Burns Chronicle 1983
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Robert BurnsLimited World Federation Limited www.rbwf.org.uk 1983 The digital conversion of this Burns Chronicle was sponsored by The Heather and Thistle Society Houston, Texas The digital conversion service was provided by DDSR Document Scanning by permission of the Robert Burns World Federation Limited to whom all Copyright title belongs. www.DDSR.com BURNS CHRONICLE 1983 THE BURNS FEDERATION Dick Institute, Elmbank Avenue, Kilmarnock KA13 BU Associate Membership Ladies or Gentlemen, whether or not they are members of a federated Club or Society, may become Associate Members of the Burns Federation by applying in writing to the Hon. Secretary. The Subscription is at present £5 per annum. Associate Members are entitled to a free copy of the Burns Chronicle, a copy of the minutes of the Executive Committee and to attend the Annual Council of the Federation. Publications, etc. available from Headquarters: Burns Chronicle paperbound £3.50 clothbound £4.25 (members £2.50 and £3 respectively) (there are some back numbers available-list on request from headquarters) A Scots Kist £2.25 A Scots Handsel £1.75 Bairnsangs £1.50 Twenty Favourite Songs & Poems (Calligraphy by Tom Gourdie) £1.95 Robert Burns & Edinburgh (John McVie) £1 Scottish Epitaphs (Raymond Lamont Brown) 85p Robert Burns the man and his work (Hans Hecht) £6.50 Johnnie Walker's Burns Supper Companion (Hugh Douglas) £3.95 The Talking Scots Quiz Book (William Graham) £1.95 Burns Federation Badges £1 Diplomas (membership) 15p Burns Check Ties £3 Burns Check Bow Ties £2 Burns Heritage Trail Maps £1.10 Silverplated Robert Burns Bookmarks £2.75 Plus 20 % post and packing. '200Club' The Burns Federation 200 Club is open to members of affiliated Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies and to Associate Members of the Burns Federation. The charge for membership is £10 to be paid between 1st May and 30th June annually. There are ten consecutive draws each of which pays out £30, £20 and £10. In addition £125 will be paid out four times per annum when all 200 memberships are taken up. Proceeds of the 200 Club go to assist the work of the Burns Federation. BURNS CHRONICLE AND CLUB DIRECTORY INSTITUTED 1891 FOURTH SERIES: VOLUME VIII PRICE: Paper £3.50, Cloth £4.25; (Members £2.50 and £3.00 respectively) . .. CONTENTS John Kidd, J.P. 4 From the Editor 6 The Irvine Conference, 1981 8 The Annapolis Conference Dr. Jim Connor 9 Unveiling of Memorial to Burns Dr. Jim Connor 10 Obituaries 11 Book Reviews 12 Personality Parade 17 To Burns Lovers-A Monumental Ouestionl Alastair J. Campbell 23 A Dutch Treat for Burns E. Drummond 25 Gilbert May-Philatelist Extraordinary Archie McArthur 26 The Dumfries and Galloway Festival of Arts D. C. Smith 28 Robert Burns in Japan Raymond Lamont-Brown 29 Junior Chronicle St. Lucy's R. C. School, Cumbernauld Archie McArthur 32 A Child's Tribute Tom Mcllwrath 33 Tam o' Shanter Burns Club J. McGuire 34 Bowhill People's Burns Club Margaret Cook 34 Eaglesham's Scottish Night George Anderson 35 Schools' competition winners 36 Schools Competition Report, 1982 James Glass 39 Publicity- Federation and the Media George Anderson 40 The Songhouse of Scotland James Urquhart 42 Burns Supper in Nigeria Tom Bell 51 Kilmarnock's Old High Kirk Enez Logan 52 James Currie's Robert Burns James Glass 57 Burns in China Pat Wilson 58 The Enigma of the West Highland Tour James L. Hempstead 62 WirBraw Lad Dr. Johnstone G. Patrick 66 Address to the Unco Clever Roy Solomon 66 A Scottish Double Event in Virginia Jack Ireland 67 Davidson was Kind to Burns Jim McCatfery 68 Burns Festival, 1982 Bill Anderson 73 The Burns Federation Office Bearers 74 List of Districts 79 Annual Conference Reports, 1981 85 Club Notes 99 Numerical List of Clubs on the Roll 197 Alphabetical List Of Clubs on the Roll 241 The title photograph is from the Nasmyth portrait of Burns and is reproduced by courtesy of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Published by the Burns Federation, Kilmarnock. Printed by Wm. Hodge & Co. Ltd, Glasgow ISBN 0307 8957 4 JOHN KIDD, J.P. A Kinross farmer, widely known and universally esteemed as a Burns-lover, John Kidd has spent a life-time, both at home in Scotland and overseas, encouraging the study of the life and works of Robert Burns, at the same time supporting the objects and principles of the Burns Federation. He was made Junior Vice-President in London, Ontario and installed as President at the Irvine Conference. He has been Secretary of Kinross Jolly Beggars for many years and is also a Past Chieftain of the Club. He is Hon. President of Perth Burns Club and immediate Past President of Tayside Region of Burns Clubs. He was a member of the first party from the Burns Federation to visit Moscow, where he addressed the Haggis on that memorable occasion. In his earlier days he 'followed the ploo ahint a pair o' braw Clydesdales'. Later he farmed in Western Alberta, where he drove a team of eight horses. In the Cariboo district of British Columbia he worked on a Merino sheep ranch. He was for twenty years a Councillor on Perth and Kinross County Council, where he served as Chairman of the Joint Fire Committee until regionalisation. After that he served a three-year term on Kinross District Council. He is now retired and lives with his wife Margaret at Little Aldie, Fossoway. 5 FROM THE EDITOR My wife and I both enjoy travelling but such is the nature of my work, requiring at least one of us to be within earshot of the telephone (curse you, Alexander Graham Bell), that we never get a chance to go away anywhere together. Indeed, we suddenly realised last year that we had not spent a night away from home together since our honeymoon in New Zealand-and that wasn't yesterday. Furthermore, although we have both been in the shadow of Mount Egmont half a dozen times since then, our visits to God's own country have been made individually, much to the chagrin of my wife's family. Paradoxically, it is because we work so closely together that we spend so much time apart. To the tyranny of the telephone I should add a couple of perpetually hungry cats and two greenhouses that need constant attention, so that even if the opportunity arose to get away together it could never be for long. For our tenth anniversary, however, we felt that we should make the effort, and this explains how we came to find ourselves flying at an altitude of 61,000 feet and a speed of 1,425 m.p.h. over the Mediterranean one Sunday last October. An overnight train journey from Dumfries and a breakfast of champagne and Danish pastries in the British Airways VIP Lounge at Heathrow preceded a flight of two and a half hours which took us to Cairo for the day, thanks to that miracle of aviation called Concorde. We hurtled down the main runway at 260 m.p.h. and a minute later were at 10,000 feet over Dover sipping our first glass of Bucks fizz. The first part of the flight we dawdled at 600 m.p.h. or .95 Mach but fifty miles south of Venice the pilot switched on the after-burners and we shot through the sound barrier. Apart from a slight jerk, which would not have been noticeable had the pilot not drawn our attention to it, and the Machmeter in the cabin which began rattling through the numbers until it registered Mach 2.03, we would have been none the wiser. Concorde is not one of these planes like a Fokker Friendship or a Dart Herald where you can actually watch the wheels spinning and where the high wing does not obscure the panoramic view of the world at large. The windows are postage stamp size and even if one could see out of them all that would be visible is that vast expanse of white wing. So we had to take the pilot's word for it that we were passing Corfu and Crete. The stewardesses were still serving an early lunch as the plane throttled back sharply to begin the descent over Alexandria and shortly after 11.30 a.m. London time, 12.30 local time, we landed at Cairo. A fleet of air-conditioned coaches transported us across the city and out to the Pyramids and the Sphinx. The coach trip is now a jumbled medley of sounds, sights and smells in my memory: everywhere the flags at half-mast for President Sadat, assassinated the previous week; the astonishing spectacle of the great city of the dead; Bedouin ladies on mules driving flocks of goats down the city's boulevards regard less of the traffic; down-town Cairo in the lunchtime traffic with every conceivable mode of transport in a jostling, seething jam. We disembarked at the foot of the long winding hill that leads up to the Pyramids. Here camels were provided for the energetic and fool hardy to make the ascent and in no time at all I found myself perched precariously atop 400 pounds of heaving, grumbling and highly aromatic 'ship of the desert', looking more like Steve MacQueen in Junior Bonner than Peter O' Toole in Lawrence of Arabia. 6 To be fair to the Egyptian tourist industry, I was not left to fend for myself. My unreliable querulous steed was led by a sturdy fellah who struck up a desultory con versation. 'You Eengerish, Johnny?' he enquired.