ELSIE RAE WILSON (1897-1973)
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Elsie Rae hailt fae Alvah be Banff, and wis born on 16 November 1898, the dother o John an Annie Rae. She hid five siblings, Annie, Kathy, John, William and Maggie. She went tae Aiberdeen Varsity, later becoming a skweel teacher. During the First Warld War, she served we the Voluntary Aid Detachment as a nurse. It wis during the Great War thit she scrieved some o her best verse. Mony o her poems wis published in the Banffshire Journal (the Banffie), the Evening Express, the People's Journal and the Weekly Scotsman. They wis taen the gither as ae volume, Private John M'Pherson in November 1917.
I have a special liking for poems written in the dialect of our Northern counties. This dialect seems to lend itself to the purposes of versification in a very marked degree. In the hands of poet like Miss Rae, who knows how to use the Doric, we find that it is far more effective than the best English. |
FOREWORD TAE JOHN M'PHERSON (1917)
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She lives in the Gordon country, and in the Gordon traditions, and the Gordon Regiment makes strong appeal to her, as they do all who live in the counties that watered by the Spey, the Aven, and the Fiddich; the Deveron the Isla, and the Bogie; the Dee, the Don and the Ythan. |
PRIVATE JOHN M'PHERSON : HILLY'S ORRA LOON
PROFILE O ELISIE RAE: PRESS AN JOURNAL 23 MEY 1925
Elsie, wis affa richt weel-kent in the 1920s, celebratit for her war poems bit she hisna bin mynt on in e same wye is ither makars, an nae muckle avaa his bin scrievit aboot her nor her wark. Yit she wis, as a wifie Great War makar, ivry bit as important as Mary Symon. In Mey 1925, the Press an Journal scrievit a profile o her fit we reproduce ablo. She wis, be this time, merriet tae the meenister o' Udny, Revd Robert Wilson an hid a bairnie, a dother. Bit she wis aye warkin, as a scriever, journalist and makar.
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PRIVATE John m'PHERSON
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