Scrapbooks of Iain Moffatt-Pender

This material is held atEdinburgh University Library Heritage Collections

Scope and Content

Two personal scrapbooks of writer and Gaelic revivalist Iain Moffatt-Pender, comprising mostly clippings, photographs, and correspondence which together throw an interesting light on the social milieu of Scottish Gaelic revivalism in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century, including links with Irish artists and academics.

The frist album contains several black-and-white family phtorgraphs dating from the beginning and middle of the 20th century, a letter from John Macmillan dated 5 July 1957, Moffatt-Pender's graduation certificates, postcards, and many newspaper clippings in English and in Gaelic relating to Gaelic culture, arts, and politics, and clippings relating to Iain Moffatt-Pender himself (including on his graduation from Edinburgh University in 1951).

The second album is similar in contents to the first one, and contains black-and-white photographs (seemingly more recent than the ones in the first album), handwritten notes in Gaelic, newspaper clippings including articles related to his crowning as Bard by the Mòd, pictures of British and French Rugby teams in the 1940s (and one in 1909), and articles related to Gaelic affairs and events in general.

Administrative / Biographical History

Iain (sometimes spelt Ian) McAllister Moffatt-Pender studied Celtic Language and Literature under Professor W. J. Watson at Edinburgh University, before his studies were interrupted by the First World War, during which he fought in the Seaforth Highlanders. Before the War he also represented Scotland as a Rugby Union international. In 1932, he emigrated to Australia and made a fortune as a sheep farmer. He returned to Scotland after the Second World War and completed his degree in 1951. He wrote plays in Gaelic on Jacobite themes, and was an important patron.

Access Information

Open.

Acquisition Information

Donated in October 2018. Accession no SC-Acc-2018-0183.

Archivist's Note

Catalogued by Aline Brodin in October 2018.

Geographical Names