The Arts

ONE work of art which was not on show in Helensburgh Heritage Trust's 2007 Gregor Ian Smith Exhibition at Helensburgh Library was a watercolour caricature of the late John B.Widdowson during his time as the last headmaster of Larchfield Boys Prepatory School in Colquhoun Street.

HELENSBURGH'S most famous film star Deborah Kerr, who died on October 16 2006 at the age of 86, was regarded in Hollywood as a typical English rose . . . refined and reserved.

But of course Deborah Jane Kerr Trimmer was born on September 30 1921 to Arthur Charles (Jack to his friends) Trimmer, a civil engineer, and his wife Kathleen Rose (known to her family as Colleen or Coll), when they lived in Helensburgh, and spent her early years in the town.

A FORMER pupil of Helensburgh's Lomond School, Lee Bisset, is now one of Britain’s established opera and concert singers.

A HELENSBURGH man drew on his upbringing in the town when working on the film which won him a BAFTA in November 2006.

ONE of the most popular songs sung by a well known Helensburgh singer was "It's a sin to live a lie". But 'boy singer' Master Joe Petersen did just that for most of her life.

Master Joe, as he was known, was in fact burgh girl Mary O'Rourke, who also appeared under the names of Master Wilfred Eaton and Michael Dawnay.

A HELENSBURGH woman who died in 2005 made a huge impact on both professional and amateur drama in Scotland.

Formerly the proprietor of the Bookworms book shop in East Clyde Street, Ros Lane was also for many years an editor and presenter of the local talking newspaper for the blind and otherwise visually handicapped, Headline Helensburgh.

A HELENSBURGH man who for many years was instrumental in selling other people's books to townsfolk is now hoping that they will buy his new book.

Terry Lane has written the biography of the doyen of the small theatre movement he always wanted to write, “The Full Round — the several lives and theatrical legacy of Stephen Joseph”, and it is available at the shop he founded, Bookworms in East Clyde Street.

HELENSBURGH man Terry Lane, who now lives and works in Italy, has published his second book.

“Side by Side”, his history of Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre of which he was the first artistic director and manager, is a very much a labour of love as he and his late wife Ros were instrumental in its launch.

AN IMPORTANT work by a leading Helensburgh artist of the past, Norah Neilson Gray, is on display in Helensburgh Library.

The painting, “Hôpital Auxilaire D’Armée 30, Abbaye de Royaumont” by Norah Neilson Gray, was gifted to the people of Helensburgh by the artist’s sister, Dr Tina Gray, on her death in 1984.

A HELENSBURGH man is well on the way to becoming a top international film director.

Tom Vaughan, whose mother ran a nursery school and still lives in the burgh, attended the London premiere of his latest film 'What Happens In Vegas', starring Cameron Diaz, in April 2008, but also is a very important figure in the world of commercials.

A PORTRAIT of Helensburgh-born TV inventor John Logie Baird which was commissioned for Lomond School was lost in the St Bride’s building fire in 1997.

The original, by eminent Glasgow artist Emilio Coia, had hung in the Larchfield building and was then moved to St Bride’s when Larchfield closed.

A HELENSBURGH woman who earned a reputation as a fine art historian and painter, Ailsa Tanner, is particularly remembered for a book she described as ‘her life’s work’.

Her carefully researched catalogues for the centenary exhibition of the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists in 1982, followed by the West of Scotland Women Artists, remain essential sources of information.