1990 the Digital Conversion of This Burns Chronicle Was Sponsored by the Perth Burns Club
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1990 The digital conversion of this Burns Chronicle was sponsored by The Perth Burns Club 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 The Armorial Bearings of the Burns Federation, matriculated in January 1989 through the generosity of the Dumfries Burns Howff Burns Club. For full details see Burns and th e Gentle Science by S. K. Gaw (p 21 ). BURNS CHRONICLE AND CLUB DIRECTORY Instituted 1891 WHOLE NUMBER 99 1990 PRICE: Paper £6.00, Cloth £9.50, (Members £4.00 and £6.50 respectively). Published by the Burns Federation, Dick Institute, Kilmarnock. 2 Contents Anne Gaw 4 From the Editor 6 Obituaries 8 Book Reviews 13 Paisley Burns Club Greeting T.G. II 20 Burns and the Gentle Science S.K.Gaw 21 Burns A-Z, the Complete Word Finder 26 Fraternal Greetings from Greenock Mabel Irving 27 Schools Competition Report, 1989 James Glass 28 Burns Memorials Up-Date J.A.M. 32 Burns into Gaelic R.Peel 33 James Gray, Schoolmaster and Chaplain J. L. Hempstead 35 William Corbet - a Correction J. L. Hempstead 43 Everything Haggis in Hoboken Ogden Nash 43 Burns at Auction J.A.M. 44 The G. Ross Roy Collection G. Ross Roy 46 The Mouse's Reply May Harper 51 Poetry and Politics: Burns and Revolution W.J.Murray 52 Taking the Bard to Calgary Alex Milloy 67 Robert Burns - Musician Janetta Gould 68 Jean Redpath David Skipper 74 The Wanderer Maurice Rattigan 79 Teeny Wee Hilda May Faulder 84 Shanter's Canter John Sandy Wyness 85 The Burns Federation Office Bearers 88 List of Districts 92 Annual Conference Reports, Canada 1988 98 Club Notes 110 Alphabetical List of Clubs on the Roll 160 Numerical List of Clubs on the Roll 165 3 4 Anne Gaw A long-standing love and interest in the life and works of Robert Burns led Anne to become one of the prime movers in the formation of the Irvine Lasses Burns Club in 1975, becoming the Founder President and holding this position for four years. Since the Club's inception Anne has served continuously on the committee and held office as secretary. In 1980 she became one of the first to receive the accolade of Honorary Membership. She became a delegate to the Ayrshire Association of Burns Clubs in 1975 and four years later became the first lady to hold the office of Secretary and Treasurer of the Association. She served in this dual capacity with considerable flair and distinction and after four years was elected Vice President, and subsequently became President of the Association. In 1979 Anne became District Representative for Ayrshire on the Executive of the Burns Federation and since then has served on the Schools and Literature sub-committees. In March 1985 she became Advertisements Manager of the Burns Chronicle, and since 1986 she has carried out a similar duty in respect of The Burnsian. Irvine has enjoyed many varied and successful concerts during the Burns Festival Weeks, organised by Anne in her capacity as a committee member. In recent years she has played a leading role in organising an annual Seminar of Burns Studies, which has made a major contribution to contemporary Burns scholarship. In addition to being a popular adjudicator of verse speaking competitions, Anne is much sought after during the Burns Supper season when her keen knowledge of the poet combined with her own lively wit makes her much in demand. Anne still finds time to be an active member of the Busbichill and Troon Ladi~s Burns Clubs, and the Irvine Newtown Operatic Society never ceases to be amazed at the enthusiasm which she applied as their Publicity Manager. The success of the Irvine (1981) and Kilmarnock (1986) Burns Conferences was due in no small measure to Anne's infinite capacity for hard work, especially the latter in her role as secretary. In 1986 history was made when Anne was elected Junior Vice President of the Burns Federation; for the first time one Ayrshire l~ss was followiMg another (Enez Logan) in the succession towards the Presidency. Anne took over the chain of office from Enez at the Conference in Hamilton, Ontario and during her presidential year has probably travelled more widely and visited more clubs than any of her predecessors. Her abiding ambition is to do more to encourage young people to develop a genuine love of Burns, and to this end she is formulating a project for Junior Burns Clubs. Given her tireless energy and absolute dedication to the task we are confident that Anne will sec it through to a successful conclusion. 5 From The Editor In the past twelve months I have visited Australia and the United States four times each, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong three times, and seven other countries in the Pacific and South-east Asia, from New Zealand to Japan. By the time you read this I shall probably be somewhere in transit between San Francisco and Hong Kong. Most of this globe-trotting, I admit, has been on numismatic business of one sort or another but en passant I did manage to attend the Annual Conference in Hamilton, Ontario last July and at various times throughout the year I met fellow-Burnsians in Hong Kong, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Dunedin. I have happy memories of good fellowship with the Burnsians of Sydney at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Allen-of Ryde who laid on an impromptu lunch cum ceilidh that stretched on into the evening one Sunday last November when I had just flown in from Singapore. Charles Murray and I ended up in the wee sma' hours in May Dickie's apartment in Manly. In March this year I spent a very pleasant day with John Sinclair of the Sydney Club and together we re-visited the cairn which was Scotland's contribution to the Australian Bicentennial. I am sorry that I missed the unveiling ceremony on St Andrew's Day, but I can claim to have seen the cairn before and after the event. At the end of March this year I had the pleasure of proposing the Immortal Memory at the annual dinner of the Melbourne Burns Club, in the vast ballroom of Moorabbin Town Hall, This was, in many respects, the most memorable experience I have ever had, certainly in the Burns context. On my arrival at Tullamarine Airport on the Tuesday morning after Easter, I was met by the indefatigable and quite unsuppressable Tom Paterson, and Club President Bill Schrank. Instead of seeing me safely bedded down in a quiet and darkened room to recover from jet lag - I had, after all, just flown in from New Zealand - I was whisked all over the City as Tom and Bill attended to a hundred and one matters concerning the imminent Annual Dinner. At 2.15 p.m. we visited the offices of Bill Burns Peat, Master of Ceremonies at the Dinner, but a partner in a busy architectural practice in South Melbourne. We pushed open the front door, walked in and were mildly surprised to find the receptionist's desk vacant. Indeed, there was a somewhat deserted air about the building. No one seemed to be about, but we waited patiently for Bill to return from a protracted lunch. Tom was just penning a brief note to Bill before we left, when suddenly there was a screech of. tyres in the street outside and two burly policemen toting revolvers burst through the door. It later transpired that office cleaners over the Easter weekend had set the alarms but forgotten to lock the front door, and we had unwittingly walked in while the office was still closed for the holiday. We had triggered off the alarm in the local police station ... Delegates to the Hamilton Conference will doubtless be well aware that Tom Paterson has the gift o' the gab. He had to summon all his powers of eloquence to talk himself out of this ticklish situation. Fortunately Tom was well connected; the Hon. Steve Crabb, Minister of Police in the Government of Victoria, just happens to be Patron of the Club. It is amazing what a bit of influence in high places can do sometimes! A couple of days later, on the pretext of getting me to check the acoustics in the Town Hall, I was lured - nay, hijacked - into humping the decorations from Tom's garage and helping to erect them. I think I can safely claim that this was my first ever DIY Burns Supper. Normally the first glimpse I get of the venue is when I am being piped in with the other VIPs. This was compensated for, however, by getting the opportunity to try the mighty Wurlitzer on the stage - one of only four organs of this particular type ever constructed. Came the Big Night itself and, inevitably, The best laid schemes o mice and men ... 'The sound system collapsed early on and, instead of delivering my oration from a lectern on the top table, I had to traipse the length of the hall, before the assembled multitude (570 in all) and perform from the stage at the far end. Two incidents without precedent took place. I told the story of Jean-Paul Kauffman, the French hostage held in Lebanon who, on gaining his freedom last year, astounded everyone by reciting the poems of Burns in the vernacular. Seems he was held manacled and blindfold in a cellar in Beirut along with an American, Terry Anderson, who, to preserve their sanity, recited all the poems he 6 knew including many works of the Bard.