Anne-Mary Wharton (nee Paterson) of Beauly
Distinguished historian, author, and scion of notable Beauly family.
February 8, 1938 – April 25, 2024

The death has been confirmed of Anne-Mary Wharton (nee Paterson) of Beauly, the last remaining member of a distinguished family from Beauly. She died peacefully in Raigmore hospital in Inverness on Thursday April 25, aged 86, after a short illness.

Anne-Mary was the daughter of William Paterson, who was Secretary of shinty’s Camanachd Association from 1929 until he became President in 1937 for the next 11 years.

Her grandparents had been notable business-folk in Beauly as seed merchants and ironmongers until 1916 but it is for the death of her two uncles, Alastair and Donald, at the time of the Battle of Festubert in 1915 that the family will be forever mainly remembered in Beauly, and indeed the Highlands and further beyond.

It was as a result of the catastrophic events at Festubert that a story of “Rifles, Romance, Shinty and World War One” brought Anne-Mary and Dr Margaret Mackay together in a remarkable set of circumstances which were eventually brought to the public through a series of stage performances called Shinty’s Heroes.

It probably all started when Anne-Mary discovered a set of bagpipes. In her own words: “We were getting ready for a removal. I was clearing an outhouse. In a far corner, I could see a box that needed investigating. When I opened it, I found a set of bagpipes with a bloodstained tartan bag cover. What had I found? Did we have any pipers in the family? What about Donald Paterson, my Father’s brother – he was a piper. He was killed in the First World War. Confirmation came as I looked further into the box and saw a small sheet of paper with a bagpipe tune on it – the Beauly Shinty Club.”

One thing led to another and while the war-related elements of the story and the Paterson family’s loss was poignant in itself, it was deepened and extended by details in a small collection of items
taken to Canada by Annie Munro in 1919, a native of Kingussie and a teacher appointed to the Beauly School in 1910. Her grand-daughter Margaret Mackay, born in Canada but long resident in Scotland, determined to discover the identity of someone with whom her grannie had been close, who had given her a medal awarded to him for prowess in using a rifle with her initials inscribed on it, dated 1 January 1915. There were clues in an autograph book she’d kept in her Beauly years too. In time, the man in question was shown to be Alasdair Paterson. He, his brother Donald and his sister Margaret had written in the book, Donald inscribing it with pipe notation. Margaret Mackay, and all her Canadian family, became firm friends of their niece Anne-Mary

What is just as remarkable in its own way was the fact that the Patersons of Beauly were related to the famous musical family, the MacGillivrays of Culrossie. To summarise here also, the famous Paterson pipes were put in the care of Duncan MacGillivray and his ultra-musical family and have been played world-wide, including as a centre piece of Shinty’s Heroes performances. In 2018 Duncan and a travelling party to World War 1 battle sites returned the pipes to Festubert where they were played for the first time since the grim battle.
Unfortunately, Anne-Mary could not make that trip, but did eventually make her way to the graveyard in Rouen to Alastair’s grave. Donald’s remains were never found but he is commemorated on battle memorials.

Anne-Mary, who was pre-deceased by her husband Iain Wharton a few years ago, had three abiding passions as an historian. Beauly, railways and shinty. She was a distinguished published author about the former with numerous publications to her credit. It should be no surprise as her family was also related to the great Murdoch Paterson, one-time Chief Engineer of Highland Railways. She was, at the time of her death, endeavouring to complete another volume about Alexander Matheson, another notable in Highland history as his work involving Highland railways and distilleries. It is hoped that there will be some way of completing that work in her honour.

Anne-Mary’s father William was a distinguished servant of the game of shinty. Secretary of the Association and then President. On the occasion of his marriage in 1936 the Association at the time presented him and his wife Anne Mary MacKeggie with a silver salver to mark the occasion. Anne-Mary Paterson was delighted a number of years ago to offer the CA the chance to make that salver the Volunteer of the Year Award. Anne-Mary made a point of being available whenever she could at the Awards ceremonies which followed to hand the salver to the recipients.

Anne-Mary’s passing represents the end of an era in terms of the family’s history in the Beauly district, and is recognised by the CA. The former President Steven MacKenzie was a close friend and neighbour.

Steven noted: “I first met Anne-Mary when she presented me with the Volunteer of the Year award in 2011. We enjoyed sharing stories about Beauly and by sheer chance we ended up next door neighbours in 2014. My wife, Debs, and Anne-Mary became firm friends, and in recent years Debs kept an eye on Anne-Mary after Iain’s passing. On behalf of both Beauly Shinty Club and the Camanachd Association I would like to express our condolences for a remarkable lady who was fascinating company especially when talking about local history, railways or shinty!”

Margaret Mackay summarised the worth of family history and the example set by her own, the Paterson and MacGillivray family connections in a talk given in Edinburgh.

“Evidence carried within the family context, not available in any public repository, can provide the researcher with insights which are immediate and intimate, which have the capacity to illuminate the impact which events which are part of the large panorama of history have had on local communities, homes, families and individuals. So often one type of source can throw light on another or instigate a question to be posed elsewhere. Some of it is oral, such as that story remembered in two families an ocean apart, of an affection that was kept secret. Some of it comes in an ephemeral form – the letter folded away in a private place, the annual syllabus of a local association carried from Beauly to Canada and kept for a lifetime, the writing album treasured in a similar way but so easily discarded when connections are lost. Some of it is intangible, the pipe tune, the song, the melody, the snatch of verse, the nickname; some of it is more tangible, material artefacts like the camans and the medals and so on but needing a context to be understood fully.”

Anne Mary Paterson more than played her part in unravelling and remembering the past. She was a giant of a figure in terms of her work, her diligence and her sincerity. She was kindness personified and will be hugely missed by people, families and communities and from Beauly to Canada.

The shinty community extends its condolences to everyone who knew her, worked with her, and shared her enthusiasm for her sense of belonging and understanding of the past.

Details of the funeral arrangements will be posted in due course.