Angus Johnson

Angus Johnson is an Archives Assistant, and has been working in Shetland Archives since 1989. He was young then. Most of his work is to do with audio material.

Articles written by Angus Johnson

Be My Valentine

It’s that time of year, Valentine’s Day, the 14th of February. In the Shetland Archives Catalogue references to Valentines are ...

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The Eyjarskeggjar

The images of Up Helly Aa go like this – the burning longship, arms and armour, and bearded men. The present Jarl Richard Moar has ...

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Shetland's War Memorial - constructed by William Horne

Shetland’s War Memorial on Hillhead is now one hundred years old, and was rededicated with a ceremony on 6 January. The memorial ...

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Christmas in Shetland - 1923

1923, like many of the years between the wars, was not a good one. The Shetland Times year end report spoke of a poor herring fishing, ...

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Alanbrooke and the Kearton Brothers

When archivist Angus Johnson started to read through his copy of Alanbrooke's War Diaries, he did some digging in the archives to see ...

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Memories from the archives

Grace Leask (née Mouat) shared her memories of time spent as a gutter lass in Shetland.

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The Coronation

The Coronation of 2 June 1953 is a long way away now, in a vastly different world and culture. True, a major war was going on, but the ...

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A tribute to Ian Bairnson

Ian Bairnson, who died on 7 April, was certainly one of the more remarkable people from Shetland, born here on 3 August 1953.

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Love letters from the past

Since we’ve got to St Valentine’s Day the time has come to consider the Shetland Archives holdings on the subject of love. Do we ...

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Don't Stop Me Now - Up Helly Aa 2023

Hit's been a miss. They last visited in 2020, last Tuesday in January as always, and just before the deluge. That last Tuesday in 2021 ...

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30th anniversary of the Braer oil disaster

January in Shetland is usually dark, wet, and stormy, enlivened by a few celebrations of Old Christmas and New Year. The excitement ...

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Remembering George P.S. Peterson

George P.S. Peterson died recently at the age of 90. He was a notable archival source, teacher, writer, storyteller, folk dancer, and ...

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Robert Barclay, East India Company

The Bruce of Symbister collection in the Shetland Archives, GD144, is a collection of bundled papers. Since it isn’t feasible to ...

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Alexander Wallace

A very welcome book came out recently. Developed from a Ph.D., 'Shetland Boats: Origin, Evolution and Use', by Dr Marc Chivers ...

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The Elvira

Stories of shipwreck have long occupied the Shetland imagination. One Shetlander, R. Stuart Bruce (1873-1951), devoted much of his ...

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