The Arts

FROM Blondie and David Bowie to Wham! and The Clash . . . a Helensburgh man photographed the cream of British pop music during the 70s and 80s.

Born in the burgh in 1954 Harry Papadopoulos grew up in Garelochhead, where he began teaching himself the skills that would make his career.

A FILM and stage actress with strong links with both Helensburgh and Kilcreggan led a life of highs and lows and died tragically young.

Mary Ure was the great grand-daughter of John Ure, Lord Provost of Glasgow, successful businessman, and builder and 30 year resident of the burgh seafront mansion Cairndhu.

HELENSBURGH is renowned for its grid pattern design, which was the vision of one man.He 

William Spence is not a household name, unlike the town’s founder, Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, Baronet, after whose wife Helen the town was named.

A LEADING figure in Helensburgh and district politics was actually a computer pioneer and a successful author and screenwriter.

John McNeil, chairman of Helensburgh SNP, spent 15 years of his life in the town, many of them while personally renovating the art deco mansion Green Park in Charlotte Street, before his death at the age of 64 on October 22 2004.

HELENSBURGH'S former Clyde Street School and Community Centre and the Hermitage Park War Memorial are two of the best known works of a leading burgh architect and artist.

Alexander Nisbet Paterson, ARSA, FRIBA, RSW, was born at Berkeley Terrace in Glasgow, near to the Mitchell Library, the fifth son of cotton manufacturer and merchant Andrew Paterson.

MANY leading architects have worked in Helensburgh and district over the years, but probably the byword for absolute excellence is to be told: “It’s a Leiper house.”

He designed many of the town’s most impressive properties, including Cairndhu in 1871, Dalmore in 1873, Terpersie and Tordarroch in 1883, Brantwoode in 1895, Red Towers and Ardluss in 1900, and Lynton in 1908 — not to mention the Victoria Infirmary in 1893.

AN ARTIST who lived in Rhu and Helensburgh at various times was Sir James Guthrie, leader of the internationally renowned Glasgow Boys.

James Guthrie was born in Greenock in 1859, son of the Rev John Guthrie and his wife Ann. He studied law at Glasgow University but, with his father’s permission, left without a degree to pursue a career in art in 1877.

AS a remarkable tribute to his deceased wife, a Rhu man privately published in 1902 at considerable expense a book of verses she had written.

The book, entitled “Verses By Mary Gilmour’ was printed by Helensburgh printer J.Lindsay Laidlaw — a business purchased by the late Craig Jeffrey before he launched the Helensburgh Advertiser in 1957.

THE reference room at Helensburgh Library has a large collection of books by writers with a local connection, and sixteen of them are by J.J.Bell.

He certainly is not the best known of the local authors, but he was prolific.

EXACTLY 80 years ago a long novel of extraordinary power, mainly set in a thinly disguised Dumbarton, was being read eagerly not just in Scotland, but across the world.

A PAINTING by the famous ‘Glasgow Girl’ artist Bessie MacNicol — who had many links with Helensburgh —  changed hands in April 2011.

But purchaser Jim Smith, who enlisted the help of Helensburgh Heritage Trust in his quest to buy the painting entitled ‘Lady with a Fan’, had some difficulty in completing the acquisition.

THE distinguished artist Sir Henry Raeburn RA painted a stunning portrait of a lady who spent part of her life in Rosneath . . . but did he paint another of the same lady?

That is the question asked by a distinguished art and antiques dealer who lives in Australia and owns what he thinks is the original version.