Bedrule, birthplace of William Turnbull, (Bishop of Glasgow from 1448 to 1454)
By CATRIONA FINDLAY

"From the pavements, from the windows of houses, and from trams, buses and motor cars, whose, occupants for once cheerfully, acquiesced in a traffic hold-up. Glasgow folk watched a long chain of fire pass on Saturday night from the Cathedral to the heights of Gilmore hill." Thus the writer in the Glasgow Herald of January 8, 1951. described; a seen that had its beginnings over 500 years earlier, in Roxburghshire. For in the tiny hamlet of Bedrule, between Hawick and Jedburgh, was born William Turnbull who became 25th Bishop of Glasgow from 1448 to 1454, and the man responsible for the founding of Glasgow University in 1451. So it was appropriate that when the University was, celebrating its 500th centenary, a thread of fire symbolising the torch of learning should have been carried by a relay of 12 runners over the 100 miles from the Borders to the city.