The Orcadian Book of the 20th Century

Jim Hewitson, the Papay based author reviews the recently released book The Orcadian Book of the 20th Century by the newspaper's former news editor, Howard Hazel.

A local newspaper, they say, is the eyes and ears of a community. Much more than that, it represents the memory and personality of the place reflecting and recording the joys and sorrows of many lifetimes, the humdrum as much as the momentous.

Now, without laboriously exploring the files and microfiche records of The Orcadian in the Orkney Library in Laing Street, anyone wishing to get an introductory flavour of Orkney has a new, ready-made first port of call.

The Orcadian Book of the 20th Century, compiled by former news editor at The Orcadian Howard Hazell who describes it as “a chronicle of our times,” ranges across a century of the newspaper which itself is required reading for everyone who has a love for or an interest in things Orcadian.

From bitter experience I know that scanning a nation’s history and heritage and extracting moments in time which are both insightful and interesting has to be a highly subjective business.

You leave yourself open to often justified accusations of partiality. How much more difficult then to attempt such an exercise in a tight-knit community such as Orkney. On this occasion, however, the author looks to have touched all the important bases.

Along his journey of discovery Howard Hazell has found that sensational journalism is nothing new and that the hacks of a bygone age were not averse to “writing up” a bit of scandal.

He also shatters the myth of the “good old days”. Around Orkney in the past 100 years we’ve had our share of rogues and rascals as well as bona fide heroes and heroines. By the by, did you know that illustrious Orcadians, including Eric Linklater, used to refer to our islands as “The Orkneys”, something which well and truly gets folks’ goats these days.

From the first page, which includes the dramatic story of the wreck of the St Rognvald on Burgh Head, Stronsay, in 1900, to the last where you’ll find a complete list of the Stromness Shopping Queens and their attendants, this book is a rich vein of information which will be cited over and over again through the years ahead.

Apart from the skilfully crafted reviews of significant events in the century just past – wars, elections, disasters, scandals which provide the bedrock for the work – the great joy of this book for many people, I suspect, will be in the detail of everyday life in Orkney. It is overflowing with little gems.

Long forgotten anecdotes abound – the German “invasion” of Copinsay; the sea monsters seen off Hoy; the man who survived the sinking of both HMS Vanguard and HMS Royal Oak in the Flow; the Orcadian who became leader of a religious sect called the Peculiar People. Tantalising? Just you wait!

If you are not yet steeped in the folklore and history of your own corner of Orkney then you’re in for a treat.

Naturally the reader’s interest will turn to events around his or her home patch. A wee spin aboot the Papay scene gives an idea of the joys in store.

In 1905 a Grimsby trawler, The City of Lincoln, was wrecked off Papay’s west shore – four drowned, seven were saved by the island volunteers. This rescue led directly to the creation of the pioneering Papay rocket brigade; in October, 1918, Papa Westray mistakenly celebrated the end of World War One nine months prematurely. A statement suggesting that Germany had surrendered was dismissed in Kirkwall but found its way out to Papay. Farm workers were summoned from the fields, treated to a dram and given a half-holiday. The reports say that “the whole island was agog and gave way to merrymaking.”

The embarrassment when they discovered the truth is not recorded.

Then in 1950 came the great Papay school strike when parents of 19 children found themselves fined in the Sheriff Court for keeping their kids away from school, claiming the pupils were being beaten and were being deprived of a proper education.

What about 1968? At the height of the Cold War, Papay became the focus of attention when a Russian fleet gathered off the north end of the island. The six warships included a guided missile cruiser. It was thought that they had been snooping on NATO naval exercises.

This book is also a bit of a confessional. In 1948, for example, when The Orcadian announced the end of British Summer Time a month early, National BBC Radio had to specifically give the guid folk of Orkney a special time check.

In addition to acres of anecdote and reams of reportage the reader has the advantage of some splendid images from Orkney Library’s extensive photographic archive.

For the student of the bizarre and obscure like myself, there are hours of happy voyaging ahead.

On that journey you’ll meet the Sanday minister who climbed in the window of the doctor’s house to make love to the GP’s wife; the two-headed Harray lamb (with pic!); the 1921 notice posted in the harbour office at Kirkwall warning about two rogue icebergs heading for Orkney; the charity cargo of potatoes from Poland which arrived after a rumour swept Eastern Europe that Orkney was in the grip of a famine; the day Hoy Sound turned milky white and opaque, bleaching the fish; or the occasion when Sir Matt Busby refereed a football match on Flotta.

It occurs to me that this book will also be the pub quizmaster’s delight.

• Do you know the name of the Stromness lass who won the Miss World title?
• Which Orkney island is claimed as the scene of the first four-minute mile?
• Why was a smoking room suggested for pupils at Kirkwall Grammar School?
• In which year did Michael Corsie win the Orkney hula-hoop championship?

See what I mean, a quizmaster’s goldmine.

An important new resource for everyone who loves the green isles has now reached the shelves and will soon grace bookcases the world over.

Incidentally, this review was completed by candlelight and in longhand after 100 mph gales in the first hours of the new century had cut the power on Papay for 32 hours. What do they say – the more things change?

Jim Hewitson