Born into the Society
Janette McSporran with Jean Martin and Andrew Kellett at Dunfermline’s 90th.
There are few people in the Society with memories of the pre-war period. Janette McSporran is one of them. Originally from Glasgow, Janette was ‘born into the Society’ – both her parents were very much involved in the early years of the Scottish Country Dance Society. Her father, Capt. Robert Percy Thomson, was one of our founders, present at the Inaugural Meeting in 1923. He fought in the 6th Battalion of the The Highland Light Infantry – the famous HLI – during the First World War, rising to the rank of Captain. He had graduated MA from Glasgow University in 1906 and after the war worked as a solicitor. Through his involvement in music he knew Michael Diack, another of our founders, who suggested he might like to come along to the meeting on 26 November 1923. Janette’s mother, Margaret (Daisy) Campbell, knew Jean Milligan and had danced in her team of dancers before 1923. She then taught in the early years of Summer School. The Thomsons knew the Milligans, living in the same part of the city. While only 3 years old Janette attended Summer School with her mother, who was teaching there in 1933. Janette herself became a pianist at St Andrews. Janette eventually moved to Dunfermline, where she is Branch President and still dances regularly in class and at dances. In this interview with Editor Jimmie Hill she reminisces about many aspects of dancing and the Society. How did your father know Michael Diack? My father was very musical. Not only was he a member of a musical club, he sang in choirs, so maybe that was where he met Mr Diack, who was really very well known in the musical world and not just in Glasgow. My father was also a piper. What do you know of Mr Diack? Well, his arrangements in the early books are classic. I remember Muriel Johnstone years ago saying that she wouldn’t change any of Michael Diack’s harmonies in the early books. She said she would never change anything Diack did. And then after Diack we got Herbert Wiseman. He was Director of Music in Edinburgh, then Director of Music at BBC Scotland. His arrangements are very artistic and very clever. Both Diack and
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Wiseman really were very distinguished people. Wiseman was a ‘very Edinburgh’ sort of person. Later on, Diack and the Society parted company and the Society started publishing its own books.
Percy Thomson, Janette’s father
How involved were your parents in dancing? My father became Secretary of Glasgow Branch because he was a solicitor. There wasn’t much for a solicitor to do in Glasgow in the 1930s. This was during the Depression. My father liked country dancing and he went to St Andrews. As well as the Branch, there were also dancing clubs. My mother was in a little dance group which Miss Milligan had started before the Society was founded. They did both ballroom and country dancing. My parents married in 1929. So when Miss Milligan wanted someone to
