Langholm’s forgotten son
Published at 21:34, Wednesday, 09 December 2009
Langholm has produced many great sons and daughters but one who is largely forgotten these days is David Johnstone Beattie and his contribution to Langholm and Eskdale should not be forgotten.
David Johnstone Beattie was born on January 1 1881 in Langholm and died on July 2, 1964 in Carlisle.
David came from a true Langholm family. His grandfather, John Beattie, was involved with the Common Riding, carrying the barley bannock and saut herring.
David, born at 31 Eskdaill Street, had a huge interest in his home town. One of his first memories, as a five-year-old, was seeing the protests over the removal of the Marble Man from the Market Place.
His childhood was happy and he spent many a summer swimming in the rivers or exploring the countryside. In the winters he and his friends would go sledging down Jimmy’s Brae. Much of this childhood he would later reflect on in his poems and stories.
In 1887 he went to Langholm infant school. He didn’t enjoy school much at first and was dubbed a truant. Later, when he moved up to the public school, he and his friends used to get into trouble for stealing corn from the nearby fields.
When the Friday inspections of the infant school by the head of Langholm public school, John Howie, were introduced, David grew to respect him and when then old schoolmaster died in 1908, David was touched by his passing.
After he finished school, David followed in his family’s footsteps and became a stonemason. He moved to Carlisle in 1898 after taking up an apprenticeship with John Laing.
The company was based at Murrell Hill and it wasn’t long before the pair entered into the partnership of Laing and Beattie. The company mainly did headstone carving and was reputed to have carved the highest total of headstones in the area during the first world war. During this time David moved to a house by the name of Scotsknowe in Carlisle.
In 1925 Laing died and David moved the company to Warwick Road where he continued to run the business until he retired in 1961. His company is now Beattie & Co and operates to this day.
When David wasn’t working, he was involved in many projects such as poetry, hymns, local history and short stories. In total he wrote eight books, covering these subjects, along with composing the words and music for more than 80 hymns.
He worked regularly with J W Allison on the musical settings for his verses. In 1915 he had Oor Gate En’ published by C Thurnam’s, who were based at 11 English Street. In this volume were poems which included Bonnie Langholm, personal stories of his childhood years and poems on Carlisle. The book was successful, prompting him to write more.
David married local lass Margaret Wilson (April 4, 1883-July 30, 1968) and they remained happily married for the rest of their days.
They had a family of four sons and two daughters’.
After the success of his first book, his second, Prince Charlie and the Borderland (1928) came from David’s interest in the time when the Jacobites took Carlisle and their retreat between 1745 and 1746.
Despite the success of his company, David never forgot Langholm. In 1924 he presented a sun dial to the people and it remains to this day in Buccleuch Park.
In 1931 he presented a signed copy of his second book to Langholm Academy, along with a painting and a marble sundial. The painting has since vanished. In 1931 he also had published The Romance of the Sacred Song, a book containing more of his poetry
In 1933 David’s new book Oor Ain Folk concentrated more on the history of Langholm and is still used as an important historical reference. That same year David’s mother, Janet, died on April 4 aged 77.
The following year David published Stories and Sketches of our Hymns and their Writers which contained more of his hymn work.
Later in the decade he wrote two more books – Brethren – The Story of a Great Recovery and Songs of the Highlands. These books highlight his knowledge of history, hymns and poetry.
In the 1940s David and Margaret moved to a house named Kenilworth in Carlisle.
David’s business was still successful and he spent many of these years doing projects and preparing his new book on the history of Langholm. This culminated in his acclaimed Lang Syne in Eskdale.
He used information which hadn’t been used in Hyslop’s Langholm As It Was and updated the story of Langholm, including how the Auld Kirk’s gable collapsed during a storm in February 1948.
In preparing this book, he was aided by locals. One person gave him two copies of the Eskdale & Liddesdale Advertiser from 1879 and he used them to create an entire chapter on life in Langholm during 1879.
Even after this book was published, his interest in Langholm wasn’t over. He was given a chance to look through former issues of the Eskdale & Liddesdale Advertiser and during the 1950s he contributed to the paper on numerous occasions.
By the late 1950s David was allowed to publish his own series in the paper, It Happened Then, in which he wrote a year by year account from the start of the 19th century to the start of the 20th century of important dates in the history of Langholm. A copy of It Happened Then is currently available from the Langholm Library.
By the early 1960s the Beatties were living at a house named Meikleholm in Talbot Road, Carlisle. It was during this time that David’s health began to fail and, despite an operation, he died.
A service was held in the Hebron Hall in Botchergate and after the service, he was interred at Carlisle cemetery in Richardson Street. Margaret died on July 30, 1968 and was buried alongside him.
A memorial to him was placed on his parents’ headstone in Wauchope cemetery. David had a long and very successful life. Without him, much of Langholm’s history would have vanished. His company is still going strong and his books are still available from libraries. His poems are to be included in the upcoming new edition of the Langholm Common Riding songs and poems.
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