A traditional folk singer, poet and songwriter, Belle Stewart was born in a wee bow tent by the River Tay near Caputh 18 July 1906. She is best known for her time with the Stewarts of Blair and her most famous recording is The Berryfields of Blair – this appears […]
One of the many poets who underwent the Highland tour and visited Perthshire and the Hermitage was Thomas Gray. “THOMAS GRAY, English poet, the fifth and sole surviving child of Philip and Dorothy Gray, was born in London on the 26th of December 1716. His mother’s maiden name was Antrobus, […]
John Evelyn Barlas (1860 – 1914), pseudonym Evelyn Douglas, was an English poet and political activist (anarchist-communist) of the late nineteenth century. Born in Rangoon on 13 July 1860 to a family of merchants, Barlas was a direct descendent of Barlass (Kate Douglas) the 15th century Scots heroine. He was […]
Lawrence Tuttiett (1825-1897) was born in Colyton in Devon and educated at Christ’s Hospital and King’s College. Originally planning a medical career, Tuttiet took Holy Orders in 1848. Within a year he was a priest and by 1850 the curate at St Paul’s in Knightsbridge, followed by the curacy at St […]
Henry Adamson (1581-1639) was a Scottish poet and historian. He was the son of James Adamson, Dean of Guild in Perth. He was trained for the church,but became a schoolmaster in his home city. His friend William Drummond induced him to publish his most famous poem: Muses Threnodie: of Mirthful Mournings […]
William Cleland (c1661-1689) – Scottish Covenanting poet and soldier educated at St Andrew’s University and at Utrecht. He fought at Drumclog, Bothwell Brig and in Argyll’s expedition, when, as colonel of the Cameronians, he fell in the successful defence of Dunkeld against the Jacobite (Highland) clansmen in 1689. Also noted for […]
Mary Brooksbank (Soutar) (1897-1978) was born 15 December 1897 in Aberdeen. Her father, Alexander Soutar (1867-1953) had help to found the Aberdeen Dockers’ Union. By 1907 the Soutars were in Dundee but living in poverty. Mary’s youngest brother died of diphtheria during this time and she was often taken out […]
Hugh MacDiarmid ~ poet and political activist (Scottish nationalist and communist) – was born Christopher Murray Grieve, in the Scottish Borders town of Langholm in 1892. His father was a postman and the family lived above the town library, so, from childhood, Grieve (or MacDiarmid as he became known from […]
There is a suggestion that William Shakespeare came to Perth in 1589 as part of a troupe of English players. This company performed at the Amphitheatre in Perth – located outside the city walls and close to the Dewars Centre roundabout. William Shakespeare was born to John Shakespeare and mother […]
Dugald Buchanan (1716-1768) – Gaelic poet – was born at Ardoch Farm, Strathtyre (near Balquhidder) in Perthshire. After some schooling at Stirling and Edinburgh, Buchanan began work as an apprentice carpenter. An early spirituality was formalised by the attending of a college of divinity in Glasgow (early 1740s). Buchanan atones for […]