Former Modern Languages teacher, Eileen Elder, told us:
“I was appointed to the Modern Languages Department in 1981 after an 8 year career break. Did my husband congratulate me on my new job? No! All he said in hushed tones was “You’ll be working in the same department as Ronnie Chisholm!”
Ronnie Chisholm was a notable cricketer who opened the batting for Scotland for many years, hence my husband’s awe! Ronnie was PT of Modern Languages at Melville College, then Head of German at SMC after the merger. Ronnie was a very kind man who was loved by all and who continued to bamboozle our top schoolboy cricketers with his amazing spin-bowling in our annual Staff v 1st XI cricket match right up to his retirement!
You can find out more about Ronnie on the Cricket Scotland website here: http://www.cricketscotland.com/player/ronnie-chisholm/
ESMS Community 
Ronnie Chisholm continued to play cricket with the lower teams of the F.P Cricket Club never losing his enthusiasm for the game. In the lower teams pupils from the school would often be selected for these teams, they were lucky to play with such an icon of Scottish cricket.
I taught at ESMS Junior School from 1980-2004 and played with Ronnie many times. My last game for the F.P’s was on Leith Links. I was batting with Ronnie in my usual double digit batting position (10 or 11!) when Ronnie glanced a shot down to a far boundary, ” run three”, he called. The fact that he nearly lapped me hastened my decision to hang my bat up, which, because of the rarity of making contact with the ball was in pristine condition. Although in that match I took a blinding slip catch leaping like a gazelle to grab the ball. (Take note Mr. Lewis!)
Ronnie played his early cricket at Mannofield in Aberdeen and his image are in many of the team photographs in the club house.
Sir Donald Bradman played his last first class game versus Scotland at Mannofield and Ronnie was the 12th man. He said his mother was involved in making the teas!
One of Ronnie’s favourite stories which he would recount many times much to my embarrassment involved myself, a cricket ball, Simon Scott, who was a noted F.P Rugby and Cricket player and a surgical support!
As a footnote to Eileen’s description of Ronnie, I taught Catriona, her daughter, in Primary 7 at The Mary Erskine School!
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