Garioch, Robert

(1909-1987)

   Robert Garioch, born in Edinburgh, was educated at the Royal High School and Edinburgh University. His book Two Men and a Blanket: Memoirs of Captivity (1975) recount his wartime experiences of being a prisoner of war from 1942 to 1945. He taught in schools in London, Kent and Edinburgh, retired from teaching in 1964, then worked as lexicographer and transcriber in the School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University, where he held a writer's fellowship. He not only wrote in Scots, he translated from the French, Greek, and Latin, and translated 120 sonnets of Guiseppe Belli, a Roman poet of the nineteenth century. Some of his other publications: 17 poems for 6d, 1940, with Sorley Maclean (see entry). Chuckies on a Cairn, 1949. Jephthah, 1959 Poetical Works, 1983. Some of his poems: "And They Were Richt," "At Robert Fergusson's Grave, October 1962," "Did Ye See Me?" "Heard in the Cougate," "In Princes Street Gairdens," "On Seein an Aik-Tree Sprent Wi Galls," "The Canny Hen,'" "The Anatomy of Winter" (translation from Hesiod).

   Sources: A Book of Scottish Verse. Maurice Lindsay, and R.L. Mackie, ed. St. Martin's Press, 1983. Biography of Robert Garioch (http://www.nls.uk/writestuff/heads/weegarioch.html). Learning Journeys (www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/arts/writingscotland/). Scottish Authors (http://www. slainte.org.uk/Scotauth/gariodsw.htm). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Faber Book of War Poetry. Kenneth Baker, ed. Faber and Faber, 1996. The Oxford Book of Comic Verse. John Gross, ed. Oxford University Press, 1994. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.