Sisters come forward to solve mystery after News picture appeal

TWO grandmothers were left jumping for joy when they opened their Evening News to find a vision from their past staring back at them.

Sisters Mary Kerr and Elizabeth Murray have come forward as the two mysterious pigtailed girls featured in a photography challenge due to be launched in Craigmillar on March 1.

Craigmillar Community Arts will run a "Forensic Fortnight", challenging members of the local community to reveal the hidden history behind thousands of unidentified photos submitted to its recent Craigmillar . . . Then photo exhibition.

Some of the images were printed in the News on Saturday, including a photograph of two girls pushing their doll pram down the road next to Lismore School in Bingham.

"I jumped out of my chair when I saw myself in the paper," said Mrs Kerr, 68, who now lives in Duddingston. "I called my sister and told her to get her paper.

"I made her stay on the phone so I could hear her reaction, and when she opened the paper she let out a scream.

"We were both jumping round our living rooms. It was very un-granny-like behaviour."

Mrs Kerr revealed that the photograph was taken in 1949, when she was eight years old and her sister was three. At the time they were known as Mary and 'Lisbeth' Brownlee. She said: "We had only recently moved to Bingham before the photo was taken and it was like stepping into the future.

"We moved from a grey tenement in Craigmillar but there was nothing grey about Bingham. It was all gleaming white housing that they called Orlits."

Mrs Kerr spotted herself in another photo taken in 1955, when she was aged 14, standing in a group of Girl Guides on flag day.

She was also able to identify some of the other faces featured in the Evening News.