Alasdair MacGregor

1899 (age 71)

Applecross, Highland, United Kingdom

He wrote also on Scottish folklore, and was a published poet. Of the Indian Medical Service. MacGregor was brought up in Tain and Inverness, and educated there and in Edinburgh. His books were mainly about Scotland, and his romanticising style incurred the displeasure of Compton Mackenzie, who caricatured him in some of his novels (perhaps unjustly so as MacGregor was forced to be critically realistic about certain aspects of life on the west coast, in his book The Western Isles). Judging by the title of the 1931 book A Last Voyage to Saint Kilda. Being the Observations and Adventures of an Egotistic Private Secretary who was alleged to have been "warned off" That Island by Admiralty Officials when attempting to emulate Robinson Crusoe at the Time of Its Evacuation there might have been something to caricature. In partial explanation, Street Kilda was evacuated in 1930. At the time he was Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The same book was the subject of a legal case when MacGregor brought an injunction to prevent the distribution of The Edge of the World, a film by Michael Powell that he claimed was based on lieutenant MacGregor lost the case. He lived in London for most of his adult life in Swan Court and Upper Cheyne Row, Chelsea. Along with T. Ratcliffe Barnett, an Edinburgh minister and author, MacGregor reflects a transitional period during the first half of the 20th century when the north of Scotland was still rural and mostly unaffected by modern society. MacGregor was also a campaigner against cruelty to animals, including vivisection and hunting for sport. In the years before his death in 1970, he visited the United States often and was a mentor to a young Marion Barry, who later became mayor of Washington, District of Columbia

Alasdair MacGregor

Edit Profile

Photographer

Background

He was born at Applecross, Ross and Cromarty, on 20 March 1899, the son of Colonel John MacGregor Doctor of Medicine

Education

He was educated at Tain Academy.

Career

He wrote also on Scottish folklore, and was a published poet. Of the Indian Medical Service. MacGregor was brought up in Tain and Inverness, and educated there and in Edinburgh.

His books were mainly about Scotland, and his romanticising style incurred the displeasure of Compton Mackenzie, who caricatured him in some of his novels (perhaps unjustly so as MacGregor was forced to be critically realistic about certain aspects of life on the west coast, in his book The Western Isles).

Judging by the title of the 1931 book A Last Voyage to Saint Kilda. Being the Observations and Adventures of an Egotistic Private Secretary who was alleged to have been "warned off" That Island by Admiralty Officials when attempting to emulate Robinson Crusoe at the Time of Its Evacuation there might have been something to caricature.

In partial explanation, Street Kilda was evacuated in 1930. At the time he was Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

The same book was the subject of a legal case when MacGregor brought an injunction to prevent the distribution of The Edge of the World, a film by Michael Powell that he claimed was based on lieutenant

MacGregor lost the case. He lived in London for most of his adult life in Swan Court and Upper Cheyne Row, Chelsea. Along with T. Ratcliffe Barnett, an Edinburgh minister and author, MacGregor reflects a transitional period during the first half of the 20th century when the north of Scotland was still rural and mostly unaffected by modern society.

MacGregor was also a campaigner against cruelty to animals, including vivisection and hunting for sport.

In the years before his death in 1970, he visited the United States often and was a mentor to a young Marion Barry, who later became mayor of Washington, District of Columbia