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Remember Who You Are!
The Story of a Son of the Manse
David Findlay Clark
Foreword: Prof. Alexander Fenton
Epilogue: David Steel (The Rt Hon The Lord Steel of Aikwood)
ISBN: 978-0-9554273-1-2
Price £12.99 £9.00
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Like ‘the lad o’ pairts’, the ‘son of the Manse’ is a kind of Scottish cliché. He is traditionally an achiever, dedicated and disciplined. He is expected to be the embodiment of the Protestant work ethic and even to follow in the footsteps of his father. One who did not was a certain Dr James Adair Lawrie (1802 -1859) who became instead the Regius Professor of Surgery at Glasgow University, but in his case his father, grandfather and great grandfather had all been Scottish Presbyterian ministers!
Today, in addition to this author, we have a multiplicity of sons of the Manse who, like Lawrie, did not. Gordon Brown, Peter Fraser, Douglas Alexander (and his sister, Wendy), David (Lord) Steel, Eric Liddle, John Buchan, John Logie Baird and Lord Reith of an earlier era and, less well known and with perhaps a more tainted reputation, Captain Thomas Kidd, who found fulfilment in piracy.
Yet, it can be far from easy, fulfilling the role of a boy who has to live out a childhood and adolescence and with the censorious words, ‘Remember Who You Are!’ ringing in his ears. The privileges and benefits of a Manse upbringing may be well enough recognised, but the constraints and hardships are largely unknown to those who have escaped such an upbringing. The struggle for an independent identity can have much to do with how any son of the Manse turns out.
This story opens up a kind of ethnology of Manse life of the early 20th century which lays bare the nitty- gritty reality of what it is really like. It does not pretend to be an exposition of the experience of all, or even of most, Manse-reared children but it will engage the reader with its story of the writer’s struggle and his eventual rejection of religion in any of its forms. The fact that he became a professional psychologist will come as no surprise.
David Findlay Clark retired from working as a consultant clinical psychologist in the NHS and in private practice and as a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mental Health at Aberdeen University some years ago. Dr Clark was brought up in Banff and educated at Banff Academy and Aberdeen University. He has written extensively in recent years and a new edition of his book on National Service, Stand By Your Beds! A Wry Look at National Service, has recently been published.