Online invite to celebrate life of 'Seaforth Poet' Lt E.A.Mackintosh closely connected to Ross-shire community
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THE life of a poet with strong family ties to Alness who was killed in action during the Battle of Cambrai will be thrown into focus at an online commemoration today.
The free Zoom event commemorates the 130th anniversary of the birth of The Seaforth Poet, Lt E.A.Mackintosh MC, who served firstly in the 1/5th and then the 1/4th Seaforth Highlanders during WW1.
Brighton-born poet E Alan Mackintosh enlisted in the Seaforth Highlanders in the First World War.
Called “Tosh” or “Splosh” by his by his comrades, he served on the Somme and on Vimy Ridge in 1915 and 1916 and was killed in the Battle of Cambrai, on November 21, 1917.
Mackintosh had strong family ties with the Alness area, where his father had lived. He learned both to play the bagpipes and to speak Gaelic. He wrote poetry at school and at university, and when war broke out he became an officer in 5th Seaforth Highlanders.
Convalescing in England in 1916 he published his poems in A Highland Regiment and after his death, with the 4th Seaforth Highlanders, his remaining works were published in War – The Liberator. Some of his poems echo the anger and bitterness of Wilfred Owen’s. Mackintosh’s poetry featured a wide range of themes, such as courage, fear, exhilaration, patriotism, loyalty, sacrifice, loss, comradeship, duty, post traumatic stress disorder, guilt, love, broken relationships and parody. These themes are as vivid and compelling today as they were 100 years ago.
The E Alan Mackintosh Commemorative Project is a collaboration between author and Mackintosh co-biographer Colin Campbell and singer Linn Phipps. Marking the centenary of his death, the project aims to create a series of local and national commemorative events in honour of Mackintosh, to bring his work to a wider audience, and to create a website bringing together his poetry, life and military service. It will feature downloadable trail guides to the locations in the UK and France associated with his life and work, so that individuals and groups of all ages can make personal and community links with the locations and themes associated with his work.
The project aims to:
- bring the work of EAM to new and wider audiences across Scotland, including young people
- create a series of commemorative events with opportunities for artistic performances
- create opportunities to commission, create and perform new artistic work, e.g. a new commemorative piping tune
- enable links between places and communities within Scotland, and beyond Scotland with England and France, associated with his life and death
- provide a wide-ranging website resource about his life, work, and locations associated with these, so that audiences can learn about EAM and his work and times, and which can be sustained into the future as part of a lasting legacy commemorate the 100th anniversary of E Alan Mackintosh's death.
The free Zoom event starts at 6pm on Friday, March 3.
Contact for Zoom link to join / participate: https://linnphippsfolk.co.uk/contact/
