As
I laughed at a recent letter in ‘The Scotsman’ from my long standing friend
George Johnstone suggesting, tongue-in-cheek, that Michael Mara’s humorous
song ‘Hermless’ should be adopted as a new Scottish National Anthem, little
did I realise that it would be his last letter published in that newspaper.
For Scotland has lost yet another loyal son with the passing in October of
an outstanding Nationalist. George Bell Johnstone had the smeddum, like all
leal Scots, to sing our real National Anthem ‘Scots Wha hae’. He gave a
lifetime service to our beloved Scotland and to the National Cause.
Our paths regularly crossed at Annual
National Conferences of the Scottish National Party and we would continue a
long standing discussion on Robert Burns, Hugh MacDiarmid and the Guid Scots
Tung. His presence was greatly missed in Inverness this year.
His daughter Carroll rightly wrote of
her father – ‘He was a tireless, passionate campaigner for an independent
Scotland. His wife and family have lost a loving husband and father,
Scotland has lost a proud, intelligent and loyal servant on the road towards
independence.’
Deed ay, George Johnstone wis a maist
byornar chiel, leal Scot and braw billie. It wis an honor an pleisur fir ti
ken him.
Peter D Wright
16 November 2004
The following article appeared in the
Annandale Observer on Friday 29 October 2004. George Johnstone was indeed a
Champion of Scotland.
He was a proud Scotsman was George
Bell Johnstone, passionately interested in his country, its history,
culture, music and literature and in the “guid Scots tung.” Naturally
he was a highly motivated member of the Scottish National Party for very
many years and he truly believed in the independence movement. Not
that he was anti English, anything but, especially as he had strong family
connections south of the border. It was just that he instinctively felt that
Scotland should be a separate, sovereign state. Mr Johnstone, who has
died aged 72, had been chairman of the Annan Branch of the SNP and he was a
member of the Saltire Society. He knew Hugh MacDiarmid well and was at the
poet’s funeral, he knew his Burns and he knew his Bible – even though he was
an agnostic.
He was a voracious reader with an
enquiring mind and a wide based and catholic approach and he would read
anything and everything that came to hand. He had, for instance ploughed his
way through the works of Karl Marx, and was thought to have read Adolf
Hitler’s rantings in Mein Kampf. He loved traditional Scottish folk
music and regularly went to the festival in Newcastleton and he was a member
of the Annan Folk Club. He was, also, a member of the Annan Angling Club, of
the ex-servicemen’s club in the town and – surprisingly – of the former
Labour club at Eastriggs. He wanted to do all he could to help
preserve Scottish culture and this played a big part in his early in life
decision to join the nationalists. His other great interest was in
words and their meanings and in grammar and punctuation. He was a stickler
for the correct use of language especially in his trade as a printer.
Born in Eaglesfield and educated at
the village school and Lockerbie Academy, he served his apprenticeship as a
printer with the Frood company at Annan. He studied at night at Carlisle
Technical College and, eventually, became a compositor, staying with Frood’s
for many years. Then he and a colleague Jeanette Dalgleish set up
their own J and D printing company in Port Street, Annan and he was in
business there for some 10 years, until he retired. Training in the
pre-computer days of the letterpress craft he retained all the traditional
skills of the printing trade. And while embracing new technology, he was
particularly proud of an old Daily Mail ‘Linotype’ hot metal type-setting
machine, which he used for some jobs well into 1990s when it was among only
a handful left operating in the country.
A
keen footballer in his younger days, he was a goalkeeper for the Eaglesfield
village team, later for Annan Athletic. He also played in the army during
his two years of National Service.
He and his wife liked to travel and
they did so widely – to Singapore, Thailand, the USA, Canada and most of the
countries in Europe.
Mr Johnstone leaves his wife, four
daughters and a son and 10 grandchildren. His funeral service took place in
Kirtlebridge Church, where his father had been an elder for many years and
he was buried in Annan cemetery.
With acknowledgements to the Annandale
Observer
