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Margaretta S. Brokaw Mphil Thesis SOLVING THE 'HIGHLAND PROBLEM' : FRANK FRASER DARLING AND THE WEST HIGHLAND SURVEY, 1943-1955 Margaretta S. Brokaw A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of MPhil at the University of St Andrews 2004 Full metadata for this item is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13778 This item is protected by original copyright Solving the Highland Problem: Frank Fraser Darling and the West Highland Survey, 1943-1955 Margaretta S. Brokaw 4 August 2003 Thesis submitted to the Department of Modern History, University of St. Andrews in partial fulfilment for the Degree of Master of Philosophy ProQuest Number: 10167098 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10167098 Published by ProQuest LLO (2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLO. ProQuest LLO. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.Q. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 T4 £S~7\ ABSTRACT Between 1944 and 1951, Dr. Frank Fraser Darling conducted tire West Highland Survey for the Department of Agriculture for Scotland with grants from the Development Commission. He sought to solve the 'Highland problem', a persistent demographic and economic problem in the West Highlands and Islands with centuries-old roots, but he was disappointed when the Survey failed to influence policy. It was not altogether a failure, however. It was a novel attempt to bridge the gap between the natural and social sciences. Fraser Darling attempted to use ecology to understand and solve the Highland problem, leading him to subtitle the report 'an essay in human ecology'. Reducing the problem to an ecological base, he contended that 'the Highlands are a devastated countryside, and that is the plain primary reason why there are now few people and why there is a constant economic problem'. The theories of Frederick Clements and W.C. Ailee made him view the Highlands as a super-organism, tlie organic and inorganic constituents of which had achieved a delicate equilibrium over centuries. He contended that modern capitalist society disrupted and destroyed this stability through deforestation, the concept of private property, and the market economy. He used the Survey to criticize modern culture and to ideahze traditional rural life. For rehabilitation he prescribed conservation as 'applied ecology' to regain eco-stabihty and cultural evolution to withstand the conforming pressure of modern society. The Survey failed for a number of reasons. The Department of Agriculture was suspicious of Fraser Darling, and his rehabilitative plan was ill-defined and impracticable because it was idealistic and based upon flawed history and science. But, it did not fail completely; it was an early forum for Fraser Darling's environmental philosophy, which later propelled him to great success in North America and Britain. (i) I, Margaretta S. Brooaw, hereby certiiy that this thesis, which is approximately 40,000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me, and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. date signature of candidate .. C (ii) I admitted as a rrsii.etl^<2^i student in November 20(^^2 and as a candidate fc^i- the degree of Master of Philosophy in November 2002; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St. Andrews between 2002 and 2003. signature of candidate fi 66 (iii) I hereby certiiy thaa the ccndidaae has fulfiled the conditions of the Rerolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of Master of Philosophy in the University of St. Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. date signature of supervis'd! ......... In submitting this thesis to the University of St. Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bonn fide library or research worker. signature of candidate ..• CONTENTS Acknowledgements vi Notes and Abbreviations vii 1. Introduction 1 2. The West Highland Survey: a history 16 3. The Report of the West Highland Survey: an analysis 41 4. Solving the Highland Problem: evolution, conservation, and land use in the Highlands 72 5. Conclusion 97 Appendix: Map of region covered by the West Highland Survey 116 Bibliography 117 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am especially grateful to Dr. John F.M. Clark, my supervisor, for his counsel, patience, and direction in the completion of this dissertation. I am especially appreciative of all his efforts that allowed me to pursue this topic and dissertation m the first place. Professor Cluis Smout also deserves special thanks for his helpful advice. I also wish to acknowledge the tremendous help of Dr. Martin Maw of Oxford University Press. John S. Gibson and Hugh Cheape were also very kind to answer my many questions. Finally, 1 must thank the staffs of the St. Andrews University Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Public Records Office, the Scottish National Archives, and the Woodson Research Center (Rice University) for all their help. NOTES AND ABBREVIATIONS The West Highland Survey exists as two distinct entities: the government-sponsored survey directed by Dr. Frank Fraser Darling and carried out between the years 1944 and 1951 and die published report of 1955. To minimize confusion, this dissertation uses italics, West Highland Survey, to refer to the published report and uses normal text to refer to the government survey. Works frequently cited in the notes have been identified by the following abbreviations: NAS Nadonai A^n^Ii^^es fi Scodandt Edmbui'gh NLS Nadona 1 Libi'ary ft Scodand, Edinbuagh OUP Offord Press Acchives , Offord PRO Publis Recodcst OUScsc and Nadonai Aeehives, Kew StAUL St. Andrews Univeestty Librayy, St. AndrewSl Fufe SEC Scottish Econo mcc Commisree WRC Woodoon Reseaeeh Center, Rcee University/ Housfon, Txxss WRH Wes t Registe s Houre , Ch.e^fotte Squrre , Edinbuahh M. Brokaw 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In January 1944, Tom Johnston, the Secretary of State for Scotland, received Dr. Frank Fraser Darling at St. Andrews House, Edinburgh. As Britain was embroiled in war and preoccupied with planning the peace, Fraser Darling was proposing a scientific survey of the West Highlands and Islands, the poorest and least populated region of Scotland — and Britain. 1 Nearmg forty, his war service application had been denied, but war had destroyed his research, cutting short in December 1938 his seal study on the remote western island of North Rona.12 In the years between North Rona and his interview with Johnston, Fraser Darling had stayed on in northwest Scotland, farming a derelict croft on a small coastal island. As the months and years went by, his plans to return to North Rona gave way to a much grander scheme: to study and solve scientifically the enduring 'Highland problem' of depopulation and economic decline. In the West Highland Survey Frank Fraser Darling attempted to apply to a specific human problem the principles of his faith in holistic ecology's powers. Though his formal education had been irregular, he was by training an agricultural scientist and biologist. Over time, his studies and experience m agriculture and animal behaviour drew him into a more general appreciation of ecology, human sociology, and ethics. To Fraser Darling, the holism of ecology brought logical, scientific, and quantifiable answers to difficult problems in human, animal, and plant affairs. In short, he envisioned ecology as a tool with which the world's biological, economic, political, and social problems could be understood, grappled with, and ultimately solved. Ecological concepts gave insight to such problems, and applied 1 This dissertation uses the terms 'Highlands' and 'Highland' as Fraser Darling did to denote the region covered by his Survey, an area which included the islands of Hie inner and outer Hebrides within the more general term of 'Highlands'. It encompassed the western parts of the crofting counties of Sutherland, Ross and Comarty, Caithness, Argyll, and Inverness- shire but excluded Shetland and Orkney. See the appendix for a map of the region. 2 J. Morton Boyd, Fraser Darling's Islands (Edinburgh, 1986), 167-168. M. Brokaw 2 ecology, or, in his words 'conservation', solved them..3 During his years in the Highlands, from the mid-1930s through the end of the Survey in I95I, his ecological and conservationist ideas developed into an important ethic. In the mid-twentieth century, Fraser Darling was an ecologist and an advocate of conservation decades before either were popular pursuits outside of a narrow realm within academia and politics. Despite his research background, he was not an academic, and his theories did not always mesh with those of his professional peers. In his scientific research, he leapt into new subjects every few years; he abhorred laboratory work; and he disliked working with mathematical models. He excelled in observation and descriptive narrative and was in many ways like the archetypical naturalist of the previous century.
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