The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Festival planned for poet’s centenary
Council now in talks to hold series of events to celebrate the life and works of Hamish Henderson
A festival is being planned to celebrate the life and works of a Perthshire poet.
Blairgowrie-born songwriter, communist and soldier Hamish Henderson has been cited as the catalyst for a folk music revival in Scotland.
There has been a resurgence in interest in Henderson’s extensive body of work since the release of a big screen documentary feature last year.
Perth and Kinross Council is now involved in talks to establish a series of festivities to mark the centenary of his birth in 2019.
It is hoped the celebrations will raise the profile of the Blairgowrie and Rattray area and its rich heritage.
Councillor Caroline Shiers said the idea for a festival was raised after the Hamish Henderson film was shown in the town before Christmas.
“We want to build up towards his centenary with events this year and next, all going well,” she said.
“He is one of the kind of characters that we should be celebrating as part of our City of Culture bid.”
More details are expected to emerge over the coming months.
Henderson was born to single mother Janet in Blairgowrie in November 1919.
He later moved to England after securing a scholarship at the Dulwich School of London, but his mother died before he took up his place and he was forced to move into an orphanage.
Before leaving Perthshire, he and his mother spent time in a cottage at the Spittal of Glenshee where he overheard and memorised Scots songs.
Despite being a peace activist, Henderson enlisted as a soldier during the Second World War and became an interrogator for the Intelligence Corps.
His war experiences influenced his poetry collection, Elegies For The Dead in Cyrenaica, for which he received the Somerset Maugham Award in 1949.
He became an integral part of the Scottish folk movement when he accompanied American folklorist Alan Lomax on a tour of Scotland.
His career established him as a permanent member of staff at the School of Scottish Studies and led to his return to Perthshire to study the travellers who picked berries during the summer.
He helped establish the Edinburgh’s People’s Festival in 1951 and in 1983 he turned down an OBE in protest at the nuclear arms policy of Margaret Thatcher’s government.
He died in Edinburgh in 2002.
He is one of the kind of characters that we should be celebrating as part of our City of Culture bid. COUNCILLOR CAROLINE SHIERS