An Inverness wartime school class are to reunite in the city this weekend.
The group of 80-somethings were pupils at Inverness Royal Academy during World War II between 1939 and 1945.
The former pupils will gather at the Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness for lunch today, with some travelling from far and wide to the Highland capital for the gathering.
For many it will be the first time they have seen each other since leaving the academy 70 years ago at a time of sandbags, food rationing and blackouts.
Between 15 and 20 former pupils are due to attend the lunch, which is the first time that the group have met since 1995 for a reunion.
Much of the organising was done by former school dux Madeleine Patterson, nee Fraser, now living in Edinburgh who carried out the “detective work” needed to track down her contemporaries.
Former classmates are travelling from as far afield as Reading and North Yorkshire to attend the event, while others who are no longer able to make the journey have written down their memories of the school.
Mrs Patterson, 88, described life at school during wartime, including how she was given the code name 4BF and tasked with organising blankets in case the school had to be used as a refuge if Inverness came under attack.
At the time the school was based in the historic Midmills building in the Crown area of the city.
Local pupils were occasionally joined by evacuees from all over the country, including some from Eton and Harrow schools.
Mrs Patterson recalled how the local children were left in awe of one girl from the south of England who arrived at the school with permed hair, the like of which hadn’t been seen in Inverness before.
She added: “It was a direct contemporary who got in touch with me to point out that it was the 70th anniversary of us leaving school and we really ought to do something.
“I was left to get on with the detective work and I’ve managed to track down quite a few of us, though of course there’s a few who we haven’t been to reach and some who are now dead.
“It will be interesting because of all the memorials of the war there’s not been much mention of the children who were at school at the time.”