On November 7th 1974 Eric Linklater, the novelist and playwright, died in Aberdeen.
Although born in Wales, Linklater always considered himself as an Orcadian. Indeed like many on the island Eric can claim viking heritage and his family has documental proof that goes back to the 15th century an 18 generations.
There is a great wee story about his Great- Grandfather that I am sure you will appreciate, he worked on the whaling fleet from Stromness. When given leave he’d walk 10 miles home to Harray. It’s said there were many ale-houses by the road, and he never did the journey in less than 3 days!
Educated at Aberdeen University, Linklater spent many years on Orkney, the birthplace of his father, and even commanded the Orkney garrison during the Second World War.
Linklater was initially rejected by the army because of his poor eyesight, but joined up in 1917, his poor eyesight however meant he was not meant to see any action, he was sent to a Yeomanry regiment stationed in the north of England.
I read he lied about his age to join up, he would have been around 17 at the time, it’s partly true,and if you look at the pic of him in his uniform he does look very young.I did manage to dig up the truth about the lie though . While in England he heard that they were sending a small draft to the Black Watch in France, he made a few adjustments to his own medical record (improving his eyesight and adding a year to his age) and, using his own authority as Orderly Corporal, added his own name to the list of those sent abroad.
From 1919 to 1925 he studied at Aberdeen University, first in medicine and then in English. Between 1925 and 1927 he was an assistant editor of the Times of India, living in Bombay. After a year working at Aberdeen University in 1927-8, he spent two years as a Commonwealth Fellow in the USA, at Cornell and Berkeley.
Eric Linklater began publishing prolifically in 1929: altogether he wrote 23 novels, 3 volumes of short stories, 3 autobiographies, 10 plays, and 23 books of essays and non-fiction, as well as the books mentioned above in the first paragraph. Juan in America and Private Angelo are perhaps his best-known novels. He loved the Icelandic sagas, and wrote his own: The Men of Ness: the Saga of Thorlief Coalbiter’s Sons ; later, in 1955, he published a book about the sagas, called The Ultimate Viking.
On 1st June 1933 he Eric married Marjorie MacIntyre, and after a period in Italy they settled at Dounby in Orkney; they had four children.
Between 1939 and 1941 Linklater commanded the company of Royal Engineers on Orkney. In 1941 he was posted to the directorate of public relations in the War Office, and from 1944 to 1945 served in Italy, where he acquired the experiences necessary for writing Private Angelo, which was dedicated to the Eighth Army. It was a book about courage, but it did not celebrate war. Angelo’s remark “I hope you will not liberate us out of existence” might well have inspired William Tenn’s celebrated science fiction story “The Liberation of Earth” . In 1951 he published a history of that part of WW2, The Campaign in Italy, and, with the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel he visited Korea.
In 1945 Eric Linklater was elected rector of Aberdeen University, and in 1947 the family moved to to Ross, and later to Aberdeenshire. From 1968 to 1973 he was deputy lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty.
Diana Gabaldon author of the Outlander books, told National Geographic: she researched for her series of books by reading a Linklater book. "I was reading a research book called The Prince in the Heather. She said. The account of Jamie Fraser surviving Culloden is partly based on a true story in the book where a Fraser of the Master of Lovat's regiment” took refuge in a farmhouse with 18 others and survived the slaughter.
Eric Linklater died in Aberdeen on this day 1974 and was buried in the Harray churchyard in Orkney. His widow, already an active political campaigner, moved back to Orkney, to serve as chairman of the Orkney Heritage Society. She helped to establish the St Magnus festival, and campaigned for the Scottish National Party.
Orkney makar George Mackay Brown wrote in the Orcadian, 14th November 1974,
“Orkney is a poorer place without him; even though for most of the year, he lived outside the islands. It is fitting that his dust should be brought back to lie in Orkney earth.”