John Lorne Campbell
Dr John Lorne Campbell FRSE LLD OBE was a Scottish historian, farmer, environmentalist and folklore scholar.
Biography
Campbell was born in Argyll, Scotland, on 1 October 1906, the son of Col Duncan Campbell of Inverneill and Ethel Harriet Waterbury, an American.He was educated at Cargilfield School in Edinburgh and then Rugby in England. He then attended St John's College, Oxford studying Rural Economy and Celtic, graduating in 1929 and receiving an MA in 1933. During this time, Prof John Fraser engendered a strong love of Gaelic and Scots folklore.
In the 1930s Campbell was living on the Hebridean island of Barra where, with the author Compton Mackenzie, he founded the Sea League to fight for the rights of local fisherman and organised a strike of motorists in protest at having to pay tax on an island with no made-up roads. In 1935 he married the American musician Margaret Fay Shaw, whom he met on the island of South Uist. In 1938 the couple bought the island of Canna, south of Skye, and went to live there in Canna House. He farmed the island for 40 years and made it a sanctuary for wildlife. At the same time he continued to record a disappearing Gaelic heritage and to write and publish extensively about Gaelic and Highland culture and life. In 1981 Campbell gave Canna to the National Trust for Scotland, but he continued to live on the island.
Campbell's partnership with Shaw was professional as well as marital. Together the couple assembled an important archive of Scottish Gaelic song and poetry, including manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs and film, in an effort similar to that carried on by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser in the 1900s. Campbell's three-volume collection of Hebridean folk songs, published between 1969 and 1981, is regarded as a valuable source by musicians and folklorists. The Campbell archive at Canna House is now in the possession of the National Trust for Scotland.
In addition to his other interests, in 1936 Campbell began to study the distribution and migration of insects. His Hebridean collection, started on Barra in 1936 was continued on Canna from 1938 with the use of a mercury vapour moth trap from 1951 onwards. The collection now consists of 30 cabinet drawers containing 283 species of macrolepidoptera, including the first recorded specimen of the noctuid moth Dianthoecia caesia taken in Scotland and some other surprises. He was the official migrant recorder for Canna from 1938, and was at times able to get the help of more than one head lighthouse keeper from Hyskeir.
He died on 25 April 1996 whilst on holiday at Villa San Girolamo in Fiesole in Italy, and in accordance with his wishes was "buried where he fell", but in 2006 his body was returned to Canna and reburied in a wood planted by himself. His widow remained at Canna House until her death in 2004 at the age of 101.
Interviews with Campbell and Shaw were broadcast in 1985 on Scottish Television, in a programme called "Canna – an Island Story".
A biography of Campbell, The Man Who Gave Away His Island by Ray Perman, was published by Birlinn in 2010.
Books
- 1933 Highland Songs of the Forty Five – Translated and edited, with biographies of the poets. Published by John Grant. Second edition, revised, published by the Scottish Gaelic Texts Society in 1984.
- 1936 The Book of Barra - with Compton MacKenzie and Carl H.J. Borgstrom. Edited by Campbell. Published by G. Routledge and Sons Ltd., and printed by the Edinburgh Press. Republished by Acair in 1998
- 1958 Gaelic Words from South Uist – Collected by Fr. Allan MacDonald. Edited, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Second edition with supplement, published by the Oxford University Press, N.D 1972.
- 1960 Tales from Barra, Told by the Coddy. Edited, with foreword by Compton MacKenzie and introduction by Campbell who also transcribed the Gaelic versions. The tales in English were taken down in shorthand by Sheila Lockett. The Coddy
was one of the few Gaelic storytellers equally fluent in Gaelic and English. Privately printed. - 1963 Edward Lhuyd in the Scottish Highlands – with Derick Thomson. Oxford University Press.
- 1965 Bardachd Mhgr Ailein: The Gaelic Poems of Fr Allan McDonald of Eriskay , transcribed by Campbell from his manuscript and edited with some translations. Privately.
- 1968 Strange Things: The Story of Fr Allan McDonald, Ada Goodrich Freer, and the Society for Psychical Research's Enquiry into Highland Second Sight, with the story of Ada Goodrich Freer, the Ballechin House ghost hunt, and the stories and folklore collected by Fr. Allan MacDonald of Eriskay. With Trevor H. Hall. Routledge & Kegan Paul. The book is an exposure of Ada Goodrich Freer's questionable mediumship, and her plagiarisation of Fr. Allan MacDonald's folklore collection in various articles and lectures.
- 1969 Hebridean Folksongs, with Francis Collinson. Vol. II 1977, Vol. III 1981 Oxford University Press. The first volume is based on the collection of waulking songs made by Donald MacCormik, who was school attendance officer, in South Uist in 1893. Campbell found translations of about half the songs made by Fr. Allan McDonald, in the Carmichael papers in Edinburgh University Library, and completed the translation and added notes and a large glossary. The airs were transcribed by F. Collinson from Campbell's recordings made between 1938 and 1965; he also wrote the musicological chapters. Volumes II and III are based entirely on Campbell's recordings. The singers were from Benbecula, South Uist, Eriskay, Vatersay, Barra, and Cape Breton. The three books contain 135 songs connected with the waulking of the homespun tweed cloth; such waulkings, by hand, appear to have died out in the early 1950s. The books are a source for many of the originals of Mrs Marjory Kennedy-Fraser's art songs in her Songs of the Hebrides.
- 1972 Saoghal an Treobhaiche. . The Gaelic original of "The Furrow Behind Me". Published by the Gaelic Book Club, this first appeared in the Norwegian learned journal Lochlann in 1965.
- 1975 A Collection of Highland Rites and Customes. Copied by Edward Lhuy from the manuscript of the Rev. James Kirkwood and annotated by him with the aid of the Rev. John Beaton. Edited by Campbell from the manuscript Carte 269 of the Bodleian Library. Published by D.S. Brewer for the Folklore Society Mistletoe Series.
- 1984 Canna: The Story of a Hebridean Island. Published by the Oxford University Press for the National Trust for Scotland. Revised reprint 1986, 1994, 200.
- 1990 Songs Remembered in Exile: Traditional Gaelic Songs from Nova Scotia Recorded in Cape Breton and Antigonish County in 1937, with an Account of the Causes of the Highland Emigration, 1790-1835. Tunes mostly transcribed by Séamus Ennis; illustrations by Margaret Fay Shaw. Published by Aberdeen University Press 1990, Reprint 1999 by Birlinn.
Shorter items
- 1936 ORAIN GHAIDHLIG LE SEONAIDH CAIMBEUL, the Gaelic Songs of Shony Campbell, the South Lochboisdale bard. Transcribed by John MacInnes MBE And prepared for publication by JLC. Privately, revised Reprint 1937. 880 copies printed in all.
- 1938 SGEUL AN DRAOIDH EILE. Henry van Dyke's story "The other wise man" Gaelic translation by J.G. Mackinnon founder and editor of the Gaelic fortnightly MAC TALLA, 1892–1904, prepared for publication in Scotland by JLC. Privately. to have died in 1904; he lived until 1944. JLC met him in Cape Breton in 1932 and again 1937].
- 1939 SIA SGIALACHDAN, Six Gaelic Stories from South Uist and Barra. Taken down by JLC and edited with English precis. Privately. .
- 1939 ACT NOW FOR THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS. With Sir Alexander MacEwen. Saltire Society. This pamphlet made the first suggestion of the creation of a Highland Development Board, which was envisaged as something on the lines of the old Land Court. Amongst matters discussed were transport, the cooperative movement in Nova Scotia, and the Norwegia Government's protection of Norwegian sea fisheries.
- 1944 AN TRIUIR CHOIGREACH. J.G. MacKinnon's translation of Thomas Hardy's story "The Three Strangers into Gaelic. Prepared for publication in Scotland by JLC. Privately.
- 1945 GAELIC IN SCOTTISH EDUCATION AND LIFE. Saltire Society written in the lines of "Welsh in Education and Life" The report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the President of the Board of Education, 1927. Second edition revised, 1950.
- 1950 GAELIC FOLKSONGS FROM THE ISLE OF BARRA, with Annie Johnston and John MacLean M.A. Linguaphone Co. for the Folklore Institute of Scotland Book of words with five twelve inch. 78 r.p.m. discs. Many of the songs later appeared in the three volumes of Hebridean Folksongs with musical transcriptions by Francis Collison.
- 1954 FR. ALLAN MACDONALD OF ERISKAY, PRIEST, POET FOLKLORIST. Oliver & Boyd, for the author. Based on a Broadcast talk given at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia. in May 1953. .
- 1965 THE STORY OF CONALL GULBANN, Son of the King of Ireland; versions recorded from Neil MacNeil, Isle of Barra, and Angus MacLellan MBE, South Uist. Gaelic Texts and English precis. Reprinted from the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, Vol. XLIV. Transactions of recordings made in February 1950 and September 1960. The Story of Conall Gulban is one of the great romantic stories of Gaelic oral tradition, and in these versions of it the two story tellers recorded reveal their full artistry.
- 1965 PROVERBS FROM THE ISLE OF BARRA, Collected by the late Neil Sinclair. Prepared for publication and printed in Vol. X of Scottish Gaelic Studies. Private reprint.
- 1968 SCOTTISH GAELIC PROVERBS; Seanfhocail agus Comhadan. No. 11 of Highland Information Pamphlets. Published by An Comunn Gaidhealach.
- 1975 OUR BARRA YEARS. Reprinted privately from the Scots Magazine, August and September,1975.
- 1982 NOTES ON CARMINA GADELICA. Reprint of two articles and reviews in Scottish Gaelic Studies.
Articles and reviews in journals
- 1935 Vol. IV p. 18. Some notes on the poems of Alexander MacDonald. CH2/1/5/6
- ------------p. 24. The Lost Songs of the forty-Five.
- ------------p. 70,153. Gaelic MS LXIII of the National Library.
- 1942 Vol.V.p. 76 An Early Scottish Gaelic Vocabulary. 1947--------p. 43. The Second Edition of Alexander MacDonald's Poems CH2/1/5/16
- -------p. 212. Hiatus in Hebridean Place-Names of Norse origin.
- 1953 Vol. VII p. 196. Lexicographical Notes.
- 1961 Vol. IX p. 39. The Royal Irish Academy Text of "Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill" CH2/1/5/16.
- -------- p. 89. Varia: Scottish Gaelic Translations of John Ray's Dictionariolum Trilingue.
- The beginning of Mac Vurich's Panegyrick on the MacLeans.
- Bibliographical Note on 'Gearan Brathar'
- 1965 Vol. X p. 178 Gaelic Proverbs from the Isle of Barra, collected by the late Neil Sinclair CH2/1/5/17.
- -------- p. 209. Varia; a Confusion of References in the Second Edition of Alexander MacBain's Etymological Gaelic Dictionary.
- Other references in MacBain's Dictionary
- A dating error in Máire MacNeill's Lughnasa.
- The Chimeric Folktale in the Lowlands.
- Gaelic Numerals recorded in Wafer's Account of Darien.
- Gaelic in Jamaica in 1768.
- ------- p. 235. Review of Annie M. MacKenzie's edition of Orain Iain Luim, Songs of John MacDonald, Bard of Keppoch.
- ------- p. Review of 'More West Highland Tales' Vol.2
- 1968 Vol. XI p. 171. Notes on the Poems ascribe to Mary MacLeod in D.C. MacPherson's Duanaire.
- ------ p. 262. Review of Cathaldus Giblin OFM 'The Irish Franciscan Mission to Scotland, 1619–1646'.
- 1971 Vol. XII p. 59. The Expurgating of MacMhaighstir Alasdair .
- 1976------ p. 290 Review of Vol. VI of Carmina Gadelica, edited by Angus Matheson.
- ------- p. 300 Review of William Matheson's edition of the Gaelic poems of the Blind Harper, An Clarsair Dall. * ------ p. 304 Review of Mario M. Rossi's edition and Italian translation of the original text of Kirk's 'Secret Commonwealth', Il Capellano delle Fate. .
- 1978 Vol. XIII p. 1 Notes on Hamish Robertson's Studies in Carmichael's Carmina Gadelica.
- ------ p. 183. Carmina Gadelica George Henderson's Corrections and Suggestions. Review of the Gaelic writings of the Rev. Dr. Kenneth Macleod.
- 1954 Vol. XXXIII p. 175. The Norse Language in Orkney in 1725 also: 1959Vol. XXXVIII p. 70. Review of the Scottish Highlands a Short History, by W.R. Kermack.
- 1953 Vol. IV p. 42. Some Notes and Comments on "The Irish Franciscan Mission to Scotland by Rev. Cathaldus Giblin OFM. 1953------ p. 110. The Letter sent by Iain Muideartach, twelfth Chief of Clanranald, to Pope Urban VIII, in 1626..
- 1954 Vol. V p. 33. The MacNeils of Barra and the Irish Franciscans.
- 1956 Vol. VII p. 101. The Sources of the Gaelic Hymnal, 1893 .
- 1966 Vol. XVII p. 82. The MacNeils of Barra in the Forty-five .
- 1989Vol. XL p. 72 Blairs College in 1883, by Mgr. Canon W. MacMaster.
- 1958 Vol. 2, p.175. The Late Fr. Allan McDonald, Miss Goodrich Freer, and Hebridean Folklore. .
- 1936 Vol. XI p. 128. Scottish Gaelic in Canada.
- 1953 Vol. II p. 134. Some Errors in the Names of Animals in Gaelic Dictionaries. 1958------ p. 214. Some Errors in Professor Hume Brown's Edition of Donald Munro's Description of the Western Islands.
- 1960 Vol. V p. 218. The Tour of Edward Lhuyd in Ireland.
- 1976 Vol. XI p. 34. Unpublished Letters by Edward Lhuyd in the National Library of Scotland.
- 1939 Vol. I p. 309. Note on the Hebridean version of the song Cailin o Chois tsiuire me
- 1940 Vol. II p. 44. Note on the Gaelic word Cuilbheir.
- 1952Vol. VI p. 146. An Account of some Irish Harpers, as given by Echlin O'Kean, Harper, Anno 1779.
- 1956 Vol. VIII p. 87. Some Notes on Scottish Gaelic Waulking Songs. ------ p. 261. The Text of Carmina Gadelica.
- 1958 Vol. IX p. 57. Notes on Alexander MacDonald's 'Oran a' Gheamhraidh'. ------ p. 129. More Notes on Scottish Gaelic Waulking Songs. ------ p. 165. Note on the word ucaire
- 1961 Vol. X p. 176. Note on Hebridean eisdeacht Alexander MacDonal's oran a' Gheamhraidh.
- 1982 Vol.I. Introduction.
- 1972 Vol. V. Angus MacLellan: Saoghal an Treobhaiche, The Autobiography of a Hebridean Crofter. See nrs. 17 and 20.
- 1835 Catalogue of the 1776 Eigg Collection of Gaelic poetry, published by Ranald MacDonald.
- Catalogue of the Turner Collection of Gaelic poetry, published by Peter Turner, 1813.
- Remarks in the Margin of MS XL of the National Library of Scotland's Gaelic MSS. .
- . The Dimensions of an Harp. From Gaelic MS LXV of the National Library of Scotland.
- 1951 Vol. XLVI p. 43. Alexander MacDonald's 'Oganaich uir a' Chuil Teudaich'. Full text of song of which only five couplets were previously known, from truncated version in MS LXIII of the National Library of Scotland; to the complete version, containing 41 couplets, was found by JLC in the Carmichael papers in Edinburgh University Library. Later published with translation in Vol. III of Hebridean Folksongs, p. 132.
- 1952-3 Vol. 1, pt. 1, 51; pt. 2, 71; 3, 65; 4, 31; Vol. II, 37. Leabhar-Latha Mhgr. Ailein
- Vol. 2, p. 71. A' Chaileag Mheallta. True story recorded from Murdo MacKinnon,Isle of Barra, on 5/1/1950.
- ----- p. 271. Dunnchadh Ciobair an Ceann Bharraidh, True story recorded from Neil MacNeil, Barra on 7/4/1951
- 1954 Vol. 3, p. 58. Catriana Nighean Eachainn. True story recorded from Peigi MacRae on 23 May 1951. Translation later published in the Scots Magazine, October 1955.
- 1957 Vol. 5, p. 313. An doigh air an rachadh taigh dubh a thogail. Air innse le Dunnchadh Domhnallach.
- Vol. 3, p. 360. Mgr. Ailean anns a' Cholaiste.
- 1956 Vol. 4 p. 56. Boidse chon nam Faero. JLC's account of a visit to the Faeroes in May 1955.
- 1957 Vol. 6 p. 37. Eideard Lhuyd agus Archaeologia Britannica.
- 1958 Vol. 7 p. 157. Cogadh nan Trosg. to his friend Calum. Discovered by JLC in Donald MacCormick's papers. D.M. is also mentioned in N.8.
- 1960 Vol.8 p. 314. A' Chiad uair a dh'fhag mi Uibhist Air innse le Bean Nill.
- 1963 Vol. 11 p. 313 Anna Nic Iain. Obituary of Miss Annie Johnston in Gaelic by JLC.
- 1974 No.13 p. 162. Annie and Calum Johnston; an appreciation by JLC. were personal friends and helpers of JLC and well known to folklorists who had anything to do with Barra from Mrs Kennedy Fraser onwards. See Nos. 11 and 22 here]
- 1967 Articles on: Gaelic Literature
- 1967 Alexander MacDonald
- 1967 Fr. Allan McDonald
- 1967 Dr. Calum MacLean
Outlook was a monthly magazine published at Edinburgh from April 1936 to January 1937, edited by David MacEwen and J.H. Whyte. JLC contributed four of Deonaidh Caimbeul's Gaelic stories which later appeared in SIA SGIALACHDAN, several articles and reviews.
- 1937 Jan: p. 105. Leum Iain Oig ann am Miu'alaidh, Young John's Leap on Mingulay, a story sent to JLC by Donald MacPhee.
- 1938 Articles on: Ada Goodrich Freer , Annie Johnston, Calum Johnston, Edward Lhuyd, Donald MacCormick, Fr. Allan McDonald, D.C. MacPherson
- 1975 English translation of Alexander MacDonald's poem "TINNEAS NA H URCHAID"
- 1962 P. 77, The contributions of Edward Lhuyd to the Study of Scottish Gaelic
- 1933 January 30. Scottish Gaelic in Canada. 1937 The First Printed Gaelic Vocabulary. "Galick and English Vocabulary" prepared for the SPCK and published in 1741. Quoting SPCK Minutes at length.
- 1938 Sept., Oct. A Visit to Cape Breton.
- 1944 Sept., Obituary of Roderick MacKinnon, traditional Barra singer.
- 1952 Oct., Obituary of Seonaidh Caimbeul, Uist Gaelic bard.
- 1953 Oct., Highland Links with Nova Scotia.
- 1954 Obituary of Duncan MacDonald, S.U. Gaelic Storyteller.
- 1955 Catriana daughter of Hector
- 1958 Mrs Kennedy Fraser and Songs of the Hebrides.
- 1968 John Duncan, Amy Murray, Evelyn Benedict, their visits to Fr. Allan McDonald on Eriskay. See also no.27. JLC has other articles and letters published in the Scots Magazine.
- 1964 The Catholic Isles of Scotland. [The Catholic Church in the Hebrides 1560–1760
- REVIEWS Between 1935 and 1974, inclusive, JLC reviewed 53 books on the Highlands and Islands, their history and their folklore, for the Times Literary Supplement. Of these reviews, the following may be mentioned here:
- 7/1/36 Hugh MacDiarmid's translation of Alexander MacDonald's "Birlinn of Clanranad".
- 6/5/55 F. Fraser Darling, " West Highland Survey"
- 24 April 1959 Calum MacLean, "The Highlands"
- 27 May 1955 Ronald Svensson, "Lonely Isles"
- 14 January 1965 F. Fraser Darling and Morton Boyd, "The Highlands and Islands"
- 14 October 1965 T. Steel, "The Life and Death of St. Kilda"
- 24 September 1964 Rev. J. MacKechnie, ed. "The Dewar MSS" vol.1.
Recordings
EDIPHONE: 274 recordings made on Barra and Cape Breton in 1937. Most of the airs of the Cape Breton Gaelic songs have been transcribed by the late Seamus Ennis when working for the Irish Folklore Commission. The words were taken down by JLC in Cape Breton. It is hoped to publish this. No machine is available to play these wax cylinders now.PRESTO DISC RECORDINGS: The first electrical recordings of traditional Gaelicd songs were made by JLC in Barra in 1938, numbering 110. Very important as some of the singers did not survive until the time of tape. Ten songs from these recordings were published by the Linguaphone Co. for the Folklore Institute of Scotland, of which JLC was President, in 1950; see No.22, 32 more Presto disc recordings were made on Canna in 1942, including one of the late Professor John Fraser.
WEBSTER WIRE RECORDINGS: 1202 recordings made between 1949 and 1957, most between 1949 and 1951 when JLC had a Leverhulme Expense Grant. Some made in Nova Scotia.
GRUNDING TAPE RECORDINGS: 602 made between 1957–1962.
PHILLIPS PORTABLE TAPE RECORDER: 125 recordings made between 1963 and 1969.
CASSETTE RECORDINGS: Made since 1969. Not yet listed.
Most of the wire and tape recordings were made in the southern Outer Hebrides, or from visitors thence to Canna. The reciters who made them, and the help given by collaborators, are described in the Introduction to Hebridean Folksongs Vol. III; transcriptions of the singing of 42 women and 8 men, are represented in the three volumes, which with Angus MacLellan's stories and memoirs and its published in Gairm only represent a fraction of the collection of recordings. Apart from the above recordings, JLC arranged for the making of studio recordings of some of the late Calum Johnston's songs, in Edinburgh in 1948.
Entomology
Besides a large number of notes in entomological journals, the following articles were published:- 1936 Scottish Naturalist Nov–Dec. Migrant Lepidoptera in Barra 1936.
- 1938 ---------- Nov–Dec. The Macrolepidoptera of the Parish of Barra.
- 1946 The Entomologist Vol. 79 p. 49. Catalogue of a Collection of Macro-Lepidoptera made in the Hebrides between 1936 and he present date.
- 1951 An Experiment in Marking Migrant Butterflies. ibid., vol.84 p. 1. This showed that such butterflies were constantly moving on.
- 1954 Scottish Naturalist vol.66 p. 101. The Macrolepidoptera of the Island of Canna.
- 1970 Entomologist's Record vol.81 p. 211,235,292. Macrolepidoptera Cannae. Describes 267 species, 16 species have been added since.
- 1975 Vol.87 p. 161. On the Rumoured Presence of the Large Blue Butterfly in the Hebrides.
- 1969 Vol.81 p. 117 Rise and decline of Vanessa io in the small Isles. Between 1948 and 1965 Campbell made seven small plantations on the Isle of Canna, adding about 20 more acres to the cover for small birds, moths and butterflies.