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“Great Rally of Labour Supporters”

The paper was published the day after the General Election when Dundee’s Liberal MP, Winston Churchill, lost his seat. The advert alerts Labour supporters to a post-election rally.

Chris Whatley of Dundee University explained, “During the First World War Dundee had boomed because jute was in great demand for sandbags. That demand had collapsed in 1919.

“By 1921 the city’s workforce was on a three day week; wages had been cut by 22%.

“The consequence of that post-war collapse in demand was poverty, difficulty and distress across the city.”

“Furs! Furs! Furs!”

The classifieds reveal the divide between the haves and have-nots; the mill-owners and their workers.

In a city where a large swathe of the workforce was feeling the strain of low wages, adverts such as this one advertising fur coats were aimed at the privileged few.

Writer and broadcaster Billy Kay assessed the situation: “You had a big working class but a tiny oligarchy.

“The poet George Bruce, who worked in Dundee High School in the 1930s, described how young children in Rolls Royces would be delivered to the school. They were aware of their power and their status.”

“Preparing overseer wanted for jute mills near Calcutta”

Experienced jute workers were abundant in Dundee and many took their skills to the new mills of India where jute could be produced more cheaply.

Chris Whatley explained, “In a sense [they] played their part in cutting the throat of their fellow citizens because, ultimately, the Calcutta jute industry sees the end of the Dundee jute industry.”

“A continuous hot water supply”

Former jute weaver Lily Thomson spent her life working in the mills.

“I lived in a tenement,” she said. “Most people in the tenement were mill workers. There were six of us in one room; fourteen people used the outside toilet. We had no hygiene and you paid for your doctor.”

“In our house we had the range, the kettle was on all the time. There was only cold water [available].”

Amid these difficult conditions faced by tenement residents, hot running water available "at any time, day or night" must have seemed like an unachievable luxury.

"Housekeeper required [...] Scotch; Protestant"

An advert placed by a Helensburgh woman seeks a housekeeper from the Dundee area with two very particular attributes: ‘Scotch’ and ‘Protestant’.

The implication of her request is clear – No Irish catholics need apply.