John Nicolson

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John Nicolson, journalist and author, was born John Hawick Nicolson on the 7th of July 1876 at Houster, near Aith, in the parish of Aithsting. He became one of the most prominent Shetland authors of his period, publishing a number of non-fiction books during a long career. He contributed many articles to the national press and is remembered as the man who wrote the lyrics of The Galley Song, to the tune of an old Norwegian folk-song. Nicolson was a protégé of Haldane Burgess, and first publication came when the author was but twenty-two years old:

“ … Messrs Johnson & Greig, Lerwick, have published as the first volume of an “Old Rock Series” of books by Shetland writers a brief miscellany of prose and verse by Mr. John Nicolson, entitled Sprigs o’ Aithstin’ Heddir. These sketches give interesting, if rather sadly coloured pictures of the life, character and curious speech of the islanders, both at the present day and at the time of the press-gang.” The Scotsman, 25.10.1898

A book of stories entitled Tales Of Thule followed, then Shetland Hamespun and a biography of Arthur Anderson before the First World War. Nicolson was a socialist, a member of the Social Democratic Federation, which became the Social Democratic Party and British Socialist Party during the years before World War 1.

The volume Hentilagets collected his verse, and was printed for the benefit of the Red Cross following the First World War and reprinted again in 1933. Some Folk Tales and Legends of Shetland was published by Thos Allan & Sons of Edinburgh in 1921 and reissued as Shetland Incidents and Tales in 1931, as was his biography of Arthur Anderson in 1932.

“ … The title Hentilagets hardly gives indication of the quality and nature of the contents, which will be read and valued, especially by Shetlanders, not merely for the good cause to which the volume is devoted, but for the genuine humour, pathos, fancy and sound sense of the verses themselves, whose dialectical difficulties are in part smoothed away by a glossary and footnotes … “ The Scotsman, 2.12.1918

Nicolson married late in life, in 1936, but had no family. He died in his home at 23 St. Magnus Street, Lerwick on the 4th of August, 1951. His next door neighbour was the younger author Peter Jamieson, like Nicolson, a passionate Socialist.