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In the world of folk music and song, Hamish Henderson was generally referred to as 'the father of the Scottish Folk-song Revival movement'. Acknowledged also as Scotland's greatest twentieth-century folklorist, he was, at the same time, an outstanding soldier, poet, philosopher, scholar (he had a string of D.Phils and D.Litts), linguist, teacher, broadcaster, political activist and prize-winning writer. His death in Edinburgh on 8 March 2002 marks the passing of a most remarkable man, an inspiration and hero the world over.
Hamish Henderson was born on Remembrance Day, 11 November 1919, in Blairgowrie, Perthshire, to parents who were rooted in traditions spanning countless centuries, embracing several languages, and ranging the entire social spectrum - courtiers tae cottars, an' men o' the road forbye. Since his father did not long survive the First World War, Hamish, an only child, was brought up by his mother (a trained nurse) and grandmother, being steeped in Gaelic and Scots folklore and educated beyond the fireside of his forebears. Like Burns in the eighteenth century, he attributed his love of poetry, song and tradition to his childhood years and conceded that the 'school of hard knocks' also drilled more than a few lessons into his young life.
When his mother was evicted from their home in Blairgowrie, she took Hamish to Ireland and later to the south of England, where her efforts to provide home and schooling opened doors to a world of experiences far from the familiar Perthshire hills. Sadly his heloved mother died when Hamish was only twelve, thus adding to these experiences the solitude and wanderings of a boarding-school orphan. Holidays took him to the south-west of England, over to Dublin where, aged sixteen, he met W.B.Yeats, and across the Channel to explore the Continent and practise the languages in which he later became totally fluent.
After four years at Dulwich College he went to Cambridge in 1938, studying languages and literature - French, German and Italian. He never lost his love of Gaelic and Scots or of the bagpipes, Highland dancing, or the ancient Scots ballads of his childhood. They were all much in evidence at Cambridge where, sometimes clad in kilt, he sang, danced, played, debated, discussed and enlightened.
Volunteering for war in 1939, Hamish...