More stories from Tiree’s history. From the Reading Evening Post on 28th March, 1966:
“The Bridegroom and several of the guests wore kilts, and there was even a bonneted Highlander to pipe the couple from the kirk after the ceremony. But the setting could not have been further from the idyllic isle where they found romance.”
“To marry his bride on Saturday, farmer John Thomson had flown down from his croft on the tiny Inner Hebridean isle of Tiree just 12 miles long to the picturesque village of South Stoke, near Goring. And to capture the atmosphere of a traditional Scots wedding, he brought his friend and fellow-farmer Malcolm Mac Lean to play the bagpipes. Children among the knot of watching villagers cheered as the bridegroom, sporting the tartan of the clan Campbell, walked with Mrs. Bunty Sainsbury from the kirk St. Andrew’s Parish Church to the skirl of the pipes.”
“Like his Hamelin predecessor, piper Mac Lean, an Argyll county councillor for Tiree and its neighbouring isle of Coll led the couple and their guests through the village streets. In 10 days Mr. Thomson. a widower, will take his bride to his island home, where they met less than two years ago when 43-year-old Mrs. Sainsbury was on holiday. A widow, she has been living in South Stoke while working as music mistress at Southlands Girls’ School, Goring. Before retiring to Tiree about five years ago, Mr. Thomson was a CID officer in London.”
That’s my mam!