Tom Anderson (fiddler)

[2] On leaving school he had various jobs in the area: fishing, helping to build Eshaness Lighthouse, labouring on a whaling station.

He married Barbara Morrison (born 17 October 1901, Garderhouse, Sandsting), a teacher in Esha Ness, on 10 December 1929 at the Ollaberry United Free Church.

The concert was opened by selections by forty ‘massed fiddlers fae aa ower’, whom Tom had collected together over the preceding winter, rehearsed and led.

The result was that on 29 June 1960, in Islesburgh House, Lerwick, the Shetland Fiddlers' Society[6] was formed and one of their first engagements was to play for Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in August that year.

Anderson had retired from the Pearl Assurance company in 1971, but in 1972 he was appointed the first fiddle tutor in Shetland schools – a hugely significant event.

"I was coming out of Eshaness in late January, 1969, the time was after 11 pm and as I looked back at the top of the hill leading out of the district, I saw so few lights compared to what I remembered when I was young.

That, coupled with the recent death of my wife, made me think of the old word ‘Slockit’ meaning, a light that has gone out, and I think that is what inspired the tune" – from a taped interview with Tammy by a student in 1970.

Today the sons and daughters of his pupils are coming to the fore in schools music in Shetland, while Aly Bain and many others have achieved fame world-wide.

Pupils who remember him recall that he could be cantankerous and excitable at times but also kind, funny, patient, tolerant – an absolute inspiration.

[1] In 2009 Soldier's Joy from The Silver Bow with Aly Bain was included in Topic Records 70 year anniversary boxed set Three Score and Ten as track seven on the fourth CD.