Mary Symon

The Scottish Poets section on our website is an ongoing project; we are gradually adding poets, both dead and alive, keeping information up to date, and adding images where possible. 
The striking image above came to us via Ian Olson of Aberdeen, an old Gordonian, who recently sent us a copy of an article he wrote about Robert Gordon’s College school song in its magazine The Pelican (based on an earlier account in the March 2010 issue of the Scots Magazine). Dr Olson was aware that the author, Mary Symon, is better known to the SPL as the Dufftown poet and writer of moving poems about the losses of the First World War – read her page here.

We are extremely pleased to have the image, as it appears to be the only known one of her in existence. Penny Hartley, the school Archivist, tells us that in the Governors’ Minutes for September 1938, it is recorded that three former pupils presented a photograph of the late Miss Mary Symon, but it isn’t known whether they had it commissioned at the time of her writing the School Song, or how it came to be in their possession. The photograph was apparently first hung in one of the Music rooms, but then spent a period languishing in a cupboard. It is now part of the Photograph Collection in the College Archives, and we are very  grateful to the College for permission to reproduce it.

Lizzie