In mid November the Seattle branch of the English Speaking Union hosted a VIP speaker at a reception attended by over fifty ESU members including several Queen Anne and Magnolia residents. The speaker, Brian Monteith was on the last stop of his tour of the West Coast ESU branches comprising region VIII. His final stop was in our fair city before returning to Scotland.
His talk entitled "How Free Thinking Scots Influenced the Modern World," which he promised to be nonacademic, was bright and witty, brimming with humor and Scottish stories related in various Scottish accents with many amusing incidents from his extensive travels. One interesting point emerging was that the Scots actually exported education. During the Reformation, the ordinary people were taught to read for the sole purpose of reading the Bible in English. From the earliest times only scholars and the clergy could read the Bible, which was in Latin. St. Andrew's University in Scotland is the oldest learning institution founded even before Oxford and Cambridge in England. Interesting to note that the Scottish lowlanders trace their ancestry to the Norman French with many connections to the Scandinavians (with all those Vikings raids you know).
About the speaker, part of the Evelyn Wrench speakers program sponsored by ESU national. Brian Monteith is the Honorary President of the ESU Scotland. He is a former member of the Scottish Parliament for Mid Scotland and Fife and weekly columnist for the Edinburgh Evening News as well as writing for several other newspapers. In 1977, the Conservative government of the British Parliament was defeated and Monteith ran the NO NO Campaign in the referendum that eventually established the Scottish Parliament. He was then elected as a Conservative Member in its 1999 inaugural elections and returned in 2003 when he also became Chairman of the Parliament's audit committee. He was Education spokesman for five years, and Finance spokesman for two. He is now an independent conservative member. He lectures extensively, writes for many publications, is now working on his second book and has had two stints working for the Botswanan government.
Scotland has exported education, engineers, builders of bridges and railways all over the world, produced inventors, mathematicians, bankers, not forgetting they were the first people to blend whiskey. Scotland has given us many great Scots including the expression itself, Great Scot. Here's an abridged list in chronological order.
Starting with Macbeth, 1005-1057 the last of Scotland's Gallic kings.
St. Margaret 1045-1093, who refounded the great monastery Iona.
And of course William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, defenders of Scottish independence and the movies were all wrong.
John Knox 1505-1572, Father of the Protestant Reformation.
Mary, Queen of Scots 1542-1587, last Roman Catholic monarch who gave us James V of Scotland and James I of England.
William Kidd (Captain Kidd) 1645-1701, the infamous pirate.
Rob Roy Macgregor, 1671-1734, cattle thief and famous Jacobite.
Alexander Selkirk, 1676-1721, author of Robinson Crusoe
Charles Edward Stuart, (Bonnie Prince Charlie, the young pretender) 1720-1788
James Watt 1736-1819, developed the steam engine.
John Paul Jones 1747-1792, who established the U.S. Navy.
Robert Burns 1759-1796, Scottish National poet.
Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832 author of Ivanhoe.
David Livingstone (we presume) 1813-1837, explorer and medical missionary.
Allan Pinkerton 1819-1884, detective and head of U.S. Secret Service, founder of the Pinkerton Agency.
Joseph Lister 1827-1912, pioneered the use of antiseptics.
Andrew Carnegie 1835-1918, U.S. iron and steel magnate and great philanthropist.
Alexander Graham Bell 1847-1922, inventor of the telephone amongst other things.
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850-1894 author of Treasure Island and Kidnapped amongst others.
Arthur Conan Doyle 1859-1930, Creator of the great detective Sherlock Holmes.
James Barrie 1860-1937, Author of Peter Pan
Harry Lauder 1870-1950, Much loved music hall entertainer.
Sir Alexander Fleming 1881-1955, discovered penicillin.
John Logie Baird 1188-1946, inventor of television.
And lets not forget Sir Sean Connery 1930, actor, 007 and happily still with us.
Scots also gave us the famous Harris tweed and the tartans and the tam-o-shanter plus many more. There were a profusion of tartans in evidence at the lecture. Several ESU members are proudly of Scottish descent, led by Donald McKenzie and his lovely lady Elizabeth. The gentlemen were wearing kilts and trews, sporrans and the full regalia even dirks in their hose and the ladies resplendent in their long skirts, sashes and scarves. Also present by special invitation was Bill McFadden, clan chief and president of the Caledonian and St Andrew's Society of Seattle who told us of the formation of the Caledonian Society, an all-male organization founded in Seattle prior to WWI, and the St Andrew's Society founded by the ladies seeking equal time in 1924, hence the title. He also told an amusing anecdote about the Paris Olympics of 1928 where Scotland the Brave was played during every intermission in honor of a Chinese born athlete from Canada representing Britain. Even more amusing is the following tale of local interest. A young Chinese student was dating a Scottish lass. With January being the Chinese New Year and also the birth date of Robbie Burns, they decided to combine the celebration naming it Gung Haggis Fat Choy which they continue to this day at a large accommodating Chinese restaurant.
For further information about the Caledonian and
St Andrew's Societies see their web site www.caledonian.com. To quote our speaker, Scotland has contributed a great deal more to the world then would be expected for a country of such modest size and population, and all people of Scottish descent are justly entitled to feel proud of their heritage.
So here's to bonny Scotland and instead of TTFN I'll say salchavar (for the correct spelling contact your nearest Scotsman.)
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