format. ) There are also a few artefacts, such as the school 50th Anniversary flag.
There is also in an adjacent corridor, a Centenary Gallery of fifty framed photographs telling the story of the school in chronological order, and on another floor of the school, a Centenary Timeline (approx. 20 metres) showing other aspects of the school’s history.
In terms of wider local history, there is a collection of approx. 150 books on the history of the area, plus maps, pamphlets, etc.
Proactive work is undertaken to share material not only with the school but with several local history and reminiscence groups as well as the former pupil community.
Enquiries relating to the school’s history or its former pupils are also welcome, as is information about information or photographs of the school in other collections.