“When and why did Patricia Ann Holt (m.s. Ogilvie) became a trustee?”
I became a trustee when the Will H. Ogilvie Memorial Fund gained charitable status in March 2014 when the name was changed to the Will H. Ogilvie Memorial Trust and members became trustees.
It was on Wednesday, 28th June, 1989 when I was first asked by James Jackson, a farmer near Lockerbie, if I would help him get some recognition for the Borders poet Will H. Ogilvie – and there the work began.
It took two years to get a small group of like minded people together and our first committee meeting was held in the Eskdale Hotel, Langholm on Friday, 27th December, 1991. There were seven committee members:- James Jackson, Ann Holt, William and Ian Landles, Billy Young, Euphen Alexander and Graham Murray.
It was decided at this meeting to begin raising funds to erect a memorial cairn on the hill road between Roberton and Ashkirk and to reproduce his last book ‘Border Poems’.
Two years later, with much local support, both these goals were realised and a cairn was unveiled by the poet’s son George on Saturday, 21st August, 1993 which happened to be the 124th anniversary of the poet’s birth.
“How did Will draw you into his world?”
My interest in the poet grew when I realised he was largely forgotten both in his native Scotland and Australia where he spent the years from 1889 to 1901 and where he had his first book ‘Fair Girls and Gray Horses’ published by The Bulletin in 1898.
His son George told me no one had been interested in his father for thirty years and his books were out of print. The committee members set about rectifying that. Once you are drawn into Will’s web he doesn’t let you go, it just becomes more interesting.
“What is your favourite poem?”
For me the first time I read the haunting lines of ‘The Coach of Death’ in his first book I was enthralled. Of course ‘The Raiders’ and ‘Ho! For the Blades of Harden’ are home grown poems and equally as haunting. ‘Boots for Betty’ in the new anthology ‘Belialie and Beyond’ is also a favourite of mine as it shows the fatherly side of our poet. These are but a few of my favourites but there are many more.
“Do you have a favourite W.H.O. location, and if so, why?”
‘Harden’ for me is special for many reasons – the site of both our cairns and it is mentioned in several of Will’s poems. It is also one of the most beautiful locations in the Scottish Borders.
