Suffragette included in suggestions for Kelso street name honours

A former town clerk, a factory boss and a suffragette could all be in line to have Kelso streets named in their memory.
Pinnaclehill Industrial Estate, Kelso.Pinnaclehill Industrial Estate, Kelso.
Pinnaclehill Industrial Estate, Kelso.

Kelso Community Council has put forward three suggestions of late residents names to be immortalised as Scottish Borders Council prepares to create street names at Pinnaclehill industrial estate.

At last week’s meeting community council chairman Dean Weatherston suggested Kelso suffragette Georgiana Solomon, who died in 1933, be considered.

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“She maybe deserves some recognition,” he said. “A lot of people in the town won’t know who she was.

“She was brought up in Kelso before going to South Africa where she married a teacher before returning to the UK to be involved with the suffragette movement. She was imprisoned for smashing Blackford’s windows at Westminster.”

Fellow councillor Colin McGrath suggested former town clerk Mark Carlow be considered as “he was involved in getting the industrial estate to Kelso – he created huge employment opportunities.”

Mr McGrath also suggested Lee Forbes, who was chairman of Forbes Group, who died last year, be recognised.

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The firm’s fabrications factory Forbes Technologies is based at the industrial site, and Mr Forbes was deemed “instrumental in attracting a supermarket to the site” almost a decade ago.

All three suggestions will be passed on to the council and the committee will also work with the town’s historical and heritage groups to create a list of suitable suggestions for any further requests going forward.

Kelso councillor Tommy Weatherston added: “I think the three people you have put forward are a good idea.

“But in Kelso you have got to be dead before you get a street named after you, so that’s maybe something we want to discuss going forward and consider when you make your list.”

Former town provost Tom Plendeleith was also mentioned, but already has Plenderleith Court in his honour.