Brief Profile

James Henderson was the third of the four children of James Henderson and Mary Stewart of North Berwick.

A good Leaving Certificate enabled him to secure a place in Edinburgh College of Art, where he gained his diploma in 1930, but more importantly met the love of his life, Nan Fergusson. On completing his teacher training qualification, with the help of scholarships, he travelled on the Continent before becoming Principal Teacher of Art at Galashiels Academy and Selkirk High School at a salary that convinced Nan’s father that he was worthy of his daughter.

When war came in 1939. Jim submitted himself for the services but as a teacher (a reserved occupation) and now in his 30s he wasn’t called up but served in the local Air Raid Protection Unit.

His ambition to secure a job in Edinburgh was realised in 1949 when he was appointed Principal Teacher of Art at George Watson’s Ladies’ College.

Before and more so after retiring in 1970 he enjoyed sailing and fishing. On Nan’s death in 1984 he moved to the borders, becoming a well-kent figure in Kelso.

He is survived by his five children, nine grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.

Invitation

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Obituary

James Henderson was born in the reign of Edward VII in 5a Forth Street, North Berwick on a snowy night in January 1908. His parents were James Henderson, a joiner, cabinetmaker and boat builder, and Mary Stewart who had come from Earlston to North Berwick as a nursery maid with a family she worked for in Selkirk. Her father had farmed and had a mill near Cumnock. Bankrupted by the collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank in 1878 he had moved to the Borders to make a new start.

Jim had two older brothers, Hugh Stewart and Andrew Carlaw (Carr) and a younger sister, Marion Weir.

His earliest recollection was of the procession through North Berwick of bands, soldiers and the local lifeboat pulled by lifeboat men to celebrate the accession of George V in 1911.His childhood was dominated by the coastal environment. He and his brothers explored the margins of the sea; he recalled shipwrecks, and bodies and flotsam washing ashore from ships torpedoed during the Great War. His grandfather Thomas Watson Henderson ran away to sea at 14 and served on sailing ships all over the world before settling back in North Berwick. A colourful character, he became a Master Mariner and Captain in tall ships sailing round Cape Horn to Australia. Latterly he owned his own sailing trading vessels in which he plied the coastal waters of the UK and Europe, from St Petersburg to Brittany. He retired to sail small boats, fish and spin yarns on the pier. Jim sailed with him as a boy and heard of his high seas adventures going back to the mid 1850s.

As a boy Jim saw the start of the age of the car, the arrival of the first plane in East Lothian and the flight of airships from East Fortune. He first heard a radio in the pilot boat – the skipper had a crystal set and he recalled the astonishment of one of the older fishermen, “Daddy” Marr at the sounds of a “baand” coming through the earphones of the set. During his teens he sailed with his father, on ‘Dragon’ built by his father and grandfather and on ‘Vis’ at North Berwick. In the summer holidays Jim went to stay with his uncle Willie Stewart at Craigsford farm Earlston where he learned to milk cows, work sheep, make hay and drive horses. He also took time off to fish for trout on the Leader Water.

So two of his lifetime passions, sailing and fishing, started early. His uncle suggested he might like to farm with him, but then observed that it wouldn’t do, since his head would “aye be in a book”.

At school in North Berwick, Jim was a good student, an avid reader particularly enjoying languages and art. After gaining a good Leaving Certificate he was advised by his headmaster, Tommy Glover, to apply to the County for a bursary to support him as a student at Edinburgh College of Art. His application was successful giving him essential financial security, always a preoccupation, dating from his mother’s family’s experience.

In Edinburgh he stayed in “digs” in Marchmont. In 1925, Edinburgh College of Art was a vibrant place to be. Jim was taught by David Alison, Penelope Beaton, David Foggie, DM Sutherland, William Crozier, Adam Bruce Thomson and William Gillies amongst others. Awarded a short travelling scholarship he went by steamer to London for a month in his second year where he explored the galleries and broadened his growing knowledge of the history of art.

In 1929 the janitor came in to his class and told him his mother had asked that he return to North Berwick. His father had died. James senior had worked as a Clerk of Works in South Africa just after the Boer War, supervising the construction of stations on the Durban/Transvaal railway line and had there contracted malaria which weakened him – although cancer was the cause of his death at the age of 53. About 8 months later, his grandfather also died.

Finishing his course at the College in 1930, Jim was awarded a Diploma in Art. Over the next two years he assisted the Principal in the painting of the still extant murals in St Cuthbert’s Parish Church and taught part time in the College. It was at this time that he met the love of his life, Nan Fergusson from Dumfries, who was a student at the College from 1930. He often told the story of being asked by David Allison to go along to a college hop to help keep order and, while doing so, he took part in a Paul Jones ending up partnered with Nan. After various teaching jobs in Edinburgh, in the College and at the Royal High School, he completed his teacher training qualification.

In 1933 he took up another scholarship he had been awarded, this one he called his “traveller.” He again travelled by steamer, the “Carmarthen Coast,” this time, from Cardiff via Fowey to Genoa. She was a Welsh owned and crewed coaster and he was welcomed when the skipper found he could stand his trick at the wheel and steer a compass course.

He travelled widely, to Venice, Rome, Florence and Sienna to absorb Italian Art and learn from the greats. Staying in a hostel in Florence, he made friends with other students who found him a job as an extra in a Max Reinhart production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” put on in the open air in the Boboli Gardens before the King of Italy and his Court. He was a “gentleman at arms” and in full costume strolled between the shrubberies across one of the terraces. In Rome he heard Mussolini roaring from a balcony at a huge crowd who roared back– an event which fixed his view of dictators as dangerous men.

After a productive period in Italy he moved on to Paris, where he lived on the Left Bank. Again he explored the galleries and built up a detailed knowledge of the French Impressionists. Before leaving Edinburgh he had written to Pierre Bonnard, asking for permission to copy one of his works in the Louvre and he had been gratified to receive a reply from the great man, expressing surprise and pleasure that someone should come all the way from Scotland to see his paintings. He had to give the letter up to the official at the Louvre to whom he produced it – something he regretted!

In 1934, now a professional member of the Society of Scottish Artists,* he returned to Edinburgh and resumed teaching at the College.  SJ Peploe and Bunty Cadell were on the College staff so he worked with both, and he was friendly with Bill Gillies, with whom he went on camping/painting expeditions to the North in Bill’s motor car.

He continued his wooing of Nan, rather against her parents’ wishes, but his persistence paid off and in 1935 he asked her father, David Fergusson, a cautious lawyer in Dumfries, for his daughter’s hand in marriage. This was refused until he was earning £300 a year so he applied for and got the job as Principal Teacher of Art at Galashiels Academy and Selkirk High School at that salary.

Jim and Nan married in Dumfries on St. Swithin’s day in 1937.After a honeymoon on Mull they moved into Windyridge, Wylie’s Brae, Galashiels, a house designed by Jim and built for them. They rapidly created a family – David in 1939, Hugh in 1941, Christine in 1943 and then, after a pause, to “have a sister for Chris”, the unexpected twins, James and Rosemary in 1948.

War came in 1939. Jim submitted himself for the services but as a teacher (a reserved occupation) and now in his 30s he wasn’t called up but served in the local Air Raid Protection Unit. Gala filled with troops including Poles and Canadians. Windyridge became a refuge for many of the young Poles including the painter Adam Turyn who sketched Jim in 1942. Jim, appointed Art Supervisor for Selkirkshire in 1943, covered the teaching of art in both Gala and Selkirk through the war period, travelling by bike winter and summer and also conducting night classes for some of the troops and classes in design at the Technical College. Anne Redpath was a friend and she and her husband, James Michie, stayed at Windyridge from time to time.

In 1946, acting on a suggestion from Jim, the Galashiels Arts Club was formed and under his chairmanship began to organise concerts and recitals. He and Nan (with their children in tow) led outings to locations where the Club members sketched and learned about composition and painting from them. In 1949, Jim was responsible with EY Johnston and others for the Club acquiring Old Gala House which then became the centre of its activities. Funds to buy the house were raised from an anonymous syndicate of local businessmen and assistance also was given by the Scottish Arts Council –As guest of honour, Jim was asked to open the Art’s Club 50^th Anniversary exhibition in 1999.**

Through his design work at the Technical College Jim developed an interest in hand loom weaving and just after the War he built his own loom with which he wove tweed for Nan which she had made into a suit. He wrote a book “Hand – loom Weaving” which was published by Arnolds in Leeds and he reckoned it paid for the St Bruno Flake tobacco for his pipe for a number of years. While in Gala Jim continued to fish, mainly for trout, and became an accomplished dry fly fisherman. He would go off down to the Gala Water or the Tweed at dusk on a summer’s night and return home as the sun rose with a plate of fresh trout.

Jim had ambitions to secure a job in Edinburgh. ln 1949 he was appointed Principal Teacher of Art at George Watson’s Ladies’ College in Edinburgh, one of the five male teachers in an all girls’ school, a job which he regarded as “perfect”. The family moved to a Victorian house in Newington, 3 Relugas Road and the children were enrolled in George Heriots and GWLC. He saw this as securing the education of his family not just at school but in the future at the University which was also within walking distance.

In an article about his teaching it was said “he instilled a love of art in his pupils. He recognised the importance of an integrated approach in the expressive arts and was always keen to develop new links with other disciplines such as music, photography and film making”. At this stage in his life, while he was an exceptional teacher of art, he seemed to lose the enjoyment for painting and there is little of his work extant from after the war, apart from some portraits, until he moved to Kelso. Nan continued to paint, despite the hard work of bringing up five children, exhibited regularly and became President of the Scottish Society of Women Artists in the early 1970s – she joined him to teach art at GWLC in the 1960s.***

In 1951 Jim had resumed his interest in sailing, which, while he was in the Borders, had to be confined to floating down the Leader or on Cauldshiels Loch in a RAF rescue dinghy bought in the Army surplus stores – he is remembered by his children wearing a tweed suit and trilby even while on the water. He bought a 16ft open boat (Kingfisher) which he decked, rigged (the mast came as a tree from a plantation on his Uncle’s farm at Earlston and was shaved down in the garden at Relugas Road), fitted out in the garden at home and launched at Granton where he joined the Royal Forth Yacht Club.

About this time, Jim and Nan started family holidays in Aberdour and the boat was moved across the Firth initially just for the month of August then after a few years left permanently in Aberdour Harbour. Jim was quickly involved in the Aberdour Regatta Committee by his friend Jack Graham, becoming the Secretary, a post he held for many years. In due course he joined the Committee of Aberdour Boat Club and became its Commodore for 1963 to 1967.****

He and Nan made many good friends in Aberdour; he enjoyed pottering in his boat, catching endless mackerel on which he fed his large and hungry family and she sat on the beach with the younger children, enjoying the sun, painting and working her way through romantic novels.

In 1970 he retired from teaching, as did Nan four years later ln 1974 they went off on a six week jaunt to Italy and France

In retiral he acted as travelling lecturer for the Scottish Arts Council round Scotland and visited many venues with a box of slides and his encyclopaedic knowledge of European Art. He also lectured for the Worker’s Educational Institute and took pride in refusing to give in to the person in charge (Robin Cook, later Foreign Secretary) who demanded that since his class was too big and he was allowing himself to be exploited he should refuse to teach the enthusiastic members of his class until some of them had left – a demand Jim brushed aside.

After Christine moved to Kelso in 1966 and bought a house in Shedden Park he and Nan visited regularly. During this period, though he still loved trout fishing, he developed a passion for salmon fishing. Memorably catching in one day two fish together weighing 33lbs (the bigger fish was 24lbs). He never owned a car, (Nan refused to let him have one after a frightening experience in the 30s being driven by him up Lauderdale) so when he caught these two fish in the Castle pool on the Teviot he was grateful to the driver of a passing van who bundled him into the back and drove him into the town.

In 1984, Nan died, after a period when Jim acted as her nurse as she became increasingly disabled. This was a terrible blow and he missed her for the rest of his days.

He decided to move from Edinburgh to Kelso and so that year bought 5 Forestfield. Here he settled down and was content, fishing, going to the Ednam House coffee school (with Alistair Brooks, Ray Dibner, Jim Stewart and others) each week day morning and coping with many visitors, both family and friends. He constantly surprised his visitors with recitals from memory of pieces from Shakespeare, Burns, Racine (in bad French) and other classics and with a fund of limericks which grew ever racier as he grew older. He also took up painting again, taking as his subject the Border countryside.

He delighted in discussing politics and current affairs with his friends and family and passing on his thoughts and stories on many topics – many of the stories were well remembered by his listeners from previous tellings! He was constantly interested in, and anxious for, the wellbeing of his children, and later his grandchildren, and said that as a parent he never stopped worrying – even in his late 90s. One of his last major outings was in September 2007, with large numbers of his family, to see his grandson David, presenter and reporter with BBC Scotland, open the Kelso St James Fair.

Politically, he had started life as an angry young man, a radical, and then joined the Liberal Party while in the Borders. After the war he became a Tory with pronounced views on state control, strikes and union leaders. He was a humane man, very much against injustice and for social equality – he remembered his own background with pride, and enjoyed the company of those who had shared his experiences.

He regarded Kelso as perfect and never tired of pointing out its many virtues to his visitors. Over the years Forestfield gave him a circle of good friends who ensured that he was never lonely. He also made many friends fishing – Norman Crowe, John Shield, Jimmy Jardine and many others and he continued to fish until he was a little over 90 when he reckoned he was no longer steady enough on his feet to battle up and down river banks.

In the 1990s and into the new Millenium he maintained his quiet way of life, with a wee black dog, Lady, to keep him company as he walked round the town each day greeting friends, proud to be hailed as the oldest man in Kelso. Christine, who had always kept an eye on him, driven him around, and generally been there when he needed help, committed herself nobly to keeping him safely in his own home, which is what he wanted more than anything. Latterly he was well looked after by the excellent team of carers provided by Social Services (Carol Kinghorn was particularly good to him), and he avoided all but brief visits to hospital – his first significant treatment in hospital was when he was 98. He enjoyed visits from Dr Morris when he extolled the virtues of walking and a diet of cod liver oil, porridge, stewed apples, trout or salmon, whisky and red wine from the Languedoc. He lived in his own home until his final illness.

He is survived by his five children, David, Hugh, Christine, James and Rosemary, his grandchildren Stewart, David, Alistair, Andrew, Robin, Shona, Fiona, Douglas, and Emily, and his great grand children Katie, Kirsty, Eleanor, Sally, Hannah, and (born after his death) Jamie, Stella and Sarah. All who knew him were enriched and gladdened by his love and friendship and miss his abundant wit and wisdom.

 * See “The Society of Scottish Artists – the first 100 Years” published 2001

** Galashiels – a Modern History” published 1983].

*** For comments on Jim’s enjoyable and successful spell at GWLC see “Caritas” Jan 2003 and “George Watson’s College – An Illustrated History” Published 2006.

**** See “A Village Affair, 150 years of Aberdour Regatta” published 2007.