I received these three (copies of) photographs many years ago. Only the group photo had any information - that it was taken in Portree circa 1950, and it named the officers. The other two with the officer(s) and car are I suspect of a similar vintage, albeit slightly earlier.

Armed with the names, I was able to look up records and establish when this could have been taken.

It soon became clear that this was (Almost) the entire establishment of the Skye Division of the Force, so one must presume it was on an important occasion - undoubtedly the Annual Inspection by HM Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland. These visits tended to be done in high summer, as HMI needed to get out to the Outer Hebrides too (and of course Orkney and Shetland by this time) - not trips to be made in spring or autumn, let alone winter. Apart from the joys of undertaking ferry journeys over the Minch etc, inclement weather can still prevent sailings for days on end, thus adding to the already considerable times necessary for these trips in the days before civilian air travel took off (sorry!) and inter-island flights became possible.

The officers are all wearing collar and tie, a major change to the uniform which came in about 1949.

The officers are (Left to Right):- PC Dan Green: who was stationed at Portree 1947 - 2/1952 PC Douglas Purves : stationed at Uig 1948 - 12/1953 PC DG MacKenzie :stationed at Portree 10/1949 - 12/1953 Sgt Allan MacInnes: stationed at Portree 9/1949 - 6/1952 (and then promoted in situ to Inspector - Portree lost its Inspector rank from 1946 to 1952, the rank seemingly being utilised at HQ instead) PC Donald J Fraser: stationed at Glenelg 4/1949 - 10/1950 PC John Morrison: stationed at Broadford 6/1948 - 5/1959 PC James "Nobby" Clark: stationed at Dunvegan 5/1950 - 5/1951

So the earliest this photo could have been taken was May 1950 (when Nobby Clark arrived) and the latest would have been October 1950 when DJ Fraser moved. It looks a nice sunny day so I think August i1950 is favourite!

And is this the ENTIRE Skye strength - well, not quite. Skye Area then had 6 stations:

Portree (District HQ), Dunvegan, Uig, Broadford, Glenelg (actually on the mainland and only reachable by ferry or by driving through the Ross-shire force area from Kyle) AND Isleornsay a.k.a. Armadale a.k.a. Ardvasar), down in the Sleat Peninsula.

The Isleornsay officer at the time was: PC John A Stewart (from 2/1946 - 6/1952) was he perhaps on Annual Leave - or did he take the photograph?

The location is outside Portree Police Station, and one assumes the two BLACK vehicles are police ones CST 11? and DST ?97.

Am Baile on-line records show that DST434 - 452 were issued Aug-Sept 1949 - and presumably CST11? must have been issued in 1947 or 48. Could it possibly have replaced BST36 in the other photos? Perhaps one of the cars was issued to Broadford and the other to Portree?

Certainly the officers from Broadford and Glenelg would have needed transport to get up to Portree, and if they did have a police car doubtless the HMI would wish to inspect it.

As for the white car on the right (looks like DST404), perhaps it is an officer's own vehicle being used for police purposes - this practice was being encouraged by that time.