The Arts

A RAILWAYMAN was the inspiration behind two clubs for Helensburgh artists.

Charlie Taylor, who lived in the Claverton flats at 101 East Princes Street with his wife May (nee Thomson), was a keen and very good amateur painter, and he relished working with other local artists.

ONE of the most prolific authors of his generation had strong connections with Helensburgh and lived in the town for four years.

George Blake, who was born in Greenock on October 28 1893, the son of engineer Matthew Blake and his wife Ursula, came to the burgh with his family in 1935 and stayed as tenants of The Glenan, 41 John Street, until 1939.

A LEGENDARY figure in Scottish piping first learnt to play the pipes as a young man in the Helensburgh district.

Known as the Blind Piper, Archie McNeill was born at 23 Lambhill Street, Govan, Glasgow, on February 23, 1879, the son of Donald McNeill, a merchant seaman, and his wife Jessie, nee Napier, who were married at Kippen on December 21 1877.

A PAINTING of great significance to Helensburgh was on show in the Anderson Trust exhibition at Helensburgh Library in West King Street.

The enigmatic rear view portrait aroused interest and comment from visitors, and the importance of this painting to Helensburgh and to this collection of paintings cannot be overestimated.

ONE of the paintings owned by the Anderson Trust and which has been on show in Helensburgh Library is the work of a distinguished artist who lived in Portincaple and is buried at Faslane Cemetery.

Best known for his paintings of harbours and Clyde scenes, James Kay RSA RSW was born in Lamlash on the Isle of Arran on October 22 1858, but lived for some 33 years in the Loch Longside village in a house called Crimea (below right) and worked in a studio at 79 West Regent Street, Glasgow.

A PROLIFIC and talented Helensburgh artist who died in 1985 at the age of 75 is certainly not forgotten.

That quickly became obvious after the Heritage Trust received a request for information about Allan M.Fraser from Kirkmichael-born Johnnie Booth, who now lives in California and owns one of his paintings.

A HELENSBURGH singer with a real talent was much mourned when he died from cancer in February 1945 at the age of only 35.

Joseph O'Rourke — known to all as Joe — was the ninth of the fourteen children of mason's labourer James O'Rourke and his wife Hannah, who were married in the burgh on September 16 1892 and lived at 6 Maitland Street.

A YOUNG Helensburgh fiddle player and singer is already making an international name for herself as a traditional musician.

Eilidh Steel, whose parents have lived all their married life in Ardencaple Quadrant in the house her grandparents lived, started playing the fiddle at the age of six —  after seeing a fiddle being played when she was four and begging dad Frank to buy her one.

MASSES of information is available about Helensburgh’s iconic film star Deborah Kerr . . . but few of her fans know much about the interesting life and tragic death of her young brother.

A bow tie-wearing journalist and TV news executive who covered the Aberfan disaster and many other important stories, Edmund ‘Ted’ Charles Trimmer died on August 23 2004 after a road rage incident.

WHEN  a young American girl arrived at Helensburgh’s St Bride’s School in 1921, it was the surprising start of a life’s work in Gaelic folklore.

Dr Margaret Fay Shaw, who died in 2004 at the age of 101, was one of the most notable collectors of authentic Scottish Gaelic song and traditions in the 20th century.

A HELENSBURGH-born actress has become a well known TV, film and theatre performer.

Morven Christie was born in 1979, but only lived locally for a few months until her family moved to Glasgow.

A HELENSBURGH woman who died in Edmonton, Canada, in 1999 is still revered in that country as an educator, actress and playwright.

Elsie Park Young was born in Mavisbank Terrace in the burgh on September 9 1905, daughter of chemist Robert Young and his wife Elizabeth Muir Park, who had married in Glasgow on December 7 the previous year.