The Soap Man

by Roger Hutchinson

  I’d hand them happiness on a plate,

  If only the fools would co-operate . . .

  But blind with Celtic mist and phlegm

  They cannot see what is good for them.

  All that remained at Lever’s death, the poet decided, ‘Was a waste of money and a waste of breath:

  Far below in the Western Seas

  The moors were quiet in the Hebrides,

  The crofters gossiped in Gaelic speech

  And the waves crept over the lonely beach.62

  Louis MacNeice drew and publicised his conclusion – which was actually little more than an idle common prejudice left undisturbed by his brief visit – that nothing had altered in the islands because its inhabitants were dogmatically averse to change. His journey through Harris had taken him up the west coast, past Borve Lodge and the great sands of Scarista. He noted there with amusement young bare-foot children running out of ramshackle houses to wave at his passage.

  MacNeice was incapable of noting that just fifteen years earlier such a sight would have been impossible, for between Luskentyre and Northton there had been no houses other than the estate lodge, and no children other than those on holiday with the proprietor. The Board of Agriculture first settled families from the east coast onto the machair at Scaristavore in 1928. Following insistent raiding it repeated the process at neigh-bouring Scaristabeg and further north at Luskentyre, and eventually at Borve itself. It was to the thankful incoming families from Bays not so much an emigration as a retrieval. They were returning home.

  There is an attraction in Ozymandian monuments. The half-hearted industrial shells at Obbe/Leverburgh and the abandoned whaling station at Bunavoneader in North Harris stand as some kind of requiem in stone to Leverhulme’s vain ambitions for the northern Hebrides. But so in all justice, whether he intended it or not, does the continued benevolent presence of the Stornoway Trust as a Sargasso of calm and accountability in the forbidding and unstable ocean of private Highland estates.

  The people who welcomed him with caustic eyes, who greeted his good ideas and opposed his foolishness, knew exactly what they wanted to leave behind. The well-populated crofting townships which swarm over the landscape from Tong to Coll to Back to Gress and Tolsta became home, throughout the twentieth century and into the third millennium, to a huge proportion of the population of Lewis. The clusters of white crofthouses on the greensward now harbour inscribed plaques and sculptures which pay tribute to the land raiders who came back from the First World War. They are modest remembrances of the fathers of these enduring townships, but they are more than was ever anticipated. Such people neither wished nor expected their ambitions to be eulogised in stone. The ex-servicemen, as Lord Leverhulme acknowledged in his final address to the people of Lewis, were looking for no testimonial and had in prospect no reward other than this: the security of their children’s children at peace on the soil of their island.

  NOTES

  1 The History of Unilever, Vol I, Charles Wilson

  2 ibid

  3 ibid

  4 The Second Disruption, James Lachlan Macleod

  5 ibid

  6 My Life, Angus Watson

  7 Tales and Traditions of the Lews, Donald MacDonald

  8 Men of Stress, Dr Harley Williams

  9 The History of Unilever, Vol I, Charles Wilson

  10 Lord Leverhulme, W. P. Jolly

  11 Land For The People?, Ewen A. Cameron

  12 ibid

  13 The Crofters’War, I. M.M. MacPhail

  14 Land For The People?, Ewen A. Cameron

  15 Around the Peat-fire, Calum Smith

  16 Lewis – A History of the Island, Donald Macdonald

  17 TwentyYears of Hebridean Memories, Emily MacDonald

  18 TheWestern Isles, A. A. MacGregor

  19 TwentyYears of Hebridean Memories, Emily Macdonald

  20 Viscount Leverhulme, William Hulme Lever (the first Viscount Leverhulme’s son)

  21 ibid

  22 Around the Peat-fire, Calum Smith

  23 Call na h-Iolaire, Tormod Calum Domhnallach

  24 ibid

  25 Donald MacPhail recorded by BBC Radio in 1959

  26 Around the Peat-fire, Calum Smith

  27 Highland Journey, Colin Macdonald

  28 Land for the People?, Ewen A. Cameron

  29 The History of Unilever, Vol I, Charles Wilson

  30 Highland Journey, Colin Macdonald

  31 The Lewis Land Struggle, Joni Buchanan

  32 Highland Journey, Colin Macdonald

  33 Fit For Heroes, Leah Leneman

  34 Lord of the Isles, Nigel Nicolson

  35 TwentyYears of Hebridean Memories, Emily Macdonald

  36 A History of Lodge Fortrose No. 108 Stornoway, George Clavey

  37 The Making of the Crofting Community, James Hunter

  38 Arches of the Years, Halliday Sutherland

  39 The Isle of Lewis and Harris, Arthur Geddes

  40 I Crossed the Minch, Louis MacNeice

  41 The Sea Fisheries of Scotland, James R. Coull

  42 The History of Unilever, Vol 1, Charles Wilson

  43 ibid

  44 ibid

  45 Highland Memories, Colin MacDonald

  46 The Lewis Land Struggle, Joni Buchanan

  47 ibid

  48 Arches of the Years, Halliday Sutherland

  49 TwentyYears of Hebridean Memories, Emily Macdonald

  50 Land for the People?, Ewen A. Cameron

  51 Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, 1923

  52 Lord Leverhulme, W. P. Jolly

  53 Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, 1923

  54 Around the Peat-fire, Calum Smith

  55 Metagama, Jim Wilkie

  56 Men of Stress, Dr Harley Williams

  57 Lord of the Isles, Nigel Nicolson

  58 ibid

  59 Highland Memories, Colin Macdonald

  60 Hebridean Journey, Halliday Sutherland

  61 Fit For Heroes?, Leah Leneman

  62 I Crossed the Minch, Louis MacNeice

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Buchanan, Joni, The Lewis Land Struggle (1996)

  Cameron, A. D., Go Listen to the Crofters (1986)

  Cameron, Ewen A., Land for the People? (1996)

  Cooper, Derek, The Road to Mingulay (1985)

  Coull, James R., The Sea Fisheries of Scotland (1996)

  Darling, Frank Fraser, West Highland Survey (1955)

  Domhnallach, Tormod Calum, Call na h-Iolaire (1978)

  Gaelic Society of Inverness, Proceedings, 1923 (1927)

  Geddes, Arthur, The Isle of Lewis and Harris (1955)

  Grant, James Shaw, Stornoway and The Lews (1985)

  Harman, Mary, An Isle Called Hirte (1997)

  Hunter, James, The Making of the Crofting Community (1976)

  Jolly, W. P., Lord Leverhulme (1976)

  Leneman, Leah, Fit For Heroes? (1989)

  Leverhulme, 2nd Viscount, Lord Leverhulme (1927)

  MacDonald, Colin, Highland Journey (1943)

  MacDonald, Colin, Highland Memories (1949)

  Macdonald, Donald, Lewis, A History of the Island (1978)

  Macdonald, Donald, Tales and Traditions of the Lews (1967)

  Macdonald, Emily, TwentyYears of Hebridean Memories (1939)

  MacGregor, Alasdair Alpin, TheWestern Isles (1949)

  MacKenzie, W. C., History of the Outer Hebrides (1903)

  MacKenzie, W. C., The Book of the Lews (1919)

  MacLeod, James Lachlan, The Second Disruption (2000)

  MacNeice, Louis, I Crossed The Minch (1938)

  MacPhail, I. M.M., The Crofters’War (1989)

  Milne, Sir David, The Scottish Office (1957)

  Morris, Edward (ed.), The Making of the Lady Lever Art Gallery (1992)

  Nicolson, Nigel, Lord of the Isles (1960)

  Pakenham, Thomas, The Scramble for Africa (1991)

  Smith, Calum, Around the Peat-fire (2001)

  Su
therland, Halliday, Hebridean Journey (1939)

  Sutherland, Halliday, The Arches of the Years (1933)

  Thomas, John, The Skye Railway (1977)

  Watson, Angus, My Life (1937)

  Wilkie, Jim, Metagama (1987)

  Williams, Harley, Men of Stress (1948)

  Wilson, Charles, The History of Unilever, Volume 1 (1954)

  The author would also like to acknowledge the help given by the archives of various periodicals. William Grant’s Stornoway Gazette arrived in Lewis shortly before Lord Leverhulme, and was an enthusiastic chronicler of his activities. The West Highland Free Press appeared a little later, but has been anxious to recover lost ground.

  The Invergordon Times, The Scotsman, The Manchester Guardian and The Glasgow Herald also offered useful and various insights into postbellum Lewis.

  INDEX

  Adamson, William 217

  Aignish 37,

  raid on 43–46, 59, 60, 207

  Albert, Prince Consort 2

  Amhuinnsuidhe Castle 144, 145, 147, 220, 225

  Anderson, John Norrie (Provost) 79, 81, 83, 86, 110, 111

  Back 21, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 134, 135, 165, 169, 199, 204, 206, 208, 210, 213, 214, 216, 217, 227

  Balallan 38, 39, 40, 45, 164, 193

  Baldwin, Stanley 181, 182, 184

  Barra, island of 77, 115, 157, 188, 226

  Barvas Moor 12, 20, 64, 93, 99, 118, 131, 155, 203, 205

  Bays of Harris 146, 172, 175, 177, 227

  Benbecula, island of 115, 118

  Bernera 12, 66

  Birkenhead 2, 3, 27, 57

  Board of Agriculture 60, 61, 62, 96, 98, 99, 113, 115, 116, 118, 122, 123, 129, 132, 133, 135, 149, 152, 165, 167, 168, 174, 177, 178, 183, 192, 198, 200, 204, 207, 209, 212, 225, 226, 227

  Bonar Law, Andrew 182, 187, 191

  Borve Lodge 170, 224, 226

  Bromborough 1, 2, 25, 46, 85, Bruce, G J 75, 76, 77, 78

  Cameron, Donald (of Lochiel) 32, 34

  Cameron, James 41, 43

  Campbell, Lachlan 146

  Carloway 12, 93, 108, 215, 246

  Cheesebay 177, 178

  Clisham, the 14, 144, 149, 169

  Coll 60, 117, 118, 119, 121, 122, 131, 133, 144, 151, 152, 153, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 188, 210, 214, 216, 227

  Congo 48, 52, 53, 54. 55, 224

  Conservative Party 35, 36, 42, 60, 77, 78, 96, 101, 181, 182, 183, 184

  Cotts, Sir William Dingwall Mitchell 78, 101, 109, 177, 181, 182, 183, 184, 193, 217

  Crofters Act, 1886 36, 38, 63, 176, 194, 206, 207, 208, 226

  Croick 178

  Dalbeg 60

  Dingwall 33, 45, 65, 77, 107

  Edinburgh 42, 43, 45, 61, 63, 66, 70, 79, 137, 152, 196, 210, 212, 215

  Finsbay 170, 172, 175, 176

  Fleetwood 114, 159

  Fraser, Alexander (Sheriff) 39, 42, 44

  Fraser-Macintosh, Charles 34

  Free Church of Scotland 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 90, 101, 151, 195, 196, 217, 222

  Gaelic Society of Inverness 185, 186, 187, 188, 190, 191, 194

  Galson 37, 43, 44, 46, 60, 61, 113, 133, 166, 198, 203, 214

  Geddes, Arthur 155, 156, 158, 159

  George V, King 57

  Gladstone, William 2, 19, 27, 29, 31, 32, 36, 37, 42, 101, 207

  Graham, Murdo 167

  Grant, James Shaw 157, 207

  Grant, William 65, 70, 71, 74, 75, 78, 107, 182, 191, 194, 207

  Greig, Sir Robert 198

  Gress 60, 61, 113, 117, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 129, 131, 132, 133, 135, 139, 144, 151, 152, 153, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 179, 188, 195, 203, 204, 210, 216, 227

  Harcourt, Sir William 17, 32

  Hardy, Dr M E 155

  Harris, island of 4, 11, 12, 38, 63, 65, 76, 77, 87, 91, 93, 102, 103, 105, 106, 118

  Leverhulme’s purchase of 144–149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 155, 163

  Leverhulme’s ownership of 169–179, 181, 185, 188, 189, 190, 192, 193, 195, 198

  Leverhulme’s swansong in 219–221, 224, 225, 226, 227

  Hooley, Ernest Terah 50

  House of Commons 35, 50, 102, 115, 116, 117, 119, 133, 183

  Inverness 20, 46, 65, 80, 105, 169, 173, 177, 185, 187, 188, 191, 193, 194

  Iolaire, HMY 103, 104, 105, 107, 108, 109, 146, 223

  Ireland 7, 31, 36

  Kennedy-Fraser, Marjory 138, 139, 151

  Killegray, island of 177, 178

  Knight, Frank and Rutley 67, 215

  Kyle of Lochalsh 80, 103, 104, 107, 122, 219, 224

  Labour Party 75, 77, 78, 97, 101, 181, 183, 184, 207, 217

  Land Court 60, 61, 62, 192

  Land League (Highland and Lewis) 19, 31, 32, 33, 35, 39, 46, 74, 75, 76, 77, 97

  Lauder, Sir Harry 137, 138, 139, 151, 171, 186

  Laxay 38, 39, 40

  Leopold II, King 52

  Leurbost 86, 105, 193

  Lever, Eliza Hesketh (mother) 5

  Lever, Elizabeth Ellen (Baroness Leverhulme) 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 15, 22, 29

  death of 56, 58

  Lever, James (father) 5, 6

  Lever, William Hulme 56, 57, 69, 98

  Leverburgh see Obbe Leverville 53, 54, 56, 224

  Lewis District Committee 74, 79, 110, 111, 112, 203, 204, 208, 209, 210, 212, 213, 214, 215, 222

  Lews Castle 12, 67, 79, 80, 109, 119, 134, 136, 137, 139, 185, 198, 216, 224, 246

  Liberal Party 2, 17, 27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 36, 47, 50, 61, 77, 78, 96, 97, 98, 101, 149, 181, 182, 183, 184, 217

  Lingerabay 172, 175, 176

  Livingstone, Alexander MacKenzie 183, 184, 217

  Lloyd George, David 68, 77, 96, 101, 117, 184, 185

  Lochs, districts of 20, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 45, 46, 60, 61, 62, 75, 86, 105, 113, 130, 151, 196, 203, 204, 208, 215, 217

  MacCallum, Reverend Donald 75, 76, 86, 102

  Macdonald, Colin 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 139, 140, 142, 143, 165, 225

  MacDonald, Dr Roderick 34, 35, 102

  MacDonald, James 104, 105

  Macdonald, John 172, 175, 176

  MacEachern, Reverend Charles 46

  MacFisheries 114, 115, 155, 159

  MacGregor, Alasdair Alpin 70

  MacIver, Rev. Angus 19

  MacKay, William (founder of Gaelic Society of Inverness) 185

  MacKay, William (Matheson Estate factor) 20

  Mackenzie, John (Provost) 86

  Mackenzie, John (Tarbert) 195, 219

  MacKenzie, Kenneth (Provost) 110, 193, 210, 215

  MacKenzie, Sir Kenneth 32

  Maclean, Murdo (Provost) 79, 81, 87, 108, 159, 195, 197, 204, 210, 211, 213, 214, 222

  MacLeod, Donald (Breasclete) 212

  MacLeod, George (Aignish) 207, 208

  MacLeod, John (Vatisker) 121, 122, 127, 128, 131

  MacLeod, John Finlay 105

  MacLeod, Pipe-Major Donald 137, 166, 167

  Macmillan, Malcolm K 184

  MacNeice, Louis 226, 227

  MacPherson, Ian 182

  MacRae, Donald 39, 41, 43, 45

  MacRae, Murdo 40

  MacRae, PC James 176

  Manchester Guardian 90, 96

  Mangersta 59, 60

  Martin, Alan 125, 126

  Martin, Donald (Back) 21

  Martin, Donald (Tolsta) 21

  Matheson, Colonel Duncan 59, 61, 67, 68, 87

  Matheson, Donald 59

  Matheson, Lady Jane 13, 19, 35, 39, 59

  Matheson, Sir Alexander (of Lochalsh) 33

  Matheson, Sir James 12, 20, 32, 33, 67, 216

  Mawson, Thomas Hayton 90, 93, 94, 95, 96, 155

  McCowan, Hugh 78, 101

  Mealista 12

  Melbost 43, 44, 46

  Metagama, SS 193, 195, 196, 197

  Morgan, Sir Herbert 118

  Morrison, Alexander (Lewis Crofters’ Association) 74

  Morrison, Alexander (Lewis Land League) 19, 21


  Morrison, Donald 105

  Morrison, Murdo 205

  Morsgail 60, 144, 149, 215

  Munro, Robert (Scottish Secretary) 96, 99, 101, 108, 116, 117, 118, 133, 149, 150, 151, 152, 166, 167, 168, 181, 195, 198, 202

  Munro-Ferguson, Ronald Crauford (Viscount Novar) 33, 35, 39, 181, 198, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 217

  Murray, Charles Adolphus (Earl of Dunmore) 145, 148

  Murray, Dr Donald 77, 78, 97, 101, 102, 115, 116, 181, 183

  Napier Commission 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 27, 31, 32, 34, 37, 38, 146, 152, 185

  Napoleon Bonaparte 26, 49, 72, 94

  Ness, parish of 11, 13, 37, 43, 46, 62, 64, 88, 91, 104, 105, 113, 133, 134, 136, 153, 193, 196, 213, 217

  Newhall, Samuel 46

  Nicolson, Alexander 185, 186, 187, 188, 190, 191, 193

  Nicolson Institute 65, 89, 207, 216, 224

  Niger Company 160, 161, 162, 188

  North Uist, island of 77, 115, 145, 174, 177, 178

  Northton 145, 227

  Obbe (Leverburgh) 145, 146, 153, 172, 173, 175, 176, 177, 187, 220, 225, 226, 227

  Orkney Islands 22

  Orrock, Charles 74, 75, 79, 99, 110

  Owen, Robert 2

  Park, district of 18, 33

  deer forest raid 37–43, 44, 45, 46, 60, 65, 146, 151, 215

  Paul, Emily 68, 69, 79, 87, 135, 169, 170

  Perceval, Frances Maryon 35

  Perceval, Spencer 35

  Platt, Jessie 39, 40, 41, 215

  Platt, Joseph 39, 42

  Point (Eye Peninsula, Rudha) 12, 43, 44, 46, 196, 203, 208, 216

  Port Sunlight – building of 1–4, 25, 26, 28, 29, 48, 49, 50, 53, 55, 56, 57, 66, 73, 132, 159, 166, 191, 224

  Portnalong 178

  prohibition in Lewis 136, 169

  Reform Act (Third) 19, 33, 181

  Robertson, Norman 172, 173, 174, 176

  Rodel 145, 174

  Ross-shire 20, 33, 34, 61, 65, 77, 96, 122, 149, 169, 174, 181, 182, 184, 211

  Royal Naval Reserve 64, 103, 104

  Salt, Titus 2

  Sanders, Sir Edgar 198

  Scalpay, island of 220

  Scarp, island of 220, 221

  Scotsman, The 34, 35, 41, 70, 71, 122

  Scott, Samuel 146, 147

  Scott, Sir Edward 145

  Scottish Office 45, 132, 155, 158, 165, 168, 174, 189, 194, 195, 198, 201, 202

  Shawbost 60, 63, 64, 89, 93, 106, 107, 143, 213

  Sheila, SS 63, 79, 80, 103, 104, 107, 122, 137, 200, 224

  Simpson, Jonathan 5, 8, 9, 22, 79, 169

  Skye, island of 17, 34, 35, 103, 116, 118, 177, 178, 183, 186, 192, 220