John Lorne Campbell

John Lorne Campbell (1906 - 1996) was a Scottish historian and folklore scholar. In 1935 he married the American musician Margaret Fay Shaw, whom he met on the Hebridean island of Barra through their mutual friend, the author Compton Mackenzie. In 1938 the couple acquired the island of Canna, south of Skye, and went to live there in Canna House. In 1981 Campbell gave Canna to the National Trust for Scotland, but he continued to live on the island, and his widow remained at Canna House until her death in 2004 at the age of 101.

Campbell's partnership with Shaw was professional as well as marital. Together the couple assembled an important archive of Scottish Gaelic song and poetry, including manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs and film. Campbell's three-volume collection of Hebridean folk songs, published between 1969 and 1981, is regarded as a valuable source by musicians and folklorists. The Campbell archive at Canna House is now in the possession of the Hebridean Trust [http://www.hebrideantrust.org/canna.htm] , which, in partnership with the National Trust for Scotland, plans to make the archive available to visitors to Canna.

Bibliography

* Campbell, John Lorne: "Canna: The History of a Hebridean Island" (1984, reissued Canongate 1994, Birlinn 2002)

* Shaw, Margaret Fay: "From the Alleghenies to the Hebrides" (Canongate, 1999)