Clubbing Together : Ethnicity, Civility and Formal Sociability in the Scottish Diaspora To 1930 [1 ed.] 9781781387436, 9781781381359

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Clubbing Together

MIGRATIONS AND IDENTITIES Series Editors Kirsty Hooper, Eve Rosenhaft, Michael Sommer This series offers a forum and aims to provide a stimulus for new research into experiences, discourses and representations of migration from across the arts and humanities. A core theme of the series will be the variety of relationships between movement in space – the ‘migration’ of people, communities, ideas and objects – and mentalities (‘identities’ in the broadest sense). The series aims to address a broad scholarly audience, with critical and informed interventions into wider debates in contemporary culture as well as in the relevant disciplines. It will publish theoretical, empirical and practice-based studies by authors working within, across and between disciplines, geographical areas and time periods, in volumes that make the results of specialist research accessible to an informed but not disciplinespecific audience. The series is open to proposals for both monographs and edited volumes.

Clubbing Together Ethnicity, Civility and Formal Sociability in the Scottish Diaspora to 1930 Tanja Bueltmann

Liverpool University Press

For my parents

Cover image: Hong Kong St Andrew’s Society Ball, The Graphic (London), 26 February 1887. Image supplied by Alan Macdonald.

First published 2014 by Liverpool University Press 4 Cambridge Street Liverpool L69 7ZU

Copyright © 2014 Tanja Bueltmann The right of Tanja Bueltmann to be identified as the author of this book has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data A British Library CIP record is available

print ISBN 978-1-78138-135-9 epub ISBN 978-1-78138-743-6

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Contents Contents

List of Figures, Tables and Maps

vii

Acknowledgements

xi

Introduction   Ethnic Associational Culture in the Scottish Diaspora: Definitions, Approaches and Perspectives

1

1 Scotland’s Near Diaspora

27

2 North America

60

3 The Antipodes

98

4 Africa

131

5 The Far East

160

6 The Complexities of Diaspora and Scottish Ethnic Associationalism 193 Conclusion

225

Bibliography

236

Index

262 v

List of Figures, Tables and Maps List of Figures, Tables and Maps

Figures I.1

The determinants of ethnic identity

10

I.2

The making of diaspora

13

1.1

New building of the Scottish Corporation in London, 1880

39

2.1 Total ancestry categories tallied for people with one or more ancestry categories reported (select ancestry groups), 2011 2.2

‘Scottish Old People’s Home in Riverside, Illinois, with old woman dancing in front of elderly people’

2.3 Caledonian Games by the Caledonian Club of New York, Jones’s Wood, 2 September 1869 3.1 Caledonian Games in Dunedin, Otago, c.1860s 3.2

‘The McRae family in highland dress about to attend a Caledonian Society sports meeting. They are posing outside their house’, 1905

62 77 93 120

122

5.1

Socioeconomic profile of Shanghai St Andrew’s Society members 175

5.2

Socioeconomic profile of Hong Kong St Andrew’s Society members 175

5.3

St Andrew’s Society Shanghai Burns Dinner programme cover, 1902 179

5.4

Attendance at St Andrew’s Day celebrations organized by the Shanghai St Andrew’s Society based on newspaper estimates

vii

185

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C.1 The three functional tiers and user communities of ethnic associationalism 229 C.2 Pyramid of Scottish ethnic associationalism

231

C.3 Types of Scottish ethnic associational activism over time and by location

232

Tables I.1 Minimum of Scottish ethnic associations in the sites of study 1.1

Scots-born resident in England and Wales, in Ireland and in Northern Ireland, 1841–1931

21 30

1.2a Administrative counties in England with the highest proportion of Scottish natives, 1911 32 1.2b Large towns in England with the highest proportion of Scottish natives, 1911

32

1.3 Birthplaces of the population of London at each census, 1861–1911 33 1.4 Recipients of relief from the Norwich Scots Society

51

2.1 Ancestry reported in the 2011 American Community Survey (select ancestry groups)

62

2.2a Ethnic origin for the population of Canada, 2006 Census

63

2.2b Ethnic origin and generation status of select ethnic groups in Canada, 2006 Census

63

2.3 US state settlement patterns by nationality (main ethnic groups), 1790 65 2.4 Scottish immigration to Canada to 1945

67

2.5 Birthplace of British immigrants to Canada, 1871–1921

67

2.6 Aid dispensed by ethnic associations in New York in the mid-1870s 83 2.7 Sons of Scotland statistics, 1906, 1912 and 1916

88

3.1 Estimated percentages of Scots in the Australian population

101

3.2 National composition of UK immigrants to New Zealand (percentages) 101 3.3 Birthplaces for the Antipodes listed in 1901 Census of the British Empire

102

4.1 Number of Scottish residents in Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Cape of Good Hope, Natal and the Orange River Colony, 1901 134 4.2 Population statistics from a selection of African Blue Books, 1900–30 135

List of Figures, Tables and Maps

ix

5.1 European and American residents in Hong Kong, 1861 and 1871 165 5.2 Number of British residents in Shanghai and Hong Kong, 1880–1915 165 5.3 British residents in the Far East, 1901

166

5.4 Example of relief provided by the Shanghai St Andrew’s Society, 1890–1925

181

6.1 Ethnic associations with a local homeland referent in early twentieth-century London

202

6.2 Regional associations in Glasgow in 1900

212

Maps 1.1 The geography of Scottish ethnic associations in the near diaspora 49 2.1 Residence in the United States of persons born in Scotland, 1870–1930 66 2.2 The geography of Scottish ethnic associations in North America 68 3.1 The geography of Scottish ethnic associations in the Antipodes 107 4.1 The geography of Scottish ethnic associations in Africa

136

5.1 The geography of Scottish ethnic associations in Asia

167

Acknowledgements Acknowledgements

I have accumulated a host of debts throughout the preparation and writing of this book—far more perhaps than can be recognized in this short note. First, I gratefully acknowledge the British Academy for the support I have received through the Small Research Grant scheme (SG100441, project title: ‘Ethnicity, Associationalism and Civility: The Scots in Singapore and Hong Kong in Comparative Perspective’). I am also grateful to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, which has funded some of my research in Australia related to ethnic associations. The Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University also deserves my recognition for giving me the opportunity to be a Visiting Fellow. The Fellowship has greatly aided the preparation of the final manuscript, particularly with respect to chapter three. Finally, I was able to add further ‘global depth’ to this study thanks to the generous research support received from Northumbria University; in particular I would like to thank the previous Dean, Professor Lynn Dobbs, and research support colleagues, especially Andrew Pool, Jessica Scott and Gill Drinkald. The material for this study has been collected from a large number of archives and repositories. I have been welcomed and assisted by staff at the National Library of Scotland; Archives & Special Collections at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; the City of Toronto Archives; the Archives of Ontario, Toronto; Glenbow Museum Archive, Calgary; the New York Historical Society and the New York Public Library; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; the South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston; the National Library of Australia; the State Libraries of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia; the Migration Museums in Adelaide (particular thanks to Catherine Manning) and in Melbourne; the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, New Zealand; xi

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Glasgow University Archives; and the Highland Archive Centre, Inverness. I would like to extend a special thanks to staff at the Hong Kong Public Records Office; the Newspaper and Hong Kong Collections at the Hong Kong Public Library; and to staff at the National Archives in Singapore: all have been extremely helpful, providing help and assistance when the Asian research environment provided the odd challenge. Special thanks also go to Gillian Leitch for sharing electronic copies of the Montreal St Andrew’s Society records with me. Research can, at times, be a rather lonesome undertaking, being tucked away in archives and basement repositories without windows. For the most part, however, it provides unique opportunities for exploring fascinating materials and for visiting interesting places. And I have been very fortunate to meet many wonderful people ‘en research route’, particularly during my extended stays in Asia for the work on chapter five. My appreciation goes first to Graeme Brechin as I would not have met any of these people without him. Thank you, Graeme, for invoking your Scottish networks in Southeast Asia for me, but even more so for your hospitality and friendship over the years, lunch at the Hong Kong Club and all. What started in January 2011 with a meeting at the Canny Man finds its culmination here—and a good one at that (so I hope). My warmest thanks then go to Gary Kinsley. Though an Englishman by birth, your legendary contacts with many a Scot in Asia, stories of Southeast Asian exploits and your knowledge of local life have been invaluable to me in the writing of this book. Steve Perret I thank for his friendship and continued interest in my work, Australian connections and all. It was a pleasure to talk about the Scots in Asia with John Cameron and Wally Murison, and to meet many other members of the Hong Kong and Singapore St Andrew’s societies. My appreciation to Andrew Ross and Gavin Ure from Hong Kong for sharing their materials on the Scots in Asia with me, and a special thanks to Alan Macdonald for supplying the electronic copy of the wonderful image used for the cover of this book. It has been my sincere privilege and joy to meet you all! Moving beyond the two city-states, my appreciation goes to Patrick Russell and his family in Kuala Lumpur—thank you for your hospitality and for telling me so much about the Scots in Malaysia and the Selangor St Andrew’s Society. Closer to home, Kenneth Stewart, formerly Trustee of the Edinburgh St Andrew Society, deserves my thanks. In the course of writing this book numerous colleagues and friends have been liberal with their time and expertise, sharing their thoughts, offering suggestions, or simply listening to many a story about the Scots in the diaspora. At Liverpool University Press, Editorial Director Alison Welsby has been a supporter from the book proposal stage; thanks are also due to the anonymous book proposal reviewers, as well as the manuscript reviewers, for their thoughtful comments, all of which have been very valuable during final manuscript preparation. I also wish to acknowledge Emma Bainbridge who, in Valle Gran Rey on La Gomera, provided me with a wonderful writing

Acknowledgements

xiii

retreat. Sadly, my time on the island was cut short by the fires that raged in the summer of 2012; much of the first full draft of this book, however, was written there. My deep appreciation goes to Graeme Morton—fellow Scottish diaspora enthusiast, collaborator and, in cases of dire need, chauffeur to the Emergency Room. Melanie Nolan, Don Akenson, Ewen Cameron, David Pearson, Mike Cullinane, Sally-Anne Huxtable, David Gleeson, Brian Ward, Andrew Hinson, Kyle Hughes and Richard Keogh—fellow academics and friends with a great heart and mind—deserve my warmest thanks for the many stimulating discussions had and their support over the years. Don MacRaild and Sylvia Ellis I thank for being such wonderful sources of inspiration, encouragement and friendship. Raphaela Walther, Neasa Hogan and Gerard Horn, Rebecca Lenihan, Susann Liebich, Annette Grabowsky, Ben Niedergassel, the IKNMLO ladies and Christian Wocken I want to recognize for their friendship and interest in what I do—kilts and all. Finally, my deepest appreciation goes to my parents, grandmother, brother and nephew in Bielefeld, but also my ‘extended family’ in that city, in Hamburg, in Scotland, in Ireland, in Asia and on the other side of the world in New Zealand. Me te aroha nui ki a koutou katoa.

Introduction

Ethnic Associational Culture in the Scottish Diaspora: Definitions, Approaches and Perspectives Introduction

In the late 1880s the Belfast News-Letter, spurred by the recent formation of the Belfast Scottish Association, ran a story about the propensity of Scots to come together in clubs and societies, noting that one may hear ‘it whispered that they are “clannish”’.1 The clannish nature of the Scots has long since been singled out as a prominent characteristic, particularly of Highland Scots, though it is often applied more broadly to the Scots as a whole.2 In eighteenth-century England, for example, Scottish residents were frequently met with hostility as a result of their perceived clannishness—an attitude that often went hand in hand with the idea of the Scots being provincial and tight. In the mid-eighteenth century sentiments of Scotophobia intensified as a result of wider political developments, such as the Jacobite risings or the unpopularity of the Earl of Bute, and found a ready outlet in political caricatures and satires of the day.3 Another prominent eighteenth-century

1 Belfast News-Letter, 24 November 1888. My thanks to Kyle Hughes for pointing out this reference to me. To read more about the whole story published by the News-Letter, see Hughes, ‘The Scottish Migrant Community in Victorian and Edwardian Belfast’, unpublished PhD thesis, Northumbria University, 2010, pp. 1, 4. 2 Recognition is usually given to the different cultures and customs of Highland and Lowland Scots. One of the earliest accounts that specifically distinguishes between Lowlanders and Highlanders in this respect is John of Fordun’s late fourteenthcentury account Chronicle of the Scottish Nation, The Historians of Scotland, Volume IV (Edinburgh: Edmonton and Douglas, 1872); see also Martin Rackwitz, Travels to Terra Incognita: The Scottish Highlands and Hebrides in Early Moderns Travellers’ Accounts, c1600 to 1800 (Münster: Waxman Verlag, 2007). 3 For example in ‘The Evacuations. Or An Emetic for Old England Glorys [sic]’ published in 1762, in which Britannia is ‘blindfolded with a tartan plaid, [and] vomits

1

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Clubbing Together

figure of contention was Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville. Known as the Uncrowned King of Scotland, Dundas dispensed patronage to a large network of fellow Scots,4 providing them with political, business and work opportunities not only in London, but also in the British Empire, particularly by using his ministerial role in the affairs and management of the East India Company (EIC) to the advantage of other Scots.5 The influence this type of Scottish patronage activity and, by extension, a strong collective Scottish identity, exerted in centres like London, Bristol or Liverpool, as well as in the formal and informal British Empire, was remarkable and clearly a thorn in the side of many a contemporary observer. Writing under the pseudonym of James M’Turk, one mid-nineteenth-century critic exclaimed that the Scots ‘“herd together” … not touched, except by each other’.6 In part, such sentiments were spurred by the Scots’ relative success: ‘Macs not Micks’, as Porter has argued, ‘were the most resented immigrants in Hanoverian England—because of their success’.7 And the Scots abroad too, certainly according to Charles Dilke and his account of his travels in English-speaking countries, were usually ‘prosperous’.8 Even the Scots themselves were keen to point out this fact. As a Mr F.S. Clarke noted at the St Andrew’s Day Dinner of the Nakuru branch of the East African Caledonian Society in 1913, he could not say anything better for B.E.A.  [British East Africa] than that the pioneers were Scotsmen, and it was impossible to beat a Scotsman as a pioneer. … When he (the speaker) was in Dunedin, in New Zealand, the settlement was absolutely a Scotch one, and it is told that a Chinaman

4 5 6 7

8

because of the “Scotch Pill” she took’. Published in the same year was ‘The Whipping Post’, in which the Earl of Bute whips a naked Britannia with a thistle. For details see Tamara L. Hunt, Defining John Bull: Political Caricature and National Identity in Late Georgian England (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), p. 122. See also Murray Pittock, Celtic Identity and the British Image (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999), pp. 26–7. See Alvin Jackson, The Two Unions: Ireland, Scotland and the Survival of the United Kingdom, 1707–2007 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 132–3. For example H.V. Bowen, The Business of Empire: The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756–1833 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). Anonymous (pseudonym James M’Turk, Esq.), ‘LXXI.—Scotsmen in London’, in Charles Knight (ed.), London, volume III (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1851), p. 322. Roy Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century (London: Allen Lane, 1982), p. 50. This was certainly also the case in eighteenth-century London, and as a result of the Scottish migrant population there stemming primarily from a well-educated background. See Stana Nenadic, ‘Introduction’, in Stana Nenadic (ed.), Scots in London in the Eighteenth Century (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2010), p. 25. This was a comment Dilke made in the chapter examining Adelaide, Australia. Charles Wentworth Dilke, Greater Britain: A Record of Travel in English-speaking Countries During 1866 and 1867 (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishing), p. 361.

Introduction

3

once went to live there, but found that he could not make a living until he found that his name began with “Mac.” Then he did well.9

The coming together of migrants with the same ethnic background is, of course, not a phenomenon restricted to the Scots.10 Robert Louis Stevenson provides us with one important reason as to why it was common for migrants of the same background to adhere to and promote fraternal bonds. Writing about the Jews and Scots, the two ‘races which wander widest’,11 Stevenson noted that they ‘should be the most clannish in the world. But perhaps these two are cause and effect’.12 Ethnic associations and kinship networks are important tools migrants can use to counteract a sense of dislocation after migration; they can serve as safety nets, for the purpose of utilizing patronage or to generate social capital—a fact that explains why they are a central characteristic of the migrant community life of a wide range of ethnic groups in diverse locations and over time.13 This does 9 East African Standard (Mombasa), 6 December 1913. 10 There is a strong body of work examining migrant groups from the British and Irish Isles in diverse locations, including Charlotte Erickson, Invisible Immigrants: The Adaptation of English and Scottish Immigrants in Nineteenth-Century America (Coral Gables: University of Miami Press, 1972); Ronald L. Lewis, Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation on the Coalfields (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008); Angela McCarthy, Irish Migrants in New Zealand, 1840–1937: ‘The Desired Haven’ (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005); Patterson, Brad (ed.), The Irish in New Zealand (Wellington: Stout Research Centre, 2002); Malcolm Prentis, The Scots in Australia (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2008); Peter E. Rider and Heather McNabb (eds), A Kingdom of the Mind: How the Scots Helped Make Canada (Montreal and Kingston: McGill Queen’s University Press, 2006); William E. Van Vugt, British Buckeyes: The English, Scots, and Welsh in Ohio, 1700–1900 (Kent: Kent State University Press, 2006). In the context of the principal nineteenthand early twentieth-century settler destinations, other migrant groups have also found their historians: John Bodnar, The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985); Stanley Nadel, Little Germany: Ethnicity, Religion and Class in New York City, 1845–80 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990); Jürgen Tampke, The Germans in Australia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). 11 Robert Louis Stevenson, The Silverado Squatters and The Amateur Emigrant (London: T. Nelson & Sons Ltd, 1928), p. 37. 12 Ibid.; for more details on Stevenson’s time and experiences in the US, where he wrote The Silverado Squatters, see Ferenc Morton Szazs, Scots in the North American West, 1790–1917 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000), pp. 173–7. 13 See for example John Belchem, ‘Priests, Publicans and the Irish Poor: Ethnic Enterprise and Migrant Networks in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Liverpool’, in Enda Delaney and Donald M. MacRaild (eds), Irish Migration, Networks and Ethnic Identities since 1750 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), pp. 62–86; or Angela McCarthy (ed.), A Global Clan: Scottish Migrant Networks and Identities since the Eighteenth Century (London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2006).

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not downplay the role ethnic associationalism played for the Scots, but it provides important wider context to their story. Yet while the Scots’ case was not exceptional in the general matrix of ethnic associational culture in diaspora, they deserve particular attention because they were its original facilitators in many a place of settlement, spearheading the development of ethnic clubs and societies in diverse locations around the globe. This was the case too because of the way in which Scots utilized their ethnicity actively: the idea that they were ‘clannish’ was not simply one they were ascribed by others. They were agents in the making of their collective identity, utilizing and actively employing ‘clannishness’ in a broad sense—one aptly described by Prentis as a ‘mutual attachment’ with fellow Scots.14 Such active agency in collective identity making is a fundamental point of difference to migrant groups whose identity is largely determined by the ascriptions of outsiders: active agency vests definatory power with the ethnic group itself rather than others. Ascriptions levelled at groups like the Catholic Irish, Germans (particularly after the First World War) and the Chinese document how definitions by outsiders—and mostly negative ones at that—could overlay the groups’ own in public perception.15 As one journal for English migrants in the United States observed, for instance, while Scotland had taken ‘the lead in the general education of the young’ in the British Isles, ‘Ireland was the lowest, and the effect is seen in the social characteristics of the people.’16 Characterizations such as this, voiced in a very public form, often proved enduring and powerful, at times halting or at least hindering the integration and acculturation of the migrant groups concerned into the New Worlds in which they had settled.17 While not every Scottish journey of settlement and New World adjustment was plain sailing, and while there were fractures in the migration pathway of many a Scottish emigrant too, by and large the Scots were not ascribed markers of identity by others in such a way that their collective identity was determined by it at a foundational level. Even in cases where Scottish migrants were met with hostility, and when negative stereotyping did make their arrival more difficult,18 these collective ascriptions were not 14 Prentis, Scots in Australia, p. 14. 15 Fascinating work has been done for the Irish that relates to the power of ascribed identity stereotyping: Donald M. MacRaild, ‘“No Irish Need Apply”: The Origins and Persistence of a Prejudice’, Labour History Review, 78, 3 (2013), pp. 269–99. 16 St George’s Journal, vol. 9, no. 7 (February 1885). The Journal was the mouthpiece of the Order of the Sons of St George, a mutual insurance association for English migrants. 17 See for instance Richard D. Alba, ‘Assimilation, Exclusion, or Neither? Models of the Incorporation of Immigrants in the United States’, in Peter Schuck and Rainer Münz (eds), Paths to Inclusion: The Integration of Migrants in the United States and Germany (Providence and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1998), pp. 1–31. 18 In particular this could be a concern for Scottish migrants from the Highlands, especially those who were Gaelic speakers without a good command of English.

Introduction

5

normally overpowering to the extent that they impacted upon the migration experience of generations. The key is that, ultimately, the Scots did not occupy enclosed ethnic enclaves, but were, as I have argued elsewhere, ‘interlocked ethnics’.19 Why then would a group as integrated (comparatively) as the Scots seek to maintain its collective identity, its ‘clannishness’, to the extent it did? This brings us back to what lies at the heart of this study: ethnic associationalism and its function. The associational behaviour of the Scots was considered by many to be one of the principal manifestations of the Scots’ clannishness. Associationalism was intrinsically linked to a strong sense of Scottish identity, and became the principal vehicle for those keen on maintaining it actively. For diasporan Scots this was, it seems, all the more true given their relative physical disconnect from Scotland. The Dundee Evening Telegraph and Post, in its regular column dedicated to the Scots abroad, had a clear view on this, noting that ‘[i]t is one of the peculiarities of our Scottish patriotism that it is best evidenced on foreign soil. It is in the Colonies and in foreign communities that the feeling of clannishness is most strongly demonstrated in the form of Scottish Associations.’20 This assessment could not be more appropriate as ethnic associationalism remains one of the defining characteristics of the Scottish diaspora to this day. In London alone there were at least 45 Scottish clubs and societies by the early twentieth century, while New Zealand, the British Empire’s farthest outpost with a population of only a little over 1 million in the first decade of the twentieth century,21 could boast three times that number by 1915. Even more impressively, the Douglas’s Year Books published between 1905 and 1926 list nearly 600 Scottish ethnic associations from around the globe.22 In

19 20 21

22

Many of these migrants were not well received, for instance when arriving as part of larger group settlements in Australia in the late 1850s. See Tanja Bueltmann, Andrew Hinson and Graeme Morton, The Scottish Diaspora (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013), pp. 249–50; also Eric Richards, ‘Australia and the Scottish Connection, 1788–1914’, in R.A. Cage (ed.), The Scots Abroad: Labour, Capital, Enterprise, 1750–1914 (Beckenham: Croom Helm, 1985), pp. 135–6. Tanja Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity and the Making of New Zealand Society, 1850 to 1930 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011), p. 210. Evening Telegraph and Post (Dundee), 12 January 1914. See ‘Population Change and Structure—Tables’, Statistics New Zealand Tatauranga Aotearoa, accessed via http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats.aspx [last accessed 23 October 2013]. Douglas’s Year Book of Scottish Associations, 1905–1926. Significantly over 600 associations are listed in the Scots Year Book, but not all of them should, in line with the definition of ethnic associationalism adopted here, be classed primarily as ethnic clubs and societies—they may have brought together large numbers of Scots, but their roles were not primarily those of an ethnic association as defined in this study (see later in the introduction). Therefore, these organizations, including several Presbyterian church groups, were excluded when counting for the purpose of this study.

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Scotland itself this profound associationalism of the Scots abroad was fully recognized, and not only in Dundee. When the Executive Committee of the Glasgow Bank Relief Fund was attempting to secure subscriptions from Scots abroad to support the shareholders of the City of Glasgow Bank who had been ruined by the bank’s collapse in 1878, they looked to ethnic associations to garner that support, sending telegrams to St Andrew’s societies around the world. In fact, telegrams were sent to a number of cities in Asia where there were no such societies: the Committee had simply assumed that St Andrew’s societies existed in all major Scottish settlements because ethnic associations had become such a common feature.23 This assumption was expressed succinctly by a Mr Hugh Beveridge in 1908: ‘Wherever there is habitable land … there a Scotsman is to be found, and where two Scotsmen are, there will be organized a Scottish society’.24 Yet while Scottish migrants showed great zeal in establishing a plentiful array of clubs and societies around the world, the rich story of their associational culture has received only patchy coverage.25 It is particularly striking that no one has yet problematized these ethnic associations as a series of transnational connections given their global proliferation and reach.26 This book offers the first study of this type, positing that ethnic associations provide a crucial key to explaining how Scots maintained their ethnic identity overseas, but also how they utilized it in a civic sense: most groups investigated here connected their Scottishness to wider society in different settlements by means of ethnic associationalism, rather than using it exclusively as a tool for establishing ethnic boundaries or maintaining memories of Scotland. The main reason why Scottish ethnic associational culture has largely been ignored lies in an often overpowering focus on tartanry and the iconography of Highland culture: many Scottish ethnic associations, at the outset, drew

23 For instance, in the case of Singapore, see Straits Times Overland Journal, 5 December 1878. A telegram was also sent from the President of the St Andrew’s Society in London to Australia. The telegram appealed to Scotchmen and asked them for their support ‘[i]n the name of the Scottish nation’. See Sydney Morning Herald, 30 November 1878. 24 Quoted in an article entitled ‘Is Scotland Dead? Scottish Societies in the Colonies’, Straits Times, 20 February 1908. 25 The pioneering work stems from an edited collection: Tanja Bueltmann, Andrew Hinson and Graeme Morton (eds), Ties of Bluid, Kin and Countrie: Scottish Associational Culture in the Diaspora (Guelph: Guelph Series in Scottish Studies, 2009). 26 For useful discussions concerning transnationalism, see Steven Vertovec, Transnationalism (Abingdon: Routledge, 2009). Of particular interest within the context of diaspora are also Rainer Bauböck and Thomas Faist (eds), Diaspora and Transnationalism: Concepts, Theories and Methods (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2010); and Steven Vertovec, ‘Three Meanings of Diaspora: Exemplified among South Asian Religions’, Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 6, 3 (1997), pp. 277–99.

Introduction

7

on a symbolism and iconography reminiscent of romanticized images of the literary Kailyard school.27 While easily recognizable and enduring, the outward visibility that kilt and tartan—which were the ‘primary denominators of ethnic Scottishness’28—helped create was very specific in its focus on a narrow set of representations and customs of Scotland that had largely been appropriated from the Highlands.29 This, in turn, has contributed to a dismissal of Scottish ethnic associations as ‘harbourers of nostalgia’.30 This dismissal is problematic and outright unjustified given the importance the migrants themselves attached to ethnic associations—a fact already documented in their sheer number. For these migrants, there was clearly meaning in the occasional bout of nostalgia, and they will have enjoyed that associations sometimes brought to them ‘the very scent of the heather’.31 This scent must not, however, gild the wider roles of Scottish ethnic associations. What has complicated matters further is that their events and activities have primarily been seen as those of a migrant elite rather than the wider Scottish immigrant community. Although middle-class members were indeed the central drivers of ethnic associational culture, in most places of settlement it was nonetheless of much wider relevance for Scottish migrants of diverse backgrounds. Therefore, and rather than dismissing the associations as unrepresentative as a consequence, a better approach is to explore the micro-level of activities to assess where the wider functions of associationalism lay, and what they were. Scholars need to recognize fully that Scottish ethnic associations serve diverse roles that simply cannot be reduced to nostalgia or the activities of only a limited social elite.

Definitions At the outset of this study it is important to engage critically with the central terminology that lies at its heart to provide common theoretical grounding. The four core concepts are: ethnic identity, diaspora, ethnic associationalism and civility. Let us look at each in turn. First comes ethnic identity as its active maintenance is one of the basic building blocks of both a diaspora and ethnic associationalism. While ethnic identity is not an identity specific to migrants and their descendants, it is one that often becomes more pronounced among them: migrants bring with them their culture and traditions and many seek to keep them alive in their new 27 See for instance David McCrone, Understanding Scotland: The Sociology of a Nation (2nd edn., London: Routledge, 2001), p. 136ff. 28 Pittock, Celtic Identity, p. 3. 29 McCrone, Understanding Scotland, pp. 38–40. 30 Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 182. 31 Sir Thomas Dewar at a St Andrew’s Day dinner in 1914, probably in Nairobi. Quoted in East African Standard (Mombasa), 20 February 1915.

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Clubbing Together

homeland. This function is not restricted to first-generation migrants as it can still be utilized by their descendants for the purpose of recognition of their personal heritage.32 This emphasizes too that there is an element of ethnic identity construction—a process that can be pursued by individual migrants as well as migrant communities. For the latter in particular the initial impetus for ethnic identity construction can be a desire to establish boundaries for the purpose of demarcation from other migrant communities and/or the host society.33 But this is not an automatic nor a necessary process. The critical point to make is this: ethnic identity does not simply emerge for either groups or individuals, it requires structures and agency.34 What this means too is that ethnic identity is not static, but evolves according to the actions and needs of its agents. Moreover, ethnic identity is only one of many identities a person can hold, so there is also an element of interaction between different layers of identity.35 This potential multiplicity of identities is important as it emphasizes that ethnic identity does not exist in isolation, but is shaped in no small part by other identities, such as gender identity or class identity. Both of these, as this study will document, played a particularly important role within the wider context of Scottish ethnic associational culture. In the case of migrants, particularly first-generation migrants, it is also crucial to recognize that ethnic identity is not linear. While it would be misleading to assume that migrants shed old world customs and traditions as soon as they arrive in their new home, continuities were neither automatic, nor always of the same strength. For some migrants the departure from Scotland was a deliberate break with their past life and, as a result, they may not have looked to maintain their Scottishness too overtly in the New World. Others, following the rationale Robert Louis Stevenson gave, felt like strangers and sought consolation in a strong expression of their ethnic identity. There are many other shades of ethnic identity in between these two poles. In the existing scholarship diverse approaches to the study of ethnic identity can be found, ranging from nineteenth-century primordial

32 Genealogists are a key group here. See for instance Paul Basu, ‘Macpherson Country: Genealogical Identities, Spatial Histories and the Scottish Diasporic Clanscape’, Cultural Geographies, 12, 2 (2005), pp. 123–50. 33 This happened, for instance, when groups adopted exclusionary membership rules, which could include language criteria (in the case of the Scots, Gaelic was actively used in this way). See Krista O’Donnell, Renate Bridenthal and Nancy Reagin (eds), The Heimat Abroad: The Boundaries of Germanness (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005). 34 See also Joane Nagel, ‘Constructing Ethnicity: Creating and Recreating Ethnic Identity and Culture’, Social Problems, 41 (1994), p. 152. 35 While concerned with contemporary examples, useful discussions relating to multiple identities can be found in Ruthellen Josselson and Michele Harway (eds), Navigating Multiple Identities: Race, Gender, Culture, Nationality, and Roles (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).

Introduction

9

conceptions based on the assumption that ethnic identity is given at birth, to constructivism, which flourished in the 1980s and has focused on the idea that identities are constantly remade.36 Another interpretation, and one that is crucial to this study, is that ethnic identity is used circumstantially: it essentially becomes an instrument a person chooses to use (or not). That choice again designates, and emphasizes, active agency on the part of the person involved, and therefore, is oppositional to the type of ascription of ethnic identity by others previously discussed. Within this context of active agency another key factor is whether ethnic identity is expressed privately or in an organized—and usually more public—way. The family and immediate kin are migrants’ primary engagement circles in which private expressions of ethnic identity can take place.37 One might find Scottish migrants playing music together, maintaining family customs shaped by generational heritage, or cooking Scottish foods: all of these may be considered expressions of ethnic identity, but they are confined to the private sphere. If, however, migrants decide to celebrate Burns Night with fellow Scots in the local masonic hall, to participate in caber tossing at the annual Highland Games, or to become a member of the local St Andrew’s society, then we move to organized expressions of ethnic identity. These are formalized and operate, at least partially, in the public sphere.38 Whether active or passively ascribed, organized or private, the ethnic identity of diasporan Scots gravitates between, and is determined, both by old homeland culture and new homeland needs of migrants and their descendants. Giving recognition to this interplay emphasizes that old homeland culture and its customs and iconography should not be dismissed at the outset: to many diasporan Scots they were ‘a fundamental part of a larger culture integral to their identity in diasporic communities’.39 What we must do is recognize homeland culture in terms of its potential instrumental value for migrants. This permits consideration of why some migrants set greater store by maintaining it as part of their own identity than others. Figure I.1 offers a conceptualization of the four key determinants identifiable in the making of ethnic identity. It is not made exclusively by any one of the factors listed, nor must all four necessarily be present: their weighting depends on migrants’ personal circumstances, as well as developments in their environment. 36 For useful context on the wider historiography, see Philip Gleason, ‘Identifying Identity: A Semantic History’, Journal of American History, 69, 4 (1983), pp. 910–31; Peter Mandler, ‘What is National Identity? Definitions and Applications in Modern British Historiography’, Modern Intellectual History, 3, 2 (2006), pp. 271–97. 37 See also the idea of ‘three circles of belonging’, Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 11. 38 The seminal work on the idea of the public sphere is Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, trans. T. Burger with F. Lawrence (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991). 39 Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 2.

10

Clubbing Together Figure I.1: The determinants of ethnic identity

Source: The author.

The second term we need to be clear about is diaspora. It is now widely used to identify the Scots abroad as a collective group, having emerged, in the 1990s,40 as an easily employable concept to explain a wide range of phenomena associated with migration. Too easily, perhaps, given that, as a result, the term diaspora is used in many academic disciplines, but also in contemporary politics, now sharing ‘meanings with a larger semantic domain that includes words like immigrant, expatriate, refugee, guest-worker, exile community, overseas community, ethnic community’.41 This is a development that has its critics,42 the present author included: to

40 Robin Cohen was particularly influential in giving wider currency to the term by means of his conceptualization of a diaspora typology in Robin Cohen, Global Diasporas: An Introduction (2nd edn., Abingdon: Routledge, 2008). As I have argued elsewhere, however, I believe Cohen stretches his typology too far, rendering the term ‘essentially meaningless by making it attributable to essentially any type of movement of people. For my criticism see Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 181. 41 Khachig Tölölyan, ‘The Nation-state and its Others: In Lieu of a Preface’, Diaspora, 1, 1 (1991), p. 4. 42 See also Bueltmann et al., The Scottish Diaspora, chapter two: ‘Diaspora: Defining a Concept’; also Tanja Bueltmann, David T. Gleeson, and Donald M. MacRaild (eds), Locating the English Diaspora, 1500–2010 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012); Cairns Craig, Intending Scotland: Explorations in Scottish Culture since the Enlightenment (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), pp. 203–44; Khachig Tölölyan, ‘Diasporama’, Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 3, 2 (1994),

Introduction

11

employ diaspora as a usable term in historical inquiry, its meaning must be sharpened and made explicit to avoid what Brubaker has aptly termed the ‘“diaspora” diaspora’, for ‘if everybody is diasporic, then no one is distinctively so.’43 Scotland offers a particularly vibrant case in the proliferation of diaspora usage, given, not least, the current government’s striving for Scottish independence: the Scots abroad are clearly recognized as part of Scotland’s extended global family, with events such as Homecoming intended to cater directly for their interests.44 There are, however, a number of problems here. First, in many debates, and in popular perception, the Scottish diaspora tends to be framed chiefly in terms of victimhood and exile. This is a sweeping generalization underpinned by the meta-narrative of poor Highlanders forced off their land, and one that limits the utility of diaspora as an analytical framework for the Scots. I have offered a reconceptualization of the term diaspora in my Scottish Ethnicity and the Making of New Zealand Society, and want to build on it in this study. My principal aim remains to transcend the notion of a victim diaspora:45 while that term is appropriate for a number of diasporas, particularly that of the Jews or the millions of Africans shipped across the Atlantic as part of the slave trade, the Scottish diaspora, overall, simply cannot be characterized as a victim diaspora. It is true, of course, that a sizable portion of Highland Scots were evicted from their land and sent abroad—there is no intention here to deny or downplay their experiences. p. 235; as well as Khachig Tölölyan, ‘Diasporama’, Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 9, 2 (2000), pp. 309–10. 43 Rogers Brubaker, ‘The “Diaspora” Diaspora’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28, 1 (2005), p. 1. 44 See David Hesse, ‘Finding Neverland: Homecoming Scotland and the “Affinity Scots”’, in Mario Varricchio (ed.), Back to Caledonia: Scottish Homecomings from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2012); also Alison Morrison and Brian Hay, ‘A Review of the Constraints, Limitations and Success of Homecoming Scotland 2009’, Fraser Economic Commentary, 34, 1 (2010), pp. 44–54. 45 The Jewish case is of particular historical importance here, and there is no desire in my reconceptualization to deny it that place. For further details see also Jonathan Boyarin and Daniel Boyarin, Powers of Diaspora: Two Essays on the Relevance of Jewish Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002); also W. Safran, ‘Deconstructing and Comparing Diasporas’, in Waltraud Kokot, Khachig Tölölyan and Carolin Alfonso (eds), Diaspora, Identity and Religion: New Directions in Theory and Research (London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 9–30. The aim, as Boyarin and Boyarin rightly note, needs to be to ‘refer to, and better understand, Jewish diaspora history within the contemporary diasporic rubric’. (p. 10). And, I would add, to not extrapolate from the Jewish case particular characteristics for the purpose of generic application to other diasporas. As James Clifford observed, ‘[w]e should be able to recognise the strong entailment of Jewish history on the language of diaspora without making that history a definite model.’ See James Clifford, ‘Diasporas’, Cultural Anthropology, 9, 3 (1994), p. 303.

12

Clubbing Together

The point remains, however, that these examples of land clearances and forced dispersal are not comparable to the loss of homeland and forced removal experienced by other groups. This point of difference must be made very clear. And it is a point that becomes all the more relevant as a result of the fact that the majority of Scottish migrants did not actually come from the Highlands—the area with which forced dispersal is chiefly associated—but from the Lowlands.46 Whether for want of opportunities or to follow kin who had gone before them, Scots who migrated, by and large, were active historical agents in that decision.47 With that in mind, diaspora becomes more than a category that describes the movement of people and residence in a location outside of the homeland: diaspora instead emerges ‘as a form of social and cultural organisation’.48 This definition facilitates scrutiny of migrants and their actions as diaspora agents—a conceptualization that recognizes the degree to which they are influenced by their desire to remain connected with the old homeland, and to maintain their ethnic identity.49 Fundamental to this definition is the understanding that diaspora agents are active within particular diaspora structures. These are defined as structures that support the maintenance of a diaspora, which is particularly important given not only the global reach and transnational span of it, but also its continued orientation to the old homeland. Thus defined, a diaspora becomes tangible and measurable through both its agents and the structures in which they operate. Importantly, in this way it is also possible to recognize that diaspora agents are not simply millions of clones who have sprung from the same homeland and act in the same way wherever they settle and regardless of their background. While diaspora speaks to the idea of a group of people, their actions are distinct, sharing common goals at times, but ultimately dependent first and foremost on what individuals want to achieve in particular locales. There are two important additional factors that deserve brief consideration. First comes the role of homeland proximity—or lack thereof. It should not simply be assumed that members of Scotland’s diaspora have

46 This is shown clearly in various scholarly studies, including Rebecca Lenihan, ‘From Alba to Aotearoa: Profiling New Zealand’s Scots Migrants, 1840–1920’, unpublished PhD thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, 2010; also T.M. Devine, Scotland’s Empire, 1600–1815 (London: Penguin, 2004). 47 It is worth noting that this had limitations particularly for women and children. See for instance Rosalind McLean, ‘Reluctant leavers? Scottish women and emigration in the mid-nineteenth century’, in Tom Brooking and J. Coleman (eds), The Heather and the Fern: Scottish Migration and New Zealand Settlement (Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2003); also Marjory Harper and Stephen Constantine, Migration and Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). 48 Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 182. 49 For a definition of what constitutes a diaspora, see also Bueltmann et al., Scottish Diaspora, p. 16ff.

Introduction

13

Figure I.2: The making of diaspora

Source: The author.

the same priorities and show the same behaviour in all locations regardless of their relative distance from the homeland. This study seeks to identify similarities and differences in this respect by offering a typology that distinguishes between internal, near and remote diaspora. Given the importance of agency, the second factor that one needs to bear in mind when studying diasporas is the type of migrant who is part of it. At a minimum, this study proposes, it is critical to distinguish between a settler diaspora (a diaspora characterized by the permanent settlement of Scottish migrants), a sojourner diaspora (a diaspora characterized by temporality as this diaspora is always defined on the basis of the eventual return to the homeland), and an involuntary diaspora (a diaspora comprised of migrants who did not seek to leave the homeland; this diaspora can, but does not automatically have to be, characterized by victimhood). Figure I.2 visualizes the typology of diaspora that thus emerges, placing the homeland at the centre to indicate not only that a diaspora stems from a homeland, but also that it is then shaped by continuous orientation towards it. What this typology allows us to do is scrutinize the actions of diaspora agents within particular diaspora structures in recognition of who the migrants are and where they are located. Do diasporan Scots in London (near diaspora) utilize ethnic associationalism—which, as will be explained

14

Clubbing Together

in the next section, is a principal diaspora structure—in the same way as Scots in Australia (remote diaspora)? And what about Highland Scots in Glasgow (internal diaspora)? What were the issues that different types of Scot were dealing with through associations? While the boundaries between the different diaspora types are fluid—a fact that is also a result of the interactions that took place between Scots across the Scottish diaspora as a whole—it is hoped that the distinctions suggested here contribute to making diaspora a more usable tool for scholarly inquiry in migration history. This brings us to ethnic associationalism itself, which is a principal diaspora structure that is actively established and maintained by diaspora agents. Built on the foundations of a subscriber democracy,50 ethnic clubs and societies were platforms for conviviality and fraternal gatherings, formalizing sociability.51 Thus defined, an exploration of Scottish clubs and societies permits consideration not simply of how Scots celebrated their culture overseas, but rather of the actions of Scottish migrants. By extension, this also provides a means by which we can measure the reach, strength and textures of the Scottish diaspora, again recognizing locality. This definition further helps to distinguish between Scottish ethnic associations and other bodies through which Scottish migrants channelled their associational behaviour. While Hughes, for example, has aptly referred to Presbyterianism as ‘the largest Scottish association of them all’,52 amongst the Scots overseas its primary function was neither the maintenance of ethnic identity nor continued orientation to the old homeland. Moreover, while there clearly were ties between ethnic societies and Presbyterian churches in many of the sites studied for this book, Scottish ethnic associational culture is intrinsically secular. Consequently, and while reference is made in this study to Presbyterian churches where appropriate, they do not form an intrinsic part of this work: they deserve a separate study with a more broadly framed definition of associationalism.53

50 See R.J. Morris, ‘Voluntary Societies and the British Urban Elites, 1750–1850: An Analysis’, Historical Journal, 26, 1 (1983), pp. 95–118; also George Moyser and Geraint Parry, ‘Voluntary Associations and Democratic Participation in Britain’, in Jan W. van Deth (ed.), Private Groups and Public Life: Social Participation and Political Involvement in Representative Democracies (London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 25–47 for some interesting discussions on the public and private life of groups and how they can channel political participation. 51 See also Georg Simmel, ‘The Sociology of Sociability’, American Journal of Sociology, 55, 3 (1949), pp. 254–61. 52 Hughes, ‘Scottish Migrant Community’, p. 4. 53 Some fascinating work has already been done here in relation to the role of the Church in Scotland. See S. Karly Kehoe, Creating a Scottish Church: Catholicism, Gender and Ethnicity in Nineteenth-century Scotland (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010); there is also an interesting discussion of Catholic identity in the diaspora in S. Karly Kehoe, ‘Catholic Identity in the Diaspora: Nineteenth-century Ontario’, in

Introduction

15

Within the context of ethnic associationalism it is also important to make reference to networks. In fact, more could be made of them in this study: there is no doubt that they existed in ample numbers and many colours among association members. This has been shown in very detailed ways by a good number of scholars, including myself, for the Scots and other migrant groups.54 Networks existed to serve fraternal bonds, as safety nets, to generate social capital, or to provide patronage and opportunities along the lines we have already seen at the outset of this chapter. They could exist within as well as outside of ethnic associational bounds, and they could be multi-layered. Networks are, in short, an integral part of the types of ethnic association explored in this study. Consequently, it is based on the foundational premise that networks operated in essentially all the associational contexts investigated here. Therefore, networks will not be separately examined unless they reveal new characteristics important to this investigation of the Scots’ associational behaviour. The fourth and final term that needs to be considered at the outset of this study is civility. It is a term now often defined as a key characteristic of civil society, giving expression to the need for good manners, decency and respect.55 This, however, is not its traditional meaning—a meaning that I want to return to, namely that civility expressed ‘an orientation towards the common good and effective citizenship’.56 Civility is essentially about civic-mindedness and the idea that benefits for wider civil society can be generated through it. This was, as we will see throughout this study, a crucial channel that many of the Scottish clubs and societies explored here utilized for their operations. In combination, the four terms outlined highlight that the story of Scottish associational culture in the diaspora that unfolds here moves beyond cultural aspects. While it recognizes the importance and value of

Tanja Bueltmann, Andrew Hinson and Graeme Morton (eds), Ties of Bluid, Kin and Countrie: Scottish Associational Culture in the Diaspora (Guelph: Guelph Series in Scottish Studies, 2009). 54 Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, chapter four; Craig Bailey, Irish London: Middle-Class Migration in the Global Eighteenth Century (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013); Kyle Hughes, The Scots in Victorian and Edwardian Belfast: A Study in Elite Migration (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013). For more contemporary evidence of the importance of networks, see for instance Part II in Frank D. Bean and Stephanie Bell-Rose (eds), Immigration and Opportunity: Race, Ethnicity, and Employment in the United States (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1999). 55 For example Benet Davetian, Civility: A Cultural History (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2009). 56 John Ehrenberg, ‘The History of Civil Society Ideas’, in Michael Edwards (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Civil Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 15; also Nina Eliasoph, ‘Civil Society and Civility’, in Michael Edwards (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Civil Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).

16

Clubbing Together

the underlying cultural traditions that frame Scottish associational activities and will, at times, explore them, the primary aim of this book is to locate the associations at the intersection of ethnic and civic life, uncovering their wider civic relevance around the globe. Associations were clearly founded on principals of ethnicity and can, therefore, shed light on the conditions for the migrants’ assimilation or segregation.57 At the same time, however, the organizations often served a much broader range of purposes. By focusing on these different roles of Scottish associational culture, this study explores its sustained civic value to document their structural relevance in wider civil society.58 By promoting recognition of ethnic-civic interstices, unravelling how associational activity could tie in with wider civic and community life in diverse host societies, ethnic associations can tell us not only about the experiences of a particular migrant group, but also how it directly shaped host societies and left enduring legacies that effectively transcend ethnic bounds.

Approaches Scottish ethnic associations were modelled on early modern British county feast societies,59 emerging first in the population centres of Scotland’s near diaspora, which, for the early period, meant a concentration chiefly in London. The seventeenth century then saw the establishment of the first Scottish association overseas when the Scots’ Charitable Society was set up in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1657.60 Evidence suggests that this association was not only the first Scottish ethnic organization founded in the New World, but also the 57 Hartmut Esser, ‘Assimilation, Ethnische Schichtung oder selektive Akkulturation? Neuere Theorien der Eingliederung von Migranten und das Modell der intergenerationalen Integration’, in Frank Kalter (ed.), Migration und Integration (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozilwissenschaften, 2008), pp. 81–107. 58 Klaus J. Bade, Sozialhistorische Migrationsforschung: Studien zur Historischen Migrationsforschung, Bd. 13 (Osnabrück: V&R unipress, 2004), p. 14. 59 Organized around 1650 in the major urban centres of Britain, regional or ‘county feast’ societies were generally composed of merchants, traders and lesser gentry who originated from common counties. These county feast societies were characterized by their annual meetings, processions, sermons and dinners held for the purposes of charity and the integration of members into urban society; see Peter Clark, British Clubs and Societies 1580–1800: The Origins of an Associational World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 274–95. For later development patterns and a useful wider discussion of urban associations, see for example R.J. Morris, ‘Urban Associations in England and Scotland, 1750–1914: The Formation of the Middle Class or the Formation of a Civil society?,’ in Graeme Morton, Boudien de Vries and R.J. Morris (eds), Civil Society, Associations, and Urban Places: Class, Nation, and Culture in NineteenthCentury Europe (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006). 60 As Dobson suggests, the formation at that point in time probably related to the fact that veterans were ‘ending their years of servitude’, requiring support. David Dobson,

Introduction

17

first such society of any ethnic group; it is also the oldest charitable society still in existence in the United States today.61 Scottish migrants who made their way abroad from the eighteenth century onwards followed this spirit of clubbing together, forming ethnic associations throughout their diverse places of settlement. Given this zeal, an important question to address at the outset is how we can map the development of this associational culture. This is a question that brings us to this study’s methodology and sources. A principal challenge that faces any research focused on ethnic associationalism relates to its inherent nature as an activity that migrants choose to pursue—or not. In fact, this is, as we have seen, one of the core elements of its very definition. This means, however, that an exploration of ethnic clubs and societies is automatically skewed in favour of those diaspora agents who opt to associate, focusing, by default, only on those migrants and their descendants who choose to maintain their ethnic identity in an organized and formalized forum, rather than those who do not, or those who do so in the private sphere. This brings with it a number of limitations that one needs to be aware of, but, as we will see in subsequent chapters, it does not mean that a study of ethnic associations is altogether problematic or unrepresentative of the wider migrant experience. Given the plethora of associations that developed, the diverse user groups they catered for and engaged with, and the extent to which many were in the public eye and connected to civic life, such concerns rest on feebler foundations than one might conclude after first consideration. To provide a suitable framework for comparison across diverse locations, this study focuses on the strongest, most enduring and most widespread Scottish associations that were established throughout the diaspora: St Andrew’s and Caledonian societies, which represent the pillars of Scottish ethnic associationalism. Beside them existed, however, a plethora of smaller clubs and societies, and some larger ones, that were key in making the Scottish associational scene as vibrant as it was; these associations will be captured as and when appropriate throughout this book. It is also essential to be clear about the geography of the comparative endeavour undertaken in this work as it captures developments in a broad range of very different locations throughout the Scottish diaspora. The general geographical frame of reference is the Anglo-world, which moves beyond the traditional remit of the British World and the settler Dominions,62 including not only the United States, but also Scottish migrant destinations in Asia. This framework gives overall coherence to this work, and explains why locations in places Scottish Emigration to Colonial America, 1607–1785 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004), p. 36; also pp. 41–2. 61 See http://scots-charitable.org [last accessed: 11 November 2013]. 62 James Belich, Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Anglo-world, 1783–1939 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009); also Carl Bridge and Kent Fedorowich (eds), Mapping the British World: Diaspora, Culture and Identity (London: Frank Cass, 2005).

18

Clubbing Together

such as continental Europe and South America have not been included. To enhance appreciation of the diverse case study locations explored, each chapter focuses on a particular geographic location and commences with a brief outline of Scottish migration patterns there. In the first instance, case study locations were chosen on the basis of the availability of manuscript material as this provides the strongest foundation for an assessment of the Scots’ associational behaviour in the diaspora. It is, in many ways, the material best suited to explore the diverse facets of Scottish ethnic associationalism across borders and over time. In some locations manuscript material is incredibly rich, in others demonstrably scant. Read as a whole, across time and space, however, the manuscript material explored provides deep insights into the membership of organizations, as well as activities. Nevertheless, considered on its own it simply does not capture the breadth or richness of Scottish ethnic associationalism in the diaspora because the majority of clubs and societies have not left discrete manuscript archives. As a result, this study is underpinned in no small part by material extracted from newspapers. An increasing number of them, from all corners of the world, are accessible to researchers today by means of digital archives—a development that constitutes a clear juncture in research practice as the application of digitization technology has transformed data capture and analysis in a fundamental way. For a global study such as this, the value of digital newspaper archives cannot be overstated. Through them it is possible to conduct large-scale data mapping on an unprecedented level, and the wealth of material on diverse aspects of ethnic associationalism that can be extracted is, at times, mind-boggling. Moreover, while manuscript material has been drawn upon as extensively as possible given availability, it is worth noting that records from associations also have their limitations, and are not the be all and end all of a study exploring associational culture. The level of detail in terms of event information, for example, is often more skeletal than in newspaper reports, and there is usually little colour in the accounts of activities included in association minute books. Where associational records undoubtedly excel is with respect to membership records, finance reports, and, if applicable, the charity dispensed. But even these aspects of the Scots’ ethnic associationalism can be traced well in newspapers. Especially in the early years of colonial development, or in small-town newspapers, many events hosted by Scots through their clubs and societies, including annual meetings, were widely reported, and speeches at dinners, but also annual reports, were often reprinted verbatim in the local press. Given the divergent availability of association records across the Scottish diaspora, large-scale mining of material from digitized newspapers thus plays a crucial part in gaining a comprehensive transnational perspective. Through careful searches of material relating to the activities of associations, including St Andrew’s Day celebrations or Highland Games, the tracing of annual meetings and also association members, digitized newspapers are an excellent and robust source that permits the

Introduction

19

• capturing of details relating to the agents of diaspora (i.e. those involved in ethnic associations) • capturing of information regarding the nature and scope of activities pursued by those agents • capturing of details on those aided by ethnic associations dispensing charity • capturing of the interactions between ethnic associations and wider society • capturing of the interactions between migrant groups • capturing of transnational exchanges, particularly communication flows • capturing of the activities and character of the wider Scottish immigrant community over time • capturing of the diversity within the Scottish immigrant community and generational changes • capturing of political undercurrents and how they influence activities • capturing of contemporary commentary on developments in Scottish immigrant communities near and far

All of these benefits, while key in providing a rich source base for associations, also help measure the Scottish diaspora itself: news from associations often crossed borders,63 increasing awareness among Scots around the world of fellow Scots and their activities elsewhere. Finally, large-scale data mapping through digitized newspaper archives also makes it possible to extrapolate the similarities and differences in the Scots’ associational behaviour throughout the diaspora. Searches have been conducted across several free and subscription archives, chiefly including: • British Newspaper Archive • NewBank’s African Newspaper Archive (part of the World Newspaper Archive) • ProQuest’s Historical Newspapers (selection)

63 Simon Potter admirably charts this role, albeit within a different thematic context, in News and the British World: The Emergence of an Imperial Press System (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

20

Clubbing Together • ProQuest’s Chinese Newspaper Collection • Chronicling America, Library of Congress • Peel’s Prairie Provinces Newspaper Archive, University of Alberta • Singapore Pages, National Library of Singapore • Trove Newspaper Archive, National Library of Australia • Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand • Newspaperarchive.com • Google’s newspaper archive

Across these archives a set number of search terms were used (exact phrase search) for the initial search, including, amongst others, ‘Andrew’s society’, ‘Caledonian society’, ‘Andrew’s Day’ and ‘Caledonian Games’/‘Highland Games’. These searches were utilized to pinpoint general development patterns and activities, and were then extended with additional terms relating to the discoveries made on the basis of assessing records from the initial search (such as the names of people or specific activities). In total and across all archives, well over 15,000 relevant newspaper articles were found; these articles were then reduced by systematic sampling. The wealth and richness of the material is remarkable: digitized newspapers offer a unique assessment tool because they facilitate an unrivalled longitudinal and transnational perspective. Bearing this in mind, the benefits of large-scale digital newspaper research outweigh its problems, but it is important to make clear the limitations and constraints of the type of digital data mapping carried out here. Principal issues include: the diverse time spans of different archives; the clustering of newspapers available in particular decades, which can lead to distortions if not recognized; and, on a more practical level, the text-recognition software (OCR) used by different archives and, by extension, the success rates of searches. What is required is a well-developed and structured search for a particular term or phrase: while not yielding every instance where it occurs, such an approach does result in a logical and large sample over time, facilitating the mapping of trends in a way that would be impossible to achieve through more traditional manuscript sources, or even printed newspapers. Finally, then, newspapers have also aided greatly in establishing the overall number of Scottish ethnic associations. Together with manuscript references and Scottish community publications, the numbers shown in Table I.1 are a minimum of clubs and societies. There is every indication— and I am confident in asserting—that the real number of associations was significantly higher in most locations, but most notably so in North America.

Introduction

21

Table I.1: Minimum of Scottish ethnic associations in the sites of study Location

Number

Near Diaspora North America Antipodes Africa Far East

162 87 310 59 29

Total

647

Source: The author.

In part the comparatively low number recorded for this region in Table I.1 is a direct reflection of the lack of digitized newspapers for Canada, which has led to the use of a more traditional sampling method for activities, and thus has not been as far-reaching as digital sampling. Another factor worth noting for all locations is that there will, in all likelihood, have been a much larger number of regional Scottish clubs and societies than have been captured here: their names were less uniform, and activities did not always centre on the visible anchors of Burns or St Andrew. As a result, these associations are, essentially by default, more difficult to trace, ranging from such diverse names as ‘American Iona Society’ to the ‘Lewis Gaelic Society’ of Vancouver.64 Consequently, I expect that it would not be too bold to assume that the total number of Scottish ethnic associations in the sites of study for this work is nearer 1,500. If Scottish mutual benefit societies, including the Sons of Scotland and the Order of Scottish Clans, are factored in, we certainly already reach a total of over 1,000 for the early twentieth century given the number of their branches.65 Considering that Scottish associations can also be found in locations outside the Anglo-world that have not been examined here, there is every reason to be confident that their overall number around the globe will have been even higher than 1,500. The simple bottom line is this: Scottish ethnic associationalism truly was a global phenomenon that could be found in large urban centres such as New York just as much as in rural Australia. The following chapters will provide context to this overall numeric pattern by means of maps that detail the regional clustering of Scottish ethnic associations in the different sites of study.66 While some of the

64 Examples taken from Scottish American Year Book 1935, produced by the Caledonian Club of San Francisco. 65 By about 1900 the Sons of Scotland and the Order of Scottish Clans had 200 and 250 branches respectively; see The Scottish Canadian, October 1897 and December 1900. 66 All maps showing the geographies of ethnic associations depict only a select number

22

Clubbing Together

clubs and societies examined in this study have traceable homeland roots in Scotland, Scottish ethnic associations are essentially a product of diaspora.67 Consequently, this study adopts a perspective that permits consideration of their development in different diaspora locations over time. Guided, in the first instance, by geographies rather than themes, this framework has been adopted to utilize a divergent comparative model that emphasizes the importance of the destination in shaping migrant behaviour,68 rather than the migrants’ origins per se.

Perspectives Migration was a disruption in a person’s life cycle—even if by choice and if the arrival and settlement in the New World proceeded largely without problems, migration nonetheless marked a critical juncture. And not just among first-generation migrants: the legacy of the migration experience can resonate powerfully across generations.69 It is estimated that about 2.33 million Scots journeyed across the Atlantic or made their way to the Antipodes between 1825 and 1938 alone. As a result, Scotland ranks third, behind Ireland and Norway, as one of Europe’s main population exporters in the age of mass migration. This significant out-migration to faraway climes, however, has obscured Scotland’s near diaspora: that located in the British and Irish Isles. Estimates suggest that about 750,000 Scots migrated within that geographical area to locations outside of Scotland during the period 1841 to 1931.70 Chapter one will capture this short-distance migration of the Scots, identifying the ways in which they came together as Scots, focusing chiefly on London as the metropole not only of the Empire, but, in no small part, also of the Scottish ethnic associational world. Other centres explored include Norwich, Bristol, Newcastle upon Tyne and Belfast, where Scottish migrants had a significant presence.71 Exploring the clubs and

of locations, namely those for which enduring roots of associational activity could be traced for at least a decade. This decision was made to give clear focus to all maps, but it does mean that maps do not, in numeric terms, show all associations that existed. 67 Jose C. Moya, ‘Immigrants and Associations: A Global and Historical Perspective’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 31, 5 (2005), p. 839. 68 Cf. Nancy L. Green, ‘The Comparative Method and Poststructural Structuralism: New Perspectives for Migration Studies’, Journal of American Ethnic History, 13, 4 (1994), pp. 3–22. 69 One study that powerfully documents this trend is Celeste Ray, Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001). 70 See M. Flinn (ed.), Scottish Population History: From the 17 th Century to the 1930s (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977). 71 For example John A. Burnett, ‘“Hail Brither Scots O’ Coaly Tyne”: Networking and

Introduction

23

societies they formed there will provide important comparative context for the development of their associations in the remote Scottish diaspora that will be explored in the chapters that follow. Chapter two shifts the focus to the New World in North America. Canada was one of the Scots’ main settlement destinations overseas: they were key players in the fur trade and contributed significantly to the country’s settlement as politicians and entrepreneurs; similar trends are evident in the United States,72 where, following migratory patterns, Scottish associations were established earlier than in Canada. Unsurprisingly, however, given the strong Scottish heritage, places like Toronto remain strongholds of Scottish associational activity, with many social functions and celebrations being held annually to this day. Chapter two traces the roots of this activity throughout North America—roots that did not solely lie in the provision of entertainment or conviviality: in both Canada and the US, Scottish associationalism was initially driven by philanthropy and a profound sense of patrician benevolence among the ‘better-off migrants’. By and large, the first associations to be founded in North America were, therefore, St Andrew’s societies. Filling a void in the provision of aid and support for immigrants, these societies were crucial pillars of benevolence in cities like New York or Montreal, meeting regularly to go through stacks of applications for relief by Scottish migrants, deciding who was most deserving of aid. The Toronto St Andrew’s Society’s motto—‘to help them to help themselves’—makes a case in point in this respect, documenting the strong prevailing ethos of self-help. From the mid-nineteenth century Caledonian societies moved to the fore and were primarily engaged with the hosting of Caledonian Games. Yet another caesura can be found a few decades later, when Scottish mutual benefit societies gained ground. The difference here, therefore, lies not simply in the name, but in the distinct foci of different associations. After the American Revolution, Britain, as eager as ever to expand its Empire, increasingly looked to the east and beyond, with migration flows diversifying concomitantly in terms of destinations. Australia was first put on the map not as a migrant destination of choice, but as a convict settlement. An estimated total of nearly 155,000 convicts were sent to Australia and Van Diemen’s Land, but only a little over 8,000 were Scots—a result of the Scottish legal system in which transportation was Identity among Scottish Migrants in the North-east of England, ca. 1860–2000’, Immigrants & Minorities, 25, 1 (March, 2007), pp. 1–21; Kyle Hughes, ‘“Scots, Stand Firm, and Our Empire is Safe”: The Politicization of Scottish Clubs and Societies in Belfast during the Home Rule Era, c1885–1914’, in Tanja Bueltmann, Andrew Hinson and Graeme Morton (eds), Ties of Bluid, Kin and Countrie: Scottish Associational Culture in the Diaspora (Guelph: Guelph Series in Scottish Studies, 2009). 72 For instance in Rider and McNabb, Kingdom of the Mind; Szasz, Scots in the North American West.

24

Clubbing Together

almost exclusively reserved for the most severe crimes. Overall, between 1861 and 1945, the Scots accounted for 15 per cent of Australia’s UK-born migrants, and made up nearly a quarter of all UK-born migrants to New Zealand. This makes them the third largest migrant group after the English and Irish in Australia, and the second largest after the English in New Zealand. These numbers become even more remarkable when considered in relation to the Scots’ population share in the UK, which had decreased from around 15 per cent in the eighteenth century to 12 per cent in 1901, and then continued to decline further.73 The Scots were thus overrepresented in the Antipodes in terms of their population share within the British Isles, and especially so in New Zealand. In this wider context the third chapter explores how, as such a prominent group, the Scots positioned themselves through their associational culture down under. In particular, the chapter will focus on establishing why the promotion of Caledonian Games—hence a leisure activity rather than philanthropy—was the main motor of Scottish associational culture in the Antipodes. The argument advanced is that while the proliferation of Scottish associations in North America coincided with the arrival of large numbers of Scots who were in need of financial and general living assistance, the bulk of migrants to the Antipodes arrived later and were of a different background. New Zealand in particular was a late destination of choice: the Scots who arrived there were not primarily seeking to excape industrial grime or famine. Instead, occupational upwards mobility was a real possibility, with benevolence much less in need. Consequently, many Scottish associations made little effort to establish their own benevolent branches or committees, restricting their activities to donations to other charitable institutions. Some exceptions are traceable in Australia, where settlers arrived earlier and were from poorer backgrounds—differences that emphasize the importance of the timing of migration for the development and roles of ethnic associational culture. While, overall, the flow of Scots to North America, Australia and New Zealand was the most significant, Scottish migrants did make their way to a much more diverse range of localities in the Anglo-world. Africa was placed on the Scottish diaspora map with the help of many a Scottish missionary and explorer, most famous of all David Livingston. Overall, Scots in Africa represent a more distinct type of Scottish migrant when compared to the destinations examined in the preceding chapters, being, by and large, from a narrower range of occupational backgrounds. In the Cape Colony, for instance, migrants from the commercial as well as the intellectual elite were prominent.74 Many Scots resident there were also

73 See Table 2.1 in Christopher G.A. Bryant, The Nations of Britain (Oxford, 2006), p. 40; also Marjory Harper, ‘A Century of Scottish Emigration to New Zealand’, Immigrants & Minorities, 29, 2 (2011), p. 221. 74 John M. MacKenzie with Nigel R. Dalziel, The Scots in South Africa: Ethnicity,

Introduction

25

engaged as merchants or ship owners and, therefore, can already be found among the earliest arrivals after the Cape was seized from the Dutch. They were fundamental in shaping the development of the colony, particularly in respect of its business, intellectual and religious life. In the Eastern Cape, by contrast, there was a larger number of ordinary settlers, recruited to the region to build up the ‘frontier zone’.75 Activities in this region in particular thus permit consideration of what we might term the ‘racial other’ and the Scots’ interactions with it—including not only indigenous peoples, but also Boer settlers. Developments in South Africa are placed in wider comparative context with those elsewhere in Africa, particularly in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), and also British East Africa (Kenya) and Zanzibar.76 This will facilitate understanding of the development and role of Scottish associations within the context of the African continent more broadly. Chapter five relocates the geographical focus to Asia, examining in particular developments in the city entrepôts of Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as the treaty port of Shanghai. These locations outside of the traditional settler dominions have largely been ignored in studies exploring the Scottish diaspora. Common to all Asian locations investigated we find that small groups of whites were surrounded by non-white ethnic majorities yet were in control of much of the economic and social life. How did this set-up influence the development of Scottish associations? In Hong Kong in the 1850s, the foreign community was exclusive, with many of the merchant taipans being competitive and elitist.77 Moreover, the majority of the Scottish merchants and businessmen resident in Asia were transient sojourners rather than settlers, seeking to use their time in Singapore and elsewhere as a springboard for social advancement at home—a behaviour not dissimilar to that of the eighteenth-century so-called nabobs in India.78 Within this wider context, the chapter will examine whether the more limited white populations of Scots in Asia, with their focused mix of elite,

75 76

77

78

Identity, Gender and Race, 1772–1914 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007), p. 9. Ibid., p. 94. For the two latter locations manuscript sources have recently been donated to the Highland Archive Centre in Inverness. While early records are a little patchy, these nonetheless are very valuable and I would like to thank especially the Highland Archive Centre for making them accessible to me in time for inclusion in this study. For a report on the records see also The Scotsman, 2 July 2013. The term taipan was first used in the early 1830s to describe foreign merchants or heads of businesses in Hong Kong and mainland China, designating their high class standing and importance. For instance Wai Kwan Chan, The Making of Hong Kong Society: Three Studies of Class Formation in Early Hong Kong (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991). See Tillman W. Nechtman, Nabobs: Empire and Identity in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

26

Clubbing Together

military, bureaucratic and commercial migrants, resulted in the same types of associational structures, roles and behaviours, or promoted distinct ones. The final chapter departs from the approach of geographic case studies, focusing instead on four themes that ‘complicate’, as it were, the story of Scottish ethnic associational culture, namely gender, regional ethnic associationalism, the internal diaspora in Scotland and the politicization of the Scottish diaspora. These complexities help bring to the fore previously unresolved questions with a view to giving them fuller recognition. This will permit a more detailed and nuanced assessment of the function, membership and activities of Scottish clubs and societies, providing further context to global developments. What the complexities emphasize is that the Scots’ associational behaviour, and the associational structures they put in place, were by no means uniform throughout their places of settlement in the diaspora. This accentuates that developments in different colonial settings diverged and had more to do with the respective local circumstances, the particular type of migrants who came and the timing of their arrival, than their ethnic origins per se. The conclusion will bring together the key points made, focusing in particular on the ethnic-civic interstices to discern the wider appeal of Scottish clubs and societies, offering a categorization of the functional tiers of Scottish ethnic associationalism, their distinct user groups, as well as the types of ethnic associational activism that underpinned the main associations. While many migrant groups from the British Isles and beyond hosted dinners and balls that were attended by prominent settlers of varied backgrounds, dispensed charity and catered for their kin, evidence suggests that it was not an easy task to match the Scots in terms of the scale of events and their benevolent efforts. They were commonly found at the vanguard of the promotion of ethnic associational culture within a wider civic remit. Though the focus of activities and events was not uniform, the endurance and wide appeal of Scottish ethnic associations throughout the sites of study explored here provides clear evidence of the significant influence the Scots exerted in these communities. This book is written in the full realization that the case studies presented throughout the chapters, geographic and thematic, are eclectic. In many ways they represent mere snapshots given the richness of the material and the Scots’ ethnic associational life—a life that can only be characterized as prolific. Still, they are snapshots of what remains a profound and colourful characteristic of Scottish diasporic life around the globe. As the Belfast News-Letter aptly concluded in its assessment of the Scots’ ethnic associationalism referred to at the beginning of the introduction, the Scots ‘may be defined as an Association-forming people’.79

79 Belfast News-Letter, 24 November 1888.

Chapter 1

Scotland’s Near Diaspora Scotland’s Near Diaspora

It is not only when we cross the seas that we go abroad … A Scotsman may tramp the better part of Europe and the United States, and never again receive so vivid an impression of foreign travel and strange lands and manners as on his first excursion into England.1

Such was the assessment of famous Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson—a well-travelled Scot himself whose words reflect his own experiences of living abroad in Europe, the United States and the South Pacific.2 More to the point for the purpose of this chapter, Stevenson’s observation draws attention to the Scots living in what is conceptualized here as the near diaspora—a diaspora defined first and foremost by its relative proximity to Scotland (see also Figure I.2 in the introduction). Recognition of the near diaspora is crucial to our understanding of Scottish ethnic associationalism as the earliest associations were founded in England.3 While characterized by a generally

Robert Louis Stevenson, ‘The Foreigner at Home’, in Memories and Portraits (Rockville: Serenity Publishers, 2009), p. 10. 2 At the time ‘The Foreigner at Home’ was first published in 1887, Stevenson had spent longer periods residing in continental Europe, particularly in France. He then went on to live in the United States before embarking from there, in 1888, to the South Pacific, settling on Samoa. 3 Given the Anglo-world framework within which this study is situated, Scottish places of settlement in continental Europe and Scandinavia, some of which might also be classed as near diaspora locations given their closeness to the British and Irish Isles, have not been included here. There are, however, strong indicators of the Scots associational behaviour in these countries, see for instance David Worthington (ed.), British and Irish Emigrants and Exiles in Europe, 1603–1688 (Leiden: Brill, 1

27

28

Clubbing Together

smaller migration flow than that to overseas destinations, the number of Scots who made their way to towns and cities within the British and Irish Isles is significant, reflecting the long tradition of Scottish mobility that began to extend beyond the borders of Scotland on a more significant level in the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.4 England was the most obvious destination choice for the increasingly mobile Scots: with only a shared land border separating it from Scotland, the opportunities south of the border—which ranged from work and trade opportunities to the availability of potential partners for marriage—were ample.5 Ireland too, particularly the north of the country, offered similarly easily accessible avenues for those Scots seeking to relocate to a place in relatively close proximity to Scotland. Despite the levels of Scottish mobility within the British and Irish Isles, the near diaspora tends to be forgotten in scholarly discussions of the Scottish diaspora. In part this is the result of the near diaspora’s relative smallness, and the complexities surrounding the assessment of the movement of people from Scotland to England, Wales and Ireland. For the early phase of that movement, from the sixteenth through to the early nineteenth century, the number of Scottish migrants is difficult to establish precisely given the lack of statistics for border crossings. This problem was amplified by the Scottish near diaspora’s relative transience, with many a Scot arriving as a seasonal worker,6 as well as the absence of discrete records for the period prior to the taking of national censuses. As a result, scholars have explored other indicators that may point to the number of Scottish residents in particular locations. Langford, for example, has used records of the Westminster General Dispensary to establish that, between 1774 and 1781, a little more than 8 per cent of its male patients, and 4.6 per cent of its female patients, had been born in Scotland.7 While useful as a general yardstick for the number of Scots resident in London at the time, such statistics remain limited in terms of the

4

5 6 7

2010); also Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603–1746 (Leiden: Brill, 2006). For a study of developments post-1945, in which so-called ‘affinity Scots’ played a key part in associational endeavours, see David Hesse, ‘Warrior Dreams: Playing Scotsmen in Mainland Europe, 1945–2010’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2010. Initially, patterns of mobility were localized and largely restricted to movements within Scotland itself. This chiefly included the migration of Highlanders to the emerging urban centres in the south in search of work opportunities. See for example Charles Withers, Urban Highlanders: Highland-Lowland Migration and Urban Gaelic Culture, 1700–1900 (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 1998), p. 3. See also Bueltmann et al., The Scottish Diaspora, p. 153. Cf. Marjory Harper, Adventurers and Exiles: The Great Scottish Exodus (London: Profile Books, 2003), p. 56. Paul Langford, ‘South Britons’ Reception of North Britons, 1707–1820’, in T.C. Smout (ed.), Anglo-Scottish Relations from 1603 to 1900 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 144.

Scotland’s Near Diaspora

29

light they can shed on overall migratory streams and settlement patterns. It is only with census statistics, particularly from the 1841 census onwards, that a clearer picture emerges. On the basis of those census records, Table 1.1 shows the overall number of Scots resident in the British and Irish Isles outside of Scotland between 1841 and the 1930s. Flinn estimates that, in total, 748,577 Scots migrated to other parts of the British Isles between 1841 and 1931.8 Taking general population increases over time into account it is clear that the vast majority of them migrated to England. Prior to the Union of 1707, however, a separate and distinct migration took place to Ireland, bringing significant numbers of Scots to the north as part of the plantation of Ulster.9 As Fitzgerald notes, ‘[t]he involvement of the Scots gave the Plantation of Ulster a distinctive character in comparison with previous plantation schemes’,10 and it is this distinctiveness that has fundamentally shaped the wider legacies of the Scots in Northern Ireland.11 What the Plantation also reveals is that, though divided from Scotland by water, the north of Ireland was easy to reach, particularly by Scots from the south west of Scotland. Flows of both people and goods were significant and, most importantly, they were two-directional within what we might suitably call the near diaspora world of the Irish Sea.12 Migration flows to Ulster certainly remained strong. Between 1881 and 1911, for instance, the overall increase in the number of Scottish-born residents in Ireland is largely down to increases in Ulster. Of the 4,995 Scots who arrived in Ireland between 1881 and 1891, over 90 per cent settled in the north. Numbers remained high, with a still very significant 75 per cent of new arrivals in Ireland moving to Ulster between 1901 and 1911. This general pattern of preference for the north becomes even clearer after the Irish War of Independence (see Table 1.1). The number of Scots who made it to Wales was always small, with migration patterns shaped by the availability of work on Welsh coalfields—a

8 Flinn, Scottish Population History, pp. 442–3. 9 Martin Daunton and Rick Halpern, ‘Introduction’, in Martin Daunton and Rick Halpern (eds), Empire and Others: British Encounters with Indigenous Peoples, 1600–1850 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), p. 4; see also William P. Kelly and John R. Young (eds), Scotland and the Ulster Plantations: Explorations in the British Settlement of Stuart Ireland (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2010). 10 Patrick Fitzgerald, ‘The Seventeenth-Century Irish Connection’, in T.M. Devine and Jenny Wormald (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Modern Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 288. 11 For an excellent new study see Hughes, Scots in Victorian and Edwardian Belfast. 12 Glasgow was one of the principal destinations for Irish migrants to the British Isles, so that, by the mid-nineteenth century, a little over 18 per cent of the city’s population was Irish-born. See Charles Withers, ‘The Demographic History of the City, 1831–1911’, in W. Hamish Fraser and Irene Maver, Glasgow Volume II: 1830 to 1912 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996), p. 150.

30

Clubbing Together Table 1.1: Scots-born resident in England and Wales, in Ireland and in Northern Ireland, 1841–1931

Year

Scots-born resident in England & Wales

Scots-born resident in Ireland

Scots-born resident in Northern Ireland

1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911 1921

103,768 130,087 169,202 213,254 253,528 282,271 316,838 321,825 333,517

n/a n/a 6,952 9,375 10,963 15,392 18,675 23,802 24,165*

1931

366,486

8,585 12,309 16,925 20,318 22,328 27,323 30,101 38,486 12,376 (Irish Free State)* 11,089 (Irish Free State)+

21,829#

* No census was taken for Ireland in 1921 due to the War of Independence; the first census after the war was taken in 1926 in both the Irish Free State and in Northern Ireland. + The census year in the Irish Free State was 1936. # The census year in Northern Ireland was 1937. Sources: Figures for England and Wales are taken from Census of England and Wales, 1891, Vol. IV: General Report with Summary Tables and Appendices (London: HMSO, 1893), p. 114; Census of England and Wales, 1901: General Report with Appendices (London: HMSO, 1904), p. 136; Census of England and Wales, 1911: General Report with Appendices (London: HMSO, 1917), p. 204; Census of England and Wales, 1921: General Report with Appendices (London: HMSO, 1927), p. 147; and Census of England and Wales, 1931: General Report (London: HMSO, 1950), p. 170. Figures for Ireland are taken from Census of Ireland for the Year 1861, Part V.: General Report (Dublin: HMSO, 1864), p. xxxvii; Census of Ireland, 1871, Part III.: General Report, with Illustrative Maps and Diagrams, Summary Tables and Appendix (Dublin: HMSO, 1876), p. 94; Census of Ireland, 1881, Part II: General Report, with Illustrative Maps and Diagrams, Tables and Appendix (Dublin: HMSO, 1882), p. 26; Census of Ireland, 1891, Part II.: General Report, with Illustrative Maps and Diagrams, Tables and Appendix (Dublin: HMSO, 1892), p. 28; Census of Ireland, 1901, Part II: General Report, with Illustrative Maps and Diagrams, Tables and Appendix (Dublin: HMSO, 1902), p. 28; Census of Ireland, 1911: General Report, with Tables and Appendix (London: HMSO, 1913), p. xxxiii. Figures for Northern Ireland are taken from: Government of Northern Ireland: Census of Population of Northern Ireland, 1926: General Report (Belfast: HMSO, 1929), p. i; Government of Northern Ireland: Census of Population of Northern Ireland, 1937: General Summary (Belfast: HMSO, 1940), p. 14. Figures for the Irish Free State come from: Saorstat Eireann: Census of Population, 1926, Volume III, Part II.: Birthplaces (Dublin: Stationary Office, 1929), p. 40; Ireland Census of Population, 1936, Volume III, Part II.—Birthplaces (Dublin: Stationary Office, 1939), p. 141.

Scotland’s Near Diaspora

31

trend that led to the concentration of Scots in Glamorgan; the early twentieth century, however, also saw the impact of the steel industry. What the comparatively small migration figures for Wales highlight is that the movement of Scots within the British and Irish Isles followed the rhythms of labour opportunities in particular areas. This characteristic is documented too, therefore, in the regional breakdown of Scottish settlement in the near diaspora. In 1911, as we have seen in Table 1.1, 321,825 Scots lived in England and Wales. Nearly 28 per cent of them lived in London and the surrounding counties, about 24.5 per cent resided in Lancashire and Yorkshire, with northern counties being another principal destination with at least 19.3 per cent. Tables 1.2a and 1.2b, which show the proportion of Scottish-born per 100,000 in administrative counties and large towns, strongly emphasize this regional distribution—and one, as we shall see, that is key to understanding the geographical location of Scottish ethnic associations. These geographic distribution patterns remained very similar over the ensuing decade, confirming that the relative proximity of the northern counties to Scotland was an important factor in the migrants’ destination decision, particularly when coupled with what the 1931 census report identified as ‘the industrial attraction of the Tyne and Tees areas’.13 Generally, and over time, the industrial centres of England exerted the greatest pull, with visible signs of the Scots’ presence emerging. In Barrow-in-Furness, for example, so-called Scotch Flats were built by Dundee-based Smith & Caird in the early 1870s.14 The story of the Scots in England, then, is one well-encapsulated in distinct regional clustering—a fact powerfully underscored by the prominence of Scots in London. Characteristic, certainly in the eighteenth century, was a dominance of male migrants. More specifically, ‘they were mostly single men in their twenties or thirties who had moved for reasons of work and were disproportionately clustered in professional, business, and skilled occupations’.15 From the 1760s, we also find a large number of Scots connected to the army making their way to the capital, many of them seeking to use the city as a stepping-stone for service overseas, especially in the East India Company (see also chapter five).16 By and large the Scots who came to London in the eighteenth century were from the more advantaged 13 Census of England and Wales, 1931, p. 170. 14 For further details see Donald M. MacRaild, Culture, Conflict and Migration: The Irish in Victorian Cumbria (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1998), p. 53. 15 Nenadic, ‘Introduction’, p. 15; see also Colin G. Pooley and Jane Turnbull, Migration and Mobility in Britain since the Eighteenth Century (London: UCL Press, 1998). 16 The number of Scottish EIC directors based in London is also informative. See Table 4.7 in Bowen, The Business of Empire for the origins of East India Company stockholders from 1756 to 1830. It is important to note that the percentage of Scots is, in all likelihood, not a correct reflection of numbers as many of the London-based Scots who owned stock would not have been included for Scotland.

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Clubbing Together Table 1.2a: Administrative counties in England with the highest proportion of Scottish natives, 1911

Administrative counties

Northumberland Cumberland Westmoreland Durham Middlesex London Hampshire Surrey Essex Cheshire Kent Hertfordshire

Proportion per 100,000 of each sex Males

Females

4,149 3,515 1,392 1,486 1,229 1,156 1,306 968 1,085 908 896 783

4,037 3,949 1,745 1,319 1,127 1,101 873 1,147 858 1,009 788 900

Source: Extracted from Census of England and Wales, 1911, p. 213.

Table 1.2b: Large towns in England with the highest proportion of Scottish natives, 1911 Large towns

Barrow-in-Furness Newcastle upon Tyne Tynemouth Bootle South Shields Gateshead Birkenhead Hornsey Wallasey Gillingham Sunderland Liverpool Source: As Table 1.2a.

Proportion per 100,000 of each sex Males

Females

5,136 4,864 3,123 2,985 2,971 2,880 2,939 3,081 2,368 2,455 2,217 1,993

4,376 4,142 2,751 2,881 2,646 2,550 2,439 2,245 2,349 1,603 1,804 1,838

Scotland’s Near Diaspora

33

Table 1.3: Birthplaces of the population of London at each census, 1861–1911 Proportions per 100,000 population

Scotland Ireland

1861

1871

1881

1891

1901

1911

1,274 3,813

1,261 2,800

1,299 2,114

1,268 1,577

1,248 1,326

1,127 1,143

Source: Census of England and Wales, Table CI, p. 212.

sections of society. This meant that they could often draw on wider kinship and patronage networks to their benefit while settling in London and, as a result, were generally quite adapt at making a new life for themselves in the near diaspora without too many adjustment problems compared to other migrant groups. As much is reflected too in statistics exploring vagrancy in London: they reveal that, in the late eighteenth century, only 3 per cent of adult beggars in the city were Scottish; this compares, for example, to 34 per cent for the Irish.17 As in other areas of England and Wales, the story of Scottish migration to London is complicated by its fluidity and the continuous sojourn of many Scots: as temporary migrants this group is not captured sufficiently by censuses, but nonetheless provided important volume to Scotland’s near diaspora in England. By the late nineteenth century, however, census records provide detailed statistics relating to the Scots who lived in London. In 1871, when the birthplace of London residents is broken down in the General Report, a total of 41,029 Scots are enumerated for London. This makes London Scots the largest community of Scots resident in a city outside of Scotland, comprising a little over 19 per cent of the Scots living in England at the time, and 1.2 per cent of London’s total population.18 Overall estimates suggest that, in each decade of the nineteenth century, about 10 per cent of London migrants hailed from Scotland.19 Numbers remained high in the early twentieth century, but statistics document a general decline from the 1880s onwards. The 1911 census provides a useful breakdown for the period between 1861 and 1911 (Table 1.3, numbers for Ireland included for comparison). 17 Nenadic, ‘Introduction’, p. 15. 18 London includes parts of Middlesex, Surrey and Kent. Calculations based on Census of England and Wales for the Year 1871: General Report, Vol. IV (London: HMSO, 1873), Table 83, p. 70, and Table 87, p. 71. Liverpool followed suit with 20,394 Scots, and strong clusters also existed in the north east of England around the city of Newcastle. See ibid., Table 93, p. 76. 19 Michael Ball and David Sunderland, An Economic History of London, 1800–1914 (London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 49–50.

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In 1931, the number of Scots living in the capital remained above the national average. The overall figures for England and Wales were 94 males and 89 females per 10,000, while London and the five surrounding counties stood at 124 males and 120 females; proportions were generally in that range in the south east of England, and were ‘doubtless due to the attractiveness of the County of London from social and industrial points of view’.20 A significant number of Scots in London came from the social, political and cultural elite: the city was the principal destination for members of the Scottish elite and nascent middle class,21 and it was among this elite that Scottish ethnic associationalism in the near diaspora—in fact, in the world—first developed. Many of these Scots, as Stevenson fittingly observed, may have ‘acquire[d] the Southern knack … [but] still have a strong Scotch accent of the mind’.22 Within the wider context of the Scots migratory pathways in the near diaspora, it is the purpose of this chapter to explore the extent of that ‘Scotch accent of the mind’ to understand how Scots in the near diaspora positioned themselves as Scots, pioneering what became a vibrant ethnic associational culture around the globe.

Out of the Box In London, as in many other diaspora locations, the commemoration of Scotland’s patron saint on St Andrew’s Day preceded the official establishment of ethnic associations, but they soon grew out of the celebrations. The earliest Scottish society that formalized its activities in this way was an association initially known as the Scots Hospital or Corporation. The association was proposed by a Scottish merchant in the mid-seventeenth century and, with backing from other Scots at court, received a Royal Charter in 1665. The roots of this association, however, lay earlier in the seventeenth century, when a so-called Scots Box was set up. This essentially served as a mutual benefit society—with the aid coming out of the box, so to speak, which was kept to collect funds for relief purposes.23 The Scots Box was set up to provide support for Scots in London who had fallen ill or were otherwise in need of support. In part this was a direct result of the fact that Scots who lived in the city were not entitled to parish relief. The 1799 account of the Corporation’s establishment provides a clear view on this motivation behind the Scots Box, noting that while the number of Scots in London had increased significantly with the ascension to the throne of James I, they ‘were still aliens in the land which they were helping to people and

20 21 22 23

Numbers and quotation from Census of England and Wales, 1931, p. 170. Bueltmann et al., Scottish Diaspora, chapter nine. Stevenson, ‘The Foreigner at Home’, p. 16. George G. Cameron, The Scots Kirk in London (Oxford: Becket, 1979), p. 29ff.

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enrich. … No claim to parochial assistance had been established, and of course no provision made for the dark season of life. To beg, or to perish, was the dreadful alternative’.24 The situation was perceived to be so problematic, ‘was sensibly felt and deplored’, that ‘the more affluent of the Scottish Nation, resident in London, found themselves prompted by compassion to take the case of the poor into serious consideration, and to devise a remedy.’25 The Scots Box was a first step in doing so. While there is no surviving manuscript evidence relating to the early operations of the Scots Box, it has been suggested that the box was used by 1613.26 Whatever the exact date, it is clear that members of the Scots Box association met at the King’s Head Tavern in Covent Garden in the late 1650s to discuss the idea of the further formalization of activities and incorporation; subsequent lobbying work then led to the formation of a new voluntary association—the Scottish Corporation—and the granting of its first Royal Charter in 1665. This Charter also provided for the establishment of a Hospital ‘for the maintenance of old or decayed artificers of the Scottish Nation, and for the training up their children to handicraft employments’.27 This hospital was destroyed during the Great Fire of London, but new premises were opened in 1673. Shortly afterwards, in 1676, the Corporation received its second Royal Charter, which was designed to facilitate better government of the organization, and ‘for an enlargement of the Corporation’s numbers, powers, and privileges’.28 The idea of establishing a hospital, however, proved unworkable, and hence ‘was abandoned, almost as soon as adopted; and in its place was substituted the wiser mode of assisting and relieving the poor objects at their own habitations. Thus the slender funds of the Corporation were rendered more extensively efficient’.29 With the third Royal Charter, which was granted in 1775, however, the Corporation was ‘re-established under the ancient name and style of The Scottish Hospital’.30 This was the result too of the Union of 1707, which had a direct impact upon the number of Scots making home in London, increasing the overall volume of that migration and, by extension, the volume of Scots requiring support.

24 An Account of the Institution, Progress, and Present State of the Scottish Corporation in London (London, Bunney & Gold, 1799), p. 6. 25 Ibid. 26 Justine Taylor, A Cup of Kindness: The History of the Royal Scottish Corporation, a London Charity, 1603–2003 (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2003), p. 26. Records from 1820 onwards are held at the London Metropolitan Archives, CLC/126. See also The Caledonian, April 1920, p. 14; in this and subsequent issues, the magazine published John Douglas’s account of the Scots in London, which provides invaluable insights into the early days of Scottish ethnic associations in the city. 27 An Account of the Institution, Progress …, p. 7. 28 Ibid. 29 Ibid. 30 Ibid., p. 9.

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What makes the Scottish Corporation of particular interest to this study is that it was directly connected to the remote diaspora through some of its members. As the list of Corporation governors for 1799 reveals, a good number of them lived abroad.31 While some resided in the West Indies or Canada, the principal connection overseas was to India, and included proprietors of East India stock such as Dick Mungo, who resided in Madras.32 Not only does this emphasize the importance of the Indian link for Scots in London, and the degree to which they were connected through the EIC, it also reveals that even in the early period of Scottish migration and the emergence of lasting ethnic associational structures, there was clear recognition amongst the agents of these structures of the power of associational bonds across borders. This, within the wider context of the establishment of the Scots Box, points to a key motivation amongst Scots for setting up ethnic associations: while the desire to maintain their Scottish identity and celebrate Scottish traditions undoubtedly played its part, the immediate motivation was more practical than that. It was about benevolence directed towards fellow Scots in need, and it was about networks and patronage: Scottishness clearly had a strong circumstantial/instrumental layer and was not simply driven by a nostalgic yearning for the old homeland. For Scots like Mungo, being connected with the Scottish Corporation in London ensured that he kept an anchor in Scottish networks that were important to him for his eventual return to the British Isles. Many Scots utilized ethnic associations in this manner with the express purpose of social capital generation in mind.33 For the Scottish Corporation, the connection to Scots abroad became all the more tangible through the Kinloch Bequest by William Kinloch, a merchant of Calcutta. As was detailed in his will: The residue of my estate … I will and bequeath may be lodged in the British funds at interest, under the management of the Governor and Managers of the fund instituted in London, for the relief of poor and indigent Scotchmen; and that the interest of this residue of my estate, may be received annually … [to] be paid annually to poor and disabled Scotchmen in distress, who may have lost their legs, or arms, eyesight, or otherwise wounded in the army or navy, in the service of their country  …34

Given that Kinloch had only referred to an ‘institution’ rather than the Corporation specifically, it required a decretal order by the High Court of 31 Ibid., p. 15ff. 32 The East-India Register and Directory for 1823 (2nd edn., London: Cox and Baylis, 1823), p. 491. 33 This is a point I have made with respect to New Zealand, but it applies globally throughout the Scottish diaspora. See Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, chapter four. 34 Kinloch Bequest, in Trust to the Scottish Hospital, for Specific Purposes: An Account of Chancery Proceedings concerning the Bequest (London, 1818), pp. 7–8

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Chancery in late June 1818 to confirm that the charitable institution to receive the bequest was indeed the Scottish Corporation.35 The announcement of that decision was followed by a notice in London papers asking those disabled Scotsmen who fit the categories set out to apply to the Secretary of the Kinloch Bequest at the Scottish Hall in London before 30 June 1819 for support. A number of exclusions were put in place: in-pensioners of Greenwich and Chelsea Hospitals could not apply, and neither could those with an annual income of more than £20. Successful applicants would receive support of no more than £8 and no less than £4. Application materials needed to consist of basic information about the applicant, including when he entered the army or navy; when he was discharged from service; in what regiment or ship he served; in what battle he was wounded; the nature of the injury (particularly its impact on gaining active employment); and further particulars on existing pension provisions. Also required were details of the applicant’s personal circumstances, including marital status. Finally, it was ‘necessary that the present condition of the Applicant be certified by a Surgeon belonging to his Majesty’s service … or by a regular and full Surgeon’.36 All these details had to be certified and signed by the Minister and Elder or Churchwarden of the parish in which the applicant resided. Funds from Scots abroad did, as we will see in more detail in later chapters, play an important role in supporting not only ethnic associational initiatives, but also broader philanthropic endeavours. Kinloch provides a particularly powerful example in this respect, as he did not only make a bequest to the Scottish Hospital. Born in Arbuthnot,37 the New Statistical Account for Scotland documents that Kinloch also gave money to support ‘the native poor of the parish of Arbuthnot, at the discretion of the kirk-session, who are empowered, by deed of bequest, to receive the claims of the several applicants, and then aid them as they shall see cause’.38 The Scottish Corporation pursued a broad spectrum of philanthropic initiatives that included the provision of pensions for the elderly—which, in the first decades of the twentieth century, customarily included ‘gifts of lucky heather from Scotland’39—and relief for the destitute and sick, but, at times, also funds to enable a migrant’s return to Scotland.40 At the 35 For the actual decretal order, see ibid., p. 9. 36 Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh), 13 March 1819. 37 See Kinloch Bequest, p. 7. 38 The New Statistical Account of Scotland, No. XVIII. Containing Part of the County of Kincardine, with Map, and Conclusion of Dumfries (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1838), p. 164. 39 See for example photograph of pensioners receiving heather in Aberdeen Journal, 14 September 1928. 40 For details see The Original Design, Progress and Present State of the Scots Corporation of London (London, 1730); also An Account of the Institution, Progress and Present State of the Scots Corporation … (London, 1807).

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same time the Corporation also served sociability, but generally did so to meet a benevolent end, particularly to augment its funds for the types of charitable endeavour outlined above. The most notable events for the generation of capital for those funds were connected to St Andrew’s Day, which also served to celebrate the associations’ anniversaries. In 1823, nearly 200 gentlemen came together at the City of London Tavern, with the Duke of Clarence in the chair. Songs were sung, many a toast was given and ‘[s]ubscriptions and donations to a considerable amount were announced’.41 At times these meetings also provided details about the activities pursued and the aid dispensed. In 1849, for instance, it was noted at a meeting that £2,227 had been given out in money to the poor. Subsequent to the meeting a dinner then followed at the London Tavern and, at 10:30 pm, the hall was cleared so that a dance could commence: ‘the joyous party did not separate till an advanced hour this morning.’42 Communal dinners and banquets had emerged as essential to festivities, and played a critical role in cementing and enhancing relationships and networks between those present.43 What better way to make new connections, establish new networks and get to know an ally, or indeed an opponent, than at a dinner table. It was also in that year that the tradition of the Caledonian Ball gained momentum. While initially hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Atholl for acquaintances in London, the Ball transformed into a subscription event, the proceeds of which were collected for charities, including the Scottish Corporation.44 Royal patronage contributed to the prominence of the Caledonian Ball in London’s annual events calendar,45 though the South African War and the First World War saw it temporarily suspended. This was a common occurrence throughout the diaspora near and far. In Bristol, for instance, the local Caledonian Society did not hold its annual dinners during war years, and even afterwards scaled back social components. As was noted in 1920, the ‘unique manifestations of Scottish sentiment must still be imaginary, and they must remain so until the clouds of war’s aftermath have been dispelled.’ What the Society sought to do instead was ‘amplify its beneficent activities’.46 In London social activities resumed 41 Morning Chronicle (London), 2 December 1823. 42 Morning Post (London), 1 December 1849. 43 As historians have shown, this role of communal banqueting has a long history. See for instance Katherine M.D. Dunbabin, The Roman Banquet: Images of Conviviality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). For the relevance of banquets and festivals in contemporary immigrant society see also Caroline B.  Brettell and Deborah Reed-Danahay, Civic Engagements: The Citizenship Practices of Indian & Vietnamese Immigrants (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012), chapter five. 44 The Ball is still held annually at Grosvenor House, raising money for charity. For details see http://www.royalcaledonianball.com [last accessed 15 October 2013]. 45 See for instance Aberdeen Evening Express, 23 June 1886. 46 Western Daily Press (Bristol), 23 November 1920.

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Figure 1.1: New building of the Scottish Corporation in London, 1880

Source: The Graphic (London), 31 July 1880.

quickly, still bringing together the Scots of London and their guests for reels, other dances and entertainments, while ‘raising considerable sums for the Royal Scots Corporation and the Royal Caledonian Schools’.47 This connection between sociability and philanthropy, as we will see in more detail in chapters two and five, was a tradition that manifested itself even more powerfully in some locations of the remote diaspora. But the London balls were of a significant scale in their own right, with around 2,000 tickets being sold in 1920.48 Within this wider development context, the standing of the Corporation was clearly visible in its second building (Figure 1.1). Opened in July 1880 at Crane Court, Fleet Street, the building was erected on the same site where the previous building had stood—this had been destroyed by a fire in 1877. The new building was designed by Thomas Leverton Donaldson, whose family came from Ayrshire,49 replete, marvelled the Glasgow Herald, with ‘the small turrets so common in ancient Scottish buildings’.50 With the

47 Dundee Courier, 4 February 1924; see also Aberdeen Journal, 26 May 1925 for a list of dances. 48 See The Caledonian, September 1920, p. 204. 49 See Dictionary of Scottish Architects, http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_ full.php?id=200746 [last accessed 16 November 2013]. 50 Glasgow Herald, 22 July 1880.

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band of the London Scottish Volunteers in attendance, the building was opened by the Duke of Argyll who, ‘while regretting the destruction of many invaluable heirlooms in the old building’, argued that the new building ‘was better adapted to the purposes of the Corporation’,51 praising in particular its work in giving out small pensions, which totalled ‘about £2845 a year’.52 This type of activity was, according to the Duke of Argyll, one of the principal reasons why the ‘charity had acquired a well-known rank and place in London’.53 But not all went smoothly. Particularly in the early years of operation, concerns were expressed that not all wealthy Scots in London contributed to the activities of the Scottish Corporation. As was noted in the late eighteenth century, ‘there [was] still a very great proportion of opulent, substantial, thriving Scotsmen’ who failed to engage.54 At the same time, much praise was levelled at a number of women who were committed to the association as patronesses. An appeal had been made to ‘female compassion’, and ‘the immortal fire of charity, which ever burns, in its highest purity, in the heart of a good woman’55 was, it appears, fully released. Amongst the Corporation’s patronesses we find the Duchess of Buccleuch, the Countess Dowager of Balcarras, the Duchess of Montrose and Lady Jane Dundas, wife of Henry Dundas. As was also the case with male officers and governors, not all patronesses resided in London, a good number lived in Scotland itself. This emphasizes the degree to which the associational bounds of London Scots extended beyond the city—a city that was clearly the associational metropole of the Scottish near diaspora. This point becomes all the more clear when exploring in more detail the p ­ roliferation and diversification of London’s Scottish ethnic associational scene.

The Scottish Ethnic Associational Metropole While the Scots Box and subsequent activities of the Scottish Corporation and Scottish Hospital already document a strong investment of Scots in London into the development of ethnic associations, this investment became more and more pronounced throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—as we have seen already, by the early twentieth century London had at least 45 Scottish ethnic associations.56 As the Evening Standard aptly observed in 1914, ‘[i]t is in the Metropolis that they [Scottish ethnic associations] appear to flourish in the most healthy manner. Every county,

51 Edinburgh Evening News, 22 July 1880. 52 Glasgow Herald, 22 July 1880. 53 Ibid. 54 An Account of the Institution, Progress …, p. 10. 55 Ibid., p. 12. 56 Based on details provided in Douglas’s Year Book of Scottish Associations, 1905–1926.

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or group of counties, has its Association. Such Associations have a distinct place in the life of a great city such as London’.57 Clark’s argument that ‘[b]y the late eighteenth century ethnic societies were probably less important for most Scots, as a focus of socializing, than other types of associations which they joined or established’58 does not quite hold up. Rather, we can see a shift in the types of associational activity, and these were the result of generational changes and the evolving needs of Scots resident in London. While philanthropic pursuits remained important, we also find a stronger emphasis on socio-cultural activities, many of which brought together Scots and non-Scots. The annual Caledonian Balls already mentioned remained a key activity but, from the mid-nineteenth century in particular, we also find a growing number of anniversary celebrations for Robert Burns, as well as the hosting of Highland Games.59 This is a general juncture also traceable in other parts of the diaspora. Moreover, informal elements of the Scots’ sociability in London—meetings in taverns and small gatherings—remained of chief importance.60 London generally was a principal hub for associational life and sociability—from coffee houses to county feast societies.61 So the Scots were not exceptional in their endeavours. However, their associational life grew significantly; estimates suggest that by the early twentieth century, the membership of Scottish clubs and societies in London stood somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000,62 consolidating the Scots formal sociability, charity and socio-cultural practices in the city. This was the case too because in London we can see a general diversification of Scottish associations: many new organizations developed that pursued distinct aims that reflected more narrowly defined objectives, thereby adding discrete substance to the associational scene. Amongst the associations thus established were those devoted to a particular figurehead, chiefly Robert Burns,63 but also associations that defined their Scottishness through localized roots rather than a more openly framed Scottish identity. Chapter six will explore in more detail what this difference meant to Scottish ethnic associationalism, but one such

57 Evening Telegraph (Dundee), 12 January 1914. 58 Clark, British Clubs and Societies, p. 297. 59 For instance Islington Gazette, 24 May 1872; 60 See for example Clark, British Clubs and Societies, p. 297. 61 For the role of county feast societies, see ibid., p. 274ff in particular. 62 Marjory Harper, ‘Transplanted Identities: Remembering and Reinventing Scotland across the Diaspora’, in Tanja Bueltmann, Andrew Hinson and Graeme Morton (eds), Ties of Bluid, Kin and Countrie: Scottish Associational Culture in the Diaspora (Guelph: Guelph Series in Scottish Studies, 2009), p. 24. 63 For details on the celebration and role of Robert Burns in Scottish ethnic associational culture, see also Tanja Bueltmann, ‘“The Image of Scotland Which We Cherish in our Hearts”: Burns Anniversary Celebrations in Colonial Otago’, Immigrants & Minorities, 30, 1 (2012), pp. 78–97.

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organization, the Highland Society of London, deserves investigation in the context of this chapter.64 The Highland Society was founded in 1778, when a group of Highlanders met at the end of May at Spring-Garden coffee house. The Society was subsequently regulated by two Public Acts, the first in 1816 and the second in 1831, both being designed to make accountable and set out the administration of the Society. The 1816 Act provides details of how the Society was established in 1778 by ‘[m]any Noblemen and Gentlemen connected with the Highlands and Islands of Scotland’.65 The objects of the Society were subsequently specified as: 1. The restoration of the Highland Dress; 2. The preservation of the Ancient Music of the Highlands; 3. The promoting [of] the cultivation of the Celtic Language; 4. The rescuing from oblivion [of] the valuable remains of Celtic Literature; 5. The establishment of useful public institutions, [such] as Gaelic Schools, the Caledonian Asylum, and a Gaelic Chapel in London; 6. The relief of distressed Highlanders, more especially when at a distance from their native homes; 7. The keeping up [of] the Martial Spirit and rewarding the gallant atchievements [sic] of Highland Corps; and 8. The promoting the Agricultural Improvement, and the General Welfare, of the Northern Parts of the Kingdom.66

By the 1840s these objectives had changed slightly, including a provision for the establishment of schools not only in London, but also ‘in the Highlands of Scotland, and in other Parts of the British Empire’.67 One of the main

64 For a fascinating and detailed examination of the Society’s activities and their extension into Canada, see Katie McCullough, ‘Building the Highland Empire: The Highland Society of London and the Formation of Charitable Networks in Great Britain and Canada, 1778–1857’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Guelph, 2014. 65 21 May 1816, ‘An Act for the Incorporation of The Highland Society of London; for the better Management of the Funds of the Society; and for rendering its Exertions more extensive and beneficial to the Public’, House of Commons Parliamentary Papers. 66 John Sinclair, An Account of the Highland Society of London, from its Establishment in May 1778, to the Commencement of the Year 1813 (London: McMillan, 1813), pp. 6–7. 67 Constitution in The Highland Society of London, and Branch Societies; with Alphabetical Lists of Members (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1846), p. 3.

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activities of the Society, especially in its early days, was the provision of support for military pensioners.68 Membership qualifications for the Highland Society are interesting: while the expected criterion of Highland descent was noted in the Constitution, the Society was also open to ‘Proprietors of Lands in the Highlands’, those who had ‘done service to that part of the Kingdom’, Highland Corps officers, and ‘Husbands of Highland Ladies’.69 This brought together quite an eclectic membership, which had in common a distinguished socio-economic background and was, therefore, undoubtedly elitist in that sense. Elitism, therefore, has been brought forward as an argument by some scholars for the purpose of downplaying the role of ethnic associations. Charlotte Erickson, for example, noted in her work on the English that their ethnic clubs were ‘not in touch’70 with the wider immigrant community, and therefore dismissed their relevance. The evidence already presented in this study makes it clear that this is a misleading argument with respect to the Scots: while many Scottish ethnic associations were indeed composed of members of the social elite—a fact explained too by the costs involved in joining associations—and were, therefore, to some extent elitist, the key is that the activities of the elite gathered, its associational behaviour, was not automatically elitist in itself nor proclaimed as such by association members. Customarily, in fact, the activities they pursued transcended the elitist bounds visible on the outset. In particular this was achieved by means of benevolence—charity and relief efforts in the tradition of the Scots Box designed to aid a wider body of Scottish migrants—but also educational endeavours and the hosting of Caledonian Games. A Mr Chalmers, speaking at a dinner of the Caledonian Society for the Education of the Sons of Scotch Soldiers and Sailors, raised what was the principal point too for many members of Scottish ethnic associations: like most Scotchmen, he felt a strong attachment to his native country; he was delighted to see an Institution which had for its object the education of the sons of Scotch soldiers and sailors who had suffered in the public service. … those poor children could receive but little assistance of this nature form the inhabitants of a country so severely oppressed by a system of poor-rate as England. It must therefore proceed from affluent Scotchmen, and the promotion of this Institution is a proof of what

68 Details are available of the regiments they served in, as well as their ailments, residence and the allowance they received, in the records of the Highland Society of London, Dep 268/15 45, National Library of Scotland. 69 Constitution in The Highland Society of London, and Branch Societies; with Alphabetical Lists of Members (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1856), p. 4. 70 Charlotte Erickson, ‘English’, in Stephan Thernstrom, Ann Orlov and Oscar Handlin (eds), Harvard Encyclopaedia of American Ethnic Groups (2nd edn., Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980), p. 333.

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There was a clear sense amongst many Scots in a good position that they should aid fellow Scots in need of support. This belief found its strongest expression through the dispensation of relief amongst Scottish migrants in distress—an associational remit that was also paramount to the Highland Society as its members too followed a profound sense of patrician benevolence. And this was a benevolence built on the classic interpretation: that charity from the elite has the power to solve prevailing social problems,72 utilizing the mechanism of a subscriber democracy to achieve that end by means of ethnic associationalism. For the Highland Society, as for the Scottish Corporation, one marker of its elite standing was the significant level of royal patronage, which included HRH Frederick, Duke of York and Albany; HRH Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn; and HRH Augustus Frederick Duke of Sussex and Earl of Inverness. In 1856 Albert, the Prince Consort, was the Society’s Chief, while, in 1873, the role fell to HRH the Prince of Wales. That particular role was largely ceremonial, but the royal postholders nonetheless gave the Society significant traction. Moreover, many distinguished members were actively involved in the Society, engaging in activities, particularly the annual meetings. For politicians—a group that was prominently represented among the Society’s membership—those meetings sometimes served as a platform for making statements about the current affairs in the country. There were also many members with a military background, including, for instance, Major General Sir Colquhoun Grant, the Honourable Sir Thomas Strange of Madras and Captain Thomas Buchanan, who was in East India Service. The annual gatherings of the Highland Society were elaborate affairs. In 1868, when HRH the Prince of Wales was Chief, and HRH the Duke of Cambridge presided, the festival was celebrated at the Freemasons’ Tavern. As the London Standard commented, the Highland Society’s festivals were perhaps ‘more attractive than those of any other society in London, 71 Morning Chronicle (London), 19 June 1820. This would also have been supported by the Scots gathered in Leeds in 1823, who toasted universities and expressed clearly the critical role of education. See Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh), 20 September 1823. 72 See for instance David Roberts, Paternalism in Early Victorian England (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1979); also Tanja Bueltmann and Donald M. MacRaild, ‘Globalizing St George: English Associations in the Anglo-world to the 1930s’, Journal of Global History, 7, 1 (2012), pp. 88–9.

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arising from the fact that the vice presidents, stewards, and others [were] appearing in clannish uniforms’.73 There was a dinner at 7 pm, and various pipers, including Mr Ross, the Queen’s piper, entertained the guests with musical interludes. At the end of the nineteenth century celebrations took an altogether more sombre tone during the Boer War. The Highland Society engaged quite directly with developments in southern Africa, having been asked, for instance, by the Marquis of Tullibardine for their ‘co-operation and in influence … in raising two hundred and fifty men (Scotsmen preferred) for the Scottish Horse’ that was being set up in Johannesburg.74 The fact that the Highland Society was approached does not surprise given its involvement in the organization of the London Scottish Volunteer Corps in 1859, for which it had worked together with the local Caledonian Society.75 Eventually the Highland Society, through the Volunteer Corps, ‘raised 400 men’ for the Scottish Horse.76 The Corps was disbanded at the end of March 1908, but a new Territorial Force was established, which ‘maintained the traditions of the old regiment, and helped to supply the fighting strength of the British Army’, notably during the First World War.77 The connection between Scottish ethnic societies and regiments was profound, as we will see in later chapters, not only in London. Another important initiative the Highland Society pursued in the latter part of the nineteenth century was the dispensation of educational bursaries. This was a direct reflection of the importance given to education in Scotland: it was seen as a fundamental pillar to life—an enabling pillar at that which had the power to transform lives, giving bursary recipients immediate agency in bettering their lives. The tradition of bursaries, therefore, followed directly in the footsteps of the lad o’ pairts,78 and was seen as crucial because ‘if the spirit for education should be subdued in Scotland, the national spirit would soon decay after it.’79 This belief was shared by many Scots, and provides important context to other associational endeavours, including, for instance, the establishment of the Royal Caledonian School (initially

73 London Standard, 23 March 1868. 74 Morning Post (London), 31 December 1900. For further details on the Scottish Horse see also chapter four in this book. 75 This was supported jointly with the Caledonian Society, see John Douglas, The Chronicles of the Caledonian Society of London (London: Caledonian Society, 1930), p. 131. 76 The Caledonian, May 1920, p. 57. 77 The Caledonian, June 1920, pp. 107–8 (quote on p. 107). 78 See for instance Richard D. Anderson, Education and the Scottish People, 1750–1918 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995). This also found a fitting outlet in the celebrations held in honour of Robert Burns as he epitomized the lad o’ pairts. See for instance Murray Pittock (ed.), Robert Burns in Global Culture (Plymouth: Bucknell University Press, 2011). 79 Morning Chronicle (London), 19 June 1820.

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the Asylum), which was set up to support the children of ‘soldiers, sailors and marines, natives of Scotland, who had died, or had been disabled in the service of their country’.80 One of the applicants for a Highland Society bursary in the summer of 1893 was Murdoch Beaton. In order for his application to be assessed, Beaton was required to fill in a specially designed questionnaire, providing details in support of his application. Beaton was born at Ardelve, Lochalsh on 18 December 1869, and wanted to become a teacher. He had already attended university for two years, studying Latin, Greek and English from 1891–2, while, in the academic year 1892–3 he was taking Latin, Greek and Maths. Beaton reported that he was seeking to acquire an MA degree and needed two more sessions to achieve that goal. He was already receiving a £10 bursary from the University of Aberdeen, and had previously been given support from the Highland Society. He was also helped by his brother, an agricultural labourer. The form on which Beaton had to provide these details was then sent to the applicant’s parish minister, or possibly another person of standing who knew him, for the purpose of verification by someone with knowledge of the applicant’s character, and to ‘give any further information as to his merits and ability’. In Beaton’s case this testimony was provided by R. Morison, Minister of Kintail, who confirmed that Beaton deserved support, recommending him ‘most strongly to the favourable consideration of the Society’.81 Another important characteristic of the Highland Society of London was that it established a branch system. Branches were set up For more effectually promoting the objects of the Society, and that the Natives of Scotland in general, and of the Highlands in particular, and those connected with Scotland by alliance, friendship, or otherwise, may cultivate an attachment to each other, and to their Parent Land, wherever they may happen to reside; Branches of the Society may be established in any of the British Settlements, and in any Foreign Country, where any number of Scotchmen are settled, by Commissions subscribed by the President and Secretary, and addressed to those who are the most likely to take a pride and pleasure in being connected with this Society, authorizing them to form such Branches, and to constitute them on principles the best calculated to promote its objects, under the peculiar circumstances of each place.82

What makes this especially interesting is that the majority of branches were located overseas, emphasizing once more the degree to which transnational 80 The Caledonian, May 1920, p. 57. 81 Form found amongst the records of the Highland Society of London, volume listing candidates for bursaries, Dep 268/15 44, National Library of Scotland. 82 The Highland Society of London … (1856), pp. 15–6.

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associational connections were already promoted at a comparatively early juncture in the development of Scottish ethnic associational culture. By the mid-nineteenth century, for instance, branches existed in Madras (instituted in 1814); Bombay (1822); Canada (1818), with its own branches in Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, Toronto, Niagara, Hamilton, Amherstburg, Bytown, Johnstown, Goderich and Perth; Nova Scotia (1838), with its own branches in Pictou and County of Sydney; Prince Edward Island (1838); but also in Aberdeen (1820). These branches followed the objectives set out by the London head Society, catering for natives of Scotland, but especially Highlanders. It was possible for members of one branch to join another and, in Madras, the Constitution required ‘[t]hat all Members of the Highland Society of London, when resident at Madras, be Vice-Presidents’.83 The branch system clearly formalized connections within a wider Scottish diaspora. This was underpinned by the presence, among the London head society’s membership, of members resident overseas. In 1873, for example, we find Sir Henry Barkly, Governor of the Cape Colony, and Robert Pringle of Bombay.84 As the nineteenth century progressed, sociability moved further to the fore of Scottish ethnic associational activities in London and found its principal organized expression in the establishment of the Caledonian Society in 1837.85 This Society brought together Highlanders and Lowlanders and, while also pursuing benevolent aims, chiefly met for ‘social purposes’.86 Another organization that served that function especially well was the city’s Burns Club.87 Such clubs, and the celebration of Burns anniversaries, had become increasingly popular, having emerged as ‘a recognized social fixture across Britain’.88 The London Burns Club was a member too of the Federated Council of Scottish Associations in London—a federation set up during the First World War ‘for the co-ordination of Scottish effort’ in the city,89 particularly in relation to war relief efforts and to help Scottish soldiers. In the summer of 1915, for instance, it was announced that the Federation distributed ‘35,000 articles of warm clothing during the pasts months to Scottish regiments’, and a new appeal was made ‘for socks, shirts, and other 83 Ibid., p. 54. 84 List of members, The Highland Society of London, and Branch Societies; with a List of Members (London: Beveridge & Fraser, 1873), p. 28ff. 85 See David Hepburn, Chronicles of the Caledonian Society of London, Part 1, 1837–1890 (London: Caledonian Society, 1890). 86 The Caledonian, May 1920, p. 58. 87 Burns was thus used as a site of memory in the Scottish diaspora, see Bueltmann, ‘“The Image of Scotland”’. 88 Clark McGinn, ‘Vehement Celebrations: The Global Celebration of the Burns Supper since 1801’, in Murray Pittock (ed.), Robert Burns in Global Culture (Plymouth: Bucknell University Press, 2011), p. 194. 89 Aberdeen Journal, 10 February 1915.

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articles of warm clothing’.90 Items were also sent to Scottish prisoners of war in Germany. These efforts continued after the war, for instance when the Federation was involved in garnering support for the establishment of the Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle, securing significant subscriptions and donations.91 Eventually, however, and with the immediate purpose of the war gone, the Federation was difficult to maintain.92 But Scots in London still had a growing number of associations to choose from that were more or less ethnic in character, with some organizations, such as the London Camanachd Club, providing a suitable platform for those keen on channelling their Scottishness through sport, shinty in this case.93 All of these organizations, and the many that existed but have not been explored in detail here, helped maintain a robust Scottish ethnic associational culture in London well into the twentieth century. As a contemporary observer noted, ‘[n]owhere in the world is community of interest more essential than in the Empire City, where it is so easy to merge into common throng.’94

Beyond London The prolific Scottish ethnic associational scene in London should not detract from the rich history of Scottish clubs and societies elsewhere in the near diaspora. Scots established ethnic associations wherever they settled (Map 1.1), but the near diaspora immediately demonstrates a key characteristic that we can also see elsewhere around the world: that particular cluster areas can be identified, and that these are generally in line with Scottish settlement patterns. What this indicates is that the Scots’ associational and diasporan behaviour was not driven by a minority sentiment—where small groups of Scots would have established ethnic associations as a means to safeguard their identity—but rather was a common phenomenon that spread with Scots wherever they went in significant numbers. In the near diaspora regional centres were especially important, including, for instance, Norwich and Bristol.95 A Scots Society was established in the former in 1775, and eventually given the name Society of Universal Good-Will, under which it began to operate from the early 1780s—though the Scots Society name was largely maintained. It was at a celebration of Scotland’s patron saint that the decision was made to combine sociability with philanthropy when to ‘an overplus of three shillings and sixpence’

90 Ibid. 91 The Caledonian, September 1920, p. 203. 92 Evening Telegraph (Dundee), 5 February 1923. 93 The Caledonian, August 1920, p. 153. 94 Ibid., March 1921, p. 459. 95 See also Clark, British Clubs and Societies, p. 89.

Scotland’s Near Diaspora

49

Map 1.1: The geography of Scottish ethnic associations in the near diaspora

Source: The author.

‘ten shillings were added, to relieve any poor Scotchman who might come to Norwich in distress’.96 Regular subscriptions were taken from the end of 1777, which is also when objects were formalized. As is outlined in an account of the Society’s first years of operation, the main objective was similar to that of the early London groups, designed expressly to supply the defect in the English law, with regard to the natives of Scotland, who are by these laws, in common with natives of all other nations, deemed foreigners or strangers, concerning whom it is said, that “a stranger coming into England and not having obtained a proper parish settlement, is not entitled to parish relief, that no body is obliged to relieve him, but that they might let him starve.97

What this emphasizes is that awareness of the shortfall of parish relief 96 An Account of the Scots Society in Norwich, From its Rise in 1775, until it Received the Additional Name of the Society of Universal Good-Will in 1784 (2nd edn., Norwich: W. Chase and Co., n.d.), p. 3. 97 Ibid., p. 4.

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regulations was widespread amongst the Scottish immigrant community in England. After over seven decades in the Union, this discrepancy in the treatment of Scots, their framing as ‘strangers’, was startling, and provided strong impetus for the type of patrician benevolence we have also seen active in London. In Norwich, proceedings were formalized by 1779, and annual meetings on or around St Andrew’s Day now comprised a business and a social element.98 Amongst the earliest subscribers of the organization we find the Right Hon. Earl of Roseberry, and there were also benefactors and subscribers from outside of Norwich, including Edward Cairns from Birmingham, Clement Francis from Bengal, or Robert Murray, based in Rhode Island. For 1782 we also find the name of Mrs Hayley, who is listed as the ‘Directress of the Society of Universal Good Will, N. America’,99 documenting a strong transnational link. Initially the numbers of those relieved were small, but they steadily increased. Support varied from cash allowances to the covering of burial expenses, and the Society supported local hospitals in Norwich.100 The Society also began to aid soldiers, and ‘[f]rom this and other circumstances, the utility of the Society became more and more conspicuous, and its reputation increased.’101 It was perhaps this increase in reputation that contributed to the establishment of a branch of the Society in London. While there is evidence of the branch struggling in the Society’s Account, this remains a very interesting development: rather than from the metropole to the province, here the associational reach extended from the province into the metropole—and, as we have seen through the list of subscribers, out into the remote diaspora too, powerfully underpinning the idea that even in the early days Scottish ethnic associationalism was not insular, but clearly part of—and consciously so—a wider Scottish associational world. Another interesting development in Norwich was that the Society began to broaden its focus to non-Scots. Not only were they able to become honorary members, the Society too was opened up so that non-Scots could receive support. By 1784, the Scottish founders of the association were no longer in the majority, and while Scots were still supported, objectives were changed to permit the dispensation of aid to natives not only of the whole of Great Britain, but the natives of foreign countries too. The parochial report on ‘the state of the poor’ from the late 1790s provides evidence of this shift, listing the numbers of those aided and their country of origin (Table 1.4). Subsequent to the opening up of structures, it was also deemed sensible to reflect this in the name of the Society, hence it was to be known as the

98 See for instance Norfolk Chronicle (Norwich), 20 November 1779. 99 An Account of the Scots Society in Norwich …, pp. 1–2. 100 Ibid., p. 6; also p. 9. 101 Ibid., p. 14.

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Scotland’s Near Diaspora Table 1.4: Recipients of relief from the Norwich Scots Society Origin

1778

1779

1780

1781

1782

1783

1784

Total

5

7 3

6 3

11 3

13 5

27 10

5

4

42 5 1 5 5 8 1 2

111 29 1 14 5 8 3* 2 2 1 1 1 2

Scotland Ireland France America Germany Italy Turkey Prussia Barbary Norway Hungary Sweden Jewesses

1 2 1

1 1 2

Wives and children of above

172

Total number

356

* this calculation is obviously incorrect, but was listed as such in the original report Source: Frederick Morton Eden, The State of the Poor: Or, An History of the Labouring Classes in England, From the Conquest to the Present Period, vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 524.

‘Scots Society in Norwich, or, the Society of Universal Good-Will’. This name was meant to better reflect the importance to the Society of ‘the Dictates of Humanity, [that were] essential to the Principles of Christianity’.102 These wider principles also found expression in the Society’s commitment to political matters, particularly the issue of slavery.103 To the west of the country there was also a thriving Scottish associational scene that, particularly in its early days, focused on philanthropic pursuits. In Bristol they were channelled through a Caledonian Society. This had been founded in the early nineteenth century ‘for the relief of unfortunate but deserving Scotchmen’,104 and thus spent much time on the provision 102 Songs to be Sung at the Concert for the Benefit of the Scots Society in Norwich: Or, The Society of Universal Good Will … To Which is Added the State of the Society for 1783, and Part of 1784 (Norwich: W. Chase and Co., n.d.), p. 3. 103 See for instance An Enquiry into the Origin, Progress, and present State of Slavery. With a Plan for the gradual, reasonable, and secure Emancipation of Slaves (London: Murray, 1789), quoted in Monthly Review, vol. 81 (1789), p. 90. 104 Mathew’s Annual Directory for the City and Country of Bristol (Bristol, 1863), p. 57. The

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of aid akin to poor relief for Scots. By December 1822, the association had at least 40 members, a number of Englishmen among them, who were staunch supporters of the Society and its objectives. As the then Caledonian Society president observed, ‘to the English members he felt more than ordinarily indebted, because they had supplied the deficiency of many of our own opulent resident Scotchmen, who had hitherto resisted the call of the wants and necessities of their less fortunate countrymen.’105 Ethnic associationalism was not something that every Scot would automatically adopt, nor be forced to join, but overt criticism of those who did not participate was by no means uncommon. What the Bristol Caledonian Society hoped to do was stimulate ‘philanthropic feelings’106 in all Scots, thereby activating their sense of patrician benevolence. One of the Bristol Society’s leading members was James McMurtrie. Born at Dalquharran in the parish of Dailly, Ayrshire, McMurtrie’s father was manager of the collieries there—an occupation that also appealed to James himself. He first went to Liverpool for trade, however, but was soon displeased with the opportunities available there, thus heading north east to Newcastle upon Tyne. He subsequently entered into mining at the Towneley Collieries in Ryton, and eventually became manager of Earl Waldegrave’s Essex and Somershire estates (collieries), a role he held for about 40 years until his retirement in early 1903. McMurtrie provides an excellent example of the degree to which many of the Scots engaged in ethnic associations were not only ‘associational’, i.e. engaged in a plethora of clubs and societies, but also civic-minded, being keenly aware of the role of public volunteerism and small-scale political activism. Amongst other roles, McMurtrie was a member of Somerset County Council, acting as alderman, and served as president of the South Wales Institute of Engineers. His role in the Bristol Caledonian Society culminated in his election as president in 1906.107 What makes the story of the Bristol Caledonian Society particularly interesting are the many cases of direct interaction between the Caledonian Society and other relief agencies, as well as the courts, in the city of Bristol. If, for instance, applicants for relief to the Bristol Corporation were found to be of ‘Scottish nationality [they] were sent to be tested by the agent of the Caledonian Society in Bristol’.108 This level of interaction was by no means unheard of, but its extent in Bristol was significant, and also demonstrates the level of recognition many Scottish ethnic associations Bristol Caledonian Society was probably established in 1819 or 1820; it certainly held its fortieth anniversary dinner in 1859, see Western Daily Press (Bristol), 1 December 1859. 105 Bristol Mercury, 9 December 1822. 106 Ibid., 27 November 1841 107 Western Daily Press (Bristol), 4 February 1914; also 7 February 1914 for funeral report. 108 E.E. Butcher, Bristol Corporation of the Poor, 1696–1898 (Bristol: Bristol Record Society, 1972), p. 18.

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53

received from wider society: in Bristol the Caledonian Society was clearly seen within a wider civic context as a partner in the provision of relief and benevolence. Within this remit, the Bristol Caledonian Society set great store by only aiding those who deserved support, also pursuing anyone who was discovered to have made fraudulent relief claims. In December 1828, for instance, Thomas Murry and Margaret Douglas were sentenced to ‘three calendar months to hard labour, for obtaining money from the Caledonian Society, by false representations’.109 Four years later a couple falsely claimed Scottish ancestry to receive money. As was reported in the Bristol Mercury, On Monday last, a common beggar, accompanied by his wife and two children, were brought before Mr. Alderman Goldney, in the custody of a policeman, charged by a member of the Caledonian Society, with imposing upon the Society … The Caledonian Society is a charitable association of Scotchmen, for the relief of such of their unfortunate countrymen as may happen to be destitute in a strange place; and, on the 9th instant, the man had applied to its Secretary, stating his name was Stewart, and that he was a sailor out of employ: he was relieved. In the evening, the woman came with her two children; she said her name was Campbell—that she was a sailor’s wife, and that her husband was expected daily in this port from Malta: she also was relieved. On the Monday following the whole party were detected begging from door to door, by a member of the Society, who immediately gave them into custody … Mr. Alderman Goldney spoke in the highest terms of the Society, and said that he felt himself called upon to punish, as severely as possible, so gross an imposition on so excellent an institution.110

Husband and wife were subsequently imprisoned for a month, while the children were sent to St Peter’s Hospital. It may well be, of course, that the couple was generally in despair and only seeking a way out, but attempts to unjustly claim relief from the Caledonian Society were by no means rare. It was only a few years later, for instance, that the local press issued a notice to the public alerting them to the schemes of an ‘old man now in this city seeking charity’. This man, the notice went on, was ‘a native of Scotland, about 55 years of age, about 5 feet 9 inches high, of respectable appearance’, who ‘professes to be in ill health’. What makes the case especially interesting is the fact that he had previously been in Bristol a couple of years ago ‘with the same tale, but the Caledonian society discovered him to be an impostor, and had him apprehended, when he was committed to the tread-mill for six months’.111 The Bristol Caledonian Society, it seems, was not to be messed with. 109 Bristol Mercury, 16 December 1828. 110 Ibid., 17 November 1832. 111 This and the previous quotes from ibid., 12 September 1835.

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This became all the more apparent in the case of Ann Stewart, ‘the girl who has of late been such a nuisance to the police’112 due to drunkenness and disorderly behaviour. The Caledonian Society offered to cover the expenses of Stewart’s return passage to Glasgow, an offer it had previously made so as ‘to send her home’, but ‘just on the eve of her departure she refused to proceed’.113 While it is not clear whether Stewart ever arrived in Glasgow, she does seem to have left Bristol. As was reported in late December 1859, Ann Stewart had arrived in Belfast, having ‘been transmitted to Glasgow, via Belfast’, by the Bristol Caledonian Society.114 Associational initiatives of this type, together with the plethora of social and cultural pursuits we have already seen hosted in London—and which also played a role in Bristol115—began to proliferate throughout the British Isles in the course of the nineteenth century. This was the case even in remoter areas, where, at times, societies were set up to span across a region rather than just one city.116 In the early 1820s, for instance, a Caledonian Society began operating in the West Riding ‘for the purpose of promoting good fellowship, friendly intercourse, and mutual acts of kindness amongst its members’,117 and met in various locations throughout the region, including Leeds and Sheffield. Given the relative smallness of these regional centres, it was deemed most suitable to combine forces, alternating meeting places to enhance the potential catchment area and membership retention. The Society, the local press recognized, would ‘afford many advantages’ not only to Society members, ‘but also to their countrymen and the public in general’.118 This external recognition of Scottish ethnic associational activities powerfully underpins their civility. Another key centre of Scottish ethnic associationalism in the near diaspora was Newcastle upon Tyne, where Scots began to settle in clusters from the mid-nineteenth century in particular. Many came from the Northern Isles and regions in the north east of Scotland—a pattern Byrne attributes to the need in Tyneside for seaman and skilled workers for

112 Western Daily Press (Bristol), 2 December 1859. 113 Ibid., 23 November 1859. 114 Sussex Advertiser (Lewes), 20 December 1859. The article also tells us a little more about Ann. She was apparently 19 years old and, though Scottish, had been born on the island of Malta. She worked as a sailor, using the name Tom Stewart, her gender only ‘discovered by her falling from one of the yards on her last homeward voyage’. 115 See Menu for Bristol Caledonian Society Annual Banquet, 30 November 1922, Alderman Frank Sheppard Papers, 11174/31, Bristol Record Office. 116 The development of English ethnic associations provides an interesting comparator here, see Lesley C. Robinson, ‘Englishness in England and the “Near Diaspora”: Organisation, Influence and Expression, 1880s–1970s’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Ulster, 2014. 117 Leeds Intelligencer, 13 November 1820. 118 York Herald, 23 December 1820.

Scotland’s Near Diaspora

55

the shipyards, although a number also worked in mining.119 The relative proximity to Scotland certainly played its part in attracting Scots to the region. Subsequent to their arrival, a plethora of clubs and societies were established, including St Andrew’s and Caledonian societies, such as the Whitley Bay & District Society of St Andrew (1930), but also Burns clubs in Newcastle (1864), Sunderland (1897) and Darlington (1906).120 Even the more working-class Scots who made it to centres of ship-building and engineering recognized the value of ethnic associationalism, promoting it as an integral element of their migrant experience in northern England.121 Further south in Hull associational activities were more limited in scope—a result partly of the comparatively low number of Scots resident in the city. In 1891, for instance, Scots represented less than 1 per cent of Hull’s population. This number, however, began to increase in the course of the first decades of the twentieth century,122 and this trend helped facilitate the emergence and subsequent consolidation of Scottish ethnic associationalism in Hull through the Scots’ Society of St Andrew, which was set up in the summer of 1910 for the purpose of bringing together Scots in the region and to help those in distress. Within this wider context it is worth revisiting Clark’s study as he has argued that ‘[i]n provincial towns, with their much smaller immigrant numbers, ethnic associations were of minor significance.’123 This is not a point that can be upheld for the Scots, and certainly not as the nineteenth century progressed: their associational culture was pervasive not only in the metropole and other large centres, but also the regions. While the Scots’ associationalism was concentrated in those areas where they settled in clusters, it was not exclusive to them. Unsurprisingly, given the settlement patterns outlined earlier in this chapter, we also find a strong Scottish ethnic associational scene in Ireland. In Belfast in particular a number of organizations were established by

119 D. Byrne, ‘Immigrants and the Formation of the North Eastern Industrial Working Class: Another Venue for the “Wild West Show”’, North East Labour History Bulletin, 30 (1996), pp. 29–36. 120 Burnett, ‘“Hail Brither Scots O’ Coaly Tyne”’, pp. 6–7; John A. Burnett, ‘“Department of Help for Skint Scotsmen!’: Associationalism among Scots Migrants in the North East of England, ca. 1859–1939’, in Tanja Bueltmann et al. (eds), Ties of Bluid, Kin and Countrie: Scottish Associational Culture in the Diaspora (Guelph: Guelph Series in Scottish Studies, 2009), pp. 221–36. 121 John A.  Burnett and Donald M.  MacRaild, ‘The Irish and Scots on Tyneside’, in Robert Colls (ed.), Northumbria: History and Identity 547–2000 (Chichester: Phillimore, 2007), pp. 178–93. 122 Angela McCarthy, ‘The Scots’ Society of St Andrew, Hull, 1910–2001: Immigrant, Ethnic and Transnational Association’, in Tanja Bueltmann et al. (eds), Ties of Bluid, Kin and Countrie: Scottish Associational Culture in the Diaspora (Guelph: Guelph Series in Scottish Studies, 2009), pp. 238–9. 123 Clark, British Clubs and Societies, p. 300.

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migrant Scots. Belfast was a city that witnessed rapid industrialization in the course of the nineteenth century, and this was a development that facilitated the arrival of a large number of Scots—a number that peaked at well over 12,000 in 1911.124 With only a short sea crossing separating Scotland from the north of Ireland, this migration was an attractive one to many a Scot in search of work opportunities. Among them were Scots who would eventually emerge as Belfast’s foremost capitalists and industrialists, and established their associational outlet in the Belfast Benevolent Society of St Andrew, which was set up in 1867.125 The Society followed directly in the footsteps of its Dublin namesake, early records documenting that the Belfast Society was founded ‘on [the] same principles and managed by similar Rules and Bye-Laws as adopted by the Dublin Scottish Benevolent Society of St Andrew’.126 The Belfast Society soon gained momentum and, after a year with ‘cheering prospects’,127 continued hosting dinners and other social activities for Belfast’s Scottish community, while also pursuing benevolent initiatives that included the provision of pensions, food vouchers and return passages to Glasgow for those Scots who had failed to make a good living for themselves.128 Among those engaged in the Belfast Benevolent Society of St Andrew were also famous non-Scots like Edward Harland and Gustav Wilhelm Wolff. Their presence emphasizes the degree to which Scottish ethnic associationalism exerted a powerful pull that was not restricted to Scottish roots or sentiments, but appealed to the social elite more broadly. In part, the reason for this, certainly in Belfast, was the association’s ability to serve a wider community role, one the Belfast News-Letter identified as ‘firmly rooted’ in ‘the social year in Belfast’.129 There was also an arm of Scottish ethnic associational culture that could cater for Scots from a working-class background, substituting lavish dinners for more earthy pursuits. In Belfast this role fell to the Belfast Scottish Association, which was set up at the end of 1888 and focused more on cultural activities and entertainment than benevolence. It also, as Hughes has noted, offered lower subscription fees than the Belfast Benevolent Society

124 See Table 1.1 in Kyle Hughes, ‘Scottish Migrant Community’, p. 11. 125 Kyle Hughes, ‘“We Scotsmen by the Banks o’ the Lagan”: The Belfast Benevolent Society of St Andrew, 1867–1917’, Irish Economic and Social History, 37, 1 (2010), pp. 24–52. 126 Minute Book of the Belfast Benevolent Society of St Andrew (Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, D2385/1/1), 14 November 1867, quoted in Hughes, ‘Scottish Migrant Community’, p. 122. See also http://www.standrewssocietybelfast.co.uk/history-1 for scans [last accessed 10 July 2013]. 127 Belfast News-Letter, 2 December 1869. 128 Hughes, ‘Scottish Migrant Community’, p. 125. The Society is still active, see http:// www.standrewssocietybelfast.co.uk/ [last accessed 10 July 2013]. 129 Belfast News-Letter, 1 December 1890; quote first seen in Hughes, ‘Scottish Migrant Community’, p. 126.

Scotland’s Near Diaspora

57

of St Andrew—a fact that reduced obstacles for those wanting to join and directly led to a larger membership.130 At the end of the nineteenth century there were also a number of initiatives to boost other entertainments, cultural and sporting pursuits. Curling clubs were founded, the tradition of celebrating the anniversary of Robert Burns was formalized in a Burns Club in 1872,131 and Highland Games were held—though the latter was a short-lived tradition only running from 1889 to 1893.132 Further south in what is now the Republic of Ireland, Dublin saw the establishment of the Scottish Benevolent Society well over three decades earlier than Belfast in 1831. As was noted in Curry’s guide for strangers to Dublin in 1835, This society was founded … for the relief of indigent Scotchmen and their families, who might be reduced to temporary distress. The members are exclusively Scotchmen, or the sons of Scotchmen. At present, they considerably exceed a hundred, and each subscribes one guinea annually. Last year 139 individuals were relieved, most of whom were sent home to Scotland. It is in contemplation, when the funds will permit, to educate orphan children of Scottish parents, who may be deemed fit objects for the purpose.133

By 1847 the subscription was £1 1s, and the education remit had been broadened to include ‘children of impoverished parents’.134 In that year the Society’s patron was the Earl of Haddington, Thomas Hamilton, former Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.135 The Society had its own physician,136 and was keen on helping Scots in distress who deserved support—albeit fully aware that some were ‘doubtful’ recipients of aid, ‘and a few perhaps unworthy’. This, the Society’s Treasurer noted in 1861, when 195 cases had been assessed, ‘is in the natural world: the seed sown by the husbandman does not always fall into good ground and produce the desired result’, but the effort to achieve this was paramount to the Society.137 In that year 20 applicants were widows, and £34 were dispensed among them. Moreover, £26 5s 9d 130 Hughes, ‘Scottish Migrant Community’, p. 126. 131 Ibid., p. 140ff. 132 Ibid., p. 149ff. 133 The New Picture of Dublin—Or: Stranger’s Guide to the Irish Metropolis (Dublin: William Curry Jun. & Co., 1835), p. 257. See also the annual report reprinted in Freeman’s Journal, 1 December 1881, which includes details on the Society’s foundation in 1831. 134 The Dublin Almanac and General Register of Ireland for the Year of Our Lord 1847 (Dublin: Pettigrew and Oulton, 1847), p. 355. 135 It was not uncommon for the Lord Lieutenant to be involved, see also Freeman’s Journal (Dublin), 17 March 1859. 136 Dublin Evening Mail, 24 November 1854. 137 This and the previous quote from ibid., 4 December 1861.

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was spent on sending 233 persons, mostly families and including 52 children, back to Scotland.138 By the end of the nineteenth century the scope of the relief provided was still at a similar level, with slightly fewer cases overall.139 In Dublin, as in Belfast and London, benevolence was the key pillar of Scottish ethnic associationalism, being underpinned by sociability not only for its own sake, but as a means to generate income that enabled those philanthropic pursuits in the first place. Sociability and benevolence were intrinsically entwined—a characteristic that was all the more pronounced, as we will see in the next chapter, in North America.

Conclusion This chapter has established a key characteristic of Scottish ethnic associational culture: that proximity to Scotland neither deterred nor facilitated it. The relative closeness to the old homeland of near diaspora locations had little impact on the immediate development of Scottish clubs and societies. What this suggests, and subsequent chapters will confirm, is that distance in itself was not the principal motivation that led Scots to establish ethnic associations, nor did it inform their decision for or against joining hands with fellow Scots. Their associational behaviour in the diaspora rested on other foundations. First and foremost we find a strong sense of patrician benevolence. Many well-off Scots from the middle and upper class saw it as their duty to help fellow Scots in distress who were unable to support themselves. In the near diaspora of England this sense of duty was spurred after the Union of 1707 by the absence of poor law provisions for Scots who had relocated south of the border. This understanding of the importance of aid provision for fellow Scots in distress made association members key shapers of a philanthropic public that, although concerned in its most immediate sense with helping Scots, nonetheless extended beyond Scottish ethnic bounds by means of exerting civility. Secondly, the benevolence that underpinned associational activities was supported by sociability. What we have seen is sustained evidence that sociability seldom stood on its own: it was commonly employed to serve a wider purpose that, in one way or another, ultimately linked it with a benevolent object. The clearest examples of this interconnection can be found in the large balls hosted by Scottish ethnic associations in London. There are, however, also examples on a smaller scale, for instance when business meetings were combined with concerts, or in-house socials included toasts that addressed the plight of Highland Scots as a result of the clearances. While more subtle in bringing together

138 Ibid. 139 See for example Freeman’s Journal (Dublin), 1 December 1897; 1 December 1899.

Scotland’s Near Diaspora

59

benevolence and sociability, even these activities ultimately did so. Finally, we have also seen strong indicators of how associations founded on ethnic principles effectively transgressed the same, pursuing a plethora of activities that were civic in nature, facilitating the organizations’ strong links with wider society. Philanthropic pursuits provide the strongest indicator of this, but, as we will see in later chapters, the Scots were able to achieve this type of civility through ethnic activities in a number of ways. What this clearly documents in terms of developments in the near diaspora is that Scottish ethnic associations were significant rather than modest in ‘their social importance’,140 supplying an important corrective to Clark’s assessment of the ethnic associational culture of the home nations. This was all the more pronounced in the nineteenth century, but even at the foundational level of club life that Clark has explored, the role of Scottish societies in the near diaspora was profound. And it was foundational, heralding the dispersion of Scottish ethnic associational culture around the world via its agents— Scottish migrants. The remainder of this study will follow their principal migratory pathways, starting in North America.

140 Clark, British Clubs and Societies, p. 301.

Chapter 3

The Antipodes* The Antipodes

When Archie Crosbie Haig died in Mount Gambier, South Australia, in April 1945, the local paper was full of praise for his involvement in the community, focusing in particular on Haig’s contributions to the city’s many clubs and societies. He was, in fact, what we might call a perfect associationalist: The late Mr. Haig was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and belonged to the Oddfellows Lodge. He took a keen interest in military affairs, and was a member of the Scottish Company … He was one of the originators of the first Mt. Gambier Football Association … For a number of years he was Arbiter for the South-Eastern Football Association. He did great work for the Mt. Gambier Caledonian Society, of which he was Secretary, and many of the most successful New Year gatherings were held when he occupied that position. He had the credit of originating the first musical competitions conducted by the Caledonian Society, and held the positions of Chieftain and then Chief. Upon his retirement as Chief he was made a life member of the Society. The late Mr. Haig was a member of the first Cycle Club in Mt. Gambier, and served a long term as Secretary of the Mt. Gambier Gun Club … He was also an active member in the Mt. Gambier Rifle Club. He occupied the position of Clerk of the Scales for the Mt. Gambier Racing Club for over 40 years, and acted in a similar capacity for the Hunt Club for

*

Some of the research for this chapter was carried out whilst a Visiting Fellow with the Humanities Research Centre, RSHA, Australian National University. The Fellowship provided access to important resources and a stimulating intellectual environment, and I am very grateful for both.

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61

a number of years. A very keen member of the Mt. Gambier Bowling Club, he held the honour of life membership at the time of his death.1

Archie’s story is all the more compelling, however, when read within the wider context of his family’s history, which is an example par excellence of family migration, kinship ties and continuous ethnic association in the Scottish diaspora. Thomas Haig, Archie’s father, was born at Pavillion Estate near Melrose in Roxburghshire on 31 July 1837. After his education in Melrose, he became an apprentice at Herbertson & Son in Galashiels, moving on to London in 1861 to work for George Trollope & Sons, builders and cabinet-makers. Yet Thomas did not last long in the metropole of Empire: having decided, as is noted in his obituary, to join his brother and sister in Otago, New Zealand, Thomas arrived in Dunedin in early July 1863. He initially engaged in gold-digging, and, given the timing of his arrival, it is possible that the discovery of gold in Otago, next to kinship ties, provided a key pull-factor for Thomas to come to New Zealand in the first place.2 He had little luck digging for the precious metal, however, and soon made his way to New Zealand’s North Island, settling in New Plymouth—a decision that thrust him right into the turmoil of the Second Taranaki War.3 Still, Thomas remained in New Plymouth for a while, marrying Hannah Hamblyn in that city in the summer of 1865.4 Archie was born in New Plymouth the following May. After a stint at the Thames goldfields, Thomas decided that New Zealand did not offer him the right opportunities, and he thus made his way across the Tasman Sea with his wife and young son. He arrived in Melbourne in May 1870, and first settled in Kyneton, Victoria, entering into a business partnership with James Shaw, a native of Lurgan, County Armagh.5 1 Border Watch (Mount Gambier), 14 April 1945; birth registration number 1866/12593, http://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz. Archie is sometimes also referred to as Archy or Archibald Crosby Haig. 2 As has been shown by Terry Hearn, Scots were represented among the new gold seekers in New Zealand in disproportionate numbers, see Terry Hearn, ‘Scots Miners in the Goldfields, 1861–1870’, in Tom Brooking and J. Coleman (eds), The Heather and the Fern: Scottish Migration and New Zealand Settlement (Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2003), p. 73; Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 31. 3 The Second Taranaki War took place between 1863 and 1866. For details see James Belich, The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict (Auckland: Penguin, 1988). 4 Hannah was born in Holdsworthy, Devonshire, in May 1846, moving to New Plymouth in New Zealand with her parents in 1855; she died in Mt Gambier in September 1921. Border Watch (Mount Gambier), 20 September 1921. 5 Shaw’s obituary suggests that he first made his way to Auckland in New Zealand in 1863, and did so together with Thomas Haig, forming a partnership there that eventually continued in Mt Gambier. On the dissolution of that partnership, Shaw relocated to Adelaide and later became the city’s mayor.

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As a result of work opportunities Thomas eventually moved west to Mount Gambier, which was to become the home of several other family members, including his brother, Alexander Campbell Haig,6 and his nephew, Archibald John Haig. What all Haigs had in common, and across generations, was their profound sense of Scottishness: Thomas, Alexander and Archie all had a long-standing association with the Mount Gambier Caledonian Society, serving as the Society’s Chief at different points.7 A report of one of the Society’s earliest social gatherings, held to celebrate the first year of its existence, documents the involvement of several Haig family members right from the Society’s first days.8 In the early twentieth century, when Mount Gambier’s Scottish Company was set up, Haig family members again showed their commitment. Alexander served as lieutenant from 1901 to 1907, when ‘he was placed on the retired list, after 20 years or more of service in military companies in Scotland and Australia’,9 and Archie was involved too. A decade later, in 1919, Thomas and Archie were among those Caledonian Society members who eagerly awaited Sir Harry Lauder’s visit to Mount Gambier.10 And when Archie had died, and his son, W.T. Haig, presented the Blue Lake Highland Pipe Band with the badge the band had given to his father when he was Chief of the Mount Gambier Caledonian Society, the band’s president concluded: ‘as long as there is a Blue Lake Pipe Band in Australia, we will always remember the name of Haig.’11 That, it seems, could be more broadly applied given the commitment to Scottish ethnic associationalism shown by many Haig family members.12 6 Alexander’s obituary suggests that he arrived in 1877. See Border Watch (Mount Gambier), 30 December 1916. 7 Ibid., 3 December 1929. 8 Ibid., 28 November 1885. 9 Ibid., 30 December 1916. 10 For the image see Mount Gambier Library Photographic Collection, ‘Mount Gambier Residents at the Springs to welcome Sir Harry Lauder to Mount Gambier, 1919’, Reference: D00006901, http://www.mountgambier.sa.gov.au/library/ [last accessed 23 July 2013]; reprinted in Border Watch (Mount Gambier), 21 April 1945. Even more significantly, and perhaps the ultimate culmination of their love for the old homeland, both Thomas and Alexander visited Scotland again, Thomas in 1886, and Alexander in the early twentieth century. Border Watch (Mount Gambier), 3 December 1929 and 30 December 1916. For more on early roots-tourism see Tanja Bueltmann, ‘“Gentlemen, I am Going to the Old Country”: Scottish Roots-Tourists in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries’, in Mario Varricchio (ed.), Back to Caledonia: Scottish Homecomings from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2012). 11 Border Watch (Mount Gambier), 31 January 1948. 12 The Mount Gambier Library, in its extensive Photographic Collection, has a large number of photographs in which Haig family members appear, many relating to Caledonian society activities. See for example ‘Mr A C Haig, 1901’, Reference: D00006841, for a great image of Archie in full Scottish garb.

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Table 3.1: Estimated percentages of Scots in the Australian population % of Scots in the Australian population 1861 1891

12.4 13.5

Source: Adapted from Prentis, Scots in Australia, p. 8.

Table 3.2: National composition of UK immigrants to New Zealand (percentages)

English Scottish Irish

1800–39

1840–52

1853–90

1871–90

1891–1915

1916–45

62.1 20.4 15.6

64.3 20.6 13.5

46.6 30.2 21.4

54.6 21.5 21.7

65.0 22.2 10.9

60.1 28.7 8.6

Source: Adapted from Table 1 in Jock Phillips and Terry Hearn, Settlers: New Zealand Immigrants from England, Ireland and Scotland (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2008), p. 52.

The Haig family history, fragmented and subjective as it is in many of its facets, nonetheless has wider currency for this study, reflecting how profoundly the life of Scottish migrants could be channelled through ethnic associations. It also tells a wider story of trans-Tasman Scottish connections. Between the mid-nineteenth century and the 1930s, Scots constituted about 15 per cent of Australia’s UK-born migrants, making them the third largest migrant group after the English and the Irish (Table 3.1). In New Zealand their number was even more significant as the Scots were the second largest migrant group from the British Isles, after the English, accounting for almost a quarter of UK-born migrants (Table 3.2). A useful indicator of the number of migrants born in Scotland is also provided in the 1901 Census of the British Empire (Table 3.3; other groups included for comparison). What makes the Scottish numbers stand out is that they are higher than the Scots’ population share within the UK itself, where they made up around 12 per cent of the population in 1901;13 for New Zealand the ratio is especially significant. Yet despite this overrepresentation relative to the Scots’ UK population share, Scottish migratory streams to the Antipodes were more sporadic than those to North America, and, overall, of a smaller scale. The migration of Scots to Australia began earlier than that to New Zealand, but prior to the 1820s there was only a small

13 See Table 2.1 in Bryant, Nations of Britain, p. 40.

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Table 3.3: Birthplaces for the Antipodes listed in the 1901 Census of the British Empire

New South Wales Victoria Queensland South Australia Western Australia Tasmania New Zealand

Scottish

English & Welsh

Irish

Total population

30,717 35,751 19,934 6,965 5,400 2,986 47,858

129,739 11,108 68,589 38,654 26,285 12,942 113,572

59,945 61,512 37,636 11,243 9,862 3,887 43,524

768,133 1,196,185 503,266 362,604 184,124 172,467 772,719

Source: Census of the British Empire, 1901: Report with Summary and Detailed Tables for the Several Colonies, &c., Area, Houses, and Population; also Population Classified by Ages, Condition as to Marriage, Occupations, Birthplaces, Religions, Degrees of Education, and Infirmities (London: Darling & Son Ltd, 1906), pp. 222, 234, 242, 247, 254, 259, 265.

trickle of free migrants.14 Australia and New Zealand grew in importance as migrant destinations from the 1830s—a pattern explained in part by concomitant developments in Scotland in the 1830s and 40s, when high unemployment was a real concern. Initially, migration to the Antipodes was framed by Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s ideas of systematic colonization, with emigration schemes bringing out the bulk of migrants.15 Of the Scots who thus arrived the majority came from the Lowlands, and the Highland migration that did exist tended to be sporadic and was usually ‘the product of specific, short-lived schemes’.16

14 See for instance R.A. Cage, ‘Scots—Early Migration’, in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and their Origins (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 646. A key point to remember too, of course, is that Australia initially was not a migrant destination of choice, but a convict settlement. For further details see Prentis, Scots in Australia, p. 37ff; also Bueltmann et al., Scottish Diaspora, chapter 14. 15 See E.G. Wakefield, The Collected Works of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, ed. M.F.L.  Prichard (Collins: Glasgow and London, 1968); also Miles Fairburn, ‘Wakefield, Edward Gibbon’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/ en/biographies/1w4/wakefield-edward-gibbon [last accessed: 9 August 2013]. 16 Harper, Adventurers and Exiles, p. 51. In the late 1830s and early 1840s, for instance, the Highlands became a principal recruitment area for Australian emigration agents: labour was needed in Australia, while evictions in the Highlands, famine and land congestion provided a crucial push-factor in Scotland. As a result of this direct recruitment and migration schemes supported by the Highland and Island

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Assisted emigration schemes were undoubtedly of great relevance in bringing out Scots to the Antipodes given the remote location and, by extension, the higher costs involved in travelling there. In New South Wales, for example, nearly 45 per cent of assisted immigrants in 1837 were of Scottish descent. While their number decreased quite substantially, Prentis estimates that, in total, 14.5 per cent of assissted immigrants were Scottish.17 In New Zealand, larger-scale immigration only developed after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. While some of the early New Zealand Company arrivals from Scotland made their home in Wellington in the 1840s, the majority of Scots went further south to Otago in the South Island—a migratory stream directly connected to the 1843 Disruption in the Church of Scotland as Dunedin, set up under the aegis of the Otago Association (an offshoot of the New Zealand Company), was founded as a Free Church Settlement in 1848.18 As Carey has noted, Scottish Presbyterian settlers were, therefore, made ‘a central element of a c­ olonisation scheme’.19 In the mid-nineteenth century another crucial Antipodean pull-factor can be found in the discovery of gold, first in Victoria, Australia, in the 1850s, and then in the interior of Otago and the West Coast in the South Island of New Zealand in the 1860s. Statistics document that even migrants assisted through an emigration scheme followed the lure of gold, a quarter of mid-nineteenth-century Scottish migrants to Australia settling in Victoria.20 With the arrival of larger numbers of migrants, both Scottish and non-Scottish, however, their settlement patterns diversified. The majority of early Scots who went to New Zealand had settled in Otago and Southland in the South Island, but soon comprised ‘at least 15 per cent in almost all provinces’.21 Scottish settlement patterns were less obvious in Australia, but Emigration Society, an estimated 20,000 Highlanders had emigrated to Australia by 1857. For details see Richards, ‘Australia and the Scottish Connection’, p. 122; also Eric Richards, ‘Scottish Networks and Voices in Colonial Australia’, in Angela McCarthy (ed.), A Global Clan: Scottish Migrant Networks and Identities since the Eighteenth Century (London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2006), p. 164. In New Zealand the so-called special settlements that were conceived as part of Julius Vogel’s Public Works scheme in the 1870s are particularly interesting. The schemes were designed to facilitate infrastructural growth and the settlement of remoter parts of New Zealand, attracting a particularly large number of migrants from the Shetland Isles. See for instance R.P. Hargreaves and T. Hearn, ‘Special Settlements of the South Island New Zealand’, New Zealand Geographer, 37, 2 (1981), pp. 67–72; also Lenihan, ‘From Alba to Aotearoa’, especially chapters two and six. 17 Prentis, Scots in Australia, p. 58. 18 A.H. McLintock, The History of Otago: The Origins and Growth of a Wakefield Class Settlement (Dunedin: Otago Centennial Historical Publications, 1949). 19 Hilary M. Carey, God’s Empire: Religion and Colonialism in the British World, 1801–1908 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 346. 20 Prentis, Scots in Australia, p. 65. 21 Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 39.

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records relating to the early assisted immigrants show that they preferred New South Wales (which, in the 1830s, included Victoria and Queensland) over other areas—almost 11 per cent settled there.22 As the nineteenth century progressed, a preference for Victoria over New South Wales can be seen: 65 per cent of Scots lived in Victoria in 1861, and, although substantially reduced, the figure still stood at 35 per cent in 1901; New South Wales had taken back the pole position by 1911.23 In light of these numbers it is puzzling that the story of the Scots in the Antipodes is only now being more fully explored. As I have argued in another study, one reason for the Scots’ neglect, certainly in New Zealand, has been that they blended in well: they did not ‘occupy an ethnic-urban ghetto’,24 but instead knew how to utilize the structures of colonial society— were, in fact, chiefly engaged in their making.25 One principal reason for this, as this chapter will highlight, was the Scots’ ability to use ethnic associationalism as a means of integration rather than separation from the new colonial society.

First Associational Footsteps Down Under Harper has argued that [o]n the whole … Scottish associational culture [in New Zealand] was slower to develop than in North America … For most of the nineteenth century, the settlers’ priority was to forge the nation, and the mushrooming of pipe bands, Highland games and St Andrew’s societies belonged to the twentieth century.26

While it is correct to note that, in terms of the timing of their development, Scottish ethnic associations in New Zealand only emerged from the 1860s (and the 1830s in Australia), and therefore indeed later than in North America, it is crucial to assess this divergent pattern in terms of the Scots’ migratory streams to the two countries. Bearing those streams in mind it

22 Malcolm Prentis, ‘Scots—Lowland Scottish Immigration until 1860’, in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and their Origins (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 648. 23 D. Lucas, ‘Scots – Scottish Immigration 1891–1945’, in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and their Origins (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 666. 24 Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 207. 25 But there were notable exceptions, particularly with respect to some migratory streams from the Highlands. For further details see Bueltmann et al., Scottish Diaspora, chapter 14. 26 Harper, ‘A Century of Scottish Emigration to New Zealand’, p. 234.

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is clear that Scottish ethnic associations in the Antipodes are no different from their North American counterparts: they were established shortly after the first foot-fall of a larger body of Scottish migrants, which, in both Australia and New Zealand, was generally later than in North America. The divergent timing, therefore, does not reflect that the foundation of ethnic associations in the Antipodes was delayed. Rather, it emphasizes the intrinsic link between the establishment of ethnic associations and the arrival of a larger body of migrants. Harper’s assessment brings to the fore another critical point: the types of associations. It is crucial to avoid a grouping of all associations with some Scottish link under the same umbrella: there were, as we have already seen for other diaspora locations, key differences between associations—these were not mere nuances, but distinctions of principle detectable, for the most part, through the different names adopted by associations: St Andrew stood primarily for philanthropy, while Caledonia reflected a focus on cultural and leisure pursuits. As a result, it is important to separate clearly between associations on the basis of their discrete objectives: although the general Scottish link would indeed have provided a foundational common denominator, they were not all the same and did not have the same function. This point is particularly worth raising with respect to the pipe bands referred to by Harper. They were, of course, undoubtedly an associational formation driven by Scots and their descendants—and at times born out of an existing ethnic association27—but at the same time they are not placed easily within the framework of ethnic associationalism established for this study.28 It is also important to note that pipe bands generally gained traction at a time when traditional ethnic associations began to fade.29 In some locations the trend towards establishing pipe bands was, in fact, essentially an added side effect of what I have termed the re-popularization phase of Scottish associational culture. Organizations that fall within that phase—which commenced in the early twentieth century—pursued many of the well-known objectives of Scottish ethnic associations, but essentially sought to recover what we might call a more genuine Scottish culture.30 Activities thus shifted to more traditional Scottish pursuits, of which piping could be one, and in some places associational structures were revised to 27 See for instance the so-called Pipers’ Band of the South Australian Caledonian Society, Annual Report, 1898–9, p. 9, 367.9942 a, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide. 28 Following the definition of ethnic associational culture provided at the outset, pipe bands are quite a different type of association given their very specific and narrow objects, which are, in essence, solely defined by piping. 29 Also of interest in this context is Erin C.M. Grant, ‘The Ladies’ Pipe Band Diaspora: Bands, Bonnie Lassies and Scottish Associational Culture, 1918–2012’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Otago, 2013. 30 For details see Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 85ff.

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include Chiefs and Chieftains to flag up, even at the level of organizational hierarchy, that all-important link to what was perceived to be a more traditional Scottish culture. Bearing in mind these qualifications, and the need for an approach that recognizes the discrete functions of particular Scottish ethnic associations, two principal developments stand out in Australia and New Zealand. The first is that the evolution of Scottish clubs and societies in Australia was more fragmented in the early years of their existence than in New Zealand—a result, in all likelihood, of the initial settlement of Australia as a penal colony: Scottish convicts did not put in place associational structures. It required the arrival of larger numbers of free migrants for that to happen, and they only made their way down under in sufficient numbers from the 1820s. In New Zealand, by contrast, associational footsteps were quick to emerge after the first colonization schemes, and the majority of associations were set up within two decades of the pioneer societies. As a result, the vast majority of Scottish ethnic associations in the country were founded by 1900, by which point New Zealand could boast over 100. In light of the country’s relative smallness compared to other Scottish diaspora locations and its population at the time, which was estimated on 31 December 1899 to total 796,359 persons,31 this is a truly remarkable number. During the following three decades at least another 50 associations were established,32 but from the 1920s onwards we witness a general decline. The pattern was generally patchier in Australia, but there too we find well over 100 organizations by the early twentieth century. The majority of the organizations established in the Antipodes were Caledonian societies, and their principal concern was the provision of Highland Games—or rather Caledonian Games as they tended to be called. In New Zealand in particular the Scottish ethnic associational scene was driven through Caledonian societies and the development of Games. It is an interesting anomaly, therefore, that the first Scottish association set up in New Zealand was a St Andrew’s society. It was established in Auckland in 1850—although celebrations of St Andrew’s Day had been a common occurrence prior to the formalization of the association.33 While there are 31 The New Zealand Official Year-Book 1900, Part II.—Statistical Information (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1900), p. 89. 32 Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 66. 33 Daily Southern Cross (Auckland), 3 December 1850. The earliest references in New Zealand newspapers to St Andrew’s societies relate to organizations in Canada, particularly the story of the expulsion of Lord Elgin from the Montreal St Andrew’s Society in the wake of the political turmoils of the late 1840s. See for instance Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, 22 September 1849; for more on Elgin, see Barbara Jane Messamore, Canada’s Governors General, 1847–1878: Biography and Constitutional Evolution (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006), chapter four. For further details on the history of the Auckland St Andrew’s Society, see Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 82ff.

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Map 3.1: The geography of Scottish ethnic associations in the Antipodes

Source: The author.

no detailed records relating to the Society, newspaper reports reveal that the principal focus of the organization was the support of Scots desiring to emigrate and those who had already made it to New Zealand but had fallen on hard times—a remit that mirrored the philanthropic pursuits carried out by St Andrew’s societies in North America. The Auckland Society also sought to disseminate among ‘influential persons and Societies in Scotland’ details about the Province of Auckland and New Zealand, so that prospective migrants might be better informed.34 The history of the Auckland St Andrew’s Society is patchy at best, but it did labour on in some way until 1875, when it was officially dissolved.35 But why was the first Auckland St Andrew’s Society unsuccessful? In part, it may be a result of the migrant composition in Auckland and a simple lack of suitable lead figures— these were always critical to the successful development of associations, and there is clear evidence of associations fading when key leaders died or otherwise stopped their engagement. Another likely factor in explaining the lack of appeal of the St Andrew’s Society in Auckland, as well as the

34 New Zealander (Auckland), 24 December 1851. 35 Daily Southern Cross (Auckland), 20 November 1875.

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general failure of the tradition of St Andrew’s societies to take hold in New Zealand, lies in the types of Scottish migrant who moved to the country and the timing of their migration: they simply did not require the type of philanthropy customarily channelled through St  Andrew’s societies.36 To shed further light on this divergence from near diaspora and North American trends, let us move across the Tasman Sea.

Philanthropic Dabbling Down Under It was in the 1840s that the first clearly traceable formalized Scottish ethnic associations were set up in Australia, but the early ventures largely failed: organizations folded quickly and, in many places, it took until the 1870s or 1880s for Scots to finally establish an enduring associational base. Sketching the history of Scottish societies in Sydney, the Scottish Australasian offers transience and lack of particular migrant cohorts as explanations for the short-lived and unsuccessful nature of early associational endeavours: The first effort to form a Scottish association in Sydney was in the early part of last century when the St. Andrew’s Club was established, but being of a purely convivial character it had but a brief existence. From thence on until somewhere in the sixties, after the gold fever had begun to abate, and men turned their attentions to other things than gold seeking, no distinctive effort was made to establish a society. But in the sixties a movement was inaugurated to found a Highland society, chiefly for the study of the Gaelic language. It proved to be a spasmodic attempt, the Highland residents being too few in number, and after a very brief career it also lapsed.37

The first newspaper reference to a St Andrew’s Society can be found for Melbourne in July 1842, when it was reported that ‘a party of forty Scottish gentlement, members of the St. Andrew’s Society, met to commemorate the anniversary of the victory of Bannockburn.’38 More specifically, this organization was identified as the St Andrew’s Society of Australia Felix two years later, when the Society came together for a St Andrew’s Day dinner in the Hall of the Mechanics’ Institution ‘which was brilliantly lighted up and tastefully decorated for the occasion’.39 Yet even at this early juncture, fractures were clearly apparent in Melbourne’s Scottish community: while 36 See Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 206. 37 Scottish Australasian, December 1909, p. 10. See also Scottish Australasian, June 1910, p. 16 for reference to a Scottish Society in 1840. 38 Geelong Advertiser, 4 July 1842. 39 Ibid., 5 December 1844 (reprinted from the Courier); for a list of names of people associated with the organization, see Colonial Times (Hobart), 14 December 1844

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60 gentlemen, including the mayor, had come together at the St Andrew’s Society of Australia Felix event, a smaller number of Scots, 18 according to newspaper reports, had gathered at the Royal Hotel instead. This separate celebration was the result of a disagreement between St Andrew’s Society members over whether non-Scots should also be allowed to participate in Society activities. As the Herald noted, ‘the majority of the members [were] favourable to the introduction at their festival of a friend, being a native of England or Ireland.’40 While it does not surprise that Melbourne, a major early centre of settlement in Australia, was the birthplace of Scottish associations in the colony, a more interesting development occurred further west in Adelaide, where a St Andrew’s Society was established a little later, in 1847. Though also short-lived, the organization had a very immediate and wide impact that reveals the degree to which Scottish ethnic associations could interact with local, national and international politics. The organization was set up at a meeting of ‘natives of Scotland’ at Stewart’s Hotel on 31 August 1847; the general role of the proposed society was discussed, as was the idea to advertise another meeting in the local press to invite all Scots resident in the area to attend.41 A report on the meeting outlines that the ‘objects of the Institution are chiefly to aid and encourage Scotch emigration, to collect authentic information, and to correspond with influential bodies in the mother-country, in order to induce the poorer classes to emigrate to South Australia’.42 The Society’s first AGM was held on St Andrew’s Day in 1847, and was concerned with the election of officers; the Hon. Advocate General, H.D. Murray, Esq. was one of the directors. Following on from the agreement made at the first meeting—that authentic information about South Australia should be sent to Scotland—a statement was read at the AGM relating to ‘the state and prospects of the colony’,43 providing a

(reprinted from Patriot); there is also a good early reference to the Society’s AGM in 1846 in Melbourne Argus, 13 November 1846. 40 Reprinted in Geelong Advertiser, 5 December 1844. For further details on developments in Melbourne, see Kim Sullivan, ‘Scots by Association: Scottish Diasporic Identities and Ethnic Associationism in the Nineteenth-Early Twentieth Centuries and the Present Day’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Otago, 2010. 41 St Andrew’s Society of South Australia, minutes of the first meeting, 31 August 1847, SRG 123/31, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. For a report on the subsequent meeting see also South Australian (Adelaide), 14 September 1847. 42 South Australian (Adelaide), 22 September 1847; see also 24 September 1847 for a list of people present. 43 St Andrew’s Society of South Australia, meeting minutes, 30 December 1847, SRG 123/31, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia; for a detailed report on the actual St Andrew’s Day festivities, see 3 December 1847. Sections of the statement relating to wages and prices were later reprinted in Britain, for instance in the Chelmsford Chronicle, 17 November 1848.

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detailed overview of the voyage out, the population in South Australia, work opportunities, which crops grew in the colony, and many more aspects of colonial life. The statement was clearly framed by one question: ‘In what British colony are the prospects of bettering my condition most certain to be realized?’44 For the members of the Adelaide St Andrew’s Society the answer was clear: they were best realized, of course, in South Australia. The South Australian newspaper was very supportive, noting in an editorial that [h]eartily, most heartily, do we hope it [the St Andrew’s Society’s statement] may have its effect. That the well skilled farmers of the Lothians may send us a few of their hopeful [scions?], that the Highlanders may draft off a superabundant population, and that Scottish energy, Scottish enterprise, may have the opportunity still further to [disclose?] the capabilities of our land.45

First references to the Society’s activities appeared in Scottish newspapers in the spring of 1848,46 while, later in the year, the Fife Herald reprinted sections of the information that the St Andrew’s Society had put together for dissemination in Scotland.47 Such information dissemination schemes were necessary too, the Society believed, because some publications in Scotland had taken to casting a negative light on South Australia, particularly Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal.48 One key motivation for the Society was the apparent intention of the British government to stop emigration to South Australia. Society directors were called to a meeting ‘to take into consideration the reported intention of Government … and the steps to be adopted in reference thereto’.49 The resolution adopted at the meeting was: 1. That this Society having lately informed the people of Scotland that there is throughout this province a great and increasing demand for labour, and that those who intend emigrating, could have, on certain conditions, free passages to the colony, this Society views with alarm and regret the reported announcement that her Majesty’s Colonisation Commissioners have determined to suspend or stop emigration. 44 South Australian (Adelaide), 7 December 1847. 45 Ibid., 7 December 1847. 46 For instance Dundee, Perth and Cupar Advertiser, 28 April 1848 or Aberdeen Journal, 17 May 1848. 47 Fife Herald, 21 December 1848; see also Elgin Courier, 11 May 1849; Inverness Courier, 17 May 1849; Glasgow Herald, 20 May 1850. 48 As Harper has noted, the Chambers brothers certainly favoured North America over other destinations: Harper, Adventurers and Exiles, pp. 26–7. See also the Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal piece reprinted in South Australian (Adelaide), 21 November 1848. 49 South Australian (Adelaide), 21 December 1847.

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2. This Society considers any interruption to free emigration, under the circumstances of this colony, highly injurious. 3. That this Society beg leave most respectfully to represent through his Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, to her Majesty’s Colonisation Commissioner, the great injury that must arise from such interruption to emigration; and that a copy of these resolutions, and of the statement made by the Society, to the people of Scotland, be also forwarded for their information.50

Both the Society’s president and directors subsequently met with his Excellency the Lieutenant Governor Frederick H. Robe in early 1848. Robe did not fail to leave a positive impression, stating immediately that he was of the same view as the Society and had already noted as much in his despatches to the Secretary of State. He was also able to pass on some reassurances, explaining that despatches he had received from Earl Grey did not suggest that he sought to discontinue emigration.51 Robe nevertheless complied with the St Andrew’s Society’s request and sent the memorial it had put together to Earl Grey in January 1848; Grey received it in May of the same year. In his accompanying letter to Earl Grey, Robe outlined the following: The views of this Society [St Andrew’s Society], upon the importance of continuing emigration to this colony to the full extent of the means we possess or can raise, so entirely accord with those to which I have often given expression, that I have no hesitation in giving to their memorial my cordial support, and I do so in the firm belief that this province can give support and employment to as many people of industrious habits as the Commissioners can find to emigrate to it.52

Afterwards the Society’s president, Mr Cumming, received a letter from the Colonial Secretary in Adelaide, A.M. Mundy, who had been asked by the Lieutenant Governor to forward the Colonisation Circular to the Society with the request that the Society ‘be good enough to favour him [the Governor] with any suggestions … with a view to the improvement of the said circular … pointing out what further information can—through that channel—be conveniently conveyed to the friends of the Society in Scotland and Great Britain generally’.53 Robe, in a letter to Earl Grey from late 50 Ibid., 24 December 1847; see also House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1847–48 [986] ‘Emigration. Papers Relative to Emigration to the Australian Colonies’, p. 144ff. 51 South Australian (Adelaide), 18 January 1848. 52 House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1847–48 [986] ‘Emigration. Papers Relative to Emigration to the Australian Colonies’, p. 144. 53 Cited in the St Andrew’s Society of South Australia meeting minutes, 19 January 1848, SRG 123/31, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.

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February 1848, had thought that ‘the occasion appeared to me a favourable one for obtaining from so respectable a body of the colonists the precise information that the Emigration Commissioners desired to possess.’54 In the meantime, Earl Grey had sent a reply to Robe’s earlier query about the issue in question, referring to it as ‘the rumoured stoppage of emigration’.55 The St Andrew’s Society of Adelaide was keen to meet Robe’s request for information or updates that might improve the Colonisation Circular, debating the existing document and publishing a detailed statement outlining what it considered important information currently missing from the Circular, as well as corrections to it. One of the key issues for the Society was that there was only one Government Agent listed for Scotland, while there were three for England and 12 for Ireland. The Society also stressed that the details on wages and prices contained in the Circular urgently needed updating. Given its connection with Scotland, the Society was particularly concerned with the Circular’s article 16, which addressed the expenses relating to reaching the port of embarkation. This, the St Andrew’s Society pointed out, could be ‘a very serious impediment to emigration’, especially for certain sections of the Highland population. As a result, the Society urged ‘that vessels to sail with emigrants from the Forth and Clyde should occasionally be laid on … [and] that resident purchasers of land should be allowed to give power to an agent at home to select candidates for free passages’.56 For the Society the key issue remained, as it stressed in its concluding remarks, that emigration to South Australia ‘proceeds not only slowly, but so slowly, as seriously to interrupt her well-being and retard her prosperity’.57 This episode of interaction between the St Andrew’s Society—an ethnic association—and a range of political bodies and politicians in both Australia and in Britain, albeit partly through intermediaries, emphasizes how profound and influential the ethnic-civic interstice operated throughout the Scottish diaspora. Ethnicity was utilized to serve civility. And while addressing specifically Scottish concerns, the St Andrew’s Society consistently stressed the benefits of their initiatives for wider South Australian society: they were more far reaching than the immediate ethnic remit may suggest. As the South Australian too observed, it was a major success for the St Andrew’s 54 House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1849 [593] [593-II] ‘Emigration. Copies or Extracts of any Despatches Relative to Emigration to the North American and Australian Colonies …’, p. 139. 55 House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1847–48 [986] ‘Emigration. Papers Relative to Emigration to the Australian Colonies’, p. 164. 56 South Australian (Adelaide), 25 February 1848. 57 House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1849 [593] [593-II] ‘Emigration. Copies or Extracts of any Despatches Relative to Emigration to the North American and Australian Colonies …’, p. 144; the full statement was forwarded by Robe to Earl Grey, see p. 139ff.

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Society to have managed to bring to the attention of Earl Grey and the British public ‘the recent flagrant misconduct of the Government Emigration Commissioners and their agents’.58 It was perhaps also such public statements that promoted further direct action on the part of the St Andrew’s Society in terms of facilitating and supporting emigration from Scotland. The despatches of South Australia’s new Lieutenant-Governor, Sir H.E.F. Young, to Earl Grey in the late 1850s document some of the action taken. In particular, Young referred to the Society looking after the 21 ‘young women’ who had arrived in the colony from Shetland on ‘the Government emigration ship “Joseph Soames”’, all of whom ‘were found well adapted for country work, [and] were all engaged at 5 s. a week within 24 hours of their arrival’,59 and the idea that the Society ‘be allowed to delegate to their friends in Scotland the right of purchasers of land in the colony to nominate emigrants for free passages’.60 Initiatives for such direct support were well received in Scotland. The John o’ Groat Journal, for instance, published a statement it received by Arthur Anderson, MP for Orkney and Shetland, which contained details on the Shetland Emigration Fund, and also referred to the work of the St Andrew’s Society in Adelaide.61 The Society itself was certainly keen for the Shetland scheme to continue, and customarily discussed issues concerning emigration from the Highlands at its meetings. In November 1852, ‘[t]he Secretary submitted to the meeting a number of documents relating to emigration from the Highlands & Islands of Scotland to Australia.’62 This commitment was recognized too by the Colonial Land and Emigration Office, which worked together with an emigration agent to facilitate further migration from the Shetland Islands to Australia.63 Given this flurry of activity, and its significant reach and impact, it is somewhat incongruous that the Adelaide St Andrew’s Society folded in 1854—though the sudden end of activity is,

58 South Australian (Adelaide), 10 October 1848. 59 House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1851 [347] [347-II] ‘Emigration. Copies or extracts of any Despatches Relative to Emigration to the Australian Colonies …’, p. 58. 60 Ibid. The full report is included on pp. 58–61 and raises a number of other issues that may have deterred Scots from emigrating to South Australia, including ‘reports of gross mismanagement in various ships’. 61 John o’ Groat Journal, 14 March 1851; for later activities see also 14 May 1852. 62 St Andrew’s Society of South Australia, meeting minutes, 30 November 1852, SRG 123/31, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. 63 House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1852 [1489] ‘Emigration. Papers Relative to Emigration to the Australian Colonies’, p. 105. Further exchanges about similar issues can be found for 1853, when the St Andrew’s Society’s Annual Report reveals the arrival of more migrants from the Highlands and Islands, while lamenting that their number was generally low. See: House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1854 [436] [436-I] ‘Emigration. Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons, dated 5 May 1854 …’, p. 23.

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as the case of the Auckland St Andrew’s Society has already shown, by no means unheard of.64 No immediate reasons are traceable for the Adelaide Society’s demise, but the last meeting minutes—captured almost a year after the previous meeting was recorded—suggest that lack of leadership may have played a part, reference being made to the president and other lead figures having had to be replaced ad hoc.65 Despite its sudden demise, the Adelaide St Andrew’s Society’s involvement in the promotion of emigration, its immediate activism that extended directly into the political realm, is quite remarkable. It is trumped, however, by an episode of concerted activities in Launceston, Tasmania. We can find first evidence of a St Andrew’s society in Launceston for 1846, when ‘an entertainment … in Mr. Gee’s new house, Charles-street’ was given to celebrate St Andrew’s Day.66 As in Adelaide, the focus in Launceston was set on facilitating immigration,67 so much so, in fact, that the St Andrew’s Society established a separate organizational branch—the St Andrew’s Immigration Society—in December 1853 to streamline activities in a more formalized way. The timing of its establishment, as Prentis has noted, was a direct response to the Victoria gold rush, which had contributed to a significant loss of population in Tasmania.68 And indeed, as the association’s rules reveal, its sole purpose was ‘to aid and promote immigration from Scotland to Tasmania’.69 All office bearers of the St Andrew’s Society were automatically members of the St Andrew’s Immigration Society,70 with membership being augmented by any subscribers to the Society’s funds. Subscribers were given the right to provide the Society’s Secretary with ‘a list of the particular description of persons [they] may require’. That list was then passed on to the Society’s agent who was meant to try and ‘procure such individuals … as will meet, so far as possible, the particular requirements of the subscribers’; subscribers could, however, also engage friends or private agents directly to find appropriate people in Scotland.71

64 It is also worth noting that the general idea of facilitating Scottish immigration to South Australia, and disseminating relevant information in Scotland, was later also listed amongst the wider aims of the South Australian Caledonian Society. See South Australian Caledonian Society, Preamble to the Constitution, 367.9942 a, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide. 65 St Andrew’s Society of South Australia, meeting minutes, 21 October 1853, SRG 123/31, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. 66 Launceston Examiner, 2 December 1846; also 5 December 1846. Later reports of Society activities suggest that it may have been established earlier than this, possibly in 1841. 67 Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston), 10 June 1854. 68 Prentis, Scots in Australia, p. 66. 69 Rules of the St. Andrew’s Immigration Society (Launceston: Charles Wilson, 1855), p. 3. 70 Initially, the office bearers elected to particular roles would fill the same roles in both societies. 71 Rules of the St. Andrew’s Immigration Society, p. 4.

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To make the system work, subscribers had to provide a subscription at a level sufficient to cover expenses, which were estimated at a rate of £5 for an individual, and £10 for a family. The Society actively sought to match funding with support from the Legislative Council, particularly for the purpose of using funds to purchase ‘as many government bounty tickets as possible’.72 Moreover, prospective emigrants had to give a promissory note for all expenses advanced by the Society.73 Initially, an agent was meant to be based in Tasmania, but one resident in Scotland was ‘appointed to act for the Society’.74 In any case, the Tasmanian agent was meant to travel to Scotland with the bounty tickets purchased to then select those aspiring emigrants who best fit the requirements of subscribers, and those who may have been selected by their private agents or friends. The organization also set up a general registry for descriptions of labourers required. Mr Joseph Buchanan opened the registers for employers and for servants at his shop, noting that ‘[n]o entry will be made unless the applicant for employment can produce satisfactory certificates of Character from last employer, or be personally known to the proprietor. An uniform fee of 2s. 6d. will be charged for every entry.’75 The first evidence of the scheme being advertised in Scottish papers comes from early November 1854, with notices placed in papers throughout the country.76 The Society also published the Address of the St Andrew’s Immigration Society to the Working-Classes of Scotland to provide detailed information on the scheme and emigration to Tasmania. Directed at ‘Fellow Countrymen’, the Address began by noting that the Society is comprised only of Scotsmen, ‘[p]roud of their country and all that belongs to her, [who] formed themselves into a benevolent and patriotic society’. Its purpose, the address goes on, was to facilitate emigration from Scotland, but also to make available ‘reliable information’ to guide prospective migrants. ‘It is not their [the Society members’] intention to conceal the difficulties of settling in a comparatively new country, neither will they over-colour the advantages to be gained by change.’77 Subsequent to the

72 Ibid., p. 5. For details on the bounty system, see Brian Murphy, The Other Australia: Experiences of Migration (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 15–6. 73 Promissory note of Hugh Irvine to the Society, TL PE 325.2411 SAI, LINC Tasmania, Hobart. Irvine agreed that, 12 months after his arrival in Tasmania, he would pay the Society £5—the amount that he had received in advance to cover the cost for his passage; Irvine had arrived on the Commodore Perry from Liverpool. 74 Rules of the St. Andrew’s Immigration Society, p. 6. 75 Launceston Examiner, 4 August 1855. 76 For example Inverness Courier, 16 November 1854. Marjory Harper refers to this being the St Andrew’s Immigration Society of Hobart in her Emigration from North-East Scotland (see Volume 1—Willing Exile (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1998), p. 118), but it was in fact the Launceston organization. 77 This and the previous quotes from St Andrew’s Immigration Society, Address of the St

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notices in Scottish newspapers and the dissemination of the address, the Society sent to Scotland its agent, Joseph Bonney, and Alexander Blair, who served as sub-agent.78 In doing so the St Andrew’s Society worked together with the Hobart Town Immigration Society. In their first joint call for migrants the societies were looking for agricultural labourers, shepherds, coachmen, dairymen, joiners, carpenters, bricklayers and blacksmiths to name only a few, as well as female farm and domestic servants. One such potential domestic servant was Sarah Baillie, who, aged 20, filled in an application form for the St Andrew’s Society scheme. Sarah was a native of Lanarkshire resident near Liverpool, but must have previously lived in Aberdeen given that the signatures of the two character referees and the medial reference she supplied with her application were both signed in Aberdeen.79 The first ship with migrants selected by Mr Bonney, the Commodore Perry, arrived in Launceston in the spring of 1855. As the Society’s secretary, Alexander Learmonth, noted, It is particularly requested that those parties who sent in to the Secretary … lists of description of persons they would require, will attend as early as possible, with proper means to convey at once to their destination, the servants they may engage. … the successful results of the Society’s exertions for the future, will depend in a great measure on the proper treatment of the first shipments, the Committee earnestly trust that the employers will have suitable homes prepared for them, and treat them with that considerate and temperate kindness, which the Society’s expressed and printed representations have led them to expect.80

Notices continued to be placed in Scottish newspapers to attract new migrants, stressing, as the first had done, that the Tasmanian societies ‘have especially for their object the introduction of useful emigrants … well selected, and adapted to the wants of the Colonists’.81 In the spring of 1855, the Elgin Courier printed a more restricted list in a notice offering free passage explicitly for Scottish emigrants only, noting that 240 ploughmen,

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Andrew’s Immigration Society to the Working-Classes of Scotland (Edinburgh: R. and R. Clark, 1854). A farewell was hosted for them in June 1854, see Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston), 10 June 1854. Form of Application: Emigration to Van Diemen’s Land, TL PE 325.2411 SAI, LINC Tasmania, Hobart. Letter dated 10 April 1855, TL PE 325.2411 SAI, LINC Tasmania, Hobart. For example Inverness Courier, 16 November 1854. Included too are further details about the bounty system, which had as a requirement that migrants could not leave Van Diemen’s Land for four years after their arrival, with free passages provided to those holding bounty tickets. A later notice also provides insights into how females were being looked after: see Inverness Courier, 25 January 1855.

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130 dairymaids, 70 housemaids and six deep-sea fishermen were required.82 Specific numbers were also listed in later advertisements, and applications had to be sent to the previously encountered Alexander Blair, who was now named as the sole ‘Selecting Agent’ and based in Glasgow.83 It was from there that Blair embarked, ‘for the convenience of intending emigrants’, on tours through Scotland. Between mid-October and December 1861, for example, Blair was available at least 22 times at different locations to provide information on emigration to Tasmania. The locations he visited were Edinburgh (at least four times), Cupar, Dunfermline, Alloa, Stirling, Forres, Nairn, Doune, Rothes, Elgin, Crieff, Auchterarder and Inverness. The intake was significant. A report of July 1859 from the Immigration Office in Hobart details that, in the previous half-year, 24 family bounty tickets and 300 single tickets were issued to the St Andrew’s Immigration Society.84 Back in Launceston, however, there were also some concerned voices— concerned in particular that the St Andrew’s Immigration Society was unduly favouring Scots. As one letter writer to the Launceston Examiner noted: ‘I advise St. Andrew not to attempt to monopolize the whole of the immigration matters.’85 In any case, activities were sporadic and, as in Auckland and Adelaide, also came to a sudden end, although the St Andrew’s Society itself continued to operate for a little longer—and so did the legacy of the scheme. The migrants it had brought out to Tasmania were certainly well regarded, as a newspaper report showed in 1880, ‘[a]n immigration agency in connection with St. Andrew’s Society, formed in Launceston many years ago, did excellent service by introducing a valuable class of servants, many of whom have risen to positions of affluence.’86 And when, in the early 1880s, a railway extension was built from Deloraine to Deep Water at the Mersey, reports did not fail to stress that one of the contractors was a Scottish migrant, Mr Blair, who had ‘been amongst the first immigrants brought out from Scotland under the auspices of the old St. Andrew’s Society, which introduced the best class of immigrants ever brought into Tasmania’.87 With so much of the associational focus set on aiding immigrants, one letter writer to the Launceston Examiner lamented the fact that 82 Elgin Courier, 13 April 1855. 83 For example Stirling Observer, 18 April 1859. In this advertisement a distinction was also made between unmarried and married migrants, and it was stressed that those without children would be preferred. See Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston), 13 April 1861. 84 G. Smith, Immigration Agent, to the Board of Immigration, in Immigration Agent’s Report for the Half Year Ending 30 June 1859 (Hobart, 1859), p. 3. 85 ‘A Laborer’, Launceston Examiner, 6 July 1861. 86 Ibid., 12 July 1880. 87 Ibid., 23 October 1883.

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there were no Highland Games.88 Even more worryingly, however, the principal issue in Australia in the mid-nineteenth century remained the unstable base of Scottish ethnic associationalism. Prentis has suggested that one reason for this was the still transient nature of colonial society in Australia.89 Developments such as the gold rush in Victoria were a key reason, contributing to keeping the population in flux. What makes this point worth pausing over is that in New Zealand the gold rush had the opposite effect, being a critical motor for the establishment of associations: the first formalized association, the Caledonian Society of Otago set up in Dunedin in 1862, was established primarily as a direct response of existing settlers to the arrival of a large number of gold seekers in the city. Scots resident in Dunedin sought to consolidate their position in the wake of the significant population increase triggered by the gold rush, and viewed associational structures as a suitable means to do so, hoping ‘to support the weakened social fabric’ in their new home ‘through the promotion of organized ethnicity. In this way, migrant associational culture developed, at least in part, as a co-ordinated response to the changing face of colonial New Zealand, the aim being to maintain community cohesion’.90 Despite these differences in development, a characteristic common to Scottish associations in both New Zealand and Australia is the forging of an enduring legacy through the promotion of Caledonian Games.

The Promotion of Leisure: The Antipodean Pillar of Scottish Ethnic Associations Rather than a secondary development as in North America, Caledonian societies emerged as the primary driver of Scottish ethnic associationalism in the Antipodes, especially so in New Zealand, where the promotion of Caledonian Games was their very raison d’être—many societies were effectively born on the sports ground.91 Ultimately, the hosting of Games was to exert so significant an influence in colonial New Zealand that they became an integral part of the annual events calendar of many communities, and aided the development of athletics—no mean feat, and a factor that effectively safeguarded not only Scottish culture throughout the country,

88 Ibid., 29 January 1859. 89 Prentis, Scots in Australia, p. 198ff. 90 Tanja Bueltmann, ‘“No Colonists are more Imbued with their National Sympathies than Scotchmen”: The Nation as an Analytical Tool in the Study of Migrant Communities’, New Zealand Journal of History, 43, 2 (2009), p. 172. 91 Tanja Bueltmann, ‘Manly Games, Athletic Sports and the Commodification of Scottish Identity: Caledonian Gatherings in New Zealand to 1915’, Scottish Historical Review, XXXIX, 2, 228 (2010), pp. 224–47.

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but also facilitated its very wide permeation. For although pipers clad in Highland costume who played Scottish tunes undoubtedly delighted ‘spectators hailing from the Land o’ Cakes’,92 Caledonian Games had a much wider appeal and, therefore, emerge as the second principal example—next to the types of patrician benevolence we have already examined—of how Scottish ethnic associational culture effectively transcended its immediate ethnic remit, linking activities directly to wider civic and community life. In Australia, the consolidation of Caledonian societies from around the 1880s facilitated a recasting of the foundations of Scottish ethnic associationalism, moving beyond the patchy early developments previously investigated. Part of a wider shift that set the focus on sociability and leisure rather than philanthropy, this recasting finally gave Australian Scots a sound base for formalized Scottish societies. One example of an organization thus established is the South Australian Caledonian Society, which was founded in 1881. Although the Society still retained charity among its wider objectives,93 the dispensation of aid happened on a comparatively small scale, at times including initiatives in support of Scots in Scotland itself.94 By and large, however, the South Australian Caledonian Society focused on the provision of entertainment, also by means of a literary club and library. In the late 1890s, the Society’s activities included piping festivals, smoke socials and concerts, as well as the customary annual celebrations.95 This secured a good membership over time, which tended to range somewhere around the 300 mark until the First World War, rising thereafter to a peak of over 500 in 1926.96 The Society was also strengthened through a branch system that extended well beyond Adelaide, including branches in Port Adelaide, Gawler, Mount Gambier, Port Augusta, Millicent, Port Pirie and Albert District.97 New additions to the activities offered, for instance the introduction of so-called ‘Bairns Classes’—dancing classes for children—proved popular, with 160 children taking part in 1904.98 Smaller gatherings too had ‘welded the bonds of Scottish brotherhood more closely’ since the Society’s inception.99 The Society’s scrapbook, full of snippets of

92 Evening Post (Wellington), 3 January 1887. 93 South Australian Caledonian Society, First Annual Report, 1881, 367.9942 a, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide. 94 In 1915, for instance, the association, together with other Scottish societies based in South Australia, raised £1,400 in aid of ‘distressed fishermen and crofters in the North and West of Scotland’. See ibid., 35th Annual Report, 1915–16. 95 Ibid., Annual Report, 1898–99, p. 7. 96 Ibid., 45th Annual Report, 1925–26. 97 List contained in ibid., Annual Report, 1898–99. 98 Ibid., Annual Report, 1904. 99 Ibid., First Annual Report, 1881.

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Source: Collection of the Otago Settlers Museum, Box 66, No. 142, Otago Early Settlers Museum, Dunedin, New Zealand.

all of its social and entertainment activities, powerfully underscores their prominence.100 To this spirit of sociability and entertainment was connected another wider aim: the provision of leisure activities through the promotion of Caledonian Games, those ‘lusty sports … “stern and wild”’.101 In the small settlement of Timaru, located about halfway between Christchurch and Dunedin in New Zealand’s South Island, Caledonian Games served, as the local newspaper noted, ‘a much-felt want’ in the community.102 Estimates of attendance numbers are reflective of this ‘want’: over the 1878–9 New Year holidays, at least 33,000 spectators attended the Caledonian Games held in Wellington, Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin and Invercargill alone. Comprising Scots and non-Scots alike, this figure provides a clear indication of the Games’ popularity throughout New Zealand. Almost as soon as the Otago Caledonian Society had been established in 1862, Games emerged as a household event (Figure 3.1), with communities throughout New Zealand annually hosting them on paddocks, village greens or sports grounds. Customarily, Games were held in the southern hemisphere summer, the

100 South Australian Caledonian Society Scrap books, 1882 and 1892–96, boxes 1 and 5, SRG 279, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide. 101 Evening Post (Wellington), 2 January 1880. 102 Timaru Herald, 25 August 1875.

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Christmas and New Year holidays proving especially popular103—the first Games in Timaru were held on the grounds of the Agricultural and Pastoral Society on New Year’s Day in 1876. As a local reporter noted, the gathering ‘was one of the most successful events that has ever taken place in the district’. Not only did it attract large numbers of people, they all ‘enter[ed] into the day’s amusements with heart and soul’.104 Special trains were scheduled,105 and, as attendance numbers began to grow over the years, trains ‘had to be supplemented by trucks’,106 with an estimated 5,000 visitors attending in the late 1880s—a time when less than 1,000 people lived in Timaru itself. Caledonian Games had developed into a key event in the annual events calendar of many settlements, and served to attract people from the immediate district and beyond as spectators. They were lured not only by the prospect of a day filled with watching exciting sports, but also the entertainments provided alongside the Games, for some Caledonian societies offered amusements akin to those found at a fun fair. What this highlights is that Caledonian Games were not simply a means for Scots to celebrate their traditional culture: they were commodified, emerging as community meets for large audiences.107 Despite this commodification, the Games could, of course, serve as a site of memory for Scots, producing, as one reporter put it, ‘the keenest enthusiasm in the hearts of Scotchmen’.108 Ultimately, the Games’ importance lies, however, in their wider role. Games circuits developed in regions that had clusters of Games on offer, and attendance numbers increased further. Dunedin, which hosted the largest Games in New Zealand, could easily attract over 10,000 spectators, while even in smaller centres like Bendigo in Victoria crowds gathered in their thousands. Among them at a smallerscale Games in the proximity of Wallup in Victoria was the McRae family. Spruced up in kilts and with many a tartan adornment, even the youngest members of the family sported the appropriate attire for attending their local Games in 1905 (Figure 3.2). One key reason why Caledonian Games could serve this wider role so successfully in their respective communities was because they were, by and large, not simply catering to Scottish interests. For sure, caber tossing and Highland dancing featured widely, but, gradually, the Games took on the characteristics of a sports meeting rather than those of an ethnic celebration. This perhaps supplies one explanation why, at the annual sports meeting of the Melbourne Caledonian Society on 26 January 1893, ‘all in Highland 103 See also Alison Clarke, Holiday Seasons: Christmas, New Year and Easter in NineteenthCentury New Zealand (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2008). 104 Timaru Herald, 4 January 1876. 105 For instance ibid., 1 January 1889. 106 Ibid., 2 January 1889. 107 Bueltmann, ‘Manly Games’, p. 247. 108 Timaru Herald, 2 January 1877.

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Figure 3.2: ‘The McRae family in highland dress about to attend a Caledonian Society sports meeting. They are posing outside their house’, 1905

Source: Biggest Family Album of Australia, MM 001371, photographer: James McColl, Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

costume’ were ‘admitted free’:109 the offer was needed, it seems, to maintain at least some level of an outwardly visible Scottish character. This had been in abeyance as the Games evolved in the latter half of the nineteenth century, there being a gradual move in many locations to host professional athletes rather than amateurs, and with it came an increased focus on the athletic component of the Games. This also found expression in trans-Tasman exchanges where Australian athletes would compete in New Zealand and vice versa. Famous Scottish athlete Donald Dinnie also paid a visit down under.110 To maintain the Games at this level, Caledonian societies had to foot the bill for substantial prize monies, as well as the general running costs for the events, which included advertisement costs, but also costs relating to the maintenance of tracks and grandstands—or even the building of the latter if there were only temporary facilities. The bill for cash prizes also increased steadily. In Timaru, for instance, a total of £155 15s was offered in cash prizes in

109 As stated on the poster for the event, included in the scrapbook of the South Australian Caledonian Society, box 5, SRG 279, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide. 110 For more on Dinnie, who also toured Caledonian Games in North America, see Zarnowski, All-around Men, chapter four.

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1882, but within two years it had risen to well over £200.111 Another important development was the increase in popularity of cycle races towards the end of the nineteenth century, and their incorporation as a regular fixture by several Caledonian Games. While traditionalists were misgiving of this trend, seeing in it a threat to Scottish customs and a failure to serve a ‘deeper Caledonian spirit’,112 a general concern for many organizing societies was that the inclusion of cycle races made the events even more costly due to the need for well-prepared tracks. For some societies these mounting costs relating to new events proved fatal, heralding their eventual downfall in the early twentieth century.113 But problems could appear for any number of reasons, not least poor weather. In 1883, for example, the ‘showers which … descended to cheer the thirsty ground’ contributed to ‘effectually wash[ing]’ the South Australian Caledonian Society’s credit balance.114 And indeed, while a revenue of about £450 was generated from the Games, expenses incurred amounted to well over £650.115 In fact, it may have been problems such as these, coupled with the availability of other attractions in Adelaide, that cast ‘doubt as to whether the attendance would be large enough’, and contributed to the South Australian Caledonian Society’s decision not to hold Games in 1889.116 The decrease in attendance was a general concern in New Zealand too, where an ever-growing number of sports activities and entertainments, from the late 1890s, provided stiff competition and contributed to Caledonian Games losing their appeal. In turn, this led to lower gate takings and privilege sales, which made the hosting of some Games unviable. Despite these problems, Caledonian Games were—for a good half century— the staple of Scottish ethnic associational activity in the Antipodes, a fact that is reflected too in the degree to which they facilitated the establishment of federal structures for the purpose of overseeing the Games. While, in New Zealand, federation was initially channelled through the New Zealand Athletic Union rather than a designated Scottish body (such an umbrella organization was only established in the late 1920s),117 Australia saw the emergence of the Australian Caledonian Association in the 1870s. That body recognized the benefit of Caledonian Games not so much for Scots per se, but rather as 111 Figures taken from the Society’s annual reports for these years as reprinted in Timaru Herald, 14 October 1882, and ibid., 7 October 1884. 112 Oamaru Caledonian Society Scrapbook, second box, n.d., 3791/119b, North Otago Museum Archive, Oamaru. 113 This happened, for example, in Oamaru in New Zealand. See Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 141 and pp. 148–9. 114 South Australian Caledonian Society, Annual Report, 1883, 367.9942 a, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide. 115 Ibid. 116 Ibid., Annual Report, 1889. 117 For details see Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 86ff; for more on the New Zealand Federation of Caledonian Societies, see p. 90ff.

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a means ‘conducive to the healthful invigoration of both mind and body’ that required ‘a uniform code of rules’.118 This emphasizes how the Games developed as a colonial product, and one that could cater for the Scots’ desire to integrate into their new homes rather than maintain exclusive cultural enclaves. The Games did, of course, publicly display Scottish traditions and culture, but both were connected to wider colonial society through the very facilitation of sports. So much so, in fact, that Caledonian Games in the Antipodes were instrumental in developing field athletics. In the early twentieth century, however, when a new generation of Scots was moving to the helm of ethnic associations, the focus was shifting back to more traditional Scottish Games. For some Caledonian societies this was a last attempt to maintain interest and membership, but the shift to more traditional Games can also be seen within the wider context of the re-popularization of Scottish ethnic associationalism that emerged at the time. This was, in some ways, almost a counter-movement as it put in place more exclusive rules and activities that were designed not for the purpose of integration of Scottish activities into the wider community, but rather for the consolidation of the Scottish community itself. Ethnic associationalism in the Antipodes became much more inward looking through this shift. In both Australia and New Zealand the reversal to traditional roots was supported with the founding of Scottish community journals, including, for instance, the Scottish Australasian, which was first published in December 1909 and explained its existence thus: We confess to being born with a mission. We want to help the young folk of Scottish parentage to better understand the history, literature and songs of the land of their forefathers; to see with a clearer vision the great events which built up the unconquered people of the hills and the glens, and to endeavour to inculcate in their daily conduct some of those principles for which Scotsmen are respected the wide world o’er. National sentiment is one of the greatest of Scottish virtues, and if we do nothing else than help to keep burning the flame of a pure national spirit, then the SCOTTISH AUSTRALASIAN will have justified its existence. … While we are doing this, we are by no means disloyal to the land of our adoption, and the SCOTTISH AUSTRALASIAN tells its own story of entwining interests and thought.119

In Australia, sustained evidence of the shift in thinking and focus comes from a specific episode of associational activity with which this chapter will end, namely the movement to safeguard national regiments. 118 ‘Rules to Govern the Games of the Caledonian Clans of the Australian Caledonian Association’, 1879, found in the records of the Highland Society of New South Wales, MLMSS.4738 1(7), State Library of New South Wales, Sydney. 119 Scottish Australasian, 1 December 1909, p. 5.

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The Question of National Regiments in Australia The Scottish diaspora as a whole was, it is true to say, not as politicized as others, for instance, the Irish—we will explore this question in more detail in chapter six. Political undercurrents did, however, play a role for Scottish associations: we have already seen how the work of some of them connected directly with emigration policies and political stakeholders. With that in mind, the final section of this chapter will explore an even more politically charged question: the abolition of national, and therefore also the kilted, regiments in Australia. The debate surrounding kilted regiments had been smouldering for some time in the early twentieth century as, at different points in time, the suggestion was made by Australian politicians that national regiments were superfluous.120 But the situation reached boiling point in 1912. Early in the year Senator McColl from Victoria had sent a letter to the Minister of Defence at the request of the Bunyip Caledonian Society ‘regarding the wearing of kilts by the Australian Scottish regiments’.121 The answer he received did not go down well, as it was noted that Highland uniforms may only be worn ‘on certain occasions’, and that ‘the uniform to be issued in future to all members of the Australian defence force will be of a uniform type.’122 The end of national regiments had come. This was, however, not the view of Scottish ethnic associations throughout the country, who mounted a sustained attack on the proposed changes. The Worker offered a somewhat humours take on the situation: The N.S.W. Highland Society is up in arms against the Defence department, for its decision that kilts are an altogether unservicable garb for soldiering, and that kilted regiments will therefore be passed out of the service. It is understood that the “no more kilt order” was prompted by a humane desire on the part of the Defence Department to defend the legs of the braw laddies against the savage attacks of ­blood-thirsty mosquitoes.123

But this should not deflect from the seriousness of the issue for many Scots 120 The Highland Society of New South Wales, for instance, referred to the question of ‘kilted regiments’ in its annual report in 1910, MLMSS.4738 2(7), State Library of New South Wales, Sydney. In general, the question of kilted/Scottish regiments was not specific to Australia. In London, various Scottish associations supported regiments, and in Asia too there were discussions, at times successful, to establish Scottish regiments (see for instance Straits Times (Singapore), 14 January 1908; also 26 October 1919. 121 Daily Herald (Adelaide), 15 February 1912. 122 Ibid. 123 Worker (Brisbane), 22 June 1912.

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in Australia. June 1912 provides the critical watershed, marking the start of co-ordinated action. As was noted in the Scottish Australasian, which served as a principal outlet for discussions: It is stated that the retention of the Highland Dress is a matter of ‘mere sentiment.’ It may be admitted at once that the retention of the kilt is just sentiment,—true national sentiment, the God-given endowment of patriotism. By its aid work of majestic import may be accomplished, and without its inspiring impetus the Commonwealth will never attain to a leading position among the nations of the world. The value of such patriotism to the community cannot be too highly regarded. … Now the loyal enthusiastic and patriotic Australian Scot, with the blood of a heroic ancestry flowing through his veins, and the history of his race in his mind, tenders his services for the defence of Australia. He wishes to do in defence of his country what his forefathers did for the Old Land, and, when the time arrives, write his name on Australian history, which will commence on the day in which he falls in the hour of victory, full clad in the kilt …124

For the Scottish Australasian it fell to the Highland Society of New South Wales to lead the way. The Society was established as a merger of the Caledonian and Gaelic societies of Sydney in 1877, uniting the interests of Lowlanders and Highlanders in one organization.125 By the time of the debate about national regiments, the Society was regarded as one of the leading organizations in Australia’s Scottish community, representing Scottish interests throughout the country. Hence the Highland Society was happy to answer the call issued by the Scottish Australasian, writing to the Minister of Defence on 14 June 1912 to say that the proposed changes would ‘supress the identity of the Scottish regiments’. In an attempt to prevent the proposal from going forward, the Society submitted with its letter a resolution passed by its Council and a wider body of members, which: 1. Records and emphatic protest against the abolition of the Kilt in the Scottish Regiments of the Commonwealth Forces. 2. Resolves that the Minister of Defence be approached with the earnest request that provisions be made which, while meeting all the necessities of modern warfare, will permit, as in the Forces of the United Kingdom, and in those of other British Dominions, of its retention. 3. Considers that the desire to live up to the high traditions of those who 124 Scottish Australasian, June 1912, p. 253. 125 See Constitution and Rules of the Highland Society of New South Wales, MLMSS.4738 2(7), State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.

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have worn it on the battlefields of history is the strongest incentive to the production of the best and bravest soldierly qualities in the wearer of to-day.

The kilt, the Highland Society’s letter closed, is ‘symbolic of the loyalty and patriotism towards the Empire of Scotsmen and their descendants throughout the world’.126 While the kilt was undoubtedly Scottish, the purpose it served was identified to be much wider: loyalty to the Empire. Framed in this way, the Scottishness the kilt represented was neither insular nor exclusionary, but, in the words of Hugh Sinclair MP, a manifestation of the Scots’ willingness ‘to spill their blood in the service of the Empire’. Consequently, Sinclair continued, the proposed abolition of national regiments would only ‘damp the enthusiasm’127 of the soldiers concerned, which would not be a positive development. The Highland Society’s resolution was not only sent to the Minister of Defence; copies were widely disseminated amongst other Scottish clubs and societies in Australia. A letter directly addressing these other associations accompanied the resolution, stressing the need for ‘simultaneous and united action’. If taken, and if members ‘will individually undertake to influence their friends, and if the local papers will take the matter up wholeheartedly’, so the argument went, ‘we cannot fail to shake the confidence of those officials who … have dared to assume that they can ride roughshod over the wishes of such a large and influential body of Australian Citizens as our Scottish community’.128 Adelaide Scots and others who had received the Highland Society’s resolution adopted it, and proceeded to send it to the Minister of Defence,129 who was inundated with letters from Scottish associations from all over Australia. Moreover, local senators were asked to take action,130 and the Australian press was filled with headlines such as ‘Passing of the Kilts’; ‘“Scots Wha Hae”: United Action in Defence of Kilts’;

126 Secretary of the Highland Society of New South Wales to the Minister of Defence, 14 June 1912, copy of letter contained in the records of the Caledonian Society of Adelaide, box 8, SRG 279, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide. 127 Shoalhaven News and South Coast Districts Advertiser, 20 July 1912. 128 Ibid. 129 See for instance Western Campion (Parkes), 28 June 1912; the article includes a reprint of the resolution sent by the Highland Society of New South Wales, as well as a piece from the Scottish Australasian. This article was printed in a number of papers; see also Forbes Advocate, 28 June 1912; Argus (Melbourne), 17 July 1912; Malvern Standard, 10 August 1912. 130 Letter from Senator McGregor’s Secretary to the Secretary of the South Australian Caledonian Society, Melbourne, 25 June 1912, copy of letter contained in the records of the Caledonian Society of Adelaide, box 8, SRG 279, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide.

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‘“Scottish Blood Rebelled”’; ‘Killing the Kilt’; or ‘The Last of the Kilties’.131 So vocal was the campaign that it was also picked up in the Scottish press. Under the headline ‘In Defence of the Kilt’, the Dundee Courier wrote that Scots in Australia were ‘much exercised in mind over the attitude of the Minister of Defence towards the kilt’, making specific reference to the Highland Society of New South Wales and its lobbying activities against the kilt’s abolition ‘as a symbol of loyalty and patriotism towards the Empire of Scotsmen and their descendants throughout the world’.132 In Australia the Victorian Scottish Union, the federation of Scottish societies in Victoria, made a final effort in August 1912, sending a deputation from various states to meet the Minister of Defence. Yet while the Minister showed some sympathy, noting that he had thought about the matter carefully, ultimately, as was reported in the press, ‘Australian soldiers could cultivate a national sentiment, and be proud of the uniform typical of the present Defence scheme.’133 Moreover, he simply deemed kilts to be too costly. But members of the Scottish community would not have any of this. Why were they so adamant? The Scottish Australian suggested that it was down to the ‘racial sentiment’. This, it was explained, ‘is one of the hardest things … to extinguish. It is as subtle, as mysterious, as intangible, and as puissant as electricity. There may be no apparent reason in it; it may manifest itself in childish ways, but there it is, and it will under given circumstances, move men to do things that astonish even themselves’.134 Partly as a result of such statements, and ongoing lobbying activities, a lengthy debate on the question of national regiments took place in the Senate in November 1912. The previously encountered Senator McColl moved that national regiments be kept. Referring to the many Scots in Australia, and their role in building the country, he noted that nothing ‘has disturbed Scottish feeling and blood so much as has the proposed abolition of these regiments’. This was the case, McColl went on, because the Scots’ deeds are ‘so closely associated with [the] characteristic dress’.135 One suggestion, also by McColl, was to adopt an Australian tartan—though another senator, De Largie, immediately called it ‘nonsense’.136 Senator 131 Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 17 July 1912; Advertiser (Adelaide), 10 July 1910 and 16 August 1912; Register (Adelaide), 17 August 1912; Argus (Melbourne), 10 July 1912. For letters sent to the Ministry of Defence, see files MP84/1 2011/1/193, 2011/1/197, 2011/1/215, 2011/1/356, 2011/1/358, 2011/1/359, 2011/1/361 or 2011/1/364, National Archives Australia. 132 Dundee Courier, 25 July 1912. 133 Kalgoorlie Miner, 16 August 1912; see also Advertiser (Adelaide), 16 August 1912. 134 Scottish Australasian, September 1912, p. 520. 135 ‘The Debate in the Senate of the National Regiments’, Parliamentary Debates, 21 November 1912, p. 2; copy contained in the records of the Caledonian Society of Adelaide, box 8, SRG 279, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide. 136 Ibid., p. 5.

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Walker of New South Wales, however, also spoke out in favour of keeping national regiments, noting that ‘love of one’s native country gives great force to the military spirit.’137 Debates continued for a while,138 but eventually the fight was lost as national regiments were abolished. Notwithstanding defeat, this episode of co-ordinated and collective action from a subscriber democracy, channelled through ethnic associations, powerfully underpinned the standing of Australia’s Scottish community. This was emphasized by further campaigns as the Highland Society’s efforts to keep the kilt visible ‘continued unrelaxed’.139

Conclusion By the time Scottish ethnic associations were first established in the Antipodes there was already a rich history stretching back two centuries and across different continents. The bar was high: Scots had been spearheading the ethnic associational scene not only in the near diaspora close to home, but also across the Atlantic in North America. Moreover, their commitment to patrician benevolence ensured that, while facilitated through an ethnic remit, there was a much wider purpose to the organized manifestations of their ethnicity than might at first be expected. Within this wider legacy it is remarkable to see that Scots in Australia and New Zealand were not simply copying what their kin had done elsewhere in the Scottish diaspora, but established a system of ethnic associations that exhibits yet another discrete and distinct layer of characteristics. Common to both Australia and New Zealand was the relative absence of philanthropy. While efforts in this direction were significant in Australia in the 1840s and 1850s, with associations having a very direct impact on emigration politics, the initiatives put in place were short-lived and faded away. In any case, they were less about aiding fellow Scottish migrants in distress, but rather designed to benefit positively the development of colonial Australia, bringing out to it the best possible migrants. In New Zealand 137 Ibid., p. 6. 138 Advertiser (Adelaide), 22 November 1912. 139 Highland Society of New South Wales, Annual Report for 1913, MLMSS.4738 2(7), State Library of New South Wales, Sydney. It is worth noting that, eventually, this persistence paid off: a renewed campaign was launched in the 1930s by the Victorian Scottish Union, and it was successful—at least in terms of restoring the Victorian Scottish Regiment. See also Sullivan, ‘Scots by Association’, pp. 232–3. Moreover, the connection between military culture and ethnic associationalism also found alternative outlets, for instance in organizations such as the New South Wales branch of the Black Watch Association, which catered for those who had served in the Black Watch and their dependants, see The Black Watch Association, New South Wales branch, MLMSS 7529, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.

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any such endeavours rested on even feebler ground. There is no clear documentary evidence that points to the exact reasons for this difference between the Antipodes and North America or London—the latter locations where the philanthropic principle was paramount—but the different timing of the Scots’ migration down under, as well as the socio-economic background of the migrants who arrived there, supplies important context for these divergent developments. Scots in the Antipodes were as committed to their kin as those elsewhere, but rather than channelling that commitment through patrician benevolence, they largely channelled it through leisure: this was an activity through which Scottish associations, chiefly Caledonian societies, sought to develop a framework for their ethnically-grounded activities, which had a wider community appeal, catering towards their civility rather than ethnicity. While the roots of this are found in Scotland itself, and although in North America too Caledonian Games moved to the fore of the Scots’ associational aims in the late nineteenth century, the degree to which they exerted influence in the Antipodes was fundamental to Scottish ethnic associationalism, especially so in New Zealand. Simply put, without the promotion of Caledonian Games the Scottish associational scene there would have been virtually non-existent. In Australia the emergence of associations was complicated by the country’s settlement history as the comparatively late arrival of free migrants after the first settlement with penal colonists contributed to a somewhat protracted development of Scottish clubs and societies. Colonial Australia, also partly due to its sheer size, was characterized by the transience of settlers for a comparatively long time—a fact that prevented the rooting of enduring associational structures for several decades. Eventually, however, the power of Scottish collective action through associations took hold, finding expression too in sustained federation structures, a characteristic that was much weaker in New Zealand. What developments in Australia and New Zealand, in combination, underscore powerfully is the need to examine Scottish ethnic associations within the immediate context of their emergence, the migrants who, as active agents, established them, and the local circumstances in their host society. While there were many parallel developments, it is clear by now that Scottish clubs and societies were always the direct product of their local environment. Africa, to which we will now turn, provides a strong case in point.

Chapter 2

North America North America

‘We are the better Americans for the Scottish heritage.’1 John Foord’s assessment in the foreword to Black’s exploration of the Scots’ role in making America is clearly celebratory in tone, but nonetheless has currency. At an official level, the importance of the Scottish contribution to the development of America was acknowledged in 1998, when a group of Scottish Americans, supported by United States Senator Trent Lott from Mississippi, proposed National Tartan Day ‘to recognize the outstanding achievement and contributions made by Scottish Americans in the United States’.2 The resolution was passed, designating 6 April as National Tartan Day. The date was specifically chosen because it was on 6 April 1320 that the Declaration of Arbroath was signed: the spirit of independence inherent in it provides a critical link across the Atlantic, resonating in the Declaration of Independence—not least because almost half of the signatories of it were of Scottish descent. As the promoters of National Tartan Day argued, ‘Scottish Americans successfully helped shape this country in its formative years and guided this Nation through its most troubled times.’3 In Canada too Tartan Day is recognized, and has been approved in all Provincial Assemblies either by Premier’s proclamation or Members’ Bill,4 and Scottish legacies run deep. Glasgow-born Sir John Alexander Macdonald was the key figure 1 John Foord, ‘Foreword’, in George Fraser Black, Scotland’s Mark on America (New York: The Scottish Section of “America’s Making”, 1921), pp. 3, 5. 2 Congressional Record—Senate, S2373, 20 March 1998. 3 Ibid. 4 Also the Hon. John D. Wallace, who sponsored Bill S-222, ‘An Act Representing a Tartan Day’, which was concerned with establishing the day at national level. See Debates of the Senate, 3rd Session, 40th Parliament, vol. 147, issue 58, 21 October

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in the movement for Canadian Confederation, becoming the first Prime Minister of Canada in 1867; it was under his premiership that Confederation progressed, Canada eventually stretching from coast to coast.5 Macdonald was elected for a second term in 1878, his premiership interrupted by the five-year tenure of another Scotsman, Alexander Mackenzie. The prominence of Scots in positions of power, and contemporary awareness and displays of public Scottishness, while signs of the deep Scottish heritage and legacies in North America for some, have been characterized by others as manifestations of invented traditions.6 Whatever side of the fence one sits on, developments such as Tartan Day are reflective of the meaning many people in North America attach to their Scottish heritage: for them the question of authenticity has little relevance as it is the meaning of these initiatives for Scots and their descendants that has currency.7 In the United States data from the Census Bureau sheds further light on the importance of Scottish heritage for many Americans. As the 2009 American Community Survey reveals, 5,847,000 of the people who reported their ancestry considered themselves ‘Scottish’, and 3,570,000 ‘Scotch-Irish’.8 The survey also offers a percentage distribution by region; from this we learn that 17 per cent of respondents who saw themselves as ‘Scottish’ lived the Northeast, 20 per cent in the Midwest, 37 per cent in the South and 27 per cent in the West.9 In 2011 figures of the total reported ancestry in the American Community Survey were still in the same range, but reveal further nuances in terms of people reporting ‘Scottish’ as single or multiple ancestry, and as first and second ancestry (Table 2.1); other national groups have been included to provide comparative context. When looking at the category of single ancestry, capturing those who reported only one ancestry in the Community Survey, ratios are interesting: 45 per cent of people reported ‘Scottish’ as their single ancestry; this compares to 86 per cent for ‘Scotch-Irish’, 57 per cent for ‘English’, 39 per  cent for

5

6

7 8

9

2010, http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/Sen/Chamber/403/Debates/058db_2010-10-21-e. htm?Language=E#48 [last accessed 20 February 2013]. For details on Sir John Alexander Macdonald, see Donald Creighton, John A. Macdonald: The Young Politician, The Old Chieftain, with an introduction by P.B. Waite (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998). This discussion was originally triggered by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger’s edited collection The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983). See also Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 9, footnote 38. The survey covered single and multiple ancestries and compared to a total of 4,890,581 who listed ‘Scottish’ as their ancestry in the 2000 Census; the total population covered by the survey was 307,007,000. For details on the full 2009 American Community Survey, see Table 52: Population by Selected Ancestry Group and Region, http://www. census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0052.pdf [last accessed 13 May 2013]. The percentages for Scotch-Irish are 12, 17, 51 and 20 respectively.

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Table 2.1: Ancestry reported in the 2011 American Community Survey (select ancestry groups) Scottish multiple ancestries single ancestry first ancestry second ancestry

3,735,002

ScotchIrish

English

1,687,062 16,313,127

1,677,818 1,456,844

British

Irish

German

587,837 24,828,720 31,228,614

9,383,297

605,976 9,692,067 16,163,909

3,415,466 2,408,456 17,504,349

885,269 21,516,072 33,027,743

1,997,354

308,544 13,004,715 14,364,780

735,450

8,192,075

Source: Based on data extracted from US Census Factfinder, http://factfinder2.census.gov/ faces/nav/jsf/pages/searchresults.xhtml?refresh=t [last accessed 13 May 2013].

Figure 2.1: Total ancestry categories tallied for people with one or more ancestry categories reported (select ancestry groups), 2011

Source: Based on American Community Survey, figure produced by the author.

‘Irish’ and 52 per cent for ‘German’. The category of ‘British’ stands out as more respondents reported that ancestry as single than multiple. In those cases where ‘Scottish’ was one of multiple ancestries reported, 63 per cent of respondents reported ‘Scottish’ as their first ancestry; this compares to nearly 77 per cent for ‘Scotch-Irish’, 68 per cent for ‘English’, 74 per cent for ‘British’, 62 per cent for ‘Irish’ and nearly 70 per cent for ‘German’. Figure 2.1 compares .

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Clubbing Together Table 2.2a: Ethnic origin for the population of Canada, 2006 Census Scottish

English

British Isles

Irish

German

Single ethnic origin Multiple ethnic origin

568,515 1,367,125 4,151,340 5,202,890

94,145 309,770

491,030 3,863,125

670,640 2,508,785

Total

4,719,850

403,915

4,354,155

3,179,425

6,570,015

Source: 2006 Census of Population, Statistics Canada, catalogue no. 97-562-XCB2006 006 (Canada, Code01), accessed via http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/ dp-pd/index-eng.cfm [last accessed 13 May 2013].

Table 2.2b: Ethnic origin and generation status of select ethnic groups in Canada, 2006 Census

1st generation 2nd generation 3rd generation

Scottish

English

271,550 635,605 2,865,795

547,860 1,035,150 3,794,245

British Isles

Irish

German

49,420 230,970 352,800 80,845 496,990 524,650 186,195 2,755,420 1,604,225

Source: see Table 2.2a, catalogue no. 97-562-XCB2006012.

total ancestry categories tallied for select ancestry groups from the British and Irish Isles, and Germany as non-English-speaking comparator. Overall, based on responses to the 2000 Census, those with Scottish ancestry came in 11th among the 15 largest ancestries in the United States, at 1.7 per cent.10 A similar survey was carried out in Canada for the 2006 Census, asking respondents to list their ethnic origin (Table 2.2a), as well as its generation status. Of those respondents who listed both their ethnic origin and generation status, the majority—2,865,795—are third-generation Scottish (Table 2.2b). Further to this recent evidence of Scottishness in North America, historical migration and settlement patterns of Scots provide a useful background to our exploration of Scottish ethnic associationalism, its emergence and development. Data for the period before the American Revolution is sparse. Estimates suggest that, prior to the mid-seventeenth century, around 200

10 Germans constitute the largest group with over 15 per cent, followed by the Irish with 10.8 per cent and African Americans at 8.8 per cent. Census Brief – Ancestry, p. 3, http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdf [last accessed 13 May 2013].

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Scottish settlers had made their way to English plantations.11 Several early ventures, for instance to South Carolina, ended in tragedy,12 and, overall, the number of Scots emigrating was decreasing.13 While the Union of 1707 officially opened the now British Empire for Scots, numbers were still low, approximately 30,000 Scots arriving in North America in the period 1700–60.14 Although many of them were attracted by the availability of land, there was also a strong pull to the emerging urban centres. By the time the first census was taken in the United States in 1790, the distribution of those who considered themselves ‘Scotch’ followed the broader settlement patterns of the expanding United States, with centres of settlement traceable in particular in Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Massachusetts, Maryland and New York (Table 2.3). The figures should be seen as a minimum of Scots resident in the early Republic as a number of factors, including the placing of Ulster-Scots in the categorization, does, in all likelihood, provide some distortions. Later on in the nineteenth century census statistics offer a more detailed view on those migrants who had still been born in Scotland. While this does not reveal the overall number of people with Scottish ancestry in the US in that period, it documents the settlement patterns of recent arrivals. Given that the emergence and spread of ethnic associations is, as we have already seen with respect to developments in Scotland’s near diaspora, intrinsically linked to the migration patterns of Scots, such details are valuable indeed. As Map 2.1 highlights, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts had remained main centres for Scots, but westward expansion in the course of the nineteenth century had had a clear effect, with Illinois, Michigan and California also boasting strong numbers. In the aftermath of the American Revolution, a significant number of Loyalists made it north of the border, and many of them were Scots. Prior to that internal North American migration, Scots were prominent among the many fur traders and trappers, at times only spending a sojourn in Canada, working for the Hudson’s Bay Company or the Northwest Company.15 Overall, however, the number of Scots coming to Canada (initially British North America) was characterized by a constant, but at first comparatively small, flow of new arrivals from Scotland, certainly until the end of the Napoleonic Wars (Table 2.5). Lowlanders made up the majority of arrivals 11 Dobson, Scottish Emigration to Colonial America, p. 33. 12 Alexander Murdoch, Scotland and America, c. 1600–c. 1800 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), p. 24. 13 Ned Landsman, Scotland and Its First American Colony, 1683–1764 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1985), p. 134. 14 See T.C. Smout, Ned Landsman and T.M. Devine, ‘Scottish Emigration in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, in Nicholas P. Canny (ed.), Europeans on the Move: Studies in European Migration (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), p. 98. 15 See for example Suzanne Rigg, Men of Spirit and Enterprise: Scots and Orkneymen in the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1780–1821 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2011).

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Clubbing Together Table 2.3: US state settlement patterns by nationality (main ethnic groups), 1790

State

Scotch

English & Welsh

Irish

German

Dutch

Connecticut Maine (territory) Maryland Massachusetts New Hampshire New York North Carolina Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Vermont (territory) Virginia

6,425 4,154 12,441 13,375 6,648 10,034 29,829 49,567 1,976 16,447 2,562 9,114

223,437 89,515 161,011 351,698 132,726 245,901 220,901 249,656 62,079 115,480 81,149 108,859

1,589 1,334 4,550 3,793 1,346 2,525 6,206 8,614 459 3,576 597 2,591

4 436 11,246 53 0 1,103 7,422 110,357 33 2,343 35 6,277

258 279 254 428 153 50,600 405 2,623 19 219 428 247

Total

162,572

2,042,412

37,180

139,309

55,913

Source: This includes only states for which data is available; figures derived from the University of Virginia, Geospatial and Statistical Data Center Historical Census Browser (2004), http://mapserver.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/index.html [last accessed 11 May 2013].

after 1880, while the migration of Highlanders, despite a number of distinct settlements thereafter, largely took place prior to 1880.16 Census statistics after Canadian Confederation provide us with more detailed insights into the number of arrivals who were born in Scotland (Table 2.5). Overall, statistics indicate a rate of somewhere between 12 per cent and 16.5 per cent of Scots arriving in British North America in the mid- to late eighteenth century. The year 1881 saw the first post-Confederation coast-to-coast census, revealing a particularly strong Scottish cluster in Prince Edward Island (44.9 per cent Scots). Other centres of Scottish settlement were Nova Scotia with over 30 per cent, and Ontario with 20 per cent. As a result of westward expansion the prairie states also became an increasingly attractive destination for Scots, with 16.7 per cent settled in Manitoba in 1881. Overall, and by 1911, 21 per cent of Canada’s British-born

16 J.M. Bumsted, ‘Scots’, in Paul Robert Magocsi (ed.), Encyclopedia of Canada’s Peoples (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999), p. 1119.

Source: The author. Numbers derived from the University of Virginia, Geospatial and Statistical Data Center Historical Census Browser (2004), http:// mapserver.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/index.html [last accessed 11 May 2013]. Please note that figures did not exist for all states from the start of the census—some states had initially been territories, while others were only added in the early twentieth century. With that in mind there is a geographical skew in favour of the eastern states, but the general patterns shown are robust for the period concerned.

Map 2.1: Residence in the United States of persons born in Scotland, 1870–1930

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Clubbing Together Table 2.4: Scottish immigration to Canada to 1945 Period

Number of immigrants

Pre-1815 1815–70 1870–1918 1919–45

15,000 170,000 326,000 214,800

Source: Adapted from Table 1, in Bumsted, ‘Scots’, p. 1120.

Table 2.5: Birthplace of British immigrants to Canada, 1871–1921 Scotland 1871* 1881 1891 1901 1911 1921

England & Wales

Ireland

144,999 169,492 219,688 203,803 519,401 700,442

224,422 185,522 149,184 101,629 92,874 93,301

121,074 115,010 107,594 83,631 169,391 226,483

* the 1871 Census only covered Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces Sources: For 1871 to 1911: Bulletin XIV: Fifth Census of Canada, Birthplace of the People for the Year 1911 (Ottawa: Statistics Office, 1913), Table A: British Immigrants, p. 2; for 1921: Sixth Census of Canada, 1921: Volume II—Population (Ottawa: F.A. Acland, 1925), Table 34: Birthplace of the total population, p. 238.

population had Scottish roots.17 Between 1919 and 1930 alone, nearly 200,000 Scottish immigrants arrived in Canada.18 In synch with these settlement pathways was the geographic spread of Scottish ethnic societies in North America (Map 2.2). Associations developed first in the principal settlement centres on the eastern seaboard, extending their reach westward in the course of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In Canada the same trend existed, but it commenced later than in the United States, again being in tune with the later arrival of larger numbers of Scottish settlers there.

17 Ibid. 18 Bumsted, ‘Scots’, in Magocsi, p. 1121.

Source: The author.

Map 2.2: The geography of Scottish ethnic associations in North America

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Brotherly Love and Charity19 The first Scottish association to be established in North America was the Scots’ Charitable Society of Boston, which was set up in 1657. What makes the organization all the more interesting for this investigation is that it was modelled on the Royal Scottish Corporation: ideas of ethnic associationalism crossed the Atlantic with the first migrants. The Royal Scottish Corporation, as we have seen in the previous chapter, was founded in London in the early seventeenth century to provide support for impoverished Scots in the city who were not entitled to parish poor relief. In Boston, objectives followed this philanthropic principle, offering ‘benevolence … for the releefe of our selves being Scottishmen or for any of the Scottish nation whome we may see cause to helpe’.20 Explicit recognition was given to the London Society in the 1770 rules, reflecting an understanding among Boston Scots of their associational roots and the existence of a wider Scottish world of associations of which they were part. As the Society’s rules state, the founders were ‘particularly encouraged by the success of a Scot’s Society in London of the same nature, established by Charter of King Charles 2nd ’, and set out to follow the ‘laudable Example of the London Society’.21 As in London, taverns and coffee houses served as the early meeting places of the Boston Society. The Society encountered some problems in its early years—specifically, a small membership base and related financial problems—that led to its re-organization in the mid-1680s, but between the early eighteenth century and 1763, nearly 800 members joined the organization, the vast majority of them hailing from the Lowlands.22 The charitable focus of the Boston Society was not challenged; in fact, it became the principal pillar of Scottish ethnic associationalism in North America, and remained so until well into the nineteenth century. The primary carriers of this philanthropic tradition were the many St  Andrew’s societies that were established in the course of the eighteenth 19 This was a motto often used—in exactly these words or very similar ones—by ethnic associations in North America. In this case it was employed by the President of the Montreal St Andrew’s Society during a speech delivered in 1836 at the St Patrick’s Society Banquet. Quotation found in the Montreal St Andrew’s Society Handbook, chapter one, available via http://standrews.qc.ca/society-archives-history/ [last accessed 10 March 2013]. 20 ‘Laws Rules and Orders of the Poor Boxes Society (1657)’, in The Constitution and By-Laws of the Scots’ Charitable Society of Boston, (Instituted 1657) with a List of Members and Officers, and many Interesting Extracts from the Original Records of the Society (Cambridge, MA: John Wilson and Son, 1878), p. 25. Quote accessed via the Scots’ Charitable Society of Boston website, http://scots-charitable.org/about/ [last accessed 22 February 2013]. 21 ‘Rules and Orders Agreed Upon by the Scots’ Society in Boston, New England, for the Management of their Charity (1770)’, in ibid., p. 47. 22 Dobson, Scottish Emigration to Colonial America, p. 81.

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century and beyond. The first such organization was founded in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1729, with Philadelphia (1749), Savannah, Georgia (1750) and New York (1756) following suit. That Charleston was the birthplace of the St Andrew’s tradition in North America is worth pausing over in light of the earlier developments in Boston: both settlements were early colonial centres of activity, and home to migrants with diverse backgrounds. In Charleston specifically the relatively close proximity to the Caribbean cemented its early importance as a trade hub.23 Other ethnic groups, including, for instance, the English, also developed their first ethnic organizations in Charleston. An element of competitive ethnicity—or, at minimum, an awareness of ethnic community activism amongst other migrant groups—is evident.24 This is emphasized when one looks at the subsequent geographical spread of Scottish ethnic associations: while not exactly the same, the broad pattern amongst various ethnic groups was up the eastern seaboard cities of the original 13 colonies, with associations in Canada only emerging in the 1830s. The wider migratory patterns of new arrivals, and their distinct timing to particular destinations, explains this broad accord. The setting up of the New York Society provides more detailed insights into how and why St Andrew’s societies were founded. It was on 19 November 1756 that ‘a number of gentlemen, natives of Scotland or of direct Scottish descent’, came together in New York City ‘and agreed to form themselves into a Scotch Society’. The argument was brought forward that, after Charleston, Philadelphia and Savannah, New York too needed an organization concerned with the welfare of Scots in the city. The declared purpose of the new society, therefore, was ‘the charitable relief of those fellow-Scotsmen, resident in New York, who might be in want or distress’.25 And thus the activities of the Society began. Amongst those involved in the early years were Philip Livingston, the Society’s first president and signatory of the Declaration of Independence; Malcolm Campbell, a merchant and the Society’s first treasurer; the Hon. Richard Morris, the first secretary and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York; and Adam Thomson, M.D., who became vice-president in 1756.26 Activities came to a halt—as those of many other ethnic associations— during the American War of Independence. Some feared that their loyal expression to the ‘motherland’—even if this was designated Scotland rather 23 See also Douglas J. Hamilton, Scotland, the Caribbean and the Atlantic World, 1750–1820 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005). 24 Bueltmann and MacRaild, ‘Globalizing St George’, p. 86. 25 This and the previous quotation from George Austin Morrison, History of the Saint Andrew’s Society of the State of New York, 1756–1906 (New York, 1906), p. 7. 26 William M. MacBean (ed.), Roster of the Saint Andrew’s Society of the State of New York with Biographical Data: Part I – from its Organization to the End of the American Revolution (New York, 1911), pp. 1–16.

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than Britain—might be ill-received, while others simply thought it inappropriate to continue associational pursuits at a time of crisis. In New York, where ‘many of the Revolutionary patriots had taken an active interest and part’ in the St Andrew’s Society prior to the revolution, the Society was ‘immediately reorganized’27 after the war, and its constitution was adapted to work within the new political set up of the American Republic. From that new 1794 constitution of the Society we can also gain further insight into the motivation behind its establishment: When people fall into misfortune and distress in any part of the world, remote from the place of their nativity, they are ever ready to apply for relief to those originally from the same country, on the supposition that they may possibly have connections by blood with some of them, or at least know something of their relations. For these reasons, the natives of Scotland, and those descended of Scotch Parentage, in the State of New York, have formed themselves into a Charitable Society, the principal design of which is to raise and keep a sum of money in readiness for the above laudable purpose.28

The New York Society was led by a president, two vice-presidents, six managers, two chaplains, a physician, a treasurer, a secretary and an assistant secretary—an organizational breakdown common for most St Andrew’s societies. Membership was restricted to ‘Scotsmen and the children and grandchildren of a native of Scotland’, with the payment of a $12 entrance fee, and an annual subscription of $2.50, securing membership. The earliest Scottish association in Canada was established in 1768 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, when the North British Society was set up ‘by local, mostly Lowland, Scottish elites’.29 Originally called the North British Society, or Scots Club, ‘the objects which our founders had in view appear to have been the assistance of Scottish emigrants landing in the Colony, and the establishment of a medium of communication with kindred Societies in the neighboring Provinces.’30 As with the Scots’ Charitable Society in Boston and the Royal Corporation in London, membership payments were ‘to be deposited into the Box’; this was ‘at the charge of the Society’ provided ‘with three locks and keys, those keys to be kept by proper persons appointed by said Society’.31 The Society aided sick members, and, in case of death, charges

27 Morrison, History of the Saint Andrew’s Society, p. 10. 28 Ibid., pp. 10–11. 29 See Michael Vance, ‘Powerful Pathos: The Triumph of Scottishness in Nova Scotia’, in Celeste Ray (ed.), Transatlantic Scots (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005). 30 James S. MacDonald (ed.), Annals of the North British Society of Halifax, Nova Scotia, For One Hundred and Twenty-five Years from its Foundation, 26th March, 1768, to the Festival of St. Andrew, 1893 (Halifax: John Bowes, 1894), p. 6. 31 Article 1, listed in ibid., pp. 7–8.

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for the coffin and grave were ‘taken out of the Box’—though members had to have been members for ‘at least a year’ to ‘be allowed any benefit from the Society’s Box’.32 Yet while much of the Society’s work focused on discussing monies available in the Box for support of members, there were also social activities. In 1772, for example, members met for St Andrew’s Day at the house of Widow Gillespie—the wife of a former member of the Society, John Gillespie, who had passed away earlier in the year—‘and the day was spent, as the Minutes read, in harmony, joy and jollity and ancient Scots’ songs’.33 By and large, however, in Canada too it was St Andrew’s societies that carried out philanthropic work, taking hold in the 1830s. In Montreal the St Andrew’s Society emerged out of the St Andrew’s Day Dinner Committee, which had been in existence for some time in the early nineteenth century to look after the celebration of St Andrew’s Day. In 1835, however, the following resolution was passed: ‘That a committee … of the Stewards of the late St. Andrew’s Dinner be now appointed for the purpose of taking such immediate steps and adopting such measures as by them may be deemed most advisable, with a view to establish a St. Andrew’s Society in this City’.34 Political currents, especially the ‘instability caused by the rebellions in both Canadas’35 had also played their part, contributing to a heightened sense of ethnic identity and expression among the British immigrant community in Montreal—a move intended to set them more clearly apart from the large number of French-Canadians.36 The committee that was subsequently appointed in Montreal in 1835 put together a draft constitution ‘based on the existing Constitution of St Andrew’s Society of New York, which may be said to have stood the test of experience from having existed unchanged during a period of forty years’.37 Through the practice of sharing rules, and adapting and adopting existing rules from other societies, the associational foundations of St Andrew’s societies developed quite uniformly throughout the diaspora. Following in the footsteps of the New York Society, in Montreal too the principal focus was on charity, the Society being established ‘for the relief of the truly indigent, to advise, help, and comfort the Scottish emigrant, and regulate charity in a 32 Articles 8 and 9, ibid. p. 9. 33 Entry for 1772, ibid., p. 20. 34 Minutes, 17 January 1835, First Minute Book, Montreal St Andrew’s Society Archive [MStASA hereafter]. 35 Catherine Bourbeau, ‘The St Andrew‘s Society of Montreal: Philanthropy and Power’, in Bueltmann et al. (eds), Ties of Bluid, p. 70ff. See also Narrative of the Proceedings of the St Andrew’s Society of Montreal (Montreal, 1844), p. 3. 36 See also Gillian I. Leitch, ‘Scottish Identity and British Loyalty in Early-NineteenthCentury Montreal’, in Peter E. Rider and Heather McNabb, A Kingdom of the Mind: How the Scots Helped Make Canada (Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006), pp. 211–26. 37 Minutes, 23 January 1835, First Minute Book, MStASA.

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systematic manner’.38 The motivation behind these objectives is outlined in detail in an introduction included in the Society’s first Minute Book: To a person far removed from the land of his nativity, and at a distance from those friends, to whom he could apply for relief when in the hour of misfortune and distress, the friendly assistance of those who own a common home and boast a common origin is always cheering to the heart and acts as a balm to a wounded spirit. … With a view to regulate charity in a systematic manner, to prevent imposition on the one hand and to relieve the truly indigent and distressed on the other—to afford advice and information to fellow countrymen far from the scene of their nativity—to promote the welfare of the emigrant and to aid him in forming a settlement, from which he is hereafter to derive happiness and independence, it is proposed to form among the Sons of Scotia resident in Montreal, a charitable Society, based upon these principles and directed solely to advance the cause and welfare of Scotchmen and their descendants.39

The Montreal Society was keen on increasing its membership quickly—albeit only with the right people. In order to achieve this objective, ‘an alphabetical list of such persons of Scottish origin and descent as they seemed of such character and respectability … as ought to be invited’40 was put together, and a meeting was called to officially establish the St Andrew’s Society for early February 1835. At this meeting the rules were adopted, and soon the Society’s first executive was chosen. New members had to be proposed and were asked to sign a declaration beforehand that confirmed their name, occupation and Scottish origins.41 In May 1835 a discussion ensued as to the acquisition of flags, banners and badges to provide the appropriate visual memorabilia for festivities and other Society activities. It was resolved that they ‘be ordered from Scotland’—‘with instructions to have them neat and handsome but not too costly’.42 Perhaps the stereotype of the thrifty Scot was in practice here, but in all likelihood this was rather a sign of careful financial planning in the early period when funds were still limited. But this was improving rapidly: by January 1844, there were 300 members, including life, honorary and ordinary members.43

38 Quoted in a Montreal St Andrew’s Society booklet entitled ‘Grand Bazaar in Aid of St. Andrew’s Home under the Auspices of the St. Andrew’s Society’, 1904, MStASA. 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid. 41 Details in the Appendix to the Society’s Constitution as outlined in the First Minute Book, MStASA. 42 First Minute Book, MStASA. 43 See Narrative of the Proceedings of the St Andrew’s Society of Montreal, p. 27; for a list of members, see p. 29ff.

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The relief provided by St Andrew’s societies in North America came in diverse forms, and ranged from the handing out of cash to the provision of meal tickets, but also included the arrangement of onward rail tickets to other cities, or even return passages to Britain. The Montreal St Andrew’s Society’s annual report for 1867 documents, for instance, ‘that 105 persons had been helped on their way, at a cost of $224.65; that 192 cords of wood had been distributed to the city poor, with 1,120 loaves of bread, 2,400 lbs. Meal, and $69.47 in small sums of money—the whole work of the committee costing $1,341.05’.44 In its endeavour to secure employment for migrants elsewhere in Canada, the Society could count on the Grand Trunk Railway, the Inland Navigation Company and the Richelieu Steamboat Company for making available reduced fares to support the onward journey of Scottish migrants;45 in this way, in late May 1867, a James Robertson got his passage paid to Hamilton. In terms of the dispensation of sums of money, the level of support varied, however, and depended on the rules of the society in question. Some organizations set specific limits for cash distribution, while the Charleston St Andrew’s Society seems to have awarded quite significant sums to some, including to ‘19 individuals sums ranging from $30 to $80 in the year 1841’.46 Other organizations were chiefly concerned with aiding only the ‘right’ migrants. The leaders of the Toronto St Andrew’s Society specifically sought to foster amongst deserving poor Scottish migrants ‘that spirit of independence which has made Scotchmen honored and respected throughout the whole earth’, ensuring ‘every possible precaution [was] taken to avoid giving to undeserving applicants’.47 In Montreal, too, those deemed beyond rescue were not supported. In late December 1869, therefore, Matthew Stevenson was expelled from the Home of the Montreal St Andrew’s Society ‘on account of drunkenness’, the Society stressing that ‘everything that could be thought of was done to reclaim him, but without success.’48 In Montreal the general position was to ‘assist those who were willing to work and not to keep the lazy in idleness’.49 The provision of employment was deemed the best means, and cases where this was achieved are reported in the Society’s minutes—in 1867 it was recorded, for instance, 44 45 46 47

Annual Report of the St Andrew’s Society of Montreal for 1867, MStASA. First Minute Book, MStASA. Bueltmann et al., Scottish Diaspora, p. 119. Manager’s Report’ Fifty-Second Annual Report of the St. Andrew’s Society of Toronto, 1887–1888; Manager’s Report, Thirty-Seventh Annual Report of the St. Andrew’s Society of Toronto, 1872–1873. Both cited in Shannon O’Connor, ‘The St. Andrew’s Society of Toronto: Scottish Ethnic Associational Culture in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries’, unpublished MRP paper, University of Guelph, 2008. 48 Held amongst records found in the Society’s own archive, no specific reference details. 49 2 November 1871; cutting of report included in First Minute Book, MStASA.

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that a Mr Brown got employment and that a Suzanna McDonald ‘has been engaged by a Lady’.50 This type of philanthropy reflects a broader mind-set: whether deliberate or not, many societies were following in the footsteps of Samuel Smiles, seeking to enable self-help amongst those in need.51 The Toronto St Andrew’s Society best exemplifies this take on charity provision, its motto being ‘to help them to help themselves’.52 The type of aid provided was also dependent on the recipient: while widows or old people were often given cash in support, those who could work—and were thus considered able to actively improve their lives themselves, tended to receive other forms of support, including help with relocation expenses to places where workers were needed. In any case the applications of those looking for aid were carefully scrutinized, with detailed investigations taking place. The responsibility for these investigations was often shared amongst Society managers, but was also one of the few more active ethnic associational domains for Scottish women keen to become more involved. The St Andrew’s Society of New York, for example, appointed a Scottish woman to visits those who were too old, or otherwise incapacitated, to establish their needs, reporting her findings to the St Andrew’s Society’s Board of Managers.53 Helping the elderly became a particular concern in a number of cities and, to address the issue of poverty in old age, the St Andrew’s Society of Illinois established a Scottish Old People’s Home in 1901. In its early days the Home could be found in a rented building, housing elderly men and women of Scottish descent. These premises proved unsuitable in the long run, and the Society soon decided to build its own house outside Chicago, in Riverside. The aim was to give a welcoming home to elderly Scots in need of support; men had to be 65 years or older, and women 60 years or older, to be accepted as residents.54 The fact that men and women could

50 Held amongst records found in the Society’s own archive, no specific reference details. 51 See also R.J. Morris, ‘Samuel Smiles and the Genesis of Self-Help’, Historical Journal, 24 (1981), pp. 89–109. 52 Quoted in Shannon O’Connor, ‘“Nowhere in Canada is St Andrew’s Day Celebrated with Greater Loyalty and Enthusiasm”: Scottish Associational Culture in Toronto, c1836–1914’, in Tanja Bueltmann, Andrew Hinson and Graeme Morton (eds), Ties of Bluid, Kin and Countrie: Scottish Associational Culture in the Diaspora (Guelph: Centre for Scottish Studies, 2009), p. 103. For a detailed assessment of the Scots in Toronto and their associational life, see also Andrew Hinson, ‘Migrant Scots in a British City: Toronto’s Scottish Community, 1881–1911’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Guelph. 53 Harlan D. Whatley, Two Hundred Fifty Years, 1756–2006: The History of the St Andrew’s Society of the State of New York New York: Saint Andrew’s Society of New York State, 2008), p. 32. 54 City of Chicago, Department of Public Welfare: Social Service Directory (Chicago, 1915), p. 92.

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live in the same home was a marked departure from the practice of many other organizations, but even more so was the fact that the Scottish Home allowed married couples to remain together: The separation of aged married couples is one of the tragedies of life. In the Scottish Old People’s Home provision is made that such couples may enjoy each other’s companionship. … there are cases of aged married couples applying for admission to such institutions [homes for the aged]. The usual custom is to separate them … thus adding to their cares and burdens. It was the thought that an aged couple who had shared together the joys and sorrows of life, who had together borne the heat and burden of the day, might be together in the twilight of their lives to enjoy each other’s companionship that caused the builders of the Scottish Old People’s Home to make provision for such cases.55

In 1929, an assessment of various homes for the elderly in the United States that were run by national groups found that the Scottish Home in Riverside had a capacity of 50 and an average of 37 residents; its annual cost of operation was $25,685.56 These costs applied to the Society’s second Home in Riverside, as a fire had destroyed the first Home it built in March 1917. Four residents of the Home died in the fire, which is thought to have been caused by crossed wires in the boiler room. Worse would probably have happened had it not been for the two dogs of the Home, ‘“Topsy”, a collie, and “McDougal,” a Scotch terrier’, who alerted the Home’s superintendent, Mrs Cummings. Sadly, ‘little “McDougal” lost his life in the flames’, and the building was completely destroyed.57 Temporary accommodation for the residents was soon secured, however, and thanks to generous subscriptions received from throughout the United States and abroad, enough money was raised to rebuild very quickly. As was noted in the Caledonian, ‘[a]mong the larger contributors, Walter Scott, of New York, sent his check for $3,000’, and, by mid-February 1918, $34,610.69 had been raised.58 In total, the 1929 assessment revealed that there were 37 homes for old people of particular ‘national groups’ in the US, many of them sponsored by a fraternal organization.59 New York City, however, had none—a fact that had already been lamented in 1915, when a contemporary observer wondered in the Caledonian why such an institution did not exist in New York. According to the observer, a lack of unified action was to blame—an issue that might be remedied through ‘a sort of central clearing house for applications and relief’ 55 Florence Evelyn Parker, Care of Aged Persons in the United States (Washington, DC: US Government Print, 1929), p. 179. 56 Ibid., p. 175. 57 The Caledonian, April 1917, p. 38. 58 The Caledonian, May 1917, p. 88; 17 (March 1918), p. 518. 59 Parker, Care of Aged Persons in the United States, p. 175.

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Figure 2.2: ‘Scottish Old People’s Home in Riverside, Illinois, with old woman dancing in front of elderly people’

Source: Chicago Daily News, 1921. DN-0073448, Chicago Daily News Negatives Collection, Chicago History Museum, Chicago, USA.

to prevent abuse and permit the better organization of activities. The New York St Andrew’s Society was identified as the most suitable leader for such a project, not least because it had ‘spent last year more than $13,000 on outside pensioners and resident poor’.60 Little came of the idea, however, the Riverside home remaining the only Scottish home in the United States (Figure 2.2). The St Andrew’s Society of Montreal also offered accommodation for Scots in need, albeit much earlier—from the late 1850s—and under a wider remit, catering for all Scottish immigrants and Scots without a permanent home who lived in or passed through Montreal, rather than just the elderly. The idea for a home was ‘the result of an experiment made last Winter [1856]’. It was then that a house ‘was leased and managed by a Committee of Ladies, under the auspices of the Montreal Society. It proved of great benefit to several very destitute Scottish families, and 42 women and girls found a temporary home there. A committee was subsequently appointed to consider ‘the propriety and practicability of making the effort a permanent one’.61 The first intake for the permanent home came a little earlier than planned, however, as an immediate result of the burning of the steamer

60 The Caledonian, February 1916, p. 472. 61 Report from the Montreal St Andrew’s Society’s Charitable Committee, included in meeting minutes for 12 November 1857, First Minute Book, MStASA.

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Montreal on 26 June 1857. The Montreal had been en route up the St Lawrence River between Quebec and Montreal, carrying a large number of Scottish passengers, most of who had recently arrived in Quebec directly from the Clyde on the John McKenzie. When hearing of the disaster, the Montreal St Andrew’s Society decided that the home it was then still refurbishing had to be ‘opened and furnished, and on the evening of their arrival [in Montreal] 76 survivors found home in the building’.62 One of them was David Milne from Glasgow. ‘This poor fellow’, the Montreal Herald reported, ‘after struggling long to save himself and family, unfortunately lost them all—consisting of his wife and five children—but one, a little boy of seven years old, he saved and had with him’.63 There was also Peter McColl, aged nine, whose parents died in the tragedy. Further to providing shelter and support at the new home, the St Andrew’s Society also arranged for the burial of the 15 victims of the tragedy who had been brought to Montreal. This was made possible because the Society was presented with a lot at the Mount Royal Cemetery by the Cemetery Company, and interred the 15 bodies there.64 Among those buried was John Muir, a nine-month-old baby whose mother, Agnes, had made it to safety and was staying in the St Andrew’s Society’s home with her nine-year-old son George. Agnes’s husband, another son and a daughter had, however, died in the tragedy or were missing.65 Agnes and George stayed in the home until early July 1857, and then went on to Ohio. The cost of travel, as well as clothes and other essentials, together with a small sum of cash, was provided to them and other survivors thanks to the generous donations the St Andrew’s Society received from other ethnic societies in Montreal, including the German Society and the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society, from Scottish associations based elsewhere in North America and from many an individual. According to one list, different supporters gave £1,132 to help the survivors of the Montreal.66 They were only one group of many, however, that the Montreal St Andrew’s Society helped in that year as, overall, it ‘ministered to the wants of 564 individuals’.67

62 Stirling Observer, 23 July 1857. Scottish newspapers reported fully on the tragedy, including descriptions of those who perished. See for instance Dumfries and Galloway Standard, 15 July 1857. 63 Cited in the Stirling Observer, 23 July 1857. 64 This and the previous quotation taken from Report of the St. Andrew’s Society Charitable Committee, of the Receipts and Disbursement of the Special Fund for the Relief of the Sufferers by the Burning of the Steamer “Montreal,” on the 26th June 1857, found in MStASA. 65 See List of Burials, Montreal St Andrew’s Society, http://www.standrews.qc.ca/sas/ archives.htm [last accessed 7 July 2013]. 66 Ibid., p. 4; for a list of individual subscribers, see p. 6ff. 67 Report from the Montreal St Andrew’s Society’s Charitable Committee, included in meeting minutes for 12 November 1857, First Minute Book, MStASA.

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The Montreal St Andrew’s Society Register of Emigrants provides fascinating details of those migrants who passed through the home—a group that in total, by 1904, comprised 6,656 Scottish migrants.68 The Register lists 54 migrants as survivors of the Montreal. They were predominantly male, 69 per cent. A little over 40 per cent were aged between 20 and 30, making up the largest cohort in terms of age bracket, followed by the group of 30 to 40 year olds, which stood at 20 per cent; the third age group, at 11 per cent, were those aged between 10 and 16. We can also gather some interesting details about the occupational, and therefore by extension the socio-economic, background of the migrants. Of the male cohort, 48 per cent were ‘farm servants’; the next largest group, at 10 per cent, were ‘farmers’. In terms of the migrants’ origins in Scotland, the register also provides detailed insights for a large number. By and large the Montreal survivors were Lowland Scots, hailing primarily from Glasgow (28 per cent), Kintyre (13 per cent) and Lanark (11 per cent), though there were some pockets in the Highlands, 13 per cent originating from the Isle of Skye and 11 per cent from Perthshire. These clusters also reflect that some of the migrants had made their way in extended family groups, with at least nine such families traceable. One was the McLean family from the Isle of Skye. While shipping records relating to the John McKenzie suggest that this was a family of six, the Montreal St Andrew’s Society only lists the names of Owen, John, Roderick and Catherine McLean, aged 20, 16, 14 and 12 respectively. The other family members, it seems, perished in the fire aboard the Montreal or drowned in the river—a fact that most likely provides the reason why the remaining McLeans gave Perth as their destination when departing the St Andrew’s Society Home in late July 1857: Canada had not brought this family much luck, and, given the young age of the survivors, a return to Scotland was perceived as the best option. The vast majority—77 per cent—of the Montreal migrants, however, intended to remain in Canada, and a few also made their way to the United States. After the first year and the intake of the survivors of the Montreal, the St Andrew’s Society helped a growing number of migrants, though the overall numbers varied throughout the year and over time. First, numbers changed in relation to the time of year—fewer new arrivals came in the winter months, when there was limited transport across the Atlantic—but also the wider socio-economic climate. In the early 1860s, for example, ‘[a]n unusual number … arrived upon our shores without the means of proceeding further than this city in search of employment.’69 In light of the poor economic climate in Britain at the time, more people sought new opportunities abroad, but did

68 This has been calculated on the basis of the St Andrew’s Society of Montreal Register of Emigrants, available at http://www.standrews.qc.ca/sas/archives.htm [last accessed 7 July 2013]. 69 27 th Annual Report of the Committee of Management, First Minute Book, MStASA.

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not necessarily have any capital of their own to facilitate the new start. In the latter part of the decade the St Andrew’s Society’s home thus easily saw an annual intake of well over 200 migrants, while in 1871 164 people passed through. This was ‘a considerable falling off from the numbers of the previous year’,70 and a direct result of the high demand for labourers in Canada: new arrivals found employment swiftly. In that year, six people were sent back to Britain at a cost of $71, and 72 people were given funds to relocate elsewhere within the Dominion. In total, the Home spent $2,271 in 1871, which included such expenses as ‘groceries for out door [sic] relief’, the cost for 3,220 loaves of bread, and 27 pairs of boots; $47 were given ‘in small sums to City poor’.71 Over the years the support provided through the Home was significant and relied, in no little part, on the donations from the community. They consisted of cash donations by wealthy Scottish merchants, but also donations of goods at an estimated value of $300 in 1871. These goods included 44 loaves of bread donated by Mr Penton, Chief of Police, but also goods won in curling matches that had been played for the charitable cause. Further east, by 1885 the St Andrew’s Society of St John, New Brunswick, had dispensed in aid more than $30,000 since it was established.72 Generally we can see a yearly relief cycle in Montreal: during what might suitably be described the emigration season, the focus of the St Andrew’s Society was chiefly on new arrivals from Scotland, while, during the winter, activities centred more broadly on the Scottish poor in the city, when firewood supplies were a principal means through which the Society aided those in need.73 The charity provided by Scottish ethnic associations, then, was often very practical. This is emphasized strongly through a number of other initiatives that, while using wider support structures and facilities of external providers, rested on ethnic foundations. The New York St Andrew’s Society, for instance, had privileges to beds at St Luke’s Hospital and the Presbyterian Hospital; some of these beds were gifted by members.74 Another example comes in the provision of burial plots. While we have already heard of developments in Montreal in the 1850s, the St Andrew’s Society there soon purchased additional plots: it was its ‘express injunction that none of our countrymen or countrywomen, dying helpless and friendless in this City, are to be buried at the public’s expense’.75 By the early twentieth century, therefore, a number of burial sites at different cemeteries throughout the city were held by the St Andrew’s Society and, as the 75th annual report documents, 155 burials had 70 2 November 1871; cutting of report included in First Minute Book, MStASA. 71 Ibid. 72 I. Allen Jack, History of St. Andrew’s Society of St. John, N.B., Canada, 1798 to 1903 (St John, NB: J. & A. McMillan, 1903), p. 139. 73 27 th Annual Report of the Committee of Management, First Minute Book, MStASA. 74 See certificates listed in Morrison, History of the Saint Andrew’s Society, p. 177. 75 List of Burials, Montreal St Andrew’s Society, http://www.standrews.qc.ca/sas/ archives.htm [last accessed 7 July 2013].

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taken place.76 In other major centres, too, the acquisition of burial plots was common. In Toronto the St Andrew’s Society acquired a plot for destitute Scots at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in 1886 and, in June 1891, all the city’s Scottish clubs and societies were represented, along with 2,000 onlookers, for the unveiling ceremony of a memorial cairn there.77 Inter-associational links among Scottish groups were strong, with the city’s Caledonian Society having donated $400 towards the monument.78 In New York a plot was available at Cypress Hills Cemetery, which ‘was presented jointly to the Societies of Saint Andrew, St. George, St. Patrick and St. David by William Miles, when President of St. David’s Society, in 1856, and an appropriate iron railing [was] placed around the Saint Andrew’s portions of same’.79 Further west, in San Francisco, the local St Andrew’s Society applied for a burial plot in 1877.80 Strategies around the provision of support, therefore, were fairly uniform throughout North America, certainly in the larger urban centres. This was the case too because ethnic associations drew on the experience of others, for instance, as we have already seen, through adopting the constitutions of established organizations, but also through sustained communication and contact. This was, as will be explored in more detail later on in this chapter, key to the development of a diasporic consciousness amongst Scots, but also inter-associational support. The commitment to aiding kindred societies in times of need was certainly profound. Hence, in 1853, the St Andrew’s Society of Charleston de facto broke its own rules—to give support only to members and their families—in setting aside $250 for the New Orleans St Andrew’s Society in support of its charity work in response to the yellow fever epidemic. The Charleston Society’s contribution was the result of a call the New Orleans organization had issued, asking Scots around the country for support.81 The Chicago Fire of 1871 was another event that brought together support from diverse corners of North America and beyond: with 90 per cent of the St Andrew’s Society of Illinois’s members having lost their homes, the donations that came in from fellow Scots were certainly needed.82 Only a couple of years later the Memphis St Andrew’s Society appealed for help when the plague broke out in the city.83 76 Ibid. 77 One Hundred Years History of the St. Andrew’s Society of Toronto (Toronto: Murray, 1936), p. 36. See also The Scottish Canadian, 25 June 1891. 78 Toronto Daily Mail, 16 December 1891. 79 Morrison, History of the Saint Andrew’s Society, p. 36. 80 Daily Alta California (San Francisco), 12 June 1877. 81 J.H. Easterby, History of the St Andrew’s Society of Charleston, South Carolina, 1729–1929 (Charleston: The Society, 1929), p. 81. 82 Gus Noble, ‘The Chicago Scots’, in Tanja Bueltmann, Andrew Hinson and Graeme Morton (eds), Ties of Bluid, Kin and Countrie: Scottish Associational Culture in the Diaspora (Guelph: Centre for Scottish Studies, 2009), p. 145. 83 Tri-weekly Astorian (Astoria), 9 October 1873.

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Some of the most enduring fruit of co-operation, and borne across ethnic groups, can be found, however, in New York, where the local St Andrew’s and St George’s societies worked together closely—so closely, in fact, that they shared the same lodgings at 3 Broadway, as well as the same almoner, for a period in the 1870s.84 This type of inter-ethnic associational networking also provides further evidence of the degree to which ethnic associations operated at a civic level. In New York this is best exemplified through the work of the Board of United Charities, which was formed in the 1870s on the initiative of ethnic associations. The history behind the establishment of that organization is set out in the preface to its 1876 directory. In 1874, a Bureau of Charities was launched in New York, later leading to ‘the confederation of a large number of the [charitable] Societies under the title of the Board of United Charities of New York’.85 Under the leadership of the Board, a directory of New York charities was compiled, the purpose of which it was to provide a ‘regular means’ of ‘ascertaining year after year the financial and general condition of the principal Benevolent Institutions of New York’.86 An added bonus was that the directory allowed New York residents to determine whether a charitable society was genuine and doing good work. The Board included organizations with diverse aims, ranging from those providing relief for women and girls to hospitals; specifically excluded were societies connected to churches. Ethnic (national) societies, however, were clearly identified as a discrete part of New York’s relief system for the poor. These societies were, in fact, fundamental in the Board’s operations. In 1876 the Board’s Executive Committee had eight members, five of whom were the presidents of ethnic societies and included Robert Gordon, the President of the St  Andrew’s Society, and Henry E. Pellew, the President of the St George’s Society. The directory the Board produced provides fascinating insights into the remit of ethnic associations in New York, as well as the aid they dispensed, and helps put the work of the New York St Andrew’s Society into context (Table 2.6). The work of the Board, even if not formalized to the same extent in other centres, still resonated throughout North America: co-operation around the provision of charity for emigrants was a key objective and many ethnic societies, therefore, also worked together with emigration agents and local officials to facilitate the provision of aid.87 Through this civic-oriented role, as a member of the Montreal St Andrew’s Society aptly observed, 84 St George’s Society of New York, History of St George’s Society of New York, from 1770–1913 (New York, 1913), pp. 75, 322. See also Board of United Charities, Hand Book of the Benevolent Institutions and Charities of New York for 1876 (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1876), p. 54. 85 From the preface of Board of United Charities, Hand Book of … (1876). 86 Board of United Charities, Hand Book of … (1877). 87 2 November 1871; cutting of report included in First Minute Book, MStASA.

1783

1841

German Society

Irish Emigrant Society

to assist German emigrants and to relieve distressed Germans and their descendants to afford aid, advice, protection and information to Irish emigrants mutual aid to Italians

Income (1875)

$5,569.50 $3,026.89 $3,846.53

to the president

about $4,000

$6,180

$10,506.56

at the office daily at 1 pm to any member

at the office

to the president

n/a

at the office

to the secretary at the office at the office during particular $7,814.63 times at the office $28,000

How to apply for relief?

$3,084.93

$4,960.42 $3,010

$3,916.20

$4,600.60

$9,100

$21,000

$6,710.74

Spend (1875)

* Though 1786 was long listed as the year the New York St George’s Society first operated, it was actually founded in 1770; the year 1786 was often listed because that was when the Society began to keep records. Source: Adapted from Board of United Charities, Hand Book of … (1877), pp. 54–5.

to afford relief to poor persons of New England origins St Andrew’s Society 1756 to aid Scotchmen and descendants in distress St George’s Society 1786* the relief of indigent English people Society of the Friendly Sons of 1827 the relief of poor Irish people St Patrick Swiss Benevolence Society 1851 to relieve needy persons of Swiss origin

Società d’Unione e Fratellanza 1857 Italiana New England Benefit Society 1805

1869 1809

Société Belge de Bienfaisance French Benevolent Society

the relief of Belgian citizens in distress the relief of the poor of French nationality

Date Objective est.

Name

Table 2.6: Aid dispensed by ethnic associations in New York in the mid-1870s

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organizations were working towards both ‘the good of our adopted country, and loyalty to the motherland’.88 Importantly, this was also a function recognized by the wider public. The Hamilton Times reported: A few months ago, a poor Scotch family arrived in this city in an almost destitute condition, and applied to several members of St Andrew’s Society for relief. They received aid—which was very timely and liberal— and immediately endeavored to get something to do. Their efforts were successful; day after day they prospered, and it was pleasing to hear Mr. John Osborne mention at the meeting of the St. Andrew’s Society, on Thursday evening last, that not only had this family prospered and been enabled to make themselves comfortable, but had also since befriended many emigrants from Scotland, and extended to them the right hand of fellowship. Such cases as this tend to show how truly beneficial a society such as that of St. Andrew’s can be.89

Recognition of the benefits the Scottish ethnic societies brought was by no means restricted to local newspapers. In a despatch to London, George Matthews, Overseer of Poor, St John, New Brunswick, detailed activities of benevolent associations noting that ‘[t]he committee of the St. Andrew’s Society for attendance of cases of real need and distress will have funds at their disposal during the winter to extent of over 300l.’90 St  Andrew’s societies were firmly embedded in the fabric of charity provision in settlements all around North America.91 The New York Times put it well when noting that Scottish ethnic associations, whether helping indigent new arrivals from Scotland or engaging in inter-associational co-operation, were ‘in every way thoroughly equipped for carrying on … work of “relieving the distressed”’,92 and they did so from their first emergence in the seventeenth century until well into the twentieth century (and the legacy still lives on). From the mid-nineteenth century, however, we nonetheless find an important juncture in Scottish ethnic associationalism in North America, and it is to this shift that we now turn.

88 Quoted in booklet on ‘Grand Bazaar in Aid of St. Andrew’s Home under the Auspices of the St. Andrew’s Society’, 1904, MStASA. 89 Quoted from the Hamilton Times in London Evening Advertiser, 15 November 1864 90 House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, ‘Emigration. Return to an address of the Honourable the House of Commons, dated 9 March 1842;--for, copies or extracts of any correspondence relative to emigration, which has taken place between the Colonial Office and the authorities in the colonies, or the Commissioners of Land and Emigration, since the date of the last despatches which were laid before Parliament, for each of the colonies respectively’, p. 234. 91 See also David T. Beito, From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890–1967 (Charlotte: University of North Carolina Press, 2000). 92 New York Times, 6 December 1890.

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The Changing Face of Scottish Ethnic Associationalism in North America While philanthropy was the principal cornerstone of Scottish ethnic associationalism in North America, it was by no means the only objective. What is more, from the mid-nineteenth century we can see a general shift in the aims and objectives of organizations, as well as the establishment of new types of associations whose focus went into new directions compared to the associational formations we have explored thus far. St Andrew’s societies were, in fact, gradually challenged, first by Caledonians societies, which focused more on the provision of sport and entertainment than charity, and then by mutual benefit societies. With respect to the latter, the Sons of Scotland Benevolent Association had risen to the fore in Canada, while in the United States the Order of Scottish Clans began leaving visible marks from the late 1870s. Both organizations were, though pursuing some activities that were similar to those of St Andrew’s and Caledonian societies, fundamentally different from them as their remit rested on the foundations of mutualism rather than ethnic associationalism. Organized in so called ‘camps’ and ‘clans’ respectively—hence essentially through a lodge system akin to that of masons and other friendly societies—the Sons of Scotland and the Order of Scottish Clans had an estimated 200 and 250 branches respectively, with a combined membership of well over 20,000 by 1900.93 A decade later, estimates contained in the Sons of Scotland’s Grand Chief’s Message refer to there being 8,000 members of that organization alone.94 The Sons of Scotland association was established as a mutual aid society in Toronto in 1876 to provide insurance to its members, also including in its activities elements of sociability and the celebration of Scottish culture. The specific objectives were: a. To unite Scotchmen, sons of Scotchmen, and their descendants, of good moral character, and possessed of some known reputable means of support, who are over eighteen years of age. b. To establish a fund for the relief of sick members, and to ameliorate their condition in every reasonable manner.

93 The Scottish Canadian, October 1897 and December 1900. Celeste Ray argues that the Sons of Scotland had 5,000 members, while the membership of the Order of the Scottish Clan stood at about 16,000. See Celeste Ray, ‘Scottish Immigration and Ethnic Organization in the United States’, in Celeste Ray (ed.), Transatlantic Scots (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005), p. 67. 94 Message contained in Alexander Fraser Fonds, VIII. Societies & Associations, Sons of Scotland, F 1015, Archives of Ontario, Toronto.

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c. To provide or establish a Beneficiary Fund, from which, on satisfactory evidence of the death of a member, a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars shall be paid, as provided by the Constitution and laws of the Order relative to the Beneficiary Fund. d. To cultivate fond recollections of Scotland, its customs and amusements. e. The Camps shall at all times be free from all political and theological sectarianism, and be subject only to the laws of God and of the land in which they respectively exist.95

At the helm of the organization stood the Grand Camp, with other camps designated either as subordinate or juvenile camps. The Grand Camp, headed by a Grand Chief, provided leadership for the organization as a whole, with other Grand Officers in place in roles reflecting those also used at subordinate camp level, including, for instance, a Grand Physician, who had responsibility for issues relating to the medical examination of those applying for membership.96 Annual—later biennial—gatherings of the Grand Camp brought together delegates from member camps from throughout Canada. Designed as roving conventions, these meetings were held in diverse locations throughout Canada, and were concerned, first, with the transaction of business, including the delivery of annual reports and financial statements, as well as the election of officers. There usually was, however, also a more social element to the proceedings. In 1891, for example, the Grand Camp met in Toronto and spent the day discussing business matters, and then in the evening a banquet was held at McConkey’s, ‘provided for the visiting delegates by the city camps’; toasts were made and the programme also included musical intervals with ‘selections of national music’.97 Amongst the Sons of Scotland’s social activities, the annual celebration of the birth of Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns was perhaps the most popular, with many camps gathering for the event.98 Burns, was, as I have argued elsewhere, ‘the epitome of Scotland’, and therefore served as ‘a particularly potent connector, symbol, and point of contact for memorialisation … and effective site of memory for Scots’99 across the Scottish diaspora. Burns was not only an iconic figure, however, he 95 Sons of Scotland Benevolent Association: Constitution of the Grand and Subordinate Camps (Belleville: Ontario Book and Job Printing House, 1892), p. 8. The Sons of Scotland still exist today and their remit still includes the provision of life insurance – albeit through partners http://www.sonsofscotland.com/what_we_do/index.shtml [last accessed 12 January 2013]. 96 Ibid., p. 17. 97 Toronto Daily Mail, 4 February 1891. 98 See for instance Morning Leader (Regina), 27 January 1919; Edmonton Journal, 24 January 1920. 99 Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 179.

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was also made visible through camps adopting his name. But it was not only Burns whose fame resonated in this way. As the Scottish Canadian reported in the summer of 1891: Pipe Major Munro opened proceedings with Scots wha hae, the world renowned war song of Scotia on the national instrument. This roused the enthusiasm of his brethren, so that they were well prepared to enjoy the next event, viz, an essay by Neil Mackinnon, entitled, ‘Bannockburn and its results.’ Bro. Logan of Waverly Camp sang ‘the land where I was born’ and in response to a vigerous encore gave ‘Robin Tamson’s Smiddy.’ Chief McCorkindale of Bruce Camp, with his usual eloquence, recited a very humerous piece …100

One of the Sons of Scotland’s subordinate camps, Inverness Camp, No. 54, S.O.S., based in Goderich, Ontario, provides insights into how subordinate camps operated. The Inverness Camp did not fail to give recognition to its Scottish link, adopting, for example, the Hunting McLaren tartan as the tartan to be worn for its main events, and met regularly on the second and fourth Friday of every month. Besides passing the relevant eligibility assessments (nationality and health included), those who wanted to become members had to pay an initiation fee based on their age: for 18 to 30 year olds this was set at $8, for 30 to 40 year olds at $9, and for 40 to 50 year olds at $10; these fees included the required medical examination and the issuance of the beneficiary certificate. Once accepted, payment of a monthly due of 35 cents was required.101 For those who had been members for six months and were not more than three months behind with monthly dues, a sick benefit of $1 per week was provided for 13 weeks in cases of illness. That illness had to ‘be verified by a physician and the chairman of the Sick Committee’.102 When sick, members had to notify the Chief, who would then initiate the required procedures. For the provision of mutual benefit, too, as with charity, the character of recipients and their conduct played a part. As outlined in the Inverness Camp’s by-laws: [a]ny member of the Camp who shall by drunkenness, immoral or disorderly conduct, bring upon himself sickness or disease, shall not be entitled to assistance for the funds of the Camp. … should any member while receiving benefits from the funds be found intoxicated, or guilty of any conduct to prolong his sickness, he shall not be entitled to any assistance from the funds of the Camp during the remainder of such sickness.103

100 The Scottish Canadian, 18 June 1891. 101 By-Laws and Rules of Order of Inverness Camp, No. 54, S.O.S. (Goderich: Star Printing House, 1893), pp. 3–4. 102 Ibid., p. 5. 103 Ibid., p. 6.

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Table 2.7: Sons of Scotland statistics, 1906, 1912 and 1916 total income for year ending 31 December

1906

1912

1916

$84,942 $95,075

$123,682 $115,975

$148,150 $223,144

1906

1912

1916

$74,423 $69,380

$108,819 $82,932

$122,740 $104,846

number of insurance certificates in force

1906

1912

1916

Sons of England Supreme Body Sons of Scotland Grand Camp

$4,330 $7,705

$5,032 $6,844

$4,275 $5,746

investments and other assets

1906

1912

1916

$84,599 $241,660

$161,673 $453,018

$476,141 $619,204

Sons of England Supreme Body Sons of Scotland Grand Camp total expenditure for disbursements year ending 31 December Sons of England Supreme Body Sons of Scotland Grand Camp

Sons of England Supreme Body Sons of Scotland Grand Camp

Source: Based on: The Insurance Year Book, 1908–1909: Life, Casualty and Miscellaneous (New York: The Spectator Company, 1908), p. 628 for 1906; The Insurance Year Book, 1912–1913: Life, Casualty and Miscellaneous (New York: The Spectator Company, 1914), p. 514 for 1912; and The Insurance Year Book, 1912–1913: Life, Casualty and Miscellaneous (New York: The Spectator Company, 1917), p. 407 for 1916.

Statistical records relating to insurance provision in North America shed further light on the growing importance of mutualism, and provide important comparative context to the position of the Sons of Scotland (Table  2.7), documenting income, expenditure, the number of insurance certificates in force and assets.104 In the United States the Order of Scottish Clans too had expanded significantly since its establishment in 1878. For the year ending 31 December 1907, for instance, it had disbursed $115,886 to members, and paid $98,050 for insurance claims, making them a significant player in the insurance market.105 This is emphasized by the overall numbers of benefit membership in good standing, which documents a steady rise from 8,722 in 1905 to 16,881 in 1914; by 1919 membership stood at 17,773. In line with the increase in

104 The Sons of England have been included here for comparison. An organization for English migrants that, in essence, operated in the same way as the Sons of Scotland, the group provides a particularly suitable comparator. See also Bueltmann and MacRaild, ‘Globalizing St George’. 105 The Insurance Year Book, 1908–1909, p. 600:

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membership new lodges were set up, growing in number from 118 in 1905 to 178 by 1919. In 1913 the Order issued insurance certificates to the value of $250, $500, $1,000 and $2,000 at staggered rates according to age, ranging from $1 for those aged between 18 and 24, to $2.30 from those aged  44 to under 45. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, there were approximately 10 deaths per 1,000 beneficiary members, and the average age of members in that period was about 37.5 years.106 While mutualism was the principal difference between the Sons of Scotland and other Scottish ethnic associations explored in this study, the Sons of Scotland exhibited a few other characteristics that mark them off from St Andrew’s and Caledonian societies. While generally not clandestine, the organization in camps mirrors the lodge system adopted by groups such as the Orange Order,107 also utilizing many a ritual commonly employed by masonic lodges. There were elements of secrecy too. The by-laws of the Inverness Camp were clear in stating, for instance, that ‘no member shall make known out of this Camp any proceedings, decisions, or business of any kind transacted … to any person not a member of the Camp.’108 At the forefront of members’ activities, however, lay ‘music, singing, lectures and storytelling [that] dominated club and society programmes’.109 There was also a Sons of Scotland Male Voice Choir that provided entertainment not only for the Sons of Scotland, but also other societies and churches.110 This social dimension, interlaced with cultural pursuits with a Scottish anchor, was critical to the many Caledonian societies that began to gain prominence in many North American centres from the mid-nineteenth century. The first Caledonian Society in the United States was founded a little earlier than that, however, when the Caledonian Society of Cincinnati was established in 1827. While this organization still promoted benevolence, seeking ‘to relieve such of our countrymen as may arrive among us in distressed circumstances, and to give them information and advice for locating themselves in the western country’,111 the tune soon changed to one focused chiefly on social pursuits—even if, as we

106 Statistics: Fraternal Societies (Rochester: The Fraternal Monitor, 1914), p. 128 and pp. 140–1. 107 See also Bueltmann and MacRaild, ‘Globalizing St George’; Don MacRaild, Faith, Fraternity and Fighting: The Orange Order and Irish Migrants in Northern England, c. 1850–1920 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005). 108 By-Laws and Rules of Order of Inverness Camp, p. 5. 109 Ibid. 110 Reference found in the Winter Programme of the Camp Floer o’ Dunblane 166, London, Ontario, in Alexander Fraser Fonds, VIII. Societies & Associations, Sons of Scotland, F 1015, Archives of Ontario, Toronto. 111 1827 Constitution of Caledonian Society of Cincinnati, quoted in Clipson, ‘The Caledonian Society of Cincinnati’ available at http://www.caledoniansociety.org/ societyhistory.html [last accessed 10 February 2013].

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shall see in the Antipodes too (chapter three), charity remained listed in the rules. As is explained in article one of its constitution, for example, the Caledonian Society of Toronto ‘shall have for its object the encouragement of the National Costume and Games, the cultivation of a taste for Scottish Music, History and Poetry, and the uniting more closely together of Scotchmen, and those of Scottish descent’.112 In part, the focus on entertainment was the result of some Caledonian societies having been set up effectively as offshoots of an established St Andrew’s society, hence requiring a more specific remit to give them a discrete role. Caledonian societies were generally earthier in their pursuits, concerned not so much with elite dinners in fancy hotels—although these did take place in some locations—but rather with leisure activities and sociability. In Montreal, relations between the local St Andrew’s and Caledonian Society were amicable. The Caledonian Society was founded in 1855, and was chiefly concerned with ‘the encouragement and practice of Scottish Games— the cultivation of a taste for Scottish history, poetry and song, and to unite more closely in bonds of fraternity Scotsmen and those of Scottish descent in Montreal’. Importantly, however, ‘[t]he “Caledonian” is a proper adjunct to St. Andrew’s Society—in every way furthering the same spirit of patriotism and charity.—All its surplus funds going towards aiding the St. Andrew’s charitable schemes, the two societies have always worked in great harmony.’113 While the connection between St  Andrew’s and Caledonian societies was not always as close as in Montreal, the diversification and specification of activities reflect a broader trend that was not only about the growing popularity of leisure pursuits, but also the concomitant gradual decline of philanthropy as the cornerstone of Scottish ethnic associationalism in North America: the need for it had simply waned by the late nineteenth century. There are several reasons for this. Important to consider first are wider political developments, particularly the tightening of immigration regulations by the state in both Canada and the US, and the monitoring of new arrivals—a shift powerfully epitomized by the opening of Ellis Island as a processing centre.114 But there were also important developments within the Scottish immigrant community itself, particularly generational shifts: next-generation descendants of Scots simply had other needs in the early twentieth century than their ancestors might have had in the late eighteenth century. While the founders of the early associations also viewed

112 Caledonian Society of Toronto, Constitution and By-Laws of the Caledonian Society of Toronto (Toronto: Globe Print Co., 1871). 113 ‘Grand Bazaar in Aid of St. Andrew’s Home under the Auspices of the St. Andrew’s Society’, 1904, MStASA. 114 Cf. Ronald H. Bayor, Encountering Ellis Island: How European Immigrants Entered America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014).

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sociability as important, their principal aim was to position Scottish ethnic associations as a tool in the provision of benevolence for Scots in distress, which, in turn, enabled associations to act as carriers not only of Scottish ethnicity, but also civility. Scots were thereby able not only to fulfil their sense of patrician duty, but also position themselves as key shapers of society. The types of events that had gained prominence, many designed more exclusively for the Scottish immigrant community, and perhaps held behind closed doors, such as the many so-called ‘smokers’ that had become increasingly popular,115 clearly emasculated those wider functions. This, in turn, meant that the balance tipped in favour of sociability, giving it precedence over philanthropy. Hence we see the rise of Caledonian societies, which supported a broad range of smaller-scale activities, such as Halloween celebrations, Burns anniversaries, concerts and monthly socials, but also large-scale Caledonian Games. These activities became very popular throughout North America—in Montreal, the Caledonian Society had an incredible 1,400 members in 1904, compared to 400 for the St Andrew’s Society.116 A year earlier, in Bisbee, Scots were ‘all over themselves to become members of the Caledonian Society’.117 Alongside these changes, the early twentieth century also saw the establishment of a plethora of new groups. Smaller organizations were founded, like the Caledonian Association of Macleod; this group was set up in Fort Macleod in Alberta in 1908, and had for its objects the encouragement of the National Games of Scotland, and of wearing the Highland Costume at the Gathering, processions and Festivals of the Association. Also, and especially, the cultivation of a taste and love for Scottish Music, History, and Poetry, and the uniting more closely of Scotchmen and those of Scottish descent.118

While St Andrew’s societies maintained benevolence as their primary objective in this period, by the 1930s they made up a minority amongst Scottish associations in doing so. This trend will have been one reason why the St Andrew’s Society of Philadelphia adjusted its aims—perhaps in a quest to promote a broader cultural footing—resolving, for instance, ‘to establish a Library of Scottish Literature’ in late February 1910. Designed to be the home of works on Scottish history, maps, novels, but also Scottish 115 See for instance for the San Francisco Scottish Thistle Club: it met twice a month, the second meeting ‘being a “smoker”.’ Frank Morton Todd, The Chamber of Commerce Handbook for San Francisco: A Guide for Visitors (San Francisco: Chamber of Commerce, 1914), p. 228. 116 Ibid. 117 Bisbee Daily Review, 3 February 1903. 118 Constitution of the Caledonian Association of Macleod, in Caledonian Association of Macleod Fonds, M 8986, Glenbow Archives, Calgary.

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music and songs, a committee was appointed to look after library affairs, and an appeal was made to Society members to donate either money or books. Amongst the first to contribute was Andrew Carnegie.119 St Andrew’s societies too changed their tune in their activities, including a richer array of social meetings and pursuits designed to foster sociability. Instead of committee meetings about deserving or undeserving immigrants in distress, monthly gatherings now focused on entertainment. Amongst the societies in urban centres, such as Toronto or New York, this increasingly included large-scale balls. Importantly, however, these balls still provided a link to benevolence: as we have seen for the Royal Caledonian Ball in London, the North American balls too commonly served to raise funds for charity: for many St Andrew’s societies the wider purpose of activities in aid of benevolent endeavours was never lost. The most visible change in Scottish associational activities in North America was the proliferation of Caledonian Games from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. And it was Caledonian societies and clubs who were chiefly responsible for their organization—a fact that adds further weight to the point made previously about their rise. In North America this happened within the specific context of the popularization of Scottish sports. The seminal study of the emergence and evolution of Highland Games comes from Grant Jarvie, who has traced the Games’ folk origins and their proliferation during the Victorian era—a result too of growing royal patronage—through to the modern Games of the twentieth century.120 With the first Games in Scotland having taken place at St Fillans in 1819, it is interesting to see references to events in Canada also in that year, when the Highland Society in Glengarry, Ontario hosted activities. While it is contested whether the Society hosted Highland Games proper or only a piping contest, it is fair to say that the activities common to Highland Games had made it across the Atlantic quickly.121 Other early references can be found for New York in 1836, when the Highland Society of New York organized Games,122 and

119 Robert B. Beath, Historical Catalogue of the St Andrew’s Society of Philadelphia: With Biographical Sketches of Deceased Members (Philadelphia: the Society, 1913), p. 28. 120 G. Jarvie, Highland Games: The Making of the Myth (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991); see also G. Jarvie, ‘The North American Émigré: Highland Games and Social Capital in International Communities’, in C. Ray (ed.), The Transatlantic-Scots (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005); Eric Heath, ‘“You Don’t Have to Be a Scotchman”: Sport and the Evolution of the Vancouver Caledonian Games, 1893–1926’, unpublished MA thesis, Simon Fraser University, 2005. 121 Gillespie is of the view that it was solely a piping contest, see ‘Roderick McLennan, Professionalism, and the Emergence of the Athlete in Caledonian Games,’ Sports History Review, 31, 1 (2000), pp. 43–63. 122 See also Thernstrom et al., Harvard Encyclopaedia, p. 915; and R.J. Blaustein, ‘Scottish Americans’, in J.H. Brunvand (ed.), American Folklore: An Encyclopedia (New York, 1996), pp. 652–5.

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Figure 2.3: Caledonian Games by the Caledonian Club of New York, Jones’s Wood, 2 September 1869

Source: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (New York), 18 September 1869.

they were also held in Boston by the early 1850s. In New York the tradition consolidated with the formation, in 1856, of the New York Caledonian Club, which held Games each year until 1933 (Figure 2.3). It was only after the Civil War that the Games really grew: their number increased and they generally found a more permanent footing throughout North America. Zarnowski suggests that, by 1875, there were a minimum of 80 Scottish associations holding annual Games across the United States.123 This expansion went hand in hand with a growth in spectator numbers.124 While early events may have attracted a few hundred, by the 1870s the Games held by the Brooklyn Caledonian Club witnessed the arrival of 5,000 spectators, Detroit at some point had 6,000, Boston 8,000, Toronto 15,000 and New York a whopping 20,000.125 A little while later the Games 123 Frank Zarnowski, All-around Men: Heroes of a Forgotten Sport (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005), p. 14. 124 For useful wider context and some specific references to the role of Caledonian Games in the growth of organized sports, see also Nancy B. Bouchier, For the Love of the Game: Amateur Sport in Small-town Ontario, 1838–1895 (Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003). 125 Zarnowski, All-around Men, p. 14.

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in New York pulled a crowd of 25,000—in all likelihood the largest group of spectators at any Games in the world. Games were not restricted to the east coast, however, the Caledonian seed having spread to the Midwest and then through to California, also establishing roots in the Canadian west.126 In California, Games took place, for instance, at Shell Mound Park in San Francisco, and also in Sacramento,127 with ‘several thousands’ attending the Sacramento Games in 1899, when the 23rd Games and picnic were held by the city’s Caledonian Club.128 The San Francisco Caledonian Club had been set up in 1866 chiefly for the purpose of providing ‘encouragement and practice of the Games’.129 The Club grew quickly, and so did the Games it organized, in part because the Caledonian Games, and not just the San Francisco ones, increasingly managed to attracted well-known athletes. In 1913 Pat Donovan, ‘the marvel of the 56 pound weight’, competed at San Francisco,130 while, a decade earlier, even athletes from Australia were expected to participate— they were en route to attend the St Louis Exposition.131 Such star athletes served as magnets for spectators.132 The growing popularity of Highland Games in North America from the mid-nineteenth century onwards provides a crucial point of difference when compared with the Scottish associational scene in the Antipodes: there the Games were not a secondary development, but rather largely the principal motor in the emergence of Scottish ethnic associations. This point will be explored in more detail in the following chapter. One reason for the Games’ growing popularity was their ability to provide entertainment for a wide range of people and to promote field athletics133—a role that was also central in the Antipodes. While sociability has always been a key pillar for Scottish associations, the increased emphasis on the entertainment value of association activities that emerged in the course of the nineteenth century was well-catered for by Caledonian Games, and not just for Scots: Games were inclusive events, and their success was all the more important from the early twentieth century as Scottish ethnic associations increasingly had to compete not only for members, but also event patronage, with an-ever growing number of other clubs, and 126 See also Heath, ‘“You Don’t Have to Be a Scotchman”’. 127 See for example San Francisco Call, 27 March 1904; Sacramento Daily Union, 17 March 1893. 128 As reported in the Los Angeles Herald, 4 June 1899. 129 From the Society’s By-laws, cited in Emily Ann Donaldson, The Scottish Highland Games in America (Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, 1986), p. 32. 130 San Francisco Call, 25 May 1913. 131 Ibid., 20 March 1904. 132 See also Ted Vincent, The Rise and Fall of American Sport (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), p. 56. 133 Graham Scambler, Sport and Society: History, Power and Culture (New York: Open University Press, 2005), pp. 44–5.

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a plethora of alternative leisure activities and amusements. Caledonian Games continued to exert important influence because they were open to all, spectators and competitors alike.134 Finally, Caledonian Games are crucial for an assessment of Scottish ethnic associationalism in North America too because they served to facilitate closer contact between different associations by means of the North American United Caledonian Association. Founded in 1870 for the purpose of standardizing rules,135 the organization was, as the writer of the history of another Scottish organization aptly noted, ‘the Grand Lodge, so to speak, of the Caledonian Clubs of the United States and Canada’.136 The Association was there to oversee regulations and ensure abidance by them; the organization was also concerned, in the mid-1870s, with the question as to who could compete at Caledonian Games in the first place—did competitors have to be members of an associated Caledonian society or club; could they only be professional athletes or were amateurs wanted?137 One of the presidents of the Association was William Burns Smith. Born in Glasgow on 11 November 1844, Smith came to Philadelphia with his parents in the early 1850s. He became a member of the Caledonian Club in the city in 1863, ‘and has enjoyed every office in the gift of that organization’.138 Smith certainly made much of ethnic associationalism, also being a member of the St Andrew’s Society, the Scots’ Thistle Society and the Burns Association. He was also a charter member of the Caledonian Lodge, No. 700, and a member of a number of masonic lodges. Smith was first elected President of the North American United Caledonian Association in 1875 at the Association’s meeting in Toronto, and was re-elected a year later in Philadelphia. The North American United Caledonian Association thus operated similarly to the Grand Camp of the Sons of Scotland in bringing together delegates for conventions that were held annually and in different locations, in the case of the Association even operating transnationally by encompassing both the United States and Canada. In part this was simply a reflection of what, on the actual sports ground, had already been happening for a few years: American and Canadian athletes had been ‘competing against each other in Scottish athletics’ in 1867 at International 134 See Entry on ‘Track and Field’, in George B. Kirsch, Othello Harris, and Claire E. Nolte (eds), Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2000), p. 463. 135 Gerald Redmond, The Sporting Scots of Nineteenth-Century Canada (East Brunswick: Associated University Presses, 1982), p. 188. 136 Peter Ross, The Book of Scotia Lodge: Being the History of Scotia Lodge, no. 634 (New York: Raeburn Book Company, 1895), p. 110. 137 Redmond, Sporting Scots, pp. 190, 193. 138 Biography of Burns Smith found in John H. Campbell, History of the Friendly Sons of St Patrick and of the Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland (Philadelphia: Hibernian Society, 1892), p. 523.

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Highland Games in New York.139 Federation under a head society was a crucial development too, however, as it was not Scottish origins per se, but rather Caledonian Games, that provided the impetus for it. As a result, the Association was more concerned with the practicalities of Games rules than the maintenance of Scottish ethnic identity, regulating the standard Games permitted; these included, amongst others, throwing the hammer, putting the shot, tossing the caber, sack races, hurdle races, quoiting, various types of jumping competitions, tug of war, Highland fling and also a sword dance.140 North America was not the only place in the diaspora where Caledonian Games facilitated federal structures however: in the Antipodes too there was a clear link. Whether formalized through regulating bodies, Caledonian Games circuits or simply through competitions themselves, the unifying force of the Games in North America was significant and extended widely into the host society through the promotion of sport.

Conclusion When the exhibition ‘America’s Making’ was organized in New York in the early 1920s under the auspices of the New York State and City Departments of Education, the main ethnic groups who settled in the city each had a section. The Scottish section was led by a number of prominent New York Scots, with Scottish ethnic societies being chiefly involved in the design of the section, including, amongst others, the New York St Andrew’s Society, the Burns Society, the Caledonian Club, the Celtic Society, the Lewis Association of New York, the New York Scottish Society, various clans and lady lodges of the Daughters of Scotia.141 These societies were clearly viewed as an intrinsic part of the Scottish immigrant community, well suited, in fact, to represent it. This reflects a key point this chapter has made: that, for the most part of three centuries, the activities of Scottish ethnic societies in North America operated within a wider remit that extended beyond immediate ethnic classifiers. The philanthropic pursuits of St Andrew’s societies, though largely directed exclusively towards Scots, exerted civility at a significant level, operating within the wider structures of immigrant aid provision and poor relief that were operational in the urban centres of North America, while the Caledonian societies that proliferated from the mid-nineteenth century achieved a wider community role through the promotion of sports. St Andrew’s societies, given the early timing of their establishment and

139 Ray, ‘Scottish Immigration and Ethnic Organization’, p. 78; Redmond, Sporting Scots, p. 299. 140 William Wood, The Laws of Athletics (New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, c.1880), p. 47ff. 141 The Caledonian, July 1921, p. 186.

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philanthropic focus, attracted a membership from the higher echelons of society, and can be seen as spearheading the North American associational scene. With the emergence of new groups, but especially Caledonian and mutual benefit societies, that position was increasingly challenged over time. This reveals the degree of active agency amongst migrants: Scottish migrants chose associational structures according to their needs and, in the case of the St Andrew’s societies, they increasingly fell into disuse as a result of no longer serving those needs adequately. The importance of agency is also well exemplified with respect to mutual aid societies. These had a much more working-class membership and fulfilled very specific purposes for those Scots, bringing together pure elements of ethnic associationalism with the mutualism of a friendly society. This development pattern was not, however, uniform throughout the Scottish diaspora. While North America continued the tradition of ethnic associationalism the Scots had established in the near diaspora in the early seventeenth century, evolution patterns are primarily shaped by the local context of the associations’ emergence, and in the Antipodes, to which the next chapter turns, this meant a less pronounced focus on benevolence right from the get-go.

Chapter 4

Africa Africa

‘Sons of Scotland have graven their names deeply in the scroll of African history, but none more graphically and heroically than Dr David Livingstone.’1 Yet while Livingstone was undeniably a key figure in placing Africa on the Scottish diaspora map,2 and while he remains the most famous Scottish missionary to this day, the history of the Scots’ contact with Africa is more nuanced than Livingstone’s story might suggest, particularly as the continent saw the arrival of a significant number of Scots under the aegis of missionary societies or churches. The latter began to grow in importance after the Disruption of 1843 in particular, as it ‘released an evangelical energy’ that directly translated into an increase in foreign missionary activity among both the Free Church and the Established Church of Scotland.3 By the mid-1800s, the Free Church alone had 13 missions in Kaffraria, 14 in the Transkei, and five in Natal; together these missions were home to a total of 144 Scottish missionaries. Among their principal activities was the promotion of education. In the Eastern Cape the Lovedale Institution, which had been founded by the Glasgow Missionary 1 Inverness Courier, 25 July 1930. 2 It is worth noting though that Scottish merchants and traders established contact with Africa long before Livingstone. This happened chiefly through their active engagement in the slave trade. While ports in Scotland only played a minor role in the trade compared to English ports, Scots were involved through trading activity at English ports and along the African coast itself. See for instance David Hancock, ‘Scots in the Slave Trade’, in Ned C. Landsman (ed.), Nation and Province in the First British Empire (Cranbury, NJ: Bucknell University Press, 2001). See also Bueltmann et al., Scottish Diaspora, chapter 12. 3 Esther Breitenbach, Empire and Scottish Society: The Impact of Foreign Missionary Societies at Home, c.1790–1914 (Edinburgh, 2009), p. 4.

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Society in 1841, was of great importance. Under the leadership of Paisley-born William Govan, Lovedale provided not only classes designed to educate a Christian academic elite, but also practical classes covering skills such as carpentry.4 Lovedale was open to both blacks and whites, offering ‘a Christian and liberal education equal to any in Britain’.5 Further north, in south eastern Nigeria, the Free Church of Scotland established mission schools at Calabar,6 an area best known because of Mary Slessor, ‘one of the principal heroines of missionary endeavour in Africa’.7 In parts of central and eastern Africa, especially in what is modern-day Malawi, Scottish missionaries had an even more profound influence, shaping British imperial ‘frontier politics’ in very immediate ways by opposing the expansionist plans of Cecil Rhodes.8 These connections between Scotland and Africa established through missionary activity were consolidated, particularly in southern Africa, by the arrival of a significant number of Scottish regiments, their soldiers acting as guards and builders of the British Empire in the many wars fought on African soil.9 Even Scottish nationalists like P.E. Dove, a leading member of the National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights, acknowledged the Scots’ important role, noting in 1853 that Scottish soldiers were ‘seen foremost in every hard-won field’.10 As Richard Finlay has noted, ‘the military contribution of the Scottish regiments was the most important factor in the propagation of a distinctive Scottish input into British imperial activity.’11 Africa was one of the principal arenas. 4 See for instance Jack Thompson, Ngoni, Xhosa and Scot (Zomba: Kachere Books, 2007). Also of interested is John M. MacKenzie, ‘“Making Black Scotsman and Scotswomen?” Scottish Missionaries and the Eastern Cape Colony in the Nineteenth Century’, in Hilary M. Carey (ed.), Empires of Religion (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). 5 Janet Hodgson, ‘A Battle for Sacred Power: Christian Beginnings among the Xhosa’, in Richard Elphick and Rodney Davenport (eds), Christianity in Africa: A Political, Social, and Cultural History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), p. 80. 6 The work of Hugh Goldie is interesting in this context. See Geoffrey Johnston, ‘Goldie, Hugh’, in Gerald H. Anderson (ed.), Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions (New York: Macmillan, 1998), p. 248. 7 John M. MacKenzie, ‘Empire and National Identities: The case of Scotland’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6, 8 (1998), p. 224. 8 For details see for instance Andrew C. Ross, Colonialism to Cabinet Crisis: A Political History of Malawi (Zomba: Kachere Series, 2009); John McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Malawi 1875–1940: The Impact of the Livingstonia Mission in the Northern Province (Zomba: Kachere Series, 2000). 9 See also E.M. Spiers, The Victorian Soldier in Africa (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004); also Spiers, The Scottish Soldier and Empire, 1854–1902 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006). 10 P.E. Dove, The National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights: Address to the People of Scotland and Statement of Grievances (Edinburgh, 1853), p. 1. 11 Richard J. Finlay, A Partnership for Good? Scottish Politics and the Union since 1880 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1997), p. 27.

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Yet, despite these clear traces, it is difficult to estimate the overall number of Scots who went to Africa. We know that Scots were connected with Africa from the earliest explorations of the continent and, in the case of southern Africa, prior to the British first taking over the Cape Colony in 1797,12 but there were no patterns of large-scale migration from Scotland to Africa as a whole that echo those we can see for other parts of the Scottish diaspora. South Africa’s census statistics provide some indication as to overall numbers. MacKenzie has noted that, by the mid-1870s, 203,463 whites lived in the Cape Colony; 11 per cent of them claimed British descent, although the Scots among them represented only a little over 1 per cent. Numbers began to increase slightly in the 1880s, but it is only from the late nineteenth century that we can see a more substantial growth. Although the South African War put a temporary halt to migration flows to southern Africa, a post-war rise meant that, by 1904, the Scots constituted 2.71 per cent of the colonial population in the Cape Colony. By 1910 that percentage had increased more than five times to over 14 per cent. This significant rise was a direct result of the mineral revolution in the Rand, but also the late nineteenth-century economic downturns in the established settler colonies of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.13 The prospect many saw in gold and diamond mining provided a powerful pull-factor for southern Africa, just as had been the case with the earlier gold discoveries in California (1848–9), in Otago, New Zealand (early 1860s), or in the Yukon (late 1890s).14 The scale of Scottish migration to South Africa in the early twentieth century certainly was remarkable as South Africa effectively became the most popular migration destination for Scots after the United States. Scottish arrival and settlement patterns in other parts of Africa are even more difficult to establish. This is not simply the result of a general lack of detailed data, but also the fact that, where data exists, migrants were often grouped together as either ‘British’ or, even less helpfully, as ‘Europeans’ or ‘Whites’.15 The geopolitical complexities of British imperial expansion in Africa, the establishment of protectorates, and emerging African states, provide further context to the lack of detailed information. The 1901 Census of the British Empire provides a separate breakdown for 12 For instance through involvement in the Dutch East India Company. See for instance Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch (eds), Scottish Communities Abroad in the Early Modern Period (Leiden: Brill, 2005), especially section III. 13 MacKenzie with Dalziel, Scots in South Africa, pp. 65–6. 14 See for instance James J. Rawls and Richard J. Orsi (eds), A Golden State: Mining and Economic Development in Gold Rush California (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999); Hearn, ‘Scots Miners in the Goldfields’; and David Wharton, The Alaska Gold Rush (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972). 15 A useful bibliography of sources available was compiled by Henry J. Dubster in Population Censuses and other Official Demographic Statistics of British Africa: An Annotated Bibliography (Washington: Library of Congress, 1950).

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some settlements, though these numbers too chiefly reflect patterns in southern Africa (Table  4.1). Table 4.1: Number of Scottish residents in Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Cape of Good Hope, Natal and the Orange River Colony, 1901

Gambia Sierra Leone Cape of Good Hope* Natal* Orange River colony*

Scottish

English & Welsh

Irish

19 15,709 8,704 3,093

271 63,449 25,891 13,692

26 8,605 2,229 1,703

British 158

* Census year: 1904 Source: Census of the British Empire, pp. 140, 143, 157, 167.

In addition, we can also learn from the census that the total European population in Southern Rhodesia was 12,623 in 1904, the majority living in Bulawayo (3,828 Europeans) and Salisbury (2,132); in Northern Rhodesia the number of Europeans was significantly lower, standing at 188. Details about the size of the European population in other parts of Africa are occasionally available in Annual Colonial Reports. For 1913–14, for instance, these list the overall European population as 1,017 for Uganda, 799 for Nyasaland and 5,334 for the Protectorate of East Africa (this last figure does not include all provinces, so the total figure will have been higher).16 Another useful source for figures relating to white/European settlers can be found in the African Blue Books. These books, published for several countries and protectorates, contain detailed accounts of civic and commercial life in Africa, and were transmitted annually to the Colonial Office (Table 4.2).17 While these figures are not as specific as would be desirable, they nonetheless reflect some of the wider settlement patterns that will help provide context to the analysis of Scottish ethnic associationalism in Africa. Of particular relevance is the prominence of southern Africa as a settlement destination, and the comparatively low level of European settlement overall 16 See Colonial Reports-Annual for 1913–4 (London: Barclay and Fry Ltd., 1915), numbers 831: Uganda; 832: Nyasaland; and 840: East Africa Protectorate. Provinces included in the figure for the latter: Nyanza, Naivasha, Kenya, Seyidie, Tanaland and Jubaland. 17 All African Blue Books accessed via the British Online Archives, African Blue Books Collection at http://www.britishonlinearchives.co.uk [last accessed 20 September 2013].

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Table 4.2: Population statistics from a selection of African Blue Books, 1900–30 Region

Year and Category Used 1926 Whites

Basutholand Kenya (East Africa Protectorate)

1,603 1901–2 Whites

1910 Whites

1926 Europeans

528

2,628

12,529

1900 Whites Lagos

150 1900 Whites

Southern Nigeria

290

1910 Europeans 1,312

1901 1913 Europeans Europeans Northern Nigeria

156

586 1915 Whites

Nigeria—Colony and Protectorate

2,354 (southern only) 1904–5 Whites

Nyasaland

1921 1930 Europeans Europeans

606

1,431

1,905

1925 1930 Europeans Europeans or Whites or Whites Northern Rhodesia

3,634

12,538

1921 1930 Europeans Europeans Tanganyika

2,447 1901–2 Whites

Uganda

Zanzibar

64

1910–11 1920 Europeans Europeans 640

948

1913 Whites

1920 Whites

253

270

Source: Based on figures provided in African Blue Books.

6,876 1930 Whites 1,973

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Clubbing Together Map 4.1: The geography of Scottish ethnic associations in Africa

Note: Due to the concentration of the most enduring associations in the southern half of the African continent, it was decided to present the map accordingly. Source: The author.

in other parts of the African continent, with distinct clusters evident in Rhodesia and eastern Africa. These patterns mirror the trends traceable in the geographic distribution of Scottish clubs and societies (Map 4.1). As in all the other countries examined in this study, Scottish associations were established in the places of Scottish settlement where there was a sufficient number of Scots to initiate, man and maintain organizations.

Associational Roots in Southern Africa Evidence collected from digitized newspapers has played a critical role in establishing the development patterns of Scottish ethnic associations in Africa given the paucity of manuscript material. Systematic capture of developments has been facilitated by the use of NewBank’s African

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Newspaper Archive (part of the World Newspaper Archive), where, as a starting point, 1,765 entries were found by searching for ‘Caledonian Society’—the most common associational form on the continent. Searches were then expanded to include Scottish events, as well as names of association members previously identified, serving well as a principal source of information for mapping associational activities of the Scots in Africa.18 The first newspaper reference to a Caledonian society appeared in the Natal Witness published in Pietermaritzburg in November 1862, when the Durban correspondent reported that the local ‘Caledonian Society is already stirring for the new year’s festivities’.19 If this reference is correct in identifying a formalized Caledonian society—rather than just mislabelling a group of Scots as such—the Durban Society would pre-date the establishment of the two organizations previously identified as Africa’s first Scottish ethnic associations: the Kaffrarian Caledonian Society, set up in King William’s Town in 1870, and the East London Caledonian Society founded in 1876.20 MacKenzie unearthed a reference to the establishment of the King William’s Town Society in the papers of the Revd John Ross of Pirie, which record that Alexander Duncan and Thomas Henderson were its initiators, having distributed notices calling for Scots ‘to revive national sympathies and recollections, inspire patriotic sentiments, and perpetuate Caledonian good-fellowship’.21 A meeting was then held in early January 1871 to set out the objects of the new organization. Yet, while these developments are traceable, there is not enough evidence to come to a definite conclusion for the Durban case. Based on the lack of further reporting on a Caledonian Society in Durban until the 1880s, however, it is likely that an organization was really only formalized then; the Society still in existence today certainly dates its foundation back to 1882 rather than 1862. This does not mean that Scots did not come together as Scots to celebrate events, but that celebrations were most likely organized by an informal grouping rather than a formalized association. Regardless of whether the Scots’ earliest associational roots in southern Africa can be found in the 1860s or 1870s, activities really only began to proliferate from the 1880s, when a larger number of new associations were established and the range of pursuits began to broaden. 18 This holds true in particular because the NewsBank Archive comprises papers from a broad range of countries, covering the period c. 1800 to 1922. Countries included are: Angola, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. For further details see http:// www.readex.com/content/african-newspapers-1800-1922 [last accessed 12 October 2013]. 19 Natal Witness (Pietermaritzburg), 7 November 1862. 20 See MacKenzie with Dalziel, Scots in South Africa, p. 242ff. 21 Ibid., note 5, p. 262.

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After the establishment of a Caledonian Society in Cape Town in 1881, many of the new societies developed in the Eastern Cape—reflecting a geographical trend broadly in line with the general settlement patterns of British migrants in southern Africa. In Durban competitive ethnicity was also at play. As was reported in the local press in October 1883, ‘the thistle is not to be outdone by the shamrock, St Andrew will not yield to his brother Patrick an inch of popularity’,22 with the Natal Caledonian Society consequently gaining momentum. This the newspaper will have looked upon positively, having previously noted that Caledonian societies ‘are good things to have amongst us, they cement friendship, bring the old home nearer by association, and produce a cohesiveness amongst fellow countrymen that in colonies is most desirable’.23 The Natal Caledonian Society’s first Chief was Sir David Hunter of the Natal Government Railways. Born in Linlithgowshire (now West Lothian) in 1841, Hunter was an apprentice at the North British Railway Company in Edinburgh, soon making it up the ranks. In 1879 Hunter was appointed by the Colonial Secretary to the office of General Manager of Natal Government Railways—a position from which he was able to exert significant influence, channelling it, in part, through the Natal Caledonian Society.24 News of the foundation of the Caledonian Society in Durban spread quickly, inspiring other Scots to follow suit in founding associations. In Pietermaritzburg, 50 miles inland from Durban, a local Scot wrote to the editor of the Natal Witness to suggest ‘to “brither Scots” in the City the desirability of emulating our fellow countrymen in Durban in the matter of a Caledonian Society’, praising their ‘very laudable’ aims.25 The call was successful and a Caledonian Society was soon established. For the 1883 St Andrew’s Day celebrations, the new organization invited the Governor to attend a concert and dance at the Gaiety Theatre, but he had already agreed to take part in the festival of the Durban Caledonian Society.26 Regardless of his absence, the celebration in Pietermaritzburg was a great success, the inaugural Caledonian Society address delivered by Robert Douglas Clark, principal of the high school. Clark was born in Benholm, Kincardineshire, in 1846. After his education in Scotland and Germany, he was appointed to teach Latin at the University of Edinburgh in 1878, but went out to Africa soon thereafter to become Principal of Maritzburg College. Clark’s commitment to his Scottish roots found expression not only through the Caledonian Society; he also acted as Captain of the Scottish Company of

22 Natal Witness (Pietermaritzburg), 3 October 1883. 23 Ibid. 24 See Walter H. Wills and R.J. Barrett (eds), The Anglo-African Who’s Who and Biographical Sketch-Book (London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.), p. 78. 25 Natal Witness (Pietermaritzburg), 19 October 1883. 26 Ibid., 26 November 1883.

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the Natal Royal Rifles.27 In his inaugural address, Clark observed important changes in celebrations—in Pietermaritzburg too the Scots had long since gathered on St Andrew’s Day, but not, until 1883, under the aegis of a Caledonian Society. Celebrations had hitherto been of a rather masonic type, wholly precluding the presence and participation of the gentler sex, and the perfunctory proposal of the toast of ‘The Ladies,’ at late stage in the evening’s orgies, when the benedict celebrants had no very definite notion of anything save of their sullen dames who were nursing their wrath at home to keep it warm for them against their return—(laughter)—was but poor reparation for the unsanctified nature of the proceedings … This year, I am glad to say, we have made a change on all that, and our festival will, I am sure, be the better and the brighter for it. (Applause.)

Whether lassie or laddie, all shared their Scottish heritage, with ‘hearts warmed towards the land of our fathers, and to one another’.28 This sense of community encapsulated not only the sentiments of Scots in Pietermaritzburg. A telegram was received from the President of the Durban Caledonian Society, sending ‘fraternal greeting’ and wishing that ‘each [may] enter today into permanent bond of brotherly unity’. In their return message the ‘City Scots’ reciprocated the fraternal greetings dispensed, ‘and hereby reach a hand through space for Auld Lang Syne’. Other telegrams were sent to Scots elsewhere in southern Africa as well as in Scotland, passing on ‘a hearty greeting from the Maritzburg Scotsmen’; replies were received from Ladysmith, Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Kokstad and Aliwal North.29 The Caledonian seed was spreading fast and communications such as these were critical not only for contact generation, but also to remind associations of the existence and growth of the Scottish ethnic associational world.30 In part, the increase in associational activity was the result of two distinct stimuli: the first simply the growing number of Scots arriving in southern Africa, and the second the consequence of the powers of the frontier zone.31 27 See Wills and Barrett (eds), Anglo-African Who’s Who, p. 28. 28 This and the preceding quotation: Natal Witness (Pietermaritzburg), 2 December 1883. 29 Ibid. 30 This was a sentiment also captured in the meeting minutes of the Zanzibar Caledonian Society, which document plans to send telegrams. Minutes of a meeting of Scotsmen held in the English Club Zanzibar, 9 November 1912, D1356/2/1/1, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 31 For details on the idea of the frontier zone in Africa, see Timothy Keegan, Colonial South Africa and the Origins of the Racial Order (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1996); Susan Newton-King, Masters and Servants on the Cape Eastern Frontier (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999); M. Legassick, ‘The Frontier Tradition in South African Historiography’, in S. Marks and S. Trapido (eds), Economy and Society in Pre-Industrial South Africa (Harlow: Longman, 1980). See also MacKenzie

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A result of cross-cultural encounters with indigenous peoples, such as the Xhosa, the frontier zone posed a challenge to many British migrants, including Scots, who settled in southern Africa, but especially to those in the Eastern Cape. The settlement of British migrants there had commenced earlier in the nineteenth century, when Governor Somerset proposed the Eastern Cape as a principal settlement location to serve as a bulwark against the native population—though the scheme was rife with divisions from the outset even amongst British settlers, class differences between settlers being a key concern.32 While these divisions were gradually ‘being stabilised within an enveloping settler identity’,33 an identity that was framed largely through the construction of a ‘racial other’ as a unifying force, the situation in the Eastern Cape remained volatile. At times of heightened political sentiments and genuine crisis—chiefly during the Anglo-Boer Wars—matters were complicated by the fact that the ‘racial other’ now also included Afrikaners as a distinct ‘white other’. In this climate Scottish ethnic associations served an important role as providers not only of a support network and sociability, but also as a platform for the construction of race as part of wider political and settler discourses—a theme to which we will return later. The correlation between increased migration and the development of ethnic associations is emphasized by the growth in the number of societies in the Rand in the 1890s. Among these were the Johannesburg Caledonian Society, set up in 1892,34 and the Pretoria Caledonian Society founded at about the same time, with 118 founder members listed on its original charter. The Pretoria association’s first Chief was John Keith, editor and owner of the Transvaal Advertiser.35 The timing of the establishment of these organizations relates directly to the expansion in gold and diamond mining in the region, and the subsequent arrival of significant numbers of new migrants from Scotland. In fact, it was as a result of this migration that some organizations really sprang into action. In late 1896, for example, the Edinburgh Evening News published a letter from R.B. Carnagy and Walker Marshall, President and Hon. Secretary respectively of the Diamond Fields Scottish Association in Kimberley. In their letter the two warned against emigration to the Cape Colony, noting that ‘[h]undreds arrive in this country weekly, in numbers of cases with barely more money than will suffice to take them as far as Johannesburg or Kimberley … expecting of with Dalziel, Scots in South Africa, p. 242ff; and Lynette Russell (ed.), Colonial Frontiers: Indigenous-European Encounters in Settler Societies (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001). 32 Alan Lester, Imperial Networks: Creating Identities in Nineteenth-Century South Africa and Britain (London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 48–53. 33 Ibid., p. 54. 34 W.D. Maxwell-Mahon, ‘A Century of Scottish Gatherings in South Africa’, Lantern, 41, 4 (1992), p. 15. 35 MacKenzie and Dalziel, Scots in South Africa, p. 244.

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course to obtain employment immediately on arrival.’36 That, however, often failed to work out. As the two went on, ‘many a poor but honest Scot has to-day to thank the various Caledonian societies throughout South Africa for assistance rendered at such critical time. At present in Kimberley we are, without exaggeration, fairly besieged with applications or food, clothing, and employment, or requests for free passages to other centres.’37 The issue was that the Association could not deal with so many requests, particularly as the problems were amplified by a parallel inflow of a significant number of people from Rhodesia, and the presence of animal diseases that contributed to a food shortage. The discouragement of emigration seemed the only plausible approach, and was hence the express message contained in the letter the two leaders of the Diamond Fields Scottish Association sent home to Scotland for dissemination. It was also during this period of increased migration, which temporarily came to a halt as a result of the South African War only to pick up again with even greater thrust thereafter, that smaller regional centres witnessed the emergence of Scottish ethnic societies. Between the mid-1890s and about 1905, Caledonian societies were established in Kroonstad, Potchefstroom, Ficksburg, Vryhid, Eshowe, Kokstad, Dundee, Newcastle and Alexandra, as well as in many areas that are now suburbs of Johannesburg. In the city itself—which had seen a phenomenal growth in a very short period of time— progress was made quickly: churches were built, newspapers commenced publication, a library was opened in 1890 and horse-drawn trams could be seen on the streets soon thereafter. By 1895 there was a railway line. It was in the course of this urbanization boom in Johannesburg that the Caledonian Society built its own Caledonian Hall in 1905 on the corner of Jeppe and End streets. In that same year the Society could boast a membership of 1,025.38 By 1907 this had risen to 1,317, though only 901 had paid their subscription—a common problem ethnic associations had to deal with, but thankfully the Society was still attracting enough revenue from the new hall, £917, to cover loan repayments for it. Events such as a Scottish Fair, which raised £1,061, were used to generate additional funds, and to ensure that the clubrooms were ‘a real home for members’.39 The Society also dealt with applications for charitable support, which were on the increase in 1907, and viewed the finding of employment for those in need as the most suitable measure—doing so was the Society’s ‘principal effort’.40 Despite these positive developments, the Society went into liquidation in 1914. This was a result in part of property speculation and poor financial management.

36 Edinburgh Evening News, 29 December 1896. 37 Ibid. 38 Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg), 21 October 1905. 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid., 6 February 1907.

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It was attractive for associations to have their own clubhouse or grounds, but some were simply unable to bear the associated costs over extended periods of time. Still, many organizations were undeterred. The Pretoria Caledonian Society bought what became Caledonian Park in 1898 to host its annual Highland Games, though the South African War closed it down after only one Games,41 and, further north, in what was then Rhodesia, the Caledonian Society in Salisbury too built its own hall.42

Expanding Caledonianism Gradually the Caledonian seed began to spread beyond the immediate borders of southern Africa. By the early twentieth century we find societies in Salisbury (now Harare) and Bulawayo, the latter Society’s activities firmly recognized on St Andrew’s Day in 1902, when it received telegrams from sister societies in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Salisbury, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Umtali, Gwelo, Mafeking, Kroonstad, Simonstown, Queenstown, Pietermaritzburg, Newcastle, Lourenço Marques (present-day Maputo) and East London; there was also a telegram from the Diamond Fields Scottish Association.43 In 1898 the Chieftain of the Salisbury Caledonian Society was Dr Leander Starr Jameson.44 Born in Edinburgh in 1853, Jameson was the second Chief Magistrate of the British South Africa Company Territory (which became Rhodesia) from 1891 to 1893, the second Administrator of Rhodesia from 1894 to 1896 and also the tenth Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1904 to 1908, though he was perhaps most famous for what became known as the Jameson Raid into the Transvaal.45 While Jameson eventually made his way back to the United Kingdom and died in London in late November 1917, his body was returned to Rhodesia after the First World War, in May 1920, ‘for interment at the Matopos’ near Cecil Rhodes. When passing through Kimberley, Jameson’s remains were greeted by ‘a large crowd gathered on the platform to pay a last mark of respect’, and the Diamond Fields Scottish Association placed a wreath on the casket.46 The Salisbury Caledonian Society had already honoured his death in 1917, sending ‘[a] cable … direct to London conveying the society’s condolences’.47 41 42 43 44 45

Maxwell-Mahon, ‘A Century of Scottish Gatherings’, p. 15. Rhodesia Herald (Harare), 12 October 1898. Bulawayo Chronicle, 4 December, 1901. Rhodesia Herald (Harare), 4 November 1898. For details see Mordechai Tamarkin, ‘The Cape Afrikaners and the British Empire from the Jameson Raid to the South African War’, in Donal Lowry (ed.), The South African War Reappraised (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000). 46 Rhodesia Herald (Harare), 21 May 1920. Cecil Rhodes is buried on the same hill in what is now Matobo National Park. 47 Ibid., 7 December 1917; for the annual report see 13 December 1918.

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Beyond broadening its geographic scope, diversification of activities and specification of associational remit are two further characteristics of Africa’s Scottish clubs and societies in the 1890s and early twentieth century. Organizations with regional roots, including several Highland societies, developed. In 1903, the Port Elizabeth Highland Society gained a certain prominence when opening a subscription fund for a memorial to General Sir Hector Macdonald.48 We also find associations such as the Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine Society of Cape Town, and the Comunn Gaidhealach in Natal. Celebrations in the name of Scotland’s national bard Robert Burns also found increasing favour. A Burns Society was established in Johannesburg in 1904 by members of the Caledonian Society, and the Mafeking Scottish Association celebrated Burns with a ‘Smoker’ in the same year.49 Further north, a Burns concert took place in Nairobi,50 and the Bulawayo Caledonian Society held annual Burns nights.51 In Bulawayo we also find that cycling was popular at the Society’s Caledonian sports,52 while, in Johannesburg, Halloween entertainments were specifically designed for children. In 1905, for example, ‘A Nicht wi’ the Bairns’ commenced with ‘a grand march by about 400 children’ and offered entertainment to suit the wee ones.53 Within this general climate of diversification and proliferation of activities even small Caledonian societies attracted significant crowds by the early twentieth century—400 guests were present, for example, at the St Andrew’s Night concert organized by the Gwelo and District Caledonian Society in 1913.54 Interestingly, the early decades of the twentieth century also witnessed a proliferation of interconnected activity between Scottish ethnic associations and volunteer corps. The Transvaal Scottish (Scottish Volunteers Corps) were established in December 1902, gaining prominence, for example, by serving in the German South West Africa campaign, 1914–5.55 Finally, in Salisbury, Rhodesia, the local Caledonian Society extended its activities to include educational endeavours and started awarding prizes for the examination in Scottish History and Poetry. In 1918 this brought together G.R. Milne, the Caledonian Society President; the Society’s chaplain, the Revd J. Craig; Mr Foggin, Director of Education; Miss Forsyth, Principal of the Girls’ High School; Mr Somerville, Principal of the Boys High School; 48 Mafeking Mail and Protectorate Guardian, 27 May 1903. 49 Ibid., 26 January 1904. 50 For examples see East African Standard (Mombasa), 1 February 1913; Bulawayo Chronicle, 21 January 1898. 51 Bulawayo Chronicle, 21 January 1898. 52 Ibid., 28 May 1898. 53 Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg), 28 October 1905. 54 Rhodesia Herald (Harare), 4 December 1913. 55 See for instance J.H. Mitchell, Tartan on the Veld: The Transvaal Scottish 1950–1993 (Johannesburg: Transvaal Scottish Regimental Council, 1994).

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parents and pupils for the announcement of the award. As President Milne noted: It was well known how great a factor endowments for educational purposes were in the making of Scotland, and it gave him very great pleasure to intimate that the Caledonian Society of Salisbury had decided to offer a bursary of £16 a year, tenable for one year, to the Scottish candidate being a pupil in one of the Salisbury schools.

The bursary was established to encourage children to learn more about Scotland and ‘its glorious history’. This is an interesting point of difference to the provision of bursaries that we have seen, for instance, in London: while that was focused on education for the self-advancement of bursary recipients, in Salisbury the motivation was a patriotic one. As the Salisbury Society’s chaplain stressed, Wallace and Bruce, or John Knox, all give great examples that ‘should be the inspiration of every boy and girl in Scotland and the colonies’.56

Moving East Situated in the centre of the British East Africa Protectorate, Nairobi was founded in 1899 to serve as a rail depot on the railway that connected the costal settlement of Mombasa with Uganda. Nairobi thus ‘came into existence only as the result of colonial development’,57 joining cities such as Zomba and Lusaka in being entirely new and established for particular strategic reasons that ‘were absolutely central to the colonial purpose’.58 From these early beginnings Nairobi grew quickly and, in 1907, became the capital of the Protectorate—a decision again made in light of the importance of the railway as Nairobi was home to the headquarters of the Uganda Railway— and thus provided a suitable central hub for activities. Despite Nairobi’s important role in the development of the Protectorate, however, neither Nairobi nor British East Africa as a whole became principal destinations of permanent settlement for Scots. In Nairobi, the number of European residents only stood at a little over 5,000, even in the 1930s, comprising about 10 per cent of the city’s population. While by no means a negligible number, the European population share pales compared to that of African and Asian residents, who made up over 55 per cent and nearly 35 per cent 56 Ibid., 24 May 1918. 57 Walter Elkan and Roger Van Zwanenberg, ‘How People Came to Live in Towns’, in Peter Duignan and L.H. Gann (eds), Colonialism in Africa, 1870–1960: The Economics of Colonialism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), p. 661. 58 Bill Freund, The African City: A History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 78.

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respectively.59 Despite the comparatively low population share, Scots are easily found amongst the key players in the Protectorate. In fact, many a move there was facilitated by the Imperial British East Africa Company, which had been formally incorporated in the spring of 1888 under the leadership of Campbeltown-born Sir William Mackinnon.60 Those Scots who did make their home in Nairobi in the early twentieth century soon decided to establish a Caledonian Society. In the summer of 1904 a notice appeared in the local press, calling for ‘all Scotsmen or descendants of Scotsmen desirous of forming a Caledonian Society’ to come to a meeting at the home of the Commissioner of British East Africa, Sir Donald Stewart.61 Stewart had only recently been appointed to the post based on accolades earned for his administration of Ashanti, which gave him ‘the qualifications required for dealing with the affairs of the East Africa Protectorate’.62 The Caledonian Society was ‘of a benevolent and social nature … to promote the interests of “brither Scots”’63 and, as was explained in a report, Scotsmen should bear in mind the advantages which would accrue from the Society not only to themselves but also to their fellow countrymen at Home who intend making their homes here. On arriving here they could, by consulting the officials or members of the Society, receive such welcome, assistance and advice as can be rendered only by a Scot to a Scot. The prosperity which has attended similar Societies in many parts of our British possessions abroad where Scotsmen are gathered together, is an augury of success for the newly fledged Society, backed as it must be by that feeling of brothership which so notoriously prevails amongst Scotsmen.64

59 Figures cited in Kefa M. Otiso, ‘Colonial Urbanization Management in Kenya’, in Steven J. Salm and Toyin Falola, African Urban Spaces in Historical Perspective (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2009), p. 90. 60 Mckinnon was born on 13 March 1823 and very much an imperial Scot, seizing opportunities in the Asian and African British worlds ever since his first involvement in commercial ventures in India (Bengal) from the late 1840s. One of Mckinnon’s main interests was shipping and that is where he made his name, establishing one of the world’s greatest shipping companies by creating a shipping network for trade around the coast of India, the Persian Gulf and the East Coast of Africa, with branch lines providing connections as far afield as Australia. Mckinnon’s personal papers are held at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (GB 0102 PP MS 1). 61 East African Standard (Mombasa), 13 August 1904. 62 Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Earl Percy): response to Questions in the House, Commons Sitting 28 June 1904, HC Deb 28 June 1904 vol 136 c1410, via http:// hansard.millbanksystems.com [last accessed 20 October 2013]. 63 East African Standard (Mombasa), 22 October 1904. 64 Ibid.

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The response was immediate, and membership soon reached 35. Those who wanted to become members were required to pay an entrance fee and an annual subscription, both set at Rs 5.65 Although this was a promising start, it was perhaps in light of the comparatively small membership numbers that the Society decided against confining ‘the scope of operations to Nairobi only’, instead opening membership up to those interested from ‘throughout the East Africa and Uganda Protectorates’.66 Initially, new members had to have a proposer amongst existing members and were elected at the Society’s Annual General Meeting. In the early 1920s, however, the Society’s rules were amended to permit the election of new members by the Society’s committee rather than the AGM—presumably a move to facilitate a faster election process throughout the year rather than just at the annual meeting.67 Another Caledonian Society in eastern Africa was founded in the first decade of the twentieth century, when the Caledonian Society of Zanzibar came together. The organization’s objectives mirror those of other Scottish ethnic associations in bringing together elements of formal sociability, Scottish national traditions and a benevolent dimension. The Society was meant:68 (a) To foster social intercourse and maintain brotherhood amongst Scottish residents in Zanzibar. (b) To preserve the Scottish national character and institutions and to celebrate Scottish anniversaries. (c) To give a helping hand to deserving Scotsmen who may be in distress.

Members must be of Scottish descent

While rules for other Scottish associations in Africa are sparse, there is clear evidence that they pursued activities under a similar remit. Yet, while benevolence—that ‘helping hand’—is a common associational objective around the world, in Africa, as in the Antipodes, it never reached the same level or impact as it did in North America or among the Scots in London, 65 This was changed to Fls. 10,- in 1921. See Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Caledonian Society, held in the New Stanley Hotel, Nairobi, 26 August 1921, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/2, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 66 This and the previous quotation from East African Standard (Mombasa), 22 October 1904. 67 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Caledonian Society, held in the New Stanley Hotel, Nairobi, 26 August 1921, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/2, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 68 Rules of The Caledonian Society of Zanzibar, early 20th century, D1356/2/3/1, Highland Archive Centre Inverness.

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where as we have seen, aid provided by St Andrew’s societies supported Scottish migrants on a significant scale. In Africa, we find rather the types of concentrated, smaller-scale or temporary examples of support initiatives common to the Antipodes and, as the next chapter will show in more detail, also to Asia. One interesting initiative was launched in 1919 by the Caledonian Society in Nairobi, when, at the Annual General Meeting, the Society passed a resolution to give £24 ‘for the purpose of sharing with the League of Mercy the cost of maintaining the orphan children of the late J.  Mackenzie in South Africa’.69 Two years later additional money was provided for the fund, and an extra Fls. 300,- were ‘earmarked for the assistance of indigent Scottish children’.70 The Society established contact with the relevant organizations involved and kept in touch with them to follow the children’s progress. As the 1928 annual report stated, for instance, the Society had ‘received advice from the Presbyterian Orphanage that Henry Mackenzie has secured a good situation and is now self-supporting. Reports … are excellent and it is satisfactory to know that the help we have been able to give in his direction has been so well justified’.71 Beyond philanthropic endeavours that crossed the boundaries of East Africa, the Nairobi Society also engaged in discussions around war relief efforts—as did many other Scottish ethnic associations around the world. During the First World War many of them, including the Nairobi Caledonian Society, contributed to either British or local funds, such as the Nairobi War Relief Fund ‘under control from Government House’.72 The war itself had a notable impact on the Society, as a number of members went to fight on European battlefields. The Society erected a memorial table to those ‘who had made the supreme sacrifice’73 in St Andrew’s Church. Establishing the exact membership numbers for the Nairobi Caledonian Society is difficult, however, as details provided in minutes that have survived chiefly list the number of new members elected rather than membership

69 Annual General Meeting, 1919, Victoria Hotel, Nairobi, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/1, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 70 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Caledonian Society, held in the New Stanley Hotel, Nairobi, 26 August 1921, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/2, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 71 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Caledonian Society of Kenya, held in the New Stanley Hotel, Nairobi, 30 August 1929, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/2, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 72 Minutes of the Adjourned Annual Meeting held in the Victoria Hotel, Nairobi, 15 September 1915, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/1, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 73 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Caledonian Society, held in the New Stanley Hotel, Nairobi, 26 August 1921, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/2, Highland Archive Centre Inverness.

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numbers overall. An added complication—and one common throughout the Scottish diaspora—is that there was often a mismatch between members on the books and those who actually paid their subscription fees. Nevertheless, there are some general indicators for membership numbers in records relating to the Nairobi Society that are worth pausing over. In 1911, for instance, it was agreed to print 200 copies of the Society Rules for the purpose of sending them to members.74 Attendance numbers at meetings were lower than that, but still very good. In August 1915, about 50 members were present at the AGM, and 27 new members were proposed and elected. Among them were William Douglas, William Johnston and Duncan Barr, who all worked for Mackinnon Bros; John Forbes Walker of the Survey Office; Patrick Campbell MacDougall Watson from the Treasury; James Lochhead from the Uganda Railway Engineering Department; and J.M. Morrison, George Graham and William Robb of the East African Rifles.75 Four years later, 54 members were present, and 18 new members were elected.76 Yet, while the membership numbers and attendance were healthy, the administration of many a society lay chiefly in the hands of a few members who, over a period of several years, customarily rotated positions between them, and Nairobi was no different. Hence, in 1909, the Society’s outgoing president was Sydney Couper, who worked for the Uganda Railway, and had held a number of positions in the Society.77 We also find B.L. Bremner, the Assistant Locomotive Superintendent; A.E. Cruickshank, Traffic Manager of the Uganda Railway; Walter MacLellan Wilson, a planter at Kiambu (10 miles outside of Nairobi) and later a Member of the Legislative Council; W.R. Grierson, Stock Inspector in Nairobi; Ewart Dobbie, watchmaker and jeweller; Dr A.D. Milne (the incoming President), Principal Medical Officer; and schoolmaster A.J. Turner (the incoming Honorary Secretary).78 Of those involved in the Caledonian Society in 1909, at least five were nominated to serve on the Township Committee for the year 1910 (out of 12).79 Two years later, in 1911, the outgoing Society President was R.J. Stordy, by then the Director of Veterinary Services; the incoming President was Mr Bremner, with Mr Stordy staying on as Vice President together with Duncan Beaton. A.J. Turner was re-elected as Honorary Secretary, and Andrew M. Watson as 74 Advertiser of East Africa (Nairobi), 3 September 1909. 75 Minutes of Annual General Meeting of the Caledonian Society [of Kenya] held in the European School, Nairobi, 27 August 1915, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/1, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 76 Annual General Meeting, 1919, Victoria Hotel, Nairobi, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/1, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 77 Initially as District Engineer, and, from November 1918, as General Manager. See The Official Gazette of the East Africa Protectorate, X, 205 (1908), p. 306; The Official Gazette of the East Africa Protectorate, XXI, 630 (1919), p. 3. 78 Advertiser of East Africa (Nairobi), 3 September 1909. 79 The Official Gazette of the East Africa Protectorate, XII, 245 (1910), p. 25.

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the Honorary Treasurer.80 Another two years later, at the 1913 Annual General Meeting, A.J. Turner was elected President. The principle of rotation was common—though some Societies explicitly sought to prevent it by including rules that stipulated that previously elected officers could not hold positions immediately after the end of their previous terms. A number of explanations for rotation are forthcoming. On the one hand, ethnic associations required a stable leadership. Many an example can be found of associations faltering on losing a good leader. At the same time, however, the concentration of leadership in the hands of a few, even if rotating hands, can also be indicative of a desire to hold onto power amongst those in leadership roles, as well as the genuine lack of interest amongst other members to step up to lead. The latter, however, does not seem to have been an issue in Nairobi, certainly not in the 1920s, as ballots were sometimes held for committee positions when more candidates put their names forward than there were places.81 Amongst the earliest activities pursued in Nairobi, the celebration of St Andrew’s Day stood out. In the foundation year, the Society’s first dinner was held at Nairobi’s Railway Institute, and the local paper had no doubt, having seen the menu, that ‘there are great times in store for “brither” Scots’. The dinner included ‘sheep’s heid broth’ and haggis with ‘tatties an’ neeps’. And, of course, there was ‘A wee Drappie tae Slocken ye’. It was the Mackinnon Brothers, General Merchants in Nairobi, who supplied said beverage—Glen Grant—to the Caledonian Society.82 Perhaps it was that wee dram that made the event ‘one of the most enjoyable functions which has ever been held’ in Nairobi.83 Numbers were still small in those early days—a little over 60 guests sat down for the dinner in 1904—but this is quite a respectable turnout given the youth of the settlement and small number of settlers overall. Mr H.A.F. Currie, manager of the Uganda Railway, took the chair in the absence of Sir Donald Stewart, the Society’s President. One of the main toasts of the evening was that to ‘Oor Native Land’ given by Dr Robert John Stordy. Born in Edinburgh, Stordy had come to British East Africa in the late 1890s to work as Veterinary Officer. He began his toast noting that he would do his best ‘to recall to your minds the memories of deal auld Scotland’.84 And that is exactly what many a St Andrew’s Day toast was all about: reconnecting the Scots abroad with the old home—a tangible way, experienced in a collective of like-minded people, of invoking the Scottish diaspora. And indeed, Stordy’s speech in 1904 ‘with much dramatic power, 80 East African Standard (Mombasa), 26 August 1911. 81 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Caledonian Society, held in the New Stanley Hotel, Nairobi, 26 August 1921, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/2, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 82 East African Standard (Mombasa), 17 February 1906. 83 Ibid., 10 December 1904. 84 Ibid., 3 December 1904.

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wit and powky humour stirred his audience to a considerable pitch of enthusiasm’.85 The same was achieved, no doubt, by the band of the 3rd Kings African Rifles, who played a range of Scottish songs. So merry were the festivities that they continued well into the early hours of the morning. The Railway Institute continued to host annual dinners for many years, and the number of guests grew steadily. In 1906, for example, about 90 had gathered, and Colonel Harrison O.C. gave one of the toasts, paying ‘high tribute to the Scots who he said were to the fore in colonization’.86 The Scots’ role as colonizers was a common theme. As a Mr Cruickshank had noted in his toast to ‘The Land we live in’, East Africa ‘is still in a skeleton stage [but] it is about to be built up at a fast pace’.87 In that climate of change, organizations such as the Caledonian Society provided important communal glue to bind together the growing immigrant community of Scots and others. Cruickshank was one of the earliest supporters of the Caledonian Society, and hence his words resonated widely. When he died in 1915, the Society sent condolences to his wife, noting how his ‘work and personal influence contributed largely to the success of the Society in its early days’,88 also greatly supporting the settlement itself. In Nairobi the full palette of Scottish associational activities was utilized, and sport thus became an important component. The idea to form a Caledonian Sports Club was first mooted in 1908 by a group of Scots associated with the Caledonian Society,89 who thus also proposed to approach the Caledonian Society about incorporating. This question was discussed at the Society’s Annual General meeting in late August 1909 within the wider context of an exchange on how the scope of the Society could be widened.90 The idea was received favourably, and a sub-committee was formed to discuss the incorporation of the Caledonian Sports Club into the Society. Caledonian Sports soon became a frequent fixture, being held, for instance, on Empire Day in 1911 on Nairobi’s Railway Sports Ground.91 By 1919 the Society was annually electing a Sports Committee. It was also this Committee that actively thought to expand operations, putting forward a resolution—which was unanimously carried—noting that ‘the time is now opportune for the acquisition of Club premises.’ A second resolution—carried by 25 votes to three—moved ‘That the Government be again requested to grant a small portion of land near the St. Andrew’s 85 Ibid. 86 Times of East Africa (Nairobi), 8 December 1906. 87 Ibid., 10 December 1904. 88 Minutes of the Adjourned Annual Meeting held in the Victoria Hotel, Nairobi, 15 September 1915, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/1, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 89 Advertiser of East Africa (Nairobi), 18 December 1908. 90 Ibid., 3 September 1909. 91 East African Standard (Mombasa), 27 May 1911.

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Church for the purpose of erecting Club premises’.92 A sub-committee was then formed to proceed with the practicalities. Progress was slow, however, primarily because ‘Finance was the all important factor.’93 A solution was found a few years later, when a 25-year lease for a new sports ground was signed.94 Yet, while some specific Scottish pastimes were certainly part of the Games, the sporting activities pursued by the Caledonian Society rested on a broader footing. As we can learn from minutes kept of the 1929 AGM, for instance, a past President presented the Society with ‘a very handsome silver Quaich to be known as the St. Andrew’s Society Golf Trophy and to be competed for annually by members of any Caledonian Society in Kenya’.95 The late 1920s were, in fact, generally a time when new types of activity were introduced amongst Scottish associations in East Africa. Smoking concerts proved especially popular, so popular, in fact, that they became ‘part of the [Nairobi] Society’s regular activities’, recognized as serving ‘a very useful purpose in bringing Scots and their friends together and fill an undoubted blank in the social life’ of the settlement.96 Also catering for that social life was the local Caledonian Ball,97 which was customarily organized not on St Andrew’s Day—which was celebrated with dinners— but usually a little earlier in the autumn. In 1928 the ball took place on 27 October, attracting 282 people, including His Excellency and Lady Grigg; a particularly ‘pleasing feature was the popularity of the national dances’.98 A month later 164 people gathered in Nairobi for the St Andrew’s Day dinner. The status of Scottish events, it is clear, had not diminished after the First World War, and activities were increasingly supported by the endeavours of Nairobi Caledonian Society branches. Many of these had already been established prior to the First World War, including, for instance, that in Nakuru, 100 miles north of Nairobi, where about 40 Scots gathered at the Nakuru Hotel in honour of the patron saint in 1913.99

92 Annual General Meeting, 1919, Victoria Hotel, Nairobi, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/1, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 93 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Caledonian Society, held in the New Stanley Hotel, Nairobi, 26 August 1921, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/2, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 94 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Caledonian Society of Kenya, held in the New Stanley Hotel, Nairobi, 30 August 1929, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/2, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 95 Ibid. 96 Ibid. 97 See for instance Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Caledonian Society, held in the New Stanley Hotel, Nairobi, 26 August 1921, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/2, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 98 Ibid., 30 August 1929, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/2, Highland Archive Centre Inverness. 99 East African Standard (Mombasa), 6 December 1913.

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Political Currents In Nairobi St Andrew’s Day dinners continued to grow over time, with increasing numbers of dignitaries and colonial officials taking part. It is their presence that contributed to the significant strengthening of the political and wider civic role of the dinners. While we have already seen how such dinners brought together dignitaries and the local elite in settlements around the Scottish diaspora, Africa fell well in line with this tradition. As the Caledonian Society of Zanzibar minutes document, leaders of political and religious life, the military, and also the heads of major firms, were customarily invited. In 1922 the list of invitees thus included: the Resident; the Bishop of Zanzibar; the Roman Catholic Bishop of Zanzibar; the Chief Judge; O.C. Troops; the Head of Smith, Mackenzies; the Superintendent; the President of the English Club; and the Senior Naval Officer, if any of His Majesty’s ships were in the harbour.100 Yet within this common pattern the Nairobi case stands out, revealing an unprecedented level of politicization: St Andrew’s Day dinners, certainly prior to the First World War, served functions akin to those of a parliamentary debating chamber. This was possibly, first, because dinners were utilized by local administrators and the Governor as platforms for outlining planned policies for the Protectorate and white settlement in the region. In the broadest sense, evidence of this type of activity is not restricted to Nairobi—dinners often featured a toast to ‘The Land we live in’, or to local bodies, highlighting developments in colonial civic and social life— but in Nairobi there was more to this. As the previously encountered Mr Cruickshank had noted as early as 1904, Britain retained ‘East Africa and Uganda … more for political reasons than as land for Britishers to live in’.101 There was clear recognition too of wider political developments on the continent, with particular reference being made to German East Africa.102 Within this wider context there was undoubtedly a sense of uncertainty about the position of the Protectorate and future developments that residents, Scots and non-Scots, were keen to have resolved—or at least clarified. One means of achieving this manifested shortly after Cruickshank’s speech, when it became customary for the Commissioners of the British East Africa Protectorate not only to attend St Andrew’s Day dinners and

100 Minutes of meeting of the Caledonian Society held at the English Club, 26 October 1922, D1356/2/1/1, Highland Archive Centre, Inverness. Correspondence relating to various Caledonian societies in South Africa also confirm this, including details on Governor’s having been invited, see for example MC49/00 National Archives of South Africa, Pretoria. 101 East African Standard (Mombasa), 10 December 1904. 102 Ibid., 7 December 1907.

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to engage in some political speechifying, but to more purposefully use their addresses to the guests gathered to talk about developments in the Protectorate, outlining government policy. In 1908, for example, James Hayes Sadler used the dinner to inform guest of the developments regarding white settlement in the region. Government policy, Sadler noted, was chiefly designed ‘to encourage and assist the settlers and planters now in the country in every way we can’. Given the early developmental stage of Nairobi, such news was welcome to many guests present as they were keen to advance the Protectorate. For Sadler the idea of establishing a direct steamship connection between British East Africa and Britain was an important motor for this advancement, and he thus saw it as a crucial means to bring out more settlers and improve contact between the Protectorate and the motherland. More practical matters, however, were also of concern, particularly with respect to the Game Laws. These were designed to ‘mitigate, if they do not altogether remove, the nuisance and damage caused to the farmers by such game as Kongoni, Zebras and Rhino’, and thus improve the running of existing, and establishment of new, farms. For Sadler it was clear ‘the preservation of game, however interesting it may be, cannot be allowed to interfere with the natural progress of the country.’103 The St Andrew’s Day dinners hosted by the Nairobi Caledonian Society thus emerged as semi-official colonial assemblies, policy matters lying at the heart of the event. This role is emphasized too by the steadily growing attendance: at a time when around 800 Europeans were resident in Nairobi, the dinner easily attracted over 100 of them.104 The quick expansion of the settlement was a topic of interest in itself and, as was noted in 1910, 11 years prior the town had ‘one European in its population in the midst of 6,000 Masai, a few Indians and other natives. The only building the town then possessed was a mud and wattle structure with a grass roof’.105 For those who had seen Nairobi grow and were keen on further expansion of the settlement and the Protectorate as a whole, it was important to keep informed about local developments as well as wider colonial policies. So much so that the St Andrew’s Day dinners’ role in facilitating exchange and communication was recognized clearly beyond the bounds of the Caledonian Society. It was neatly summarized in 1912 by a reporter from the Indian Voice: It has ever been the custom for the Governor to be the honoured guest at this annual meeting of the Sons of Scotland, who permeate and seem to almost dominate the British possessions the wider world over … we all look forward to an exposition of Policy on this special annual occasion 103 All quotations from the Governor’s speech, reprinted in Advertiser of East Africa (Nairobi), 4 December 1908. 104 Census figures taken by the municipality quoted in East African Standard (Mombasa), 3 December 1910. 105 Ibid.

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… where are supposed to be outlined for the coming year the Policy and ideals of the Government.106

It was because of this recognized function that the failure of the new Governor, Sir Henry Conway Belfield, to attend the St Andrew’s Day dinner caused significant frictions in late 1913. Appointed Governor of Kenya in late 1912, Belfield had a long experience of colonial administration—but none of it in Africa, as he had previously held positions in British Malaya. He was also characterized as ‘[s]hy and not a good mixer’, who ‘did not possess the strong and dynamic personality’ of his predecessor.107 It may well be that these characteristics contributed to Belfield’s less than satisfying start—at least in the eyes of many old residents in the East Africa Protectorate, who were familiar with how other Governors had conducted their work. In any case, Belfield’s failure to attend the St Andrew’s Day dinner was one principal reason why, as the Editorial Notes in the East African Standard outlined in early December 1913, he was not received well. Because of his decision not to attend the dinner, Belfield was perceived as making ‘no effort … to meet the people’, and was thought to be aloof from the settlers. His failure to utilize the St Andrew’s Day dinner as a means to keep colonials informed was a major problem because it was ‘contrary to precedent’. Residents in Nairobi, whether they attended the St Andrew’s Day dinner themselves or only read about it in the long reports provided in local papers, had become accustomed to learning about the goings on in the Protectorate through the dinners. Within the context of the Governor’s discussion of life in the Protectorate and planned activities, matters of specific relevance to the Scottish community were often to the fore. The lack of education provision for settlers’ children was a particular worry, and one that Dr D.C.R. Scott was most concerned about. Scott, born in Edinburgh and a Doctor of Divinity, was in East Africa under the auspices of a Church of Scotland mission. For him it was the Caledonian Society’s task to ‘come forward and assist in the education of Scotch and other children’.108 As another guest, Lord Delamere, observed in the toast in honour of ‘Our guests’, the question was ‘why natives could get education free and our own people were neglected’.109 Following these discussions the Caledonian Society began to offer bursaries for gifted students. In 1910, for instance, two bursaries were granted at the value of £4 each for the Nairobi Boarding School.110 The decision to offer this ‘Caledonian Bursary’ was made a year earlier and specifically designed 106 Indian Voice (Nairobi), 4 December 1912. 107 Robert M. Maxton, Struggle for Kenya: The Loss and Reassertion of Imperial Initiative, 1912–1923 (Cranbury: Associated University Press, 1993), p. 43. 108 Ibid. 109 Ibid. 110 East African Standard (Mombasa), 3 September 1910.

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to ‘be competed for by children of Scottish Settlers’,111 the roots of the initiative stretching back to a St Andrew’s Day dinner. While the example of the wider political function of St Andrew’s Day dinners in Nairobi is most significant, that function was not restricted to this city. In Uganda too, where the Caledonian Society came together in Entebbe—situated on a peninsula on Lake Victoria—gatherings of Scots also required more than merrymaking. As Mr Alison-Russell, Acting Chief Secretary of Uganda and the Caledonian Society President, noted in 1910, ‘[n]o Scottish meeting however festive … could be considered complete without some statistics.’112 These were also provided at many a Nairobi dinner, ranging from population statistics to information on colonial expenditure, serving to inform attendees of the status of development. A very specific politicization of Scottish ethnic associational activity is worth pausing over: that caused by the South African War around the turn of the twentieth century. General rumblings around the question of who held sway over South Africa were already evident prior to the outbreak of war in 1899, but little direct action was taken—with the exception, that is, of the Caledonian Society of Graham’s Town. This Society decided not to re-elect Paul Kruger, who was later to become one of the leaders of the war, as honorary member.113 The greatest impact was felt, however, once the war had commenced. The most immediate effect was that it largely halted the activities of Scottish ethnic associations in South Africa. There were two principal reasons. First, many associations did not deem it appropriate to hold meetings of a primarily social nature while the country was struggling through war. Secondly, however, there was also a more practical concern in the sense that many association members were actively engaged in the fighting themselves, and therefore simply were not present to participate in meetings and events, leaving membership temporarily depleted. When meetings or events did take place they were often designed to serve as morale boosters, adopting an overtly patriotic—and decidedly British as opposed to Scottish—outlook. When a St Andrew’s Day banquet was held in in 1901, for example, Sir Gordon Sprigg, the Cape Colony’s Prime Minister, noted that the colony had assisted the Empire greatly in the current war, putting an army of 18,000 in the field. ‘The only way to end the war’, Sprigg went on, ‘was to wear down the small parties of the enemy one after the other, and the war would only end when the last rebel invader and his munitions were exhausted’.114 Sprigg combined a spirit of Empire with militarism to appeal to his listeners. This was an approach that generally worked well as a profound sense of Scottish heritage, and

111 Advertiser of East Africa (Nairobi), 3 September 1909. 112 Ibid., 17 December 1910. 113 The Journal (Graham’s Town), 2 November 1897. 114 Beira Post, 14 December 1901; also Izwi Labantu (East London), 10 December 1901.

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the role the Scots had played in fighting for Empire, could be directly connected to these ideas. As the Johannesburg Caledonian Society observed in the greetings sent to its Bulawayo counterpart, ‘“The Empire never shall recede while Scottish chiels wi’ Scottish wit, wi’ Scottish pluck and Scottish grit, stand steady in our Empire’s need.”’115 Or, as noted at a later dinner in 1910, ‘where the dead have laid thickest, where the world has stretched widest, there you [Scottish soldiers] have been; the skirl of the pipes sounds through the story of Empire.’116 In light of this thinking, it comes as no surprise that nearly decade after its conclusion, the South African War continued to resonate widely. As Hon. V.M. Newland observed, it ‘taught us true Imperialism—The children came to the Mother’s call, rallied round the flag—side by side they fought. … This is Imperialism, readiness to serve the Empire, and this is our duty’.117 Though there were also voices celebrating ‘the alleged Scots affinity for the Boers’,118 by and large ethnic associations cast the South African War as an imperial war in which the Scots were critical troopers. The sense of duty many Scots felt towards the Empire is most immediately seen in one particular activity several Scottish ethnic associations in Africa pursued: the idea to form Scottish units in support of the war effort. The Johannesburg Caledonian Society, for instance, supported the formation of a unit to be known as Scottish Horse, a cavalry regiment that was raised in Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg under the leadership of Lord Tullibardine. What marks out the Scottish Horse—apart from its promotion by Scottish ethnic associations—is that it recruited a large number of volunteers from Australia for its second battalion, chiefly from Victoria. Over 250 of them left Port Melbourne in the Orient, arriving in Cape Town in February 1901.119 In terms of measuring the strength of a diaspora—but also the ties that bind it together—war provides key evidence: the Scottish Horse recruited volunteers not only from Australia and Africa itself, but also from Scotland. In so doing, the Scottish Horse powerfully documents the sense of diasporan and imperial duty Scots felt. A memorial to the Scottish Horse was unveiled on Caledonia Hill near Johannesburg in 1904, with an identical memorial being situated on Edinburgh Castle 115 Izwi Labantu (East London), 10 December 1901. 116 East African Standard (Mombasa), 3 December 1910. 117 Ibid. 118 See in John M. MacKenzie, ‘The British World and the Complexities of Anglicisation: The Scots in Southern Africa in the Nineteenth Century’, in Kate Darian-Smith, Patricia Grimshaw and Stuart Macintyre (eds), Britishness Abroad: Transnational Movements and Imperial Cultures (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2007), p. 126. 119 Prentis, Scots in Australia (2008), p. 145. Prentis also provides details on the involvement of Scots from Australia through other regiments, noting that ‘the enlistment rates of Scots and Presbyterians were disproportionately high.’

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Esplanade.120 At a more fundamental level, the case of the Scottish Horse also documents how closely connected Scottish ethnic associations were with the military. From the London Scottish to the Scottish Horse in South Africa and the Scottish regiments in Australia, many Scottish clubs and societies were profoundly engaged in furthering ethnic regiments.121 This is reflected too in activities pursued after the South African War. The Diamond Fields Scottish Association, for instance, had an ‘annual pilgrimage to the Highland Brigade and Black Watch Memorials at Magersfontein’122 to remember those who had fallen. These examples of ongoing engagement and commemoration are already suggestive of the legacy of the South African War within the Scottish community, but there was more direct engagement. At the 1906 Pretoria Caledonian Society St Andrew’s Day banquet, for example, Dr Jameson (Commissioner of Lands) spoke about the imminent change, particularly the question of unity post-war—a question he framed as one of race: British vs Boers. ‘If that racial element took a prominent place, and those two parties would not work for the realization of the wealth of this country and the welfare of the people as a whole’, Jameson argued, ‘then this country must perish’.123 Concerns over the post-war future were also a concern beyond South Africa, particularly within the context of the new geo-political arrangements. Hence, at the 1913 St Andrew’s Day dinner in Salisbury, the question was brought up as to whether Rhodesia should join the Union of South Africa: They had been hearing that there was some intrigue going on between the British Government and the British South Africa Company. … They had read the speech by General Botha in which he said, “I think the time has come when we should look more to see whether we should take over Rhodesia.” “Well,” continued Mr. Hawksley, “we are very much obliged to General Botha, but it is NOT COMING OFF. … We are not going to be absorbed into the Union of South Africa. (Loud applause.)124

120 Records relating to the Scottish Horse are held at Chapter House, Dunkeld Cathedral. 121 There are many other examples. In Africa alone Scots in Rhodesia talked about the formation of a Scottish volunteer company for the Southern Rhodesia Volunteers in 1902 (Rhodesia Herald (Harare), 1 March 1902), and the Caledonian Society of Kenya moved to establish a Scottish Company of the Defence Force in 1921 (Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Caledonian Society, held in the New Stanley Hotel, Nairobi, 26 August 1921, Caledonian Society of Kenya Minutes, D1356/1/1/2, Highland Archive Centre Inverness). 122 Mafeking Mail and Protectorate Guardian, 9 December 1921. For another example see also Rhodesia Herald (Harare), 18 April 1903. 123 Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg), 1 December 1906. 124 Tsala Ea Batho (Kimberley), 6 December 1913; for a later discussion on the subject, see also Beira News, 6 December 1918.

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In Rhodesia a strong sense of nationalism thus emerged in light of the expansionary ideas propagated by Louis Botha, with Scots collectively channelling their views through ethnic associations. Yet the South African War had an even more direct effect on Scottish ethnic associational culture in southern Africa: it served to boost the idea of federation. First proposed in the early twentieth century, federation was framed as a unifying movement in what was a fractured society. Perhaps as one might expect, however, association members were more concerned with bringing their own lives back on track, and hence no action was taken immediately. The outbreak of the First World War provided another impetus, however, and the Federated Caledonian Society of South Africa was eventually established in 1918. Initially, it operated only in the Transvaal, but it soon extended its reach when associations from other parts of South Africa requested affiliation. In the post-war period federation gave stability to associational endeavours, and helped consolidate Scottish activities in a large area. One past Chief of the Federation was Stewart Raeburn. Originally of Macduff, he spent his early life in Aberdeen before making his way to South Africa in 1902. He initially resided in Cape Town and Krugersdorp, but then went to Benoni in the Transvaal to join the New Fleinfontein Mine, becoming ‘one of the leading figures’ in the district.125 Raeburn, like many other Scots involved in the Federation, was keen to keep alive the memory of pioneer Scots in Africa, facilitating initiatives that would aid in that endeavour. Particularly important in this respect was the memory of David Livingstone. Hence, in the early 1930s, the Federation was actively involved in raising funds for a monument—a statue of Livingstone—near Victoria Falls.126

Conclusion The history of Scottish ethnic associations in Africa is complex and diverse: there is no singular story to tell given the breadth and distinct developments in the locations in which associations were set up. We can, however, identify a number of principal characteristics that help position African developments within the wider Scottish diaspora. The first critical point to make relates to the role of the frontier zone as a stimulus for the development of Scottish clubs and societies. In southern Africa in particular this played an important role not only because the idea of the frontier zone as a buffer zone saw the arrival of significant numbers of new migrants, but because it brought them in contact not only with African tribes—a

125 See his obituary in Aberdeen Journal, 28 July 1936. 126 Inverness Courier, 25 July 1930; see also Aberdeen Journal, 24 May 1934.

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group that could clearly be marked out as a racial other—but also a distinct European other, the Dutch. Secondly, while in Africa too there was a strong degree of civility in Scottish ethnic associational culture, it was lowest among all the locations examined here. In South Africa in particular we can find the strongest evidence of insularity, with associational activities more exclusively geared towards the Scottish community. Boundary maintenance was more important than elsewhere, a characteristic for which the presence of the two ‘others’ in the frontier zone provided important impetus. At the same time, and particularly in British East Africa, we find the strongest evidence of Scottish ethnic associations serving as platforms for political engagement—so much so, in fact, that we can speak of quasi-parliamentary functions in some locations, most notably in Nairobi. Other factors that underpinned this development were the relative smallness of the European/white population in the region, but also the uncertainties over territories and who was in charge. Finally, it is also worth noting that, while some degree of elitism and a focus on middle-class leaders is traceable in the diaspora locations already examined, it certainly had strong currency in Africa. This was the case chiefly because most locations throughout Africa, with the exception of those populated by Scottish migrants who arrived in the wake of the discovery of diamonds and gold in the early twentieth century, were from a well-to-do background. While we have seen examples of benevolent activities, these are nowhere near as profound as in North America and were more sporadic: there was comparatively little need for them due to the absence of discrete recipient cohorts. Hence what we find in Africa is a parallel to developments in the Antipodes, where the absence of a larger migrant cohort in need of relief was also the principal reason for the absence of the St Andrew’s tradition in the Scots’ associational behaviour. It is this point of difference that also links well with developments in Asia, the final chapter with a geographic focus.

Chapter 5

The Far East The Far East

I do not desire to detract from the many good qualities of the Scotsman. You meet him everywhere in the Far East. As a rule he comes out as a raw youth and goes home with a fortune. You can recognize him by his dour looks, his foreign accent and his cautious mind. He is a good fellow sometimes but you must flatter him and talk to him about Heather and haggis. If you want to see him at his best, when he lays aside the civilisation that he has acquired from contact with the English—or the Chinese—go to a St Andrew’s dinner in the Far East …1

Such were the words of Walter B. Harris, correspondent for The Times, traveller and author. Admitting that he had ‘a strain of the Highlands’ in his ‘English blood’, Harris may perhaps be forgiven for the somewhat stereotypical take adopted in his description of the Scots in the Far East. As the Aberdeen Journal noted, he was generally seen as ‘a man with a deep love of his fellow humans … and entirely without prejudices’.2 Yet Harris’s description was a ‘tilt at the Scots in the Far East’,3 and one that many others would have undersigned. From the eighteenth century onwards, the Scots were among the key players within the ever-expanding entrepreneurial world in Asia. Many were ‘nabobs’4—part of a group of Europeans who sought to make profits in the Far East ‘by any legal and, if necessary, dubious 1 Walter B. Harris, East Again: The Narrative of a Journey in the Near, Middle and Far East (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co, 1934), p. 307. 2 Aberdeen Journal, 7 December 1933. 3 Ibid. 4 Nabob is a term used to describe an East India Company servant who managed to acquire wealth; used more broadly, it can refer to someone who made his wealth in the East. See also Nechtman, Nabobs; George McGilvary, ‘Return of the Scottish Nabob,

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means’.5 The group of Scottish nabobs included many an illutrious character, such as Sir Hector Munro of Novar, an officer of the East India Company made famous by his role in the British annexation of Bengal.6 The EIC was crucial, in fact, in bringing out Scots to Asia, serving as a means through which they could establish ‘a foothold’ in the East.7 This was possible because, from the 1720s in particular, patronage networks extending from British government circles and Parliament through to East India House in Leadenhall Street, were established and utilized heavily to connect Scots ‘to Asia via London’8 (some evidence of which we have already seen in chapter one). While the EIC was dominated by the English, there was a significant number of Scots among its civil servants, military personnel and also its directors.9 Scottish capital was crucial too,10 and so was the influence of Henry Dundas, who steered the EIC’s fortunes between 1793 and 1801.11 Employment in India with the EIC became increasingly popular with Scots because they believed that Company service and connections in India would provide them with opportunities for private trade.12 This was seen as an attractive route for acquiring wealth, especially for members of the lower gentry, as well as the sons of gentry families, given the often large number of offspring and resultant concerns about their future inheritance.13

1725–1833’, in Mario Varricchio (ed.), Back to Caledonia: Scottish Homecomings from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2012), p. 95. 5 Andrew Mackillop, ‘The Highlands and the Returning Nabob’, in Marjory Harper (ed.), Emigrant Homecomings: The Return Movement of Emigrants, 1600–2000 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005), p. 236. 6 Linda Colley, Britons: Fording the Nation, 1707–1837 (London: Pimlico, 2003), p. 127. 7 James G. Parker, ‘Scottish Enterprise in India, 1750–1914’, in R.A. Cage (ed.), The Scots Abroad: Labour, Capital, Enterprise, 1750–1914 (London: Croom Helm, 1985), p. 193. 8 Bowen, Business of Empire, p. 272. 9 See Table 4.7 in ibid. This provides insight into the geographical distribution of East India stockholders from 1756 to 1830. It must be noted though that the percentage of Scots shown is complicated by the fact that London-based Scots who held stock would not have been included for Scotland. See also Andrew Mackillop, ‘Locality, Nation, and Empire: Scots and the Empire in Asia, c.1696–c.1813’, in John M. MacKenzie and T.M. Devine (eds), Scotland and the British Empire, The Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), tables 3.2 and 3.3, p. 69. 10 One of the financiers of EIC activities was, for example, Sir Lawrence Dundas. See George McGilvary, Guardian of the East India Company: The Life of Laurence Sulivan (London: Tauris, 2006), note 7, p. 162. 11 Dundas’s influence commenced prior to his presidency, though, and went beyond the remit of the Board of Control’s activities. See also Henry Dundas, Respecting the Trade between India and Europe (London: E. Cox & Son, 1802). 12 G.J. Bryant, ‘Scots in India in the Eighteenth Century’, Scottish Historical Review, LXIV, 1, 177 (1985), p. 26. 13 Ibid., p. 29.

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For many of these young men, ethnic networks and patrongae systems played a crucial role in facilitating employment with the EIC, especially in the sought after civil positions.14 These were seen as preferable not only because they were less dangerous than positions in the military, but also because they provided better opportunities for the establishment of private trade, and therefore, the acquision of wealth. As a result, ‘greater patronage power was required to become a civil servant than to secure a commission in the Company’s army’.15 Scots without access to such patronage could try and engage as free merchants in the local Indian trade, but even for this trade EIC connections were often needed, certainly until the late eighteenth century. Without connections, it was significantly more difficult to gain a foothold in the Far East, certainly in the early period of trade and expansion there. From the early nineteenth century, however, the influence of the EIC began to wane, a development that also impacted upon the patterns of Scottish engagement in Asia: we now find a small but steadily growing number of Scottish free merchants, chiefly in Calcutta and Bombay, though the Scottish sphere of influence in Asia also began to move further east. Together with the existing Scottish networks in India and forays in the Straits Settlement, many of which have their roots in ‘the earlier growth of Scottish influence’ in the EIC and the first ‘private trading houses of Asia’,16 the network of Scottish interests and connections in the ports of the Far East was strengthened, facilitating the further expansion of Scottish agencies and trading houses beyond the subcontinent. The development of shipping interests in the region played an important role, and many Scots were involved. The most famous was the previously encountered Sir William Mackinnon, a man described by some as ‘the greatest Scottish tycoon of all time’,17 whose shipping ventures extended from Africa to Asia.

14 Martha McLaren, British India and British Scotland, 1780–1830: Career Building, Empire Building, and a Scottish School of Thought on Indian Governance (Akron, OH: University of Akron Press, 2001); also George McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State: The Scottish Elite and Politics in the Eighteenth Century (London: Tauris, 2008); B.R. Tomlinson, ‘From Campsie to Kedgeree: Scottish Enterprise, Asian Trade and the Company Raj’, Modern Asian Studies, 36, 4 (2002), pp. 769–91. 15 Bryant, ‘Scots in India in the Eighteenth Century’, p. 30. 16 This includes, for instance, Sir William Mackinnon, who owned five shipping companies that eventually formed the foundation of the Inchcape Group. T.M.  Devine, To the Ends of the Earth: Scotland’s Global Diaspora, 1750 to 2010 (London: Allen Lane, 2011), p. 78. 17 Cited in ibid., p. 76. For details on the Inchcape Group, which formed from Mackinnon’s ventures, see Geoffrey Jones (ed.), The United Nations Library on Transnational Corporations, Volume 2: Transnational Corporations—A Historical Perspective (London and New York: Routledge, 1993), pp. 174–6. Also Geoffrey Jones, Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading companies in the Nineteenth and

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The subsequent expansion of Scottish business in Asia was quick and significant: of Singapore’s first 17 trading houses, 12 were either Scottish or at least dominated by Scottish partners, including Guthrie & Co. Established in 1821 by Alexander Guthrie, it became Singapore’s foremost agency house and continued operations well into the twentieth century prior to being bought out (though the brand name continues to exist in Guthrie GTS).18 The story of these houses pales, however, compared to that of Jardine Matheson & Co., which commenced trading in a broad range of goods, including tea, cotton and silk, in 1832.19 The Company’s roots go back all the way to India, however, underscoring the importance of pan-Asian networks and the beginnings of trade networks in the East there.20 Jardine Matheson & Co. made its biggest profits, however, from the opium trade,21 pursuing the trade even after it had been officially banned by the Chinese government in 1836, using its famed opium-clippers.22 The Chinese government was well aware of Jardine Matheson’s practices and, as a result, declared war in 1839. The use of gunboat diplomacy during the Opium War, and hence the involvement of the British military, powerfully documents the effectiveness of Scottish networks and lobbying in London: for the sake of trade, particularly that of one company, the British government was prepared to act in an aggressive way to ‘remove trade restrictions’.23

Twentieth Centuries (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 55; see also J. Forbes Munro, ‘Scottish Overseas Enterprise and the Lure of London: The Mackinnon Shipping Group, 1847–1893,’ Scottish Economic and Social History, 8 (1988), p. 75. 18 Devine, To the Ends of the Earth, p. 78. See also G.C. Allen and A.G. Donnithorne, Western Enterprise in Indonesia and Malaysia (Abingdon: Routledge, 2003, reprint from 1957), pp. 53–4. 19 See for instance Alain Le Pichon, China Trade and Empire: Jardine, Matheson & Co. and the Origins of British Rule in Hong Kong, 1827–1843 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press 2007). 20 Carol Matheson Connell, A Business in Risk: Jardine Matheson and the Hong Kong Trading Industry (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004), p. 4; see also figure 1.2 on p. 7 for details about the evolution of Jardine Matheson & Co. from earlier trade ventures that encompass Calcutta-based Matheson & Co. (which Matheson had established in 1827), Jardine’s activities in Bombay, and joint connections then made via Magniac & Co. in Canton. 21 W.E. Cheong, Mandarins and Merchants: Jardine Matheson & Co., a China Agency of the Early Nineteenth Century (London: Curzon Press, 1979), p. 263; other Scottish merchants were also heavily involved in the opium trade, including for instance David Scott, a friend of Henry Dundas. Scott, Director of the East India Company from 1788, utilized his extensive patronage networks in Asia, accumulating substantial sums through the trade. See McGilvary, ‘Return of the Scottish Nabob’, p. 97. 22 For details, see Zheng Yangwen, The Social Life of Opium in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). 23 David R. Meyer, Hong Kong as a Global Metropolis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 48.

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In the aftermath of the First Opium War, which led to the secession of Hong Kong, Jardine Matheson & Co. set up headquarters in that city, relocating there from Macao in 1844. The new administrative set-up along China’s eastern seaboard after the 1842 Treaty of Nanking facilitated a strong business and trade network that cemented a web of connections between India and China, but also with London and Scotland. This was the case not least because of the degree to which Scottish companies, or companies with Scots in lead positions, were interlinked. Private family partnerships and wider kinship as well as ethnic networks played a crucial role in maintaining these links as it was the continuous recruitment of Scots, described by Devine as ‘systematic nepotism’,24 that went on to provide substance to them. Importantly, it was along the same network lines that the Scottish business community in the East was united not only through trade, but also through a range of social activities.25 Ethnic associations played a critical role in their facilitation. While mapping the Scottish sphere of influence in the military and commercial world of the Far East is reasonably straightforward given the important contributions Scots made and the visible imprints they left, the same cannot be said for establishing their numerical presence. Some useful indicators can be found in EIC and military records. An estimated 30 Scottish civil servants, 280 ordinary Scottish soldiers and 250 Scottish officers could be found in Bengal in the early 1770s. The number of Scottish officers is quite remarkable given that their overall number was around 800. Looking at the European population in Bengal as a whole, Scots comprised 13 per cent.26 More Scots continued to arrive in India in the course of the eighteenth century, working in the military, aboard East Indiamen, as civil servants, as physicians and also, as we have seen, increasingly as free merchants. Their number grew throughout the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in particular and, by the 1830s an estimated 300 Scottish free merchants operated in the East Indies. McGilvary estimates that, overall, there were around 3,500 Scots present in the Indies in the period c.1720 to 1833.27 The expansion further east into China saw another wave of Scottish arrivals from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. One yardstick for Hong Kong for the 1860s and 1870s comes from census figures for European and American residents (Table 5.1). Figures were broken down by British nationality in 1871, documenting that there were 869 British residents in Hong 24 Devine, To the Ends of the Earth, p. 83. 25 See for example Elizabeth Buettner, ‘Haggis in the Raj: Private and Public Celebrations of Scottishness in Late Imperial India’, Scottish Historical Review, 81, 2 (2002), pp. 212–39; also Mrinalini Sinha, ‘Britishness, Clubbability, and the Colonial Public Sphere: The Genealogy of an Imperial Institution in Colonial India’, Journal of British Studies, 40, 4 (2001), pp. 489–521. 26 The total European population is estimated at 4,250, see Bryant, ‘Scots in India in the Eighteenth Century’, p. 23. 27 McGilvary, ‘Return of the Scottish Nabob’, p. 91.

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Table 5.1: European and American residents in Hong Kong, 1861 and 1871 European & American residents 1861* 1871+

1,557 2,979

Males 1,146 2,020

Females 411 959

* Figures exclusive of military stationed in the colony and the crews of Her Majesty’s ships in the harbour. + Figures exclusive of the British Naval Establishment, which was another 1,022 males, and the British Military and their families, which stood at 821 (754 males and 67 females). Finally, persons on merchant vessels, 1,080 males and 29 females, were also left out of the overall count. Source: Census of England and Wales for the Year 1861: General Report (London: HMSO, 1863), p. 201; Census of England and Wales for the Year 1871, p. 322.

Table 5.2: Number of British residents in Shanghai and Hong Kong, 1880–1915

1880 1881 1885 1890 1891 1895 1900 1901 1905 1910 1911 1915

Shanghai International Settlement

Hong Kong (civil)

Hong Kong (military)

1,057 — 1,453 1,574 — 1,936 2,691 — 3,713 4,465 — 4,822

— 785 — — 1,448 — — 3,007 — — 3,761 —

— 3,756 — — 2,900 — — 13,237* — — — —

* inflated because of the China Campaign force being present at the time Source: Adapted from Robert Bickers, ‘Shanghailanders and Others: British Communities in China, 1843–1957’, in Robert Bickers (ed.), Settlers and Expatriates: Britons over the Seas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 282–3, Table 10.2.

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Clubbing Together Table 5.3: British residents in the Far East, 1901

Indian Empire Ceylon Hong Kong Straits Settlement Federated Malaya States

Scottish

English & Welsh

Irish

British

9,325 476 476 —

77,411 1,518 1,305 —

9,682 167 155 —

—

—

—

— — — 2,659 resident + 408 floating 2,500

Source: Census of the British Empire: Report with Summary (London: HMSO, 1906), pp. 106, 119, 126, 129, 134.

Kong; 62 of them were Presbyterians, which gives some indication of Scottish numbers.28 Helpfully, Bickers has also established the combined number of British residents in Hong Kong and Shanghai for the period 1880–1915 (Table 5.2), with the most detailed breakdown of British residents across Asia being provided in the 1901 Census of the British Empire (Table 5.3). Differentiation in the Straits Settlement between the resident and floating population (Table 5.3) points at an important characteristic of the British presence in Asia: the significant number of naval and military personnel who were only there temporarily. In the Straits Settlement, the floating population established in the 1901 Census included the 96 crewmembers of the HMS Algerine, a sloop that had served in the Boxer Rebellion.29 The impact of these military sojourners becomes even clearer with respect to 1901 Census statistics from Weihaiwei: while a mere 53 Europeans are listed for the civil population, 306 British are listed for the military population, and another 163 under the category of naval population.30 Another commonality of the British population resident across the Far East is that gender ratios were unbalanced. For Hong Kong residents from Scotland, for example, the ratio recorded in the 1901 Census of the British Empire was 375 males to 101 females—a direct result of the types of Scots who made it to Asia, and the jobs they held. It also reflects that the majority 28 The majority were Portuguese (1,367). Census of England and Wales for the Year 1871, p. 324. In 2011, 33,733 people with the nationality ‘British’ were enumerated in the Hong Kong Census, see http://www.census2011.gov.hk/en/index.html [last accessed 12 May 2013]. 29 T.G. Otte, ‘“Dash to Peking: The International Naval Coalition During the Boxer Uprising in 1900’, in Bruce A. Elleman and S.C.M. Paine, Naval Coalition Warfare: From the Napoleonic War to Operation Iraqi Freedom (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), p. 93. 30 Ibid., p. 138.

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Map 5.1: The geography of Scottish ethnic associations in Asia

Source: The author.

of Scottish migrants to the Far East came not as settlers, but as sojourners, and therefore with the intention of making a career—and money—abroad, while planning their eventual return home to Scotland from the outset.31 As a result, they were a much more transient group for whom marriage and family were not the top priorities. In combination, these are characteristics that separate them clearly as a group distinct from those Scots who made permanent home in one of the settler dominions. It was also because of the high level of transience that the types of business links and patronage flows previously documented became even more important in Asia than they generally were throughout the Scottish diaspora. These transnational networks connected the city entrepôts of Singapore and Hong Kong, extended up the China coast to Shanghai, and eventually linked many

31 For a longer discussion on the different types of migrant, including sojourners, see Bueltmann et al., Scottish Diaspora, pp. 29–30.

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other parts of Asia including Japan. What makes these links especially important for this study is that they were underpinned by another layer: parallel to the formal networks of the British Empire and Scottish trade and business networks ran a formalized yet more informal network that drew on shared Scottish roots; this network was, as the remainder of this chapter will argue, fundamentally intertwined with Scottish ethnic associations, and to a degree not evident in the other sites of study explored in this book. Along the China cost in particular, Scottish ethnic associations became an integral part of what Bickers has aptly called the ‘web of China coast communities’,32 though their geographical reach was much wider than that (Map 5.1).

‘A Compact and Well-knit Phalanx of Scottish Hearts’33 The early days of Scottish ethnic associations in Asia can best be described as a little hazy given that no manuscript records of organizations have survived to provide conclusive evidence of their initial development. This does not mean, however, that the associations’ emergence and evolution cannot be traced: newspapers, directories of Scottish associations and personal papers provide a substantial volume of material. Newspapers have again proven invaluable in tracing the principle development patterns of organizations, documenting that in Asia too we find the common pattern established for other locations, namely that St Andrew’s Day dinners preceded the official formalization of associational structures. Early references come from India where dinners were, by the 1850s, a common affair and widely reported.34 They only achieved a more stable base, however, in the late-nineteenth century. As Stewart, in his exploration of the jute industry in Calcutta, has noted, the dinners were ‘the most important public ceremonial occasion each year for the British community.’35 This assessment, as we shall see, does not go quite far enough in recognizing the dinners’ significance as this extended well beyond the bounds of the British community. From India, Scottish dinners soon extend their geographic reach—a development in unison with the expansion of the British sphere of influence in the Far East. We find references to celebrations of St Andrew’s Day dinners in Canton from the mid-1830s, hence the period by which a larger number of free merchants had commenced trade there. In 1835, for instance, ‘a splendid 32 Bickers, ‘Shanghailanders’, p. 272. 33 Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 3 January 1839. 34 See for instance The Indian News and Chronicle of Eastern Affairs, 22 January 1850. For later examples see: St Andrew’s dinner in Bombay in 1866, The Pioneer (Allahabad), 17 December 1866; in Calcutta in 1867, The Pioneer (Allahabad), 4 December 1867); in Colombo in 1869, Ceylon Observer (Colombo), 1 December 1869. 35 Gordon T. Stewart, Jute and Empire: The Calcutta Jute Wallahs and the Landscapes of Empire (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998), p. 158.

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dinner was given by Mr. Jardine, at which sixty-seven gentlemen sat down.’36 This Mr Jardine is revealed to be William Jardine of Jardine Matheson & Co., and was presented with a plate at the gathering by Captain Hine, ‘late of the Hon. Company’s Service … [and] on behalf of his brother officers and himself’. The inscription on the plate praised Jardine for his ‘valuable services … rendered to the maritime officers of the East India Company’,37 reflecting that the dinner went beyond the celebration of Scotland’s patron saint. This is emphasized by the presence among the guests of Hingtae, ‘one of the Hong-merchants’,38 which signifies the importance of dinners and gatherings—even a more informal one hosted privately and in the early days of trade in Canton—as tools for wider networking and business purposes. Hingtae was an important guest, having for some time channelled ‘a fourth or fifth of the whole legal trade at Canton’.39 It is all the more relevant to read of Hingtae’s presence, however, because he was a merchant chiefly trading with foreigners, and it was they, therefore, who were significantly affected when he went bankrupt.40 This occurred a year after the St Andrew’s Day dinner, when Hingtae suspended payments.41 From then on foreign merchants and officials sought to reclaim the money lost, discussing the matter with local officials and other Hong merchants, drawing on some of the networks that were nurtured by the types of informal gatherings hosted by Jardine.42 36 Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 7 January 1836. 37 Ibid. 38 Ibid. The term ‘hong’ is Chinese and describes a trading house in Canton, Hong Kong and other parts of China; local merchants engaged in trading through these houses were called ‘hong merchants’. The original 13 hongs were located in Canton (Guangzhou), and comprised Qing Dynasty merchants. For the earlier period see Weng Cheong, Hong Merchants of Canton: Chinese Merchants in Sino-Western Trade, 1684–1798 (London: Curzon Press, 1997). 39 Inclosure 5 in No. 117: The Chinese Security Merchants in Canton, and their Debts’, in Correspondence Relating to China, presented to both Houses of Parliament (London: T.B. Harrison, 1840), p. 286. 40 This is documented in despatches and letters from merchants and colonial officials, see in ibid., p. 259ff. 41 Ibid., p. 282. A committee comprised of hong and foreign merchants was then put in place to investigate monetary claims against Hingtae. See also The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China and Australasia, April 1838, p. 243. 42 In early 1838, and with the matter still unresolved, Jardine Matheson & Co. was directly involved in the quest to reach a settlement, which included sending letters to the Governor of Canton. See Inclosure 5 in No. 117: The Chinese Security Merchants in Canton, and their Debts’, in Correspondence Relating to China, presented to both Houses of Parliament, p. 303. Jardine Matheson records reveal that Hingtae had been known to the Company since 1830. See ‘Hoppo’s order re merchants’ bonds and securities’, 1833, MS JM/L2/47, Jardine Matheson Archive, University of Cambridge.

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In Singapore, too, a dinner was the focal point for early Scottish residents in the city, and the first is reported for 1837. While not yet hosted by a formalized association, the dinner itself was a formal one, structured and well organized, with a chairman, croupier and stewards. Some guests attended clad ‘in the garb of the Old Gaul—“with bonnet blue and tartan plaid”’,43 and, as usual, many speeches and toasts were delivered. By 1844 the dinner had become a more elaborate affair, attracting a good number of guests. But by then we also hear of frictions in Singapore’s Scottish community. As was reported in the local press, the dinner only brought together ‘a section of the Scotchmen of Singapore’,44 not everyone. The organization of the dinner, it seems, had not been straightforward, and those who were unhappy with how the existing group of organizers had handled the affair decided not to attend. Later reports suggest that problems continued, contributing to the holding of separate events in the city for some time—a fact that may go some way towards explaining the comparatively late formalization of the Singapore St Andrew’s Society, which was only established in 1908.45 A little further south, across the Singapore Strait and Java Sea, early traces of St Andrew’s Day celebrations can be found in Batavia (modern-day Jakarta) in 1838, when a dinner was hosted for the first time. As was noted by a contemporary observer in a letter to the editor of the Singapore Free Press, Batavia does not boast of many [Scots] in number—but they are a compact and well-knit phalanx of Scottish hearts, not forgetful of the land of their nativity and the recollections of absent friends and days gone by. They have lately signalized themselves by a magnificent dinner … which was attended by the Members of Council, the principal Civil and Military Authorities and a select number of guests from our mixed community.

In total, 100 guests were present at the dinner, which was held at a private home. Guests included many a Dutch resident and, as the contemporary observer went on to note, it was pleasing to see ‘the apparent hearty enjoyment with which the Dutch guests generally entered into the spirit of the evening’. This was of great significance, because events such as St Andrew’s Day dinners could ‘harmonize mixed communities and infuse a kindly feeling among all classes’.46 Out of these early roots of dinners and speechifying on St Andrew’s days throughout the Far East grew more formalized ethnic organizations. The earliest traceable association is the St Andrew’s Society of Shanghai, 43 44 45 46

Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 7 December 1837. Ibid., 5 December 1844. Ibid., 17 November 1908. This and the previous quotations from ibid., 3 January 1839.

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which evidence suggests was established in 1865; it certainly was in full operation by 1866, when an annual report was published in the North China Herald.47 By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, the Society reportedly had 780 members,48 though there is also clear evidence that it was inactive for a short time after the decision was made, in 1884, to give neither a ball nor a dinner in celebration of St Andrew. The Shanghai St Andrew’s Society’s hiatus did not last long, however, for it was reconstituted in 1886 at a meeting held at the Masonic Hall. It was also at this meeting that it was decided to adopt the rules of the Hong Kong St Andrew’s Society, which had been formed in 1881,49 thereby focusing on a mixture of social and philanthropic pursuits, with particular importance being given to the annual St Andrew’s Day Ball.50 Following in the footsteps of Shanghai and Hong Kong, other early centres of formalized associational activity were Yokohama and Tokyo (1885), Kuala Lumpur (1887) and Bangkok (1890).51 In the latter city the formation of a St Andrew’s Society was first mooted ‘at a private meeting of Scotsman held on St Andrew’s Day’ in 1889,52 and the organization was finally established at the end of January 1890 ‘for mutual aid, and in furtherance of national interests’.53 The Bangkok Society, certainly in its early years, was somewhat more insular than others operating in Asia. Though it held a public ball at the Custom House in the year of its foundation, the Society then began organizing more exclusive social gatherings only open to members and close friends.54 Newspaper evidence suggests that the smallness of the Society may be a principal reason in this shift: given the financial demands of organizing a larger-scale ball, it may have been deemed problematic to arrange one on an annual basis; later sources also point to the issue of expenses as a principal reason for not having a ball.55 The absence of balls was not well

47 North China Herald (Shanghai), 16 June 1866. 48 Straits Times (Singapore), 29 October 1909. 49 See North China Herald (Shanghai), 20 December 1881. 50 Ibid., 27 October 1886. 51 The dates are based on details provided in Douglas’s Yearbook of Scottish Associations, 1912–1926. Yokohama alone, however, appears to already have had a St Andrew’s Society in the mid-1870s, see North China Herald (Shanghai), 21 December 1876. Some evidence also suggests that the St Andrew’s Society of Nagasaki was established in 1886 and might, therefore, be included in this list of the earliest organizations. See Ian Ruxton (ed.), The Diaries of Sir Ernest Satow, British Minister in Tokyo (1895–1900): A Diplomat Returns to Japan, with an introduction by Nigel Brailey (Tokyo: Edition Synapse, 2003), footnote 2, p. 449. 52 Straits Times (Singapore), 16 December 1889. 53 Straits Times Weekly (Singapore), 11 February 1890. 54 Daily Advertiser (Singapore), 28 November 1891. 55 Straits Times (Singapore), 20 October 1898. Although some balls were still held, see ibid., 17 September 1907.

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received by residents of Bangkok, however. In 1891 newspapers reported that many in the Bangkok community were not happy with the ‘closing-up’56 of St Andrew’s Day celebrations. As one commentator noted—and perhaps with a smile on the face—those ‘fond of dancing are hunting up their genealogical trees in search of Scotch ancestors, and submitting their claims for membership’57 to the St Andrew’s Society. Whether there was a genuine increase at the time or not, by 1907 the Society had 82 members58 and by 1911 it had regained some of its wider prominence, having reinstated a ball to host Prince and Princess Alexander of Teck on their visit to Asia.59 In no small part the reinvigoration was down to energetic leaders of the Society. In 1914, for instance, we find Leslie S. Smart (Chieftain), W.A. Graham (Vice-Chieftain,) A.R.  Malcolm (Hon. Secretary), and H.W.  Matheson (Hon. Treasurer) among those actively engaged in leadership and promotion of the Society.60 All four represent well the type of Scot who commonly made it to the Far East in terms of their occupations: Smart was the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Royal State Railways—Southern Line, Matheson worked as sub-accountant with the Chartered Bank, Malcolm was with Borneo Co. Ltd. and Graham worked for B.B.T. Corpn. Ltd.61 Further south, in Singapore, the St Andrew’s Society was founded, as noted, only in 1908, a comparatively late date—a fact particularly striking given the role of Singapore as an early settlement centre. The move to establish a society was announced via a notice in local papers, which advertised a meeting in the Exchange Rooms for 27 November 1908.62 In the chair was Captain Sir Arthur Young, the then Colonial Secretary of the Straits Settlement who was to become its Governor, as well as British High Commissioner of Malaya, in 1911.63 During the meeting a discussion ensued as to whether the organization should even be a St Andrew’s Society, Young stating that in Calcutta they had a Caledonian Society. A Dr Fowlie too thought that that name would be preferable as ‘Caledonian meant more to Scotchmen’.64 While there is little further evidence from Singapore about the motivations behind it, this discussion is very interesting indeed: by and large, the societies set up in Asia were St Andrew’s societies. Yet while a 56 Daily Advertiser (Singapore), 28 November 1891. 57 Ibid. 58 Straits Times (Singapore), 17 September 1907. 59 The Scotsman, 4 December 1911. 60 Directory for Bangkok and Siam, 1914 (Bangkok: Bangkok Times Press Ltd, 1914), p. 311. 61 Ibid., pp. 293, 309, 358, 363–4, 370. 62 Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 17 November 1908. 63 Arnold Wright (ed.), Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya: Its History, People, Commerce, Industries and Resources (London: Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company Limited, 1908), p. 126. 64 Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 28 November 1908.

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number of them pursued charitable objects, their main concern was, as we will see, the organization of Caledonian balls. Still, they adopted the name of St Andrew. It may be that the Scots in Asia engaged in ethnic associations, generally from a well-off background, saw themselves better represented by the legacy of patrician benevolence and charity for which St Andrew’s societies stood, than the more cultural and earthy Caledonian societies. Either way, in Singapore the suggestion to establish a Caledonian Society instead of a St Andrew’s Society, when put to a vote, resulted in the majority voting for the society to go by the name of Scotland’s patron saint. The first meeting in Singapore was also used to discuss rules, these being ‘nearly word for word the Hongkong rules’,65 and Young was officially elected the Society’s first President. The entrance fee was set at $5, and the annual subscription at $2; life membership cost $50.66 So appealing was the new Society that Scots in neighbouring Johor, a state in what was then British Malay, were keen on becoming involved. A Dr Wilson even sent a letter to ask whether Scots resident in Johor would be able to affiliate.67 This, it seems, was indeed a possibility and, according to the Society’s first annual report, it had 132 members within a year. In that year the Society spent $70 on relief work, and appointed a ball committee to formalize the organization of St Andrew’s Day festivities.68 In 1917, the Society’s membership had risen to 16569—though reference is made to the fact that membership would have been higher had it not been for the First World War as some members lost their lives while fighting in Europe. By 1929, membership had doubled to over 300 members, including some honorary lady members.70 One of the side effects of the comparatively high level of transience among Scots in Asia was that the ethnic associations were sometimes less stable than elsewhere: with the departure of lead members, organizations could, at least temporarily, lose their footing. This is what appears to have happened in Ceylon. While a St Andrew’s Society existed in Colombo, it had become rather mute by 1906. The local newspaper wondered what had happened to the Scots who used to celebrate St Andrew’s Day. Though in the past Scotsmen had ‘aroused a pride and warmth of feeling which survives abroad … here in Ceylon that feeling is dead. Many of the Scots who dined and wined then are with us yet, but they are now rubber planters who care more for ground nuts than for Scots heather’.71 But who then were the Scots engaged in associations in Asia? Closer examination of the membership of 65 Ibid. 66 Straits Times (Singapore), 28 November 1908. 67 Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 28 November 1908. 68 Straits Times (Singapore), 11 September 1909. 69 Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 1 August 1917. 70 Straits Times (Singapore), 15 May 1929. 71 Ibid., 14 December 1906.

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the Hong Kong and Shanghai St Andrew’s Societies—chosen because they offer the strongest evidence base of activities and membership—provides us with important insights into the socioeconomic profile and reflect well the general characteristics of the membership of Scottish ethnic associations in Asia. Nowhere else in the Scottish diaspora did the specific background of association members link more closely with the associations’ remit and activities.

Well-off, Mobile and Associational: Profiling Scottish Association Members in Asia In general terms, the profiling of members is not a straightforward undertaking given not only the absence of manuscript records, but also the relative transience of the Scots in Asia. Utilizing newspaper reports of association events and annual meetings, as well as advertisements for meetings and early Shanghai and Hong Kong directories, it has been possible to establish the names of 133 members of the Shanghai St Andrew’s Society, and 117 members of that of Hong Kong. In both cases membership has been traced over the period between c.1890 and c.1905, a period chosen because it provides the strongest source base. Biographical details could be established for 93 per cent of the Shanghai members and 87 per cent of the Hong Kong members—a fact that is telling in itself, reflecting the members’ relatively high status in society: this was a status elevated enough to ensure that records relating to their life and activities in Asia are available at such a high percentage. The members’ socioeconomic profile can be measured by means of an analysis of occupations (Figures 5.1 and 5.2); classifications have been used following the most common profile headings adopted in contemporary directories. While in Hong Kong too those engaged as merchants and in banking top the list of occupations, the distribution between the two is more even than in Shanghai. Most noticeable are the lower figure for members with a background in shipping, the greater prominence of engineering, and the fact that 9 per cent of members in Hong Kong could be classed as ‘labourers’, whereas, in Shanghai, no trace was found of those with an occupation in the ‘labourer’ bracket. These patterns are reflective of the dominant trades and industries in the two centres. Within this wider occupational context, contemporary directors also reveal another noticeable characteristic that unite St Andrew’s Society members in both Hong Kong and Shanghai: a good number of them were members of prestigious colonial clubs, particularly the Shanghai Club (1861) and the Hong Kong Club (1846). These clubs were male- and whites-only clubs for British/European residents. They were openly elitist, vetting members and implementing strict membership policies. Being part of these clubs provided

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Figure 5.1: Socioeconomic profile of Shanghai St Andrew’s Society members

Source: The author.

Figure 5.2: Socioeconomic profile of Hong Kong St Andrew’s Society members

Source: The author.

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entry to a very exclusive circle—and one not too dissimilar from what one might suitably call a colonial aristocracy.72 Interstices between club activities and Scottish associational activities were significant, to the degree that in Shanghai early celebrations of St Andrew’s Day were held ‘at the Club’.73 One member who serves well to illustrate common characteristics is Charles Stewart Addis. He is particularly suitable as a comparator not only because he was a member engaged in one of the principal occupations of association members—he was a banker—but also because he personifies well the impact of transience on associational membership. Born in Edinburgh on 23 November 1861, Addis was educated at Edinburgh Academy before moving on to work for Peter Dowie and Co., Grain Importers in Leith between 1876 and 1880. He then relocated to London, where he joined the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). The bank had been founded in Hong Kong in 1865 by Thomas Sutherland, a fellow Scot who sought to support the emerging Asian markets with a bank established on Scottish principles that would also ‘combine banking with the tremendous business opportunities in trade and shipping between Hong Kong and Shanghai’.74 It was the move to London and the HSBC that was to bring Addis out to the Far East in 1883, when he was posted to Singapore. Typical of many employed in the financial and business sector, Addis did not remain in Singapore for long, soon moving on to the HSBC head office in Hong Kong. He then became one of the first bankers from the West to live in Beijing, arriving in the city in 1886. Addis was very interested in what went on around him, so was delighted when Alexander Michie, a fellow Scot with a long history of working in the East and the then editor of the Chinese Times, which was published in Tientsin, asked him to write contributions for the paper. Addis’s life as a sojourner continued, however, as he went on to work in several other Asian cities between 1889 and 1900, including Tientsin (1889), Shanghai (1889–91), Calcutta (1891) and Rangoon (1892). Addis then broke his sojourn with a return trip home in 1894, meeting Eba McIsaac, who was to become his wife. After his marriage, Addis was again sent to work in Shanghai, and was appointed HSBC agent in Hankow (1896) and Calcutta (1897), also serving as sub-manager in Shanghai during his final years in the Far East.75 72 See also ‘Singapore Club’, SingaporeInfopedia: An Electronic Encyclopedia of Singapore’s History, Culture, People and Events (National Library of Singapore), http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1184_2006-06-17.html [last accessed 11 July 2013]. 73 For example North China Herald (Shanghai), 6 December 1871. 74 Zhaojin Ji, A History of Modern Shanghai Banking: The Rise and Decline of China’s Finance Capitalism (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2003), p. 45. 75 Addis’s career did not end in Asia, however, as he returned to the London Office of HSBC as Junior Manager in 1905; he became Senior Manager six years later. Crowning his career, Addis was made Director of the Bank of England in 1918. The Far East remained one of his main interests, however, as he was heavily involved in a number

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These frequent moves explain how Addis came to be a member of both the Shanghai and the Hong Kong St Andrew’s societies—and possibly others too given that all his places of work and temporary residences throughout Asia hosted Scottish ethnic associations. For Addis and other Scots who sought out Scottish clubs and societies in various places of residence—membership profiles suggest other overlaps—ethnic associations were a principle anchor in what was a very transitory world characterized by comparatively short-term stays in specific locations. This was not a world for planting roots. Membership in ethnic associations could compensate for that absence of ‘rootedness’, providing a harbour of stability and familiarity that could be recognized, and utilized, by Scots wherever in Asia they were located. In general terms this is a characteristic common to Scottish ethnic associations around the world, but the specific setting of Asia as a sojourn for most Scots, together with their specific background as generally wealthy and mobile with the intention of returning home, amplified the power of ethnic associationalism in this respect. Membership details gathered from annual and event reports suggest that some Scots even took out membership of ethnic societies simultaneously in different cities, making the associations pan-Asian hubs for their work-related travels. This was particularly important at times of need—and also in death. When N.W. Roy died in Bangkok, it was his fellow members of the Bangkok St Andrew’s Society who were present at his funeral in the Protestant Cemetery. Roy’s coffin was draped in the Union Jack—a practice apparently carried out at all burials of British citizens—and the flag of St Andrew was placed across it. The then President of the St Andrew’s Society, J. Mackay, was one of the coffin bearers.76 Roy’s death was also mourned in Selangor, where he had first arrived in 1889.77 It is also important to note that Charles Stewart Addis’s pan-Asian Scottish associationalism was not simply a token. He had been actively involved in the Hong Kong St Andrew’s Society in the 1880s, acting, for instance as steward at the 1885 St Andrew’s Day Ball,78 and then was among the leading members of the Shanghai Society in the late 1890s and early 1900s. The diaries of Addis’s wife, available from the couple’s first arrival in Asia in 1894, provide us with further insights into his activities and connections. As Eba noted for 1894, when en route to Shanghai they stopped in Singapore and Hong Kong, arriving in the latter city on 17 November of organizations that sought to facilitate links between Britain and Asia, including the British and Chinese Corporation. Addis died in Sussex on 14 December 1945. See R.A. Dayer, Finance and Empire: Sir Charles Stewart Addis, 1861–1945 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988). 76 Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertised, 22 May 1896. 77 Selangor Journal: Jottings Past and Present, volume four (Kuala Lumpur: Selangor Government Printing Office, 1896). 78 China Mail (Hong Kong), 1 December 1885.

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1894. On Sunday 18 November, they went to church in the morning, and then met Mr and Mrs Stewart Lockhart, together visiting Hong Kong’s famous Peak and enjoying the ‘wonderful views’.79 James Haldane Stewart Lockhart was the acting Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong at the time80 and had long-standing ties with the city, where he first arrived in the late 1870s. Born in Ardsheal on the shore of Loch Linnhe in 1858, Stewart Lockhart too set great store by his Scottish roots and was actively involved in the Hong Kong St Andrew’s Society, serving as president in 1896–7.81 He was held in high esteem and, on his departure to Weihaiwei, where he became the first civil commissioner in 1902, Stewart Lockhart was presented by the Hong Kong St Andrew’s Society with ‘a silver Quaich, or Highland drinking-cup, set upon silver stands of handsome design, consisting of four dragons’; the inscription read, ‘He stood for the land of the blue-bell and heather. And passed on the cry of “Scotland for ever.”’82 It thus comes as no surprise that Stewart Lockhart sought to continue the promotion of his Scottish heritage: he was instrumental in starting the Weihaiwei St Andrew’s Society in 1906.83 The commitment to ethnic associationalism was, however, only one connector between Addis and Stewart Lockhart as the roots of their friendship went back a long way.84 After their brief stay in Hong Kong, Addis and his wife went on to Shanghai, arriving there on 22 November. By January 1895 they had settled into their own house on the famous Bund, Eba noting that it was ‘[d]elightful to be at home at last’.85 By 1901, Addis had become fully immersed in the activities of the Shanghai St Andrew’s Society, so much so, in fact, that he was elected its President at the Annual General Meeting held in October 1901, for which 50 members had come together at the Town Hall. In total, the Society membership in that year stood at a little over 500, and it had funds amounting to Tls. 3,515.96.86 It was under Addis’s presidency that the

79 Diary entries from Eba McIsaac Addis, 17–18 November 1894, Sir Charles Stewart Addis papers, PP MS 14/12, School of Oriental and African Studies Special Collections, University of London. 80 Shiona Airlie, Thistle and Bamboo: The Life and Times of Sir James Stewart Lockhart (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010), p. 59. 81 North China Herald (Shanghai), 9 October 1896; also China Mail (Hong Kong), 1 December 1896. 82 Ibid., 9 April 1902. 83 Weihaiwei St Andrew’s Society Booklet, Stewart Lockhart Personal Papers, Acc.4138/44, National Library of Scotland; see also Acc.4138/65 for a programme of a Scottish concert, 30 November 1915. 84 For details on their connection, see Airlie, Thistle and Bamboo. 85 Diary entry from Eba McIsaac Addis, 1 January 1895, Sir Charles Stewart Addis papers, PP MS 14/12, School of Oriental and African Studies Special Collections, University of London. 86 North China Herald (Shanghai), 23 October 1901.

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Figure 5.3: St Andrew’s Society Shanghai Burns Dinner programme cover, 1902

Source: Sir Charles Stewart Addis Papers, PP MS 14/20, School of Oriental and African Studies Special Collections, University of London.

first Burns dinner was held in Shanghai in January 1902. As Eba noted in her diary, ‘Charlie as chairman, proposed the King, then “Robert Burns”. It was a grand speech. … A great success.’87 Activities generally diversified throughout Addis’s tenure, with an evening of Scottish music being planned for Halloween, and membership rose to 600.88

87 Diary entry from Eba McIsaac Addis, 25 January 1902, Sir Charles Stewart Addis papers, PP MS 14/20, School of Oriental and African Studies Special Collections, University of London. 88 Annual report, North China Herald (Shanghai), 29 October 1902.

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Benevolence in Asia and Transnational Charity Given the upper-class status of St Andrew’s Society members like Addis and Stewart Lockhart, it comes as no surprise that charity played some part in the associational objectives of Scottish clubs and societies in Asia: as suggested earlier in this chapter, among such an elite group of Scots the sense of patrician benevolence that underpinned the associational culture of Scots in North America did not simply evaporate in the Far East. Even in the earliest records for the Shanghai Society we thus find details relating to benevolent work. Amongst the expenses listed in the financial statement for the first annual meeting, for instance, was a ‘Minute Book with Lists of members printed therein’, the payment to the captain of a ship for ‘Board provided to a distressed Scotch Sailor’, the part-settling of debts of ‘a native of Forfarshire’ and also a payment ‘on account of the four young children of the late Mrs ———, a native of Inverness’.89 The statement also reveals that the Society had almoners: there was certainly a sense of responsibility towards those who had ‘fallen on evil days’.90 Provisions were made for such cases throughout Asia, but evidence suggests that they were most substantial in Shanghai—though the caveat remains that, in the absence of minute books, this is difficult to establish conclusively. It is possible, however, to gain some insight through reprinted annual reports. Some of the provisions made are presented here to document the level and type of relief given (Table 5.4). To provide comparative context, the Hong Kong St Andrew’s Society dispensed $674.75 in 1902 and $548.75 in 1903;91 by 1909, the distribution amounted to $1,358.33, and ‘applicants were [also] assisted in finding employment.’92 Mirroring the views held in other Scottish diaspora locations, the latter was deemed more appropriate given that it was a better means for ensuring long-term benefits for those supported. Scottish societies in the Far East too sought, ideally, to support in such a way that might enhance the abilities of those with problems to help themselves in the future. In Shanghai it was clearly recognized that ‘[o]f all forms of charity … that which was of the least service was the temporary dole, bringing no substantive or permanent advantage in its train’, and the Society was pleased to report, therefore, that in cases of aid there ‘had been no pauperising effect’.93 Noticeable in Shanghai is the comparatively large relief sum dispensed in 1925, ‘the heaviest on record’.94 Unfortunately, there is no indication as to 89 90 91 92 93 94

North China Herald (Shanghai), 16 June 1866. Ibid., 29 October 1902. Straits Times (Singapore), 6 October 1903. Ibid., 14 September 1909. North China Herald (Shanghai), 29 October 1902. Ibid., 3 October 1925.

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Table 5.4: Examples of relief provided by the Shanghai St Andrew’s Society, 1890–1925 Year

Relief dispensed

Used for

1890

Tls. 226

provision of relief for one ‘distressed Scotchman’, including expenses at Shanghai, passage to Vancouver and a cash advance for fares to Hong Kong and Kebe

1895 Tls. 17.11 (no report for 1900) 1901 Tls. 432.76 ‘cash, disbursed in relief’ 1905 Tls. 185 put into ‘Charity Reserve Account’ 1910 illegible, but clearly a n/a designated sum 1915 n/a funds collected for the Scottish Red Cross 1920 $590 n/a 1925 $6,277.46 30 cases

Source: This has been established on the basis of newspaper reports that include details on annual meetings and reports: North China Herald (Shanghai), 24 October 1890, 25 October 1895, 23 October 1901, 13 October 1905, 14 October 1910, 19 October 1915, 30 October 1920.

what may have caused this rise in relief cases, but it appears that at least some of the funds were given as loans rather than charity as such, and, by October 1926, repayments of $2,143.72 had already been made.95 It was also in the spirit of ‘enabling’ that another initiative in Shanghai must be seen: the provision of bursaries for talented children, which was designed to support deserving children, but also to increase their knowledge of Scottish history and literature—the examinations to determine bursary recipients concentrated on questions in these fields. The scheme was first established in 1907, and children aged between 12 and 16 could apply if they were of ‘Scottish parentage and British nationality’;96 in 1909 the bursary went to Miss Madge Arthur of the Shanghai Public School, and had a value of $100; two others at $50 each were also given out, and there was a ‘reward of merit … in the shape of a book having some Scottish interest as an incentive to greater efforts to attain a knowledge of their Fatherland— “Bonnie Scotland.”’97 The bursary scheme went on for many years and

95 Ibid., 9 October 1926. 96 Ibid., 4 December 1909. 97 Ibid.

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was increasingly popular, though in the mid-1920s the examination was criticized by some for being ‘much too stiff’.98 With the commencement of the First World War a range of other charitable initiatives developed that linked the Scots in Asia directly back to Scotland and was to prove enduring long past the end of the war. In 1914, the Colombo St Andrew’s Day dinner organized by the Society was cancelled as a result of the outbreak of the conflict. Instead, it was suggested that those who had planned to attend the ball should donate the money they would have spent on a dinner ticket to the Ceylon branch of the Prince of Wales’ Fund.99 This was a practice followed in other centres in Asia. In Singapore, ball preparations were abandoned in 1914 after the outbreak of the war,100 and members were asked ‘to contribute to a war relief fund the amount they would individually have spent on the St Andrew’s Day Ball’.101 This type of activity in support of the British war effort, the President of the St Andrew’s Society stressed, was crucial: they had to ‘cease for the time being to think of [themselves] as English, Irish or Scottish, and remember only that [they] are Britons’.102 This was further emphasized by the sums collected through the selling of war bonds or fundraising concerts. The Singapore St Andrew’s Society had thus raised over $16,000 since 1914 for war relief purposes. Designated collections were also made for ‘the purchase of Comforts for Scottish troops and to the relief of Scottish War Prisoners’, an initiative that was supported by the help of the Edinburgh St Andrew Society.103 In Hong Kong in 1915 $2,650 were raised for the Scottish War Charities at a St Andrew’s Day concert in the City Hall,104 and in 1917 the Society organized a Heather Day and a St Andrew’s Fair specifically for the purpose of raising funds ‘to help the ever growing needs of the Home hospitals in which our brave wounded soldiers are being treated’.105 At the fair there were shows and merry-go-rounds, and golf competitions; in the evening a dancing floor was put down, ‘and there the lightfooted tripped it merrily to the tune of the pipe until a late hour’.106 It was anticipated that $40,000 had been collected through raffles, auctions and fair takings. Further east, in Shanghai, in 1916, a mere eight people came together at the Astor House as guests of the St Andrew’s Society’s President Gavin Wallace to celebrate the saint’s day. The meeting was not public, however, but intended primarily to announce that $10,000 had been collected from Society members for the Scottish Red 98 Ibid., 10 October 1925. 99 Ceylon Observer (Colombo), 3 December 1914. 100 Straits Times (Singapore), 28 August 1914. 101 Ibid., 12 September 1914. 102 Ibid. 103 Ibid., 17 September 1918. 104 South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), 1 December 1915. 105 From the editorial, ibid., 3 December 1917. 106 Ibid.

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Cross Fund.107 The Shanghai St Andrew’s Society also responded to appeals from Scotland, for instance by the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Help Society, for which a total of £500 were collected and ‘sent home’.108 Another way in which Scottish ethnic associations sought to support the war effort was through sponsoring hospital beds at the front, with the St Andrew’s Society of Shanghai sending £250 to establish ‘beds in the hospital at Rouen’.109 It was partly as a result of the First World War—which had facilitated connections with organizations in the old homeland, and increased awareness of suffering there—that links with Scotland were strengthened through charity and donations: a sustained form of transnational charity developed that was maintained long after the war. The most impressive example comes from Calcutta, where Scots raised a significant £13,000 in 1917 in support of Scottish Women’s Hospitals. While this initiative was launched by a Mrs Abbott rather than a Scottish ethnic association, the Calcutta Caledonian Society opened the first subscription list.110 Moreover, the transmission of donations to Scottish hospitals became an established annual practice of the Selangor St Andrew’s Society (Kuala Lumpur) in the 1920s. While the sums were nowhere near as high as those raised in Calcutta, the Selangor Society continued its donations for many years. Amongst the hospitals that received support were the Royal Aberdeen Hospital for Sick Children, the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and the Dundee Royal Infirmary.111 As was reported in 1927, ‘Each year the Selangor St Andrew’s Society, Kuala Lumpur, sends a cheque to be distributed amongst the deserving Scottish hospitals, and yearly £5 is allocated to Dundee Royal Infirmary.’112 The Scotsman newspaper at times served as the distributor of funds received from Scots in Asia. In 1928, for instance, the Negri Sembilan St Andrew’s Society, Federated Malaya States, had sent £50, which The Scotsman distributed to various hospitals throughout Scotland. This was a service it had already been doing for the Selangor St Andrew’s Society ‘for a number of years’ and, as was observed, ‘we welcome the further evidence provided by the Negri Sembilan St Andrew Society of the practical interest taken by Scotsman abroad in the work of Scottish charitable institutions.’113 Despite these laudable initiatives—which document a very practical and 107 Shanghai Times, 1 December 1916. 108 North China Herald (Shanghai), 19 October 1917. 109 The Scotsman, 17 July 1915; other societies also contributed and it appears that some sponsored beds together. 110 Western Daily Press (Bristol), 6 January 1917. 111 Aberdeen Journal, 27 August 1923; Aberdeen Journal, 12 October 1929; Dundee Courier, 20 May 1927; Evening Telegraph, 7 July 1938. 112 Evening Telegraph (Dundee), 19 May 1927. 113 The Scotsman, 20 April 1928; donations from the Selangor Society continued for some time, see for instance ibid., 21 May 1936 and 2 November 1949 (though donations had stopped during the Second World War).

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directed form of diasporic consciousness—overall, it is clear from the figures presented here that the aid dispensed in Asia pales in comparison to that we have seen in North America, and so does the underpinning level of organization. By the Shanghai St Andrew’s Society’s own admission, ‘the claims on the Charity of the Society’ were often small.114 Particularly during the early period there were no or only one or two cases of relief per year, although more money was available in the Society’s charity fund. It is also important to note that some of the relief, sometimes all of it, was paid back by those ‘in distress who had accepted money as a temporary loan’.115 This is indicative of the fact that some of the recipients of support were not from a low social stratum, but rather had a temporary problem with their funds for which a loan from the St Andrew’s Society offered respite. While charitable (there were no fees or interest charges), this was a very different type of charity from the large-scale provision of aid to poor immigrants in distress in North America—and it is a type of charity that directly reflects the different local circumstances and association membership in Asia. The principal reason for the relative unimportance of benevolent activities lies in the nature of Scottish migration to the Far East, particularly the types of Scots who settled there: as we have seen, by and large they were businessmen, merchants, diplomats or bankers, the majority from a privileged socioeconomic background. They did not require the types of charity dispensed in the large settlement centres of North America, where, particularly in the early years of mass migration, the lack of adequate relief structures facilitated fraternal benevolence and systems of mutual aid provision amongst many ethnic groups. In Shanghai and other Asian centres, the focus of ethnic associations was chiefly located in the realm of sociability through the hosting of Caledonian balls.

‘The leading event of the social calendar’116 It was impossible to imagine when the Town Hall [in Shanghai] … was built that it would not for a great many years be large enough for any ball that was likely to be given here, but it was not a bit too large for the ball given by the St. Andrew’s Society on Friday, and to which something like fifteen hundred people were invited. Not only was the resident community of Shanghai well represented, for, as we have often said before, the hospitality of the Scots among us is absolutely unbounded, but there were the officers of the garrison and of the warships in harbour, 114 North China Herald (Shanghai), 2 February 1867. 115 Ibid., 23 October 1901. 116 Description of the Hong Kong St Andrew’s Day Ball, China Mail (Hong Kong), 30 November 1901.

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Figure 5.4: Attendance at St Andrew’s Day celebrations organized by the Shanghai St Andrew’s Society based on newspaper estimates

Source: The author.

whose uniforms brightened what the decorations and the frocks of the ladies made already a most brilliant scene. The lighting was much better than usual; the walls were hung with garlands and feathery bamboos, and the shields of the clans; while the Saint himself, illuminated, smiled benignantly on the revels.117

On the same day, 750 miles further south in Hong Kong, an estimated 1,200 people had also come together to celebrate Scotland’s patron saint. Customarily held at Hong Kong’s City Hall, with its ‘crimson carpeted entrance hall … brilliantly illuminated by decorative jets of electricity’, the Hong Kong St Andrew’s Day ball was described as ‘the leading event of the social calendar’.118 His Excellency the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Henry Arthur Blake, was present, as were Sir Cyprian A.G. Bridge, Vice-Admiral and the then Commander in Chief of the Royal Navy’s China Station, and Major General Sir William Gascoigne, Commander of British Troops in China and Hong Kong and last Lieutenant Governor of Hong Kong. In Hong Kong too, ‘it was not till a late hour in the morning that the dance was brought to a close by the singing of “Auld Lang Syne.”’119 What these examples, and the numbers in particular, highlight is that balls in honour of Scotland’s patron saint were not only the key feature of Scottish associational life throughout Asia, but also ‘the leading event

117 North China Herald (Shanghai), 4 December 1901. 118 China Mail (Hong Kong), 30 November 1901. 119 Ibid.

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of the social calendar’.120 Public dinners had been held for many years, proliferating from the mid-nineteenth century and attracting significant numbers, including many dignitaries. In so doing the celebrations were, as members of the Bangkok St Andrew’s Society noted, ‘mark[ing] our public career as a Society’.121 Balls, however, operated on an entirely different scale. Attendance figures provided in newspaper reports for celebrations in Shanghai, while estimates offer a suitable yardstick for the overall trend (Figure 5.4). The dinners that were customarily held until the late 1870s attracted around 70 guests. In 1878, the local newspaper congratulated the St Andrew’s Society ‘on the success of their experiment in giving a Ball instead of the time-worn … dinner formerly provided’.122 The first balls held thereafter drew crowds of 300. Then, however, both events were, as we have seen, abandoned for a short time until the Shanghai St Andrew’s Society was reconstituted in 1886. From then onwards we find a steady increase in the number of ball guests until the First World War, which put a temporary halt to celebrations. It also brought out, however, a similar type of connection between sociability and charity to the one we have seen in London and North America: while the scale and extent of benevolence in Asia were comparatively small, the desire of middle-class Scots to act charitably for the purpose of meeting ideals of patrician benevolence was undiminished. As noted in the 1930s, ‘The [Shanghai Caledonian Society’s] Ball is held for three purposes, first for charity, secondly for the re-union of Scots and thirdly for the c­ ommemoration of St. Andrew.’123 After the First World War, balls were soon reinstituted and continued, as Figure 5.4 documents, to attract large numbers of guests. The balls were elaborate affairs and societies, therefore, usually had special ball committees and sub-committees to arrange them. In Hong Kong we find the following breakdown for committees, each manned by a significant number of members to ensure the smooth running of events: ball committee, invitation committee, card room, ladies’ room, dance and music, supper and wines, and decoration.124 There was always a well set out programme of dancing, commonly including, as in Hong Kong in 1883, a Waltz and Reels.125 For catering purposes, and especially once balls reached larger attendances, guests were usually split into two groups that would then dine at separate sittings.126 Particular attention to detail was given to the venue decorations. While the use of symbolic markers of Scottishness, as 120 Ibid. 121 Straits Times Weekly Issue (Singapore), 22 December 1891. 122 North China Herald (Shanghai), 5 December 1878. 123 Ibid., 21 October 1930. 124 China Mail (Hong Kong), 1 December 1893. See also for Singapore: Straits Times, 1 December 1910. 125 For a programme from Hong Kong, see Straits Times (Singapore), 7 December 1883. 126 Ibid., 1 December 1910.

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I have shown elsewhere,127 was a very common feature of celebrations— with thistles, heather and the Saltire being widely used throughout the diaspora to represent Scotland—the balls in the Far East eclipsed efforts recorded elsewhere. Newspaper reports provide incredibly detailed and long descriptions of the decorations, reflecting their importance for making the balls a success. In 1921 in Shanghai, Members and their guests passed through the entrance hall and up the stairway, under what seemed like an arch in a savage forest, so thick was the foliage and so profuse the flowers. At intervals were statuesque Indian troopers lending picturesqueness and some grandeur to the scene. At the entrance to the ball room the visitors were escorted by members of the Shanghai Scottish to the President, Mr A.S. Campbell, who, with his wife, extended a cordial welcome. … Turning to the ball room, a truly gorgeous scene met their [the visitors’] gaze. Around the walls were the old familiar shields of arms of the clans and Scottish regiments … These were guarded with crossed Lochaber axes. In between were tartanframed quotations from the twin immortals, Burns and Scott … Each of the big windows framed a Stewart-tartaned piper illuminated by hidden lights in settings of heather and greenery … The lighting was of a new order and very effective. Mr. McColl set his heart on a soft scheme, so he had hundreds of red and orange shades made, of the shape of the old-style street gas lamps …128

But perhaps these decorations were not even required as the ladies with their ball gowns and the Shanghai Scottish in their kilts provided much colour and ‘gay paraphernalia’.129 In Singapore, too, where 1,000 people attended the 1910 Ball at Victoria Memorial Hall, decorations also took centre stage: shields of all principal towns ‘greeted the eye and, presumably, thrilled the responsive bosom of the patriotic Scot’, and ‘some never-to-be-sufficientlythanked person had inserted a few little blocks of peat that brought a whiff of Caithness bogland or Hebridean marsh.’130 Rituals and the staging of Scottishness were critical, contributing to a sense of pageantry at the events.131 This is especially well exemplified by one particular ball in Shanghai: the Waverley Ball. When Shanghai’s St Andrew’s Society and its guests gathered at the Shanghai Club to celebrate 127 Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 164. See also A. Radley, ‘Artefacts, Memory and a Sense of the Past’, in David Middleton and Derek Edwards (eds), Collective Remembering (London: Sage Publications, 1990). 128 North China Herald (Shanghai), 3 December 1921 129 Ibid. For examples from Hong Kong, see for instance China Mail (Hong Kong), 1 December 1888; or South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), 1 December 1908. 130 Straits Times (Singapore), 1 December 1910. 131 See also Andrew David Field, Shanghai’s Dancing World: Cabaret Culture and Urban Politics, 1919–1954 (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2010), p. 22.

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St Andrew’s Day in 1879, it was not for the customary ball, but a ‘Waverley Ball’, organized ‘in honour of the Patron Saint and the Poet Novelist of Scotland’.132 As had already been reported in a local paper in the summer of 1879, guests were meant to be dressed as characters from Scott’s Waverley novels: We hear with pleasure that the members of St. Andrew’s Society have decided to give a fancy dress ball, about the 30th November next. It can most appropriately be styled a ‘Waverley Ball,’ as the dresses are to be copies of those of the characters in the Waverley-Novels. It is desired that the tout ensemble shall be as complete as possible, hence the notification so long in advance.133

While the press levelled some criticism after the event, noting that ‘there was a tendency to substitute the payment of dollars at a store for the intelligent effort to represent a particular character; and secondly, there was too much reliance placed on picture books issued in the time of Sir Walter Scott’,134 the ball was a great success. And this was down, in no small part, also to the decorations that guests marvelled at. In the ballroom ‘evergreens and flowers were entwined round the doors, windows, pictures, mirrors and pillars, while in a prominent position on the south wall was the venerated, veritable, and much revered portrait of St. Andrew.’135 Dinner was provided, including potted pheasant, venison, haggis and a selection of patisseries, and books were available at the entrance for guests to sign, providing details of the Waverley characters used. While a Mrs Youd came as Maggie Mucklebackit from The Antiquary, her husband arrived as Reuben Butler, a Presbyterian minister in Heart of Midlothian. The Waverley Ball continued well into the early hours of the morning. This was a common occurrence particularly amongst the male guests, who often stayed on after the main ball had finished for a ‘smoker’ or a ‘wee dram’. In Shanghai it was regular practice to end the ball with a procession with pipers through town. Charles Stewart Addis’s wife noted in her diary in 1901: Charlie and I [went] to the hall … Decorations very pretty. Committee dined with us at 7. All left 8.10 and guests began to arrive already 8.30. I followed 9. Charlie as President, decorated with the badge and St. A. Cross and thistle on left breast … 1200 others. At 11 pipers let us into suppers. … Brilliant success. 2nd supper at 3; Charlie piped home 4  A.M.136

132 North China Herald (Shanghai), 5 December 1879. 133 Ibid., 3 June 1879. 134 Ibid., 5 December 1879. 135 Ibid. 136 Diary entry from Eba McIsaac Addis, 29 November 1901, Sir Charles Stewart Addis

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This ‘piping home’, as we learn from the local press, was ‘the usual procession to the Bund with the piper winding up as successful a ball as has ever been given in Shanghai’.137 The detailed descriptions in newspapers vividly bring to life the balls’ appeal for Scots, but also the grandeur of the events, which, in turn, goes some way to explaining their popularity and status throughout the Far East. In Shanghai, as Field has rightly noted, ‘[p]rior to and up through the 1910s, the social life of the Shanghailanders revolved around national balls.’138 These were arranged in such a way that—in combination—they put in place a proper ball season, which began each year with the Caledonian Ball.139 In Shanghai, the St Andrew’s Society’s Ball was usually the largest. The local population only featured in the margins of these events. While Chinese merchants or local officials could be spotted attending, by and large the balls were there to bring together resident Westerners. Life in the Far East, but especially in Shanghai, was truly multinational. Although foreigners from all corners of the globe came together in Asia, Shanghai’s nature as an international settlement gave it a distinct characteristic as a ‘cosmopolitan community’.140 This contributed to elements of competitive ethnicity, with all migrant groups developing a strong ethnic associational scene. In Shanghai, Germans were a particularly important group—at least until the First World War—and there are indications that their setting up of the German Club Concordia sharpened the development of Scottish associational culture. A sense of ethnic friction was clearly heightened during and in the aftermath of the First World War, as was stated by the St Andrew’s Society chairman, who asked how the Germans should best be treated after the War: Were they going to take them back and tell them what good chaps they were, who had been badly let down by their Kaiser and that now he was out of it they would forget everything and let bygones be bygones? He hoped not. … It would take centuries to do that and until it was done they should avoid them [Germans] as they would something unclean and vile.141

In Singapore, competitiveness came in a different form: the competition of hoteliers to host St Andrew’s Society dinners. The famous Raffles Hotel

papers, PP MS 14/19, School of Oriental and African Studies Special Collections, University of London. 137 North China Herald (Shanghai), 4 December 1901. 138 Ibid. 139 Other famous balls were Washington’s Ball in February, and the ball hosted by the local English association on St George’s Day. 140 From the Chairman’s toast, St Andrew’s Day dinner in 1866. See North China Herald (Shanghai), 8 December 1866. 141 North China Herald (Shanghai), 2 November 1918.

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frequently hosted St Andrew’s Day dinners, supplying, in 1908, the ‘real Haggis specially imported, [and] special Scottish music’.142 There were 45 guests at the Raffles, while the Grand Hotel Europe hosted a larger dinner for 280 guests. The practice of holding a St Andrew’s Day dinner and dance in hotels is interesting in that it evidences the wider appeal of the saint’s day: hoteliers were well aware that the celebration would draw in a good number of guests. However, for some Scots in Singapore these events were problematic. In 1917, for instance, Frank Adam, former president of the St Andrew’s Society and, by that point, its honourable president, wrote that the event at the Raffles Hotel ‘has no connection with either the Scottish community of Singapore or the Singapore St Andrew’s Society’.143 The Sarkies Brothers, owners of the Raffles Hotel, were not too happy about Adam’s letter having gone to print, noting in their reply that they had previously been approached by the Secretary and Treasurer of the St Andrew’s Society—an approach they had regarded as official. Hence they noted that Mr Adam was not speaking on behalf of the Scottish community of Singapore. In the end, however, the Raffles Hotel decided against holding a St Andrew’s Day ball and dinner that year.144 One feature of the balls—the sending of greetings to fellow Scots celebrating St Andrew’s Day elsewhere—deserves a little more scrutiny. We have already seen that this was a common practice pursued by ethnic associations throughout the diaspora, so the case of the Scots in the Far East is not exceptional in this respect. As was noted by the local press, ‘Scotsmen the world over will be united in thought and fraternal greetings will be flashed over the wires linking up those in far distant lands with the ones who remain at home to think of the absent loved ones.’145 What the Asian Scots’ story and use of communication channels confirms though is the existence of substantial pan-Asian Scottish communication networks. At a ball in Singapore, greetings came from Colombo, Tientsin, Batavia, Penang, Kobe, Hong Kong, Malacca, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Manila, Bangkok and even from the cable steamer Recorder based on the Tonquin Gulf. Meanwhile, the Singapore Society sent the message ‘Singapore Brither Scots send greetings’ to Penang, Calcutta, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Yokohama, Batavia, Bangkok, Colombo, Manila, Rangoon, Weihaiwei and Tientsin.146 A decade later, Hong Kong Scots sent ‘Scotland forever’ to societies in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Rangoon, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Singapore, Bangkok, Manila, Iloilo, Cebu, Sandakan, Sawtow, Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Shanghai, Chefoo, Tientsin,

142 Straits Times (Singapore), 1 December 1908. 143 Ibid., 17 November 1917. 144 Ibid., 20 November 1917. 145 China Press (Shanghai), 30 November 1926. 146 Straits Times (Singapore), 1 December 1910.

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Hankwo, Taipeh, Tsingtao, Peking, Kobe, Yokohama and Nagasaki.147 Even included in the dispensation of greetings were Scots on navy ships such as the SS Mentor. These greetings not only served to re-affirm bonds between ‘brither Scots’, however, they counteracted the transience so common within the Scottish community in Asia. Moreover, they were also a means to assert authority: annually repeated, reprinted in newspapers throughout Asia and using ritualistic formulations, the greetings reinforced the status of the Scots in the Far East and the role of the balls they organized.148 This notion was strengthened further through the custom of sending loyal greetings to the King and the Prince of Wales, a practice common in the 1920s. In 1921, the Private Secretary of his Majesty the King replied: ‘The King heartily thanks the Scots of Shanghai for their loyal message on St. Andrew’s Day’, while HRH the Prince of Wales ‘heartily reciproca[ted]’ the greetings received.149

Conclusion Many of the characteristics of Scottish ethnic associationalism in the Far East mirror those seen elsewhere in the diaspora: dinners on St Andrew’s Day provided the initial stimulus, the provision of charity played its part, and the large-scale balls that were organized from the late nineteenth century onwards provided a powerful link to wider society. Still, developments in Asia too had distinct characteristics that were a discrete product not only of the local circumstances, but the type of Scottish migrants who utilized ethnic associations in the region. To a significant degree they were sojourners rather than settlers, making them a transient group. If not already reasonably well off, they were intent on using their time in Asia as a springboard for social advancement at home. They came from a limited range of occupational backgrounds—a focused mix of elite, military, bureaucratic and commercial migrants—which added to their generally good position in society. While the Scots in Asia were part of a fairly small group of whites surrounded by non-white ethnic majorities, as the statistics we have seen confirm, they were in control of much of the economic and social life. Given these general characteristics, Scottish ethnic associations in Asia, more so than anywhere else in the diaspora, served as a preserve for the colonial elite. While this did not automatically result in different types of associational structures and roles, there were specific effects, particularly the focus on elite balls and dinners rather than the provision of earthy entertainment or leisure.

147 South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), 1 December 1922. 148 See also Field, Shanghai’s Dancing World, p. 22. 149 North China Herald (Shanghai), 10 December 1921.

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Another notable characteristic is the degree to which Scottish ethnic associations in Asia were connected. This was the case not simply through the customary greetings sent on St Andrew’s Day: while these were a critical mechanism by which a sustained diaspora consciousness was facilitated, connections in Asia were also channelled more immediately through society members. As a result of the Scots’ mobility within Asia, their general transience, many were members of several societies in different cities. Ethnic associations thus became a crucial anchor in a transitory pan-Asian world—a truly transnational world comprised of connected communities. Scottish societies were principal hubs in this world. Because, for many, Asia was a sojourn premised on the eventual return home, the community structures that did exist were even more critical than elsewhere in their offering of a safety net and point of contact where traditional family or wider kinship structures were often absent.

Chapter 6

The Complexities of Diaspora and Scottish Ethnic Associationalism The Complexities of Diaspora and Scottish Ethnic Associationalism

The previous chapters have revealed the discrete facets of Scottish ethnic associations in the diaspora. Each of the geographies explored thus far has its own distinctive characteristics: the structures offered by Scottish associations engaged directly with local contexts, and thus cannot simply be subsumed under one simplistic label—that of an overseas ‘national society’. Despite the distinct patterns traced, however, there were clearly also commonalities across the diaspora that document the existence of shared associational roots and practices. Some of these commonalities, in fact, add layers of complexity to the story of Scottish clubs and societies overseas explored thus far, so it is to these complexities that this final chapter will now turn, namely: gender, regional ethnic associationalism, the internal diaspora in Scotland and the politicization of the Scottish diaspora.

Complexity One: The Question of Gender When Scottish women gathered for their annual Ladies’ Night in Gore in the South Island of New Zealand, the Scottish New Zealander recognized it as the night when the Clanswomen take possession of the Hall, push the Clansmen into their seats, and proceed to show the latter how an entertainment should be run … It is when the ladies come into their own, when for once in his life man is not the master of his own house.1

1 Scottish New Zealander, May 1926, p. 6.

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By the mid-1920s, Scottish women in Gore and elsewhere in New Zealand had become increasingly visible in ethnic associations. In general terms, however, and especially when explored over time, gender was an impediment to associational membership amongst a variety of migrant groups and organizations: ethnic associations, certainly in their early days, were largely the domain of men. In many cases this was not so much the result of a conscious choice to exclude women, but rather a reflection of the spirit of the time—pre-suffragist and pre-voting rights, many organizations at the intersection of public and private spheres remained male-only. The fact that meetings were often held late in the evenings, and meeting venues were not seldom located in the back room of the local pub, did not help broaden female participation.2 By and large, the type of Scottish ethnic associationalism explored in this study was one in which women, though customarily praised in many a ‘toast to the lasses’, or for their work on the decorations of the large-scale balls held in Asia, have left few tangible traces of their involvement. Moreover, the traces that are visible document that women who were involved were restricted in their contributions to roles akin to the types of domestic tasks they would have pursued in their own homes.3 It is, and this I must clearly note, a recognisable problem that women are difficult to capture in a study concerned with Scottish ethnic associational culture. Thankfully, there are some notable exceptions to this general rule, and they offer some detailed glimpses of the experiences of female Scottish associationalists. Overall, it is important to note that women generally became more visible over time as Scottish clubs and societies around the world began to diversify, particularly from the late-nineteenth century onwards. Many of the new organizations founded then did recognize the need for a means to engage women, establishing women’s branches or committees, or making membership fee concessions for them. In London, the Scottish Corporation discussed at a meeting held as early as 1849 whether women should also be invited to dine as part of the annual celebrations on St Andrew’s Day,

2 A notable difference is the early formalization of a distinct associational base for women in the Orange Order, see for instance the work of Jim MacPherson, including ‘The emergence of women’s Orange lodges in Scotland: Gender, ethnicity and women’s activism, 1909–1940’, Women’s History Review, 22, 1 (2013), pp. 51–74; and ‘Migration and the Female Orange Order: Irish Protestant Identity, Diaspora and Empire in Scotland, 1909–1940’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 40, 4 (2012), pp. 619–42. Also M.A. Clawson, Constructing Brotherhood: Class, Gender, and Fraternalism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989). 3 The aforementioned ‘toast to the lasses’ for instance, generally celebrated the cooking skills of women, thus linking to the idea of domesticity. See also D.A.J. MacPherson and D.M. MacRaild, ‘Sisters of the Brotherhood: Female Orangeism on Tyneside in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries’, Irish Historical Studies, 35, 137 (2006), pp. 40–60.

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rather than ‘being placed as spectators in a gallery’.4 This idea was mooted as a result of a change from dinner-only events to balls. As members supported the idea, it was noted that ‘the ladies will be duly enfranchized by next St Andrew’s Day.’ In the southern hemisphere in New Zealand, the Caithness and Sutherland Association in Dunedin admitted lady members free of charge.5 Lady membership was generally more common among those types of association I have classed elsewhere as localized and specialized societies, i.e. those with a narrower framework.6 The Dunedin Gaelic Society, for example, permitted women to become members following a motion carried in November 1881, and they too could join at a reduced rate.7 The importance given to cultural pursuits in the Gaelic Society may go some way to explaining the relative prominence of women in these types of associations: women were strongly represented among the singers and musicians—and they were needed in those roles. The timing of the opening up of structures in New Zealand specifically may also relate to the movment in the country, in 1893, to grant women the vote—it was certainly in 1893 that the directors of the Dunedin Burns Club chose to officially open it up to women. But whether the move was genuinely progressive is another question: as President William Brien had explained a year earlier, the Club ‘owe[s] a good deal of this to the Ladies who … act as recruiting sergeants’.8 Consequently the underlying explanation for the official opening up of membership to women may well have been a much more rational and calculated one: the admission of lady members would be, it was argued, ‘to the great advantage of the funds of the club’.9 Whether convinced of the worth of lady members in their own right or for the sake of the club’s financial standing, the Burns Club in Dunedin had 117 lady members by 1895. In New Zealand a number of Scottish societies sought to more fully integrate women in the early twentieth century, deliberately targeting Scottish community-centred activities towards women, and revising membership criteria so as to allow the ‘sons or daughters of Scottish women as associate members’;10 elsewhere women were officially integrated into associational structures through their own committees and executive.11 4 Morning Post (London), 1 December 1849. 5 Otago Witness (Dunedin), 10 October 1874. 6 Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 75ff. 7 Otago Witness (Dunedin), 12 December 1881; see also E.R. Entwistle, History of the Gaelic Society, 1881–1981 (Dunedin, 1981), p. 19. 8 Dunedin Burns Club, Letterbook, 6 July 1892, MS-2047, Hocken Collections – Uare Taoka o Hākena, Dunedin, New Zealand. 9 Dunedin Burns Club, Annual General Meeting report published in Otago Witness (Dunedin), 30 March 1893. 10 North Otago Scottish Society, Minutes, 6 May 1922, 3906/118Z, North Otago Museum Archive, Oamaru, New Zealand. 11 Scottish New Zealander, November 1925, p. 10.

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Some early examples of this type of integration can also be found in the records of the Montreal St Andrew’s Society, in which women were quite visible and active. The Society had a designated Ladies’ Committee, and women were also chiefly involved in the setting up of the Society’s Home (see chapter two). As the Society acknowledged in 1865 in an address directed to the Hon. Mrs Robert Rollo, through her departure they would lose ‘one of their most efficient and highly esteemed co-workers in matters of practical benevolence’.12 Women were deemed suitable for this ‘practical benevolence’, being identified as caring and understanding of migrants in distress. With respect to Montreal, the annual reports of the Scottish Home also reveal the sustained involvement of women in its running. As noted for 1871, ‘[t]he Ladies of the Committee have as usual attended to the duties devolving upon them with much zeal and self-denial.’13 This was also the case in Detroit, where the St Andrew’s Society had a Lady Auxiliary comprised of the wives, daughters and sisters of Society members. The Auxiliary carried out several tasks, including looking after the Society’s property, but it also ‘especially cares for any Scotch women in need’.14 In New York, too, some lady members pursued charitable work, and there was a Ladies’ Auxiliary of the St Andrew’s Scottish Society of Buffalo.15 But in the States not all was well in terms of gender balance and the integration of women. A few years earlier, as was reported in newspapers, ‘Scotch women, of the St. Andrew’s Society, Washington, are on the war-path because the men have decided to have a stag banquet and drink Scotch whisky, instead of having a cold-water affair with the women present.’16 Trivial this may seem at first, but it is of course in this very type of male socializing—best exemplified by the frequently held smoke socials—that we find a key hurdle for the full integration of female members. Another distinct development occurred in the United States in 1895, when the Daughters of Scotia association was formed, establishing a Grand Lodge in 1899.17 Lodges were founded in many a city, but concentrated in particular in the northern states. Women born in Scotland, those married to a Scot and those who had a male relative who was a Clansman in the Order of Scottish Clans—of which the Daughters were, in essence, an offshoot—could become members. As with the Order, there was a mutual benefit aspect to the Daughters of Scotia, with payments being made after 12 From a newspaper cutting found amongst Minutes, 8 June 1865, First Minute Book, MStASA. 13 2 November 1871; cutting of a report included in the First Minute Book, MStASA. 14 The Caledonian, December 1912, p. 385. 15 Ibid., p. 516. 16 Hopkinsville Kentuckian, 5 November 1912. 17 Ray, ‘Scottish Immigration and Ethnic Organization’, p. 67. Though there were also attempts to set up lodges in Canada, they appear to have been abandoned; see The Caledonian, October 1915, p. 281.

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the death of a member, but activities were largely concentrated in three areas: ‘To keep us in ever-loving remembrance of our native land; to assist the Clansmen, and to bring together their wives, mothers, sisters and daughters, and women of Scotch descent for “Auld Lang Syne.”’18 The Daughters were closely embedded within the activities of clans that were part of the Order of Scottish Clans. When Clan McLeod of Jersey City celebrated its 12th anniversary entertainment in early June 1902, for example, ‘one of the most pleasing features … was the presentation of a large and beautiful Scotch flag by the ladies of Blue Bell Lodge, No. 6., Daughters of Scotia.’19 The appeal of the Daughters was significant and they were described in 1921 as ‘the largest body of Scots women in the world’,20 with 14,000 members enrolled. This was a significant rise when compared to numbers provided at their 1915 convention, which were estimated at about 5,000 in 69 lodges.21 Similar to the roving conventions of the Sons of Scotland previously explored in Canada, the Daughters of Scotia also met annually to discuss business matters. In 1915 this was organized under the auspices of the Lady Hamilton Graham Lodge, and held at Hunt’s Place Hall in the Bronx in the middle of September. Attendance was good and several past chief daughters were initiated as members of the Grand Lodge.22 The reports of the meeting document that 31 members had died throughout the year, leading to the payment of $4,650 in benefits.23 The next convention, it was decided, would be held in Philadelphia. What makes the Daughters of Scotland especially interesting is that they also provided a very immediate connection back to Scotland to many members, organizing, with the Order of Scottish Clans, extended return trips to Scotland in the 1920s. Such trips became increasingly common over time, with ethnic associations playing a major part in their organization.24 The first large-scale ‘homecoming’ was organized in 1924—one described in the Dundee Courier as the ‘[r]eturn of 1000 Scots exiles’.25 A second trip took place in 1926, when ‘more than 1,200 perfervid Scottish clansmen and associates’ arrived in Glasgow from New York, 70 per cent of the women being members of the Daughters of Scotia.26 The group was welcomed in Glasgow by Angus Robertson and Neil Shaw of Ann Comunn Gaidgealach and members of other Scottish associations operating in the city—the internal diasporans welcomed the external diasporans (see also the 18 The Caledonian, June 1912, p. 137. 19 Ibid., July and August 1902, p. 188. 20 Ibid., October 1921, p. 326. 21 Ibid., October 1915, p. 281. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid. 24 See Bueltmann et al., Scottish Diaspora, chapter eight. 25 Dundee Courier, 5 August 1924. 26 Ibid., 3 August 1926.

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next complexity). Scottish music befitting the occasion was provided by the Glasgow Highlanders’ Pipe Band. By 1930 the homecoming trip had become a biennial custom in which the Daughters of Scotia were chiefly involved, bringing ‘home’ up to 2,000 Scots and descendants of Scots.27 From about the 1920s Scottish women elsewhere in the diaspora also began to be more active themselves, setting up their own groups. In New Zealand this happened first within the organizational framwork provided by the New Zealand League of Mothers. In Wellington, Scottish women came together under this umbrella to exchange thoughts on home making, but also to establish connections with the Scottish Mothers’ Union. Evidence for the mid-1930s documents the extent of connections, for instance between Alloa and Hataitai, a suburb of Wellington. Letters were exchanged between the two branches and the Hataitai branch president, when on a home trip to Scotland, spoke at the Alloa branch summer meeting.28 But even more significantly, this was also the time when the New Plymouth Scottish Women’s Club was established. Founded in 1936, the association lies very much at the margins of the timeframe covered in this study, but since its manuscript evidence is so unique, the group nonetheless deserves attention here. The Club was formed by a group of women who were either born in Scotland themselves or were of Scottish descent in New Plymouth in New Zealand’s North Island, and had three main objectives: (1) to encourage and foster an interest in Scotland, Scottish traditions, history, song, story, etc.; (2) to hold meetings, lectures, social functions, etc.; and (3) to provide means of fostering a love of Scotland in Junior Members.29 In line with many other Scottish associations—certainly those in the twentieth century, which tended to maintain a more exclusive outlook—members had to be Scottish or of Scottish descent. This was later qualified so that daughters who had a Scottish mother, but a father of another nationality, could also join. Any woman wishing to join had to be nominated by two financial members, and then be accepted by the executive, before being required to pay the annual subscription. It was administered by an executive committe of 10 members who were ‘appointed for a yearly term at the Annual General Meeting’:30 a president, two vice-presidents, an honorary secretary and an honorary treasurer, as well as five members of committee, emulating the structures we have seen for other Scottish clubs and societies. From the Club’s first inception, meetings were held at fortnightly intervals, except for

27 Inverness Courier, 1 August 1930. 28 Scottish Mothers’ Union, reports from their branches on overseas links, dated 1933–1934, MS-Papers 3923-04, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. 29 New Plymouth Scottish Women’s Club – Objects, Ms1163, Puke Ariki Museum Heritage Collection, New Plymouth, New Zealand. 30 Ibid.

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the summer holiday period from late November to late January. The Club’s yearly life-cycle thus usually started, befitting its Scottish remit, with the annual Burns anniversary. The Club’s first meetings were held at founding members’ houses, but as its membership grew, quarters were sought out in the town of New Plymouth; eventually, the St Andrew’s Church Hall became the Club’s home. Rather than paying an annual rent, the Club made donations to the Church for use of the hall. The majority of Club meetings were ordinary forthnightly affairs for which members came together to pursue common social and cultural interests, to have afternoon tea and to discuss business matters relating to the Club. Each meeting had hostesses for the day who sorted out the afternoon tea and set up the hall; there was also usually a speaker who would talk about a topic of interest, and some form of musical entertainment was often included. As one guest speaker observed, ‘it is at once an honour and privilege to help carry on Scottish traditions, but it is also a responsibility.’31 On occasions when no specific speaker of the day was present, club members prepared some other form of entertainment. It was common, for instance, for members to talk about their home region. Hence a group of members from the Highlands spoke about the ‘mystical beauty’ of the inner Hebrides and ‘tales of Faery Lore were told and humour characteristic of the various districts recited. … Songs were sung in the Gaelic and records played of various songs of the Isles.’32 Minute books and annual reports document that the Club had about 70 members, with an average attendance of around 30 to 40 at the ordinary fortnightly meetings. Apart from these meetings, the Club also hosted so-called open days. Designed to welcome visitors who were not members of the Club, these open days principally followed the structure of ordinary meetings, omitting any business or confidential matters from the programme. Club members also came together for various other social activities. They celebrated the Club’s birthday annually, organized picnics, had the odd bus outing and held an annual children’s day. Scottish calendar customs, such as Halloween and St Andrew’s Day were also celebrated, sometimes together with the New Plymouth Caledonian Society. The Club also offered a book exchange, which developed into a full-scale library with its own budget and designated elected librarians, and many competitions and raffles. These were sometimes held just for entertainment, but were often designed to raise money for particular causes. Since its inception, the Club had been strongly committed to charitable endeavours—albeit many of a small-scale nature: books were donated to the local hospital, and money was raised for a fund to establish a women’s hospital in Auckland. Members of the Club also looked after their own sick

31 New Plymouth Scottish Women’s Club – Minutes, in ibid. 32 Ibid.

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members by means of visits, and sending flowers or helping in more practical ways such as cooking. The commitment to social issues and benevolent work intensified during the Second World War, when a strong sense of patriotic duty underpinned the Club’s activities. Perhaps one motivation for this was the involvement of members’ children and husbands in the war. Club members raffled handmade shawls or socks for ‘Patriotic Purposes’,33 and the Club instated a ‘wool convener’ responsible for buying and distributing wool so that the Club’s members could knit socks for servicemen.34 These were gratefully received. As one soldier on active service wrote in a letter that has survived in the Club records: ‘I wish to express my appreciation and thanks for the gift received from your members of the Scottish Womens [sic] Club and my best wishes for the coming season to you all.’35 Efforts did not stop when the war had come to an end. First, the Club began organizing so-called ‘Welcome Homes’ for returning soldiers, consisting of a programme of music and dancing. There was also a strong sense that members of the Club should help those affected by the war in Europe. In particular, it was agreed to send food parcels to Scotland. The aim was to dispatch 12 food parcels about every fortnight—an expensive endeavour, but one that members continued to support for over three years. The programme had started in March 1946 and ran through to November 1949, by which point the overall number of parcels sent was 683, with a value of £513.36 What these activities highlight is that the New Plymouth Scottish Women’s Club, like earlier Scottish associations dominated by men, was not isolated from the host society. The women utilized the club as a meeting hub, interacting with their local community in different ways through the Club, while still maintaining it as a site of memory for the promotion of things Scottish. Although membership was exclusive, the Club still fostered a strong sense of civility, particularly during the Second World War, when the Club women were critical to the formation of a philanthropic public in New Plymouth, but one that eventually span all the way back to Scotland. Despite the significant developments in New Zealand and the general advances in North America, the opening up of structures to women and their integration into Scottish ethnic associational life was not a trend that occurred in all areas of Scottish settlement. In Shanghai, for instance, the suggestion was made to admit lady members to the St Andrew’s Society in 1920, but the clear response was that ‘[t]he Committee found that much

33 Ibid. 34 See for instance New Plymouth Scottish Women’s Club – Annual Meeting, 8 August 1944, in ibid.; 54 pairs of socks were knitted that year. 35 Letter from soldier found amongst the records of the New Plymouth Scottish Women’s Club, in ibid. 36 Calculated on the basis of annual and monthly meeting reports, New Plymouth Scottish Women’s Club, ibid.

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too difficult a proposition to tackle.’37 Further south, in Hong Kong, Burns anniversary celebrations remain male-only affairs to this day.

Complexity Two: Local Homeland Referents Next to the relative absence of records that would give depth to the ethnic associational biography of Scottish women in the diaspora, the second complexity is the question of what is conceptualized here as ‘homeland referent’. This term brings to the fore the question: what is the understanding of homeland? Or, in other words, does the associational activity/structure utilized by migrants invoke Scotland as a nation, or rather a subordinate identifier at regional or an even more local level, such as a district or a town? The general answer to this is clear from the outset: we have already heard of Highland and Gaelic societies, associations with a homeland referent that was more narrowly defined than ‘Scotland’ as a whole. The question that remains, therefore, is how the associations with such narrower referents sit within the wider matrix of Scottish ethnic associational life in the diaspora. In order to assess this question, let us consider a few examples from the near and remote Scottish diasporas in more detail. The earliest example of an organization with a local homeland referent in the near diaspora is the Gaelic Society of London, which was established in 1777; this was followed soon by an association that we have already encountered in an earlier chapter, namely the Highland Society of London founded, in 1778. These two pioneers on the London scene did not remain the only Scottish associations with a local homeland referent in the city. Of the minimum of 45 Scottish ethnic associations identified through Douglas’s Year Book of Scottish Associations in early twentieth-century London, 20 had a local homeland referent (Table 6.1). Another ten catered chiefly for specific local interests, for instance the Gaelic Service Committee, which arranged Gaelic Services in London that were conducted by Highland Presbyterian Ministers from the various churches of the north. As a result, the majority of London-based Scottish ethnic associations had local homeland referents. Most notable from the list is that the majority of homeland referents are in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, but the division is fairly evenly split, especially when considering that some areas are not as clearly identifiable as Lowland or Highland as others. One of the earliest organizations to be set up was the Orkney and Shetland Society. John Douglas quotes an unnamed source in his account of the Scots in London that sheds some light on the motivation for the Society’s establishment: ‘The reason for the proceeding was—“taking into consideration the difficulties, privations, and 37 North China Herald (Shanghai), 30 October 1920.

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Table 6.1: Ethnic associations with a local homeland referent in early twentieth-century London Name

Year Objectives listed in Douglas’s Year Book founded of Scottish Associations

Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine Association

1884

Breadalbane Association

1888

Caithness Association Dumbartonshire Association Dumfriesshire Association Fife Association

1856 1902

Promotes social intercourse amongst natives of the Counties. Maintains local traditions. Supports benevolent and educational institutions in the Counties and London Scottish Charities. Befriends natives requiring assistance. Promotes friendly intercourse among Breadalbane people in London; assists young men and women from Breadalbane, and helps in necessitous cases. n/a n/a

1884

n/a

1896

Forfarshire Association Gaelic Society of London

1884 1777

Galloway Association Glasgow and Lanarkshire Association of London

1868 1897

Highland Society of London

1778

Encourages education by prizes and bursaries. Covers Forfarshire and Kincardineshire. Preserves the language, music, poetry and literature of the Highlands of Scotland, and takes cognizance of matters of special interest to Highlanders. n/a Promotes social intercourse amongst the members. Befriends natives, and supports Scottish benevolent institutions. Encourages education by granting prizes, and promotes the study of the history of the Counties. Preserves the martial spirit, language, dress, music, and antiquities of the ancient Caledonians. Supports education, relieves distressed Highlanders, and promotes the general welfare of the Highlands. n/a 

Inverness-shire Association

 

The Complexities of Diaspora and Scottish Ethnic Associationalism Name Liddesdale Benevolent Society London Argyllshire Association Morayshire Club Orkney and Shetland Society of London Perthshire Association Renfrewshire Association Ross and Cromarty and Sutherland Association Scottish Border Counties Association

203

Year Objectives listed in Douglas’s Year Book founded of Scottish Associations 1872

n/a

1897 1813 1819

Has a Capital Fund for educational, charitable, and benevolent objects. n/a n/a 

1900 1907 1881

n/a  n/a  n/a 

1896

n/a 

Source: Douglas’s Year Book of Scottish Associations, 1905–1926.

temptations to which natives of Orkney [and Shetland] are exposed on their arrival in London, which are much heightened by their simplicity of manners, and inexperience of the world.”’38 It seems that Scots from the islands already resident in London were of the view that their fellow islanders found it hard to adjust due to the very different life in the metropole of Empire. The social element too was crucial, and served to ‘knit together the wanderers from their native islands’.39 One of the organizations with a Lowland referent was the Dumfriesshire Association. According to its fifth annual report, the three objectives of the Association were: 1. The Promotion of the interests of Young Dumfriesians coming to London, and the encouragement of friendly intercourse amongst members of the Association. 2. Donations for charitable purposes either in the county or in London. 3. The advancement of Education by the foundation of Bursaries, by gifts of Prizes and Donations to Schools located in Dumfriesshire, or otherwise as may be found expedient.40

38 Quoted in The Caledonian, October 1920, p. 252. 39 Ibid. 40 London Dumfriesshire Association: Fifth Annual Report and Balance Sheet, found in

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Yet while the connection with Dumfriesshire was crucial, this did not necessarily have to be through direct descent, it could also be achieved through ‘marriage relations or otherwise’.41 The president in the session 1889–90 was Sir John R. Heron Maxwell, while, at the end of the nineteenth century, this task fell to the Earl of Dalkeith.42 It was under his chairmanship that the annual dinner was held at the Holborn Restaurant in 1898.43 Other than these annual dinners, the Association hosted regular meetings, concerts and conversaziones. These developments in the near diaspora were also reflective of a wider social development: the blossoming of regionalism throughout Europe.44 In the remote diaspora, too, associations with a local homeland referent were popular.45 Gaelic societies, and more broadly those organizations with a Highland link, were the most prolific and existed in many places of Scottish settlement abroad. The maintenance of the Gaelic language was a principal concern, particularly in those locations where there was a strong presence of Highland Scots, such as in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton.46 The establishment of Gaelic societies often coincided with the arrival of larger number of Highland migrants in particular settlements. When the Gaelic Society of New Zealand was founded in 1881, it quickly attracted large numbers of members. The 1870s, as a result of a series of specifically targeted immigration and public works schemes of the colonial government under the leadership of Julius Vogel, saw a concerted influx of Highland migrants.47 Wilson estimates that about 1,000 assisted Highland immigrants arrived in the provinces of Otago and Southland during the decade in question.48 There will most likely also have been many more unassisted Scots from the Highland region. This concentrated arrival of a larger contingent of migrants from Highland Scotland in the 1870s played a

the papers of the Glasgow Dumfriesshire Society, DC 62/3/3/1, Glasgow University Archive. 41 Ibid. 42 Edinburgh Evening News, 11 October 1897. 43 Ibid., 24 February 1898. 44 Eric Storm, ‘The Birth of Regionalism and the Crisis of Reason: France, Germany and Spain’, in Joost Augusteijn and Eric Storm (eds), Region and State in Nineteenthcentury Europe: Nation-building, Regional Identities and Separatism (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 36–54. 45 With the exception, perhaps, of Asia, where these organizations were not particularly prominent. 46 See Lucille H. Campey, After the Hector: The Scottish Pioneers of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, 1773–1852 (2nd edn., Toronto: Natural Heritage Book, 2007). 47 Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 76. 48 M. Wilson, ‘Myth and Misunderstanding: The Enigma of the Scottish Highland Migrant to Otago/Southland, 1870–79’, unpublished MA thesis, University of Otago, 1999.

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major role in the foundation of the Gaelic Society of New Zealand.49 Local origins were undoubtedly a significant factor that led individuals to seek to actively engage in associational culture. In the case of societies with local homeland referents, the desire to express a distinct and localized identity was an important motivation. As a letter writer who called himself ‘Granite’, thereby reflecting his Aberdonian origins, noted in 1892, ‘[g]o at it, Brither Granite!’50 encouraging the coming together in Tyneside of those Scots resident there originally from Aberdeen. For some, the expression of their local homeland identity served to delineate them from other Scots—and that could include those engaged in other associations with a more open focus. The inclusiveness of some organizations with a general Scottish referent—for instance, many Caledonian societies—played a part in this: by and large, associations with local homeland referents were more exclusive in that their membership criteria were, essentially by default, more narrowly defined. Rather than simply imposing the criterion of Scottish descent (something that some Caledonian societies did not even do), these types of associations followed more narrow criteria in terms of members’ origins—focusing on member counties and sometimes even towns—and often included further exclusion criteria on the basis, for instance, of Gaelic language knowledge. Some Scots preferred this narrower focus as it gave a more distinct purpose to associational activities. The promotion of Gaelic provides the best example in this respect.51 In general terms, the focus of associations with local homeland referents was on a more select range of activities; this was the result of more narrowly defined objectives intended to better cater for the specific group of Scots involved as members. This focus tended to make activities more inward-oriented, designed to cater chiefly for members rather than the wider public as we have seen, for instance with Caledonian Games or balls. What this, in turn, usually meant was that associations with a local homeland referent had a less profound link with wider society in the settlements in which they were established: while some certainly carried out initiatives that provided such a link, for instance through the hosting of concerts, these associations were generally less concerned with promoting civility than the many St Andrew’s societies through their charitable work, or Caledonian societies through the promotion of sports.52 With this in mind it is interesting to note too that, 49 For another interesting study on developments in New Zealand, see Jill Harland, ‘Island Heritage and Identity in the Antipodes: Orkney and Shetland Societies in New Zealand’, in Tanja Bueltmann, Andrew Hinson and Graeme Morton (eds), Ties of Bluid, Kin and Countrie: Scottish Associational Culture in the Diaspora (Guelph: Guelph Series in Scottish Studies, 2009). 50 Cited in Burnett, ‘“Hail Brither Scots O’ Coaly Tyne”’, p. 6. 51 Neil MacNish, Gaelic Sermon: Preached before the Gaelic Society of Toronto (Toronto: Imrie, Graham & Co., 1896). 52 For further details on these points, see chapter four in my Scottish Ethnicity.

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despite early examples, this more specialized and narrowly framed Scottish ethnic associationalism is a characteristic of the later nineteenth century, when it proliferated around the world. This timing is no coincidence. As we have seen for several locations, this period saw a generational change in many settlement places, with next-generation descendants taking over the associational rudder. It appears that they were looking for a more distinct focus for their activities, and saw utilizing a local homeland referent as the best way to facilitate this. For others, the expression of their Scottish local identity was simply another layer in their circles of belonging,53 and one that could potentially exist alongside those with a broader Scottish or cultural referent: identities can be multiple and they can overlap. In terms of ethnic associational membership, in fact, such multiplicity was quite common as many of those engaged in one association were members of others. In short, they were joiners. This characteristic is well documented in many an obituary of Scots abroad, which often list a plethora of organizations of which the deceased was part—we have seen one particularly impressive example of this at the beginning of chapter three, but there are many others. Joiners sought to maximize the support mechanisms and networking opportunities that associations could provide. Their membership in different associations was a deliberate choice and one from which many undoubtedly hoped to reap benefits, such as through the generation of patronage and social capital.54 A specific benefit of associations with a local homeland referent—so many members thought—was their ability to target activities to their specific homeland region, thereby establishing a much more tangible link to members’ roots in Scotland, which, in turn, also promoted a strong sense of diaspora consciousness. While this found expression primarily through cultural pursuits, it could also include relief activities, as well as targeted migration initiatives. We have already learned about the extent to which some of the early Scottish associations in Australia drove migration schemes to attract new migrants (see chapter three), but several associations with local homeland referents pursued such activities with respect to their regional roots in Scotland. In New Zealand, for example, we find a number of plans by organizations such as the Gaelic Society that were designed to facilitate Highland migration to the Province of Otago. These were spurred by developments in Scotland in the 1880s, particularly the plight of Highland crofters,55 which were brought to wider public attention through the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of the Crofters and

53 For my conceptualization of ‘circles of belonging’, see Figure I.2, Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 11. 54 I discuss the importance of this in more detail in my Scottish Ethnicity. 55 See for example Gaelic Society Annual General Meeting report, reprinted in Otago Witness (Dunedin), 6 August 1886.

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Cottars in the Highlands and Islands.56 The Scots’ engagement with these problems in Scotland were facilitated by the activities of the London-based Crofters’ Aid Committee, which sought to engage with Scots abroad to better the situation in the Highlands. The Liverpool Society of Highlanders also pursued that aim, sending out calls to diaspora Scots, seeking financial support for activities.57 But there were even more practical plans to help, particularly after the Napier Commission had suggested that emigration might be—even if a last resort—a suitable means to ease problems in the Highlands.58 In the early twentieth century the First World War provided a key filter for associational activities in general, but also specifically amongst associations with a local homeland referent. The Skye Association of New York, for instance, was collecting funds for a war memorial to be erected in Portree—‘For if unstained our Island banner / Keeps yet its place of pride, / Let none forget how vast the debt / We owe to those who died.’59 This was an activity that complemented earlier work the Association had carried out to provide relief for the island. What these examples highlight—and particularly with respect to associations with a Highland link—is that there was an element of politicization in the Scottish diaspora. While this never reached the level evident among the Irish diaspora, it nonetheless had some impact. We will return to this in the final complexity to be addressed in this chapter, but let us first turn attention to Scotland’s internal diaspora as that too plays an important part in the question of localized homeland referents.

Complexity Three: The Internal Diaspora Scots did not only settle in faraway climes or the near diaspora of England, Ireland and Wales. There was a significant internal movement within Scotland, and this movement too exhibits diaspora characteristics (see also Figure I.2 in the introduction). It was particularly pronounced amongst members of what we might suitably term the internal Highland diaspora, a diaspora comprised of Highland Scots who relocated further 56 For details see Ewen Cameron, Land for the People? The British Government and the Scottish Highlands, c. 1880–1930 (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 1996); Eric Richards, The Highland Clearances: People, Landlords, and Rural Turmoil (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2000). 57 See Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, pp. 188–9. 58 Parliamentary Papers, 1884, [C.3980] [C.3980-I] [C.3980-II] [C.3980-III] [C.3980-IV], Report of Her Majesty’s Commissioners of Inquiry into the Condition of the Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, pp. 97ff and 103ff. 59 The Caledonian, August 1920, p. 187. See also Angela McCarthy, Personal Narratives of Irish and Scottish Migration, 1921–65: ‘For Spirit and Adventure’ (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007), p. 172.

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south within Scotland.60 In ethnic associational terms, Gaelic societies are a key development in this respect, and existed in several cities throughout Scotland, including Glasgow, where one was established in 1887. As is outlined in its transactions, published for Society members as a record of activities, given ‘the present transitionary state of the Gaelic race, it is of the utmost importance that the future generation should not lose touch with their country’s past.’61 With that in mind, the Society’s principal aim was the cultivation of Gaelic, as well as Gaelic literature and music, ‘fostering a Celtic spirit among the Highlanders to Glasgow’.62 The membership fee for ordinary members was set at 3s, and the Society met once a month for regular meetings, and on the last Tuesday of April for its Annual Business meeting. Amongst the patrons lending support to the Society in its first year of existence was Glasgow-born Professor John Stuart Blackie, famous for leading the campaign for the first Celtic Chair at the University of Edinburgh;63 the first holder of the chair, Professor Donald Mackinnon, was the Gaelic Society’s first honorary president. The Society’s inaugural meeting took place in late October 1887, when it was stressed that the Society was crucial so that Gaelic speakers in Glasgow ‘should not be behind their brethren elsewhere in showing their patriotism and attachment to their mother tongue’.64 This was particularly important given the steady arrival in Glasgow of young people from the Highlands: they needed to have the chance to learn to write and read in Gaelic. To promote general engagement with Gaelic, the Society thus also hosted lectures and papers covering themes in the fields of Highland literature and history. In April 1890, for instance, a paper entitled ‘Social Life in the Highlands in the Olden Times’65 was delivered, while, in the early twentieth century, the Society compiled a series of papers on the Highlands in a special volume.66 For the Glasgow Gaelic Society, then, ethnicity was in large part defined through language and, as a result, the most suitable form of ethnic associationalism for the Society was one designed around educational pursuits. Within that remit fell Gaelic concerts, which proved especially popular and were regularly held by many Gaelic societies, including the Gaelic 60 See for instance Withers, Urban Highlanders. 61 Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Glasgow, volume I, 1887 to 1891 (Glasgow: Archibald Sinclair, 1891), pp. ii–iii. 62 Constitution and Rules, in ibid., p. v. 63 His campaign connected Blackie with the diaspora, where he asked Scottish clubs and societies for their support. For details, see Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 183. For more on Blackie, see Stuart Wallace, John Stuart Blackie: Scottish Scholar and Patriot (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006). 64 Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Glasgow, volume I, p. 2. 65 Ibid., p. 174. 66 The Old Highlands: Being Papers Read before the Gaelic Society of Glasgow, 1895–1906, with an introduction by Neil Munro (Glasgow: Archibald Sinclair, 1908).

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Society of Perth.67 This was established in the spring of 1880, with 60 members enrolled in late April 1880. Professor Blackie again played a prominent inspirational role, and was invited to act as Chief of the Society, a position he gladly accepted.68 The Perth Society did well and its events soon attracted significant numbers. For its annual social meeting in 1882—a soirée—an estimated 800 guests made their way to the City Hall. Tea was served, and then Mr Charles Stewart ‘delivered a stirring address on “The Spirit of Gaelic Nationality”’.69 The 20th annual gathering also took place in the City Hall, attracting guests from throughout Scotland. They were welcomed by a band of pipers, 20 in number, and marvelled at the nicely decorated hall. Many a Gaelic song was sung in the course of the evening.70 Lectures, concerts and soirées combined sociability and cultural traditions with the educational concern of promoting Gaelic.71 The extent to which that tradition continues to this day can be seen in the activities of the Gaelic Society of Inverness. This is a particularly interesting example in any case given its location in Highland Scotland: how does this relate to the idea of an internal diaspora? Within the framework set out for the exploration of ethnic associations in this study, the Gaelic Society of Inverness can certainly be included within the bracket of internal diaspora given its self-defined role of catering for Gaelic speakers who had relocated to the more urban centre of Inverness. The Society was founded in 1871 for the purpose of bringing together people from the Highlands for perfecting of the Members in the use of the Gaelic language; the cultivation of the language, poetry, and music of the Scottish Highlands; the rescuing from oblivion of Celtic poetry, traditions, … the vindication of the rights and character of the Gaelic people; and, generally, the furtherance of their interests whether at home or abroad …72

In essence, therefore, the Inverness Society catered for the same type of internal diaspora as did, for instance, the Gaelic Society in Glasgow. While the proximity to homeland—more narrowly defined as the Gaelic-speaking Highlands—was much greater in Inverness, the desire of Highland migrants to Inverness to maintain their culture and traditions through a form of ethnic associationalism was no different. Nor was, of course, the element

See for instance for the Perth Gaelic Society, Dundee Courier, 5 April 1929. Ibid., 13 March 1880 and 22 April 1880. Ibid., 10 March 1882. Ibid., 3 March 1900. For example P. McNaughton, Lecture on the Importance of the Gaelic Language to Highlanders (Edinburgh: McLauchlan & Stewart, 1885). This was a remit also followed by the Gaelic School Society, see Dundee Courier, 9 December 1879. 72 Gaelic Society of Inverness, Constitution, in Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, volume I, 1871–72 (Inverness: The Gaelic Society, 1872), p. v.

67 68 69 70 71

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of sociability. The Gaelic Society’s fourth annual assembly in early July 1875 happened to coincide with the Inverness Great Sheep and Wool Fair. This brought many a ‘stranger’ to Inverness, who then ‘crowded along with the townspeople’ to the annual assembly, looking to join in for some evening entertainment. Lots of songs were sung and toasts were given, ‘and the meeting was a great success in every respect’.73 It was not only Highland Scots, however, who developed associational roots in the internal diaspora: Lowland Scots too utilized associationalism for their own purposes, particularly in the large urban centres of Edinburgh and Glasgow. In the latter city the Dumfriesshire Society was very active. The Society was founded in 1869 as an amalgam of the Glasgow Nithsdale Society, which had been established in the mid-1860s, and the Dumfriesshire Benevolent Society formed earlier in 1869. It was thought that, given the similar objectives of the organizations, combining efforts would be a sensible move. As the Glasgow Herald reported, ‘[t]his event was happily accomplished’, and the Glasgow Dumfriesshire Society was formed on 10 December 1869.74 The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry and George Young, the then Lord Advocate for Scotland, were amongst the first patrons of the Society. Young, a judge and Scottish Liberal MP born in Dumfries, gave a spirited speech at the inaugural meeting, and one that provides some fascinating insights into how he viewed the role of the society and local origins: Every great town attracts youths from the provinces; and Glasgow, in an especial manner, as being in this country the greatest of them, draws to itself men from every district, who are either impelled by their necessities or induced by their inclination … I need not tell you who know so well—many of you, I am persuaded, from personal experience—how cold, how desolate and friendless town life is at the first entry upon it by a young man without money and without connections, and with no sustained influence except a resolution to persevere. Nor need I tell you of the many instances in which that resolution fails for the want of human sympathy, manifested in words of kindness and encouragement, and those little hospitalities which make a young man feel that he is not altogether alone in a friendless crowd. (Applause.) All of us can recall … men who have distinguished themselves by active, incessant, and unwearied acts of kindness to those who had no greater claims upon them than such ties as locality.75

By 1877 the new Society had a membership of 423, and funds amounting

73 Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, volume V, 1875–76 (Inverness: The Gaelic Society, 1876), pp. 1, 17. 74 Glasgow Herald, 23 December 1869. 75 Ibid.

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to £1,108 2s,76 which were used to maintain a charitable fund and also to provide two university bursaries per annum, each to the value of £15. As the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry explained in 1877, the Society was there ‘partly for pleasure’, but also to provide charity and encourage education.77 Hence the purpose of the bursaries was to support talented youth from Dumfriesshire who attended university, so that they could maintain themselves and did not have to rely on their parents.78 As the 1890 report reveals, there was clear interest in supporting only those ‘of good moral character’ with a bursary, and recommendations from teachers were essential.79 In 1879, when the economy saw a downturn, ‘a number of unemployed Dumfriessians had been assisted to procure situations.’80 Generally, however, as the Society’s treasurer’s account for 1880 shows, relief was dispensed in cash.81 Prior to receiving support, those seeking help had to answer ten questions about their circumstances, and also had to have their application certified by two members of the Dumfriesshire Society. One of the members who provided certification had to have visited the applicant’s home to ensure that ‘the Applicant [is] a proper object of the Society’s charity.’82 The questions asked related to applicants’ occupation and place of birth, their age and marital status, their family, whether they were a member of a church and whether they received other aid, for instance from the parish or another organization. The Glasgow Dumfriesshire Society was by no means alone in its endeavours, and its annual report for 1900 provides fascinating comparative figures for other regional associations in the city catering for internal diasporans (Table 6.2). Leaders of the Dumfriesshire Society were none 76 Report of the Glasgow Dumfriesshire Society (Glasgow: Robert Anderson, 1881), p. 3. Later records reveal that the membership in 1869 had been 220. All Dumfriesshire Society Records—printed and manuscript—are held at Glasgow University Archive. 77 See Rules included in the Appendix, Glasgow Dumfriesshire Society: Report &c (Glasgow: Robert Anderson, 1900), p. 85. The educational remit was also pursued by the Stirling and Bannockburn Caledonian Society earlier in the nineteenth century, whose ‘primary object … shall be to clothe and educate children resident in Stirling and Bannockburn, and their Vicinity; and, generally, to diffuse the blessings of education, throughout the district, to children who are not entitled to be admitted into the hospitals, or other charitable institutions established in Stirling and its neighbourhood, and whose parents are not in circumstances to confer those invaluable benefits upon their children’. See Rules and Regulations of the Stirling and Bannockburn Caledonian Society, 1824, p. 5, APS.1.80.72, National Library of Scotland. 78 Ibid., pp. 4–5. 79 Triennial Report of the Glasgow Dumfriesshire Society (Glasgow: Robert Anderson, 1890), p. 32. 80 Report of the Glasgow Dumfriesshire Society (1881), pp. 6–7. 81 Ibid., p. 10. 82 Ibid., p. 23.

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Society

Founded in Capital

Angus and Mearns Society

1839

Ayrshire Society

1761

Dumfriesshire Society Kintyre Club

1869 1825

Lewis Association Perthshire Society

1876 1836

Skye Association Stirlingshire Society

1865 1809

Other details

£3,533

Relief to 52 individuals; had bursaries, but discontinued £9,073 £2,500 in a bursary fund; relief roll with cash between £6 to £10, £211 5s in total; five bursaries at £15 £2,969 6s 6d Cash relief; bursaries £4,816 13s Has lady associates; gave out £77 8s 6d in charity; also bursaries and prizes Over £10,000 £700 in bursary fund; paid out £253 6s in £4 pensions and temporary relief; received nearly £3,000 in bequests £10,895

Pensions to 63 women and eight men, £312 in total; no bursaries

Sutherland Association 1860 Tiree Association 1870 Source: Based on details extracted from Report of the Glasgow Dumfriesshire Society (1900), p. 8, and John Shaw, ‘The Crofting Community, German Idealism and the Highland Land Reform 1885–1886’, in Eugenio F. Biagini (ed.), Citizenship and Community: Liberals, Radicals and Collective Identities in the British Isles, 1865–1931 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 310.

too pleased about how their activities compared to other organizations, arguing that they should have more members, and therefore, higher capital funds—though they recognized that the Society was doing fine, now having a membership of nearly 600.83 To further promote sociability, the Dumfriesshire Society established a separate Social Club in the 1920s, its first meeting held in the Religious Institution Rooms on Buchanan Street

83 See table on p. 10 in Report of the Glasgow Dumfriesshire Society (1881).

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in July 1926.84 The sole aim of the club was to cultivate ‘friendly intercourse among members’, and membership was restricted to existing Dumfriesshire Society members.85 The Society’s namesake in Edinburgh had a narrower remit, focusing in particular on improving education by giving out bursaries for the University of Edinburgh, as well as scholarships, and through ‘[t]he awarding of Bursaries for directly fostering Education in the Schools of Dumfriesshire’.86 Other associations in the internal diaspora catered for even more specific groups, one example being the Sanquhar and Kirkconnel Association, which was set up for natives of the two parishes, offering them assistance in times of distress in the form of temporary relief for ‘deserving persons’, opportunities for ‘mutual improvements amongst its Members’ and a social venue.87 These associational activities in the internal diaspora were essentially localized—by region, county or even parish. Localized roots trumped other associational aims and objectives. There is significant logic in this focus: migrants establishing associational structures do so to put in place a formalized framework for maintaining a link to their roots. Internal migrants, however, had not lost the connections to their Scottish roots by way of migration, but to their local roots within Scotland. The few ethnic associations in Scotland that pursued a broad role, such as the Edinburgh St Andrew Society, served a wider, more political role that makes them distinct.

Complexity Four: Matters Political It is clear from the evidence we have already seen that political concerns played their part in the activities of Scottish ethnic associations. War always had an impact and generally tended to heighten a sense of British patriotism among diaspora Scots,88 questions relating to British imperial expansion coloured discussions and race emerged as a concern in the African frontier zone. As Hughes has shown, closer to home too, in Belfast, the city’s Scottish Unionist Club was set up as ‘an overtly political form of associationalism’,89 and one that spoke directly to the specific political 84 Glasgow Dumfriesshire Social Club Minutes, DC 62/1/1/5, Glasgow University Archive. 85 Constitution, in ibid. 86 Report of the Edinburgh Dumfriesshire Society, 1899, p. 4. Found in papers of the Glasgow Dumfriesshire Society, DC 62/3/3/1, Glasgow University Archive. 87 Constitution and Rules of the Glasgow Sanquhar and Kirkconnel Friendly and Benevolent Association, found in papers of the Glasgow Dumfriesshire Association, DC 62/3/3/1, Glasgow University Archive. 88 See also Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, p. 199. 89 Hughes, ‘“Scots, Stand Firm, and our Empire is Safe”’, quotation from p. 215.

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context not only of Belfast, but also the north of Ireland and Irish-British relations more broadly. Particularly from the late nineteenth century, when crofter evictions and land congestion in the Highlands, together with the burgeoning Scottish Home Rule movement provided a critical juncture, other forms of ethnic associational politicization developed in the near diaspora and beyond that rode on the waves of an emergent homeland nationalism.90 As a member of the Highland Land Reform Association based in London noted, the treatment of Highlanders was considered appalling by those in the diaspora: among them too ‘the heather was on fire, and it was burning very fiercely.’91 This was particularly the case amongst some Scottish associations in London that were set up under an explicit nationalist umbrella, including, for instance, the Comunn nan Albannach. Founded in the first decade of the twentieth century, the group, as Douglas’s Year Book of Scottish Associations documents, demanded complete separation for Scotland, with a Scottish Parliament and Privy Council. It recognized Gaelic as the national language of Scotland, and thus promoted its study, as well as that of Scottish history, literature and music. There was also Clann Na H-Alba/The League of Scottish Nationalists, which, from 1911, sought to promote and strengthen the growth of nationhood among Scots. The latter group was engaged, amongst other things, in the promotion of Gaelic concerts, which were seen as a means to realize association objectives.92 One writer who chose the alias Fior Albannach wrote in a letter to the editor of the Dundee Evening Telegraph and Post: The Gaelic movement to be a success (as in Ireland and all other countries where the language movements have triumphed) must be made a national one. The Scottish people must be educated to understand that the Gaelic is their own language, that all Scots have an equal claim to it, that it is their heritage; that the division and existing estrangement between “Highlander” and “Lowlander” is lingual and not racial, and one and all we should fight shoulder to shoulder (Na Gaidheil an guaillibh a cheile) for our common heritage, the Gaelic language.93

This was a sentiment shared by many Scottish diasporans, internal, near and remote, and they came to the aid of what was perceived as a

90 For an interesting discussion of homeland and diaspora nationalisms, see Khachig Tölölyan, ‘Beyond the Homeland: From Exilic Nationalism to Diasporic Transnationalism’, in Allon Gal, Athena S. Leoussi and Anthony D. Smith (eds), The Call of the Homeland: Diaspora Nationalisms, Past and Present (Leiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 27–45. 91 The Scotsman, 3 September 1885. 92 See for instance Aberdeen Journal, 23 May 1912. 93 Evening Telegraph and Post (Dundee), 15 September 1913.

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culture under siege: for many of them Gaelic clearly was the national language.94 This also explains why initiatives such as those in support of the establishment of the Celtic Chair at Edinburgh University gained such traction among the Scots abroad—a group that made significant contributions to the campaign.95 Within this wider context there was another layer of politicization, one that emerged in Scotland itself through the activities of the Glasgow and Edinburgh St Andrew societies. As is detailed in the Glasgow Society’s Constitution, dated 7 March 1912, the objectives were: The guarding of the honour and dignity of Scotland, and the vindication of Scottish rights in the British Union by: encouragement of study of Scottish history and literature, promotion of use of accurate textbooks of Scottish and British history in schools; by encouragement of correct use of names England, Anglo etc cannot be used for Britain; to secure Scotland due recognition in all matters of heraldry on seals, stamps etc; to ensure that Scottish youth have equal facilities to those in England to enter British services and make career there [sic].96

Other issues considered important revolved around the idea of cultivating ‘patriotism by celebrating national anniversaries’, or the erection of historic monuments. The Edinburgh St Andrew Society generally pursued similar objectives, and the two groups worked together on many occasions. What makes the Edinburgh Society distinct—and particularly interesting for this study—is its express object of engaging with Scots abroad by affiliating Scottish ethnic associations, acting as a head organization for them in Scotland. The Edinburgh St Andrew Society was established in the first decade of the twentieth century—probably in 1906; it was certainly in operation by St Andrew’s Day 1907, when a meeting was held at the Philosophical Institution on Queen to celebrate the patron saint’s day. At that meeting ‘telegrams had been forwarded to Scottish associations affiliated with the St Andrew Society in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, South America and Canada’,97 documenting how the St Andrew Society, even in its earlies days, was keen on facilitating contact with kindred associations overseas. This, it seems, was quite reflective of the spirit of the time: as one writer lamented in Singapore, Scottish associations ‘have stood and flourished abroad, but have been absolutely isolated with regard to the country they love so much’, there being

94 For example Scottish Australasian, May 1910, p. 7. 95 See Wallace, John Stuart Blackie, p. 183ff. 96 St Andrew Society of Glasgow Annual Report, found in the records of the Edinburgh St Andrew Society, ACC 11371, National Library of Scotland. 97 The Scotsman, 2 December 1907.

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‘no system of exchange with any society in Scotland’.98 The Edinburgh St Andrew Society was clearly intent on remedying this shortcoming, seeking ‘to be the central society in Scotland of the scattered thousands of Scottish societies abroad’.99 The initiative gained traction swiftly, with new societies from overseas affiliating regularly. This was, as a speaker noted at the 1909 annual dinner, ‘very encouraging’, and it was great to see ‘the active sympathy shown by the affiliated societies beyond the seas’.100 Individual members also came from all over the world, including, for example, Adam Frank (Kuala Lumpur), William Allardyce (Governor of Falkland Islands), Robert T. Anderson (Edmonton, Canada), Andrew M. Black (Broken Hill, NSW), R.C. Bruce (Ngauru, Huntersville, New Zealand), Dr James Dunbar Bruton (Kasama, Rhodesia), John Gribbel (Philadelphia, United States), Lieutenant W.M. Logan Home (Koha, India) and T.W. Richardson (Swatow, China); Andrew Carnegie was a life member of the Society. By 1911 the Society’s membership stood at 492.101 The idea that Scots abroad were perhaps more attuned to their Scottishness than Scots at home was also noted by an Australian writer who wondered whether ‘the real Scotland was to be found more in the affections of her exiled colonial sons, than in the hearts of Scots in Scotland’.102 While the writer subsequently observed that this was not the case, there remains some truth in the statement nonetheless given the flourishing of Scottish ethnic associations and ethno-cultural expression we have seen. What remained problematic, for this writer and for others, was the perceived notion that many of these associations ‘were—shall we say—Reminiscent Societies, living in the past’.103 Marinell Ash might have rejoiced in this idea,104 but as this study has shown throughout, even if looking to the past was important for many Scottish ethnic associations, they undoubtedly served as sites of memory, and the vast majority were not backward looking as a result. Our Australian writer was perhaps aware of this as his concern over the associations’ focus on the past had an entirely contemporary motivation: although it was ‘soothing to a Scotsman’s pride, [it] was powerless to maintain for him the national rights and privileges’.105 The Edinburgh St Andrew Society sought to actively overcome this problem, evoking a sense of Scottishness in the customary way in which 98 Quoted in an article entitled ‘Is Scotland Dead? Scottish Societies in the Colonies’, Straits Times (Singapore), 20 February 1908. 99 Ibid. 100 The Scotsman, 1 December 1909. 101 Edinburgh St Andrew Society, ACC 11371/10, National Library of Scotland. 102 Scottish Australasian, May 1910, p. 7. 103 Ibid., p. 8. 104 Ash had spoken of ‘the emotional trappings of the past’ in The Strange Death of Scottish History (Edinburgh: Ramsay Head Press, 1980), p. 10. 105 Scottish Australasian, May 1910, p. 8.

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many other ethnic associations did, but within a wider political context. The fact that this organization was also one located in Scotland itself, comprised of some internal diasporans, but primarily of members from Edinburgh’s political and business elite, gives this endeavour a unique place in Scottish ethnic associational culture. Here we have an organization with an express diaspora remit—seeking to engage with the Scots abroad as a head society in the old world, fostering diasporic consciousness—while also driving forward a political agenda without that immediate diaspora link. This gave the Society ‘a line of its own’,106 not least because of the sustained flow of information and communication between Edinburgh and the diaspora the Society promoted. One of the most important tools it used to facilitate this was its journal, Scotia, which was published for the express purpose of connecting with the Scots abroad;107 a similar role also fell to another magazine, The Thistle: A Scottish Patriotic Magazine. As its editorial set out, it sought ‘to give voice to those Scots at home and abroad’, for the purpose of achieving ‘unity of action among representative Scotsmen; not only in Scotland, but throughout the Empire. … Through its pages information can be conveyed, and above all, ideas can be interchanged between patriotic Scots in all parts of the Empire’.108 While the SNP might perhaps like to frame the idea of reconnecting with Scots abroad as one of its making— think, for instance, of the Homecoming initiatives—the examples we have seen here, and particularly through the work of the St Andrew Society, document that there has long since been recognition of the importance for Scotland of the Scots abroad. The early twentieth century saw an increased awareness of this not only amongst the Scots in Scotland, but also in the diaspora—an awareness heightened by the burgeoning Irish Home Rule movement, which quite successfully politicized the Irish diaspora.109 Within this wider context the Edinburgh Society also followed a politicized agenda, but it operated at a level of politicization that did not match that of the Irish and was, one might be tempted to conclude on first consideration, of a rather mundane nature, focusing on questions concerning

106 Ibid. 107 Edinburgh St Andrew Society, ACC 11371/11-14, National Library of Scotland. 108 The Thistle: A Scottish Patriotic Magazine, vol. 1, 1908–9 (Edinburgh: J. & J. Gray & Co), pp. 3–4. 109 Cf. Donald Harman Akenson, ‘Diaspora, the Irish, and Irish Nationalism’, in Allon Gal, Athena S. Leoussi and Anthony D. Smith (eds), The Call of the Homeland: Diaspora Nationalisms, Past and Present (Leiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 169–217; David A. Wilson (ed.), Irish Nationalism in Canada (Kingston and Montreal: McGillQueen’s University Press, 2009). Noteworthy too are the activities of Irish politicians and political actors that directly brought them out into the diaspora. One example is John Redmond’s 1883 tour of Australasia on behalf of the Irish National League, see Malcolm Campbell, ‘John Redmond and the Irish National League in Australia and New Zealand, 1883’, History, 86, 283 (2001), pp. 348–62.

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heraldry. In the summer of 1912, the Edinburgh and Glasgow St Andrew societies jointly sent a petition to the House of Commons questioning the heraldic representation of the United Kingdom, specifically the perceived misrepresentation of Scotland and the use of incorrect heraldry. By the autumn of the same year, however, no reply had yet been received from the Secretary for Scotland, so the Societies utilized their connection to Duncan Pirie, Liberal MP for Aberdeen North, to investigate further the ‘present position of the matter’.110 Nearly a year later there was still no outcome, hence the issue was raised again, this time by Alexander MacCallum Scott, Liberal MP for Glasgow Bridgeton, and with the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The Secretary replied that he had received the petition, and that ‘[a] number of points relating to the limits of the jurisdiction of the various Officers of Arms ha[d] been referred to the Law Officers of the Three Kingdoms’ but that ‘until I receive their opinion, I am scarcely in a position to come to any final decision as to the prayer of the Petition.’111 The success of such petitions had its limits, then, not least as a result of the long-winding process by which they were handled at Westminster. But the Society pursued another, more successful, avenue: raising awareness among diaspora Scots of the misuse of heraldry. With many a ‘Scot abroad … keenly sensitive to any affront offered to Scotland’,112 Scottish ethnic associations in different locations were keen to remedy the problems identified in Edinburgh. As was reported at a St Andrew Society dinner in 1909, ‘the Scottish societies in South Africa’ had taken on board the St Andrew Society’s concerns with respect to incorrect use of heraldic symbols, thus ‘taking steps to ensure that the armorial bearings of the new United South Africa shall truly represent British nationality’.113 As trivial as some of the questions over heraldry may seem, for the Edinburgh St Andrew Society the incorrect use of heraldry was, in many ways, the epitome of the flaws in the relationship between Scotland and England. Importantly, this was a belief that mirrors the principal idea of mid-nineteenth-century unionist nationalists. It is James Grant, a second cousin of Sir Walter Scott, and his brother John, who can be credited with giving birth to that movement in the early 1850s with an appeal addressed to the Lord Lyon King of Arms in which they attacked the inconsistent use of flags and royal arms.114 As was explained at the time, ‘the Heraldic emblems of Scotland … have been degraded from their first position to an 110 Hansard, HC Deb 29 October 1912 vol 43 c234, accessed via http://hansard.millbanksystems.com [last accessed 23 May 2013]. 111 Hansard, HC Deb 02 June 1913 vol 53 cc569–70, accessed via ibid. 112 The Scotsman, 1 December 1909. 113 Ibid. 114 Cf. Tanja Bueltmann, ‘Scottish Rights Vindicated: Identity and Nationalism in Mid-nineteenth Century Scotland’, unpublished MA thesis, Universitaet Bielefeld, 2005, pp. 52–3.

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inferior, and their place usurped by those of England, thus asserting a right of superiority over Scotland which she does not possess.’115 Consequently, ‘the Royal Arms of Scotland should take precedence of those of England in emblems and devices in Scotland.’116 This is a statement the Edinburgh St Andrew Society would have supported wholeheartedly many decades later, raising, in fact, many similar points. As was reported in the Edinburgh Evening News in 1920, the Society was not happy with ‘the form of Royal Standard displayed at Holyrood during the Royal residence’, as it had ‘set aside the Scottish form of Standard altogether, and elevated the English form into an Imperial position’.117 To bolster the case concerning heraldic matters, the Edinburgh St Andrew Society also collaborated on initiatives and proposals with other organizations, particularly the Scottish Patriotic Association.118 Unsurprisingly, given their shared interests, the two organizations were also united over the question of the naming of sovereigns. When the idea was mooted to erect monuments to the late King Edward, using the numeral VII—which, from a Scottish perspective, was incorrect—all Scottish societies were urged ‘not to subscribe to any memorial in which the numeral “VII” is affixed to the name of the late King’.119 As had already been noted by an Australian writer a year earlier, Edward VII’s name ‘solidified, in the most remarkable manner, the floating patriotic sentiments of the Scottish people into an organized patriotic society’.120 While indeed of a less forceful nature than Irish engagement with Home Rule, trivial these episodes of Scottish ethnic associational politicization were not. This is a stance that becomes all the more pronounced when looking at what the Edinburgh St Andrew Society identified as the broader underlying issue: the neglect of Scottish business in Parliament. To directly address this concern, the Society published a call addressed to MPs with Scottish constituencies, alerting them ‘to the importance of their giving full consideration and support to all matters affecting the honour and the material interests of Scotland’.121 The Society’s view was that too many Scottish MPs had been selected from England and, therefore, ‘had not the slightest 115 Dove, The National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights, p. 10. 116 Quoted in Justice to Scotland: Report of the First Public Meeting of the National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights (Edinburgh: Paton & Ritchie, 1853), p. 6. 117 Edinburgh Evening News, 10 July 1920. 118 This association was not an ethnic one per se, but worked together with a number of ethnic societies in the diaspora. It certainly consolidated its position, for instance through its annual Wallace meetings. See for example The Scotsman, 11 August 1919, 12 September 1921. 119 For example The Scotsman, 10 April 1911. 120 Scottish Australasian, May 1910, p. 7. 121 From a report in the Society’s annual meeting, The Scotsman, 1 December 1908.

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particle of interest’ in either local or national Scottish matters: there was a ‘lack of patriotic spirit’, and Scotland was being treated in a ‘scurrilous, contemptuous, and parsimonious way’.122 This needed to be addressed urgently, and the Society was keen to directly facilitate change, launching a number of initiatives to bring to the attention of those in power what it viewed as developments that directly undermined ‘the spirit of the Treaty of Union’.123 This is a key statement: the nationalism of the Edinburgh St Andrew Society was unionist in its foundations, following in the footsteps of earlier organizations such as the National Associational for the Vindication of Scottish Rights.124 With that organization the St Andrew Society also shared the position that Scotland had to be positioned firmly in the British Empire. At a St Andrew Society dinner in 1923, Christopher Nicholson Johnston, Lord Sands, former Conservative (Unionist) MP for Edinburgh and St Andrew’s Universities and Senator of the College of Justice, proposed what had emerged as the customary toast—that to ‘Scottish Patriotic Societies at Home and Abroad’. He observed that there had been a ‘revival of distinctly nationalist spirit. … Scottish nationalism was not separatist. Scotsmen were proud of our Empire, proud of the part they had taken in building up that Empire, and determined to remain within that Empire’, and therefore, ‘[t]hey had no desire to see the flag of St George floating on the sea without the flag of St Andrew’s [sic].’125 This view would certainly have been supported by the Scottish Australasian, which had already published a piece in 1910 in which it was noted that ‘this modern national Scottish movement is constructive, and not separatist in its aims. It asks for nothing more than the conservation of Scottish nationality by the observance of the letter and the spirit of the Treaty of Union of 1707.’126 For Lord Sands this was the very matter of the question too, and there were still problems that prevented that ‘spirit’ from being maintained. One critical issue remained: the role of MPs. They had become not only ‘supine’, but also ‘cosmopolitan’—by which Lord Sands meant ‘[t]hey had not stood up for our national interests in matters of national sentiment.’ For Lord Sands the most glaring problem was the MPs’ failure to be more vocal in their demand that the Secretary for Scotland be made a Secretary of State: ‘if the Scottish members of Parliament united now in making this demand, they could obtain it.’127 Looking at the Edinburgh St Andrew Society’s development, one sees that its outward political positioning had increased in the run-up to the 122 Ibid. 123 Ibid. 124 For details see Graeme Morton’s excellent study, Unionist Nationalism: Governing Urban Scotland, 1830–1860 (East Linton: Tuckwell, 1999). 125 The Scotsman, 1 December 1923. For an earlier discussion of the status of the Secretary for Scotland, see The Scotsman, 1 December 1921. 126 Scottish Australasian, May 1910, p. 7. 127 This and the previous quotations from The Scotsman, 1 December 1923.

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First World War, some key concerns being revealed in 1912 as a result of the by-election for Midlothian held in early September 1912. Concerned over who might be elected as the new representative, the St Andrew Society contacted all candidates to ask them about their stance on the following: 1. If elected, will you call attention to any misuse of the terms “England.” “English,” and “Anglo,” where “Britain,” “British,” and “Brito” are meant, in any official document or utterance, and, if the misuse is not corrected, formally protest against it? 2. Will you give Scottish affairs your special attention, and will you co-operate with other Scottish members, of whatever party, on non-party questions affecting Scotland? 3. Will you support a Bill to regulate the titles of future Sovereigns of Britain so that the errors William “IV.” And Edward “VII.” Shall not be repeated? 4. In view of the fact that the banner of St George (the pre-Union flag of England) is extensively used in the Navy, contrary to the first article of the Treaty of Union, which stipulates that the united crosses shall be used on all flags both on sea and land, will you do your utmost to secure that the British Union flag alone is used in the Navy?128

All the candidates—Major John Augustus Hope (who was elected), the Hon. Alexander Shaw and Provost Robert Brown—replied, all three, in essence, expressing their support for Scotland and confirming that they would work towards resolving the issues identified by the Society. Shaw went furthest in that he expressed his support for a bill at the national level ‘to regulate the titles of future Sovereigns of Great Britain’,129 something that Major Hope was, it seems, a little weary of as he was only prepared to note that he ‘would support any practical measure for ensuring that the correct Scottish title should be used in Scotland’. Provost Brown’s election agent, who replied on his behalf, stressed that Brown ‘is a Scotsman, and fully alive to all the claims of his own beloved land’.130 During the First World War, the St Andrew Society’s activities were of a more practical nature, following in the footsteps of those pursued by many a Scottish ethnic association in the diaspora, collecting subscriptions and providing comforts for Scottish soldiers. Importantly, the Society also acted as a conduit for collecting funds from Scottish societies overseas.131 This tradition continued for quite some time after the War. In 1929, for instance, 128 The Scotsman, 5 September 1912. 129 Ibid., 7 September 1912 130 Ibid., 5 September 1912. 131 See for example Edinburgh Evening News, 3 April 1915.

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the Society sent a cheque for £31 10s to the Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital on behalf of the Kelantan St Andrew’s Society.132 After the First World War, the Edinburgh St Andrew Society became more vocal in outlining what it viewed as the best political option for Scotland, discussing, amongst other things, the possibility of devolution. At the annual meeting in 1919 a report was read that noted ‘that there was nothing in the constitution which prevented the Society from taking an active part in the advocacy of legislative devolution for Scotland in the form which Scottish Home Rule policy had taken in the past or might take in the future, if the Society was so determined’.133 A Mr Wanless also observed that ‘he was glad to see that the Society now found itself more at liberty to move in this matter, which concerned the welfare of Scotland. … They knew that in this island Home Rule could be carried out with very little difficulty, and it would greatly add to the unity of the British Empire.’134 Increased political sentiment was, in no small part, a direct result of the Society’s membership, which included Joseph Dobbie, head of Dalgleish & Dobbie, who wrote on Scottish Home Rule, founded the Scottish Vernacular Association and was President of the Burns Federation; Robert Duncan, MP for Govan, who was also involved in Scottish Patriotic Association; Sir Archibald McInnes Shaw, who had been associated with the movement to establish a chair of Scottish History and Literature at the University of Glasgow; and John Stewart, the Honorary Secretary of the Stewart Society and heraldry convener of the Scottish Patriotic Association.135 The First World War had had another significant effect: it increased the desire to facilitate better contact between Scotland and the diaspora, with the Society seeking to establish closer ties with affiliated societies overseas. From the 1920s in particular the Society began to see the association headquarters in Edinburgh as a global hub, a connection point for Scots from overseas on return visits home. It was one of the Society’s objectives to ‘extend a cordial welcome to brither Scots on their visit to the old country’,136 and one of the means to do so was through the Edinburgh clubroom as it allowed the Society to offer a venue where returnees could receive practical guidance and information.137 Moreover, the idea was mooted that the Society’s remit should be extended further, ‘mainly in the direction of a club or hostel … [which] would serve as a meeting place and perhaps eventually a residence

132 The Scotsman, 26 November 1929. 133 Ibid., 29 November 1919. 134 Ibid. 135 Details extracted from a booklet contained in Edinburgh St Andrew Society, ACC 11371/10, National Library of Scotland. 136 Otago Caledonian Society, Scrapbook II, MS-1045/031, Hocken Collections – Uare Taoka o Hākena, Dunedin, New Zealand. 137 Ibid.

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for Scots from abroad when visiting the homeland’.138 This was a point the Society had discussed with associations around the world, and ‘favourable replies had been received from the St Andrew Societies of Hong-Kong, Kenya Colony, Cape Town, Hankow, Singapore, Penang, Java, and Valparaiso.’139 Not all, however, had such a positive view of the Edinburgh Society’s endeavours. When the Shanghai St Andrew’s Society received a circular from Edinburgh in 1925 that outlined the Society’s activities and offered affiliation, Shanghai members decided at their AGM ‘to reject the offer on the grounds that the Edinburgh society had aims that were chiefly political, while those in Shanghai were charitable’.140 Here politics proved a clear stumbling block. For many Scots, as association records from around the diaspora document, their ethnic associationalism was intrinsically cultural and civic, but not political. By and large, however, the Edinburgh Society’s efforts were well received. As Colonel Sir William Dalrymple from South Africa noted on a visit in the summer of 1929, he ‘greatly appreciated the homely welcome he had received from the Society, and upon his return to South Africa would do all he could to promote the cordial relationships between the overseas societies and the St Andrew Society of Edinburgh’.141

Conclusion The purpose of this chapter has been to offer further context to the assessment of Scottish ethnic associations in the diaspora, qualifying conclusions drawn by examining the complexities in the general story. While none of them alter the distinctive trends established in previous chapters, they do provide critical qualification. With respect to gender, all evidence examined points to two principal conclusions. First, women were as aware of the relevance of ethnic associational culture as men. Women knew how to utilize associations when they set up their own, broadly mirroring the organizational structures and remits established by organizations chiefly populated by men. At a time when they did not have their own associational home, there were ways for them to make themselves indispensable through other activities, chiefly the provision of food at annual dinners and events, but also, as we have seen in North America, in charitable work. While these roles tended to be framed by a sense of female domesticity, they nonethless point to the ability of women to be associational in similar ways to men. Secondly, women were as capable

138 The Scotsman, 29 November 1924. 139 Ibid. 140 North China Herald (Shanghai), 21 October 1930. 141 The Scotsman, 16 August 1929.

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as men of generating collective action through assocaitional bounds in their own right, exerting both their ethnicity and civility. We have also seen the important role played by ethnic associations with a local homeland referent in the Scottish diaspora. These had proliferated from the earliest days, and gave Scots a tool to actively relate to their local background within structures of formal sociability. While Highland and Gaelic societies were prominent, Lowlanders too established a susbstantial number of clubs. The assumption that Highland identity trumped Lowland identity as a regional expression of Scottishness is, therefore, misleading. This is emphasized in particular when looking at developments in Scotland’s internal diaspora, where we find a significant number of Lowland groups in operation over extended periods of time. First and foremost, however, the internal diaspora highlights what we have already seen for the near diaspora: that distance from Scotland was not the primary motor for the development of ethnic associations. It was migration itself. Finally, there were clear trends towards politicization in the near diaspora, with many associations directly engaging through and with the Scots overseas. The St Andrew Society based in Edinburgh sought to establish itself as an umbrella organization to facilitate connections and, for a time, was quite successful in doing so. When we think back to Figure I.2, this strongly underpins the importance of integrating the old homeland firmly into an investigation of diaspora.

Conclusion Conclusion

Why is a Scotchman a more genuine, more unmistakable patriot than an Englishman—a Frenchman—an Irishman? Because there is no cant about his patriotism. He does not love Scotia so much as he loves Scotchmen; he does not allow his mind to rest satisfied with a mere pleasing sentimentalism; he thinks and acts for his countrymen. This is the sovereign test of true patriotism.1

This assessment, made in the editorial of the Freeman’s Journal, a Sydney-based newspaper established to report for the Catholic Irish immigrant community in the city,2 was intended to encourage in that community the same sense of active patriotism that was, according to the writer of the piece, so characteristic of the Scots. This was the case because ‘true love of country … is best recognized by deeds’,3 and amongst the Scots, the writer went on, those deeds were carried especially well by means of their ethnic associations, through which they were ‘acting together for each other’s benefit’.4 This contemporary assessment of the importance of ethnic associational culture could hardly be stronger in showing one of the principal observations that runs through this study: how Scottish associations were a primary means 1 Freeman’s Journal (Sydney), 31 May 1856. 2 The paper is still published, though it now runs under the name of Catholic Weekly. Some of the paper’s editors were ardent nationalists, see for instance Patrick O’Farrell, The Irish in Australia: 1788 to the Present (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2000), p. 209. 3 Freeman’s Journal (Sydney), 31 May 1856. 4 Ibid. The writer specifically refers to the St Andrew’s Society of Launceston as an example of such a Scottish organization.

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for Scots to act as agents within designated structures for the purpose of meeting specific objectives—objectives that were, indeed, not simply about a ‘pleasing sentimentalism’.

The Glue that Binds (Some) The Scots have left many a visible marker of their presence around the world, not only through their immediate legacies in education and wider society, but quite visibly through monuments. Statues to pioneer Scots can be found all over the world, including such monuments as the statue of Canada’s first Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald in Toronto’s Queen’s Park, or the more recent addition of a new statue depicting Lachlan Macquarie, the chief architect of the transformation of New South Wales from a penal colony to a settler colony proper, in Sydney’s Hyde Park. As can ‘monumental’ celebrations of Scottish history and culture. Druid Hill Park in Baltimore, for instance, is the home to a statue erected in honour of William Wallace,5 and 20,000 spectators were present for the dedication of the Burns memorial in Barre, Vermont.6 It was, in fact, the memory of the national bard in particular that was cast in stone around the world, with numerous statues traceable between small-town Hokitika in New Zealand and Central Park in New York, totalling nearly 40. Burns was one of the most effective glues that bound Scots together around the world.7 But, as this study has demonstrated, so were ethnic associations. Yet they were only ever a glue for some: for those Scots who identified them as a means through which they could choose to activate and maintain the bonds of kinship, thereby seeking to facilitate positively the building of their new lives overseas. Regardless of whether their motivation was to wallow in memories of Scotland, or the more instrumental concerns of patronage and civility that we have seen, these were the migrants who chose to get involved and become active associational agents.8 As a result, an intrinsic characteristic of any research focused on ethnic clubs and societies is one simple matter of fact: that more migrants were not part of it than were part of it. It must be recognized that the bulk of migrants was not involved in ethnic associations through direct membership. Consequently, it is only ever possible to capture a limited group of migrants through an ethnic associational prism. It must also be accepted that, consequently, there are undeniable and perfectly valid questions concerning the representativeness

5 6 7 8

Daily Public Ledger (Maysville), 1 December 1893. Vermont Phoenix (Brattleboro), 28 July 1899. For details of his global reach, see Pittock, Robert Burns in Global Culture. See also Gabriel Sheffer, Diaspora Politics: At Home Abroad (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), who distinguishes between different types of member.

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of the conclusions drawn in terms of the experiences of a wider body of migrants, and how they relate to those captured here. This study fully recognizes these caveats, but is equally clear in stating that they should not deflect from the significant merits of ethnic associationalism: 1. It captures those migrants who actively engaged in making New World societies near and far, utilizing their ethnicity. 2. It provides insights into the experiences of Scottish migrants more broadly: while association leaders may have been middle or upper class, the activities of many clubs and societies catered for a much wider cohort of Scottish migrants. 3. It offers enduring structures in the Scottish diaspora that survive to this day: associational culture remains one of its defining characteristics. 4. It serves, in many cases, not only ethnicity but also civility, thereby transcending the immediate Scottish migrant community it was set up to cater for.

Given the choice, therefore, between worrying over potential issues of representativeness, and the insights that might nonetheless be gained from an assessment of Scottish ethnic associational culture, the choice is very clear—so long, that is, as conclusions are understood within their limitations, avoiding over-interpretation of findings. Another important point to make within this context is that Scots were by no means the only migrant group establishing ethnic associations around the world. Hence there is no attempt here to cast the Scots as exceptional in their diasporan behaviour. What marks their case out from others, however, is their early timing in setting up ethnic associations; the swiftness with which they proliferated overseas—they tended to be the first migrant group, certainly from the British and Irish Isles, to formalize ethnic societies in most locations; and the degree to which these ethnic associations transcended ethnic bounds and linked into wider civic life. The latter in particular serves to underscore one critical characteristic: while there undoubtedly were times when it was politicized, in essence Scottish ethnic associationalism was not political, marking it off clearly from other groups, but especially the Irish within a wider diaspora context. This difference goes some way towards explaining the wide appeal of Scottish associational activities for an audience of Scots and non-Scots alike.

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Functional Tiers and Associational Activism Scottish ethnic associational culture had a sound foundational base in the near diaspora, with common development patterns spreading from there to locations further afield. This emphasizes strongly the critical role of diaspora agents—that is Scottish migrants—in the setting up of ethnic associational structures around the world in tune with their migration pathways. For all the diversity we have seen, there were three underlying functional tiers that determined not only particular activities of Scottish ethnic associations, but also the distinct communities for which they catered (Figure C.1). The first functional tier is formal sociability. Ethnic associations, like other clubs and societies, were organized on the basis of formalization processes that include the preparation of objectives, the establishment of a clear organizational hierarchy with designated roles and the introduction of regular meeting patterns. These formalizations had to be in place at the outset. The second functional tier is the associations’ role as sites of memory. Regardless of distinct local variations in some of the objectives, organization structures, the social make-up and the associations’ geographic location, all had in common the principle desire to bring together Scots with fellow Scots for the purpose of maintaining ethnic identity—this is, as we have seen in the introduction, one of the principal building blocks of ethnic associationalism. The promotion of Scottish traditions, Scottish music and celebrations of a particular figurehead or anniversaries such as St Andrew’s Day, lie at the core here. Yet, while this maintenance of Scottish culture was crucial, formalized Scottish ethnic expression was, in the period with which this study is concerned, frequently accompanied by what constitutes the final functional tier of ethnic associationalism: civility. While defined in ethnic terms at the outset, many if not most Scottish associations served a function that effectively transcended the ethnic boundaries put in place for the purpose of connecting with wider civic life, embedding their ethnic activities therein. In the early phase of development this was achieved chiefly through philanthropy, especially the dispensation of relief to Scottish migrants in distress—an activity that facilitated interaction between the ethnic and the civic through the channel of patrician benevolence. In the course of the nineteenth century, and with the further spread of ethnic associational culture to locations in Australasia and Africa, however, the promotion of leisure through Caledonian Games and, to some extent, entertainment through Caledonian Balls, served a similar role and clear junctures can be seen depending on the location where associations were formed. While the Scottish immigrant community was undoubtedly the principal user of all functional tiers, there were others, including the host community in the place of settlement, the Scottish diaspora community of fellow Scots overseas and the homeland community in Scotland. These communities represent the different types of actors outside the immediate Scottish

Source: The author.

Figure C.1: The three functional tiers and user communities of ethnic associationalism

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immigrant community with whom those Scots involved in ethnic associations had connections through their associational behaviour. Importantly, these communities were not fully identical for all functional tiers (Figure C.1). In terms of the function of associations as sites of memory, for instance, there was a strong link to both the homeland and diaspora communities— facilitated, for example, through the types of communication on St Andrew’s Day that we have traced—but this component had little relevance for the wider host society: the memory-generating function of these activities was inward-looking towards the Scottish immigrant community.9 Recognition of these different user communities and the ways in which they were engaged allows us to move beyond the immediate membership of associations, measuring the wider impact of ethnic associational culture. The critical point is this: the importance of Scottish ethnic associations can only be established by recognizing all of their functional tiers—as effective sites of memory; networks of sociability; and carriers of civility, which potentially linked immigrants directly to the power structures of society10—as well as their different user communities. Only such a nuanced reading can fully unravel the function of Scottish ethnic associational culture in the diaspora. The functional tiers outlined were shaped, of course, by the different ethnic associations. I cannot stress enough how important it is to avoid bulking them all into the same category. Certainly, they did serve common purposes and there were undoubtedly strong lines of convergence across the diaspora, but there were also fundamental differences—differences specific to particular types of associations. Sometimes the lines were blurred, so there is no a clear-cut hierarchy, but the idea of a pyramid of ethnic associations can help us better understand the Scottish case (Figure C.2). At the top of this pyramid stood St Andrew’s societies. This type of ethnic association was the earliest to develop throughout the diaspora in larger numbers, and has its roots in the philanthropic tradition of helping fellow Scots in need, which was established in London in the early seventeenth century. St Andrew’s societies, due to these shared roots, were fairly elitist, chiefly attracting members of the middle class who saw it as their express duty to help fellow Scots in need. Consequently, the activities of St Andrew’s societies, by and large, served a benevolent function, and even the more sociable activities were commonly designed with the generation of funds for charity in mind. At the next level we find societies with a localized homeland

9 See also the idea of permeability between different ethnic associations and civil society I conceptualized in Bueltmann, Scottish Ethnicity, Figure 4.4. 10 Pierre Nora, ‘Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire’, Representations, 26 (1989), pp. 7–24; Simmel, ‘The Sociology of Sociability’; K. Kumar, ‘Civil Society: An Inquiry into the Usefulness of an Historical Term’, British Journal of Sociology, 44, 3 (1993), pp. 375–95.

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Figure C.2: Pyramid of Scottish ethnic associationalism

Source: The author.

referent—such as Highland societies or county associations. While some of these pursued earthier and more cultural pursuits, they also had a narrower remit in focusing on specific homeland roots and, therefore, were open to a more limited Scottish migrant cohort. The story was very different, by contrast, for most of the Caledonian societies that proliferated from the mid-nineteenth century. Given their focus on the promotion of Highland sports, these societies exerted a wide appeal and proved very popular. Partly as a result, they also tended to be more inclusive, establishing structures that often permitted the opening of membership to non-Scots. Finally, at the bottom of the pyramid, we find Scottish mutual benefit societies such as the Sons of Scotland. Characteristic here is a large membership that none of the other ethnic associations could match. Clan societies, which gained traction in the twentieth century, also fall into this bracket. In view of these differences between associations, the pyramid also serves to illustrate the level of elitism we have seen in terms of the general socioeconomic profiles of members: by and large, St Andrew’s societies were at the top level in this respect too, while mutual benefit societies—though perhaps led by middle-class members—catered for a large body of working-class migrants. Moreover, and partly as a result of distinct membership profiles, the different associations tended to pursue different activities. They were not simply a means of expressing a collective ethnic identity11 regardless of the host environment, but rather facilitated collective ethnic action in full recognition of the host environment. Or, in other words, the agents

11 See also Marlou Schrover, ‘“Whenever a Dozen Germans Meet …”: German Organisations in the Netherlands in the Nineteenth Century’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32, 5 (2006), pp. 847–64.

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Figure C.3: Types of Scottish ethnic associational activism over time and by location

Source: The author.

engaged in the different associations we have seen were pursuing what is conceptualized here as distinct types of ethnic associational activism. The types of activism varied not only between associations, but also according to the associations’ specific geographic location, and over time (Figure C.3). Patterns of simple imitation and repetition these were not. Figure C.3 is not meant to suggest that patterns were absolute and clear cut—that is not the case. Ultimately, it is probably true to say that all three types of associational activism existed in most locations, even if sometimes only sporadically or for a particular purpose. It is also worth noting that the overarching activism was, of course, that of ethnic associational activism itself in the sense that this is what drove the associations concerned from the get-go. However, this study has revealed some broad trends that are well encapsulated by three types of associational activism in particular: (1) philanthropic associational activism, (2) leisure associational activism and (3) elite associational activism. The idea behind philanthropic activism is the sense of patrician benevolence we have seen develop to be so paramount among many of the early associations in the near diaspora, where it was, in fact, foundational, as well as in North America. It is also in these places that this philanthropic activism essentially underpinned Scottish ethnic associationalism from its establishment through to the 1930s. While philanthropic activism decreased over time, it never fully went away. In fact, many of the organizations still active today continue to pursue it, the Toronto St Andrew’s Society being a prime example. By contrast, leisure activism was

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a secondary development in the near diaspora and North America, and one that first occurred in the nineteenth century, when Caledonian societies took hold. Designed to cater for earthier pursuits than fancy dinners or balls for the social elite, there was a clear juncture. Two points are worth pausing over. First and foremost is the fact that in the Antipodes, and New Zealand in particular, it was this type of leisure activism that underpinned Scottish ethnic associations at the foundational level. While there were some minor forms of philanthropic activism, these are negligible when compared to developments evidenced for the near diaspora and North America. The second point is that leisure activism essentially played no part at all in the Far East. The Scots’ ethnic associational culture there was, as it was to some extent in Africa, built on a third type of activism: elite activism. In Africa this was blurred with some forms of leisure activism and, while all clubs and societies are, to some extent, elitist, it was in the Far East that this became functional. The underlying explanation for this functional elitism in Asia lies in the type of Scottish migrants who settled there. As sojourners of a generally well-to-do background, these Scots were almost exclusively from the social elite and consequently had fundamentally different needs from, say, early eighteenth-century migrants in the Chesapeake. Moreover, Asia also lacked the volume of Scottish migration found in other diaspora locations that might have inspired the larger-scale development of patrician benevolence or earthier leisure activities. The Antipodes present the middle ground in this respect: the migrants who made their way there tended to do so by choice, and were slightly later arrivals and better off than those who went to North America. As a direct result, there was no immediate need for substantial patrician benevolence to develop, and philanthropic activism was weaker as a result. But, given the significant volume of Scottish arrivals down under, another ethnic associational tier—manifested in the plethora of Caledonian societies— took its place and was strengthened, with leisure activism thus rising to the fore. In combination, the cases of the Antipodes and Asia, therefore, strongly emphasize the importance of recognizing the types of migrants, the timing of their arrival and the respective social and historical contexts of the location under investigation in an assessment of ethnic associational culture. Ultimately, then, Scottish clubs and societies were shaped more by New World dynamics than old world traditions. Within the context of the Scots’ ethnic associational activism, one key point remains: the role of diaspora, particularly the homeland-diaspora relationship. The introduction set out three types of diaspora defined through that relationship in term of spatial distance, identifying internal, near and remote diasporas (Figure I.2). What this study has shown, however, is that in terms of the general development of ethnic associationalism, proximity to the homeland played only a very small, if any, role. Scots in Bristol were as likely to formalize an ethnic association as Scots in the small town of Oamaru in New Zealand’s South Island. While proximity to Scotland

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undoubtedly enhanced exchange—letters and newspapers took less time to arrive, and the lower travel costs will have enabled more Scots to return home (even if only temporarily)—the principal patterns of the Scots’ associational behaviour were the same regardless of geographical location, even in the internal diaspora. Ethnic associationalism was a standard response of Scots post-migration; their distance from Scotland was secondary. The primary driver of developments was always migration itself.

Civic Ethnicity The longitudinal framework of this study has enabled the identification of several shifts in the nature and scope of Scottish ethnic associations over time. What commenced as an immigrant group’s culture of charity, fraternity and sociability evolved into a global tradition that, for the most part, served to integrate Scots into the new worlds in which they had settled rather than setting them apart from them.12 Those Scots who were engaged in ethnic clubs and societies tended to be joiners, and many of them joined not simply for love of Scotland, but also because they sought to enhance their personal situation, their standing in the community, establish business partnerships or even increase their political power. This was possible because Scots could champion their ethnicity in a way that effectively transcended it, thus developing a distinct type of ethnicity: civic ethnicity. This is not an ethnicity of a marginalized group, but one that was often a dominant majority in the context of British colonial settlement both formal and informal. Civic ethnicity was much stronger in generating benefits from associational behaviour than ethnicity could ever have been on its own. This is not intended to downplay the role of ethnic ties as such: they are foundational to civic ethnicity as critical building blocks. By employing a civic ethnicity, however, Scots enabled themselves to extend the associational net beyond their own bounds and, by means of that extension, maximize the reach of the networks of which they were part as well as, at least potentially, the benefits derived from them. Evidence relating to other ethnic groups suggests that they too were aware of the value of civic ethnicity—in fact, we have learned of some groups promoting it through collaborations with the Scots, who were seen as particularly successful in employing it. Given the early timing of the Scots’ use of civic ethnicity through ethnic associationalism, however, they clearly spearheaded its development. The extent to which they were able to maintain it globally, over time, and through

12 The cases that have been made for a defensive ethnicity, for instance with respect to the Caledonian Society of Melbourne, have, I would argue, been overstated due to a failure to recognize fully how ethnicity and civility nonetheless operated together. See Sullivan, ‘Scots by Association’.

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diverse types of associational activism, cements their pioneering role in the facilitation of civic ethnicity. Finally, and at the most foundational level, it was also through civic ethnicity that an enduring Scottish diasporic network was formed and maintained. It span the globe and, as we have seen, was maintained and consolidated through an intricate net of communications, personal letters that were exchanged over vast distances, Scottish community magazines and, of course, at a structural level, through Scottish clubs and societies directly. These facilitated the development of a global Scottish world that both Scots living abroad and at home could see themselves a part of. Anderson’s conceptualization of imagined communities clearly resonates here.13 But the present study allows us to go further than that: what we have seen is the social network par excellence before the Social Network. It did not require internet access or the ability to communicate instantaneously in 140 characters. What it rested on even in the earliest days was structures that enabled migrants—as diaspora agents—to actively maintain connections. Ethnic associations provided just such a structure and the Scots were their earliest champions.

13 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 1991).

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These are the newspapers cited in footnotes, a much broader spectrum of papers from the archives set out in the introduction have, however, been utilized. British and Irish Isles Aberdeen Evening Express Aberdeen Journal Belfast News-Letter Bristol Mercury Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh) Chelmsford Chronicle Dublin Evening Mail Dumfries and Galloway Standard Dundee Courier Dundee, Perth and Cupar Advertiser Edinburgh Evening News Elgin Courier Evening Telegraph and Post (Dundee) Evening Telegraph (Dundee) Freeman’s Journal (Dublin) Glasgow Herald The Graphic (London) Inverness Courier Islington Gazette John o’ Groat Journal Leeds Intelligencer London Evening Advertiser London Standard Morning Chronicle (London) Morning Post (London) Norfolk Chronicle (Norwich) The Scotsman Stirling Observer Sussex Advertiser (Lewes) Western Daily Press (Bristol) York Herald Africa Advertiser of East Africa (Nairobi) Beira News Beira Post Bulawayo Chronicle East African Standard (Mombasa) Indian Voice (Nairobi) Izwi Labantu (East London)

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Szazs, Ferenc Morton, Scots in the North American West, 1790–1917 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000). Tamarkin, Mordechai, ‘The Cape Afrikaners and the British Empire from the Jameson Raid to the South African War’, in Donal Lowry (ed.), The South African War Reappraised (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000). Tampke, Jürgen, The Germans in Australia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). Taylor, Justine, A Cup of Kindness: The History of the Royal Scottish Corporation, a London Charity, 1603–2003 (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2003). Thernstrom, Stephan, Ann Orlov and Oscar Handlin (eds), Harvard Encyclopaedia of American Ethnic Groups (2nd edn., Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980). Thompson, Jack, Ngoni, Xhosa and Scot (Zomba: Kachere Books, 2007). Tölölyan, Khachig, ‘Beyond the Homeland: From Exilic Nationalism to Diasporic Transnationalism’, in Allon Gal, Athena S. Leoussi and Anthony D. Smith (eds), The Call of the Homeland: Diaspora Nationalisms, Past and Present (Leiden: Brill, 2010). —, ‘Diasporama’, Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 9, 2 (2000), pp. 309–10. —, ‘The Nation-state and its Others: In Lieu of a Preface’, Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 1, 1 (1991), pp. 3–7. —, ‘Diasporama’, Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 3, 2 (1994), p. 235. Tomlinson, B.R., ‘From Campsie to Kedgeree: Scottish Enterprise, Asian Trade and the Company Raj’, Modern Asian Studies, 36, 4 (2002), pp. 769–91. Van Vugt, William E., British Buckeyes: The English, Scots, and Welsh in Ohio, 1700–1900 (Kent: Kent State University Press, 2006). Vance, Michael, ‘Powerful Pathos: The Triumph of Scottishness in Nova Scotia’, in Celeste Ray (ed.), Transatlantic Scots (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005). Vertovec, Steven, Transnationalism (Abingdon: Routledge, 2009). —, ‘Three Meanings of Diaspora: Exemplified among South Asian Religions’, Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 6, 3 (1997), pp. 277–99. Vincent, Ted, The Rise and Fall of American Sport (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994). Wallace, Stuart, John Stuart Blackie: Scottish Scholar and Patriot (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006). Wharton, David, The Alaska Gold Rush (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972). Whatley, Harlan D., Two Hundred Fifty Years, 1756–2006: The History of the St Andrew’s Society of the State of New York (New York: Saint Andrew’s Society of New York State, 2008). Wills, Walter H. and R.J. Barrett (eds), The Anglo-African Who’s Who and Biographical Sketch-Book (London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.). Wilson, David A. (ed.), Irish Nationalism in Canada (Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2009). Withers, Charles, Urban Highlanders: Highland-Lowland Migration and Urban Gaelic Culture, 1700–1900 (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 1998).

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Websites Caledonian Society of Cincinnati, http://www.caledoniansociety.org/societyhistory.html Singapore Infopedia, National Library of Singapore, http://infopedia.nl.sg Royal Caledonian Ball, London, http://www.royalcaledonianball.com Dictionary of Scottish Architects, http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk Scots’ Charitable Society of Boston, http://scots-charitable.org St Andrew’s Society of Belfast, http://www.standrewssocietybelfast.co.uk St Andrew’s Society of Montreal, http://standrews.qc.ca/society-archives-history Te Ara, Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz

Index Index

Note for readers St Andrew’s and Caledonian societies, the associations at the heart of this study which run throughout, are not referenced unless a specific association is referred to in the text. Smaller Scottish associations are listed individually as mentioned in the text. For ease of reference, locations are listed under their respective country. Countries and town names are given as per their original used at the time of reference; if they have different names at present, this is given in brackets for information only. Aberdeen Royal Infirmary 183 Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine Association of London 202 Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine Society of Cape Town 143 acculturation 4 Addis, Charles Stewart 176–80, 188 Africa 2, 11, 19, 21, 24–5, 38, 45, 131–59, 162, 213, 215, 218, 223, 228, 233 African Blue Books 134–5 agency 4, 8–9, 13, 45, 97 see also diaspora agents agency house 163 Agricultural and Pastoral Society 121 agricultural labourers 116 Albert, the Prince Consort 44 almoner 82, 180 America’s Making 96 American Community Survey 61–2 American Iona Society 21 American Revolution 23, 63–4 see also War of Independence

ancestry 53, 61–4, 126 Anderson, Arthur 113 Angus and Mearns Society of Glasgow 212 Ann Comunn Gaidgealach 197 Annual Colonial Reports 134 Annual General Meeting 109, 146–51, 178, 198, 223 Argyllshire Association of London 203 Ashanti 145 Asia 6, 17, 25, 147, 160–92, 194, 228, 233 assisted emigration 103 associations membership 18, 26, 41, 43–4, 47, 54, 57, 69, 71, 73, 85–6, 88–9, 97, 114, 119, 124, 141, 146–8, 155, 172–4, 176–9, 184, 194–5, 199–200, 205–6, 208, 210, 212–3, 216, 222, 226, 230–1 objectives 41–2, 47, 50, 69, 73, 85, 105, 119, 146, 180, 198, 202–3, 205, 210, 213–5, 222, 226, 228 platforms for political engagement 159

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Index president 46, 52, 70–1, 81–3, 95, 100, 111, 114, 139–40, 143–4, 148–9, 151–2, 173, 177–8, 182, 187–8, 190, 195, 198, 204, 208, 222 associational activism 26, 228, 232–3, 235 athletes 94–5, 122 Atholl, Duke and Duchess of 38 Australia 14, 20, 23–4, 94, 98–130, 133, 156–7, 206, 215–6, 219 Australia, locations in Adelaide 109–14, 117, 119, 123, 127 Albert District 119 Bendigo 121 Bunyip 125 Gawler 119 Hobart 116–7 Kyneton 99 Launceston 114–7 Melbourne 99, 108–9, 121, 156 Milicent 119 Mount Gambier 98, 100, 119 New South Wales 102–4, 126, 128–9, 226 Port Adelaide 119 Port Augusta 119 Port Pirie 119 Queensland 102, 104 South Australia 98, 102, 109–14, 119, 123 Sydney 108, 126, 225–6 Tasmania 102, 114–7 Victoria 99, 102–4, 114, 118, 121, 125, 128, 156 Wallup 121 Western Australia 102 Australian Caledonian Association 123 Australian Scottish regiments 125 Australian Senate 128 Ayrshire Society of Glasgow 212 Balcarras, Countess Dowager of 40 balls 26, 39, 41, 58, 92, 171, 173, 184–91, 194–5, 205, 228, 233 see also Caledonian Ball, St Andrew’s Day Ball

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Banff and Kincardine Society of Cape Town 143 Bannockburn, Battle of 87, 108, 211 Barkly, Sir Henry 47 Basutholand 135 see also Lesotho Belfast Benevolent Society of St Andrew 56 Belfast Scottish Association 1, 56 Belfast Scottish Unionist Club 213 Belfield, Sir Henry Conway 154 benevolence 23–4, 36, 43–4, 50, 52–3, 56, 58–9, 69, 89, 91–2, 97, 119, 129–30, 146, 173, 180–4, 186, 196, 228, 232–3 Blackie, John Stuart 208–9 Blair, Alexander 116–7 Blue Lake Highland Pipe Band 100 Board of United Charities 82–3 Boers 25, 156–7 Boer War 45, 140 Bonney, Joseph 116 Botha, Louis 157–8 bounty ticket 115, 117 Boxer Rebellion 166 Breadalbane Association of London 202 Bridge, Cyprian A.G. 185 Bristol Corporation 52 British and Irish Isles 22, 28–9, 31, 63, 227 British East Africa 2, 25, 144–5, 149, 152–3, 159 see also Kenya British Empire 2, 5, 42, 64, 101–2, 132–4, 166, 168, 220, 222 British Isles 4, 24, 26, 29, 36, 54, 63, 101, 212 British Malaya 154 British North America 64–5 British South Africa Company 142, 157 Brooklyn Caledonian Club 93 Brown, Robert 221 Bruce, Robert the 144 Buchanan, Joseph 115 Buchanan, Thomas 44 Buccleuch, Duchess of 40 Buccleuch and Queensberry, Duke of 210–1

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Bureau of Charities 82 burial plots 80–1 Burma, location in Rangoon 176, 190 Burns anniversary 47, 91, 199, 201 Burns Association 95 Burns Club of Belfast 57 Dunedin 195 London 47 Newcastle 55 Burns dinner 179 Burns Federation 222 Burns memorial 226 Burns Night 9, 143 Burns, Robert 21, 41, 57, 86–7, 143, 179, 187, 226 Bursary 45–6, 144, 154, 181, 211–2 Bute, Earl of 1 Caithness Association, London 202 Caithness and Sutherland Association, Dunedin 195 Caledonian Association of Macleod 91 Caledonian Asylum 42 Caledonian Ball 38, 41, 92, 151, 173, 184, 189, 228 Caledonian Games 20, 23–4, 43, 91–6, 106, 118–24, 130 see also Highland Games Caledonian Society of Bristol 38, 51–4 Bunyip 125 Cape Town 138–9,142 Cincinnati 89 East Africa (Nairobi) 2–3, 151–5 East London 137, 142 Gwelo and District 143 Graham’s Town 155 Johannesburg 140–3, 156 Kaffrarian 137 Melbourne 121–2 Montreal 90 Mount Gambier 100 New Plymouth 199 Pretoria 140, 142, 157 South Australia 119–20, 123

Toronto 90 Zanzibar 146, 152 Camanachd Club 48 Cambridge, Duke of 44 camp, Sons of Scotland 85–9 Campbell, Malcolm 70 Canada 21, 23, 36, 47, 60–97, 133, 197, 215–6, 226 Canada, locations in Alberta 91 Amherstburg 47 Bytown 47 Edmonton 216 Fort Macleod 91 Glengarry 92 Goderich 47, 87 Halifax 71 Hamilton 47, 74, 84 Johnstown 47 Kingston 47 Manitoba 65 Montreal 23, 47, 72–4, 77–80, 82, 90–1, 196 Niagara 47 Nova Scotia 65, 71, 204 Ontario 65, 87, 92 Perth 47 Pictou 47 Prince Edward Island 47, 65 Quebec 47, 78 St John, N.B. 80, 84 Toronto 23, 47, 74–5, 81, 85–6, 90, 92–3, 95, 226, 232 Vancouver 21, 181 Canadian Confederation 61, 65 Cape Colony 24, 47, 133, 140, 142, 155 Caribbean 70 Carnegie, Andrew 92, 216 Celtic Chair 208, 215 cemetery 78, 81, 177 census 28–33, 61–7, 101–2, 133–4, 164–6 Ceylon 166, 173, 182 chaplain 71, 143–4 charity 18–19, 26, 40–1, 43–4, 53, 69–84, 87, 90, 92, 119, 173, 180–4, 186, 191, 211–2, 230, 234 Chicago Fire 81

Index Chief Secretary of Uganda 155 Chile, location in Valparaiso 223 China 160–92, 216 China, location in Amoy (Xiamen) 190 Beijing 176 Canton 168–9, 190 Chefoo (Yantai) 190 Foochow 190 Hankow 176, 223 Sawtow 190 Shanghai 25, 165–7, 170–1, 174–91, 200, 223 Tientsin (Tianjin) 176, 190 Weihaiwei 166, 178, 190 choir 89 Christmas 121 civic-mindedness 15 Civil War, United States 93 civility 7, 15, 54, 58–9, 91, 96, 112, 130, 159, 200, 205, 224, 226–8, 230 clan 85, 96, 185, 187, 196–7, 214 clan societies 231 clandestine 89 Clann Na H-Alba 214 clannish 1, 3–5, 45 Clarence, Duke of 38 Clark, Robert Douglas 138 class 7–8, 34, 55–6, 58, 97, 109, 115, 117, 140, 159, 170 clearances 12, 58 coalfields, Wales 29 coffee house 41–2, 69 collective action 129–30, 224 College of Justice 220 Colonial Land and Emigration Office 113 Colonisation Circular 111–2 Comunn Gaidhealach of Natal 143 Comunn nan Albannach of London 214 concert 58, 91, 119, 138, 143, 151, 182, 204–5, 208–9, 214 constructivism 9 conventions, 86, 95, 197 conviviality 14, 23 Crofters’ Aid Committee 207

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cultural traditions 16, 209 curling 57, 80 cycle races 123 Cypress Hills Cemetery, New York 81 Dalkeith, Earl of 204 Daughters of Scotia 96, 196–8 Declaration of Arbroath 60 Declaration of Independence 60, 70 devolution 222 Diamond Fields Scottish Association 140–2, 157 diamond mining 133, 140 diaspora actions 12–13 agents 4, 8, 12–4, 17, 19, 36, 130, 226, 228, 231, 235 internal 14, 26, 193, 197, 207–13, 217, 224, 234 involuntary 13 near 13, 16, 21–2, 27–59, 64, 97, 108, 129, 201, 204, 207, 214, 224, 228, 232–3 remote 13–14, 36, 39, 50, 204, 233 settler 13 sojourner 13 structures 12–14 diasporan behaviour 48, 227 diasporic consciousness 81, 184, 217 digitized newspapers 18–21, 136 Dilke, Charles 2 dinner 2, 18, 26, 38, 43, 45, 56, 72, 90, 108, 149, 150–7, 160, 168–71, 179, 182, 186, 188–91, 195, 204, 216–18, 220, 223, 233 Dinnie, Donald 122 Directory of New York Charities 82 dislocation 3 Disruption, Church of Scotland 103, 131 Dobbie, Ewart 148 Dobbie, Joseph 222 domestic servants 116 Donaldson, Thomas Leverton 39 Donovan, Pat 94 Dove, P.E. 132 Dumbartonshire Association of London 202

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Dumfriesshire Association of London 202 Dumfriesshire Benevolent Society 202 Duncan, Alexander 137 Duncan, Robert 222 Dundas, Henry 2, 161 Dundas, Lady Jane 40 Dundee Royal Infirmary 183 Dutch 25, 65, 159, 170 East Africa Protectorate 135, 145, 152, 154 see also British East Africa, Kenya East African Rifles 148 Earl Grey 111–3 East India Company (EIC) 2, 31, 26, 161–2, 164, 169 East India House 161 East Indiamen 164 Edinburgh Castle 48, 156 education 4, 43–5, 57, 131–2, 138, 143–4, 154, 202–3, 208–9, 211, 213, 226 eligibility assessment 87 elite 7, 24–5, 34, 43–4, 56, 71, 90, 132, 152, 180, 191, 217, 232–3 elite associational activism 232 Ellis Island 90 emigration 109–15, 117, 125, 129, 140–1, 207 see also immigration, migration emigration agent 82, 113 emigration schemes 102–3 emigration season 80 engineering 55, 174 England 1–2, 27–59, 67, 109, 112, 207, 215, 218–9, 221 England, locations in Barrow-in-Furness 31–2 Birkenhead 32 Birmingham 50 Bootle 32 Bristol 2, 22, 38, 48, 51–4, 233 Cheshire 32 Cumberland 32 Durham 32 Essex 32 Gateshead 32

Gillingham 32 Hampshire 32 Hertfordshire 32 Hornsey 32 Hull 55 Kent 32 Leeds 54 Liverpool 2, 32, 52, 116, 207 London 2, 5, 13, 16, 22, 28, 31–50, 54, 58, 69, 71, 84, 92, 99, 130, 142, 144, 146–7, 161, 163–4, 176, 186, 194, 201–4, 207, 214, 230 Middlesex 32 Newcastle upon Tyne 22, 32, 52, 54–5 Northumberland 32 Norwich 22, 48–51 Sheffield 54 South Shields 32 Sunderland 32 Surrey 32 Tynemouth 32 Tyneside 54, 205 Wallasey 32 Westmoreland 32 entertainment 23, 39, 56–7, 85, 89–90, 92, 94, 114, 119–21, 123, 143, 191, 193, 197, 199, 210, 228 Established Church of Scotland 131 ethnic associational activism 26, 232–3 ethnic community activism 70 ethnic identity 6–10, 12, 14, 17, 72, 96, 228, 231 primordial 8 ethnic origin 26, 63 ethnic-civic interstice 16, 26, 112 eviction 11, 214 exile 10–11, 197, 216 family migration 99 Federated Caledonian Society of South Africa 158 Federated Council of Scottish Associations in London 47 Federated Malaya States 166, 183 federation 47–8, 96, 123, 128, 130, 158, 222 field athletics 94, 124

Index Fife Association of London 202 First World War 4, 38, 45, 47, 119, 142, 147, 151–2, 158, 173, 182–3, 186, 189, 207, 221–2 Foord, John 60 Forfarshire Association of London 202 formal sociability 41, 146, 224, 228 France, location in Rouen 183 fraudulent relief claims 53 Free Church of Scotland 103, 131–2 free merchant 162, 164, 168 free passage 110, 112–3, 116, 141 front 183 frontier zone 25, 139–40, 158–9, 213 functional tiers of Scottish ethnic associationalism 26, 228–34 fur trade 23, 64 Gaelic language 108, 204–5, 209, 214 Gaelic Service Committee Gaelic Society 21, 201 Gaelic Society of Dunedin 195 Glasgow 208–9 Inverness 209–10 London 201–2 New Zealand 204–6 Perth 208–9 Galloway Association of London 202 Gambia 134 Gascoigne, Sir William 185 gender 8, 26, 166, 193–201, 223 generation status 63 generational 9, 19, 41, 90, 206 German Club Concordia 189 German East Africa 152 German Society of Montreal 78, 83 Germany 48, 51, 63, 138 Glasgow and Lanarkshire Association of London 202 Glasgow Bank Relief Fund 6 Glasgow Dumfriesshire Society 210–3 Glasgow Highlanders’ Pipe Band 198 Glasgow Missionary Society 131–2 Glasgow Nithsdale Society 210 gold 99, 103, 108, 118, 133, 140, 159

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gold rush 114, 118 Govan, William 132 Grand Camp 86, 88, 95 see also Sons of Scotland Grand Lodge 196–7 see also Daughters of Scotia Grand Trunk Railway 74 grandstand 122 Grant, James 218 Greenwich and Chelsea Hospitals 37 greetings 139, 156, 190–2 Guthrie & Co. 163 Guthrie, Alexander 163 Haddington, Thomas Hamilton Earl of 57 haggis 149, 160, 188, 190 Haig, Archie Crosbie 98–100 Halloween 91, 143, 179, 199 Harland, Edward 56 Harris, Walter B. 160 heraldry 215, 218, 222 heritage 8–9, 23, 60–1, 139, 155, 178, 214 High Court of Chancery 36–7 Highland crofters 206–7 Highland Games 9, 18, 20, 41, 57, 92, 94, 96, 104, 106, 118, 142 see also Caledonian Games Highland Land Reform Association 214 Highland Society of Glengarry 92 New York 92 London 42–7, 201–2 New South Wales 124–9 Port Elizabeth 143 Highlanders 11, 42, 47, 65, 110, 126, 198, 202, 208, 214 Highlands 7, 12, 42–3, 46, 79, 113, 160, 199, 201–2, 207–9, 214 Highlands and Islands of Scotland 42, 201, 207 Hingtae 169 Hobart Town Immigration Society 116 Home of the Montreal St Andrew’s Society 77–80 Homecoming 11, 217 homecoming trips 197–8

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homeland 8–9, 12–14, 22, 36, 58, 183, 209, 214, 223–4, 228, 230–1, 233 homeland referent 201–7, 224 Hong Kong 25, 160–92, 201, 223 Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) 176 Hong-merchants 169 Hope, Major John Augustus 221 hospital 34–5, 37, 40, 50, 53, 80, 82, 182–3, 199, 222 Hudson’s Bay Company 64 Hunter, Sir David 138 iconography 6–7, 9 identity 2, 4–5, 7–10, 12, 14, 17, 36, 41, 48, 72, 96, 126, 140, 205–6, 224, 228, 231 active vs ascribed 4, 9 circumstantial 9, 36 instrumental 9, 36, 226 public vs private 9 see also ethnic identity immigration 67, 90, 103, 114–7, 204 see also emigration, migration Imperial British East Africa Company 145 India 25, 36, 161–2, 164, 166, 168, 216 India, locations in Bengal 50, 161, 164 Bombay 47, 162, 190 Calcutta 36, 162, 168, 172, 176, 183, 190 Madras 36, 44, 47, 190 Indian Empire 166 indigenous peoples 25, 140 Indonesia, location in Batavia (Jakarta) 170 Inland Navigation Company 74 integration 4, 104, 124 of women into associations 196, 200 inter-associational 81, 84 interlocked ethnics 5 internal migration 64, 213 see also internal diaspora Inverness-shire Association of London 202

Ireland 4, 22, 28–33, 51, 55–7, 67, 109, 112, 207, 214 Ireland, locations in Dublin 56–8 Irish Home Rule 217 Irish Protestant Benevolent Society of Montreal 78 Irish Sea 29 Irish War of Independence 29 Jacobite risings 1 Jameson Raid 142 Japan 168 Japan, locations in Kobe 190–1 Nagasaki 191 Tokyo 171 Yokohama 171, 190–1 Jameson, Leander Starr 142 Jardine Matheson & Co. 163–4, 169 Jardine, William 169 Java 223 Johnston, Christopher Nicholson 220 jute industry 168 Kaffraria 131, 137 Keith, John 140 Kent and Strathearn, HRH Edward the Duke of 44 Kenya 25, 135, 151, 154, 223 see also British East Africa Kenya, locations in Kiambu 148 Mombasa 144 Nairobi 143–55, 159 Nakuru 2, 151 kilted regiments 125 Kings African Rifles 150 Kinloch Bequest 36–7 Kinloch, William 36–7 kinship 3, 33, 99, 164, 192, 226 Kintyre Club of Glasgow 212 Knox, John 144 Kruger, Paul 155 labour opportunities 31 lad o’ pairts 45

Index Lake Victoria 155 language 42, 108, 202, 208, 214 see also Gaelic language Lauder, Sir Harry 100 League of Mercy 147 League of Scottish Nationalists 214 lectures 89, 198, 208–9 Lewis Association of Glasgow 212 Lewis Association of New York 96 Lewis Gaelic Society of Vancouver 21 library 91–2, 119, 141, 199 Liddesdale Benevolent Society of London 203 Liverpool Society of Highlanders 207 Livingston, Philip 70 Livingstone, David 131, 158 local roots 41, 213 Lockhart, James Haldane Stewart 178, 180 lodge 85, 89, 95–6, 98, 196–7 London Scottish Volunteer Corps 45 Lord Advocate for Scotland 210 Lott, Trent 60 Lovedale Institution 131–2 Lowlanders 47, 64, 126, 224 Loyalists 64 Macao 164 Macdonald, Sir John Alexander 60 Macdonald, Sir Hector 143 Mackenzie, Alexander 61 Mackinnon, Donald 208 Mackinnon, Sir William 145, 162 Macquarie, Lachlan 226 Mafeking Scottish Association 143 Malawi see Nyasaland Malaysia, locations in Ipoh 190 Johor 173 Kuala Lumpur 171, 183, 190, 216 Malacca 190 Sandakan 190 Selangor 177, 183 Maritzburg College 138 masonic lodge 89, 95 Matthews, George 84 Maxwell, Sir John R. Heron 204

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McMurtrie, James 52 memories 6, 149, 226 menu 149 metropole 22, 40, 50, 55, 99, 203 Michie, Alexander 176 migration 3–5, 10, 14, 18, 22–4, 28–9, 31, 33, 35–6, 56, 63–5, 67, 80, 99, 101–2, 108, 130, 133, 140, 184, 206, 213, 224, 228, 233–4 see also emigration, immigration migrants first-generation 8, 22 militarism 155 mineral revolution 133 missionary 24, 131–2 monthly dues 87 Montreal, steamer 77–9 Montrose, Duchess of 40 Morayshire Club of London 203 Morris, Richard 70 Mount Gambier’s Scottish Company 98, 100 Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto 81 Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal 78 Mozambique, location in Lourenço Marques (Maputo) 142 Mungo, Dick 36 mutual aid society 85 mutual benefit society 34 Napier Commission 207 Napoleonic Wars 64 Natal 131, 134, 137–9, 143 Natal Government Railways Natal Royal Rifles 139 National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights 132 national regiment 125–9 networks 3, 15, 33, 36, 38, 161–4, 167–9, 190, 230, 234 New Fleinfontein Mine 158 New Plymouth Scottish Women’s Club 198–200 New Statistical Account for Scotland 37 New World 4, 8, 16, 22–3, 227, 233–4 New York Caledonian Club 93

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New Zealand 2, 5, 11, 20, 24, 99, 98–130 New Zealand, locations in Auckland 106–7, 114, 117, 199 Christchurch 120 Dunedin 2, 99, 103, 118, 120–1, 195 Gore 193–4 Invercargill 120 New Plymouth 99, 198–200 Oamaru 120, 233 Otago 99, 103, 118, 120, 133, 204, 206 Southland 103, 204 Thames 99 Timaru 120 Wellington 103, 120, 198 West Coast 103 New Zealand Athletic Union 123 New Zealand Company 103 New Zealand League of Mothers 198 Newland, V.M. 156 Nigeria 132, 135 Nigeria, location in Calabar 132 Lagos 135 North America 21, 23–4, 58–9, 60–97, 104–5, 107–8, 118, 129–30, 146, 159, 180, 184, 186, 200, 223, 232–3 North American United Caledonian Association 95 North British Railway Company 138 North British Society 71 Northern Ireland 29–30 Northern Ireland, location in Belfast 1, 22, 26, 54–8, 213–4 Lurgan 99 Norway 22, 51 Northwest Company 64 nostalgia 7 Novar, Sir Hector Munro of 161 Nyasaland 134–5 Nyasaland, location in Zomba 144 OCR 20 Opium War 163–4 Orange River Colony 134 Order of Scottish Clans 21, 85, 88, 196–7

Orkney and Shetland Society of London 203 Otago Association 103 parish 37, 49, 211, 213 parish minister 46 parish relief 34, 49, 69 patronage 2–3, 15, 36, 162, 167, 206, 226 royal 38, 44, 92 patronage networks 33, 161 penal colony 106, 226 pension 37, 40, 56, 212 pensioners 37, 77 military 43 Perthshire Association of London 203 Perthshire Society of Glasgow 212 philanthropy 23–4, 39, 48, 75, 85, 90–1, 105, 108, 119, 129, 228 Philippines, locations in Cebu 190 Iloilo 190 Manila 190 pipe band 100, 104–5, 198 Pirie, Duncan 218 plague 81 Plantation of Ulster 29 plantations 64 politicization 26, 152, 155, 193, 207, 214–5, 217, 219, 224 poor relief 52, 69, 96 Presbyterian Hospital, New York 80 Prince of Wales 44, 182, 191 prisoners of war 48 private sphere 9, 17, 194 Privy Council 214 promissory note 115 Protectorate of East Africa 134 public sphere 9 pull-factor 99, 103, 133 Raeburn, Stewart 158 Raffles Hotel 189–90 see also Singapore Railway Institute, Nairobi 149–50 Red Cross 181 regiment 37, 45, 47, 124, 132, 156–7, 187 see also national regiment

Index Renfrewshire Association of London 203 return passage 54, 56, 74 Rhodes, Cecil 132, 142 Rhodesia 25, 134–6, 141–3, 157–8, 216 Rhodesia, locations in Bulawayo 134, 142–3, 156 Gwelo 142–3 Kasama 216 Salisbury 134, 142–4 Umtali (Mutare) 142 Richelieu Steamboat Company 74 Robe, Frederick H. 111–2 Ross and Cromarty and Sutherland Association, London 203 Ross, John 137 rotation 149 Royal Aberdeen Hospital for Sick Children 183 Royal Caledonian Schools 39 Royal Charter 34–5 Royal Scots Corporation 39 Sadler, James Hayes 153 sailors 43, 46, 183 Sanquhar and Kirkconnel Association 213 Scotch Flats 31 Scotland 2, 4–8, 11–12, 22, 26, 28–9, 31, 33, 37, 40, 42, 45, 54–8, 73, 79, 92, 100, 102–3, 107, 109–17, 119, 130, 138–9, 141, 144, 156, 164, 166, 182–3, 198, 200, 207–23, 228, 233–4 Scotland, locations in Aberdeen 46, 47, 116, 158, 183, 205, 218 Alloa 117, 198 Arbuthnot Ardelve 46 Auchterarder 117 Cupar 117 Crieff 117 Doune 117 Dundee 5, 31, 128, 183, 197, 214 Dunfermline 117 Edinburgh 48, 117, 138, 140, 142, 149, 154, 156, 176, 182, 208, 210, 213, 215–24

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Elgin 117 Forres 117 Glasgow 6, 14, 54, 56, 60, 78–9, 95, 117, 131, 197–8, 202, 208–13, 215, 218, 222 Govan 222 Inverness 117, 180, 209–10 Isle of Skye 79 Kintail 46 Kintyre 79 Lanark 79 Lanarkshire 116, 202 Linlithgowshire (West Lothian) 138 Lochalsh 46 Lothian 110 Macduff 158 Melrose 99 Midlothian 221 Nairn 117 Orkney 113, 203 Perth 79, 209 Perthshire 79 Portree 207 Rothes 117 Roxburghshire 99 Shetland 113, 203 Stirling 117 Scotophobia 1 Scots Box 34–40 Scots’ Charitable Society of Boston 69 Scots Hospital or Corporation 34–40 Scots Society, Norwich 48–51 Scots’ Society of St Andrew, Hull 55 Scots’ Thistle Society 95 Scott, Alexander MacCallum Scott, D.C.R. 154 Scott, Sir Walter 76, 188, 218 Scottish Australasian 108, 124, 126, 220 Scottish Border Counties Association of London 203 Scottish food 9 Scottish Hall, London 37 Scottish Home Rule 214, 222 Scottish Horse 45, 156–7 Scottish Mothers’ Union 198 Scottish National Party (SNP) 217 Scottish National War Memorial 48

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Scottish New Zealander 193 Scottish Old People’s Home 75–7 Scottish Parliament 214 Scottish Patriotic Association 219, 222 Scottish Vernacular Association 222 Scottishness 6–8, 36, 41, 48, 61, 63, 100, 127, 186–7, 216, 224 seasonal worker 28 secret society Secretary for Scotland 218, 220 self-help 23, 75 sentimentalism 225–6 settler colony 226 Shaw, Alexander 221 Shaw, Sir Archibald McInnes 222 Shaw, James 99 Shell Mound Park 94 Shetland Emigration Fund 113 shinty 48 ship-building 55 sick benefit 87 Sierra Leone 134 Singapore 25, 160–92, 215, 223 site of memory 86, 121, 200 Skye Association of Glasgow 212 Skye Association of New York 207 slave trade 11, 131n Slessor, Mary 132 Smiles, Samuel 75 Smith & Caird 31 Smith, William Burns 95 sociability 14, 38–9, 41, 47–8, 58–9, 85, 90–2, 94, 119–20, 140, 146, 184, 186, 209–10, 212, 224, 228, 230, 234 Social Club of the Glasgow Dumfriesshire Society 212 Social Network 235 socializing 41, 196 Society of Universal Good-Will 48, 51 socio-cultural practices 41 sojourner 13, 25, 166–7, 176, 191, 233 soldier 43, 46–7, 50, 125, 127–8, 132, 156, 164, 182–3, 200, 221 Sons of England 88 Sons of Scotland 21, 85–9, 95, 197, 231 South Africa 25, 38, 131–59, 215, 218, 223

South Africa, locations in Alexandra 141 Aliwal North 139 Benoni 158 Bloemfontein 139 Cape Town 139 Dundee 141 Durban 137–9 East London 137, 142 Eastern Cape 25, 131, 138, 140 Eshowe 141 Ficksburg 141 Graham’s Town 155 Johannesburg 45, 140–3, 156 Kimberley 140–2 King William’s Town 137 Kokstad 139, 141 Kroonstad 141 Krugersdorp 158 Ladysmith 139 Mafeking 142–3 Newcastle 141 Pietermaritzburg 137–9, 142, 156 Port Elizabeth 142–3 Potchefstroom 141 Rand 133, 140 Simonstown 142 Transkei 131 Vryhid 141 South African War 38, 133, 141–2, 155–8 South Pacific 27 sport 48, 57, 85, 92, 95–6, 118, 120–4, 143, 150–1, 205, 231 Sprigg, Sir Gordon 155 Sri Lanka, location in Colombo 173, 182, 190 St Andrew Society, Edinburgh 182, 213, 215–23 St Andrew Society, Glasgow 215, 218 St Andrew’s Day 2, 18, 34, 38, 50, 72, 106, 108–9, 114, 138–9, 142, 149, 151–5, 157, 168–73, 176–7, 182, 185, 188, 190–2, 194–5, 199, 215, 228, 230 St Andrew’s Day Ball 171, 177, 182, 185, 190 St Andrew’s Immigration Society 114–5, 117

Index St Andrew’s Society of Adelaide 109–14, 117 Auckland 106–7, 117 Australia Felix 108 Bangkok 171–2, 177, 186 Charleston 70, 74, 81 Hong Kong 171, 174–82, 185–6, 190, 223 Illinois 75–7, 81 Memphis 81 Montreal 72–4, 77Negri Sembilan 183 New Orleans 81 Philadelphia 70, 91 Selangor 183 Shanghai 174–82 Singapore 170, 172–3, 182, 187, 189–90 St John, N.B. 80 Toronto 74, 81 St David’s Society 81 St George’s Society 82–3 St Louis Exposition 94 St Luke’s Hospital 80 St Patrick’s Society 69n Stevenson, Robert Louis 3, 8, 27 Stewart, John 222 Stewart Society 222 Stewart, Sir Donald 145 Stirlingshire Society, Glasgow 212 Stordy, Robert John 148–9 Straits Settlement 162, 166, 172 Strange, Sir Thomas 44 subscriber democracy 14, 44, 129 Sussex, HRH Augustus Frederick the Duke of 44 Sutherland Association, Glasgow 212 Sutherland, Thomas 176 systematic colonization 102 Taiwan, location in Taipeh 191 Tanganyika 135 Taranaki War 99 Tartan Day 60–1 Tasman Sea 99, 108 tavern 35, 38, 41–2, 69 telegram 6, 139, 142, 215

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Territorial Force 45 Thailand, location in Bangkok 171–2, 177, 186, 190 Thomson, Adam 70 Tiree Association, Glasgow 212 transnational 6, 12, 18–20, 46, 50, 95, 167, 192 charity 180–4 Transvaal 142, 158 Transvaal Scottish 143 Treaty of Nanking 164 Treaty of Waitangi 103 Tsingtao (Qingdao) 191 Tullibardine, Lord 45, 156 Uganda 134–5, 144, 146, 148, 152, 155 Uganda, location in Entebbe 155 Uganda Railway 148–9 Ulster 29 Ulster-Scots 64 Union of 1707 29, 35, 58, 64, 220 Union of South Africa 157 United States 4, 17, 23, 27, 60–97, 133, 196, 216 United States, locations in Baltimore 226 Barre 226 Bisbee 91 Boston 16, 69–71, 93 California 64, 94, 133 Charleston 70, 74, 81 Chicago 75, 77, 81 Connecticut 65 Detroit 93, 196 Georgia 70 Illinois 64, 75, 77, 81 Maine 65 Maryland 64–5 Massachusetts 64–5 Michigan 16, 64–5 Mississippi 60 New Hampshire 65 New York 21, 23, 64–5, 70–2, 75–7, 80–4, 92–3, 96,196–7, 207, 226 North Carolina 65 Ohio 78

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Philadelphia 70, 91, 95, 197, 216 Pennsylvania 64–5 Riverside 75–7 Rhode Island 50, 65 Sacramento 94 San Francisco 81, 94 Savannah 70 South Carolina 64–5, 70 Vermont 65, 226 Virginia 65–6 Yukon 133 University of Edinburgh 138, 208, 213 University of Glasgow 222 urban centres 21, 64, 81, 92, 96, 210

Wallace, Gavin 182 Wallace, William 144, 226 War of Independence, America 70 War of Independence, Ireland 29 war relief 47, 147, 182 Waverley Ball 187–9 West Indies 36 Westminster General Dispensary 28 Whitley Bay & District Society of St Andrew 55 widow 57, 72, 75 Wolff, Gustav Wilhelm 56

vagrancy 33 Van Diemen’s Land 23 see also Tasmania victimhood 11, 13 Victoria Falls 158 Victorian Scottish Union 128

yellow fever epidemic 81 York and Albany, HRH Frederick the Duke of 44 Young, George 210 Young, Sir Arthur 172 Young, Sir H.E.F. 113

Wakefield, Edward Gibbon 102 Wales 28–31, 33–4, 52, 67, 207 Wales, locations in Glamorgan 31

Zambia, location in Lusaka 144 Zanzibar 25, 135, 146, 152 Zimbabwe see Rhodesia

Xhosa 140