Eventful life of John Reid remembered
Many readers will remember John Reid, who was principal teacher of art in Tarbert Academy and lived locally until his death in 2000.
To mark the centenary of his birth in Australia, John’s daughter Morag Glen Muego contacted the Argyllshire Advertiser with a fascinating account of his eventful life.
This is Morag’s story:
My father, John, was born in Leeton, New South Wales at Meringle private hospital 100 years ago on January 15, 1922.
His father Alex, originally from Gourock, was an Anzac and fought on the Somme, before returning to New South Wales with his new wife Margaret, a Glaswegian.
They lived on a government experimental farm several miles outside the town and Alex worked with Clydesdale horses. Due to the difficulties of schooling the boys, and also family illness in Scotland, they had to come back in 1925.
My dad played his part in the Second World War, was a prisoner of war in north Italy and escaped to Switzerland with the help of the Resistance.
In 1993 I was able to track down the family in Italy who sheltered my dad and organised his escape.
While he was hidden with them, he had made portraits of the two young daughters, by way of thanking them.
By some fateful accident, the first person I spoke to in the town had those portraits in his home. They were of his aunts.
John visited the family a couple of years later and could still remember the folk songs the girls sang while working in the fields.
After the war he spent four years at Glasgow School of Art and then began his teaching career.
In 1965, he became principal teacher of art in Tarbert Academy and made his life in Tarbert until his death in 2000. During that time, folk may remember him for his teaching, the school shows, art exhibitions, his part in Tarbert Choir and in the Fynesiders Barber Shop Chorus. And golf, of course.
And whisky.
Slainté John.