LANARK LANIMER DAY
An ancient celebration held within the Royal Burgh of Lanark on the Thursday between the Sixth and Twelfth days of June annually since the year 1140.
 

A Crowning Lady Looks Back

by Grace Robertson

Several times I have been asked to contribute an article for the Lanimer brochure, but declined. However, this year is different. It is exactly forty years since I was given the honour of being asked to crown the Lanimer Queen, who on that occasion was Jill McAllister from St Mary's School. Let me tell my story!

I was appointed to teach at Lanark Primary School in the war years just after Dunkirk. Newly out of college I had a class of 63 pupils, some of them evacuees from Glasgow. In fact I would not have had enough seats or desks if they had all been present at any one time. Impetigo and scabies were rife and there were many absentees.

I cam to Lanark as the niece of ex-Provost, ex-Lord Cornet Peter Shand and in course of time became Fergus Robertson's wife. I had always know about Lanimers. My mother was a Lanarkian and my grandmother kept open house on Lanimer Day when my cousins and I gathered and the aunts talked the day away. The flat was in Bannatyne Street so we had a grandstand view of the procession.

As a teacher I attempted one or two tableaux, not very successfully I regret to say. "Music Hath Charms" was a group of tiny tots forming a percussion band. The "Pied Piper" showed Hamelin Town Hall complete with Mayor and Corporation. My lovely little Pied Piper sadly died not so long ago, but the Little Lame Boy is a grandfather several times over. I'd had enough of rats so next time I opted for "June Roses". However I found I rather enjoyed growing real roses and eventually gardening took precedence over Lanimer entries with more success.

Fergus was extremely involved in his capacity as Transport Convener on the Lanimer Committee. He had once been asked to be Lord Cornet but horses were not his 'thing' so he turned the opportunity down - would not say when. So he was absolutely delighted when I was asked to crown the Lanimer Queen. In addition that year, William Eagle Hall, his lifelong friend, was to be Lord Cornet. Life became hectic. My boys were jokers in a pageant "The Devil's Picture Book" produced by South Lanark Lanimer Club. Was this the precursor of the Kilninnie Club? I think Cairns Church was involved. Anyway I chose as my companion Margaret, wife of the minister Rev. George Allan, a very dear friend, still is though, 98 years of age and living away from Lanark, many a year.

Trips to the city were a must for this most important outfit. I was advised by previous Crowning Ladies to choose something warm as it would be cold waiting at the Cross on Lanimer morning. I selected a woollen dress and jacket and my husband, bless him, bought me a mink stole, height of fashion at the time. Everything was going well. Then disaster struck. Ten days or so before the big Day Fergus helped load crates of lemonade into the boot of the coach taking the Sunday School children on the annual outing. In the afternoon both of us were helping at a fete at Stanmore. Suffice to say on the Sunday morning Fergus bent to tie his laces and couldn't straighten up. Slipped disc or what? Bed rest was prescribed. Thus it was that the pre-Lanimer executive committee meeting was held in a bedroom at Schoolbraids - there were the three Charlies - Wells, McKeane and Chaplin (Jimmy) and (big) Willie Wilson.

During the week I heard the clip clop of horses hooves outside the front door. Ex-Lord Cornet Andrew Inglis and Cornet-elect William Hall had come to visit the invalid.

Anyway drastic measures were required if my husband was to be fit for Lanimer Day. An osteopath was suggested. Fergus was literally carried downstairs and bundled into his car en route for Glasgow. After some manipulation, mobility to a certain extent returned and by Lanimer Day, walking with two sticks, he took his place at the Cross and watched while Provost John White escorted me to the dais to crown Jill, Lanimer Queen of 1962.

It is an awesome spectacle from that eminent position seeing an enormous crowd of people stretching right up the High Street to what is now the Oxfam Shop. I kept a scrapbook of the events of that memorable year and the headline from the Gazette are quite significant.

"Heatwave Lanark sees Jill crowned Queen of the Lanimers".

I sweated my way through that day - minus the mink stole - which still hides away in a corner of my wardrobe. It may come back into fashion but I'm not holding my breath. Sod's law in action.