Inveresk | Miscellany

People

Residents – past and present – of Inveresk Village include the following: Dr John Bartholomew (1890-1962) geographer and map maker; George Burnet, Lord Lieutenant of Midlothian from 1991-2003; Clarissa Dickson Wright (TV cook and personality); Sir Charles Fraser, Pursebearer to The Lord High Commissioner in 1969; Sir Frank Mears (1880-1953) architect, town and country planner; Sir Malcolm Rifkind (1946- ), Conservative MP, Secretary of State for Scotland 1986-90, Foreign Secretary 1995-97.

Harry More Gordon, art teacher at Edinburgh College of Art for many years, has painted and exhibited many pictures and portraits. Most recently Mr More Gordon painted a group of surviving persons who had served as Secretary of State for Scotland (including Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a resident of Inveresk) and this ‘group portrait’ is hanging in the National Portrait Gallery. Mr More Gordon’s wife Marianne and daughter Domenica are talented artists in their own right and have exhibited in Edinburgh and East Lothian.

Ann, Lady Fraser of Shepherd House is famous for her botanical paintings and has exhibited work on many occasions.

Wallyford has been home to a number of fine footballers, including: Jim Jeffries, Hearts footballer, born in Wallyford in 1950 (Bourhill, p36). Jock Wallace, 1970s Rangers manager, grew up in Wallyford. Billy Wilson and Gordon Hunter, both of Hibernian, were born in Wallyford.

Bobby Thomson (1953-2003), tour manager of Ozzy Osbourne’s heavy metal Ozzfest was raised in Wallyford, and attended St David’s school in Dalkeith.

In the 1980s the publishing firm Virago reprinted some of the novels of Victorian author and Wallyford native, Margaret Oliphant (1828-97).


THIS ACCOUNT OF INVERESK PARISH – EXCLUDING MUSSELBURGH, WAS INITIATED BY SHEILA HENDERSON, AND COMPILED BY SONIA BAKER, JENNY LAMONT AND KATE SHILTON. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, RESEARCH AND ESSAYS WERE PROVIDED BY THE FOLLOWING:

  • George Archibald: Economy – Industry – mining
  • Jim Braes: Economy – Agriculture & Horticulture
  • Stephen Bunyan: Townscapes, Buildings & Landscapes of Distinction – Monkton House, Monktonhall House
  • George Burnet: Belief – St Michael’s, Inveresk Village
  • Stephen J. Edwards: Townscapes, Buildings & Landscapes of Distinction – Wedderburn House; Leisure – Inveresk Preservation Society
  • Charles Fraser: Land Ownership; Townscapes, Buildings & Landscapes of Distinction – Carberry Tower
  • Ian Lamont: Revisiting the Past – archaeology
  • Jenny Lamont: Townscapes, Buildings & Landscapes of Distinction – Inveresk Lodge (NTS); Shops & Services; Transport; Leisure – the Riding of the Marches; Miscellany
  • Moira McDonald: Belief – St Clement’s & St Ninian’s parish church
  • Keith (Dusty) Miller: Population – the travellers’ site
  • Jenny Mollison: Leisure – allotments
  • George Montgomery: Revisiting the Past – the Pinkie Memorial
  • Marianne More Gordon: Leisure – the Monday Group
  • Neil Woodcock: Transport – Inveresk Railway Station

Thanks are also due to the National Trust for Scotland for information on Newhailes House, and to Inveresk Research for providing information on the company and extracts from Dr Neville Woodward’s autobiography.