Man of many parts

“I was interested in Mr Anderson’s recent item about James Bell Salmond and his poem The Forfar Bus, as Salmond is quite a favourite of mine,” writes retired English teacher Helen Lawrenson.

“He was a man of many parts, not only editing a college magazine while he studied at St Andrews, but also playing rugby and becoming president of the Athletic Union.

“While working in Fleet Street he enlisted with the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps, and was commissioned into the 7th (Fife) Battalion of the Black Watch. The battalion was mainly made up of Fife miners, who would no doubt welcome a 6ft sportsman as an officer!

“The battalion saw action during 1916 and 1917 at High Wood, Pozieres Ridge and Beaumont Hamel. In June 1917 Lieutenant Salmond was admitted to Craiglockhart suffering from neurasthenia. There he not only met Owen and Sassoon, but Wilfred Owen – who was to become one of the most famous poets to come out of the First World War – acted as sub-editor of The Hydra, the hospital magazine which Salmond edited. Owen took over as editor when Salmond was discharged.

“Although an officer himself, Salmond often wrote in the character of a soldier in the ranks. My own favourite of his poems is Any Private to Any Private, which he wrote after reading newspaper reports that war widows were ‘becoming a great burden on the state’.

These lines give a flavour of the poem: ‘An’ Wullie’s wife’ll get a bob or twa ‘A burden to the State”. Her Wullie’s shot. I kenna, hoo I canna lauch the nicht.’

“While Owen was killed a week before the Armistice, Salmond survived the war, going on to work for the Dundee Advertiser and eventually to edit The Scots Magazine, as well as to publish poetry, novels and historical works. His novel Flower of the Flax was set mainly in Arbroath – called ‘Redstanes’ in the novel. He also enouraged young Scots writers, such as Neil Gunn, Hugh MacDiarmid, Jessie Kesson and Lewis Grassic Gibbon.

“Salmond married Peggy Chalmers in 1932 and lived in Newport-on-Tay. The couple supported the Scottish YHA, the Grampian Club and the Abertay Historical Society – not to mention the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society. As archivist to the Dundee branch of the society, I was delighted to find that Salmond had been a keen dancer, and became president of the Dundee branch.”