We were delighted to recently receive a series of old projector slides, with photographs taken by David M. Cross (1972) and his late father Derek Cross (1948).

David uncovered these slides during a clear out, and it has been our great pleasure to get them digitised for wider distribution. We’re sure you will agree it is fascinating to see colour images of Loretto from over fifty years ago – especially some previously unseen images of the late Queen Mother’s visit to the school in 1971.

David snapped most of these photographs across 1971 and 1972 as part of his Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) award, with the others taken by his father in 1947 and 1948.

David completed both his DofE Silver and Gold awards at Loretto, and was very proud to do so:

“We had a great time doing the DofE. I think we were some of the first pupils to complete both standards at School - we were not the first, but early days. We were further honoured to go to Holyrood Palace and be presented by HRH Prince Phillip himself. I will always recall a lady in the gardens walking past with her corgi dogs and saying hello… only for us to realise it was the late Queen!”

The full range of images can be viewed in the ‘Members’ section of our digital archive at:

Loretto School Archives

All Old Lorettonians have an account on this website, however, if you have trouble signing in, you may need to reset your password.

Happy browsing!