Last updated 13:19, Monday, 07 April 2008

WHAT on earth has happened to the Armstrongs?

Once among the most feared of the Reiver families, murdering and pillaging their way through the Borders, the Armstrongs have now become known for a rather different reason – they have been named as Britain’s safest drivers.

Car insurance company elephant.co.uk looked at its database of accident claims to find out which of the UK’s 1,500 most common surnames featured most – and least.

And their survey said: Armstrongs are the nation’s safest.

Motorists with the surname Gill are most likely to be involved in an accident – 23 per cent more likely than average – closely followed by Mills and Adams.

Those careful Armstrongs are 29 per cent less likely than average to have an accident, and 43 per cent less likely than Gills.

However, several Reiver names figure highly in the drivers most likely to make a claim, such as Young, Dixon, Elliott, Simpson and Bell.

But Grahams – once the Armstrongs’ deadly rivals – are among the safest drivers.

The Armstrongs were a wild bunch, personified by Kinmont Willie Armstrong who in the 1500s would ride at the head of 300 men, bringing terror wherever they roamed.

According to elephant.co.uk, today’s Armstrongs are unlikely to ride horses on a trail of destruction: preferring to drive a Volkswagen Golf, slowly and carefully. How times change.