Helensburgh Heritage
Helensburgh Heritage Trust
A WELL-KNOWN Helensburgh actress is one of the stars of the popular BBC TV drama series Call the Midwife.
The series, which was first shown in 2012, chronicles the lives of a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950. It currently stars Miranda Hart and Jenny Agutter, and has featured Georgie Glen (right) since 2018.
HELENSBURGH'S Maggie Hamilton (1867–1952), a talented embroiderer and painter of flowers and still lifes, presents a fascinating case study of a woman artist at the turn of the century, who worked and exhibited prodigiously across the fine and decorative arts, and yet has now fallen into obscurity.
The only painting by her in a UK public collection is 'Alas, April the 30th' in Newport, Wales. The daughter of Mary Stevenson and James Hamilton, a prosperous Glasgow bobbin manufacturer, younger sister of Glasgow Boys painter James Whitelaw Hamilton, and wife of the prominent Glasgow architect Alexander Nisbet Paterson (younger brother of Glasgow Boy James Paterson), Hamilton is today eclipsed by her more famous male family members.
A DOCTOR who has been described as Scotland’s greatest dramatist loved trips to Helensburgh and the Clyde seaside —but did not like living in the burgh.
Eventually Dr Oswald Henry Mavor — even more famous as James Bridie — sold the family home at Gateside, Drymen, and moved to the burgh in August 1949.
TWO Rosneath Peninsula sisters — whose family also lived at various times in Helensburgh — both became multi-talented and famous artists.
Elder sister Doris Clare Zinkeisen (pictured right in 1929), who was born at Clynder House, Clynder, on July 31 1898, was best known for her work in theatrical design, but was also a painter, commercial artist and writer.
THE Helensburgh woman whose husband designed the Cenotaph in Hermitage Park and several important burgh buildings was herself a very talented artist.
Maggie Hamilton, who married architect and artist Alexander Nisbet Paterson in 1897, was a leading embroideress of her time and also highly regarded as a painter.
A HELENSBURGH man was an important donor of valuable paintings to Glasgow Art Gallery.
Another burgh man, Alastair Macdonald, Ph.D., who is a member of a group researching such donations, looked into the background of Hugh Locke Anderson Jnr., of Ava Lodge, 11 Glasgow Street.
A SHANDON man who died of blood cancer on April 16 2012 at the age of 65 is considered to have been one of Scotland’s greatest cameramen and film-makers.
In David Peat’s early days he was an all-action cameraman flying in helicopters, filming the famous Clyde sit-in and other highlights such as the career of Billy Connolly.