Helensburgh Heritage
Helensburgh Heritage Trust
A WELL-KNOWN face in Helensburgh and district was a man who saw a lot of the world, and more than likely his experiences helped shape a mature outlook on life . . . and his poetry.
James Hunter’s early years were inauspicious, as he was put to work at the age of nine. But his career then took him in a quite different direction.
HELENSBURGH and district is well known for renowned artists and architects . . . but it also has had notable poets.
This website provides coverage of two of the ‘greats’ of poetry, Cecil Day Lewis and W.H.Auden, who, by coincidence, were both teaching at Larchfield School in 1930. But their time here was short.
A VERY well-known member of Helensburgh Parish Church wrote an autobiography covering an astonishingly full and active life.
Octogenarian Katharine M.E.Liston’s book ‘Doorstep to Damehood’ tells her story from when she was left outside a hospital as a baby until 2015 when she was invested as a Dame of the Order of St John.
A HUGELY talented Scottish artist and illustrator spent part of World War One living in Helensburgh and serving as an Admiralty Assistant Overseer Airships at the Inchinnan airfield.
Works by William Russell Flint (later Sir William) became more and more in demand over the years, despite what some critics considered to be crassness in his treatment of the female figure.
A HELENSBURGH actor and singer had a quiet 2020 because of coronavirus restrictions . . . but that is very unusual in a varied and successful theatrical career.
Bass-baritone Duncan Smith, youngest son of well-known local artist and art teacher Gregor Ian Smith and his wife Kathleen, has appeared in many West End productions, toured at home and abroad, and worked with many famous names.
'The Old Soldier of the Gareloch Head'
This poem was written by Professor John Stuart Blackie (1809-1895).
Professor Blackie was appointed to the Greek Chair in Edinburgh University in 1852. He worked hard to preserve the Gaelic language and literature and he was instrumental in founding the Chair of Celtic Literature in the University of Edinburgh.
His Scottish-related poetry was published in "Lyrical Poems" (1860), and "Lays of the Highlands and Islands" (1872).
I've wander'd east and west,
And a soldier I hae been;
The scars upon my breast
Tell the wars that I have seen.
But now I'm old and worn,
And my locks are thinly spread,
And I'm come to die in peace,
By the Gareloch Head.
When I was young and strong,
Oft a wandering I would go,
By the rough shores of Loch Long,
Up to lone Glencroe.
But now I'm fain to rest,
And my resting-place I've made,
On the green and gentle bosom
Of the Gareloch Head.
'Twas here my Jeanie grew,
Like a lamb amid the flocks,
With her eyes of bonnie blue,
And her gowden locks.
And here we often met,
When with lightsome foot we sped,
O'er the green and grassy knolls
At the Gareloch Head.
THE MYSTERY of two Gareloch steam yachts has been solved by a local expert in the field.
It all began in August when Mary-Jane Selwood of the Anderson Trust Local Collection, which is housed in Helensburgh Library, researched the work of watercolourist Tom Campbell (1865-1943) because one of his works is in the collection.