Tales and Travels of a School Inspector

The 1872 Education Act created a system of state-funded schools in Scotland overseen by local School Boards. Long before Ofsted, school inspectors were sent around the country to check that schools were doing their job properly and that therefore that they were entitled to continue to receive funding . John Wilson, who was born in Dufftown in Banffshire and had been a headteacher in Morayshire, joined the inspectorate in 1882 and continued as an inspector until the 1920s, with his patch covering parts of the Highlands and many of the Islands - including Islay, Jura, Colonsay, Lewis and Orkney, among others. Shortly after his retirement he wrote 'Tales and Travels of a School Inspector' looking back on his long career (republished by Acair in 1998).

His account provides lots of interesting details of the social history of that period. He describes the poverty, including a visit to Lewis where 'children were vomiting water' during an examination as a result of being desperately hungry and gorging on water to try and fill themselves up. He mentions religious controversies, including Free Church ministers in some areas attempting to ban the teaching of singing in schools. And he remarks sadly on the decline of Gaelic - a fact partly explained by the fact that most teaching was in English.

Some children lived too far away to attend school, and the inspector was also required to check that they were being taught properly at home. He describes an occasion on Jura where 'A girl twelve years of age, daughter of a gamekeeper, who lived fully twelve miles from the nearest school' was late to meet him for examination as a result of stormy weather. So as not to miss the boat back to Islay, the inspector put the girl through her maths and other tests in a farmer's cart on the way to the ferry

Travelling around the islands in all seasons was not without its risks and he describes a hair raising journey in a storm from Colonsay to Port Askaig, where on finally getting off his boat at 2:30 am he was harangued by a parent complaining about his child's school!

In a chapter on hospitality he mentiond 'staying for a few nights in Bridgend Hotel in Islay' one winter, where 'The wife of the proprietor of Dunlossit in the north end of the island was entertaining a number of the leading natives'.  Seeing that Wilson was all alone, the inspector was invited to join the party as a result of which he 'spent a most enjoyable evening'.

Also in relation to Islay he talks of the 'exquisite crosses at Kildalton in Islay' and says that  'I never visited the small school of Kintour in this neighbourhood without having another look at it and other crosses within two hundred yards of the public road'.

Wilson was in Islay during the First World War, and recalls one of its great tragedies: 'When I think of Islay I see Port Ellen, where I had occasion to be during the Great War when the Tuscania, with thousands of American soldiers, had just been torpedoed by a German submarine off the south coast with terrible consequences. Two rafts of curious construction lay stranded on the sandy beach in front of the hotel. A series of loops of rope with small globular wooden floats was attached to each side. A soldier clutching one of these could keep himself afloat till rescued/ The bodies washed ashore were collected and buried in a fenced piece of grassy sward about a mile to the west of the village' (this burial ground was at Kilnaughton - see previous post on Tuscania burials).



Portnahaven School in 1915 with teacher Jean Currie on left -
Wilson would almost certainly have visited this school during this period
(photo from Betsy West's Photo Gallery)



Neil Orr of Portnahaven (1864-1941)- Gaelic singer and teacher

Neil Orr was a teacher in Portnahaven in the late 19th century, and a significant figure in the Gaelic song movement.

His parents were John Orr and Ann McDougall, who married in Bowmore on 9.7.1848. They must have moved to the mainland afterwards, because Neil was born in Greenock on 16 November 1864.  However he moved to Islay along with his sister Marion and became the headteacher at Portnahaven school. According to C. Gordon Booth's 'An Islay Notebook', the school was built in 1878 and 'Ten years later the roll was 209 with Neil Orr as head'. The 1896-7 Kilchoman Valuation Roll shows that he was living then at the Public School Dwelling House, Portnahaven. He left the school in 1905, and moved to Edinburgh where he died in 1942.

While at Portnahaven he put a great deal of effort into the Children's Choir, and his contribution was nationally recognised in a songbook entitled 'An lon dubh (The blackbird) : a collection of twenty-eight Gaelic songs, with music, in two-part harmony, intended for use in the schools of the Highlands, but all the songs are suitable for adults' published in around 1905 by J & R Parlane of Paisley, and edited by Malcolm MacFarlane.

The preface states: 'We are indebted to Mr R. D. Jamieson, Glasgow,  for the Harmonies of the greater number of the Songs, and for the use of the remainder to Mr Neil Orr, Schoolmaster,  Portnahaven, Islay, whose Children's Choir have been singing them for several years'.

In 1901, both Orr and the school choir won prizes at the Highland Mod in Glasgow: 'In the Junior Choral Competition the prize fell again to the Rhinns of Islay, and as the competition was exceedingly keen this time, Mr Neil Orr, the indefatigable conductor of the winners, has a right to be proud of his success. The victory was due largely, no doubt, to the perfect pronunciation of the children, who are all native speakers. It was delightful to hear the children prattling the prettiest Gaelic with their peculiar Islay accent, which forms a link beteween the Highlands and Ireland... Mr Neil Orr, who so enthusiastically and admirably trains his Islay choir, was personally successful in several of the solo singing competitions. He deserves congratulations, and, still more, the thanks of the community he interests and influences. We have always contended that the children of our country only want good teaching to bring out this native aptitude for music. Mr Orr proves this to be true, because certainly he has not a large population from which he can pick voices' ('Music at the Highland Mod in Glasgow,  School Music Review, November 1901).

Neil Orr was involved in a local committee collecting details of local place names to inform a national survey of Scottish Place-names. The Report of the Annual Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1894, includes a a report of the Scottish Place-Names committee, 'consisting of Sir C. W. Wilson, FRS (Chairman), Dr J. Burgess (Secretary) and Mr Coutts Trotter'. They seemed to have been informed by local committees across the country, including one on Islay: 'The first lists were for Kilchoman parish, consisting about 970 names, and were undertaken by a local committee, consisting of Rev.J. Barnet, Mr William Campbell, Mr Donald McGilp, Mr John Campbell, Rev. James Macmillan, Mr Neil Orr, Portnahaven; and Mr John Brown'.

Neil Orr also seems to have supported the Land reform movement - 'Neil Orr of Portnahaven' is mentioned in the 1917 book 'Highland Heroes of the Land Reform Movement' by Joseph MacLeod, though I haven't been able to read the book itself (if anybody has access to a copy of that book I would be interested in what it has to say about Orr and indeed any other Islay information). In any event, he would have been well aware of the impact of emigration. I believe his grandfather was Duncan Orr who lived as a farmer at Torra, where Neil's father John was born in 1820. Duncan emigrated to Ontario in Canada, along with other family members.

Update, February 2014:

At the excellent 'Old Islay' group on Facebook, somebody has posted this picture (courtesy of Betsy West) of Neil Orr and the Portnahaven School Choir in 1902. The people in it are listed as:

'The two at the back left: Unknown, Flora Clark; Next Row: Flora MacKinnon, Betsy Anderson, Neil Orr, Conductor & Headmaster, Peggy MacNiven,(Mrs MacGillivray), Barbara Smith, Unknown; Front Row: Bella Ferguson (Mrs Ferguson), Katie MacKay, (Slightly behind front three - Bella Ferguson, Mrs MacIntyre), Margaret Ferguson'.

(This Neil Orr is another namesake of mine, though not a direct ancestor)

An Islay Song from 1850

'Poems and songs, satirical and descriptive, bearing on the political, moral, and religious character of man in this country, at the present day' was written by Alexander M'Gilvray (or McGilvray as it would be spelt now) and published in 1850. The title page describes the author as 'Alexander M'Gilvray, Paisley', with the book printed by William Gilchrist of Glasgow 'for the author' (i.e. the collection appears to have been self-published).

M'Gilvray (1800-1871) was born in Paisley and made his adult living there as a baker. One of the poems in his collection though is described as 'written while the author was residing in Islay in 1822' - indeed within he mentions being 'located on the Rinns of Islay'. That poem, 'Epistle to W.C.', includes the lines 'Die when I will, I'll ne'er repent, the days in Islay I have spent'.

Maybe it was around this time that he wrote his song 'Islay' (tune 'Haughs of Cromdale'). Where are the 'fields of Elistore' he mentions? I assume this is Ellister farm, near Portnahaven.

Islay

Now I must leave the peaceful shore,
The pleasant fields of Elistore,
Nor dare to hope I'll ever more
Behold the hills of Islay.

No more I'll climb thy mountains high,
To view the meeting sea and sky —
The stately vessels gliding by.
On every side of Islay.

On sunny shores, beyond the wave,
Let merchants seek the gold they crave;
Give me a walk, at dusky eve.
Along the shores of Islay.

How sweet to rove o'er hill and plain,
When low the sun hangs o'er the main;
O when he wakes, and spreads again,
His golden beams o'er Islay!

By simple Nature's power impress'd.
Here friendship glows in every breast;
The houseless, wandering, stranger-guest,
Has bless'd the Isle of Islay

From strife of noisy towns secure,
Here mortals spend their days obscure;
And long may harmony endure
Throughout the Isle of Islay.

Unknown to crime, unknown to shame,
May ne'er ambition blast thy name.
Nor cursed lust for wealth and fame,
Corrupt the sons of Islay.

Here all the bliss of life they share,
In innocence, and free from care;
With hearts as light and pure as air,
Upon the hills of Islay.

Here Liberty her throne maintains:
O'er thy delightful hills and plains
No domineering tyrant reigns
—A heaven on earth is Islay!

Though ne'er to tread thy shores again,
My heart with thee shall still remain;
Where'er I wander, I'll retain
My dearest wish for Islay.

Anybody want to have a go at singing it?!