George Campbell Hay was born at Elderslie, Renfrewshire, in 1915, the only son of the Rev. John MacDougall Hay, minister there and author of the acclaimed novel of nineteenth century Tarbert, 'Gillespie'. After his father's death in 1919, George and his sister Sheena were brought to Tarbert by their mother, Catherine Campbell. Though educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh, and later at Oxford University, George's vacations were spent in Tarbert, where, as a boy, he acquired his life-long interest in the culture of the small Lochfyneside fishing community.

In Tarbert, too, he began learning Gaelic from the last generation of native-speakers there, and many of his poems were inspired by trips to sea with the local herring-fishermen and by solitary walks in the hills around Lagan Roaig.

As an ardent Scottish nationalist, he opposed World War II and hid out in the Argyll hills until arrested. After brief imprisonment, he submitted and joined the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. If military experience drew from Hay his finest work - the war poems in Gaelic - it also damaged him mentally. The latter part of his life was blighted creatively and socially, but his earlier poetic achievement has earned him high status as a Gaelic writer, though his significance in Scottish literature generally - he also composed in English and Scots as well as in several other languages, including Arabic - has so far been undervalued. His work was collected and edited by Michel Byrne and published in 2000 as 'Collected Poems and Songs of George Campbell Hay'.

To listen to extracts from this author's work click on the audio links on the right hand side. For full transcriptions click on the link below. Audio recorded by Angus Martin, by kind permission of the Trustees of the W. L. Lorimer Memorial Trust and the heir of George Campbell Hay.

(Image courtesy of Angus Martin)


 Full transcriptions