User:Stephencdickson

Born 11th January 1960 in

for shooting. My paternal grandmother, Jane Ann Howe Ogilvy, provides the link to both Barrie and Kermack.

My mother Joyce Gladys Dickson (nee Day) (1924-2021) served in the code-breaking section of

, the same estate for which my grandfather was gamekeeper. My father worked at the sawmill on the estate and as an agricultural engineer. Later he concentrated solely on car mechanics.

In my childhood, until 1978, I lived in Baldiesburn, Muckhart, in a 17th century house attached to a former blacksmiths, which was wholly remodelled around 1870 to add an upper level. My sister-in-law Nancy, from Chile, lived there until summer 2022 when it was sold out of the family.

File:Eve Casini (model) by Stephen C Dickson.jpg

Ancestry

I come from a long line of professional gardeners, originating in

.

Family

I have two older brothers and one younger sister.

My brother Colin John Dickson (1950-2021), 10 years older than myself, retired from the Edinburgh Observatory in December 2014. There his role had been designing and commissioning telescopes for principal observatories around the world, including

.

My sister Kathleen is 18 months younger than myself and lives in London, working as the main public interface for the British Film Institute in their archive section. She has worked there for over 30 years.

My oldest brother, Ian, lives in Dollar. Following several years of ill-health he has now retired from his trade as a motor mechanic (which followed in his father's footsteps)

I have a son (born 1986), Rory, by my first marriage to Gillian Lesley (nee Young). We married at the Thomas Morton Hall in

.

I was married to Linda (nee Tierney) in December 1994, at

Chamber of Commerce

, and currently works for an architect's office. We separated at Easter 2011.

Influences

The greatest single influence on my life was the former war correspondent, playwright and theatre owner,

, and countless authors and stars of stage and screen. Oddly I spent every day with him, listening to his stories during a period of unemployment. He died 22 days after I met him, in June 1981.

The other great influence, due to her perspective on life, was Martha Sinclair, who was my closest friend from 1988 to 1993, then disappeared.

From February 2011 until February 2013 I had a complex rollercoaster relationship with a person 26 years my junior:

Edinburgh University

. This was a major upheaval from which my life is still recovering.

Early Life

My home life would be seen as idyllic by many. The family was mainly self-sufficient and acted as a croft in many respects. We kept goats for milk, chickens for eggs, and bees for honey. We provided enough potatoes and vegetables for our own needs, and grew huge quantities of fruit (raspberries, strawberries, blackcurrant, whitecurrant, redcurrant and gooseberry) for jam for both our own use and barter. A trout stream runs through the garden. We grew enough hay and turnips to keep the goats through the winter.

However, this was all unmechanised, apart from a home-made garden tractor made out of my father's motorcycle and

), an arduous task. Hay was gathered using scythes.

My father died aged 54 when I was 9. The family survived on my mother's widow's pension; the same as an Old Age Pension, and not intended to be capable of supporting a family. This was supplemented to a very small degree with a role as Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages. As this required my mother to stay at home permanently but only be paid for a registration (which were few) this was probably of minimal if any benefit. My brother Colin who was then 19 did a huge amount to support the family and made huge personal sacrifices to do this. We largely survived due to the pre-existing reliance on self-sufficiency and living off our own produce.

Hobbies

I like music and singing and have been in several choirs over the years. My first public performance was at

and I was also pleased to sing "Let's Go Round Again" with the band.

I joined the Edinburgh Choir and performed at the official switch on of the Christmas lights on George Street on November 24th 2013. I am currently in a soul choir: Edinburgh's Got Soul. The choir performed publically at a sell-out concert at the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh in May 2014, at the Royal Highland Show in June 2014, again in the Queen's Hall in both December 2014 and December 2015 with guest star Sharlene Hector of Basement Jaxx, and with Kele Le Roc in May 2015. Our guest soloist in December 2016 was Mica Paris in a sell-out concert to 2200 persons at the Usher Hall.

I enjoy painting and drawing, particularly life drawing and oil painting. I generally have a reluctance to sell work, having sold my first work at 10 and instantly regretting its loss. From 2005 I have been working on a series of oil paintings of Edinburgh's street characters/tramps. A curious early commission (in my teens) was to

, in October 2013.

I have always taken many photographs and this exploded due to the advent of digital photographs. I am a member of 3 digital photography groups.

I am also a collectaholic. Collections include bottles, maps, netsuke pieces, chinoiserie and odd finds. I also enjoy fossil-hunting and metal-detecting.

I am an avid film watcher, trying to watch at least one daily, and have an extensive collection of VHS and DVD recordings. I am a particular fan of Korean films and older Japanese films such as the works of

.

Most friends consider me a more than competent chef, and I greatly enjoy cooking and being creative with food.

Education

Educated originally at Muckhart Primary School, and greatly influenced by the headmaster, Graham Nisbet. All three Perth and Kinross County Council annual bursaries to Dollar Academy were awarded to this tiny school which then contained only 30 pupils aged from 5 to 11, split into two classes. I received one of these bursaries giving me a free place at Dollar. My sister Kathleen did the same the following year. Although the bursary covered all school fees and books it did not cover the cost of the uniform and sportswear, and this caused major problems within the family budget.

I attended Dollar Academy 1971-1978 and excelled academically, being first in class in all eight subjects I took in 1977. I won the Kennedy Medal for best fifth year pupil in 1977 and Mylne Medal for best sixth year pupil in 1978. I won the subject prize medals for Pure Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Physics, Geography and Art. I was the School Dux 1977/78.

I am one of the few people ever to have scored 100% in a national GCSE Higher English essay (writing on the topic of the day my father died).

I won the Scottish National Maths Contest in both 1977 and 1978.

I was accepted to

. Qualified with a MA (Hons) and Diploma in Architecture. Specialised in Architectural Conservation and particularly in warehouse conversions and industrial buildings. I also spent two years studying contract and copyright law.

Adult Life

Only two periods of employment have ever been directly as an architect. Firstly a period at the

years.

Subsequent to graduation my employment has been entirely with

(named Edinburgh District Council at the time of original employment).

My initial role was unique, and no longer exists as a post, being employed as Surveyor of Graveyards and Cemeteries. This was later extended in terms of both role and time to Surveyor and Historical Reasearcher of Graveyards and Cemeteries for Edinburgh. At the time of employment (1984) Edinburgh had 26 graveyards and cemeteries under its control. Many of these are historically significant including one (Greyfriars Kirkyard) of international importance. Research was done from source; original burial documents and records, many from the 16th century and written in Old Scots. This work was complemented by periods in the National Library researching biographical material on those significant figures interred in the cemeteries. My interest in this field continues, and I am brought in as an "expert" when issues arise relating to the graveyards. I am also occasionally asked to speak at conferences on this specialist field. As a private commission I drew up a management plan for Scotland's only cemetery run as a non-profit-making trust; Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.

The above however was a temporary contract, having an end when all research was complete. Thereafter I moved to the Council's Planning Department within their Conservation Section, to oversee grant-aided restoration projects funded by the Council. I have remained within a planning role since 1984. Central to my roles was the revitalisation of

.

On one of the few ventures to leave the Council I was shortlisted for the role of Director of the

.

For 10 years I was the most long-serving member of the listed building team for Edinburgh, and mainly oversaw applications for Listed Building Consent. I currently work in the Local Developments and Listed Building East team, again looking after Leith.

In 2014 I won a commendation in the Scottish Quality Awards in Planning for the revitalisation of the south side of Charlotte Square. In 2015 I was category winner (Development on the Ground) for the same award: for the multi-prize winning Advocates Close development just off the Royal Mile.

Local History

Parallel to this I was living in Leith (from 1981) and becoming part of its revitalistaion on a social as well as building side. I was a founding member of Leith History Society, and taught "History of Leith" as an adult education class from 1986 to 1998. I regularly give free guided tours of the area, to locals and visiting architects or planners, and particularly enjoy giving tours to schoolchildren or church groups.

During the critical years of Leith's rebirth I was a committee member of Leith Housing Forum, Leith Physical Development Group, and Leith Initiative For Tourism. Responsible for the erection of 30 blue and white visitor plaques around Leith, and responsible for the text on numerous guide panels around the Leith area. I am also an official "Friend of Leith Rotary", part of Rotary International.

Personal research

Odd projects requiring full research included a request from Historic Scotland to track down all executions in Edinburgh from 1500 to 1900 as part of a challenge to a private plaque which wished to declare "thousands of women were burnt alive here at the hands of man while their children watched". The expected tome from the National Library turned out to be 4 pages long! No-one was executed for stealing a loaf of bread, as legend would have it. 12 persons were executed for "witchcraft". Of these 5 were male; 7 were female. Of those 3 were from one very infamous case at

jump out on the list as the only mass murderers. "Half-hangit' Maggie" jumps out as the only person surviving execution (after her case the words "till dead" were added to the Scottish sentence to be hung by the neck).

A second private research commission was at the request of the Marie Stuart Society, who involve themselves with all things connected to

ended her days in Leith and had a private palace built on Rotten Row (now Quality Lane). Records show that in 1561, Mary Queen of Scots visited the "house of Andro Lamb, beit the space of ane hour" having disembarked in Leith. Research pinpointed her landing site (and a plaque now marks the spot) and disproved that the house currently known as "Lamb's House" was the house visited by her. Instead she (more logically) visited the former house of her mother, then owned by Andrew Lamb, on Quality Lane, immediately east of the current Lamb's House.

Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh commissioned me in 1985 to do a comprehensive study of the cemetery, to improve the efficiency of this non-profit making trust. This looked at both landscape and monuments. The results created a highly efficient work programme and maintenance philosophy which keeps the cemetery in exceptional visual condition within the cost constraints of the trust.

For around 5 years I have been researching the individual members of the 15th Battalion Royal Scots, also known as the 1st Edinburgh Pals battalion. A huge number were killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Further heavy losses were taken in the Battle of Arras. These men were half from Manchester and its surrounding area and half from Edinburgh and Fife. Research has involved going to the various battle sites and grave locations and visiting their home towns to locate them on UK war memorials. Library research includes trailing through lists of dead and wounded from newspapers of the period, Census records, notices of births and deaths, and scouring school Roles of Honour. Occasionally I will visit descendants of those in the battalion and be given copies of letters etc from the period. Research demonstrates that a large percentage were underage at the time of enlistment, some apparently as young as 14.

More recent areas of research include Scottish Sculptors and Scottish architects and architectural practices of the 19th century. Major research in the past included a fully comprehensive study of all the sculpture on the Scott Monument. I am currently working on creating (or upgrading) articles for every Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Media

In earlier years I have helped with film research on projects such as

.

A rather obscure Channel 4 comedy series called "The Creatives" was "set" at my home on Shore Place in Leith, with opening credits filmed there.

2012 was a busy year with (unscreened) filming for

Edinburgh Festival

. The 2013 BBC documentary, "The Planners", also had much filming of me regarding a new Sainsburys Local on Portobello High Street. This was due to be screened in February 2013 but was not screened due to the story being inconclusive.

I administer an Arabic English-speaking website "The Truth About English" and am also a major contributor on the page "Photography is an Art so be an Artist".

I have been editing and writing new articles on Wikipedia for seven years. The only bias I have ever experienced was the total deletion of a very well-researched and time-consuming article on the Cuban film Y Soy Cuba which was deliberately balanced in its incorporation of American influence and references throughout.

Travel

I lived in Boston USA for a brief summer and have also toured Russia in pre-Glasnost days and East Berlin prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall. However, I am particularly well travelled in Europe, going to Germany more or less every year for the last 20 years (in that time covering most of the country), Italy every year for the last 10 years (again covering most of the country), Belgium around 6 times, France around 8 times, and Poland 6 times and Czech Republic 5 times. More minor visits covered variously Portugal, Spain, Greece, Holland, Austria, Estonia and Hungary. My interests are particularly city-based. Having my best friend Nicolas Prechtel in Dresden it is a particularly regular base and has been visited by myself 15 times, including once to help survey the flood damage of the summer of 2002. My favourite city is certainly Venice which I last visited to see in New Year for 2017.

Apart from English, I speak Doric (traditional Scots), French and some Italian, Polish, German, Spanish, Czech and Portuguese. I speak a little Arabic, Swahili and ChiShona.

Teaching and Lecturing

I was a teacher of Local History at Adult Education level: a course of twenty 2 hour lectures per year.

• 1987-1991 – History of Leith, based at Old Leith Academy
• 1991-1994 – History of Edinburgh and Leith, based at new Leith Academy.
• 1994-1995 - History of Edinburgh and Leith, based at Broughton Primary School
• 1995-1997 – History of Edinburgh and Leith, based at Broughton High School

As this role was under the umbrella of

in 1996, I was in a fairly unique position of being employed by both bodies.

I lecture on a regular basis, invariably at no charge, to

.

More unusual talks include:

• “The Differences Between English English and US English”, Boston, USA, August 1983
• “The History of Leith”, RIAS annual lecture, 1986
• “The Villa Areas of Edinburgh”- Civilising the City Conference, Edinburgh, March 1990
• " The Gretna Rail Disaster" various presentations 1989 onwards
• “The History of Gravestones and Inscriptions” – Stirling, January 2008
• “The History of Public Houses and Pub Architecture” Edinburgh (several repeats) 2004-2006
• "A Comparison of Dean Cemetery and Warriston Cemetery" for the Mausoleum and Monument Trust, September 2012.
• “Dating by means of Stonework Patterns and Windows on Vernacular Buildings” EAA final lecture of 2012.

I currently give advice to several English teachers in Mexico, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Egypt once per week on an intellectual but casual basis. This includes administration of an Algerian website for learning English, plus advising an Egyptian web-site on Arabic to English translation.

Wikipedia Articles Created

articles marked DYK have been Wikipedia's Did You Know articles of the day.

Architects

Sculptors

(G)

Cemeteries

Areas/Towns

Places in Germany

Bautzen II, Hellerau, Schloss Scharfenberg

Artists

Art Collectors

David W. T. Cargill, Leonard Gow

Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Senators of the College of Justice

Early Photographers

Presidents of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

Francis Mitchell Caird, James Roderick Johnston Cameron, John Chiene, James Scarth Combe, Robert James Blair Cunynghame, Forrest Dewar, James Haig Ferguson, James Methuen Graham, James Hodsdon, Richard Huie, Francis Brodie Imlach, Archibald Inglis, Walter Mercer, William Newbigging, Robert Omond, Samuel Alexander Pagan, George Ian Scott, Arthur Henry Havens Sinclair, William James Stuart, Arthur Logan Turner, Andrew Wardrop, Patrick Heron Watson, John Henry Wishart, Andrew Wood (surgeon), William Wood (Scottish surgeon)

Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Moderators of the Church of Scotland

(1748)

Moderators of the Free Church of Scotland

(1857)

Other Moderators

(Victoria 1891, Australia 1901)

Lord Provosts of Edinburgh

Lord Provosts of Glasgow

Lord Provosts of Aberdeen

Other Provosts

(Dundee)

Female Heroes

Naval Officers

British army officers

Major General

Protestant Archbishops and Bishops

Scottish Clergy

.

Other Notable Scots

(banker).

Veterinarians

Films

Out of the Fog (1962 film)

Figures of the Reformation

Joachim von Beust, Gregor Brück (Luther's lawyer), Christian Döring (Bible publisher), William Harlaw, Andreas Schato, János Sylvester

Edinburgh

Living People

.

Actors

Dora Mills Adams, Chris Alcaide (western baddie), Michael Alldredge, Mary Adams (actress), Sheila Bernette, Billie Brockwell, Karl Davis (actor), Geoffrey Denton (actor), Jean Driant, Fella Edmonds, Hal Landon Jr., Tony Millan, Ingo Mogendorf, Eileen Moore, Griffiths Moss, Hugh Moxey, Sam Reese, Tiny Ward, John Warren (actor)

Medicines

Askit Powders, William Henry Veno (Veno's)

Dundee

Ships and Shipbuilding

Sir

Murders

Lost or Abandoned Houses

Amisfield House, Ardmillan Castle, Glendevon Castle, Kelvingrove House, Murthly House, Rosneath House

Other Articles

Major Expansion of Articles

Architects

Sculptors

Cemeteries and Churchyards

Artists

William Walker (engraver born 1791)

Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Andrew Young (schoolmaster and poet)

Moderators of the Church of Scotland

Peter Blackburn (bishop) (1597), Peter Brodie (minister) (1979), James Cooper (minister) (1917), William Dalrymple (moderator) (1781), Alexander Gerard (1764), Robert Gordon (minister) (1841), John Gowdie (1733), William Hamilton (university principal) (1712,1716,1720,1727,1730), Robert Henry (1774), Alexander Hume (poet) (1602,1604,1607), William Johnston (minister) (1980), Daniel Lamont (1936), John Marshall Lang (1893), John Lee (university principal) (1844), Hugh Mackintosh (1932), William Ritchie (moderator) (1801), James Smith (university principal) (1723 and 1731), Lauchlan Watt (1933), David Welsh (1842), Thomas Wilkie (1701 + 1704), William Wishart (primus) (1706 + four other periods), William Wishart (secundus) (1745)

Moderators of the Free Church of Scotland

James Begg (1865), Andrew Bonar (1878), David Brown (1885), Patrick Fairbairn (1864), Henry Grey (minister) (1844), Thomas M'Crie the Younger (1856), Robert Rainy (1887), Thomas Smith (missionary) (1891), Walter Chalmers Smith (1893), Alexander Moody Stuart (1875)

Other Moderators

Andrew Cameron (Presbyterian minister) (NZ), John Inglis (missionary) (Reformed Presbyterian 1861), George Adam Smith (United Free Church - 1916)

Lord Provosts of Edinburgh

Victoria Cross Winners

Walter Lorrain Brodie, James Dundas, Samuel Evans (VC), Allan Ker, Donald MacKintosh (VC), William McBean, Arthur Frederick Saunders

Senators of the College of Justice

Female Heroes

Isabella Bird, Mary Crudelius, Isabella Pringle, Harriet Siddons, Agnes Grainger Stewart

Scottish Clergy

Other Notable Scots

(actor)

Villages and Towns

Aberdalgie, Auchtermuchty, Caputh, Perth and Kinross, Collace, Creich, Crook of Devon, Dunning, Grandtully, Strathmiglo, Lasswade, Muckhart, Penicuik, Newburn, Fife, Ochtertyre, Townhill, Fife

Edinburgh

German Towns

Elstra, Großenhain, Nebelschütz, Panschwitz-Kuckau, Zabeltitz

Films

TV Dramas

The Chain, Edna, the Inebriate Woman

Reformation Figures

Johann Deutschmann, Paul Eber, Urbanus Rhegius, Christoph von Scheurl

Buildings

Ships

HMS Alcide (1779), HMS Dublin (1757), HMT Firefly, HMS Mordaunt, HMS Norfolk (1757), HMS Resolution (1770), HMS Royal Oak (1769)

Royal Navy

Battle of the Saintes (1782), Commodore James Graham Goodenough, Robert Faulknor the younger, Vice Admiral Robert Swanton, Admiral Richard Tyrell

Other Articles Expanded

Portraits

In an attempt to fill gaps in Wikimedia, whilst observing copyright laws, I frequently create portraits of persons, usually in grey pastel and based on composite information. Persons portrayed are: