Hamish Henderson 1919 - 2002 A poet, songwriter and leader of the Scottish folk revival.
James (Hamish) Scott Henderson was born on 11 November, 1919, in Blairgowrie to a single mother who introduced him to folksong and brought him up to speak Gaelic.
In 1951 he accompanied the American folklorist Alan Lomax on a collecting tour in Scotland, recording and preserving the folk songs of Scotland’s gipsies, fishermen, farm labourers and factory hands, which can be regarded as the beginning of an upsurge of interest in Scottish folk material and tradition. Parallel to Henderson’s research ran his close involvement with the folk revival in Scotland, beginning with the Edinburgh People’s Festivals in the early 1950s.
Henderson held several honorary degrees and after his retirement became an honorary fellow of the School of Scottish Studies. In 1983 he refused an OBE in protest against the nuclear arms policy of the Thatcher government. He died in Edinburgh on 8 March 2002