Tea break: Angus MacPherson

In our regular feature, we join Angus MacPherson to find out about the wonderful scrapbooks created by his parents. The scrapbooks represent an amazing diary of local history of the 1970s and 80s.

Angus MacPherson

Angus, please tell us about yourself and your family.

I was brought up in Tarbert. I worked at the Bank of Scotland in Tarbert for a couple of years before I left at the age of 21 to join the Police Service.

My parents were Donald and Nessie MacPherson (nee MacLeod). My mum was from Stornoway, where she worked in the Post Office, but she moved to Glasgow, where she met my dad.  They moved back to Tarbert in 1967, where they brought up four children (May, Erica, Angus, and Roddy). Dad was a telephone engineer, or a GPO Linesman as the job was known then.

Nessie and Donald MacPherson

How did the scrapbooks come about?

In the 1970s and 80s, the local newspapers didn’t have a photographer to record events in Harris. My father loved photography and carried his camera around the island with him. He took photos for the West Highland Free Press, the Stornoway Gazette, the Oban Times, and even the Dè tha dol?. However, it was my mum who made the scrapbooks of newspaper articles with my dad’s photos.

He also took photographs of the weddings on the island at the time. He recalled photographing the weddings of three brothers from one family marrying three sisters from another. And if anyone needed a passport photo, it was my dad they turned to. He had a dark room in the loft at home, which was where all the photos were developed.

What kind of articles and photographs are in the scrapbooks?

Dad loved football, so there are lots of photos covering football and other local sporting events at the time. However, he covered all sorts of things. There is good coverage of the campaign to build the road to Rhenigadale, which had a huge impact at the time. There are lots of photographs of local faces in their youth, which might make people smile when looking back. The most famous picture Dad took was of a cow being taken to the market in Tarbert in the back of a Ford Cortina. That picture appeared in The Berlin Times! There are ten scrapbooks, each giving a great picture of Harris from around 1971 to 1984.

When did your parents stop making the scrapbooks?

My parents moved to the mainland when Dad retired in the early 1990s. They have since passed away. However, the scrapbooks have been treasured by our family over the years. In addition to the scrapbooks, my family have a large number of original pictures and a collection of 35mm slides. We are now planning to have the pictures digitised so that they can be shared with the island community.

One of the clippings in the scrapbooks captures the arrival of the Dè tha dol? newspaper. Pictured is Mórag MacLeod, the first editor.

What are your favourite places on the island?

I retired as a Superintendent in 2016 after 30 years in the police in Ross-shire and the Inverness area.

Now I work part-time for a company that operates wildlife trips in the Moray Firth. However, my favourite place to go in Harris is the walk to the Crabhadail beach from Huishinish.

It’s tea break time. What’s on the menu?

An Americano with milk and a Harry Gow Empire Biscuit. I recommend them!