James Leatham Plaque - Aberdeen Scotland 2018
Aberdeen City is steeped in history with many famous or notorious characters remembered by the city councils many plaques that are in place in numerous locations across the city .
I found this one on the wall of Robert Gordon’s University as I walked past on the 25th December 2018 , a quick snap with my iPhone to archive here in Flickr.
James Leatham.
Aberdeen-born James Leatham was a journalist and socialist who became editor of the Peterhead Sentinel in 1897.
He had been born into a Scotland wracked by social unrest, dislocated by industrialisation, and presided over by a wealthy upper class at a time when working people often had to go without.
So Leatham took to socialism and the struggle for a better, more even world. Leatham wrote a series of articles in North East Scots (aka the Doric), under the pen name Airchie Tait, which he used to comment on all manner of subjects, politics included.
Leatham speaks about the working life (in Hingin’ In) and the way in which many comfortable commentators (he cites writer Thomas Carlyle) wrote with hypocrisy.
He also used his article to criticise the lifestyle of Edward Saxe-Coburg-Gotha who was crowned as Edward VII in London in 1901. In his biting style Leatham commented that it must have been hard work for Edward having to tour so many foreign lands, having to wine and dine, attend plays, and meet with actresses.
In the second article (Mair Prejudeece) our writer argues for a Scottish parliament to be re-established. Devolution had formed a part of the early Labour movement programme in Scotland but once Scottish Labour was absorbed by the new British Labour Party based in London - in 1909 – devolution was often passed over or drowned in a sea of Westminster politics.
Leatham’s dream would not become reality until 1997, after many years of political struggle, and prevarication on the part of British parties who regarded Scottish devolution with indifference
James Leatham, MBE, JP, was born in Aberdeen on 19th December 1865.
He completed his apprenticeship as a printer and compositor there, before working in the north of England and in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, where he founded and edited the Peterhead Sentinel.
He set up the Cottingham Press in Yorkshire from which he edited and published The Gateway, a monthly magazine with a wide circulation amongst Scots at home and abroad, first issued in 1912, which he continued to publish from the Deveron Press, Turriff until a few months before his death in December 1945.
Leatham was a member of Turriff Town Council, with short breaks, for 22 years, and served several terms as Provost; he received the award of MBE in 1942.
The author of many books and pamphlets on political, social and literary subjects issued from his own presses, he also contributed to the Aberdeen Press and Journal and to political periodicals.
Over 60 of his works are to be found in the Local Collection in Aberdeen University Library, including local titles such as James Leatham and others, Petri Promontorium: or, Peterhead and the Howes o' Buchan (Peterhead: Sentinel, 1900); a biography of his friend, David Scott, Daavit: the True Story of a Personage, 2nd ed. (Turriff: Deveron, 191-?); The Style of Louis Stevenson, 3rd ed. (Turriff: Deveron, 1925), which he wrote with Gavin Greig (1856-1914), ballad collector; and a complete run of The Gateway, from 1912 - 1945.
#He was in correspondence with many persons well known in political and literary circles who contributed or subscribed to The Gateway, including James Ramsay MacDonald (1866 - 1937), Miss May Morris (d 1938), daughter of William Morris (1834 - 1896), and Lord Boothby (1900-1986).
James Leatham Plaque - Aberdeen Scotland 2018
Aberdeen City is steeped in history with many famous or notorious characters remembered by the city councils many plaques that are in place in numerous locations across the city .
I found this one on the wall of Robert Gordon’s University as I walked past on the 25th December 2018 , a quick snap with my iPhone to archive here in Flickr.
James Leatham.
Aberdeen-born James Leatham was a journalist and socialist who became editor of the Peterhead Sentinel in 1897.
He had been born into a Scotland wracked by social unrest, dislocated by industrialisation, and presided over by a wealthy upper class at a time when working people often had to go without.
So Leatham took to socialism and the struggle for a better, more even world. Leatham wrote a series of articles in North East Scots (aka the Doric), under the pen name Airchie Tait, which he used to comment on all manner of subjects, politics included.
Leatham speaks about the working life (in Hingin’ In) and the way in which many comfortable commentators (he cites writer Thomas Carlyle) wrote with hypocrisy.
He also used his article to criticise the lifestyle of Edward Saxe-Coburg-Gotha who was crowned as Edward VII in London in 1901. In his biting style Leatham commented that it must have been hard work for Edward having to tour so many foreign lands, having to wine and dine, attend plays, and meet with actresses.
In the second article (Mair Prejudeece) our writer argues for a Scottish parliament to be re-established. Devolution had formed a part of the early Labour movement programme in Scotland but once Scottish Labour was absorbed by the new British Labour Party based in London - in 1909 – devolution was often passed over or drowned in a sea of Westminster politics.
Leatham’s dream would not become reality until 1997, after many years of political struggle, and prevarication on the part of British parties who regarded Scottish devolution with indifference
James Leatham, MBE, JP, was born in Aberdeen on 19th December 1865.
He completed his apprenticeship as a printer and compositor there, before working in the north of England and in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, where he founded and edited the Peterhead Sentinel.
He set up the Cottingham Press in Yorkshire from which he edited and published The Gateway, a monthly magazine with a wide circulation amongst Scots at home and abroad, first issued in 1912, which he continued to publish from the Deveron Press, Turriff until a few months before his death in December 1945.
Leatham was a member of Turriff Town Council, with short breaks, for 22 years, and served several terms as Provost; he received the award of MBE in 1942.
The author of many books and pamphlets on political, social and literary subjects issued from his own presses, he also contributed to the Aberdeen Press and Journal and to political periodicals.
Over 60 of his works are to be found in the Local Collection in Aberdeen University Library, including local titles such as James Leatham and others, Petri Promontorium: or, Peterhead and the Howes o' Buchan (Peterhead: Sentinel, 1900); a biography of his friend, David Scott, Daavit: the True Story of a Personage, 2nd ed. (Turriff: Deveron, 191-?); The Style of Louis Stevenson, 3rd ed. (Turriff: Deveron, 1925), which he wrote with Gavin Greig (1856-1914), ballad collector; and a complete run of The Gateway, from 1912 - 1945.
#He was in correspondence with many persons well known in political and literary circles who contributed or subscribed to The Gateway, including James Ramsay MacDonald (1866 - 1937), Miss May Morris (d 1938), daughter of William Morris (1834 - 1896), and Lord Boothby (1900-1986).