Arthur Laurenson

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Arthur Laurenson, Shetland antiquarian, author and politician, was born on the 4th of November 1832 in Lerwick, the oldest of two children born to Laurence Laurenson (b.27.9.1799, Quoys, Catfirth, Nesting) and his wife Catherine Hoseason Gray, (b.28.9.1794, Cliff, Unst). His father had established a drapery and hosiery business in Lerwick in 1818, Laurenson & Co., in which Arthur would himself work. In the 1851 census, the family are recorded at 1 Hill lane, Lerwick.

Arthur was a pupil of the Moravian teacher John Glass at the Lerwick Subscription School. He subsequently travelled in Norway and Sweden to pursue his interest in the literature and language of Scandinavia, evidenced in his study 'The Colour-Sense in the Edda'. His father died in 1867, after which Arthur took over the management of the family business.

Politically, Laurenson was a Liberal and a long-term member of Lerwick Town Council, as well as the Zetland County Council (briefly). With John Gatherer he founded the Shetland Literary and Scientific Society, afterwards serving as secretary, and he was a friend of Gilbert Goudie. He was given the responsibility for the decoration of the new Lerwick Town Hall, designing the stained glass windows and roof shields, as well as the Zetland County Seal.

Arthur Laurenson never married. Latterly, he lived in Leog House, Lerwick, where he died on the 14th of November, 1890. Although he died a few years before Jakob Jakobsen the Faeroese philologist arrived in Shetland, nonetheless his work was one Jakobsen's sources, and his study, written in Danish Om sproget paa Shetlandsoerne (on the language of the Shetland islands), was later translated by John Nicolson, and published by Johnson and Greig as The Shetland Dialect.

A memorial shield in the Town Hall bears the following inscription: In memory of the services he [Laurenson] rendered his birthplace by employing his many intellectual gifts in furtherance of every good, noble and patriotic enterprise, his high accomplishment as an exponent of Scandinavian literature, his rare taste and love for everything beautiful and seemly and that modest nature that made him loved and honoured not only in his native country but in many distant lands - Friends erected this tablet, 1892.

His letters and papers were edited by Catherine Spence and published by T Fisher Unwin of London in 1901 as Arthur Laurenson: his letters and literary remains: a selection with an introductory memoir. Other works by Arthur Laurenson include On Certain Beliefs and phrases of Shetland Fishermen, Two Norse Lays, The France-German War, and Diplomatarium Hialtlandense.