The Buccleuch Hall (sometimes called the ‘Milligan Hall’) was a former woollen mill building, bought by joiner Robert Milligan in 1889 and converted into an entertainment hall.

It was run by three of Robert’s four sons, two of whom were also joiners and one was a pattern weaver. The hall was used for dances, meetings, target shooting, carpet bowls and other events. It was also popular as a cinema, trading as Electric Pictures.

The Milligan family had a band that was available for hire, either in the hall or at other venues. Some of the band may have accompanied the silent movies (three of them in the first photo below have bowler hats and wing collars, like Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp).

Thomas’s eldest son Robert became a stationer in Glasgow and joined the 17th Highland Infantry. He was killed by shellfire in December 1917, aged 24, and is buried in Ypres, Belgium. He was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry and devotion to duty under fire, and also the Langholm Burgh Medal posthumously in 1919. Thomas’s second son Thomas served with 1/5th KOSB until being demobbed in May 1919.