Hamish Henderson

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Hamish Henderson's bust in South Gyle

(James) Hamish Scott Henderson (11 November 1919 – 9 March 2002) was a

communist
, intellectual and soldier. He was a catalyst for the
folk revival in Scotland. He was also an accomplished folk song collector and discovered such notable performers as Jeannie Robertson, Flora MacNeil and Calum Johnston. Born in Blairgowrie, Perthshire[1] on the first Armistice Day 11 November 1919, to a single mother, Janet Henderson, a Queen's Nurse who had served in France, and was then working in the war hospital at Blair Castle.[2]
His name was recorded at registration as James but he preferred the Scots form Hamish. [3]

Early life

Henderson spent his early years in nearby

Dulwich School in London; however, his mother died shortly before he was due to take up his place and he had to live in an orphanage while studying there.[dubious – discuss
]

He studied Modern Languages at

Society of Friends aiding the German resistance and helping to rescue Jews.[1][4]

World War II

Although he argued strongly for peace, even well into the early years of the war, he became convinced that a satisfactory peace could not be reached and so he threw himself into the war effort. Joining as an enlisted soldier in the Pioneer Corps, he later applied for and received a commission in the Intelligence Corps. He was quite effective as an interrogator due to his command of six European languages and deep understanding of German culture.

He took part in the

Desert War in Africa, during which he wrote his poem Elegies For the Dead in Cyrenaica, encompassing every aspect of a soldier's experience of the sands of North Africa. On 2 May 1945, Henderson personally oversaw the drafting of the surrender order of Italy issued by Marshal Rodolfo Graziani.[5]

Henderson collected the lyrics to "

war poetry book, Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica, received the Somerset Maugham Award.[1]

Folk song collector

Henderson threw himself into the work of the

folk revival after the war, discovering and bringing to public attention Jeannie Robertson, Flora MacNeil, Calum Johnston (see Annie and Calum Johnston of Barra Archived 14 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine) and others. In the 1950s, he acted as a guide to the American folklorist, Alan Lomax, who collected many field recordings in Scotland. (See Alan Lomax, Collector of Songs
).

People's Festival Ceilidhs

Henderson was instrumental in bringing about the

Edinburgh Festival and was deeply controversial. At the event, Henderson performed The John Maclean March, to the tune of Scotland the Brave, which honoured the life and work John Maclean
, a communist and Scottish nationalist hero.

However, the event marked the first time that Scotland's traditional folk music was performed on a public stage. The performers included

John Burgess, Jessie Murray, John Strachan, and Jimmy MacBeath. The event was extremely popular and was regarded as the beginning of the second British folk revival
.

Henderson continued to host the events every year until 1954, when the

Communist ties of several members of the People's Festival Committee led to the Labour Party declaring it a "Proscribed Organisation". Losing the financial support of the local trades unions, the People's Festival was permanently cancelled.[6] Henderson's own songs, particularly "Freedom Come All Ye", have become part of the folk tradition themselves.[1]

Later life

Dividing his time between Continental Europe and Scotland, he eventually settled in Edinburgh in 1959 with his German wife, Kätzel (Felizitas Schmidt).

Henderson collected widely in the

travellers, the bothy singers of Aberdeenshire, the Border shepherds, and the young men and women who frequented the folk clubs in Edinburgh
.

From 1955 to 1987 he was on the staff of the

Calvinism was repressive in the Scottish psyche and that 'we had to divest ourselves of layers or preconception and misconception before we could come to grips with Scotland and its people.'[7]

Henderson was a socialist,

Scottish home rule and in the foundation of the 1970s Scottish Labour Party. Henderson, who was openly bisexual, was vocal about gay rights and acceptance.[1][9]

In 1983, Henderson was voted Scot of the Year by Radio Scotland listeners when he, in protest of the Thatcher government's nuclear weapons policy, turned down an OBE.[1]

Death

He died in Edinburgh on 8 March 2002 aged 82, survived by his wife Kätzel and their daughters, Janet and Christine Henderson.[10]

Legacy

In 2005, Rounder Records released a recording of the 1951 Edinburgh People's Festival Ceilidh as part of The Alan Lomax Collection. Henderson had collaborated with the preparations for the release.

In August 2013,

Edinburgh University announced that it had acquired his personal archive of "more than 10,000 letters from almost 3400 correspondents, plus 136 notebooks and diaries", dating from the 1930s to the end of his life.[11] These will be kept in the Special Collections department of the main library.[12]

Discussions around national identity and constitutional resettlement in Scotland, especially those surrounding the Scottish Independence Referendum of 2014, have often invoked Henderson's legacy. Politicians and cultural commentators alike describe their admiration for his song 'Freedom Come-All-Ye' and lend their voices to those touting it as an alternative national anthem. As a radical democrat whose political beliefs were closely bound up in the study of folk culture and high literature, Henderson's work expresses a tension between romantic nationalism and socialist internationalism which has been reaffirmed in public life in Scotland since his death.[13]

Debate on his parenting, and a possible link to the eighth Duke of Atholl or a 'cousin' of that lineage,[1] has continued into considering the 'cultural context' of the eighth Duke's role in designing the Scottish National War Memorial (opened 1927) bringing together the culture of 'the people', but also looking into Henderson possibly being of royal or aristocratic blood, 'acknowledging a heritage that meant a lot to him, while still protecting his anonymity, and the power of his life's work to identify with everyman and everywoman.'[citation needed] Paul Potts had called Henderson "That guy? He's one of the wandering kings of Scotland."[2]

Further reading

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Dr Hamish Henderson". The Scotsman. 10 March 2002. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  2. ^ a b Smith, Donald (14 November 2021). "How war and family shaped the poetry of Hamish Henderson". The National. Retrieved 14 November 2021. A full version of this essay can be found in "Ghosts Of The Early Morning Shift" in An Anthology or Radical Prose from Contemporary Scotland, ed. Jim Aitken (Culture Matters, 2021)
  3. ^ "Statutory Register of Births". Scotlands People. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  4. ^ Neat, Timothy (11 March 2002). "Books: Hamish Henderson". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  5. ^ Neat, T. (2007, rep. 2009), Hamish Henderson - The Making of the Poet, Volume I, p. 165.
  6. ^ Norman Buchan on Hamish, Tocher no 43, School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh, 1991, p 19-21
  7. ^ Smith, Donald (14 November 2021). "How war and family shaped the poetry of Hamish Henderson". The National. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  8. ^ Antonio Gramsci, Prison Letters, translated and introduced by Hamish Henderson, Pluto Press 1996.
  9. ^ Neat, Timothy: Hamish Henderson: Poetry Becomes People
  10. ^ "Dr Hamish Henderson". The Scotsman. 11 March 2002. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  11. ^ Ferguson, Brian (8 August 2013). "Edinburgh University buys Hamish Henderson archive". The Scotsman. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  12. ^ Hamish Henderson Archive Trust Press release, August 2013, retrieved 8 August 2013
  13. ^ Corey Gibson, The Voice of the People: Hamish Henderson and Scottish Cultural Politics, Edinburgh University Press, 2015
  14. ^ Ballads of WWII (2014) The Jack Horntip Collection
  15. ISSN 0260-9592
    .

External links
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