Biography

Calum Johnston was one of three sons of Aonghas Chaluim and Catrìona Aonghais 'ic Dhòmhnaill Mhòir, from Barra. He was born on Three Kings Day, (6 January) in 1891. He had five sisters.

Calum left Barra when he was sixteen and moved to Edinburgh where he worked as a draughtsman for Bruce Peebles Industries Ltd. He stayed there until he retired aged 65, apart from spending one year in Birmingham and another year in Manchester. Despite leaving Barra so young and being away from the island for so long, he kept learning about his heritage, as he explained in a programme recorded with Fred MacAulay for the BBC in 1970:

"I was quite lucky in that way. For at least five years, in Edinburgh, I lived with Donald Sinclair, and you know how interested he was in everything pertaining to the Highlands. Together, we would learn traditional songs and things like that. It was our pastime. We had nothing else. We had no money, but we had things that money couldn't buy. Donald would compose songs and I would play the chanter and we spent our time like that."

While in Edinburgh, Calum was secretary and treasurer of the Highland Pipers' Society for a while. He was an accomplished piper.

Calum and his sister, Anna, learned many songs from their mother and from two neighbours in Glen in Barra, Elizabeth and Peggy. Calum returned to Barra as often as he could:

"We would come home every year, sometimes at New Year. We'd get two days holiday, but then there'd be a storm, so we'd manage to get a week off instead. We got two weeks off in the summer. And while we were home, we would collect songs. If we heard anything new, we would learn it."

Calum learned plenty of songs and stories even before he left Barra:

"That's when you learn, when you're young. I remember very well the ceilidh houses and those who were good storytellers. We'd go to these houses. When you make a habit of it, it's easy to remember a story. We'd go to a house tonight and we'd hear a story, and then we'd tell the same story in another house tomorrow night. At that age, you can memorise a story after hearing it once. But, when a person stops telling the story, they forget it. I have forgotten all the stories I knew."

But if Calum complained that he forgot all the stories he knew, there is no doubt he remembered many songs, and he recorded many of them for the School of Scottish Studies.

When Fred MacAulay asked him which song he liked best, he answered:

"That changes from time to time. You might like song and then sing it until you get sick of it, and then you'll find another you like. But there is one song I have always loved, and I learned it when I was very young, and I was very proud of it, and when I left to go collect a sack of peat, I'd start singing the song and when I went through it from start to finish, I'd sing it again. That song is An t-Òran Leannanachd by Ailean Dall."

Calum's first wife died, and he married Peigi a' Chrugail from Ardveenish, Barra. They both returned to live in Eoligarry when Calum retired.

Calum Johnston died suddenly on the 4th of December 1972, while playing the pipes at his friend's funeral, the writer Compton MacKenzie.