J. Scott Skinner

J. Scott Skinner, the youngest son of Wm. Skinner and Mary Agnew, was born in Banchory-Ternan on the 5th of August, 1843. His father was originally a gardener but after losing three of the fingers of his left hand, he became a left-handed fiddler and a prominent dancing master on Deeside. His mother was bereaved when J. Scott Skinner was only eighteen months old, but remarried. When the future “Strathspey King” was about seven years of age his brother, Sandy, apprenticed him to the violin and ‘cello, and within two or three years he had gained sufficient proficiency in vamping on the latter instrument to accompany his bigger brother at the local dances. Soon afterwards he came under the influence of Peter Milne and shared some of the latter’s joys and sorrows while playing in and around the district. In 1855, after being in irregular attendance at Connell’s School, Princes Street, Aberdeen, for about three years, he enlisted in Dr. Mark’s celebrated troupe of “Little Men,” at that time in the Granite City, and accompanied them to their headquarters in Manchester, there to start a six years’ course in intensive musical training and a tour of the four countries. J.S.S. was in this juvenile orchestra when it gave its command performance before Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace on the 10th of February, 1858. Fortunately he met Charles Rougier in Manchester, and to that celebrated French violinist’s schooling in Kreutzer studies, etc., he attributed much of his future success. Three months before completing his apprenticeship under the German “Professor” he escaped from Glasgow to his mother’s new home in Aberdeen, there to rejoin Peter Milne. With almost a year’s tuition in dancing from Wm. Scott, “Professor” of Elocution, Stoneywood, J. Scott Skinner now held dancing classes in the district as far out as Alford. He actually beat the renowned John M’Neill of Edinburgh in a sword-dance competition in Ireland in 1862 and the following year played The Marquis of Huntly’s Farewell and The Marquis of Tullybardine at a grand strathspey and reel competition in Inverness, thereby gaining the first prize and ousting perhaps the best players in Joseph Lowe’s Edinburgh Band. When he subsequently extended his field of activities to the Ballater district his reputation soon reached the ears of the Queen, who requested him to teach the tenantry at Balmoral callisthenics and dancing. In 1868 he claimed to have 125 pupils there.

By 1870 Scott Skinner had married and settled in Aberlour, with his wife to assist him in his duties. He then removed to 2 South College Street, Elgin, and for some twelve years continued in the double role of dancing master and solo violinist. As a concert artiste his name was now on everyone’s lips. In 1879 he held a long series of concerts throughout the north and east of Scotland and, to judge from his programmes, including De Beriot’s 7th Air in E Major and First Concerto, Op. 16, Mozart’s Figaro Overture (as a Trio) and P. Rode’s Air Varie, Op. 10, he must then have been a virtuoso of some standing. By 1880 his adopted daughter, Jeanie Skinner (later Mrs. Frank Sutherland), was figuring prominently as his pianist. His partnership with his wife seems to have terminated rather abruptly about 1881, when the latter was taken to Elgin Hospital, there to spend the remainder of her days. About 1883 J. Scott Skinner took up residence at 4 Dee Street, Aberdeen, and advertised his Dancing Academy at 9 Silver Street, but in 1884 he was alternately at 95 High Street, Elgin and 22 Union Terrace, Aberdeen. Not long after the death of his brother, Sandy, the latter’s widow, Madame de Lenglee, became his partner and continued in that capacity for several years. His concert advertisements during this period show that his various abodes were not fixed for many years. In 1893 he toured the U.S.A. with Willie MacLennan, the celebrated piper and dancer, but the rather sudden death of the latter upset the Strathspey King’s calculations, so within eight months he was back in his native Scotland.

He practically gave up dancing now and concentrated on his Andrea Guarnarius. While staying in Union Grove, Aberdeen, he met his second wife and by 1897 he had married her and settled at Monikie, near Dundee. There he wrote some of his best compositions and devoted much of his time to amateur gardening. In 1899 he went on a concert tour. About 1909 his wife “resigned” and went to Rhodesia, leaving the “King” once more on his own. For alternate periods during the next thirteen years his headquarters were principally at Alexr. M’Pherson’s, Kirriemuir; Wm. F. M’Hardy’s, Drumblair House, Forgue; Glencoe House, Carnoustie; Darling’s and The County Hotels, Edinburgh. His concert engagements, many of which were organised by J.C. Lumsden, Edinburgh, were at this period very numerous. In 1922 J. Scott Skinner came to reside at 25 Victoria Street, Aberdeen, and up to 1925 was the leading artiste in five different tours, his last public performance in Britain being given at Oldmeldrum on the 25th of April, 1925. The following year, after having been an invalid for some considerable time, he was unwisely tempted to go to a reel and jig competition in U.S.A. There he encountered his pet aversion, an unsuitable pianist, and marched off the platform before finishing his test pieces. Nevertheless he was given a royal reception and later demonstrated that he was still, in spite of his years, the “Strathspey King.” He returned home to spend most of his remaining days in bed and died on the 17th of March, 1927. The pipe band of the Aberdeen City Police led the funeral procession to Allenvale Cemetery and George S. MacLennan, the famous piper, played Lochaber No More over the Strathspey King’s last resting place.

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