3598 AUTUMN ISSUE 11 AW_08 28/09/2010 23:31 Page 16
Interview During the Arran weekend in June Jimmie Hill interviewed Alastair Aitkenhead, ex-chairman, examiner, adjudicator, popular teacher, and the youngest 90-year-old in the RSCDS. Eightsome Reel. I didn’t know they were called Scottish country dances. Dancing at Jordanhill opened a whole new chapter. We went down one day into the gym and there was a wee old lady at the piano. We were all in our track suits. She sent us back to change into our teaching blues and white shirts. She was Miss Milligan. She taught me my first country dance steps and played the piano at the same time. I took my preliminary certificate with her in 1941, then my full certificate seven years later when I came back from India.
Alastair Aitkenhead at home on Arran.
Photograph courtesy of Christine Hastie
You’re now living here on Arran, but you’re not from the island, are you? No, I was born in Ardrossan, where my father worked. I grew up there, went to Ardrossan Academy and then applied to Jordanhill to train as a PE teacher. I was eventually accepted when a place became available as students were being conscripted every week. My own number came up in 1941 in the middle of my second year. Did you go into a Scottish regiment? I went into the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. My brother was an instructor at their training centre in Berwick-on-Tweed. I left there as a Lance Corporal for Maryhill Barracks – not long after Hess left! I was identified as a potential officer and was told I could either go to India or Sandhurst. I chose India, not knowing what regiment I would end up in. After three wonderful weeks in London on embarkation leave – during the bombing – I sailed from Gourock on a French cruise ship, designed for 400 passengers, with 4000 other soldiers. We
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stopped at Durban for four weeks, then another ship took us to India. I was sent as a Second Lieutenant to the Nizam of Hyderabad’s Regiment near Agra! I had five and a half years in India. My first posting was to Helmand in Afghanistan with the 6th Battalion of the Hyderabad Regiment. I did a PT course and as a result they made me a Staff Officer at the Headquarters in the Himalayas! I was demobbed in 1947, came back to Glasgow and did one term to finish my course. Where was your first teaching job? I was sent to North Ayrshire with five primary schools to look after and eventually moved into a secondary school – Stevenston High. In 1963 I was promoted to be PE Adviser to all Ayrshire schools. What was your very first experience of country dancing? I was never taught it at either primary or secondary school. We had social party dances and in secondary we learned The Dashing White Sergeant and The
How did the rest of the men react to her? We just took it. We were all PE students, but we also had to dance. She was an amazing character – not a word was spoken against her. That was where I first heard about the Scottish Country Dance Society. We weren’t Royal till 1951. When I finished my course, Miss Milligan told me to go back to North Ayrshire and start a branch. There was already one in Ayr and in Kilmarnock. It was easy in those days. Every night of the week, you would find 30 people dancing in every church hall. I called a meeting in 1948. 28 people turned up and we formed the North West Ayrshire Branch. We had 7 classes, each teacher being paid 2/3d per hour! (11p!) When did you first go to Summer School? I think it was 1950. It was a very close-knit Society in those days, made up of people who had been there for many years before me. All the teachers were Scottish. Miss Milligan held total sway over everything. She once told me, “I knew all you young boys back from the army would be having a riotous time, and there’s no chance of me getting you all in before 11pm.” She locked all the doors before 11, but she told us where the key was! I think she invited me to teach in 1953 and I taught at Summer School for many years on and off. I made many many friends at Summer School and greatly enjoyed the international aspect of it. What do you remember most about Miss Milligan’s teaching? Totally authoritarian. Nobody would dare ask her a question! The first people to do that were the North Americans. We just took what she said as gospel. It was clear she got a great deal of enjoyment from her
