university of edinburgh journal - volume 46, number 1 - june 2013

XLIV: No. 3 JUNE 2010 £14.00

Published byTHE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

GRADUATES’ ASSOCIATION

Universityof Edinburgh

Journal

Volume 46: Number 1 June 2013

University of Edinburgh Graduates’ AssociationPatron

HRH The Princess Royal

Honorary PresidentsCecily E Giles CBE J A R MacLean Iain F MacLaren

PresidentDavid A Lamb

Vice-President: Jack McLarenHonorary Secretary: Joyce E RichardsonHonorary Treasurer: Kirsty L Chisholm

Honorary Editor: Peter B FreshwaterImmediate Past President: Ritchie Walker

Honorary Accounts Examiner: Morris ThomsonAssistant Secretary: Joan H Meikle

Executive Committee Members 2013-2014Jane Denholm

Lorna L HendersonMichael Langdon

John MavorIan Urquhart

Malcolm M Wylie

Student RepresentativesPresident Edinburgh University Students’ Association

President Edinburgh University Sports UnionVice-President (Services) Edinburgh University Students’ Association

Editorial CommitteeIan Campbell (Reviews Editor and Convener)

Peter B Freshwater (Honorary Editor)Sallie K R Gray (Obituaries Editor)

Barbara LaingLucinda L Mackay

Iain F MacLarenPatricia J Spark

J R Sutherland (Editorial Assistant)Rena Tough (Assistant Editor)

Ian WotherspoonMalcolm M Wylie

The Association would welcome members’ email addresses to ensure more expedient communication.

The Association acknowledges permission to use the drawing of the Old College by Lady Lucinda L Mackay

UK ISSN 0041-9567

University of Edinburgh JournalVolume 46: Number 1 June 2013

Contents

Graduates’ Association Office Bearers and Committee Members IFCFrom the Editor 2Graduates’ Association News

President - David A Lamb 3New Members and Donations Received 4Branches and Clubs 5Athene Acknowledging Vulcan 7

University NewsNew Year Honours List 8

University Notes The Scientific Work Behind the Higgs Boson 10Dig Uncovers a Nobleman’s Grave 11The Edinburgh Campaign Reaches its £350M Target 12Chemistry Marks the Tercentenary of the Chair 12University Regents 14University Collections Masterpieces III Exhibition 14Jim Haynes’ Paperback Bookshop Commemorated 15

ArticlesThe Provenance of Panamint 16In Search of My Grandparents:

A Sentimental Journey to South India 20The Friends of Edinburgh University Library:

The First Fifty Years 24Reception for the Patron of the Graduates’ Association 28Summerhall: Arts Centre of Excellence 37Ian J Fleming (1915-2012):

Agricultural Historian, Teacher and Manager 40Reviews 44Appreciations

Professor Susan Manning 51G Ross Roy 52

Obituaries 53Notes for Contributors IBCJournals Received IBCWelcome to the Graduates’ Association OBC The Journal is published twice a year and is sent to all members of the Association.Tel. 0131 650 4292/3; Fax. 0131 650 4293; Website: www.dev.ed.ac.uk/gradassoc; Email: [email protected]. The price to others, including libraries, colleges, etc. is £14.00 each number, payable in sterling.

2 University of Edinburgh Journal 46: 1 (June 2013)

From the Editor

The June 2013 issue of the Journal is the first of a new volume, 46. It includes a composite report on the Association’s Reception for

our Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, comprising the text of the then President’s speech of welcome and short pieces from all nine group leaders, as well as four pages of colour photographs taken during the evening; altogether they provide a happy souvenir and useful record of an historic, memorable and most enjoyable occasion. Other articles include ‘The Provenance of Panamint’ by Russell Cowe, who conducted such a memorable film evening for the Association last summer; ‘In Search of My Grandparents’ by Bridget Stevens, who followed family connections with India; ‘Summerhall — Arts Centre of Excellence’ by Iain Gale and Paul Gillon, demonstrating developments in what the building that used to house the Royal (Dick) Veterinary School; ‘The Friends of Edinburgh University Library — the First Fifty Years’ celebrates the golden jubilee of support for the Library’s research collections; and ‘Ian J Fleming: Agricultural Historian, Teacher and Manager’ by John Fleming and Isla Smith, which marks the changes in agricultural practice of which Ian was aware during his long lifetime. We have also included a number of shorter notes on matters of current interest in the University, reprinted with acknowledgment from the University’s news website.

For the formatting and organisation of this issue, Rena Tough and I have been very grateful for the services of our new temporary Editorial Assistant, John Sutherland, and to Ian Campbell who enabled us to avail ourselves of John’s commitment and expertise.

Several articles for the December 2013 issue are already in preparation. We shall be focusing on aspects of the University’s heritage: Francis Jeffrey and the Edinburgh Review, which was founded in No. 18 Buccleuch Place from which we now publish this Journal; the history of the study of history at the University; and the painted ceiling of Riddle’s Court, Edinburgh, established as a University Hall in the 1880s by Patrick Geddes.

Next year, 2014 sees a number of major anniversaries, including the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. It also sees the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Graduates’ Association. 2015 will see the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, and the 90th of the founding of this, the University of Edinburgh Journal. How best to mark these is something that the Association’s Executive Committee and the Journal’s Editorial Committee will address, and would welcome suggestions and actual contributions from all members. Do please contact us and tell us what you would like to see in the Journal.

Peter B Freshwater

University of Edinburgh Journal 46: 1 (June 2013) 3

President — David A Lamb

David Alexander Lamb LLB 1967 SSC, was admitted a Solicitor in the Supreme Courts in 1977. He trained with Shepherd & Wedderburn WS and from 1969 to 1984 moved to Stuart & Stuart WS becoming a partner.

He was principal partner of the Private Client Department of John G. Gray & Co. SSC from 1984 to 1991. He was appointed a Tribunal Judge of the Social Security Tribunals from 1991, retiring from full-time appointment in 2008. He continues on a part-time basis with the Tribunals Service, now in addition sitting as a Convener of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland. He has previously been Treasurer of the Society of Solicitors in the Supreme Courts, Joint Auditor of Edinburgh Sheriff Court and Chairman of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal.

Outwith professional life, he enjoys Italian language, culture and music (acting as Treasurer of the Scottish Italian Circle), and fitness training. He was a member of the Business Committee of the General Council and at one time Convener of the Finance and Statistics Committee. He is an Elder of the Church of Scotland Liberton Kirk Congregation, and maintains active links with the small ancient Waldensian Church in Italy, as Secretary/Treasurer of the Scottish Waldensian Society. He also assists with the Visits Group of the Edinburgh Members’ Centre of the National Trust for Scotland.


New MembersFrom 1 April to 30 September 2013

We are delighted to welcome the undernoted new members and invite them to send us news of themselves or other graduates from time to time. We would urge those living near an existing branch to join it. Others, who wish to start a new branch, should contact 18 Buccleuch Place for help in contacting other graduates.

Edward F Bowen, Lundie, Angus Winifred Gordon (née Logan), Glasgow Oonagh Gray (née Parker), Edinburgh Thomas F Marshall, Gifford Elsa M Monteith (née Wotherspoon), Edinburgh

DonationsFrom 1 April to 30 September 2013

The undernoted members have responded to our appeals for voluntary contributions and we wish to thank them most warmly for their generosity. Several anonymous contributions have also been received.

Dame Mary Corsar, EdinburghPaul Kirnon, USADavid Lamb, EdinburghFred Lawson, MusselburghLady Lucinda Mackay, EdinburghHenry McKinlay, Hertfordshire

Jack McLaren, EdinburghAnne L Munro, EdinburghHugh R W Murray, Nursling, HantsJohn Murrie, EdinburghAlastair A Robertson, Edinburgh

Change of AddressPlease note that the Graduates’ Association Office premises have

moved to 18 Buccleuch Place, EH9 9LN

The office will be open:Monday-Friday 9.30am - 12.30pm

Tel. 0131 650 4292/3Fax. 0131 650 4293

Email: [email protected]: www.dev.ed.ac.uk/gradassoc

LLBMAMAMAMA

19661946200219671952


Secretaries of Branches and ClubsEdinburgh University Club of BirminghamDr William Mackenzie, 4 Herbert Austin Drive, Marlbrook, Bromsgrove, Birmingham B60 1RA

Edinburgh University Club of BristolMrs Diana S Wyatt, Little Manor, 1 Stoke Paddock Road, Bristol BS9 2DJTel/Fax: 0117 9681291 Email: [email protected]

Edinburgh University Graduates’ Association (Liverpool Branch)Mr Graham R Arnold, 13 Sefton Drive, Sefton Park, Liverpool L8 3SDTel: 1051 733 9357 Email: [email protected]

Edinburgh University Club of London (affiliated)Mr John Poynton, 146 Elizabeth Avenue, Little Chalfont, Amersham HP6 6RGEmail: [email protected] Website: www.eucl.org.uk

Edinburgh Graduate Theatre GroupMr David Grimes, 15a South Gillsland Road, Edinburgh EH10 5DETel. 0131 441 6557

Edinburgh University Club of London News

We are delighted to announce that HRH The Princess Royal has agreed to become the Club’s patron in succession to her father. Our President, Iain Poole, has had a meeting with her staff and learned that she is keen to

be involved with the Club. As 2014 is the Club’s 150th anniversary we are looking to link the two in events, perhaps both in London and in Edinburgh. Watch this space!

We had a most successful reception at the House of Lords last October, hosted by Lord MacKay of Clashfern, a member, and signed up just over a dozen new members. This was followed later that month by a visit to the Magic Circle. In January we piggybacked, as last year, onto the Burns Club of London’s Burns Night at the Caledonian Club. There are so many Burns’ Night celebrations now that it is difficult to get sufficient attendance, especially as our old venue at St. Columba’s decided to ban alcohol. Those who attended tell me that it was well worth it and very good exercise.

Since then things have gone a bit flat as we have been experimenting with new facilities on our website, including an online payment mechanism for events, and our Facebook campaign. The latter has not produced much feedback as yet, probably because we have not had many events to promote during this period, and so is now on hold while we finalise our programme for 2013.

A small group of us visited the National Physical Laboratory in February as part of an open day. This involved a fascinating sequence of short lectures on various aspects of measurement, including trying to measure temperature directly against molecular activity, and the importance of bubbles to more or less everything in the physical world! In contrast, we have a visit to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry booked for early March, and are trying to arrange lunch and a tour sometime soon at Lincoln’s Inn.


University of EdinburghWomen’s Club

The Club aims to promote friendship and contacts among women who are associated with the University of Edinburgh. Members include graduates, former staff, and partners of existing and former staff. Meetings, visits

and social events take place during the day throughout the academic year. New members are always welcome and may join at any time.

The Club is based in refurbished University premises at 18 Buccleuch Place and special interest groups include:

A Badminton Club which plays weekly at King’s Buildings in the •autumn and spring terms.

A Book Group which meets monthly from October to April.•

A Garden Group which has talks by invited speakers in the autumn •and spring terms, and a garden visit and plant sale in the summer.

The International Group run a special programme throughout the •academic year for women from abroad who are postgraduate students, or partners of postgraduates at Edinburgh University. Club members organise weekly English language lessons in the Club flat and provide childcare during this time.

Further information about the University of Edinburgh Women’s Club, and how to join can be found at the Club web site www.uewc.org

(Garden Group visit to St Andrews Botanic Garden)(Photograph courtesy of Marian Shepherd, Club member)


Athene Acknowledging Vulcanby Bernie O’Donnell (2012)

Gifted to the Association by Valerie and Stewart Robertson

(Athene Acknowledging Vulcan)

Valerie Robertson, the past Editor of the Journal, and her husband Stewart, have generously presented to the Graduates’ Association a watercolour painting of Athene Acknowledging Vulcan by the Edinburgh painter

Bernie O’Donnell. Athene, the Greek goddess of wisdom and learning reaches across the centuries, to associate with Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, and does so in the setting of 21st-century Edinburgh University where, together, they train members of the University in extinguishing fire.

The painting marks Valerie’s and Stewart’s links with the University, Valerie’s as a graduate of the University, a former teacher, and later Editor of the University Journal; and Stewart’s as a Fire Safety Officer in the Health and Safety Department. It now hangs in the Journal Editorial Office, where all members of the Association are invited to come and see it.

(Photograph of Athene Acknowledging Vulcan courtesy of Graeme Ross)


University NewsNew Year Honours ListOrder of the British Empire (Civil Division)Order of the Companion of HonourProfessor Peter Higgs Hon DSc 1988Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics (staff)

Knights BachelorSir John Leighton MA 1980 and 1982 Drhc 2009 Director General, National Galleries of Scotland

Commanders Mr Nicholas Ferguson BSc 1970Chair, Courtauld Institute

Dr Katherine Grainger MBE LLB 1997 Drhc 20112012 Olympic Gold Medalist for rowing

Mr Magnus LinklaterEditor, The Times in Scotland (Friends of the University)

Dr Marian Wilson MA 1979 PhD 1990Deputy Director, Campaigns, Risk and Intelligence Service, Sheffield, HM Revenue and Customs

OfficersMrs Sheila Fleet1968 (Fashion & Jewellery), Edinburgh College of ArtJewellery Designer, Sheila Fleet Orkney Designer Jewellery

Dr Robert Hubrecht BSc 1979Deputy Scientific Director, Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

Professor Howard Liddell BAr 1970Co-Founder, Scottish Ecological Design Association

Sheriff Isobel Poole LLB 1963

Professor David Porteous FRSE BSc 1975 PhD 1979Professor of Human Genetics and Molecular Medicine (staff)

Dr (Edward) Bruce Ritson MBChB 1961 MD 1967Chair, Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems

MembersDr Nicola Benedetti Hon DMus 2011Violinist

Professor (Oscar) Peter Buneman MBE FRSProfessor of Database Systems (staff)

Mr Kenneth Reedie MA 1972Curator, Canterbury Museum


Alan WalkerHonorary Fellow (staff)

Dr Andrew Wardman MBChB 1976 MD 1986Consultant Physician and Director of Medical Education, Wigan

Ms Frances White MA 1970Manager, Little Haddon Residential Care Home

Medallists of the Order of the British EmpireDouglas Currie MA 1950

Dr Alice Doherty MBChB 1949

Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Diplomatic Service and Overseas Division)Ms Kate Ewart-Biggs MA 1991Regional Head, Middle East and North Africa, sub Saharan Africa and South Asia, British Council

Military Division (Army Awards)Queen’s Volunteer Reserve MedalChaplain to the Forces 3rd Class Reverend Louis Kinsey QVRM TD BD 1988 Dip 1989; Royal Army Chaplains’ Department Territorial Army

Monthly Coffee MorningThe Association meets for coffee at the

National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh

We meet in the Balcony Café on Level 3 from10.30am - 12.00pm

on the following Saturdays in 2013:6 July, 3 August, 7 September, 5 October,

2 November, 7 DecemberDo join us!

Further information from the EUGA OfficeTel. 0131 650 4292

Email: [email protected]


University NotesThe following items marked with an asterisk * are reprinted with thanks from the University of Edinburgh’s news website.

The Scientific Work Behind the Higgs Boson*

The world and the University have rejoiced with Professor Peter Higgs at the identification by research teams at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN of a particle believed to be the elusive Higgs boson.

The electroweak theory, which unifies the electromagnetic and weak interactions of elementary particles has, since 1970, received experimental support to a precision unprecedented in the history of science. This

unification involves a close relationship between the massless photon, which carries the long-range electromagnetic force, and the W and Z vector bosons, which carry the short-range weak force and must therefore be very massive. Prior to the invention of the Higgs mechanism, it was not known how to formulate a consistent relativistic field theory with a local symmetry which could contain both massless and massive force carriers.

In 1962, Goldstone’s theorem had shown that spontaneous breaking of symmetry in a relativistic field theory results in massless spin-zero bosons, which are excluded experimentally. In a paper published in Physics Letters on 15 September 1964 (received on 27 July 1964), Peter Higgs showed that Goldstone bosons need not occur when a local symmetry is spontaneously broken in a relativistic theory. Instead, the Goldstone mode provides the third polarisation of a massive vector field. The other mode of the original scalar doublet remains as a massive spin-zero particle – the Higgs boson.

Higgs wrote a second short paper describing what came to be called ‘the Higgs model’ and submitted it to Physics Letters, but it was rejected on the grounds that it did not warrant rapid publication. Higgs revised the paper and submitted it to Physical Review Letters, where it was accepted, but the referee, who turned out to be Yoichiro Nambu, asked Higgs to comment on the relation of his work to that of Francois Englert and Robert Brout, which was published in Physical Review Letters on 31 August 1964, the same day his paper was received. Higgs had been unaware of their work, because the Brussels group did not send preprints to Edinburgh. Higgs’ revised paper drew attention to the possibility of a massive spin-zero boson in its final paragraph. During October 1964, Higgs had discussions with Gerald Guralnik, Carl Hagen and Tom Kibble, who had discovered how the mass of non-interacting vector bosons can be generated by the Anderson mechanism.

The previous year, Philip Anderson had pointed out that, in a superconductor where the local gauge symmetry is broken spontaneously, the Goldstone (plasmon) mode becomes massive due to the gauge field interaction, whereas the electromagnetic modes are massive (Meissner effect) despite the gauge invariance. However, he did not discuss any relativistic model and so, since Lorentz invariance was a crucial ingredient of the Goldstone theorem, he did


not demonstrate that it could be evaded. In Higgs’ second 1964 paper he referred to Anderson’s work in a way which implied that Anderson knew about the non-relativistic counterpart of the Higgs boson. In fact, Anderson didn’t and it was not until 1981 that an unexpected feature of the Raman spectrum of NbSe2 was understood to be due to ‘a massive collective mode which exists in all superconductors – the oscillation of the amplitude of the superconducting gap’, the only Higgs boson to be discovered experimentally before 2012.

The search for the Higgs boson became a major objective of experimental particle physics. Although the best fit to all the electroweak precision measurements gave its mass between 52 and 110 GeV, it was excluded below 114 GeV. Its mass could not exceed 1 TeV if the electroweak theory itself is to remain valid up to this energy scale, precisely the range that is within reach CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. We know now that the ATLAS and CMS have found a Higgs-like boson at a mass of around 126 GeV which increasingly looks like having all the properties of the Standard Model Higgs boson.

Peter Higgs’ work was a crucial step on the road to a unified theory of the forces of Nature and is clearly basis for an experimental programme to look at further details of the discovered particle and its extensions beyond the Standard Model.

Dig Uncovers a Nobleman’s Grave*

The remains of a medieval nobleman are among dozens of discoveries made in an archaeological dig at the University. Also found at the site were the remains of a 13th-century monastery. The discoveries were

made at the construction site of the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI) which will be housed in refurbished buildings at the University’s High School Yards.

Archaeologists spotted the discovery when they uncovered the corner of an elaborately decorated sandstone slab. They found that the slab, which covers the grave, bore tell-tale carved markings of a member of the nobility, including a sword and a cross. Experts say they will be able to find out much more about the individual buried in the tomb once they are able to remove the headstone and access the remains underneath. They have been able to date the remains because of the grave’s position on the site of the monastery, and its similarity to other gravestones found from that period. Analysis of any skeletal remains or teeth would give information on where the individual was born, what he ate, where he lived and how he died.

Building teams made the find at the site of a former car park which is being prepared to host a rainwater harvesting tank, as part of construction work on property that will house the new centre. Designers hope the project will create the world’s most sustainable historical building. Malcolm Fraser Architects have led the project with contractors Graham Construction, with services provided by Headland Archaeology.

Formerly, the location was the site of the seventeenth century Royal High School, the sixteenth century Old High School, and the thirteenth century Blackfriars Monastery. As well as the Knight’s grave, the excavation of the area


has revealed for the first time the exact location of the Blackfriars Monastery, which was founded in 1230 and destroyed during the Protestant Reformation in 1558.

The Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation is hosted by the University of Edinburgh, in partnership with Heriot-Watt University and Edinburgh Napier University. It seeks to bring together students, academics, governments, businesses and communities to work towards a low-carbon future and is a hub for the knowledge, innovation and skills required to create a low-carbon economy. The refurbished building, which dates back to back to the Royal High School of 1777, will reopen as an innovation and skills hub in summer 2013.

Ross Murray, the archaeologist who found the grave, studied at the University’s former Archaeology building, just a few feet from where the grave was found.

The Edinburgh Campaign Reaches its £350M Target

The University of Edinburgh Campaign was launched in 2006 to raise £350M, and realised its target in November 2012. This magnificent fundraising effort has enabled the redesign of teaching and research

space, including libraries and museums as teaching and research resources. It has supported life-changing research, and provides a huge range of bursaries and scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate students. It has extended our cultural understanding of the University and the City of Edinburgh, of Scotland and the rest of the world. Much of this money has been raised by the hard work and generosity of Edinburgh alumni all around the world. Information about the Campaign is available on the University website: www.ed.ac.uk, or in printed form from the University’s Development & Alumni and Communications & Marketing Offices.

Chemistry Marks the Tercentenary of the Chair*

This year marks 300 years since the first professor of chemistry was appointed at Edinburgh. A series of celebrations will mark the school’s contribution to the discipline over its three centuries, and its continuing

tradition of excellence. The Chair of chemistry, established in 1713, was first occupied by Professor James Crawford. Professor Joseph Black, discoverer of carbon dioxide, held the Chair of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh between 1766 and 1799. At this time, chemistry at Edinburgh had grown to attract students from as far afield as Europe and the New World. During the industrial revolution, chemistry’s position at the interface of engineering, medicine and physics helped shape industry and trade.

Hundreds of years later, chemistry at Edinburgh remains at the heart of scientific developments. Researchers are at the forefront of fields such as developing new materials and compounds with a range of applications; applying chemical expertise to problems in medicine and biology; and probing the fundamental properties of molecules. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, Edinburgh together with St Andrews was ranked first in chemistry in the UK in the power ranking.


Teaching chemistry at Edinburgh remains a strong tradition. In the latest national student survey, students gave a satisfaction rate of 100 per cent. Chemistry students have won national prizes from the Salters’ Institute every year for the past 16 years — more than any other UK chemistry department.

This year’s celebrations began with a Burns’ Supper, marking the connection between Scotland’s most famous poet and Professor Black. Burns and Professor Black were contemporaries and acquaintances during the Scottish Enlightenment. This year’s Edinburgh International Science Festival, in late March and early April, included contributions from the School’s staff and students.

In the summer, a chemistry symposium and dedicated graduation will take place, featuring a public lecture from alumnus Sir Fraser Stoddart (BSc 1964, PhD 1966, DSc 1980). Sir Fraser is widely recognised as a pioneer in nanotechnology and molecular chemistry.

Historic Exhibition

In August until October, a public exhibition, Edinburgh 300: Cradle of Chemistry, will be held at the University’s Main Library featuring treasures from the University’s archives. This will highlight the School’s significant discoveries and its contributions to the world and its economies. Items on show will include models of compounds made by Professor Alexander Crum Brown using knitting materials, and analytical scales for weighing chemicals used by Professor Black. (Image: Professor Alexander Crum Brown’s wool ball model of a rock salt molecule.)

Centuries of Influence

As the year of events draws to a close, an October symposium will mark chemistry in 18th-century Edinburgh. This will focus on how chemistry at Edinburgh helped to shape the discipline and inspire chemists around the world. A musical composition created by Julian Wagstaff to mark the tercentenary will be performed at a concert in late October to mark the closure of celebrations.

Students, staff, alumni and supporters of the School of Chemistry are warmly invited to become involved in the celebrations, by contacting [email protected]. Our chemists continue to help solve some of the greatest challenges facing society, as they have always done.

Professor Eleanor Campbell, Head of School of Chemistry


University Regents

The work of the Campaign will be continued as themed fundraising with the creation of a panel of up to fifty University Regents, key people prepared to share their experzztise, knowledge and experience and

to create and develop networks of support for the University and its work. Regents will be briefed and partnered by key members of University staff. They will be regularly briefed on developments and will work with their partners in their own time. They will be invited to an annual event at which they will meet the Principal or one of the Vice-Principals and will be briefed on development projects of especial currency and interest. Anyone interested in the work of the Regents is invited to contact Professor Mary Bownes, Senior Vice Principal External Engagement, Charles Stewart House, 9-16 Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1HT; telephone: +44 (0)131 650 6443; email: [email protected]

University Collections Masterpieces III Exhibition, 5 April – 6 July

This year’s Masterpieces exhibition in the University Library, George Square

promotes the University’s collections on Science and Medicine and examines three themes, Science as Innovation, Science as Art, and Science as Statement. A very selective exhibition of 37 key items, it opens the lid on the University’s treasure-chest of research collections in science and medicine, and welcomes the collections of the Edinburgh College of Art which enrich the overall resources of the University as a whole.

Masterpieces III is open:

6 July, Monday – Saturday 10.00 -17.00.

Admission is free.


Jim Haynes’ Paperback Bookshop Commemorated

Photographs by Peter B Freshwater

Alumni of fifty years ago will remember Jim Haynes Paperback Bookshop ‘At

the Sign of the Rhinoceros’ (1959-1967) in Charles Street, Edinburgh (opposite the Charles Street Tavern, if memories need prompting) and round the corner from the Men’s Union (now Teviot House). The University and the Edinburgh College or Art have commemorated their merger, and have celebrated the cultural richness of the Paperback Bookshop, by commissioning a bronze sculpture of the rhinoceros head by William Darrell and of a book, the Haynes Nano-Stage sculpture by David Forsyth; they now adorn the new Charles Street, outside the University’s Visitor Centre and Informatics Building.

Jim Haynes’ contributions to the cultural life and heritage of Edinburgh are legendary. He attended Edinburgh University. His bookshop is believed to have been the first paperback bookshop in the country. He stocked the Penguin edition of Lady Chatterley’s Lover when it was published in 1960, and sold a copy to a customer who promptly went outside and burned it. He founded the Howff Folk Club and, as his longer-lasting legacy, the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and in London. And he helped create the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. These were heady days for the arts and literature.

He, John Calder and Sonia Orwell organised the watershed International Writers’ Conference, 1962, Edinburgh which brought many of the writers of the day head to head, and at which the Press had a field day over the nude model who was wheeled across the McEwan Hall gallery on a BBC lighting trolley. This was followed by the Drama Conference in 1963. He returned and was welcomed back to Edinburgh in 2012 for the International Book Festival that revisited the Writers’ Conference of 1962.


The Provenance of Panamintby Russell Cowe

Russell Cowe (MA 1968) is the founder and owner of DVD and Blu-ray producer Panamint Cinema. He and his wife Isobel presented a memorable Film Evening to the Graduates’ Association and guests in May 2012 in the Playfair Library Hall.

‘Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour’ quoth Robert Louis Stevenson in Virginibus Puerisque (1881).

Uncertainty and anticipation of the unknown is one of the joys of life, and this phrase could have been inscribed on my first nappies as I made my appearance in this world at Elsie Inglis

Maternity Hospital on the fifth anniversary of Pearl Harbor. I was the progeny of a romantic encounter by my parents who met in Colombo, Ceylon and married there as the war ended. Dad was a corporal in the RAF and my mother a WREN. The shock of my grandparents when he arrived at Lady Menzies Place with his English bride was largely assuaged by their joy at his safe return.

My early years in a top flat in Wolseley Terrace are forgotten, but I have happy memories of life at 28 Royal Park Terrace. Our beloved St Margaret’s Loch was only minutes away, with a quick climb over the wall into The King’s Park. My pal Alistair and I spent most of the summer weeks there, much of it on the rowing boats — 1/6d per hour. We were like Oor Wullie and Soapy Soutar. (Alistair did not take kindly to the more apposite soubriquet ‘Fat Boab’.) Illicitly fishing for the ‘Queen’s Perch’ with a line of cat gut, we were spied one day by our nemesis, the ‘Parky’ and the loudspeaker cried out ‘Come in, number 9’. We knew we were in for a clip on the ear, so Alistair and I rowed for the other side. The Parky was now in PC Murdoch mode and raced round the loch at full speed. We reached the rocky banks just a few yards ahead of him and ran to the sanctuary of St Antony’s Chapel, too steep a climb for our elderly foe, where we had an excellent view of our rowing boat drifting in the middle of the loch.

As often as we could go, the pictures and theatre were our favourite family outings: the Regent and the Salon with my pals on Saturday, and often mid week with my Mum or Dad. My favourite was Dad’s half day on Tuesday. Lunch with my wee sister at The Playhouse, Patrick Thomson’s, Grant’s or the Brown Derby, where the owner, actor Moultrie Kelsall, was often maitre d’, and in the evening a trip just with Dad to the Regent, where he often sneaked me in to an ‘A’ film — maybe Leo Genn and Leo Gorcey in a scary Bowery Boys flick, or Eddie Constantine as Peter Cheyney’s narcotics agent Lemmy Caution.

Saturdays in the Salon basement cinema with four or five cartoons sandwiched between two B-westerns bring back my fondest memories. The thrill of rolling bangers from the back stalls and betting at which row they


would explode was mesmerising. The long suffering usherettes would flash their torches in fury and confusion, not sure whether the culprits were Audie Murphy, Rory Calhoun or the Royal Park Terrace gang.

Several years ago my curiosity about the B-westerns of the 1930s and 1940s was awakened by the purchase of Phil Hardy’s Western Encyclopaedia, and after some research I started to release some rare titles on VHS video, just as a hobby.

Then another infamous act of aerial warfare, two years before Pearl Harbor, together with my fondness for westerns, was to bring a total change in my life and business affairs.

In 1998, I found myself President of the South Queensferry Rotary Club and, with the Millennium imminent, decided to embark on a special project to raise funds for a new Scout Hall at Port Edgar. The question was ‘How would Captain Mainwaring approach this?’ An encounter in my local with Ronnie Finlayson, head of history at Queensferry High School provided the answer. Useful places, pubs. I had met Ronnie when he asked me to stand for election to the school board a few years earlier, and he told me of a film made by the GPO Film Unit about the deployment of barrage balloons around the Forth Estuary in the wake of the Luftwaffe’s attack on Rosyth Naval Base in October 1939. ‘Wouldn’t this make a good video to sell for the Scout Hall project?’ he asked. Ronnie duly produced a video copy of a television broadcast, but with opening titles missing.

After a few telephone calls aided by the British Film Institute’s Handbook, I tracked down the film, Squadron 992 directed by Edinburgh-born Harry Watt, to the Imperial War Museum Film Archive. The curator, Jane Fish, with whom I still do the odd project, generously granted the Rotary Club a licence to produce the film on video for a nominal fee, and our millennium project was underway.

A year or so later, in 2000, the British Board of Film Classification sent me an invitation (as a result of having classified several B-westerns) to a presentation at the Lumiere Cinema, an open event for public and trade alike. During the interval I became engaged in conversation with John Gray a retired producer from BBC Scotland, and mentioned Squadron 992. To my astonishment he told me that from 1937 to 1939 he had been a sound engineer with the GPO Film Unit. John then went on to describe West Highland, a film about the last days of steam on the West Highland railway, which he had made for BBC Scotland in 1960. A few

weeks later he showed me the film at his flat in Stockbridge and asked me if I’d be interested in producing a video release. John was rightly proud of this wonderful film which he had made in the style of, and as a tribute to, the GPO’s classic Night Mail. Twelve months later, in the centenary year of the opening of the extension of the West Highland line to Mallaig, the video was released.


We had a premiere at the Filmhouse, which Scotrail and the press attended and this chance release turned a hobby into a full-time business. Characteristically John, still a busy man and then in his 80s, did not attend as he was called away to an urgent meeting in London, so I presented his address to the gathered audience. John and I became close friends and later, in 2001, I took him on a two day trip on the Jacobite steam train to Fort William and Glenfinnan during the West Highland Rail Festival. We arranged a showing of the film, and John spent much of the railway trip signing autographs and videos. John died in December 2006.

The publicity generated by West Highland made me realise there was demand for a company to produce video and later DVDs and Blu-rays of archive documentary material, and I gradually established contacts with the nation’s film archives and many independent film makers. Our catalogue now contains over 70 titles.

The uncertainty and anticipation of the future still goes on. Last October I was invited by the eminent documentary filmmaker Martin Smith, who assisted Bill Clinton in the establishment of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, to produce a DVD of two films from The Struggles for Poland series shown on Channel 4 in 1987. A Different World describes Jewish life in Poland from 1919 to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. I had worked with Martin before on The Terrible Price (BBC2 Wales), published in 2004, to commemorate another 70th anniversary, the 1934 Gresford (near Wrexham) Mining Disaster in which 266 men lost their lives.

Some of Panamint Cinema’s many highlights of the past twelve years have been:

Night Mail & West Highland• on DVD: the first release of Night Mail and a tribute to the work of John Gray.Voyages of the Sea Harvesters• produced in 2003 with my friend and colleague Ken Neil: archive films of Scotland’s drifter and trawler fleets with interviews with veteran fishermen recorded by Ken.One Continuous Take – The Kay Mander Film Book• (2010): a 2-disc retrospective of the last survivor of the British Documentary Film Movement with a booklet with biographical and viewing notes. Kay will be 98 this year and now lives in a nursing home in Castle Douglas. This was the first time any of the many British documentary filmmakers has had a dedicated DVD release. Faces of Scotland• (2010): the first Blu-ray high definition disc to be released in Scotland, and the first Blu-ray in Britain featuring classic archive documentary films.Roamin’ in the Gloamin’• (2011): Sir Harry Lauder’s only filmed stage performance from 1931 and two recently discovered comedies by Rikki Fulton.West Highland• (2012): a re-release of John Gray’s film with three other films about the lines of the West Highlands. The definitive West Highland railway DVD.A Different World & Messenger from Poland• (2013): Jewish life in Poland from 1919 to 1943. Released to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April 1943.The release of vintage B-movies still continues with • Crashing Thru – Sergeant Renfrew of the Royal Mounted from 1939, and Son of the Navy – Jean Parker 1940, both released in 2012.


Later this year I plan to release The Gunman from Bodie (1942) starring Buck Jones; this was my very first video release. Also on the cards are The Hawk of Powder River (1948) with Jennifer Holt and Eddie Dean, and Romance of the Rockies (1937) with Tom Keene; these will all be produced from near-mint prints from my 16 mm film collection.

Finally my next project, provisionally entitled ‘Scotland’s X-Files’ comprises rare and unseen propaganda films from World War II, garnered from the vaults of the Imperial War Museum Film Archive.

A Different World: Poland’s Jews 1919-1943. There are many films about the Holocaust. Raye Farr’s film A Different World is exceptional in that it concentrates on the vibrant lives of Polish Jews before their arrival at the Third Reich’s killing centres. “Anyone interested in the history of our times will want to see A Different World.” Sir Jeremy Isaacs, executive producer of The World at War.Messenger from Poland. Jan Karski witnessed the Holocaust first hand. He sought to alert the West to the slaughter while it was happening and while they could make a difference. Messenger from Poland tells his story in his own words; his words are urgent testimony, urgent still after the passage of 70 years.

The films were made for the documentary series The Struggles for Poland, and produced by DNA ‘Poland’ Ltd., in association with WNET New York & Norddeutscher Rundfunk Hamburg for Channel 4 UK. © DNA ‘Poland’ Ltd. MCMLXXXVI.

Panamint Cinema, Abercorn SchoolhouseBy Newton, West Lothian, UK, EH52 6PZ

t: +44 (0)1506 834936 e: [email protected] w: www.panamint.co.uk

DVD Format NTSC Region Free. 92 mins. Fullscreen. Aspect Ratio 1.33:1

A Different World & Messenger from Poland

On the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising,Panamint Cinema is proud to announce the DVD release of

(Photographs courtesy of Russell Cowe)


In Search of My Grandparents: A Sentimental Journey to South Indiaby Bridget Stevens

Bridget Stevens was President of the Graduates’ Association from 2009 to 2011. Her father, W V Stevens, was President of the Association from 1983 to 1985. He had been Honorary Secretary from 1974 until 1983, and Journal Editor from 1971 until his death in 1987. This article is based on a talk that Ms Stevens gave to a Graduates’ Association lunch in 2012.

I always knew that my father had been born in India to parents who were working for the Salvation Army but it was only many

years later, in the course of a very special trip to South India in 1998, that I discovered just how amazing their story really was. My travelling companions on that trip were three cousins so it was a true family project, which came about as a result of my cousin Tim, who in 1996 had been working as a doctor for Médecins Sans Frontières in Afghanistan, deciding to stop off in India on his way home. Seeking out the little village in Tamil Nadu where he believed Grandpa and Grandma Stevens had lived and worked in the early part of the century, Tim was delighted to find that there was still a strong Salvation Army community there, that the Stevens name was recognised and that some of the more elderly villagers even remembered meeting our grandparents.

At home, we discussed the idea of establishing some kind of memorial to our grandparents and the plans for our trip were born. Most of all, we wanted to find out more of the back story and were helped in this by a well-thumbed, modest little pamphlet published by the Salvation Army in 1944 as a record of William and Elizabeth Stevens’ contribution to the cause.

A successful watchmaker and jeweller in Worthing, Grandpa William Stevens, though never a particularly religious young man, was one day taken by a friend to a Salvation Army meeting where he became inspired by their aims and ideals. So much so that he offered his services to the organisation, eventually selling his business to pay for the necessary training. Told that he would be sent to Canada, William was all set to go when, five days before departure, he received a telegram ‘Will you exchange Canada for India? If so, farewell tomorrow, go home to family Sunday, come to London Monday; sail for India for life Tuesday’. And that was what he did, with no time for inoculations, visas or any of the other pre-trip preparations that nowadays we consider essential for overseas travel.


Arriving in Tamil Nadu in 1886, William was invited to change his name to Jesu Ratnam (Tamil for Jewel of Christ), exchanged his western clothes for local ethnic dress, even painting a red dot or Bindi on his forehead, and settled in a small, very poor village in Kanyakumari District, right down at the southernmost tip of India, where he began the work, preaching to the villagers and working with them to improve their lives, which was to keep him in India for the next thirty four years. The village was later re-named Retnapuram, in acknowledgment of the work which he and Grandma were to do there and of the affection in which they were held.

The pamphlet also tells the parallel story of Elizabeth Geekie growing up in Dundee, also coming into contact with the Salvation Army and going out to India where she met William. She too assumed a local name, Puramai (meaning Patience). They married in Nagercoil in 1893; the wedding ring was made of coral and cost fourpence. Twelve years elapsed before the former jeweller could afford to buy his bride a gold one. They had five children and gave each of them an Indian middle name. For example my father was christened William Jai (meaning Victory). Many years later, when his work for the Chamber of Commerce took him to politically sensitive parts of the world, he had to change his middle name to Victor. The children had their early schooling at Hebron School in Ootacamund.

William and Elizabeth both learned Tamil and made a point of living and working with low-caste untouchables (now Dalits), their lifestyle being heavily criticised by upper-caste Hindus as inappropriate for white people. This was not a case of lordly benevolence towards grateful natives in a nice warm, sunny climate. Nor was it the British Raj being lived out with palaces and servants, gin & tonics and punka wallahs. My grandparents lived in mud huts, and had to contend with snakes, flies, mosquitoes, smells, no proper sanitation, abject poverty and disease. Elizabeth in particular suffered several bouts of cholera, one of which necessitated her temporary return to England during WW1, when the ship she was travelling on was narrowly missed in the course of a torpedo attack from enemy submarines.

In addition to her missionary work, Elizabeth acted as nurse, sewing teacher, marriage counsellor and literacy tutor to the villagers. We read that her medicine chest consisted of coconut oil, Vaseline, Epsom Salts and castor oil. Later, along with a doctor friend visiting from England, the Stevenses set up a dispensary which gradually over time became a hospital with full operating theatre and clinical laboratory facilities. They had expected to live out their lives in South India but it was not to be. Another cryptic telegram arrived from the Salvation Army, this time saying ‘Are you willing to go to Korea?’ It seems this was a rhetorical question — there was never any real possibility of a negative reply! So, aged over 60, off they went to start all over again in a new country, learn its language, its peoples’ ways, and its social problems. Here too they worked with the poor and the illiterate, especially street children. A later posting to Kenya, where William founded the first Salvation Army school in Nairobi, came to an abrupt end when he was knocked down by a car and badly injured. They returned to England; Elizabeth died in London in 1945 and William in Worthing in 1946.


We (the group of four cousins) felt that all of this dedication and selfless hard work deserved some kind of tangible memorial and so we commissioned a small plinth with images of William and Elizabeth to be installed outside the Salvation Army Hall in Retnapuram, and arranged to travel there for the unveiling. We had no idea what, if anything, to expect but in the event our day in the village turned out to be quite extraordinary and unforgettable. That morning, at our modest hotel in Nagercoil (where our grandparents had got married), my cousin Anne and I were presented with and dressed in beautiful saris, then a group of senior Salvation Army officers, in smart white uniforms, arrived in a rather ancient white minibus to take us to the village, where we were greeted by a brass band, a posse of photographers and a banner strung up overhead bearing the slightly embarrassing words ‘Welcome to our Beloved Leaders!’ After being introduced to various key people, and listening to several speeches of welcome, we unveiled the plinth and moved into the Hall for a Service of Commemoration, for which the entire population of the village had assembled. The four of us were seated on a platform at the front while the villagers squatted on the floor. The service lasted for over three hours and was mostly in Tamil, with only the odd bit of translation into English. It was extremely hot even in this room with its open sides.

Throughout the service we were presented with gifts, many consisting of shawls which we were directed to place immediately round our shoulders. At one point I had no fewer than seven shawls draped round my shoulders! There was a slight worry that one or other of us would pass out with the heat! The rest of the service consisted of hymn-singing, stick-dancing, prayers and numerous tributes to our grandparents — the whole thing being recorded on video. Afterwards a simple, communal meal was served, consisting of vegetables and rice which we ate with our fingers off plantain leaves. Throughout the day we never quite knew what was going to happen next or when it would all end and, after the meal, although it was by now dark, we were invited to do a walkabout and visit every house in the village. It was explained to us that a generator had been specially hired so that the streets, which were really no more than mud paths, could be strung with fairy lights in honour of our visit. Flower petals were strewn in our path as we processed from house to house, drinking endless cups of tea, smiling, nodding, bowing namaste — and wishing that we had remembered to bring our anti-mosquito cream! Feeling a bit like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, we accumulated clusters of smiling children who insisted on hanging on to us as we moved along. The video shows us kissing babies, patting old people on the head and generally behaving like minor royalty or ingratiating politicians! Eventually it was all over and we were driven back to our hotel to recover and reflect on our extraordinary day.

Later on we visited Ootacamund (‘Snooty Ooty’) high up in the Nilgiri Hills, summer capital of the Raj, popularly known as the Queen of Hill Stations, where Hebron School still exists and where we were able to look at archival material recording the enrolment and attendance records of our parents nearly a hundred years earlier. Another emotional moment for me was finding the Church of South India hospital where my father was born and, in its grounds, the grave of his older brother, Charles Chellya, who had died in infancy of a disease which nowadays would have been very easily cured.


Prior to making the trip we had asked ourselves whether it might not have been more useful to donate what we would spend on plane tickets and hotels to the villagers so that they could pay for improvements to their education and healthcare. In the end we decided to travel to Retnapuram because it seemed the right thing to do. Our commissioning of the plinth and additional financial donations to the village so that all of their costs were covered seemed to be appreciated and from my personal point of view the day remains a highlight of my life, an experience which was both highly charged emotionally and absolutely unforgettable.

(The Unveiling) (Photograph courtesy of Bridget Stevens)

A Graduation GiftA year’s subscription to the Graduates’ Association,

including the University of Edinburgh Journal,makes an ideal gift for a new graduate.

Details and application forms from the Association Office.

Email: [email protected]. 0131 650 4292


The Friends of Edinburgh University Library: The First Fifty Yearsby Peter B Freshwater

Peter Freshwater (MA 1964) is Editor of the Journal and formerly Deputy University Librarian, who edited the FoEUL Newsletter and The Piper for many years. This article is printed here by kind permission of the Editor of The Piper. Another version, with full colour illustrations, appears in The Piper no. 39, Summer 2013.)

A fiftieth anniversary presents a golden opportunity for reviewing the past. It is wholly right and

proper to revisit achievements, and to enjoy them, especially as some of them may identify possible directions for the future. The Friends of Edinburgh University Library (FoEUL) was founded fifty years ago last year. The inaugural meeting took place on 1 November 1962. It established a programme of meetings, one in November and one in May; both were connected to Library exhibitions, one to mark the 200th anniversary of the Regius Chair of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, and one of Benefactors to the Library in Five Centuries. At the second, the FoEUL launched a draft guide to purchasing policy, limiting the objectives of the Friends to ‘those areas of thought and knowledge in which the library is already strong’. Members were also encouraged to donate books which they no longer required. They could include standard editions of texts, textbooks and standard reference books in good condition; recent pamphlets, papers and monographs, especially foreign, of significant interest; long runs of scarce or expensive periodicals; books relating to Scotland or written by native Scots; and books and pamphlets on Africa. These were the days of the first rapid expansion of universities after the Robbins Report (1962), and of foreign and Commonwealth studies in the wake of the Hayter Report (1961). The Friends’ policy document was revised in 1974, but the basic principles remain the same.

The first purchases were made within these limits, and attracted gifts in kind from members, who were also ‘assured that similar gifts in other fields will be equally welcome’ (Report for the Period to 30 September 1963). The catalogue of Benefactors to the Library in Five Centuries, a short mimeographed booklet which in some ways should be regarded at the Friends’ first publication, was to become an important source of reference for the Library for many years. It has only partially been replaced and updated by the Library’s online Gallery of Benefactors.


By the end of its first year, FoEUL had 80 life members, 523 individual subscribing members, and 13 institutional members; these were listed in the annual Report, and continued to be so until 2006. It attracted substantial gifts of book and manuscripts from nine members, and smaller donations from ten others. It had made or contributed to six significant purchases, totalling an expenditure of £393, and still ended the year with a bank balance of £1,856. Twenty-five years later, in 1987, membership had fallen a little to 601 (224 Life, 371 Annual, and 6 Institutional). The bank balance had risen to £30,729. By 2006, membership had fallen seriously to 348 (263 Life Members and 85 Annual). The financial balance had risen to £69,089 and now (2012) stands at £79,985.

During its first fifty years, FoEUL has had seven Presidents, five Secretaries (University Librarians ex officiis), seven Honorary Treasurers, and five Editors of the Newsletter and The Piper. FoEUL has held many meetings, often addressed by scholars, experts, and authors of international repute, and has organised visits by members to other notable libraries and collections in the Edinburgh area. Until recently these have been recorded in the annual report, and sometimes reported in the Newsletter and The Piper; they still make fascinating reading.

The Friends’ publications, perhaps more modest than those of other Friends’ organisations, have given pleasure to members and have introduced readers to Library resources not usually seen on open shelves. Apart from the Benefactors to the Library exhibition catalogue (1963) already mentioned, the first two, a facsimile reprint of Vincent Lunardi’s An account of Five Aerial Voyages in Scotland (1976), and letters of Thomas and Jane [Carlyle] (1980), were also the first two of four Drummond Books, the series commemorating the donation of the Library’s second foundation collection, by William Drummond of Hawthornden. They were followed by Charles Finlayson’s Clement Litill and his Library (1980), published jointly with Edinburgh Bibliographical Society to mark the 400th anniversary of the lawyer Clement Litill’s bequest of books to the town of Edinburgh that became the University Library’s first foundation collection. Two more Drummond Books, The Tounis College (1985), and Sons of Scotia, Raise Your Voice; (1991) followed, along with the texts of four talks, Under the Influence: Douglas Dunn on Philip Larkin (1987); Brought to Book, also on Philip Larkin, given by the bibliographer Barry Bloomfield in 1995; and The Library as I Knew it: Two Talks Given to the 25th Anniversary Meeting, by George Shepperson and Jean R Guild (1988). The Friends’ other regular and very popular publication has been the annual Christmas card, available exclusively to members for the first year and, thereafter, to other members of the University. A complete set of cards provides a fascinating set of illustrations from a wide range of the Library’s rare book and MS collections. The tiny figure of a piper in the illuminated border of a C15th manuscript Book of Hours appeared on an early card, and was quickly adopted as the basis for the Friends’ logo and, later for the title of the Friends’ newsletter.

The objectives of the Friends have always been ‘to act as a channel for gifts of books and manuscripts to enhance the Library’s collections; to purchase, or contribute to the purchase of, rare and valuable items which the Library could not otherwise acquire; and to promote the reputation of the Library and its collections’. The encouragement of purchases and of gifts has always been paramount. Until recently, the Friends’ acquisitions have been listed in their Report for the Year.


The first major purchase to which the Friends contributed in its second year, 1963/64, was the second Halliwell-Phillipps collection of early editions of Shakespeare and other Elizabethan and Jacobean plays, from the town of Penzance, to which the collector had gifted it. FoEUL’s decision to contribute a very large proportion of its funds ‘was a powerful factor in inducing the University authorities and others to grant the substantial sums which were required’ (Report for the Year to 30th September 1964), and was acknowledged by Professor John Dover Wilson in his memoirs. Indeed, the Library’s Shakespeare, Jacobean and Restoration drama collections has been a constant thread in the Friends’ acquisitions. Most recent large purchases have been, in 2010, a fine copy of Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles (1587) from Bernard Quaritch in London who had purchased this work at the sale of the Earl of Macclesfield’s collection in 2007; and in 2012 the photographic archive of the author and photographer Gordon Wright, which underpins the Library’s collections of modern Scottish writers.

Collections, which have benefited repeatedly from the Friends’ purchasing power, include the Library’s foundation collections of Clement Litill and William Drummond of Hawthornden; letters of Thomas and Jane Carlyle; the papers and early printings of the modern Scottish poets Hugh MacDiarmid, Norman MacCaig, George Mackay Brown, Helen B Cruickshank, Edwin and Willa Muir, and Maurice Lindsay (most of whom were Edinburgh University alumni); the University’s historical collections of lectures, correspondence and research papers by academic staff and students; collections on missionary and colonial trading organisations in Africa and America; the history of medicine, veterinary medicine, and physical and natural sciences; landscape and urban architecture; and Islamic, Sanskrit, and Arabic and Persian studies.

Unusual acquisitions have included Sir John Dalrymple’s late C17th private archive of printed and MS pieces on making soap from herrings; and a complete set of Picture Post in 80 volumes which delighted economic and social historians. In response to a Fourth Centenary appeal in 1980, many members, along with other University alumni, contributed quantities of memorabilia of their student days to the University Collection. Separate appeals, suggested by individual members in the mid 1980s, when the Library was struggling desperately to cope with the first rounds of Government recession and to digitise the Library catalogue, urged members to contribute to the purchase of an additional computer terminal with which to access the new online catalogue of the Library, and to create a fund for the purchase of extra copies of textbooks for students. Each one raised a few hundreds of pounds. A special appeal to members in 2009 raised a substantial partnership fund to purchase state-of-the-art display cases for the refurbished Main Library Exhibition Room.

Bequests and gifts of books by some individual Friends have created new collections. The bequest in 1979 by Kenneth Ryrie, of Thurso (MA 1942) of 1,500 volumes included over 500 early Penguin and Pelican Books published between 1935 and 1985; they formed the basis of the Library’s now extensive Penguin Collection, which was extended and expanded with the active help of many other members of the Friends. It is now the largest collection of Penguin Books in Scotland, and one of the most significant in the UK. After the death in 1982 of Alan F Stark of Edinburgh (BL 1933) his family presented over 1,500


volumes from his personal library; many of these books were also published in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s and include notable illustrated editions and private press books. Professor George Shepperson’s great interest is in the Black Diaspora, the history of the African peoples and their spread across the world. The Library’s research collections on Africa and African peoples are the richer for the many collections of books and personal papers that he has gifted, as well as encouraging others to do the same. Through Mr Michael Strachan, the Library acquired the archives of the Ben [shipping] Line; they were later joined by the shipping archives of Christian Salvesen, and of Salvesen’s South Georgia whaling station. Dr John Watt donated a complete set, with other books, of the works of the novelist L A G Strong.

Individual Friends have contributed to the Library in a voluntary capacity. Professor Ridgway Shinn Jr of Rhode Island College in the USA, catalogued the academic papers of Arthur Berriedale Keith, Professor of Sanskrit and Lecturer in Constitutional Law; and Miss Ierne Grant, through her brother Dr Douglas Grant, catalogued a number of the Library’s other collections of personal papers. Generous financial donations and bequests, such as those by Miss Elizabeth Watt, Dr James Curr, Mrs Elizabeth Pearce, and Dr H M Adam, have enabled the Friends to purchase items or collections that suddenly came on the market, such as a collection of classic treatises on architecture from the City of Edinburgh Libraries; these have stayed in Edinburgh and are still available here for local research.

FoEUL can look back over its first fifty years with pride at having made important contributions to the Library’s collections and services. Individually, many of its acquisitions look small and mundane but, viewed collectively, they are extensive and impressive. Now, as much as ever, the commitment of the Friends’ support is a powerful partnership tool for further purchases. More members are needed to help bring in funds and to spread the word about the Library, its collections and its services. Journal readers who would like to join the Friends and help to support the University Library are warmly invited to contact them by writing to the Secretary of FoEUL, Edinburgh University Library, George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LJ, or online via the website www.friendsofeul.wordpress.com. The Library’s Gallery of Benefactors can be visited at www.lib.ed.ac.uk/about/bgallery/Gallery


Reception for the Patron of the Graduates’ Association,

HRH The Princess Royal,Chancellor of the University

A reception was held on Tuesday 24 February in the Georgian Gallery, Old College to enable the new Patron of the Graduates’ Association, HRH The Princess Royal, Chancellor of the University, to meet members of the Association and their guests. Some 90 people attended a very enjoyable and memorable occasion.

In a speech of welcome, Mr Ritchie Walker, President of the Graduates’ Association, said:

‘Patron, Principal, Members and Guests:‘On behalf of the University of Edinburgh

Graduates’ Association it is a great pleasure to welcome you to this Reception here in the Georgian Gallery and to express our thanks to the University for its support to-night. My own recollection from some decades ago is of the Gallery being the New Reading Room, where Economic History’s recommended books were always in great demand and the best seats were at the small tables on the balcony!

‘Patron, we are honoured by your presence this evening. Research in our bi-annual University of Edinburgh Journals reveals that you are only our second patron! In the autumn of 1952 HRH the Duke of Edinburgh was one of our Honorary Presidents; however, at the following AGM on the successful motion of William V Stevens, the father of Bridget, my predecessor as President, His Royal Highness accepted the approach to become Patron of the Association, a new office.

‘At our Golden Jubilee Dinner in July 1974 in the Upper Library the principal guest was our Patron and the photograph from nearly forty years ago is on display this evening. The father of Cecily Giles, one of our Honorary Presidents, was for many years Journal Editor and likewise with Bridget’s father, before he became President. Dynastic succession seems to be the tradition of the Association. This is true elsewhere in the University with the three Monro Professors of Anatomy and two father and son pairs of University Librarians!

‘Originally our title was the Edinburgh University Alumnus Association, i.e. open to anyone who had been a student here, something still enshrined in our constitution. ‘Furnish the University with financial support’ was part of the message from the Rector, Stanley Baldwin, at our inauguration in 1924. That, I suspect, has been done very much by individual members rather than the Association, whose role in keeping its members positively and warmly


in touch with the University has helped make them receptive to approaches for support from the Development and Alumni Office.

‘At this point may I compliment Isobel Mieras, sister of our Vice-President, David Lamb, for the lovely clàrsach music, enlivening the evening.

‘Looking to the future, e-mail is transforming communication with our members and there is much the Association can share with both the University’s General Council and the Development and Alumni Office. On a local front we are actively promoting joint events, such as the Film Night with the various Friends bodies: Edinburgh University Library, St Cecilia’s Hall and the Talbot Rice Gallery.

‘Patron, thank you for accepting the Association’s invitation and graciously joining us here tonight.’

Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea, Principal of the University, also gave a brief speech of welcome. The Patron graciously replied.

Members of the Association acted as group leaders and presented members and guests to the Patron. They have kindly provided the following brief observations on the occasion:

Professor Ian Campbell

I learned a lot from our evening with the Chancellor. First, I learned how well the University of Edinburgh can rise to such occasions, with splendid rooms and excellent catering arrangements. Second, I was

forcibly reminded what an interesting and valuable chance it is to meet the Association’s members in groups and as individuals, and we had plenty of time as there was a large group for the Chancellor to pass round. And third, how utterly professional and yet humanly welcoming the Chancellor proved as she worked her way unweariedly round us all, a chance to talk to every individual, interest in everything that the group leader had to say about the group and about its members. And it was done without an eye on the clock, and yet to time, then it was off to Holyroodhouse and a formal dinner.

It was a chance to catch up with many members of the Association, now retired but still active in support of the University, and to meet many more. The Graduates’ Association is much more than the readership of the Journal, and their presence made for a most rewarding evening.

Mrs Lorna Henderson

The Reception for our new Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, has been one of the highlights of 2013. It was striking how she responded immediately, and with interest, to everyone she met. To speak

meaningfully to around seventy guests, in just over an hour, is quite an achievement! It was an honour to introduce to her such interesting people, all of whom happily responded to her lively enthusiasm, charm, and sense of humour. What was really impressive was our Patron’s ability to tune


in so quickly to each group, all from different fields, but all supporters of Edinburgh University and the aims of the Graduates’ Association. We found it a delight that Her Royal Highness seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the Reception. It was also a great pleasure to hear her gracious, impromptu, response to President Ritchie Walker’s address of welcome. A wonderful evening! Haste ye back, Ma’am!

Mr Alan Johnston

I have been fortunate to meet HRH The Princess Royal on previous occasions, and have always been impressed not only by her friendly informality, but her considerable knowledge of, and interest in, the

Organisation in question and its priorities.The time she spent with us at our Graduates’ Association Reception in

February was no exception to this, and indeed further reinforced it. In relation to The University of Edinburgh, I believe that she is very conscious of the role and commitment of her father, HRH Prince Philip, as our Chancellor for more than 50 years; and joked that she did not expect to match his length of service! In meeting our Members and Guests, she was particularly interested in the detail of their continuing involvement with the University, and was pleased to have the opportunity to recognise and support this. It was particularly noticeable to me, as I introduced her to others, that she quickly found areas of common interest to encourage a relaxed conversation, but with substance, such as the role of sport in communities, which she discussed with some young graduates and guests. She quickly spotted my lack of knowledge of horse riding when I attempted to contribute to the quite technical conversation she had on the topic with my daughter — but I was scolded with humour!

I was left in no doubt that she will continue to help the Graduates’ Association achieve its aims and is pleased to do so. We should continue to seek appropriate opportunities for this.

Mr David Lamb

This happy event was much enjoyed by all taking part. Our Patron was most gracious and involved, in taking the chance to speak briefly to virtually all our members who attended, after the introductions by

our President, and the Group Leaders. HRH The Princes Royal seemed relaxed and to be enjoying the event greatly, to the extent of her making an brief, almost unexpected, but very pertinent and engaging, response to the comments from the Principal and our President, Ritchie Walker.

Continued on Page 35


Photographs of the Reception

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Mr Iain MacLaren

The Reception was a very special occasion which will long be remembered by the 90 members and guests who assembled that evening in the Georgian Gallery, Old College. Because of our Patron’s other commitments in

Edinburgh, the Reception presented problems of organisation and timing, but the arrangements planned by President Ritchie Walker and Assistant Secretary Joan Meikle worked perfectly, and the Association is deeply grateful for all that they did to ensure the total success of a notable landmark event in our history.

HRH The Princess Royal had said that she hoped to meet as many as possible of our members participating in the Reception, and in order to facilitate this the company was divided into nine groups of ten, each of which had a designated leader. On her arrival our Patron was formally greeted by the President, who guided her to each group in turn and introduced its leader to her. Group leaders presented individual members of their groups to our Patron and this enabled her to converse briefly with most of them in little more than one hour.

All of us who had the honour of meeting and talking with HRH were as delighted by her wonderfully relaxed and gracious manner as by her obvious enthusiasm for and emotional involvement with our University. We hope fervently that we may be privileged to enjoy her presence at many more gatherings of the Graduates’ Association.

Mr Jack McLaren

My guest Sandra Elgin, Grants and Project Support Officer with Edinburgh City Council, and I thoroughly enjoyed the Evening Reception for our Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, in the beautiful

surroundings of the Georgian Gallery. The tone for the evening was set by HRH who seemed to have enjoyed meeting all those present. The speech at the end by HRH expressing her hope to have further involvement with Graduates’ Association rounded off a very successful evening. The organisers and in particular the Group Leaders ensured a successful evening by all their efforts.

Professor John Mavor

HRH seemed to enter the Gallery unannounced and without fuss. She proceeded to ‘work’ the groups around the room in a relaxed fashion, so much so that those of us in last position believed that she could

not reach us before time ran out. Remarkably, a combined effort by our Patron and our President led to her eventually speaking with us, in an unhurried and engaging way, as for the previous groups. We were left with an enduring impression of a lady who had made every effort to engage with representatives of the Association, and we all felt that the visit was a considerable success because of her genuine interest and involvement.


Dr Joyce Richardson

This was a memorable occasion. HRH The Princess Royal made a point of greeting each member of our group which included John Murrie, Avril Crosbie, Anne and Michael Munro. In particular I introduced

her to Jean McCallum whose father Sir James Learmonth had been asked to operate on King George VI at Buckingham Palace in 1949. This led to a discussion by our Patron of the contribution of Scottish medicine in France in the First World War. I also had the opportunity to remind her of her visit to open the Nutrition Research Unit at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow almost 20 years ago. This identified a time lapse that we both found difficult to believe.

Bridget Stevens

I remember two things in particular about this occasion. First, the knowledge which HRH displayed about the history of university continuing education in the UK. Having been involved in this field for

most of my working life, I thought I knew it all but our royal guest was able to tell me about the first ‘adult school’ which was said to have begun in Nottingham in 1798 to meet the needs of younger women in lace and hosiery factories. I hadn’t been aware of this. Protocol for royal visits suggests that it is the Visitor who will ask the questions but on this occasion I found myself asking questions of HRH — and being impressed by the authority with which she answered them. I was also touched by the gracious reference she made in her end-of-visit remarks to the dynastic nature of the Graduates’ Association and to a photograph of the Association’s Golden Jubilee Dinner in 1974, which had been attended by her father, HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who had preceded her as Patron and also by my father, William V Stevens, then Honorary Secretary and Journal Editor, who would later become President, as I myself did 26 years later.

Photograph Identification1. Andrew & Valerie Calder, Margaret Allan, Patron, Iain MacLaren2. Ritchie Walker, Bridget Stevens, Patron3. David Lamb, Margaret Kidd, Patron, Lucinda Mackay, Stuart & Shiela Monro4. Jean McCallum, Patron, Joyce Richardson, Ritchie Walker5. Sarah Johnston, John Smyth, Patron, Alan Johnston6. Ritchie Walker, Lorna Henderson, Patron, James Henderson7. Jack McLaren, Patron, Matilda Mitchell, Sam Trett, Rebecca Carwood8. John Mavor, Patron, Valerie Robertson, Susan Mavor, Ian Maudlin, Sue Wellburn

(All photographs courtesy of Douglas Roberston Photography and used with permission from the University Protocol Office)


Summerhall: Arts Centre of Excellencetext by Iain Gale, photographs supplied by Paul Gillon

Iain Gale (MA 1982) is a journalist, art critic, author, and editor of the National Trust for Scotland’s magazine Scotland in Trust. Paul Gillon is the Communications & Marketing Director at Summerhall.

It once housed one of the best known and respected veterinary teaching hospitals in the world (which

continues at Easter Bush on the outskirts of Edinburgh). Now, however, in one of the most exciting and innovatory projects of its kind in recent years, the original Royal (Dick) Veterinary College has been transformed into a different centre of excellence. Summerhall, as it is now known after the title of the original Georgian house on this site, opened in late 2011 as an arts centre with a difference. Privately funded, since then it has staged over a thousand performances and more than thirty exhibitions, winning no less than eighteen prestigious awards. It has also embraced new technology by launching Tech Cube, a business incubator for hi-tech companies, housed in the college’s famous high-rise block.

It might surprise some of those familiar with its original purpose that the transition from university veterinary school to innovative arts centre has been accomplished without any remarkable structural changes and this is a key part of its ethos. It was felt vital that the essential character of the building should be preserved, with many of the rooms retaining their original fixtures and features and simply being adapted to a different role. It is perhaps symbolic of this sensitive transition that the familiar figure of Morris Knight, who looked after the building when it was the old ‘Dick Vet’, should still be seen now every day in his new role doing the same for Summerhall.

Former students will be intrigued to discover that the anatomy lecture theatre makes the ideal space for visual art video displays, book festival talks or small theatrical productions. Similarly, the Demonstration Room is now a theatre and exhibition space which last year hosted an award winning performance of La Merda, while the Library, with its attached café has seen exhibitions by world-renowned and emerging artists such as David Michalek and Stephen Thorpe. The Dissection Room has echoed to the sounds of jazz legend Archie Shepp. The Main Hall theatre space showed the award-winning Songs of Lear and a critically-acclaimed operetta Dr Quimpugh’s Compendium of Peculiar Afflictions from composer Martin Ward (Royal Opera, ENB) and


librettist Phil Porter (Royal Opera, RSC). Other shows have included the fascinating V&A exhibition From Gaga to Gormley, and a retrospective of performance art guru Carolee Schneemann. In addition, the world famous Richard Demarco Art Archive is now housed here in an exhibition space covering two floors of the main building’s south wing.

One of the most astounding transformations has been that of what was the small animal hospital into what is now the Royal Dick Bar, a stylish watering hole and restaurant. Here too the nature of the building is remembered with cabinets displaying animal skeletons being among the eclectic furnishings.

These are still early days and Summerhall will continue to develop and evolve. With plans in place to re-address its history as a centre of education the complex has recently seen several rooms converted into one open plan area to be used as an education and performance space for children.

This is only the start of a long term project to create what promises to be the most dynamic arts centre in the UK, encompassing visual art, theatre, music, dance, literature, education, film, libraries and science. It is, surely, a classic example of how inspirational vision and private investment can really make a difference and at the same time preserve the dignity and history of an old friend.

For further information on Summerhall, visit:

www.summerhall.co.uk.


(Summerhall Café Interior)

(Summerhall Dick Bar Interior)(Photographs courtesy of Paul Gillon)


Ian J Fleming (1915-2012): Agricultural Historian, Teacher and Manager by John Fleming and Isla Smith

His son and daughter, John Fleming and Isla Smith, pay tribute to their father; a proud and committed family man of firm beliefs, with a wide range of interests who loved Scotland. He devoted much of his energy to recording the changes in agricultural and industrial life which he had witnessed in his lifetime. John, a graduate in Chemistry from St Andrews, has retired after 38 years in the chemicals industry, most of those years spent abroad, and now lives in Edinburgh. Isla, a graduate of Heriot-Watt, lives south of Oxford after her recent retirement from her position as Development Director at Keble College, Oxford.

Ian Fleming was the oldest professional agricultural engineer in the country, and a member of the Institute of Agricultural Engineers for well over sixty years. His main legacy is to be found in the National Museum of Rural Life

at Kittochside, near East Kilbride, in their collection of vintage agriculturalmachinery and the presentation there of agricultural heritage.

Ian’s association with the land dated back to the mid-1920s, when he returned from school in London to spend holidays in Blairgowrie, where he quickly gravitated to one of the nearby farms. There was never enough money for him to become a farmer, but he achieved the next best thing, a career that was never far from the land. In retirement, looking back over seventy years or more, Ian was conscious that he had seen and been part of the enormous social change in rural life, as advances in mechanisation and in plant and animal breeding led to undreamt-of increases in agricultural productivity. He had known farming from the 1920s, when it was worked exclusively by horse, with all the infrastructure and manpower that this entailed. Then, in the 1930s, he had seen the arrival of the first agricultural machines, including the first combine harvester to arrive in Scotland, now part of the Kittochside collection. In post-war years, he had sold combines and other machines throughout Scotland, including the Claas combine, which he regarded as consistently one of the best. With this lifelong connection to farming, he knew many of the farms in Scotland and their farmers, or their descendants, and where might be found this or that interesting machine tucked away in the corner of their steading. Ian felt that there was an important story here to be told, both in words, and through the machines that had made that story.

He also researched and published the stories of a number of ground-breaking Scottish engineering inventions. Sadly, these had in common that, although they had been invented in Scotland, commercial ineptitude, excessive costs of defending intellectual property or the lack of development funding led to their being exploited elsewhere, with little if any economic benefit accruing to the original Scottish inventor. Bell’s reaper in the 19th century was an early example, bringing little and only belated benefit to the Reverend Patrick Bell, who did not take out a patent but felt it should be for the benefit of mankind.


Several Americans felt differently, and Bell’s invention formed the basis for McCormick’s and other reapers in the United States. In the 20th century, single-sleeve valve engines based on the Burt-McCollum patents were perfected in a number of radial aero piston engines used in World War II, but these never enriched the inventors. SSV engines powered Argyll cars made immediately before and just after WWI, and Scotland’s only indigenous tractor, the Glasgow tractor. Neither the Argyll nor the Glasgow companies survived the 1920s.

Ian was born on 19 March 1915 in London, the only child of John (Jack) Fleming and Kathleen Burns. Jack, the most talented son of a large Edinburgh family, qualified as a chartered accountant, and had become Secretary of British Dominions Insurance before he was 30. Kathleen and Jack met while she was teaching at the Edinburgh College of Art, introduced by one of Jack’s older sisters, a pupil of Kathleen’s. They were married on 4 October 1913, and set up house in London, where Ian was born. Tragically, Jack contracted TB and died when Ian was only 18 months old, leaving Kathleen to bring Ian up on her own.

Ian went to University College School in Hampstead, remaining there as a boarder where Captain Scott-Lowe ran the boarding house, forever known as ‘Scalleys’; Ian survived to be the last of the ‘Scalleywags’. As boarder and housemaster, Ian and Scalley had a less than harmonious relationship, but, in the geography classroom, they developed considerable mutual respect. Ian played 1st XV rugby for UCS as hooker, was CSM of the OTC, and captained the shooting eight. He writes of hair-raising drives from Hampstead to Bisley, 40 miles in under an hour. One might not need to look any further for the reason for his taking three attempts to pass his ‘Matric’ (you had to pass everything at one sitting then), English being the problem each time. By then, he was so well versed in all the other subjects that he achieved distinctions in most of them!

Life was very far from easy for the single mother and her son, and from this upbringing, Ian was forever careful about money. In the Army, during the war, he found it simplest just to be teetotal. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1937 with a BSc in Agriculture. Again, he played rugby, denied a blue by a skiing injury, and was a founder member of Edinburgh University Ski Club in late 1936.

After graduating, he joined first the Institute of Animal Genetics, where he made a significant study of the life cycle of the sheep tick on a farm in Ettrick, then moved to the East of Scotland College of Agriculture to teach agricultural engineering. Though in a reserved occupation, he joined up in 1940, and the Army found the perfect place for him, first in RASC, then, after its formation, in


Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Qualified as a Radio Mechanic and as an Armament Artificer, he spent much of his war around the Home Counties, preparing radio vans for Russia and tanks for the Normandy invasion.

During the war, the Duke of Buccleuch opened his town house in central London as a social centre for Scots in the services. There, the eyes of a young REME corporal were drawn to the best dancer on the floor, Margaret Watson; they were married in Dundee on 22 May 1943. After receiving his commission in 1944, Ian was posted to India for the final year before VE-day. He returned home greatly smitten with this amazing country, his fascination evident from his detailed memoir of this posting and from the letters to Margaret and his mother. All his days, at school, university, in the army and later, he was a prolific correspondent; letters arrived with metronomic regularity.

Ian was fortunate in being demobbed quickly, in late 1945. Back in Edinburgh, he picked up where he had left off, at the East of Scotland College, re-engaged on his pre-war pay! With a wife to look after and a family on the way, he quickly realised that there was no future there, and that he had to make a move. John was born in June 1946, followed by Isla in October 1949.

He joined Scottish Agricultural Industries, who were then going into the agricultural machinery business. Working at Rosehall outside Haddington, he secured the Scottish dealership for Claas combines, doubling his sales each year for the first three years. SAI moved him to take charge of William Reid in Forres, and a staff of about one hundred. Besides the machinery dealership (International Harvester in this case) and repairs, Reid’s supplied grain handling and dairy equipment, and also had a millwright’s business catering to the distilleries of the Moray coast. Responding to the huge quantity of fallen timber after the gales of early 1953, William Reid designed an excellent portable sawmill, many of which were exported, and a few of which survive today.

Faced with the need in the late 1950s to replace their fertiliser plant in Leith, SAI decided to dispose of their machinery dealerships. Given the choice of staying with machinery or with SAI, Ian opted for the latter, which obliged a move to Aberdeen, followed quite quickly by a return to Edinburgh, where he took charge of an agricultural work-study service offered by SAI, and later, of their bulk fertiliser spreading service. Unfortunately, the late change in career direction had left Ian in somewhat of a dead-end at SAI, and he left in 1970, still with a decade left to work. He spent his final ten years of work as training adviser to the agricultural machinery trade, but this involved reporting to some unimaginative individuals, with whom he had little in common.

Ian was active in many bodies, contributing much to the four hundredth anniversary celebrations of the foundation of the University of Edinburgh in 1983, and to the centenary in 1993 of the Scottish Philatelic Society, of which he was President in 1978. He was a co-author of Britain’s First Chair of Agriculture at the University of Edinburgh (1790-1990), produced for the celebrations of the bicentenary of the Chair of Agriculture in 1990. He was a staunch supporter of the University of Edinburgh Graduates’ Association, contributing many interesting articles to the Journal, and for a time was Secretary of the Edinburgh Section.

Above all, he wanted to leave as his legacy a record of his story of farming as he had seen it evolve from the 1920s onwards. He was Joint Secretary of the


Scottish Country Life Museum Trust and also its Technical Adviser. When, in 2001, the National Museum of Rural Life at Kittochside opened, and absorbed the collection of the Scottish Country Life Museum, Ian became an enthusiastic contributor to the merged museum. He scoured the country for examples of agricultural machines of historic interest, and ensured that these could be acquired for the museum and restored as closely as possible to their original condition.

He bought his first computer at the age of 86, and learned how to use it, though he was never totally sure of the difference between a folder and a file! His time at the keyboard only came to a halt when his hands stopped doing what the brain told them to. Unfortunately, he came just too late to personal computing to use the internet. Who knows what he might have achieved with access to that resource? His computer files have been of inestimable value in compiling this article.

In retirement, Ian and Margaret were fearless travellers, to India, returning to a place where he had spent a leave in 1945, Siberia, cruising down the River Yenesei, Russia, a canal cruise from St Petersburg to Moscow, Turkey, the wild east of Anatolia, China, Jamaica and not least the USA where he was so proud of his (unpaid) speeding ticket from the Montana Highway Patrol!

For someone brought up entirely by his mother, he was determined to provide a secure and balanced environment for his family. Early holidays centred on the west coast of Scotland and generally involved much walking and fishing. In the 1960s, Dormobile holidays extended the horizons of his children, with great distances travelled, quite intrepidly for those days.

He revelled in the arrival of his four grandchildren and took a great interest in all their exploits and derived such pleasure from watching their growth into adulthood. When his great-grandchildren appeared, his sense of the continuity of the family gave him enormous satisfaction. Encouragement of the young was not merely restricted to his own family; he was immensely hospitable and loved it when people dropped in unannounced. Since his death, many have written of doors opened or suggestions made which made a difference to their lives.

St Andrew’s Night DinnerSt Leonard’s Hall, Pollock Halls, Holyrood Park Road, Edinburgh

Saturday 30 November 20136.15pm-11.00pm

Guest Speaker — Owen Dudley Edwards

(For further information, see Autumn Programme of Events)


Reviews ‘We are reviewing the situation… Fagin in Lionel Bart’s Oliver based on Oliver Twist: Charles Dickens

Scottish Medicine: An Illustrated History. Helen Dingwall, David Hamilton, Iain Macintyre, Morrice McCrae, & David Wright. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2011, pp. xviii + 286, illustrated. £30.00 9781780270180

This is a landmark book; a coffee-table book, certainly, but nane the waur o’ that. In fact, its being a coffee-table book should keep it where it belongs, right in the eye of the family and the public. It is the latest

in what has become an informal series of such books, including Duncan Macmillan’s Scottish Art 1460-1990 (Mainstream, 1990), John Purser’s Scotland’s Music (Mainstream, 1992), and William Milliken’s and Sam Bridgewater’s Flora Celtica (Birlinn, 2004). Well written, beautifully illustrated and elegantly published, they provide the general reader with excellent introductions on different aspects of Scotland’s heritage. To date, Mainstream and Birlinn share the honours.

The early sections to 1850 are a refreshing revisitation of generations of medical historical research and writing, but the finest and most interesting sections are the last two, Intervention by the State and Health and Health Care from the Mid-twentieth Century which invite readers to own the book for themselves: ‘I was there and saw that or, if I wasn’t, my gran certainly was’ is the feeling that brings this book home to the Scottish reader. The special box on the medical novelist A J Cronin, author of the stories that became Dr Finlay’s Casebook, is especially welcome. All credit to the authors for including a short, but perhaps too short, section on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, especially herbalism, chiropractice and homeopathy; like them or loathe them, the history of medicine cannot ignore them. There is no index for ‘quack doctors’ as such, but they are there too. The design of the book and quality of illustrations are stunning, and match the quality and content of the text.

Peter B Freshwater

Edinburgh’s Colonies: Housing the Workers. Richard Rodger. Argyll Publishing, Glendaruel, 2011, Pp.128 (paperback), £11.99. 9781906134785

Gardez l’eau! has become something of a running joke when the subject turns to times past in Edinburgh’s Old Town. However, without wishing to be too po-faced, it was no joke for those that had

to live there. After 1767 this did not tend to include the middle classes who abandoned it in their droves for the spacious environs of the New Town (a situation not dissimilar to the Caucasian exodus from post war inner city America). The less well heeled who took their place faced even greater squalour as venal landlords partitioned the apartments vacated by the departing petit bourgeoisie to maximize their investment.


Plus ça change and all that but nigh on a century later some working class heroes had the bright idea of building affordable houses for the likes of mechanics, masons and tradesmen in general on cheaply acquired land on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Dubbed the ‘Colonies’, a name originally given due to their peripheral location, this soon became something of a misnomer as the burgeoning city engulfed them as its net spread ever wider but the name stuck.

Richard Rodger’s book tells of the history of the company that built these now iconic dwellings: a group of local builders collectively known as the Edinburgh Cooperative Building Company (ECBC). If it all sounds a bit William Morris that’s because, in the beginning at least, it most certainly was. Inspired by the traditional fishing village style quarters with their outside stairs and barley twist railings, the Colonies’ design combined functionality with a pleasing aesthetic. They offered solidity, built to last and all for £160.00 or thereabouts; the ECBC even arranged the mortgages, again at preferential rates.

Alas, financial pressures dictated that the dream of providing quality houses for working class folk did not endure; the ECBC went upmarket as property prices soared such that long before their liquidation in 1954 they had become just another company whose overriding concern was to provide dividends to their shareholders. For all that they did leave a lasting legacy.

The author reflects the subject matter in that it is expertly crafted, pleasing on the eye and will undoubtedly remain a definitive text on the subject for many years to come. A real eye-opener.

Rod Johnson

The Influence of D F McKenzie; edited by Alistair McCleery and Benjamin A Brabon. Edinburgh: Merchiston Publishing, 2010, pp. viii + 94. Paperback. Gratis; available from Merchiston Publishing, Scottish Centre of the Book, Edinburgh Napier University, with a handling fee of £5.00. 9780955356155.

This book celebrates the philosophy of the late Don McKenzie, Professor of English at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and, later, of Bibliography and Textual Criticism at Oxford. He was well known and

much respected throughout the world of studies of the histories of the book, of printing and publishing and of libraries insisting, as he did, that these studies should be conducted as a social science.

The book opens with an analytical appreciation of McKenzie’s life and achievements by David McKitterick that first appeared in the Proceedings of the British Academy in 2002, shortly after McKenzie’s death. It works as a keynote paper, setting the context and framework for the essays that follow. Peter D McDonald examines censorship and control of publishing in South Africa during the apartheid era. Sydney J Shep looks at McKenzie’s review of the clash of oral and written cultures involved in Europeans’ colonisation of New Zealand and Australia. David Finkelstein explores the need for historians of the book to engage with digital images and media. Alistair McCleery assesses the full bibliographical implications of different editions of James Joyce’s Ulysses.


These are four essential foci on aspects of the study of media as social phenomena, the essential life blood of centres for the study of the book and its history. They inform the teaching and research programmes of the Scottish Centre of the Book at Edinburgh Napier University and, in many aspects, of Edinburgh University’s own Centre for the History of the Book. These excellent, interesting and well-written essays are useful background reading for anyone interested in the history of the book and book trades.

Peter B Freshwater

An Eye on the Street, Glasgow 1968 Photographs by David Peat, Edinburgh, Renaissance Press, 2012, pp. 108. 9780954396138

Here are two small but extraordinary books which offer unqualified pleasure and enlightenment. Produced by Lucina Prestige’s admirable Renaissance Press, they focus on different arts—poetry, visual art, and

music in one, photography in the other—but both are delightful and rewarding works of art in themselves.

An Eye on the Street is a pleasure of a different kind. Beautifully produced and designed by Lucina Prestige once again, it is a collection of photographs of Glasgow taken by David Peat in 1968. An award-winning documentary film-maker and cinematographer, Peat died in 2012. These previously unpublished photographs were taken when he was a young man of twenty-one creating a portfolio of his work. They focus on the poverty-stricken areas of the Gorbals, Tradeston, Maryhill, and Cowcaddens. Inevitably these amazing black and white pictures evoke a Glasgow that was fast disappearing. This is a Glasgow of urban wastelands and squalour, of dark tenements, messy back-courts, broken windows, crumbling buildings, rubbish-strewn streets, graffiti-covered walls, and shabby, run-down shops. Almost every image here suggests poverty, neglect, hardship, and deprivation. But despite this, the book’s impact is not at all depressing. The children we see here living and playing in the grim streets—and the camera’s focus is almost exclusively on the children—seem full of life and energy. However depressing their circumstances, they seem determined to survive. These great photographs show us a Glasgow of the past, but they have lessons for the here and now. Buy this book and see for yourself.

Andrew Hook

Through the Letterbox A Book of Haiku by George Bruce Illustrated by Elizabeth Blackadder, Edinburgh, Renaissance Press, 2011, pp. 168. 0954396103 9780954396107

T hrough the Letterbox A Book of Haiku consists of the collected haiku poems of the Scottish poet George Bruce which he began writing in 1971, and went on producing right up until his death at the age of ninety-three in

2002. Adding immeasurably to the reader’s pleasure are the fine illustrations by the Scottish painter, Elizabeth Blackadder, alongside or around each one. Her deft and delicate drawings match exactly the spare beauty of the haikus’


words. The Scottish composer John Maxwell Geddes rounds off the book with a musical setting for ‘Haiku Envoi’, Bruce’s final poem.

Each haiku, the poet tells us, consists of three lines and seventeen syllables. Collected here are around two hundred examples of the form on almost every possible theme: people, poets, painters, places, musicians, cats, fishes, nature, the seasons, art and philosophy. All life’s instances are here:

What is a haiku? A haiku—a single breaththat breathes with the river orThe perspective of the haiku is lean, no fat.Multum in parvo orBlow wind blow, through the letter-box. It rattleswith a shout here comes Spring

Add in the art of Elizabeth Blackadder on every page, and this book becomes a letter-box of pleasures. Andrew Hook

James Hogg, Contributions to Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine: Volume 2, 1829-1835. Thomas C Richardson. Edinburgh University Press, 2012, pp. lvii + 509. Hardback £80. 9780748624898

This second volume completes the comprehensive record of James Hogg’s involvement with Blackwood’s Magazine undertaken by Tom Richardson for the Stirling / South Carolina Research Edition of the

Collected Works [S/SC]. In all, the two volumes contain carefully edited versions of almost 100 items, stretching from short songs in the Noctes Ambrosianae series to novella-length stories. At the same time, the present volume excludes some twenty contributions which were reproduced in different collections within Hogg’s lifetime, notably The Shepherd’s Calendar (1829) and A Queer Book (1832), editions of which appeared at the onset of the Collected Edition’s publications in 1995. This decision not to duplicate material within the same collected edition is commendable, and arguably contrasts favourably with another S/SC compilation, Contributions to Annuals and Gift-Books (2006),which replicates texts and commentary from the S/SC edition of A Queer Book. Conversely, the present volume includes a number of items which, though not accepted by Blackwood’s, were originally intended by Hogg for publication there, and subsequently failed to find a suitable outlet in their original form within his lifetime. In two instances, ‘The P and the Q’ and ‘The Miser’s Grave’, dual print/manuscript versions are given, on the grounds that the Blackwood’s printed text significantly altered Hogg’s original intention. All in all, the most careful consideration has gone into this volume’s orchestration of materials, informed throughout (as its editor would be first to acknowledge) by the ongoing researches that has supported S/SC from its inception, not least those by Gillian Hughes, the General Editor for this volume and its 2008


companion. The result is something less while at same time far greater than the ‘Contributions’ title might immediately suggest.

Somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, the period covered by this volume proves to have been one of the most fertile in Hogg’s engagement with the Magazine, notwithstanding the large rift with William Blackwood that occurred late in 1831. Underlying this is a larger shift by Hogg to miscellaneous writing in the mid-1820s, itself buoyed up by the burgeoning production of periodical literature at that time. More especially, the phenomenal rise of a new species of keepsakes and annuals in London, with their inexhaustible appetite for short pieces by celebrity authors, considerably expanded Hogg’s range of opportunities, allowing him to operate more as a professional rather than patronised contributor. In fact, as Professor Richardson’s Introduction amply illustrates, one of the main causes of friction in Hogg’s dealings with the Magazine during this period was a suspicion that Blackwood was unreasonably holding on to copy which could be profitably used elsewhere. In an open situation, with its Scottish base, wide range of contents, and tolerance of less decorous materials, Blackwood’s till the early 1830s clearly constituted a first port of call for Hogg’s writing, and it is there evidently that he found the greatest room for expression. The variety of narrative voices employed, forms of interaction with the reader, and range of genres and topics covered, are all remarkable, betraying little if any diminution of the skill and ingenuity now more usually recognised in ‘major’ works such as Confessions of a Justified Sinner. The embodiment of this material as a whole offers the opportunity for a continuing re-alignment in the critical evaluation of Hogg’s work.

Both in the establishment and annotation of texts, the scholarship shown here is of the highest order. Where the Blackwood’s printed article provides the base text, Richardson is astute in correcting errors of the press, if perhaps a trifle conservative in eschewing larger conjectural emendations. His handling of manuscripts is equally well-guided, informed at it is by a comprehensive knowledge of the materials available, and by an ability to distinguish different categories in Hogg’s production, including early drafts, fair copy, and recycled work. In following a manuscript source, care is taken to preserve Hogg’s original idiosyncratic spelling, a policy which to an outside eye might seem to bring mixed results, though which once embarked on needs to be followed to the letter to avoid subjective choices being made. Annotation is full and exceptionally well-informed, though on a few occasions veering towards the overlong. In particular, directions to consult the Oxford DNB after already fairly full accounts of relatively well-known literary figures might seem in excess of requirements for most likely readers. On the principle that it is better to have too much rather than too little, however, Edinburgh University Press is to be commended for allowing so much room to individual editors. The same goes for the Collected Edition as a whole, which reaches its 26th volume with this work, but without so far declaring any endpoint in its listings.

Peter Garside


CDs & DVDs

The Definitive West Highland Film Collection (Panamint Cinema, available from Abercorn Schoolhouse, by Newton EH52 6PZ; www.panamint.co.uk PDC 2056

A misleading cover picture perhaps, the train perhaps suggesting a trainspotter’s collection. And, to be fair, it is that in generous measure. But much more. Four films, West Highland, A Line for all Seasons, West of

Inverness, The Line to Skye, each different, each enlivened by some of Scotland’s most majestic scenery, Rannoch Moor, majestic loch after loch, desolate glens, scattered villages, Fort William with a glimpse of its vanished station, Inverness station before its ‘modernisation’, even Queen Street in Glasgow with the cobbled streets strangely empty of motor traffic, but not of the trams which ground round George Square, the first thing to greet the arriving traveller.

There is a great deal in West Highland which, despite its black and white, is unforgettably nostalgic to a generation that knew corridor coaches, the old sleepers and the old diners, and above all the panting of the Black Fives and the B1s and the oldsters from the companies that predated the LMS and the LNER which still patrolled the rails for which they had been designed. Hairstyles, clothes, manners of travelling (did people really wear hats to travel by train?), children lifted up on to the train from the trackside miles from the nearest station to go to school, fish trains, aluminium trains of bauxite wagons, freight train after freight train all forgotten today when the roads have swept that traffic clean. The other films feature a lot of colour, a lot of diesel (though much even of that footage is of railway history), and a little of the strangled vowels of commentary which grate on modern ears, though West Highland is graced by much commentary from those who lived and worked on it, and some quite wonderful unaccompanied Gaelic singing. A DVD to settle down to, to play right through, and to marvel at the good fortune that the Beeching axe which was poised over these wonderful railway lines never fell.

Ian Campbell

Gaudeamus Igitur! Music for Graduation. Edinburgh University Singers; John Kitchen conductor and organist, Wayne Weaver assistant conductor. Edinburgh: Delphian Records, 2009. CD DCD37414. £10.50. Available from the University of Edinburgh Visitor Centre and Online Shop.

It is good to be reminded that St Andrews is not the only singing university in Scotland. This excellent compilation puts Edinburgh right alongside it. For those of us whose graduations are receding rapidly into the distant

past, this is an eye- and ear-opener. Then, there was no music except for Herrick Bunney on the McEwan Hall organ; but he managed to introduce a light note to a grave occasion by bringing the academic procession to the platform with ‘When Johnny comes marching home’, better known to us as ‘The animals came in two by two’. Times have changed. Principal Sir Timothy O’Shea has instigated a greater use of music at graduations, and John Kitchen and the University Singers have risen to the occasion with a wide range of music, beginning with the universal academic anthem ‘Gaudeamus igitur’,


continuing with songs by Handel, Vaughan Williams and traditional Scottish tunes to words by Robert Burns, all arranged by John Kitchen — and a superb choral arranger, he! The great set piece of Parry’s I was glad changes the mood, leading into more modern settings of traditional songs. Nostalgic classics, ‘A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square’ arranged by Peter Backhouse and ‘Over the rainbow’ arranged by Guy Turner, give way to more Scottish songs, and the collection ends with Richard Rogers’ ‘Blue moon’ and Gershwin’s ‘I got rhythm’. Handel provides processional and recessional organ music. Those with an interest in student and college song may be disappointed that only ‘Gaudeamus igitur’ is included. The time is ripe for a revival of many student songs from a hundred years ago.

The sound of the University Singers is beautifully fresh and clear, just right for Kitchen’s and others’ arrangements and for the occasion. Like the graduands and their families listening to it, this music moves and is moving, with joy and hope for the future.

Peter B Freshwater

Reviewers Ian Campbell is Professor Emeritus of Scotish and Victorian Literature at the

University of Edinburgh and Review Editor of the Journal.

Peter B Freshwater is former Deputy Librarian at the University of Edinburgh and Editor of the Journal.

Peter Garside is professor of Bibliography and Textual studies at the University of Edinburgh and Honorary Fellow of the Centre for the History of the Book.

Andrew Hook was formerly a member of the University of Edinburgh English department and Bradley professor of English at the University of Glasgow.

Rod Johnson studied at the University of Edinburgh and now lectures at the City of Glasgow College.

Easter Bush Campus TourMeet at Reception, Teaching Building,

Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary StudiesThursday 12 September 2013

2.00-4.00pm(For further information, see Autumn Programme of Events)


AppreciationsProfessor Susan Manning (1953-2013)

In Susan Manning, the field of Literary Studies has lost one of its most brilliant and inspirational thinkers, and a great friend to colleagues, students and scholars around the world. Scottish by birth, Susan grew up in Oxfordshire

before starting her immensely distinguished academic career at the University of Cambridge. After her PhD, she took up a fellowship at Newnham College, where she wrote her first book, The Puritan-Provincial Vision (Cambridge UP, 1990). This ground-breaking work was the first to allow a full understanding of the relation between Scottish Calvinism and American Puritanism and was the start of Susan’s profound engagement with the intellectual currents of Transatlantic exchanges.

In 1999 Susan moved to Edinburgh to take up the Grierson Chair in the department of English Literature, and, in 2005, became Director of the University’s Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities. The many colleagues, postdoctoral students and visiting fellows who passed through IASH will remember Susan’s great warmth, kindness, genuine interest in all forms of intellectual life and ability to contribute to them in new and dazzling ways. She created an academic community in Edinburgh that, in its commitment to sociability and pioneering intellectual questions, echoed the Scottish

Enlightenment that had been one of her most abiding interests. Through her work with the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes, and frequent invitations to speak at conferences, Susan extended this community internationally, inspiring the work of colleagues across the world.

In her second book, Fragments of Union, published by Palgrave in 2002, Susan began to develop her ideas about the complex structures of thought that move between Scotland and America, addressing the formation of national memories and the myths, narratives and philosophies that run through them.

It is a far-reaching book that only someone of Susan’s depth of knowledge and fine control of complex ideas could produce. These ideas come to fruition in her final book, The Poetics of Character, which despite illness and her own exacting standards, Susan was able to finish before she died and which will appear with Cambridge. We are fortunate to be left with a book of such great richness, testimony to an eminent career cut far too short.

Dr Penny Fielding, Head of Department of English Literature


G Ross Roy (1924-2013)

Many in Edinburgh will have noted and regretted the passing of G Ross Roy whose long and distinguished career at the University of South Carolina resulted in several strongly Scottish achievements.

Though Ross (as he was universally known) was Canadian in origin, his academic and personal commitment to Scotland was intense, and in his department he became the focus of Scottish teaching and research at a time when such was rare. In his own life, he was an avid and exceptionally successful collector of books and manuscripts; the results were twofold in the superb private library he enjoyed showing to visitors (his Burns collection was unrivalled) and in the collection built up in Columbia, South Carolina, over decades. It attracted and attracts researchers from all over, many of them supported by the Ormiston Roy Fellowship he endowed in memory of his parents.

Ross’s main international impact was in the journal Studies in Scottish Literature which he edited (and with his wife Lucie) produced year after year, giving many an early opportunity in their careers to reach an international audience, a refereed journal of authority, a wide sweep of historical coverage, and the zestful reviewing of Scottish literary scholarship as slowly it has gathered momentum in recent decades.

It is good to know that Studies in Scottish Literature did not die with Ross, but will continue in an electronic annual form under the editorship of a former member of our own department, Patrick Scott, who recently retired from an important post in the library Ross did so much to foster. Robert Burns & Friends (Columbia, SC, 2012) edited by Patrick Scott and Kenneth Simpson, is a fitting tribute not only to the scholarly achievement at Columbia, but to the man who made it possible. Edinburgh, most appropriately, conferred the honorary DLitt on a distinguished man of letters.

Professor Ian Campbell


Obituaries‘And some there be which have no memorial who are perished as though they had never been ... Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name liveth for evermore.’

Ecclesiasticus, xliv

The following deaths of members of the University have been intimated to the Association Further details, in some cases, may be found in The Scotsman, The B.M.J., The Veterinary Record and other newspapers and journals. If no date of death is recorded, no exact date has been passed to us by the Development Office.

The annual list of deceased graduates is issued by the General Council in their Annex to the February Billet. This can be consulted online on the Council’s website at www.heneralcouncil.ed.ac.uk/publications.htm or by writing to the Secretary of the General Council, University of Edinburgh, Charles Stewart House, 9-16 Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1HT.

Tariq Munir Abbas MB 1943 FRCSE FRCOG: 2012, after graduating he moved to the Bristol area, specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology and was ultimately appointed consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist to the South West Regional Hospital Board.

Charles Ingram Aitchison MB 1960 MRCGP DObstRCOG DCH: 15 August 2012, became a general practitioner in Kendal, Cumbria.

James Alexander Aitken MA 1956: in Edinburgh, 17 April 2012, aged 87, was educated at Flora Stevenson’s and George Heriot’s schools before joining the RAF during WWII. He trained in the Vickers Wellington with 170 Squadron at RAF Hemswell, Lincolnshire and participated in the Bomber Command offensive. The last mission carried out by 170 Squadron was the attack on the SS barracks at Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps. His crew transported liberated prisoners back from Germany to Britain. After the war, he held a number of jobs before studying at the University. He taught at Oakley, Dunfermline High, Fife, Liberton, Gillespie’s and Leith Academy in Edinburgh. He retired, aged 60, and resumed his studies in German, played curling and took up genealogy research.

Jeanette Lilian Anderson (née Rayment) BSc 1946 PhD: 16 November 2011. David Cameron Ball MA 1979 CA: in Strathallan, due to a skydiving accident,

5 January 2013, aged 56, attended Stewart’s Melville College and then Edinburgh University. He joined Ernst and Young and became a specialist in banking. He was among the first to recognise the impact that information technology would have on the financial services industry. Later, he became chief manager of Bank of Scotland’s direct mortgaging operations. In 1994, he was appointed head of IT at the bank’s corporate division. After the bank’s merger with Halifax in 2001 he became head of group technology for HBOS (Europe). He was a director of his own business, DCB Consulting Ltd, as well as IT integration director for The Co-operative Banking Group. He previously worked as an IT director at Tesco and Tesco Bank. Last year he was appointed as a non-executive director of online ‘digital passport’ business Miicard.

Edith Mary Barlee (née McLean) MBE MB 1949: in Edinburgh, 17 February 2013, aged 86, was born in Haddington, and educated at Dunoon Academy and at Knox Academy, Haddington. After graduating, she held junior posts in medicine and gynecology at Inverness Royal Infirmary, later moving to the Simpson Pavilion in Edinburgh before becoming a registrar in obstetrics at Stirling Royal


Infirmary. In 1954 she returned to Haddington as a general practitioner and then moved into the Public Health Service and was registrar in infectious diseases in the Edinburgh City Hospital, later moving to Dunfermline. She married in 1961 and retired from practising medicine to raise her family, remaining extremely active with the local community. In the early 1970s she became involved with the Brownies, eventually becoming Brownie badge secretary for Edinburgh, and, in 1974, began participating in the Drum Riding for the Disabled Association, where she did much valuable work, ultimately in 1999, receiving a long-service award.

Andrew Steven Woodhouse Bell BVMS 1966: 13 May 2012.Jean Ogilvie Biggar (née Gourlay) MA 1941: 18 October 2012.Walter Andrew Biggar BSc 1935: 16 November 2012.Dorothy Birtwistle BSc 1949: 7 May 2012.Kenneth William Blaikie MBChB 1947 DTM&H 1954: in New Zealand, 14 November

2012. Leo Charles Lynton Blair BL 1953 PhD: in Shropshire, aged 89, father of former

Prime Minister Tony Blair. He lectured at the University of Adelaide. In the 1950s he returned to the UK settling in Durham where he lectured and qualified as a barrister. He also gave lectures overseas, notably in Sierra Leone. After the war, he became a staunch Conservative switching to Labour in his seventies when his son became leader of the Labour party. He left Govan High School, aged 14, and joined the Scottish Young Communist league becoming its secretary. In 1942, he signed up with the Royal Corps of Signals and ended the war as acting major. He became chairman of Durham Conservative Association and was considered a likely candidate for any vacant Conservative seat. This was not to be as he was disabled by a stroke in 1963.

Lis Brady MSc 2010: 21 November 2012, aged 64, was educated at Laurel Bank School, Glasgow. She became a medical researcher at the Western and Royal infirmaries in Glasgow. She combined parenting with various roles: as a teacher, a medical secretary and latterly as a researcher and writer for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. She spoke French fluently and was an accomplished pianist and passionate about art. Over a period of twenty years she was the major collector of Joyce Gunn Cairns’ work. Her most striking achievement was the completion of her MSc in film studies, given that throughout the greater part of her study she was terminally ill.

John Barclay Broadbent MA 1952 PhD: 10 November 2012, aged 85. Scholar of English literature and critic who re-evaluated the work of Milton. In 1944 he was commissioned into the Royal Marines and four years later he went to Edinburgh University and then St Catharine’s College, Cambridge where he was appointed to a post at King’s College becoming Director of Studies. In 1969, he became Professor of English and American Studies at the University of East Anglia. He published Some Graver Subject in 1960 and Poetic Love in 1964. He retired at the age of 60 from UEA in order to do more as an artist.

Robert Richard Fernie Bruce DFC and Bar MusBac 1938: in Wales, 13 August 2012, aged 96, was the great-grandson of James Bruce, the 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine. He attended Rugby School, where he demonstrated a prodigious musical talent. During WWII, he first worked with the Friends Ambulance Service during the London blitz. Later he served with the RAF as a navigator in Canada. He teamed up with the Mosquito training unit and was posted back to England. The squadron’s role was instrumental in helping the all-important


night raids on Europe by Bomber Command. After the war, he taught in Brighton and then became a lecturer at Cardiff University. He was a recognised composer in the early 1950s. The work was premiered by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and was recorded by the Polish Symphony Orchestra in 1999.

Kathleen Anne Burgess (née Scott) MB 1940: in Forfar, 19 September 2012, aged 97, was born in Broxburn and educated at Craigmount School. She and her future husband Gordon, were in the same medical year and graduated at the same ceremony. After a brief junior post at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital when her husband joined the RAF as a medical officer, she moved to Forfar to assist her father-in-law in his medical practice, where she and later her husband both practised until their retirement. During this time they took part in the Forfar Diabetic Survey of 1962. After retiring they travelled widely.

David Norman Miller Burns MB 1961 DObsRCOG MRCGP: 1 January 2012, went into general practice in Mansfield, Notts.

David Burton BSc 1958: 17 August 2012.Ewen Cameron BVM&S 1980 MRCVS: in Melrose, 13 December 2012, aged 55,

was educated at Hurst Grange School, Stirlingshire and then Fettes College, Edinburgh, where he captained the school rugby and cricket teams, as well as representing Edinburgh schools at squash. He also captained the rugby and cricket teams while at The Royal (Dick) Veterinary College where he became a temporary lecturer in Veterinary Medicine at the Large Animal Practice Teaching Unit before becoming assistant to the Glasgow Universities Practice in Lanark. In 1983 he joined John Reed and Nigel Brown in the St Boswells veterinary practice, where he became a partner. The practice grew and is now known as Greenside Veterinary Practice.

Hanna Helena Canaris MB 1946: 18 June 2012.Alistair Baxter Cassie MB 1948 FRCSE FRCS: January 2012. After serving in

the medical branch of the RAF, he undertook further training in surgery in Manchester and became a consultant surgeon to the Burnley Hospital Group. He was author of a number of papers on surgical subjects.

Huw Ceredig BMus 1973: 24 January 2013.Rev Henry Martyn Cook MA 1939: 9 July 2012.Sheila Dodds Cormack MA 1946: 29 November 2012.John William Cowie MB 1944 FRCSE FRCR DMRD: 15 June 2012. After graduating,

he moved to Yorkshire and, after further training in surgery and anesthetics, was appointed consultant in radiology at Bradford Royal Infirmary, Hull and East Riding Hospitals respectively.

William John Crawford MA 1961: 14 November 2012.Eleanor Gardner Cruickshank (née Brodie) MA 1943: 1 December 2012.John Barry Dawson (staff) BSc PhD FRSE: in Edinburgh, 2 February 2013, aged 80,

studied geology at Leeds University and then went on to study at the Centre for African Studies. He concentrated much of his field-work in Africa, but his reputation as an academic and lecturer at Edinburgh University was acknowledged by geologists worldwide. He worked for the Tanganyika Geological Survey until he returned to the UK in 1964 to become a lecturer at St Andrews University. After a time at Sheffield University he moved to Edinburgh University in 1989, retiring as Emeritus Professor of Geology but continued his research. In 1968 he won the Clough Memorial of the Edinburgh Geological Society and last year he was awarded the Collins Medal of the Mineralogical Society.


Mary Nicol Finlay (née Peggie) MBChB 1944: 8 January 2013.Una Rachel Finnegan MSc 2011: 19 January 2013.Timothy John Fraser-Smith LLB 1972 MBA: in the Bahamas, 25 October 2012,

aged 66, held a distinguished career in banking. Since 2000 he was the chief executive officer of Deltec Bank & Trust. He attended Lime House Prep School in Cumbria and then Glenalmond College and was both captain of the school and the 1st XV. He had a gap year touring South Africa before taking an MBA at Cranfield Business School. After graduating at Edinburgh, he joined Grindlays Bank, London with further postings in Lebanon, Pakistan, Greece, New York and Hong Kong. He moved to ANZ in 1984 in Switzerland, and worked in Jersey and London before returning to Switzerland. He died when Hurricane Sandy hit the Bahamas.

Ian Graham Donaldson Garvie MA 1951: 1 March 2012.Brenda Particia Rachel Gaskin (née Stewart) MA 1946: 2 January 2013.James Douglas Gelly MA 1952: 3 November 2012.Alan George MA 2007: 14 November 2012.Stuart Kennedy Gibb MA 1947: 1 June 2012.Michael Inglis Girdwood MB 1945: in Pietermaritzburg, 19 December 2012, aged

91, born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, he followed his grandfather, father and brother to Edinburgh University Medical School. Edinburgh remained important to him throughout his life and he returned frequently over the years to visit family and attend Medical Reunions. He started his professional career at the Johannesburg General Hospital, before moving to Northern Rhodesia where he was later appointed Chief Medical Officer of two large mine hospitals. After 27 years he moved to Kwa-Zulu Natal and took up the post of Medical Superintendent at the local hospital, where he remained until he retired.

Andrew Vick Gold BSc 1955: 4 June 2012.Richard Herbert Gosling MBChB 1946: 5 October 2012.Christopher Scott Hall MA 1976: on the Yangtze River, near Shanghai, 7 November

2012, aged 59, an inspiring teacher, principled social activist and talented photographer and writer. After graduating, he joined the National Health Service before moving to the University of Stirling. He returned to Edinburgh working for Lothian Regional Council before becoming a professional photographer developing a successful commercial practice, which included a relationship with the Edinburgh-based Tayburn design agency. Many will have seen the historic photograph of all 129 MSPs at the re-convening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, taken by Chris and Robin Gillanders, which now hangs in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. He had wide-ranging interests focusing on books and politics. He was a long-term member of the Labour party but latterly joined the SNP. He was on the board of the Changeworks and a supporter of Livingston FC.

Trevor Richard Walker Hampton CB MB 1954 FRCPE DA QHP: 7 October 2012. Surgeon Rear Admiral. He spent his career serving in the Royal Navy and became a consultant physician at the Royal Naval Hospital, Plymouth. His final service posting was in charge of operational medical services as leader and innovator in the area of nuclear, biological and chemical defence. Returning to civilian life he carried out part time work assessing disability.

Ian James Hardie LLB 1973: in Nairn, 16 October 2012, aged 59, attended George Watson’s and toured the eastern United States with the school orchestra in 1968


before studying at the University. He became a partner with Taits of Kelso for eleven years before becoming a partner with R&R Urquhart. Music of all sorts exerted a powerful fascination and he joined a pub band with Fred McLudgie’s Big Idea. He then joined the folk group Jock Tamson’s Bairns and made two albums in the 1980s. He had established a name for himself both as fiddler and composer with the Occasionals dance band and the Ghillies (with piper Duncan MacGillivray) and Highland Connection. His debut album in 1986 was A Breath of Fresh Airs. In 2001 he gave up the legal work and went to America resulting in the album Westringing. He was posthumously inaugurated into the Traditional Music Hall of Fame in December’s Scots Trad Music Awards.

Philip Ray Hart PhD 1962 BA MA BD: in Richmond, VA, 3 November 2012. Professor Emeritus of Religion, University of Richmond. A graduate of the University of Richmond, he joined its staff in 1956 as Director of Religious Activities before coming to Edinburgh to research his PhD. He later moved into a teaching career at the University of Richmond, where he was greatly respected and loved by his students, who founded the Philip Hart Prize in his honour after he retired; it is awarded to a student of religion who excels in academics and leadership.

Peter Leslie Hedge BSc 1979: in Hassocks, West Sussex, 7 October 2012, was an enthusiastic member of the EU Mountaineering Club, editing the journal in 1979. After postgraduate work on chrysanthemums, in association with the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, he moved back to Sussex. Although illness made him unfit for permanent work, he made his mark as a volunteer, including, among others, eleven years at the Oxfam bookshop, Brighton, with the Brighton Early Music Festival, the RSPB Brighton and District Local Group and, as he became proficient in French, German and Italian, notably with the Hassocks Twinning Association.

Janet Taylor Young Henderson (née Forrest) MB 1946 FRCGP: in Grantown-on-Spey, 24 August 2012, aged 88, did her internship in Ontario before returning to Edinburgh to marry fellow-graduate Dr Lindsay Henderson, and they moved to Haddington to train in general practice. In 1952 they went into general practice in Grantown-on-Spey and, with another GP, were instrumental in setting up the Grantown Health Centre. In 1977-1983, she was regional adviser for general practice in the Highlands. She was very active in local affairs, including those of Grantown Red Cross, the Blood Transfusion Service and the Highland Hospice Committee and she chaired the Moray & Nairn Childrens’ Advisory Panel.

Nancy Mitchell Holmes MBChB 1954: 3 January 2013.John Derek Hoy BSc 1975 MSc: 10 November 2012.Douglas James Hutchison BSc 1974: 13 December 2012.Robert Edward Hutchison MA 1972: 7 January 2013.Wilson Barrie James MB 1954 FRCPGlas FRCR FFR DMRD: 1 January 2012, moved

to Glasgow where he undertook further training in radiology and was appointed consultant radiologist at the Southern General Hospital, Glasgow. He was the author of a number of papers on various subjects including mammography, gastroenterology and computers in diagnostic radiology.

Paul Gordon Jarvis MA PhD FILDOC FRCE FIFOR FIBIOL (staff): 5 February 2013, in Aberfeldy, aged 77, read botany at Oxford’s Oriel College. He undertook graduate studies at Sheffield and, before moving to the Institute of Plant Physiology in Uppsala, completed his PhD under Nato sponsorship. He moved to Australia in 1964 to take up the position of permanent visiting scientist at CSIRO and returned to Scotland to lecture at Aberdeen between 1966-75 and


later became professor of Natural Resources at the University of Edinburgh in 1975, a position from which he retired in 2001.

Patricia McLeod Johnson (née Beveridge) MBChB 1962: 29 July 2012. Alexander John Keay MB 1951 FRCPGlas FRCPE DCH: 13 December 2012, held

junior posts in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh, later moving to the Children’s Medical Unit in the Northern Hospital Group, ultimately being appointed consultant paediatrician at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh. He was the author of a number of papers and articles on paediatrics.

Andrew William Sharp Kerr MB 1948: 24 December 2012, attended George Watson’s College before studying at Edinburgh University. He joined the RAMC serving in Hong Kong and Malaya with the Royal Scots, the Cameronians and the First Battalion of the Malay Regiment becoming fluent in the Malay language. After military service he remained in the Territorial RAMC for some years. He then went into general practice briefly before returning to academic life in 1951. He became a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Anatomy, at the University. He lectured on temporary attachment at Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria from 1970-71 and later at Glasgow University. He was an external examiner to the Royal Colleges of Physicians of Edinburgh and Ireland. He was the author of articles in learned journals and a contributor to A Companion to Medical Studies and an edition of Cunningham’s Anatomy.

Mieczyslaw Korwaser BCom 1947: 2 July 2012.Jurand Alexander Krawiecki MB 1949 FRCPsych DPM: January 2012, moved to the

Manchester area where he specialised in psychiatry and was later appointed consultant psychiatrist in the Trafford Health Authority. He published a number of articles on psychiatric subjects.

Anne Catherine Wilson Laing (née Walker) MBChB 1947: 18 December 2012.Valerie Ann Leakey (née Fraser) MA 1963: 1 October 2011.John Allon Liver MBChB 1949: 12 October 2012.Goldie Lyall (née Aronson) MA 1952: in Edinburgh, 23 September 2012, aged 80,

was educated at Sciennes Primary and at James Gillespie’s High School. While at university she met her future husband and moved to London. She taught at a variety of inner-city schools in London and Weybridge College. She returned to Scotland in 1963 and after six years moved south again. She retired to Edinburgh in 1982.

Norman Alexander Mackintosh Macdonald LLB 1953: 17 May 2011.Margaret Corstorphine Macewan (née Hay) MA 1951: January 2012.Mary Maciver (née Brown) MA 1941: in Edinburgh, 13 October 2012, aged 92,

studied English and the Classics followed by a diploma at Moray House. She became Principal Teacher of English at Portobello High School. With her love of literature and drama she moved in national literary and theatrical circles. On retirement she embarked on a diploma in music and then studied at the Edinburgh College of Art for three years. Her paintings have been exhibited at galleries throughout the UK, including the Scottish Gallery, Richard Demarco Foundation and Inverleith House.

Catriona Margaret McClements (née Lowe) MA 1938: in Edinburgh, 29 November 2012, aged 96, was the first woman to graduate with First Class Honours in Celtic at the University. She went on to transcribe countless Gaelic tapes for the School of Scottish Studies and spent her life ensuring that the language would prosper. She did teacher training at Jordanhill College, Glasgow and after WWII she taught


Gaelic and French at Oban High School. Later, she married and moved to the Highlands and Islands where she taught on the Isle of Harris, later at Lochaline in Morven. She moved to Edinburgh and taught at both South Morningside and Oxgangs primary schools while giving one-to-one tuition in Gaelic to pupils from the city’s private schools. She taught Gaelic at the University of Edinburgh’s Gaelic Summer School and became a dedicated volunteer transcriber of old Gaelic tapes.

Mary Edith Mackenzie MA 1950 DipEd: 17 October 2012, aged 87, attended George Watson’s Ladies College and Edinburgh University. During WWII she worked at a munitions factory and became a temporary member of the Amalgamated Engineering Union before teaching at Forrester Park High School and Boroughmuir Academy. After retirement she moved from Edinburgh to Peebles in 1990. She had a passion for the arts and endowed a scholarship in memory of Ian Whyte, founder of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. She was also an avid backer of Scottish Opera, the Scottish Ballet and was a member of both the National Museum and National Library of Scotland, of which she was one of the earliest patrons of the John Murray Archive. In 2009, she co-founded campaign group In Trust for Scotland. She was well-known by officials at local authorities, MPs, MSPs and the University undertaking lengthy correspondence with them for fairness and justice in big business and public bodies.

Sybil Laurie McKillop MA 1934: 27 November 2012.Catherine Margaret Una Mackintosh (née Maclean) (Mrs Cockshott) MB 1949

PhD MD DPH FFCM: in Glasgow, 1 September 2012, aged 87, was educated at Dingwall Academy. After graduating she moved to the Aden Protectorate with her first husband (Dr Peter Cockshott) where she was allowed to treat Muslim women in the harems. The family moved to Ibadan where she worked with traditional witch doctors. After returning to Edinburgh she married John P Mackintosh, a well-known Labour politician, and taught in the Department of Community Medicine at the University for more than two decades becoming reader and acting head of department. She published five books on aspects of medical care while also looking after a family of seven children. She was a founder member of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.

Colin Malcolm Macleod LLB 1977: in Edinburgh, 12 September 2012, aged 57, was educated at Inverness Academy before studying at the University, and after serving his apprenticeship with Dundas & Wilson, he became a partner in their court department in January 1983. He was a ‘lawyers’ lawyer’ — where other lawyers went to for guidance and help. He was on various boards of Dundas & Wilson, most recently retiring as a non-executive board member earlier in 2012.

Ann Hutchison Langlands McPhee (née McGlashan) MA 1956: 12 November 2012.Alfred William Carol Macqueen BSc 1952: 1 February 2012.Michael Henderson McTaggart BSc 1955: 2 December 2011.Iain Coutts MacWilliam BSc 1946 PhD DSc CChem FRSC: in Edinburgh, December

2012, aged 86, was educated at Chapelton School, Port Glasgow and Trinity Academy, Leith, before studying at the University. In 1950, he joined the Brewing Industry Research Foundation, Nuffield, Surrey. There he established an international reputation for his work on carbohydrates. Concurrently, he was an External Examiner for postgraduate studies at the University. He published extensively, notably as a reviser of Heilbron & Bunbury’s Dictionary of Organic Compounds. He retired from the Foundation in 1986 and continued to write.


Susan Manning (staff) BA 1976 PhD 1986 FRSE FRSA: in Edinburgh, 15 January 2013, aged 59. Grierson Professor of English Literature and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh. (See Appreciation on p. 51)

Ian Andrew Marsh BVMS 1961: 1 November 2012.Donald Mackenzie Marshall MA 1951: 10 June 2012.John Bannatyne Marshall MA 1947: 28 October 2012.Michael James Mellor MB 1959 DObsRCOG: 15 April 2012, practised in

Bournemouth. Wallace Dewar Melvin MBChB 1964: 28 December 2012.Margaret Landale Mercer (née Forsyth) MA 1939: 23 September 2012.Duncan Macintyre Miller MA 1948 LLB SSC: in Kingussie, 13 January 2013, aged

89, attended Daniel Stewart’s College. He played rugby for the school’s 1st XV as well as the cricket 1st XI. In 1940, he joined the RAF serving in both 77 Squadron and 35 Squadron. His plane was shot down and he was taken prisoner, and in 1944 having been certified as a non-combatant by the Red Cross, was fortunate to be transported west as part of a prisoner exchange. Back in Edinburgh he did his legal apprenticeship with Brotherston & Bee before moving to Stirling as an assistant at Hill & Whyte before becoming a partner of Hill & Robb. He was made an honorary sheriff for Stirling Sheriff Court, retiring in 1989.

Zelda Harrod Millward (née Walding) MA 1953: 7 November 2012.Gavin Mooney MA 1969: in Australia, 19 December 2012, aged 69, was one of the

founding fathers of health economics and a global academic. He studied at the University after spending four years training as an actuary at the Standard Life Assurance Company. From university, he headed into the Government Economic Service in London and proceeded to the University of Aberdeen in 1974. The Aberdeen project led to one of the world’s first research centres — the Health Economics Research Unit (HERU), funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Executive. He was inaugural director, becoming Scotland’s first Professor of Health Economics in 1984. He wrote extensively and also found time to write, Economics, Medicine and Health Care. In 1986 he moved to the University of Copenhagen. He also held a part-time position at the University of Tromso. He returned to Aberdeen in the early 1990s as director to HERU, commuting between there and Denmark. He returned to Australia and took up the Foundation Chair in Health Economics at Sydney University and then a professorial position at Curtin University in Perth, which he held until his retirement in 2008.

Patrick Terence Monard MB 1950 MSc (Occup-Med) MFOMRCP (Lond): January 2012, specialised in occupational medicine and, after holding a research fellowship at the TWC Institute of Occupational Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, became a medical officer with the ICI (Paints Division) in Stowmarket. Later he served as part-time medical officer in occupational health for the West Suffolk Health Authority.

Michael John Dennison Mowat BSc 1954: 2 October 2012.Keith Stronach Mowatt OBE MB 1945 BS FCRA FFR: 14 November 2012, aged 91,

joined Scotland’s Black Airborne Division during WWII, serving in India as a paratroop medical officer. On his return he began his career in radiotherapy becoming a senior radiotherapist at the Queensland Radium Institute, becoming director. When he retired from the institute in 1986, he began a second career as the first medical director for the Queensland Ambulance Transport Brigade


and introduced better training for Queensland ambulance officers. He fought for the acceptance of sunscreen in the Queesland Cancer Fund, now Cancer Council Queensland. He was president of the Australian Cancer Society and was caught up in a political storm involving then Queensland premier Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen.

Norman Muir BSc 1954: 31 December 2012.Katherine Isabelle Muirhead (née Maclaren) MA 1948: 12 October 2012.Megan Catherine Munro MA 1949: 16 June 2012.Ian Galbraith Murdoch BSc 1957: 12 July 2012.Margaret (Paddy) Newton (née MacDonald) MB 1943: in Strathpeffer, 2012, held a

house post in the Sick Children’s Hospital before joining the RAMC where she served in AA units in the South of England with the rank of Captain. Married to a civil engineer, she and her husband moved to the Kariba Dam project in Southern Rhodesia, returning to the UK in 1961. Thereafter she worked as a part-time GP, finally settling in Strathpeffer.

John Donald Nisbet OBE MA 1945 MEd PhD Hon DEd: in Banchory, 5 October 2012, aged 89, was a former wartime intelligence officer with the RAF during WWII. He was educated at Canmore School and then Dunfermline High before studying at the University, where in 1940, he joined the Home Guard unit. In 1946, back in Edinburgh, he taught at Dunfermline High, studying in his spare time before moving to Aberdeen as an assistant lecturer. In 1957, he was elected a Fellow of the British Psychological Society becoming acting head of the university’s education department and later was appointed to the first Chair of Education where he helped write Educational Research Methods. Between 1965-75, he was involved in writing six books and numerous articles, spending summers teaching all over the world and researching in Norway and the Netherlands. He edited the British Journal of Educational Psychology. He was on various committees and the University awarded him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his international research reputation.

Frederick O’Brien QC MA LLB: in Edinburgh, 29 December 2012, aged 95, was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh and in 1975 was president of the former pupils club. He joined the Friends’ Ambulance Unit and served in London’s Blitz and then with the transfusion unit in the RAMC in Egypt and Sicily. After the war, he spent two years working with Edinburgh solicitors, Davidson & Syme. He was called to the bar in 1947 and became a QC in 1960. He was Sheriff Principal for Caithness, Sutherland, Orkney and Shetland then South Strathclyde. He returned to Edinburgh as Sheriff Principal where he was involved in the campaign for the building of the new courts in Chambers Street. On retirement, he joined Bruntsfield Golf Course becoming an honorary member and played until he was 90 and retook his Advanced Driving Test, and passed, in his mid-nineties. He was knighted in 1984.

David Ian Olive MA 1958: 13 December 2012.Anne Hyslop Owen (née Gemmell) MA 1945: 1 November 2012.David Neil Paterson BSc 1952 PhD: in Edinburgh, 10 October 2012, aged 82, was

educated at Strathallan School in Perthshire before studying at Edinburgh University. He was made an associate of the Institute of Wood Science, given an honorary diploma from British Columbia and in 1967 was given a PhD from the University of East Africa in Nairobi. Latterly he had spent time at Keble College, Oxford. After National Service, he found work in British Columbia. He moved to Kenya working for the British Government as regional forest officer becoming


fluent in Swahili and Kikuyu. He moved to Malawi to run a research station in forestry genetics and workers’ training school. On returning to Scotland, he settled in Thornhill, Dumfriesshire and built a leading sawmill business exporting to the USA and Holland. He developed Queensbury furniture, reproducing Charles Rennie Macintosh items. He sold Queensbury Rooms to the village as the community centre and renovated the historic Thornhill Parish Hall, now an art gallery and retail outlet. He also founded the Abbeyfield home in Thornhill.

George Philp MB 1959 BSc: in Edinburgh, 3 November 2012. Scholar, collecter and publisher of the Scots language. He founded the Scots Language Society and the Robert Henryson Society, and created the Scotsoun series of sound recordings of Scots language, literature, stories and songs. He chaired the campaign committee for the creation and installation of the statue of the Edinburgh poet Robert Fergusson that strides down the Canongate in front of the Canongate Kirk. In 1995 the Saltire Society awarded him the Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun Award, and in 1999 he was made an honorary member of the Association of Scottish Literary Studies.

Ian Geoffrey Robinson MB 1961: 29 August 2012.Morag Robinson (née Macgillivray) MA 1960: 17 January 2013.Anthony John Alexander Rochmankowski MA 1989: in Edinburgh, 10 January

2013, aged 47, studied at the University where he turned out for the first XV and for the Scottish Universities rugby team. In 1989 he became an architectural assistant with Hives Partnership in Reading, involved on a project for Reading University before joining Campbell and Arnott in Edinburgh working on the Saltire Court office block in Castle Terrace. Later, he set up his own general practice, Rochmankowski Associates, specialising in domestic, residential and green oak architecture in 2001, now known as Rochmankowski Architecture Design (RAD).

Alan Ferguson Rodger Hon LLD 2001: 10 February 2012.Colin McDonald Rorrison MA 2006: in Buenos Aires, 8 September 2012, aged 28.Michael William Rose BSc 1969: 16 September 2012.G Ross Roy DLitt: 19 February 2013. (See Appreciation on p. 52)William Sinclair Ryrie KBE MA 1951: in Chislehurst, 6 July 2012, aged 83, an

influential figure in the UK Treasury for 20 years who worked with five prime ministers. From 1984-93, he was executive vice-president and chief executive of the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Directly responsible to the World Bank president, his job was to advise on private sector investment in developing nations. He found himself doing for the IFC in Washington DC what he had done as a civil servant in Whitehall, promoting economic development through private investment but dealing with more than 150 ‘shareholder’ nations rather than just one. After retiring from the World Bank he became a major player in the City of London. From 1994-2002, he served as vice-chairman of ING Barings Holding Company and chairman of Baring Emerging Europe Trust plc.

Rajshankar Tony Sarma BVMS 2001: 4 August 2012, aged 35, after graduating from the University, he did his masters at Cambridge. He travelled across the country performing complex surgeries and started to specialise in small animals. He worked in the North of England.

Graham Scott BSc: in Edinburgh, 7 December 2012, aged 58, after graduating, he worked in the library service. A keen musician, he was introduced to Edinburgh’s jazz scene in 1971, when replying to an advert for a ‘bluesy piano player’ by one of Edinburgh’s jazz band leaders, Bill Salmond. The group quickly established


itself as the Louisiana Ragtime Band and stayed with them for over 40 years. He also performed with several marching and parade bands including Jim Young’s Auld Reekie Parade Band and Kenny Milne’s Criteria Brass Band. With the Louisiana Band, he toured the Continent during the 1980s. Developing a name for himself in the Edinburgh jazz scene, he performed at the Edinburgh Jazz and Jive club and continued to play with his long-time band partner Bill with the Forth River Ragtimers and their leader Brian Robertson. Several recordings are held in the Edinburgh Jazz Archive at the Central Library.

Moyra Carrie Robertson Scott MA 1949: 3 August 2012.Murray Garson Scott MA 1950: 2 November 2012.Reverend Alexander Slorach BD 1970: 20 December 2012.John Andrew May Sloss BSc 1967 PhD MBA: in Edinburgh, 29 September 2012,

aged 67.Graeme Richard Smith BCom 1968: 14 July 2012.John Lister Smith MB 1954: in Edinburgh, October 2012.Janice Wendy Sposi MSc 1996: 8 December 2012.Henry John Steven BSc 1946: 16 November 2012.John Anderson Strong CBE MBE MA MD FRCPE FRSE: in Edinburgh, 15 December

2012, aged 97, studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin. During WWII he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was responsible for setting up two hospitals in Assam, India which treated refugees fleeing the Japanese advance. Afterwards, he trained in London before becoming a senior lecturer in medicine at the University in 1949, the start of a 60-year involvement. He became honorary consultant physician at the Western General Hospital. He was given a personal chair as professor of medicine in 1966. He specialised in endocrinology and helped discover chromosomal abnormalities. He was also an expert in nuclear medicine, involving the application of radioactive substances and was president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, hosting the Queen when she visited and was the driving force behind the creation of the Queen Mother Conference Centre.

Alasdair Patrick Graham Stuart BVSM 2004 MRCVS: in Edinburgh, 11 March 2012, joined the Minster veterinary practice, York, in 2011, where he worked in the small animal department.

Ian Hutchison Sutherland BSc 1951 MRCVS: in North Berwick, 6 November 2012, aged 81, was educated at George Heriot’s School before studying at the University. He held a long list of academic and professional honours as well as being a member of the editorial board of the British Veterinary Journal and a member of the board of Moredun Research Institute. From 1956-68, he was a veterinary and remount officer for the Animal Transport Troop, King’s African Rifles in Kenya. He also represented the regiment at polo, eventing and show-jumping. As captain of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps in Somaliland, he was in charge of the procurement of animal transport for Special Air Services Regiment. He returned to Scotland to work as a veterinary practitioner in Haddington, and from 1965-73, he worked for Merck Sharp and Dohme Ltd., Animal Health Division, Hoddesdon, becoming manager of the laboratory and farm. From 1973-81, he was regional director of field operations in Europe and Africa.

John Paul Triseliotis OBE PhD 1969 APSW: in Edinburgh, 29 September 2012, aged 83, was educated in Cyprus and after teacher training, joined the Cyprus Welfare Department. In 1956 he joined the Cyprus High Commission in London and


studied at London University before spending a year in Edinburgh undertaking a psychiatric study course. Other appointments followed both in London and Cyprus before, in 1965, he was appointed a lecturer, later a professor, in social welfare at the University of Edinburgh and a visiting professor and senior research fellow at Strathclyde University. His writings and teaching at the university gained him an international reputation. He was part of a team that carried out research into adopted people searching for their records in Scotland, playing a prominent role in the influential Houghton Committee, and later, in 2001, campaigning against the Adoption Act, which he welcomed, but had reservations regarding certain clauses. Of his many publications Teenagers and the Social Work Services (1995) had the most influence on welfare treatment. He also published on adoption and fostering.

Peter James Walker MB 1947: 10 June 2012.Gavin Alistair Wallace MA 1981 PhD: in Burntisland, 4 February 2013, aged 53.

Passionate about Scottish literature. He served as associate lecturer with the University of Edinburgh and from 1988-90, lectured at Japan’s Shinwa Women’s University. His work was rooted in literary magazine Cencrastus (1991-94) and as co-editor of the Edinburgh Review with Robert Alan Jamieson between 1994 and 1997. He served as deputy and, in 2002, as head of the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) and subsequently Creative Scotland. His most influential publications, co-edited with Professor Randall Stevenson, include The Scottish Novel Since the Seventies (1993) and Scottish Theatre Since the Seventies (1996).

John Walsh MSc 2005: 1 February 2013.Patrick (Peter) Gerard Walsh (staff) FRSE: in Glasgow, 16 January 2013, aged 89.

Humanities Professor and key figure in Scottish Catholic circles. He attended Liverpool University studying the Classics. After war service in the RAF and the Intelligence Corps in Palestine and Italy during WWII, he became a lecturer at University College, Dublin. At Edinburgh University he published two books: Livy (1961) and The Roman Novel (1970). He was awarded a personal professorship at Edinburgh University, which led to him becoming professor of humanity at the University of Glasgow. He dedicated himself to medieval authors, particularly religious texts for which he received a papal decoration.

Henry John Walton PhD 1966: 21 July 2012.Scott Ward (staff): in Edinburgh, February 2013, taught cinematography for both

documentary and drama in Edinburgh College of Art’s Film and Television Department for nearly 10 years. The whole film department at Edinburgh College of Art mourns his sudden loss.

Jean Stewart Watson MA 1950: 26 January 2013.Violet Enid Elizabeth Whittick (née Mason) BSc 1936: 10 December 2012.Joyce Elizabeth Janet Wilson (née Yule) (formerly Joyce Town) MA 1947: in

Ljubljana, Slovenia, 29 May 2012. Wife of Ian, member and former president of the Edinburgh University Graduates’ Association.

Robert Edward Gilmour Younger LLB 1967: 23 December 2012, aged 72, attended Cargilfield School in Edinburgh and then Winchester College. He read modern history at New College, Oxford before studying at Edinburgh and Glasgow universities and was called to the Bar in 1968. He was appointed sheriff of Glasgow and Strathkelvin in 1979, aged 39. He also filled the post of sheriff at Tayside, Central and Fife at Stirling and Falkirk. Due to ill-health, he retired in 2004.

NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORSArticles, book, CD and DVD reviews, and notes for obituaries are 1. invited from Edinburgh University alumni and from present members of the University. Serious articles on aspects of Edinburgh University are invited from other authors.Articles should be 2,000 words maximum in length, but longer 2. submissions will be discussed with authors. Short notes of up to 500 words will also be considered. Reviews should be no more than 250 words. Notes for obituaries should be no more than 150 words. Authors are asked to include autobiographical notes of not more than 75 words.Contributions should conform to the current Modern Humanities 3. Research Association Style Book, and should preferably be submitted in digital form as emails or as .doc or .docx attachments. Exceptionally, typescripts or manuscripts will be considered. The editorial email address is [email protected], CDs and DVDs for review should be sent to the 4. Journal Office.Copy for the June issue of the 5. Journal should be sent to the Editor by 31 March, and for the December issue, by 30 September.Copyright © in the 6. Journal is held jointly by The University of Edinburgh Graduates’ Association and by individual contributors.Authors of articles are sent three free copies of the issues that include 7. their work. Reviewers receive one copy.

The Editor of the University of Edinburgh JournalUniversity of Edinburgh Graduates’ Association

18 Buccleuch PlaceEdinburgh, EH8 9LN

Telephone: +44 (0)131 650 4292Email: [email protected]

Website: www.dev.ed.ac.uk/gradassoc

Journals ReceivedThe Editor greatly acknowledges the receipt of the following Journals:

Bulletin, The Univesity of Edinburgh Staff MagazineCAM, Cambridge Alumni Magazine

Edit, The University of Edinburgh Alumni MagazineJournal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

The Newsletter of the ESRC Genomics NetworkProceedings of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

The above may be consulted at the Association offices by prior arrangement.

Published by the University of Edinburgh Graduates’ Association, 18 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9LN. Printed by Paramount Printers Ltd, 199 Causewayside, Edinburgh EH9 1PH.

Welcome to theUniversity of Edinburgh Graduates’ AssociationThe University of Edinburgh Graduates’ Association was founded in 1924 as The University of Edinburgh Alumnus Association, changing to its present name after a very few years. It is made up of former students (not only graduates) of the University of Edinburgh, members and former members of the University academic and related staff. Relatives of members, and others with an interest in the University of Edinburgh, are also welcome to join.

The Graduates’ Association:

enables its members to maintain contact with each other and with •their alma mater.organises social events throughout the year.•

publishes the • University of Edinburgh Journal which is sent to all members as part of their subscription. helps promote the welfare of the University and of its students and •maintains contact with a number of branches and affiliated clubs.

The Graduates’ Association is quite distinct and separate from the General Council of the University and from Development and Alumni Services. Although not involved in fund-raising activities for the University, it works closely with the other two organisations in providing facilities and social events for its members and their guests. The Executive Committee meets in the Association’s rooms at 18 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, twice a year to manage the Association’s affairs and the office is staffed by the Assistant Secretary and the Assistant Editor of the Journal.

If you are already a member of the Graduates’ Association:

Introduce new members and invite them to renew old friendships •and acquaintances. Search your memory for names of fellow alumni. We can help you •discover whether they are members already.If you are in a position to do so, advertise your business in the • Journal and encourage other businesses to do the same.Send us news items about yourself and other alumni, especially if you •can do so by email.

If you are not a member, and have enjoyed reading this Journal, subscribe to it by joining the Association. We can then send you future issues automatically. And you can join us in our regular meetings and social events.

Visit the Association’s website at: www.dev.ed.ac.uk/gradassoc

university of edinburgh journal - volume 46, number 1 - june 2013

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