Material relating to Robert Garioch Sutherland

The ephemeral manuscript and typescript material is composed of:

• 1 x prisoner-of-war postcard (Poste Italiane. Cartolina Postale. Per Prigionieri di Guerra). From Sutherland, Robert G. Signalman 2372691, to [his father] Mr. Robert G. Sutherland, Bellevue Road, Edinburgh. He writes about 'boredom, and there are worse things'. He is 'out of isolation now, and that is a good thing'. He is smoking his pipe 'thouch baccy going short'
• 1 x undated ms scrap, from envelope, with address of 'John H. Speirs / 10 Williamson Avenue / Maadi, Cairo. Egypt
• 1 x postcard which shows a ms 'to do' list, including 'clothes mending, 'mend couch', 'strong thread', 'sort drills and bits', 'clear hut', 'writing paper'
• 1 x mounted cutting from the Scottish edition of the 'Radio Times' 14 August 1954, about a reading by Ian Gilmour of Robert Garioch Sutherland's stanzas on 'The cannie hen'
• 1 x invitation from the Royal High School requesting the company of Robert Garioch Sutherland at the unveiling of a plaque in memory of Robert Fergusson, 24 June 1958

Edinburgh-born poet and translator Robert Garioch (Robert Garioch Sutherland) wrote mainly in Scots. He is known for sharp and keen observation of the quirks of 20th century Scottish life. He attended Edinburgh's Royal High School, and then Edinburgh University. During the Second World War, Sutherland served in the Royal Signals and was prisoner-of-war in Italy and Germany between 1942 and 1945.

When Garioch returned home in 1945 he became a teacher. On retirement in 1964 he worked on a number of Scottish literary magazines including Scottish International. In the 1970s he was a writer-in-residence at Edinburgh University. Robert Garioch (Robert Garioch Sutherland) died on 26 April 1981.

Open to bona fide researchers, but please contact repository for details in advance of visit.

Items purchased September 2014 from Lyon and Turnbull, via Spike Hughes. Accession no: E2015.08.

Catalogued by Graeme D. Eddie 23 April 2015

Purchased collection also includes a book title, 'Robert Fergusson 1750-74', edited by Sydney Goodsir Smith, with ownership signature of Robert G. Sutherland to end-paper. This is catalogued as RB.S.2792 within the collections of Special Collections, Edinburgh University Library.