Norman Heathcote

{{short description|British writer, artist and photographer (1863 – 1946)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Norman Heathcote

| image = Norman Heathcote, photographed by RC MacLeod, 1900.jpg

| alt = Photograph by R.C. MacLeod showing a man taking a photograph with a hand-held camera.

| caption = Norman Heathcote in 1900

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1863|06|21}}

| birth_place =

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1946|07|16|1863|06|21}}

| death_place =

| nationality = British

| other_names =

| occupation = Author, watercolourist, photographer

| known_for = St Kilda (1900)}}

John Norman Heathcote (21 June 1863 – 16 July 1946) was a British author, watercolourist and photographer, who wrote the book St Kilda, published in 1900, about the Scottish Hebridean archipelago of St Kilda.

Family and biography

File:Conington Castle, 1900, J Norman Heathcote.jpg

Norman Heathcote was the second child and eldest son of John Moyer Heathcote and Louisa Cecilia MacLeod who married in 1860. His father (whose mother was the youngest daughter of Nicholas Ridley-Colborne, 1st Baron Colborne) was a barrister and distinguished amateur player of real tennis.{{Cite ODNB|id=33794|title=Heathcote, John Moyer}} His mother was the eldest child of Norman Macleod, 25th chief of Clan Macleod. As a child Norman lived in London, Brighton and at Conington Castle.{{cite book|last=Venn|first=John|title=Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900, Volume 2|publisher=University of Cambridge|page=315|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Abx6EqTRfqEC&pg=PA315|isbn=9781108036139|date=2011-09-15}}

Heathcote was born in 1863 and attended Eton College and then Trinity College, Cambridge from 1882, where he took a BA degree in 1885. He became a Justice of the Peace in 1906 and was High Sheriff of Huntingdonshire in 1917/18.{{London Gazette|issue=29982|page=2508|date=13 March 1917}} On his father's death in 1912, he inherited Conington Castle, Conington, Huntingdonshire with its estate of over {{convert|7000|acre}} and lived there for many years. He also inherited the lordship of the manor of Steeple Gidding which he sold to a Mr Tower in 1915.{{cite web|title=The Manor of Gidding and Weldon|url=http://www.hamerton-steeple-gidding.org.uk/local_info/gidding_manor.asp|work=Hamerton and Steeple Gidding|access-date=31 May 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606232823/http://www.hamerton-steeple-gidding.org.uk/local_info/gidding_manor.asp|archive-date=6 June 2014|df=dmy-all}}

In 1933 he owned a steam yacht called Ketch.{{cite web|last=Armstrong|first=Alan|title=OT: 12 August 1933 – The MacCrimmon Memorials|url=http://pmjohngrant.com/wp/2012/05/ot-12-august-1933-the-maccrimmon-memorials/|work=Pipe Major John Grant|access-date=31 May 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606223741/http://pmjohngrant.com/wp/2012/05/ot-12-august-1933-the-maccrimmon-memorials/|archive-date=6 June 2014|df=dmy-all}} reproducing Oban Times. 12 August 1933

St Kilda

File:Island of St kildA, J Norman Heathcote, 1900.jpg

=''St Kilda''=

In 1898 and again in 1899 Heathcote visited the archipelago with his sister, Evelyn. At that time St Kilda was owned by his uncle, Reginald MacLeod of MacLeod.Evelyn was three years younger. He also had an elder sister who died in 1880 and a younger brother.{{cite web|title=Bibliography|url=http://www.kilda.org.uk/frame11.htm|work=St Kilda, World Heritage Site|publisher=National Trust for Scotland|access-date=31 May 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203065550/http://www.kilda.org.uk/frame11.htm|archive-date=3 February 2015|df=dmy-all}}{{cite web|title=School Children, St. Kilda|url=http://www.ambaile.org.uk/en/item/item_photograph.jsp?item_id=22631|work=Am Baile, History and Culture|publisher=Am Baile/The Gaelic Village, Highland Libraries|access-date=31 May 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606210434/http://www.ambaile.org.uk/en/item/item_photograph.jsp?item_id=22631|archive-date=6 June 2014|df=dmy-all}} He went on to write a book about the islands which was published in London by Longmans, Green in 1900 and reprinted in 1985.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900b}}{{sfnp|Heathcote|1985}}It has since become available by print on demand by Nabu Press, and others.

It included eighty of his own illustrations – photographs (taken with a handheld camera), sketches, paintings and a map.{{cite web|title=1900, English, Book, Illustrated edition: St. Kilda / by Norman Heathcote|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/11976187?selectedversion=NBD11821345|website=Trove|publisher=National Library of Australia|access-date=3 June 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606221315/http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/11976187?selectedversion=NBD11821345|archive-date=6 June 2014|df=dmy-all}}{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900b|p=vi}} He was the first to record several bird species on the islands.{{cite journal|last=Harvie-Brown|first=J.A.|title=On the Avifauna of the Outer Hebrides, 1888 – 1902|journal=Annals of Scottish Natural History|date=January 1903|volume=45|url=http://www.electricscotland.com/nature/annalsofscottish12edin.pdf|access-date=31 May 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013122054/http://www.electricscotland.com/nature/annalsofscottish12edin.pdf|archive-date=13 October 2013|df=dmy-all}} The book deals with the people of St Kilda, their history and customs; the wildlife (particularly birds) and his and his sister's experiences boating and climbing with the St Kildans.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900b}}{{cite news|title=Literary Notes|url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=OW19001128.2.294|work=Otago Witness|issue=2437|date=28 November 1900|page=67|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140616205121/http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=OW19001128.2.294|archive-date=16 June 2014|df=dmy-all}}

File:Boating in St Kilda, J Norman Heathcote, 1900.jpg

In 1898 Heathcote and his sister arrived after a four-hour voyage on the Martin Orme steamer SS Dunara Castle for a stay of ten days.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900b|pp=5–9,48,65}}{{cite web|title=S.S. Dunara Castle|url=http://www.ambaile.org.uk/en/item/item_photograph.jsp?item_id=13917|website=Am Baile|publisher=Highland libraries|access-date=3 June 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606231544/http://www.ambaile.org.uk/en/item/item_photograph.jsp?item_id=13917|archive-date=6 June 2014|df=dmy-all}}
{{cite web|title=St Kilda – Communications|url=http://www.kilda.org.uk/communications.htm#.U43CPXamWeY|website=St Kilda|publisher=National Trust for Scotland|access-date=3 June 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606234644/http://www.kilda.org.uk/communications.htm#.U43CPXamWeY|archive-date=6 June 2014|df=dmy-all}} Dunara and the McCallum steamer {{SS|Hebrides}} between them visited about once a fortnight but only in the three summer months.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900b|pp=203–204}}{{sfnp|Heathcote|1901}} There were about twenty visitors, some were tourists but others had arrived to start building the new schoolhouse – until that time lessons had been given in the kirk.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900b|pp=6–9,94}} In 1898 Evelyn laid the foundation stone and by the time of their 1899 visit the school had been completed and the kirk had been completely renovated.Services (in Gaelic) lasted from two hours to over three hours.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900b|p=96}} The resident population numbered seventy and most spoke only Gaelic although the children were taught English at school.Evelyn had some knowledge of Gaelic.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900b|pp=21,77,79}}

File:Stac Lii from the sea, Norman Heathcote, 1901.jpg

In 1899 their visit lasted two months and in July Heathcote and Evelyn were rowed to Boreray and from there they together climbed the sea stack Stac Lee.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900b|p=108}}{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900a|p=142}} He wrote that Stac Lee was "not a difficult climb" and that, before Evelyn, two other women had reached the summit.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900b|p=140}} However, after exploring Boreray and setting off to row back to the main island, Hirta, the weather deteriorated and they were forced to spend the night in their boat, sheltering in a sea cave on Boreray.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900b|pp=112–115}} When he visited Stac Levenish he was told he was the first person who was not a St Kildan ever to have been there. Unable to board the boat again, he had to climb the stack so as to descend on the other side where the boat could be in more sheltered water.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900b|pp=122–125}} He considered the most difficult stack to climb was Stac Biorach, saying that Richard Manliffe Barrington was the only non-St Kildan to have climbed it.Heathcote did not climb Biorach.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900b|p=142}}{{sfnp|Heathcote|1901}}{{cite journal

| last = Barrington

| first = R.M.

| title = The Ascent of Stack na Biorach

| journal = Alpine Journal

| volume = 27

| page = 195

}}

=Journal articles=

File:Landing place on Stac Lii.jpg

He also published a paper "A Map of St Kilda" in the Geographical Journal of 1900 describing his surveying methods in producing the map that was included in the St Kilda book.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900a}}The map was in both book and journal. In the book he thanks the Royal Geographical Society for permission to publish it. Except at Village Bay on Hirta it is difficult to climb down to the shore and indeed from the top of the cliffs it is often impossible to conveniently see the coast. At Soay and Boreray he did not even try to get his theodolite ashore.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1900a|p=143}} A year later in "Climbing in St Kilda" in the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal he gave an account of his experiences climbing.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1901}} He gave details of climbing Stac Lee saying it was "comparatively easy" although getting ashore onto the stack was "a most appalling undertaking" involving jumping ashore and climbing an overhanging cliff covered in slippery seaweed to a stanchion {{convert|20|ft|m|0|abbr=off|spell=on}} above sea level. He recommended taking off boots and climbing in socks.{{sfnp|Heathcote|1901}}

File:St Kilda map, Heathcote.jpg | Hirta and Soay

File:St Kilda, Scotland (Boreray), Heathcote.jpg | Boreray

Publications

{{cite journal|last1=Heathcote|first1=J Norman|title=A Map of St Kilda|journal=Geographical Journal|date=February 1900|volume=15|issue=2|pages=142–144, 204|ref={{sfnref|Heathcote|1900a}}|doi=10.2307/1774585|jstor=1774585|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1449214}}
{{cite book|last=Heathcote|first=Norman|title=St Kilda|date=1900|publisher=Longmans, Green & Co|location=London|url=https://archive.org/details/stkilda00heatgoog|ref={{sfnref|Heathcote|1900b}}}}
{{cite book|last=Heathcote|first=Norman|title=St. Kilda with 80 Illustrations from Sketches and Photographs of the People, Scenery and Birds by the Author |date=1985|publisher=Rowll Press|location=Edinburgh|edition=reprint of 1900}}
{{cite journal|last1=Heathcote|first1=Norman|title=Climbing in St Kilda|journal=Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal|date=May 1901|volume=6|issue=5|pages=147–152|url=http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/smcj/smcj035/smcj03503.htm|access-date=1 June 2014}}